Downtown panel to revive hospitality program

Business owners question funding shift away from park ranger patrols

SANTA CRUZ » The welcoming face of downtown Santa Cruz is set for a makeover, as downtown leaders look to withdraw financial support for the city Ranger Downtown Unit in favor of reviving a defunct hospitality program.

Beginning in January, the downtown will see the relaunch of a patrol of city “ambassadors” focused on both proactively seeking out visitors to help and disturbances, graffiti and trash buildup. Funding for the former Downtown Hospitality Program, formed in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, was diverted into supporting a new city downtown ranger patrol two years ago, when longtime downtown host Gina Ramirez of Cali-West Hospitality Services Inc. shuttered her business.

While rangers who can issue minor violation citations have helped with downtown enforcement, they are missing the “friendly ambassador component,” said Rebecca Unitt, liaison to the downtown for the city Economic Development Department in remarks to the Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday.

At the time of the 2016 changeover to park ranger patrols, city and downtown leaders touted the switch, saying rangers would be empowered to issue minor violation citations at the same time as they gave directions and dining out recommendations, but with more enforcement power than existing security patrols. Funding — set at $209,000 last year — for the effort is overseen by the Downtown Management Corporation board, using revenue from taxes levied on downtown property owners. The corporation board is made up of a mix of downtown business and property owners and city officials.

City Manager Martín Bernal said the loss of $104,000 midway through the budget year will “have a financial impact to the city, no doubt about that.” It is unclear whether or not the city will step in to fill the ranger patrol’s budgeting gaps when the downtown support is withdrawn.

Downtown business co-owner Jenny Marini praised the rangers, telling the council that the patrol is a resource she does not want to lose. She said she did not support reactivating the downtown host programs if it meant losing the rangers.

“The downtown rangers are an amazing resource for us,” Marini said. “I call them at least two or three times a week and they are there within minutes.”

Similarly, downtown business owner Susan Pappas said she had put in 11 calls to 911 dispatchers in the past three months for emergency “violent tendencies.” Rangers responded to her calls nine out of 11 times, she said, and were a big part of keeping her staff and customers feeling safe. Pappas said she supported having both robust ranger patrols and downtown ambassadors, particularly in the evenings.

On a separate track, the park ranger program is set for its own overhaul as it moves out of the city Parks and Recreation Department and into police department control in July.

Mayor David Terrazas questioned why support for the ranger patrol, which he said reduces city response time to downtown complaints and creates a connection to city parks, was being rolled back, now.

Downtown Association Executive Director Chip said the ranger patrol was “very much a valuable city service” that differed from hospitality functions.

“The rangers are spread very thin with what they’re doing and they’re taxed and they have a great service that they do,” Chip said. “So we’re not looking to replace that, we’re looking at creating a new program that works in alignment with that. This program will not be successful without the support of the rangers and police downtown.”

The revived hospitality program will be contracted out to the Downtown Association to operate.

City Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews, whose son Jeremy Mathews has worked as one of the downtown park rangers, said the downtown hospitality program and ranger endeavor “has been a work in progress for a long, long time” that she believes has ongoing room for improvements.