What’s Happening Around County District 3
By Supervisor Justin Cummings
Thank you to all the residents of Bonny Doon for your incredible collaboration, support, and commitment to making our County a place we can all be proud to call home. Looking back on the year, your partnership helped us achieve several important milestones across multiple areas. Together, we made significant progress in emergency preparedness, supporting families, environmental protection, and advancing important advocacy efforts.
Emergency Preparedness: We took critical steps to protect our community, including securing funding for the Long-Term Recovery Group to support residents affected by natural disasters, providing funding to the Santa Cruz County Firesafe Council for home hardening and emergency communications, and organizing meetings with the California Insurance Commissioner to address the home insurance crisis. We also advocated for continued landline service and worked with PG&E to replace telephone poles lost in the CZU fires in Whitehouse Canyon. We stopped the low-impact camping area (LICA) proposal and completed the PG&E Wood Haul program for CZU fire survivors.
Families: Our work to support families this year was deeply meaningful. We successfully advocated for the re-initiation of contact visits for incarcerated parents and their children, allowing families to stay connected during challenging times. We also secured funding for the tenant’s legal support program, ensuring tenants have access to free legal representation, and worked with the City of Santa Cruz to secure funding for the armory shelter. Together, these efforts help strengthen the bonds that unite our community.
Environmental Protection: We’ve made strides in environmental protection, helping pass Measure Q to protect water, wildlife, and enhance wildfire resilience. We also adopted an ordinance to ban the sale of single-use filtered tobacco products by 2027, reducing plastic pollution and promoting public health – a first in the nation. We helped move forward key infrastructure projects, including breaking ground on the Coastal Rail Trail North Coast segment with the long-term potential to reduce car trips and emissions. Lastly, I was appointed Chair of the California Coastal Commission for 2025.
Advocacy and Community Support: Your voices helped us push for positive change, from passing fair contracts for our SEIU workers to advocating for local priorities in Sacramento and Washington, DC. We passed the County’s first-ever Project Labor Agreement policy. We reaffirmed our commitment as a Sanctuary County, ensuring that immigrants are supported regardless of their status. By securing funding for the Greyhound Rock cabin project, we hope to improve coastal access for local lower-income youth. We supported the implementation of a 24/7 mobile mental health crisis response program to better support residents in need.
These accomplishments highlight the power of collaboration and community involvement. As we look to the future, I encourage you to stay engaged and share your ideas.
Stay Connected this Winter
With the winter rains upon us, I hope you’ll take advantage of County emergency preparedness resources to bolster your winter home hardening. The County Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) offers many preparedness tools. The Office can be reached at (831) 454-2166 or dial 211 to get connected to any service or program. You can find a list of sandbag locations online or by reaching out to OR3. The OR3 also has information regarding prescribed burning for responsible fuel management and you can learn more or sign-up for notifications when burns will take place.
Many tools can be accessed online including the “Ready Set Go” preparedness checklist in English and Spanish. SAFER SC is a GIS tool to track flooding and other hazards throughout the County in real-time and the Genasys Protect is a way to monitor evacuation warnings. CruzAware is the County’s emergency and non-emergency alert and warning system, and you can sign up online or by calling OR3. Once registered, you’ll be notified with a call or text when hazards occur in your area.
Please reach out to our office at 831-454-2200 or Third.District@