The City of Santa Cruz City Council on Sept. 30 adopted a resolution authorizing the city manager or the manager's designee to grant waivers to tenants of city lease agreements under defined conditions, with limits intended to contain fiscal exposure.

Council member O'Hara moved the amended resolution and Council member Tragero seconded. The amendment clarified language to limit the waiver to an amount not to exceed $1,000 per fiscal year "per tenant" (capitalized Tenant as used in lease documents) and established an annual cap of $20,000 for all waivers. Council discussion and staff framing explained that the change was intended to prevent an interpretation that the $1,000 limit could apply to multiple sub-tenants or to be multiplied across numerous parties.

Nut graf: The resolution gives the city manager targeted authority to waive small amounts in specific lease situations while capping total city exposure. The change to capitalization in the motion and the $20,000 annual cap were explicitly intended to limit fiscal risk after staff review of the number of city leases and estimated costs.

During debate, Council member O'Hara said the proposed wording could be interpreted as a $1,000 waiver per individual tenant in multi-tenant lease agreements and pushed to clarify that the cap and capitalization meant to restrict the waiver to $1,000 per lessee with an annual total cap. The council voted unanimously to adopt the resolution as revised.

Ending: The resolution takes effect on adoption; staff will manage waiver requests under the new authority and report any material impacts to council as needed.