I would like to call the meeting of the city council public financing authority to order.

Clerk may I have a roll call, please.

Councilman Twiny.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Here.

Mayor Burns.

Here.

Councilwoman Bandermark.

Here.

Councilman Gruel?

Here.

Councilman Williams.

All present.

City Clerk, do we have uh any supplemental communications?

Not for this portion of the meeting.

All right.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak?

Yes.

We have five people signed to speak for the closed session.

Okay.

Per decorum at the city council meetings is in proper decorum is at the city council meetings imperative for in order for the public to remain informed about issues pertaining to city's business.

The public comments portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the public to be heard and address those issues in a public forum.

Disruptive behavior impeding or delaying our ability to conduct the council's business will not be tolerated.

Will be taken for violations of this law.

At this time, the city council will receive comments from members of the public regarding any topic, including items in the closed session agenda.

Individuals wishing to provide a comment on items may do so in person by filling out a request to speak form delivered to the city clerk.

All speakers are encouraged but not required to identify themselves by names.

Please note that the Brown Act does not allow discussion or action on topics that are not on the agenda.

Members of the public who would like to speak directly with the council member on an item not on the agenda may consider scheduling an appointment by contacting City Council administrative assistant at 714-536-5553 or emailing the entire city council at city.council at SurfCity-HB.org.

Um, call them all.

When you're called to the podium, please use both podiums.

Cheryl Freak, Linda Mortimer, George Aguirre, Kathleen Kathleen, and Michelle Morgan.

Because we have such an extensive closed session, we will be given one minute piece, please.

Uh good afternoon, City Council.

I'm going to have critical information regarding our state's voter roles and voter history from the 2024 general election.

This information comes from extensive research conducted by a team of data experts at Unite for Freedom, a nationwide nonpartisan volunteer organization.

Their team meticulously analyzed official election files from both federal and state sources.

While I am not an official spokesperson for Unite for Freedom, I am a dedicated volunteer who is deeply concerned by the findings.

Findings that are based exclusively on official state election data, our analysis of the certified results from both the 2022 and 2024 general election reveals that not all votes counted were valid and accurate under the law.

These findings are substantial and warrant careful consideration.

They have already been shared with state election officials and law enforcement agencies and have been submitted as evidence in federal court as part of an ongoing litigation by Unite for Freedom and other parties.

Unite for Freedom is not alone in raising these concerns.

Next speaker, please.

Resolution for a legally valid 2026 general election, whereas free and fair elections from form the cornerstone of the Republic of the United States, as stated in Reynolds versus Sims 377 US 533, 1964.

The right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting free exercise of the franchise.

Whereas election officials bear the responsibility to ensure elections remain accurate and free from manipulation.

In Ray Choi 127 U.S.

731 1888, the United States Supreme Court affirmed that election officials must strictly adhere to federal and state laws governing process defining election misconduct as follows.

The evil intent consists in disobedience to the law.

Whereas our constitutional system of representative government relies on four functional principles for validity in our elections.

One, accurate voter rolls.

Election officials must maintain voter registration lists that are current and correct, which includes facilitating the registration of eligible citizens as well as preventing the registration of non-citizens, fictitious names, and ineligible applicants, National Voter Registration Act 1993.

Can these speakers fill out blue cards and come and see us?

Yeah, I'd like to set up an appointment, meet with you guys and uh but so fill out a blue card.

That'd be.

Yeah, because we were prepared for three minutes.

Yeah, if you can fill out a blue card uh and we'll get in contact with you and set up because I think maybe all you are together to speak about the same thing.

We can all have you come up and we can meet with you.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

So continue.

Sir, go ahead.

9,539,574 material errors in omissions in voter registration database.

5,588,594 votes improperly counted from these ineligible or uncertain registrants.

77,085 excess votes counted beyond the number of voters who participated with no explanation of their origin.

5,588,000 or 64 voting violations exceeding the legal error threshold where only 130 heirs were allowed under federal law.

The auto findings indicate severe violations of state and federal election laws and potential fraudulent certification.

Whereas election actors defined as the ability to capture and report voter elections without error, by definition, only eligible citizens are voters.

Election officials violate.

Did you want us to finish our last two minutes or no?

Oh, yeah, please.

Okay.

When?

Go ahead.

Therefore, be it resolved, the Huntington Beach City Council of Orange County demand immediate action to ensure a legally valid and transparent 2026 general election by implementing the following measures.

One infant infrastructure compliance.

Two, voter verification, three, ballot security, four, accurate counts, five, proven outcomes.

Additionally, officials, okay, be it further resolved that the Huntington Beach City Council calls upon the state of California and federal legislators, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judges, and election boards to uphold these principles, ensure legal compliance, and restore public confidence in our election system.

Our signatures to this resolution affirms our commitment to protecting the constitutional mandate of legitimate representation.

In conclusion, you have just heard a resolution that exposes significant inaccuracies from voter registration through the certification of the 2024 general election.

It calls for immediate substantive action to ensure the integrity of the twenty twenty six general election for all voters.

The resolution is firmly grounded in multiple U.S.

Supreme Court precedents which underscore the necessity of these corrective measures.

Our current election uh procedures do not fully comply with established laws, and these laws are often just or disregarded.

Some citizens, including elected officials, mistakenly believe that these issues can be ignored because the president, the current administration, and the other officials are handling it.

This complacency represents an abdication of civic responsibility.

Your leadership and decisive action are urgently needed.

Our voting system, which should protect our most fundamental right, the right to choose our representative, is failing to deliver accurate, transparent, and verifiable results.

Okay.

So I'll leave these copies of the resolution for all of you.

Awesome.

And they were they were given blue cards to fill out so we can contact them.

Council, do I have a motion to and a second to recess?

Second.

All right, first and second, recess to close session, yes.

City Council Public Financing Authority and call to order the special meeting of the housing authority.

City Clerk, can I have a roll call, please?

Councilman Twine.

Here.

Councilman Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Here.

Mayor Burns.

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Here.

Councilman Gruel?

Here.

Councilman Williams.

Here.

All present.

Okay.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Huntington Beach Fire Department Chaplain, Jeff Lopez.

All right.

Not cop, sorry, police department chaplain.

I'm not a cop.

That's okay.

Excellent.

Well, if you are one who prays, please join me.

Heavenly Father, Lord God, I want to thank you for this assembly here tonight.

I thank you for these elected officials who dedicate their time to serve this community in setting policy for us.

Father, thank you for the staff represented here tonight who have embarked on a career of public service and who serve this council and this community.

I thank you for them, Father.

I thank you for the public here tonight to give their opinions, to give their views, and to be a participant in this important uh process of governance for our city.

Lord, I ask you tonight, looking at the agenda, considering the things that uh this council will face.

We are tonight, Lord, adopting resolutions, we're awarding contracts, they are considering housing authority matters, considering a public hearing, receiving reports, welcoming a new city treasurer, and considering two council member items, just to name some of it.

Lord, I pray that you would grant them wisdom and discernment in all this.

I pray that you would grant all of us clear and gracious speech, Lord, and we thank you.

We invoke your blessing upon all these things, and we give you thanks in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Tonight's invocation will be led by Councilwoman Gracie Vandermark.

Please put your right hand over your heart.

Ready?

Begin.

I played this.

Under God, indivisible, it's so gotta be else.

City attorney, do you have anything to report from close session?

Nothing tonight, Mayor.

Thank you.

All right, council members.

Would anybody like to make a comment?

Don.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just wanted to touch on two things.

We had uh some residents reach out regarding a document that we created uh regarding the sober living houses and um what what's required and some of the restrictions, some of the barriers, and some really good information.

I wanted to let you know it is on our community uh city website.

The way you would get there, here's the path.

You would click on the uh city website, click on departments, click on community development, and then on the left side of the related pages, click on home matrix.

So that'll take you to this matrix that shows you what you need to know currently about the sober living houses.

We passed a uh something here at the dais that our legal department's drafting an ordinance that we'll vote on at some point.

Um should that pass, we will release something more formal for the public is awareness uh again to where to find that document.

The second thing I wanted to touch on is uh one of the previous council meetings.

I just reminded the citizens about ordering signs, and I just wanted to give you a quick update.

I thought it was kind of cool.

So in 2024, there was a total of uh 30 sign requests from residents for the entire year.

This year through January through June, there was 16 sign requests by residents.

Just in the short one month since we made the announcement that you can order your signs for your streets if they're kind of hard to read.

There's been 12 requests in the last month, so people are taking advantage of it.

So it is important to make these things aware to the public.

Some people thought, oh, everybody knows about that, but clearly they don't, and also the city does have an ongoing uh replacement strategy that replaces about 80 to 100 signs a year.

But if you feel like you need a new one, uh there's a way to do that, and uh, you should take advantage of it.

Thank you, butch.

Well, we usually have a lot to say.

Anyone else?

Grace.

Um, I just like to share that this uh weekend, we solidified our relationship with our Twin City Ramak gone in Israel.

Uh, we spent Friday, we gave him a tour of our beautiful city, our lifeguard tower, our Marine Safety Department were so gracious and hosted us.

And then we ended up our weekend and our ceremony Sunday with a signing ceremony.

So um, we are now a solid twin city with Vermont gone.

All right.

Anybody else?

All right, turn it over to Casey McKeon for a special presentation.

All right, so this year in the uh Independence Day parade, uh, my good friend Ryan Rustin, who's the father of uh sugar, the Hall of Fame surfing dog.

If you guys know sugar, if you don't, I hope you do.

Because she's a Hall of Famer, she's been immortalized uh next to the Duke statue at front of HSS.

Uh but Ryan asked me if uh a young man named Jesse Hayes could join me on that parade.

And I hadn't heard Jesse's story, and you know, I just read a quick uh you know, story that uh Ryan had sent me, and it really struck me.

And of course, I said, Yes, please please join me.

So Jesse and his family uh joined on the parade, walked behind it, hitchhiked for a bit.

Uh his dad Robbie to his credit walked the whole thing, and I could tell he was sore at the end.

I was like, God bless you, man.

Um but since then I've gotten to know uh Jesse Marclosi and his mom Casey, and uh we had a really good meeting today, and Jesse has interest um in being an e-bike ambassador for us because back in October of uh last year, Jesse was struck on his e-bike, um, and uh ambulance arrived on the scene and they had to resuscitate him several times, which is extremely scary, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Um he was in a coma for two months, and his family really ran out of options in California, so they they took the risk and flew him to Texas, and he was supposed to be there for 90 days, and a miracle happened where Jesse came out of his coma and uh was actually out in 30 days.

He actually went back to school that same year in Hyndon High School in February and earned his his graduation as a senior, did his paperwork, did his math, did his essays, and walked with his class in June of twenty-five.

And he's been gracious enough to now want to tell his story uh to the youth of our city as a cautionary tale.

He he'll admit he was um riding in an unsafe manner.

The vehicle also that struck him, made an illegal left turn, um, and so he wants to be a cautionary tale to the youth in our city, and we're we're looking forward to that uh to go at his pace on what he's comfortable with.

So I wanted him and his family to come up tonight to give him a letter of uh commendation and and celebrate him.

You guys want to come down?

So we'll take a photo.

Okay, I'm ready.

I guess we have a good one.

All right, City Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes, Mayor.

We have supplemental communications for consent calendar item number fifteen.

We received two emails regarding the proposed adoption of resolution number twenty twenty five-fifty seven.

And for administrative item number twenty-seven, we received one email regarding the proposed appointment of Jason Schmidt to the position of City Treasurer.

Okay.

Uh we're gonna proceed to public comments, but before we do, I'm gonna announce that uh item twenty-six, the public hearing, will be opened after public comments, but it'll be immediately continued till September 2nd.

So we will not be have conducting uh the public hearing.

We're just gonna open it to be continued to uh September 2nd, just so you guys are prepared.

If you want to speak tonight, do so during regarding that, do it during uh the public comments.

All right, City Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

Yes, Mayor, we have 17 speakers signed up.

Okay.

Uh let me do the announcement.

Proper decorum at City Council meeting is imperative in order for the public to remain informed about issues pertaining to the city's business.

The public comments portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the public to be heard and address those issues in a public form, disruptive behavior, impeding or delaying or our ability to conduct the council's business will not be tolerated.

California penal code section four zero three prohibits disrupting this meeting, and enforcement action will be taken for violations of this law.

At this time, the city council will receive comments from members of the public regarding any topic, including items on the open session agenda.

Individuals wishing to provide a comment on items may do so in person by filling out a request to speak form delivered to the city clerk.

All speakers are encouraged, but not required to identify themselves by name.

Please note that the Brown Act is not allowed discussion or action on topics that are not on the agenda.

Members of the public who would like to speak directly within a council member on an item not on the agenda may consider scheduling an appointment by contacting the city council's administrative assistant at seven one four five three six five five five three or email the entire city council at city dot council at surf city-hb dot org.

City clerk will give them three minutes each and uh please call the first all of them.

It's up to you.

Andrew Einhorn, Nora Peterson, Charlie Jackson, Ken Inouway, Tim Geddis, Perry Clithrow, Kathy Ryder.

Do it right after public speaking.

All right, go ahead.

Craig Sheets from uh Fullerton, California, born in St.

June's.

Good to be back, Huntington Beach.

But a few years doing a lot of coastal work, oceans.

Without our oceans, we have no rain, no snow, no life, none.

Rain, water, protects all of us.

I sent you emails.

I also gave you hard copies tonight through the young lady.

I don't know where she disappeared to, but probably right behind me.

Never know.

But uh radiation, missiles drawn on our oil offshore, which should not even be on the ocean.

Those pipes leak, those ships leave oil around.

We have plenty of oil onshore.

Not only that, but we got electric cars coming.

I'm not all for that either.

But uh rain and snow is my main concern.

Next to the offshore oil, you guys got them?

I can see you're looking at them.

Is our kids?

You got overdose numbers, you got suicide numbers, slight.

This is within the last two years.

Our country, SWAI will not pledge this flag at any city city council meeting.

I walk out the door.

Our country kills our kids on availability on methamphetamine.

Now it's fentanyl.

Nothing's being done.

It just continues to happen.

And uh, you know, I just I don't see any reasoning behind that.

No, let me tell you something.

I used to be a user, and I hate every one of the guys I was with and every person that sold it to me, and everybody that allowed it to me.

You got infrared vision there.

That could be my parents, as far as I'm concerned, watching me down the line.

Doing better tonight by making sure our kids do not die from this stuff.

And I see where the officers, I'm gonna grant you some mercy.

Their hands are tied.

I speak with the FBI all the time, and they don't even deal with drugs anymore.

It's all DEA and state now.

And uh unfortunately, state, county, and cities involved.

Because you see that those meth labs, those are not civilians, they're in the hills, they're in restricted areas.

We need to stop those labs.

Those are those are killing kids.

And I see no reason behind that at all.

None at all.

And I hope everybody here agrees with me.

One dead child is one too many.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening.

My name is Kenny No White.

Although the actions of the City Council have often created divisions within our community, I think it is the time to discuss what the city council has not done.

In the area of financial accountability, the city council used a series of interfund transfers, the usage of reserves to hide the fact that Huntington Beach actually has a projected general fund loss of 11 million dollars.

If any of you doubt these numbers, I'd have welcome the opportunity to review them with you based upon the information you have presented to the public already.

Regarding public safety, the city council has failed to issue an updated report on the many public safety issues that were presented in the 2024 infrastructure report, which clearly stated that the city needed to spend one and a half billion dollars to repair or replace infrastructure components, which are graded as being on the verge of failure or an immediate failure.

These things need to be attended to.

Next speaker, please.

Has shown a troubling pattern of governance.

Item 14 on the agenda tonight, opposing Senate Bill 707 is an example of uh council.

Please don't oppose this bill.

707 uh would restore real-time remote public comment access, which Huntington Beach provided until January 2023.

Remote access benefits people with disabilities, those without transportation, and residents balancing work and family responsibilities to name a few.

It also requires translation.

SB 707 requires translation of materials for communities that make up 20% or more of a city's population.

It's likely that we would have to do that for uh materials in Spanish, further expanding access, access, accountability, transparency.

The attached letter to this agenda item falsely claims there are no issues with public participation in Huntington Beach.

I just named some, but today only those who can drive to City Hall may speak.

That is not accessibility, nor are secret meetings that approve payouts, uh public uh not public vetting of appointments, cuts to boards and commissions, or disparaging comments about residents who do stand up to speak.

These actions erode democracy.

I want to thank Senator Wicks for advancing SB 707 to protect transparency and the public's voice.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

As a 30-plus-year resident of Huntington Beach, and one thankful to have lovely neighbors, clean streets, fabulous libraries and parks, great schools, and responsive city employees.

I'm increasingly alarmed by the obvious corruption and cronyism in our city council.

Jason Smith is the proposed appointee for city treasurer.

Is that the same Jason Schmidt who made large contributions to Councilman Williams Twining and Kennedy from his residence in Nashville, Tennessee, less than a year ago?

Hmm.

Huntington Beach Community and Library Services Commission met last week.

One of the commissioners asked if the parks needing repairs could just be repurposed for other needs in the city.

Doesn't the commissioner know that's illegal?

Or is it just a crafty question?

It seems obvious that library and parks commissioners would be proponents of libraries and parks.

Isn't this commissioner, Lauren Gruel, the wife of councilman Andrew Gruell?

Choosing the most qualified person for the job is common sense.

So ask questions.

Who is Carla Strickland?

Who is Kelly Gates?

Why did our city councilwoman make gang signs and pose with white nationalists?

Why did our mayor call a young woman's speaker at the council an effing fat cow?

Why does our councilman hang porn signs by elementary schools?

Why does our city council struggle with the Brown Act?

Then there's the airshow settlement, the destruction of Central Park.

Hmm.

Let's clean up the city, bring back civility, truth, common sense, and the rule of law.

Next speaker, please.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach, June 2024.

Mayor Burns called three council colleagues, a four-letter obscenity for feces.

March 2025, a verbal hot mic F bomb occurred.

May 2025.

Burns lectured residents on quote speaker decorum.

Then uses crude language targeting residents again in June of 2025.

Your hypocrisy is not just shameful, it's corrosive.

City Hall is now a place where chaos rules and accountabilities are optional.

The mayor's foul language shows no gravitas, but a lack of dignity and decorum.

I would suggest to impose a seven-second delay on Burns' mic, to stop his outbursts, an embarrassment to our city.

Finally, why have the religious experts as defenders of morality remained silent in condemning the mayor's foul language?

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, City Council.

Tim Geddes in the house.

Well, it's almost Labor Day, and I find your conduct to date here has been atrocious.

The mayor has been rude and dis and dismissive.

He refers to women in the audience as cows.

And he refers to he has done much worse to men with an exclamation point.

Is this what serving with honor means?

You were all elected to uh lead us to prosperity, and yet you have done neither.

You have cost you have cost the city millions of dollars and lost resources in an attempt to cater to your mega special interests and lock us into disadvantageous deals for years.

You have tried to send our our library system management down the river.

You have wasted big dollars with your special election scheme regarding measures A and B.

You would waste more millions by declaring city-run local elections if you could.

You are just like ICE, incompetent, corrupt, and egregious.

It's time to self-deport from the dais.

Thank you.

Fill out a blue card if you'd like to have a meeting, sir.

Next speaker.

They say that Eskimos have more than 40 words for the types of snow.

When I was a child in San Diego, I only knew one word.

But when I moved to Massachusetts, I learned many words, especially don't eat the yellow snow.

Skiers have even more words.

When I was young, there was a right wing protest against my middle school history textbook because it said that Americans of Japanese descent were put in concentration camps.

The word concentration camps is like snow because there are many words for them processing camps, internment camps, prison camps, death camps, labor camps, and so on.

George Takai wrote a book about his childhood in one of these concentration camps.

People have banned that book for what it says.

My mother lived in Long Beach when the Japanese were rounded up.

She thought this was a horrible thing for her generation to have allowed.

Alligator Auschwitz, alligator Auschwitz is a concentration camp.

It is our tax dollars at work.

Someone from Oakville might be there now.

I think this is a horrible thing for our generation to allow.

Do you support Alligator Auschwitz?

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, counselors.

My name is Perry Clithrow.

Thank you for hearing me out this evening.

I don't know if you're talking about design tonight or not, but uh I'd personally love to see a two-way bike lane separated from vehicles installed on the east side of the road, the same site as the high school.

Right now, one of the most dangerous conditions on our roads.

I say this as a bicyclist myself, and I always do my very best to follow the law.

One of the most dangerous conditions is uh wrongway bicycle riders, and let's be honest, our kids going to school every day are major offenders.

People usually seek police focused solutions to these problems, but the truth is that infrastructure plays a big role.

Many of these children, for them to not go for them to lawfully bike to work, they would have to maybe take a right hand turn out of their neighborhood, go to the next flight, cross the street, and they're supposed to walk when they do that, then ride back and cross to the high school.

Alternatively, they can make a left-hand turn out of their neighborhood, but it's often unprotected, which we're trusting a kid's judgment there.

That's hard to do.

Those are difficult skills, even for competent and responsible writers.

Um I think this project can make the school commute much safer for Edison High School students.

Uh, furthermore, I think that Magnolia can become a thoroughfare for residents across the east side of the city to get to the beach by bike on a regular basis.

I hope that city council considers extending this project all the way to the city boundary at Garfield.

Uh it's also my belief that to make this upgrade really significant, really make a difference for the city.

Uh, we need to improve bicycle parking.

Too often bicycle lane improvements don't take into account that there just isn't parking for bicycles.

We have these huge, enormous parking lots all over the city.

Oftentimes they have just a few unmonitored, unlit, sometimes run-down uh bicycle wrecks, which is really easy to be stolen from.

Uh so I think the council should work with the school district.

You guys should work with the state beach, work with the public works department to improve our parking heck, get creative.

Let's talk to Senator Strickland.

Let's talk to assemblymember Dixon.

Let's see if we can't get an exception to reassessment similar to uh for properties that install bicycle facilities in their enormous, often underutilized parking lots.

We could make there are similar exceptions for solar projects and for seismic safety projects where reassessment is uh exempted for those improvements.

Uh so thank you for listening to me this evening.

I hope you take this under consideration.

I'm I hope we have some community meetings in the future about this.

I'll be involved in that, and thank you for listening to me.

Have a good night.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

We have a beautiful sports complex that was built so that children could play sports.

And now we have a proposal to bring alcohol to this sports complex for children.

Are you telling the children who play that gee, my mom and dad can't enjoy it if they can't have a beer or a glass of wine?

Is that really the message we want to send to our youth who are out there playing sports?

So please, let's reconsider alcohol at a sports complex that was built to be used by our children.

Hundreds, if not thousands of people have complained about the political signs.

They are totally over the political sign wars.

Why don't you create a citizens task force of some Republicans, some Democrats, some independents, and come up with some solution to stop the sign pollution?

One of the reasons why we don't have a housing mandate is because we are environmentalists.

Let's be environmentalists.

Let's think about how the signs create to the pollution.

I also would ask that on May 6th, when you disparage two citizen groups and their donors, indicating that they had act maliciously and had uh, you know, not used their campaign funds correctly, ended up being dismissed.

I think you owe apologies both those citizen groups and their donors because they did not act wrong, and the FPC has made that clear.

I am also concerned about your opposition to Senate Bill 707.

It just once again confirms to me that you really don't care what we have to say, either if we come to the podium, we attend an event, or we send an email.

You just want to do what you want to do, and think about the people like my husband with congestive fart failure who can't come and voice his concerns.

And just who the hell is Jason Smith?

Where did he come from?

Why wasn't some kind of qualifications list or resume or something attached?

So we'd had some understanding who the new appointed city treasurer is going to be.

So again, these are the actions that you can take that would perhaps bridge some of the gap between some of your citizens who are concerned about your actions up to this point.

Thank you for your time.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Mr.

Amory Anson.

I'm speaking tonight to express my support for I am 28.

Councilman McKeon, Gruul, and Vandermark's item to explore opportunities to engage in Olympic programming.

This item will allow Huntington Beach to be involved in the third Los Angeles Olympics, allowing for cultural presence and knowledge of sports.

By doing this programming, Huntington Beach can also demonstrate its ability to potentially host sports for future Olympics.

I would like to suggest that the council consider creating a host commission to oversee the significant programming.

I urge the council to summon the heroes that can assist in putting Huntington Beach in the world arena.

Once again, I urge a yes vote on IM 28.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

Item 15 on the consent calendar is an attempt to quietly acknowledge that Measure A recently passed by a two to one margin.

I have noted that the municipal code has been updated to reflect the outcome of the election.

But the community parent guardian review board is still listed on the city website as an active board with a link to apply.

The resolution on item 15 is insufficient.

City staff must be directed to immediately remove the outlawed board from the city website.

Regarding item 14 and your letter opposing SB 707.

You state that Huntington Beach has had no problems with full participation in city meetings since removing remote participation options at the end of the COVID emergency.

How do you know that there are no people that would like to come to the meeting but have no transportation, can't drive at night, woke up sick that morning, and are considerate enough to stay home and avoid spreading their illness.

Have physical mobility issues and can't afford to hire an aide to accompany them to a council meeting.

You know, those doors don't open in an easy way if you're in a wheelchair, or a host of other reasons that may keep them from coming in person.

Recently, council meetings have been canceled for lack of quorum.

If you were able to fulfill your duties remotely, as other cities do, meetings wouldn't have had to be canceled.

And finally, it's extremely hypocritical to advocate for in-person only meetings when every airshow advocate, except Amory Hanson, participated remotely in the California Coastal Commission meeting last week.

Tony Strickland, Pat Burns, Kevin Elliott, and many more all zoomed into that meeting while they are asking the state to not require the same accessibility right here in Huntington Beach.

Thank you.

Next group, please.

Chris Cluey, Sean Wood, Chairman of the Board, Monica Asbury, Henry Von Noperger, Kane and Doom, Jackie.

Cabron, Justine Mainkoff.

Hello, Chris Clee, longtime HB resident.

Uh I'm here before you today.

Uh, speak on a couple matters.

First one is the um the proposed uh surveillance cameras in Oakview.

Um I think it is somewhat suspicious that the budget contracts for these were split up to both come in under 100,000 dollars, so that way there was no public comment.

Uh, I know you guys talked about you're doing this because the Oak View community requested it, but it feels like if that was actually true and the budget was over a hundred thousand dollars, which the total is, then you would have had an opportunity for public comment, so that way residents could have let you know whether or not this is the exact solution they're looking for.

Um, the next thing I want to talk about, and it's related to that is your opposition, which we've heard from other speakers on having meeting accessibility for people who aren't here.

Again, it comes back to the idea that as citizens, we need to be able to trust the city council is working in the best interests of the city, which includes everyone who lives within it.

There has been an ongoing pattern with this city council of trying to obfuscate details of trying to hide money and where it's going in terms of the airshow settlement, in terms of the lawsuits that we're currently waging against the state, in terms of our budget and what we're using our money on, and trust is not easily regained from a community.

So I'm asking you as city council members, please start working to allow us as citizens to trust you because right now we do not, and I think you are seeing that in the vast majority of people that come up to make public comment.

We have questions as to why you are doing the things that you are doing, and you are not providing answers that allow us to trust you.

Without trust, societies collapse, governments collapse.

And I do not want that to happen in Huntington Beach because it is not good for our city and it's not good for us as Americans.

So please allow us to trust you, and that starts with transparency, that starts with oversight, that starts with telling the truth to us, even if it is uncomfortable, and even if it makes you personally lose power.

You are not here for your power.

You are here for us as citizens.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Two things first that I think are positives.

Um I did see on the Huntington Beach Face City Facebook page that we have a number of historical photographs that are now in the Library of Congress.

I think that's great.

Um, and I'm glad that we had city staff that did that.

I think that's awesome.

Um also I think the Jesse Hayes um acknowledgement today was great.

I think that's a great example of how it matters that we are making sure that the disabled people in our community are being heard.

Um disability is one of the it's it's it's a the disabled demographic is one that you can join at any time, and anyone can join it, right?

Disabled people should not be an afterthought, and making our civic government accessible to the disabled community should be a fundamental part of what we do here.

SB 707, there's three major things that it does, right?

The first thing is it makes uh so that any Brown Act meeting, school board, city council, what have you, has teleconference ability, right?

Which this city had for a little less than two years successfully during the COVID pandemic.

It also makes sure that uh elected officials are able up to three times a year to remotely video into Brown Act meetings, uh, which someone else earlier mentioned that that is something that you guys could take advantage of.

Uh it also makes uh makes it so that any language that is spoken by more than 20% of a population of a city, the uh the documents and whatnot for Brown Act meetings have to be made accessible in that language as well.

All of these things are about making your work as elected officials more accessible to your constituents.

Huntington Beach has the only city in Orange County that has a higher population of senior citizens than Huntington Beach, is Laguna Hills, I believe, and that's like 80% retirement community, right?

You have a population of your demographic, many of whom voted for you, who are more likely to be disabled, right?

This should be a common sense thing.

In your letter, there were two things that you said.

First of all, you said that uh, well, since we have ended uh videoing conference meetings in December 2022, we haven't had any problems.

But that's a confirmation bias, right?

You only think that you haven't had any problems because the people who have problems aren't here to tell you they have problems.

The second thing that you said is that it's a fiscal burden, right?

That's fair.

My question is why is that something that we are willing to uh to put on the back burner?

We don't want to spend that money, which is not a considerable amount of money, but we're willing to spend that money, but we're okay spending more than $600,000 on two different surveillance programs for our community.

We should make sure that everyone in this community, whether or not they voted for you, is able to participate.

That's what makes Huntington Beach a place worth living.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, Huntington Beach.

My name's Sean Wood.

I'm the chairman of the board for the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce.

I'm really excited because this Sunday is the taste of HB.

And we hope we see you guys all there.

It's a time to celebrate all of our restaurants in Huntington Beach.

Go to TasteHB.com.

We've already sold out on our VIP tickets.

Some of the proceeds actually go towards scholarships.

Uh I mean, this wouldn't be possible without some of our great sponsors like City of Hope or Public Services.

Visit HB, Chevron, uh, just to name a few.

We hope to see you guys all there.

It's a fun family friendly event, and it's at uh the sports complex right here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, good good evening.

I don't have any complaints, but it's sincere appreciation and gratitude for um Chief Para.

Uh, my name is Monica Asbury.

I'm a resident of Huntington Beach.

You should have received a sheet, a double-sided sheet with some photos of a recent uh Porsche drive-by.

Okay.

Uh I'm here this evening to extend a public thank you to Chief Para, uh Captain Garcia, Lieutenant Nez Smith, and Deputy Fire Chief Darren Witt.

And special thanks to Sergeant Eric Hill.

On or about July 17th, I received a call from one of our car club members stating that they left their German uh auto repair shop, and the mechanics family who lives in Huntington Beach has two boys, two boys ages seven and four, both with incurable autoimmune disease, who happened to be crazy about Porsches.

Was there something that we could do?

So my idea was to assemble a Porsche Parade drive-by for the boys, and each of us would hand them a balloon.

I reached out to Chief Para, who immediately responded with a positive response and who got the wheels turning.

Soon I spoke to Captain Garcia and then Sergeant Eric Hill, who helped orchestrate our route and led the Porsche Parade.

I then reached out to Deputy Fire Chief Darren Witt, who also immediately was on board.

Originally I thought there'd be about 30 Porsches, so I kept Sergeant Hill posted with the number, and each time I reached out, he always responded with a giggle and thought they could handle about 20 Porsches.

But we would all do our best, and after all, it was the first day of the US Open.

A few days later, I was afraid to inform Sergeant Hill there would now be 60 Porsches.

Who would be in the procession?

His laughter was a bit longer than the first giggle, always ending with, look, we'll do the best we can.

Then came the next phone call.

I think there, hey, I think there might be 80 Porsches.

The laughter was a bit louder.

Game Day came, the Porsches were assembled in my development, and Porsches kept coming and coming.

And the sky was soon speckled with an abundance of balloons in an array of candy coated colors in all shapes and sizes, as well as a street that lit up as bright as the boys' smiles.

It was over 110 Porsches, one McLaren and a Rolls Royce, rolled past the boys, gifting them with balloons, toy cars, and best wishes.

Thank you for your incredible support, your kindness, generosity, and compassion.

Oh, you turned an ordinary Sunday.

You turned an ordinary Sunday into a magical day for little Henry and Lil Owen, and uh not one balloon was lost.

I'm a surfer right here.

Not one balloon was lost, not one burnout.

Very respectful crowd, thank you.

And the police and fire police and fire guys that were there, brought a truck, brought a couple cruisers, very cool.

Two little boys, very impressed.

They're gonna remember for the rest of their life.

So thanks for helping out.

Thank you.

Thank you very, very much.

Thank you.

And um, I'll be back to enlist your support for the annual toy drive.

I previously partnered with my friend, formerly known as Captain Bo Spenzbo.

Counting on you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Next speaker.

I couldn't agree more.

We're very lucky in the city to have incredible support by all of our city leaders, and I couldn't agree more about our fire and police department.

They seem to show up whenever we need them.

So thank you.

Um I'm Justine Makoff.

I'm here on behalf of Free Rain Foundation at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center.

And I'm here, I'm sorry, I can hear somebody in the back if you don't mind just being a little quiet.

Um I just wanted to take a moment to share a brief report on the Cattle Barons Ball that we had last weekend in honor of Free Rain Foundation.

It was an extraordinary event.

Um such amazing participation among our city leaders, and I just want you to know that means so much to not only the hundred people who volunteer and give their time to take care of the horses and to do the work that we do with the kids with the equine um growth and learning programs, but to see the support that we have on behalf of the city, give so much confidence to the people that are working on our program, and it makes them want to work harder and it makes them want to do more.

And by showing up and giving your support, we are able to surpass all of our fundraising over the last 11 years.

So it was our biggest year, and this truly allows us to do the work that we do.

It's a lot, it's a lot of uh amazing pressure that goes into these events, but it uh always comes together, and we're so grateful that you're there.

We also have therapeutic writing center.

It's another non-profit organization that is at the equestrian center, and their nonprofit Gayla is going to be this weekend.

I really encourage you to also support and show up for them as well.

And I just want to give a little shout out.

We have had Schmidt's garage support us year after year.

Um, they're amazing, and the plant nerd, and it just makes a world of difference when you have local businesses show up and support you in such a big way.

So thank you for your time.

Justine, one's uh, when's the next scala?

And which one is it?

What's the name of it well?

We got the therapeutic writing center, and it's this Saturday.

Um I I don't work with them, but I support everything they do.

It's a hula, yeah, hula's and horses.

I don't know what that's gonna look like exactly, so you're gonna have to show up to see it.

All right.

Hello, I am a student in the occupational therapy assistant program at Santa Ana College.

As part of my clinical rotations, I have been partnered with uh Free Rain and had the privilege to work alongside Justine, who was just speaking prior, um, an on-site occupational therapist, Dr.

Annette Hatala and Free Rain Volunteers.

I'm here today because as our free reign community continues to grow, so do our programs.

We are excited to share that Free Rain has expanded its offerings and now includes a therapeutic garden space where we will be creating several community-based programs focused on promoting mental health and well-being overall.

This garden space is is designed by occupational therapists and will provide opportunities for individuals of all ages to engage in meaningful, purposeful activities that support emotional regulation, stress reduction, and social participation.

We have a variety of monthly programs tailored to different ages and developmental levels and needs, and these programs focus on skill building while also targeting mental health goals such as resilience, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

For example, we were just at the Orange County Fair and we had a few classes where participants created uh bracelets and macrame plant holders.

And what makes Free Rain Garden uh space unique is our ability to customize events to meet the needs of each participant and client, ensuring that everyone has the chance to engage in ways that are both enjoyable and therapeutic.

In addition to these programs, the space will also be available for custom events, just so you know.

We are excited about the impact that these new programs will have on mental health and community engagement, and we look forward to welcoming members of the community to experience our new garden space and upcoming events.

So feel free to email intern at free reign foundation.org for more information on upcoming events.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, good evening, council uh people.

You know, I am so proud of you guys because you guys do this, you commit yourselves to this, it's really nice.

I mean, that you really want to do help the community, especially you, Pat.

Seriously, you're the mirror, and you get the and you're getting the most trouble right now.

So the uh, but here's the thing that you know, I traveled a whole lot of places, and when I usually travel, I stay for like two months, four months, you know, and and really absorbed the place that I stay at, and I stay in one location, and uh so sometimes they run into deaths and people die, you know, in their homes, it's a really emotional thing.

And over here when people die, it's also emotional.

You know, the the paramedics come, you know, they try to help out, and then if they can't help out, then the corner.

But also the cops come, the police, okay.

And then usually it's one car, it used to be one car, but now it's like four cars, four units, and they kick you out of your your place, your house or whatever, while you're there, I mean, while your your loved ones there with the with the with the paramedics, and nobody's in there, they'll kick the whole family out, and then two sets of cops will come in there.

You know, they'll come in and then if some of them will talk to you, you know.

Hey, did you go to Downey?

Did you go to uh Huntington Horror?

Did you go to Huntington here?

Did you go to school here?

Did you go here?

Oh, yeah, you know, Mr.

This person or this teacher.

I mean, they try to become your buddies while the other people are searching their house.

I mean their whole house.

And then when one person, when one set leaves, the other one comes in and they do it in a staggered formation.

Like, like and this is really, I mean, and now it's really scary because they have the cameras, so it's not what they miss or whatever.

It's I mean, and they log this stuff.

I mean, this is beyond privacy.

Secret in states that have secret services, I mean, secret police.

You know, there's secret police doing this, which is uh well, at least you know what the rules are over here.

Over here, nobody even knows this.

This is really evil.

You guys gotta stop this.

You guys can't allow this stuff to happen over here.

And if they don't tell you, oh, and they also have something with ring because they turn off the ring, even if it's inside the house, and they'll turn it back on about 15 20 minutes after they all leave.

Seriously, nobody should have this power.

And this is way worse, as I said before, as a police state, because a police state at least you know that they're gonna be doing that.

Over here, that this is just I mean, and and this is a time when the person, the community member, the people that pay the your community, the one that you're supposed to lead, these people are hurting, and then somebody finds I mean, and then they log this shit this stuff up.

I mean, they log it, they'll log in the computers, and then the AI, when you when they're moving around, they catch everything, and then it processes it's super.

I mean, it's really scary, guys.

We should not be able to help.

I mean, do this stuff to uh our neighbors and our loved ones.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Roger, if you can fill out a blue card, maybe you can set up a meeting with uh Lieutenant Archer and Chief Parra, and they can explain procedures for you and stuff.

All right, just set it up.

You got trained from there, but yes, please do that.

Thank you.

Okay, does that conclude the speakers?

That concludes the speakers.

All right.

City manager, do you have anything to report?

No items today, sir.

I've got a council committee appointment.

Oh, there council members.

Do you have anything to uh committee appointment announcements?

Hearing none.

Does anyone have anything to report?

AB 1234 reporting.

Okay, uh does anybody have anything to disclose in negotiation disclosures?

Okay, nothing from the city manager.

I am going to at this point.

Uh we're gonna open the public uh hearing.

Uh mayor, you are you moving that item up?

Yeah, we're gonna I already announced that we're gonna move that up, uh out of order, and we're gonna open it.

And like I instructed before, we're gonna um Mayor, why don't why don't you announce the item you're moving forward and to Sweden?

Okay, we're gonna open the public hearing for the environmental impact report EIR number 25-003, Pacific Air Show Huntington Beach, and we're gonna continue it to seven uh September 2nd to uh 2025.

So I you make a motion, why don't you make a motion to continue it?

You want me to open it first though?

Yeah, should I open it first?

Okay, we're gonna open it, and I'm gonna make the motion to continue it to September 2nd.

Do I have a second?

Second, all right, all in favor.

Roll call, please.

Mayor Mayor, before you take roll call, just make just for so we're clear.

The uh public hearings open, it remains open until that meeting.

It's continued until that date.

Yes, it's open until that date.

Uh not closed.

So do we need to roll call?

Roll call, please.

Just say uh continue to September.

We're just continuing, we're not having it today.

We're just gonna continue it till September 2nd.

Councilman Twine, yes, councilman Kennedy, yes.

Mayor Pratem McKeon?

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Aye.

Councilwoman Vandermark, yes.

Councilman Groold, yes.

Councilman Williams, yes, motion passes 7-0.

Okay.

At this time, I'm also gonna take number 27 out of order, and we're gonna ask uh supervisor Janet Nguyen to step forward.

And the uh Mayor, you need to.

Actually, we need to discuss.

Yeah.

Well, Gracie, you have a motion.

You want to make a motion to appoint.

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to appoint Jason Schmidt as our city treasurer.

Second.

Okay, we got first and a second.

Any discussion?

Don?

Yes, Mayor.

I just had a couple of quick discussionary points.

So let it be known that uh Jason Smith, uh, who is Jason Smith?

I hear the question asked.

So I just wanted to say exactly who is Jason Smith.

He's a Harvard graduate.

He graduated magnet cum laud.

He's been the CEO, CFO of some very large institutions.

He has a lot of institutional knowledge.

If somebody can think like a CEO and act like a CFO, that is somebody who's highly qualified.

My question when I met Jason Smith, and thank thank you to whoever reported that he donated to my campaign, and apparently Butch is.

I didn't even know, and I met him down here on the dice, he never even said a word about it until I read that he donated.

Uh I I forgive myself because most of my donors got a thank you card.

I don't think he did.

Uh so that was back in August.

Anyway, so when I looked up his resume and as the ad hoc committee was uh vetting potential candidates, my only concern with Mr.

Schmidt was he's overqualified.

Uh why would a CEO want to take this position?

My thought is if he wants to come in and bring his institutional knowledge, even if at some point he decides to go elsewhere, the amount of uh knowledge that he will push down to our Treasury department is priceless.

So I personally think that uh he's a highly qualified candidate, and I'm happy that uh he applied, and uh I think he's gonna be great for the city.

So with that, um I'm ready to cast a vote.

Gracie.

So I'm actually very proud to recommend Mr.

Schmidt for the position of treasurer.

He brings on exceptional combination of government and corporate experience that will serve Huntington Beach well.

Mr.

Schmidt holds an MBA, and he also has a law degree from Harvard, and he has extensive experience in finance, law and organizational management.

His strong background and proven leadership make him uniquely qualified to oversee the city's financial responsibilities with integrity and precision.

I'm confident that his expertise will be a tremendous asset, and we're excited to have him serve as the treasurer of the city of Huntington Beach.

Butch, you got anything to say?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I too want to uh uh say that I support uh Jason for this position.

Um I was one of the uh uh three councilmen that interviewed Jason for this job.

We interviewed others for this job, and Jason was far and away.

Uh the the number one candidate on that day.

Uh like Don Kennedy.

I had never heard of Jason Smith uh until he applied.

Uh I heard there was a lot of of uh uh suggestion and innuendo that this was a pay to play.

I can tell you I never met Jason Smith before.

Uh in fact, until I read it in that wonderful, wonderful uh Facebook blog, the Surf City Sentinel.

I didn't even know that he had given to me.

So thank you, Mark Bixby.

I'm sure you're watching this, and and Jason, thank you for the donation.

Uh you picked the right guy, and I'm glad you're gonna be our next uh city treasurer.

Okay, yeah, I just want to say I always uh coming from the private sector myself, and I know many of my colleagues up here do as well.

I always look for opportunities to fuse the private sector with government.

I think it's critical that especially on the finance side.

We hire someone or appoint someone to come in as the treasurer, which is an extremely important position to work alongside our finance department from the private sector.

Um Alisa was great, who just retired a couple months ago.

She's got a lot of great projects that we've been focused on since me, Pat, Gracie, and Tony got elected in 22.

I'm excited and hopeful that Jason will continue that on with his private sector experience and his great educational background, and I'm I'm looking forward to it.

Anyone else?

Okay, also I was on the ad hoc.

We did the interviews.

Did you want to say something?

And uh, yeah, and yeah, that was an easy choice, and I'm gonna welcome him to the city.

Yes, and Mayor, I just wanted to confirm that your um your uh recommended action was to appoint Jason Smith to the position and be adopt resolution 2025-56.

And it's also I'm gonna amend the recommendation as on the agenda to add that we uh dismant dismantle abolish get rid of the ad hoc committee that was formed to uh pick him.

All right, uh you got a first you got a motion and a second.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Councilman Twine.

Yes, Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKean?

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Yes, Councilwoman Vandermark, yes, Councilman Gruel?

Yes, Councilman Williams?

Yes, motion passes 7-0.

Okay, at this point, I'd like to call uh Mr.

Smith down and Supervisor Nguyen, come on in, and uh we're she will administer the oath of office.

Yes, anybody you want, anybody you want with you, calm down.

Yeah, have them with you surround yourself with whomever you want, say if you were.

It's your first time.

Yeah, that'd be cool.

What's up, first?

Well, that's an 80% recovery, but then if we just find people, hired a whole bunch of people attendance, and we can't make it right now.

He can repeat after me.

I state your name.

I, Jason Eric Schmidt, do solemnly affirmly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of California, and the constitution of the state of California against all enemies against all enemies, foreign and domestic, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear truth faith, and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion, and that I will, well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations, Mr.

City Treasurer.

I'll do it here.

Wait, that way they can hear me.

That's why.

Thank you so much.

I'm looking forward to working together.

Nice to meet you.

Okay, great.

Well, since everyone wants to know who I am apparently, I wanted to thank this council for the faith that you are placing in me as a steward for Huntington Beach.

You had many great treasurer candidates.

So I'm deeply humbled that you selected a person whose family was lucky enough to go from Hungary to Harvard in two generations.

My husband Michael and I named our dog Reagan because we believe it is always mourning in America.

I spent decades as a CEO and a Fortune 500 senior executive saving thousands of jobs because I believe that everyone deserves a shot at their American dream.

I will bring that exact same spirit to the treasurer's office as America is just too big for small dreams.

Our office's priorities will always be transparency in the collecting of our taxes and prudence in investing those funds to stretch Huntington Beach's dollars further.

My duty is to safeguard taxpayer dollars with integrity and earn this community's trust with every decision my office makes, but it's also critical to help everyone save more so they can live better.

And that means spending time with residents.

So you're gonna see a lot of me, Michael, and Reagan in our community.

So please come up, say hello when you see us, and tell us how we can serve you better.

As President Ronald Reagan observed long ago in his farewell address, all great change in America begins at the kitchen table, or sometimes at the dog beach.

Thank you.

All right, we'll continue now with the consent calendar.

Uh items 12 through 25.

I'm gonna pull 18 and 24.

And uh, mayor, 25, please.

25.

Mayor, I'd like to pull 19.

Mayor, I'd like to pull 21.

Okay.

And so's Butch.

Butch is gonna comment on that one too.

All right, uh I'll make a motion to carry the other ones, second.

All right, can we have a roll call for 12 through 17, 20, 22, 23, and 26?

26.

One second.

Yeah, I didn't get a second or yeah.

Yeah, okay.

12 through 17, 20, 22, 23, and 26.

Yes, ma'am.

Councilman Twine.

Yes, Councilman Kennedy, yes.

Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Alright, Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Yes, Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Items number 12 through 17, 20, 22, 23, and 26.

Pass 70.

Okay, we're gonna start with number 18 for the uh amendment to the affordable housing agreement between the city of Huntington Beach and Nash Island, 1875 Delaware Investors LLC.

Um not sure why it took so long.

I'm just gonna tell you my concerns before you start opening it, why it took so long for him to figure out that the changes needed to be made.

The amendments were gonna be requested and how it affects the city, where it's in our better interest to, so go ahead and do what you're gonna do.

Um do you want the presentation?

Go for it.

Okay, okay.

Okay, thank you.

Uh first of all, Charles Kovac, housing manager for the city.

Oh, just to give you a little background, um, back in November first, 2022, which is almost three years ago, the project uh 18750 was approved.

The affordable housing agreement was uh prepared and uh and adopted by the city council.

The project, if you're not familiar with it, is about four and a half acres, or excuse me, a little over four acres, three hundred and forty-six total rental units, and the makeup of it, it's required to have um uh inclusionary housing ordinance uh percentage, which in this case is 70 units.

Now the 70 units have a 55 year affordability covenant, so they'll be affordable for a pretty long period of time.

Now the initial agreement identifies the breakdown as this 12 studios, 32 one-bedrooms, 19 two bedrooms, and three, or excuse me, seven three-bedrooms.

Um, again, the inclusionary housing ordinance, which this uh these 70 units are based upon, they need to be proportionally distributed amongst the the market rate units.

As I mentioned, there's 340 plus units total, so you can't just have an offset of uh nothing but one bedroom for affordable.

It has to be proportionate to all the uh market rate, three bedroom, two-bedroom, one bedroom, and studios.

So the original agreement overcounted three bedroom units because the two-bedroom lofts were classified as three-bedrooms.

They thought it was two bedrooms and a bedroom loft when it was just two bedrooms and a loft, like an office of some sorts or and like a living area, uh for relaxation or you know, an extra living uh room area.

So this amendment basically corrects um what the distribution was in relation to the market rate units to be in line with the inclusionary housing ordinance that uh dictates this project.

So, as you can see, the original mix is the middle uh column, the 12, 32, 19, and 7.

The proposed mix, the studios and one bedrooms are 12 and 32, they stay the same.

But as you can see, the two-bedroom increases by four because they were misclassified as three bedrooms, and the three bedrooms that were classified as three bedrooms years ago would now be uh the uh uh you know when the agreement was initially done, would now be um the the two bedrooms.

So there's only three total three bedroom units.

Now, doesn't that make uh throw off that proportion then?

That's what I'm kind of how was it okay and need it at seven years ago and not now?

And why did it take so long for the builder to realize this miscalculation?

I can answer that.

So when the affordable housing agreement went through, this was when the project was approved, so we just had entitlement plans.

The three bedrooms were probably miscounted on the entitlement plans.

The project then went into construction, which is a whole different team of people that work on that.

The project is almost done with construction, and so now they're hiring, they're leasing people, their lease up, they're turning people.

They probably caught it and brought it to the city's attention, which they brought it, I want to say five or six months ago.

We brought it to EDC about three months ago.

And I think somebody asked on EDC asked the same question at the time.

So I think it was a matter of when the new transition team came and saw that they were miscounted.

But the initially were counted incorrectly because it was based on the entitlement plans, which are conceptual plans.

Okay, I'm still kind of missing.

If they were needed, seven were needed, but you've the loft apartments, the two-bedroom with the loft were uh considered not three bedroom.

Then don't you need to come up with the make three four more three bedrooms?

You can put them, you can put whatever you want, those uh four loft apartments, but that the three bedrooms you don't need to put keep that proportions, that formula.

That proportion actually goes down because the number of total three bedrooms um decreases.

So any two-bedroom with a loft is uh two-bedroom with a loft was originally considered three-bedroom.

I don't know how many total there were, but all of those are considered two-bedroom now.

So proportionally the uh affordable units have to decrease because the overall number of three bedroom units in the project, including the market rate portion decreased.

And the two bedrooms increase, so that's why there had to be an increase of four units.

Don't go ahead.

Couple questions.

So I just heard you say, so the affordable units have decreased from 70.

Is that true?

No, it's still 70, just the make the bedroom mix changes.

Okay.

The only problem I had, and the reason I was supportive of Mayor Burns' pulling this is as a planning commissioner.

I I dealt with you guys.

You guys are sharp, you you're on your game, and I'm just wondering how anybody could miss the fact that a two-bedroom with a loft, whatever level of plans, by the time you got to construction permits, somebody had to see actual architectural plans that showed that there weren't weren't gonna be the four bearing walls or whatever.

I just don't know how anybody could have missed it, and now they're saying, oops, we missed it.

The the people that worked on the affordable housing agreement were probably attorneys, no offense.

Yeah, well, but you know, in the end, community development or the building department, if you will, you you have the final say on everything.

I mean, you know, you can always there's always somebody downhill to take the blame, but somebody has to own the mistake.

And and listen, Jennifer, you're fantastic.

I just find it hard to believe that somebody rubber stamped these plans on a project that big.

Um, and I'm really surprised that the builder tried to never said anything.

I can't imagine it's their first build that they didn't know better if they're building affordable housing that a loft is never constituted as a bedroom.

Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know how where and how the mistake generated.

I don't know if it was on the construction drawings or not, actually, it could be only in the affordable housing agreement.

But either way, we're here today because they raised the issue a few months ago and we're bringing it up to correct it.

Okay, the part um I believe those guys are sharp as can be.

Those builders know that business so well, and for some reason, at the last minute they're changing, making a change.

That kind of sounds maybe a little advantageous to them, which is cool, but I'm just don't know.

It will be what I'm afraid of though is that it's gonna push a liability on us that they're short on meeting their demands of the formula in any way.

Like, oh, you could boy, they changed four three-bedrooms down to two bedrooms, and they added so really they're kind of short, but if the city council, and this is I'm trying to think why they would be doing this, but if they approve it, that's on them.

And not, and they're gonna be a there is a benefit to them.

The reason why they're asking is because instead of having three four three-bedroom units be affordable at low income, they can now have four three-bedroom units be market rate.

So they're gonna have a little bit of an increase in revenue from that.

So it's in their interest to ask.

It's in the city's interest to ask because with the to approve this because with the incremental increase in three-bedroom units, the larger units, right?

The property tax basis is higher, which means incrementally our property tax revenue will be higher.

Okay, from the beginning then.

Okay, now I just got a different perspective.

From the beginning, you net they never needed seven.

The only the proportionate amount was gonna be was really actually three from the very beginning, but they had seven.

Correct.

Okay.

That makes clears it up a little bit for me that I just had a epiphany, I guess, that of the change, the difference in perspective.

Because I'm like, why are they suddenly?

And how does this amount?

What is our obligation?

What does this do for us as a city to grant this?

And um, really, I don't I want to keep us liability.

I don't want the state coming down and pulling their little mandate.

It just keeps up, it keeps us in compliance with our own codes.

So the city's affordable housing ordinance requires that affordable housing projects or market rate projects with affordable housing units, the bedroom mix be proportional to the market rate portion.

So that keeps uh this change will keep that part of the code, uh, this project in alignment with the city's code.

And then again, like I said, the property tax benefit.

That's really the only two reasons why the city council would approve this.

But let's be realistic.

The property tax benefit from from four units going from two bed to three bed, it's it's negligible.

It's very small, right?

Just like the increase in the revenue for them will probably be not super great.

What I think would be a good faith adjustment would be the fact that they're asking us to kind of uh amend their mistake when they're in the building business is the uh the increased revenue uh it would be nice if they would just uh allocate that towards the city as a uh here you go, we made a mistake, no biggie.

And just uh and I want to just make it record.

This was this was added on to somehow the beach edinger corridor plan, right?

Yes, so the the site that this project sits on is part of seven sites that were identified for an affordable housing overlay in 2020 as part of the beach edinger corridor specific plan.

And I believe it was council that approved it in November of 22.

It was just the month before uh myself, Casey Gracie got on.

The affordable housing agreement was approved in November of 22.

The affordable housing overlay was approved in January of 2020, all right.

And uh I had another one.

Go ahead, Butch.

Just for my own edification, the the reallocation of the bedroom units, when there's two or three, two of the loft, three without a loft, it doesn't put the city in any contradiction with the state or our own codes or our own affordable housing uh codes.

No, it actually brings it further in alignment with our code.

Okay, perfect.

I know what I want to say.

As part of some of their dealings and being able to get these plans approved and stuff, they were given uh density bonuses, weren't they?

Uh this is a high density price, this is about as high density as I can think of around here.

I mean, it's like oh my god, nine almost ninety uh units an acre.

Um, but they got they got rid of open space, some mandatory open space, didn't they?

And then they had several waivers as part of the state density bonus law.

The setbacks, yeah.

Uh I can't remember the exact waivers, but I do believe it was a setback on one property side as well as some open space.

And they got I believe it's 113 extra uh units for the state um density.

They would they were able to put more than that, like to add on because of density bonus and stuff.

Um well they they didn't necessarily request an increase in density, uh, because in the uh beach and editing your quarter specific plan, there is no maximum density.

So they didn't request a necessarily um an increase in density, but they asked for those waivers that they essentially say they would not otherwise be able to build the project without them.

And they were given those waivers.

Correct, yeah.

And there was a I think there was a uh a condition where they provide some place or somehow a half acre of open space.

Is that anything that rings the bell?

Yeah, the half acre of open space was part of the beach edinger corridor specific plan, and it was implemented with the boardwalk by Windsor project at um Gothard and Edinger.

Gother and editing.

With the beach edinger uh specific plan, that's tied to the man, right?

The beach edinger specific plan has a man in it, yes.

So is that man based on just pure units or units by bedroom count?

Units.

Just pure units, okay.

Um I guess my only other concern would be we're talking about four units now.

We make a you know, we acquiesce now.

What if we were talking about 30 units that were mistakenly labeled?

Well, you might say, well, we would have caught that, but nobody caught the four.

I mean, what would happen if we were talking about next time we miss it again?

It's we somebody the builder comes back and go, Well, we need to re-al uh reallocate 10 or 15.

What then?

We would come back with that request to the city council.

I mean, it would be the same process.

I mean, can we agree that we shouldn't be here at least that this never should have gotten to the place where we didn't know better as a city that uh two beds in a loft is not a three-bedroom?

I agree.

Okay.

Sure.

To be honest with you, God, I know I've got more questions.

I just really this is a learning thing for me, too.

Uh, I'd kind of like to table it.

I'd like to make a motion to table this until September 2nd.

I just I know there's gonna, I just want to learn how this happened and what this is all about.

Cause this is this project.

Man, it goes against every grain I have that it's as high density as it gets in a very vulnerable area where it's already strained.

Parking is a nightmare over in that area, and for this thing to be jammed in there is just uh really almost one of the best examples of why I'm so against uh so much of this stuff.

It just various hard held to me.

Can I jump in?

Sure.

Yeah, JV, just before uh Pat makes that motion, just the two different scenarios.

So if we pass this, what happens, and if we don't pass it, what happens?

Uh if the city council passes, then you will have an updated or amended affordable housing agreement and the bedroom mix of the affordable units.

I think that they're gonna be finishing construction this fall.

Yeah, they'll be um starting leasing in October.

So they'll lease pursuant to the amended agreement.

If the city council doesn't approve it, they'll lease pursuant to the current existing agreement, and then we're just out of compliance with our own city code.

It would be less in alignment, yeah, a little bit out of compliance, yes.

Thank you.

So the one thing I've seen being part of the city council, there's a lot of hurry up and wait, you know, last minute decisions.

So is there any, you know, without uh do you see any downside?

No, I mean we wouldn't have been, we wouldn't have brought this forward and recommended approval if we saw any downside.

I mean, we did bring this to EDC two or three months ago and discussed it there.

Um but if the council needs more time, that's okay.

Um, we can bring it to the next meeting.

Uh, I would second I would second your motion, mayor.

I mean, if it passed, I mean, if if we don't uh if that motion doesn't pass, we can vote on it.

But um, I mean, two weeks isn't gonna hurt either way, right?

Yeah, I would second your motion, Mayor, to table this till the next meeting, just to do a little bit more research, and but that's up to the dias here to decide.

Okay, call the question.

All right.

Call roll, please.

Item number item number 18 tabled till September 2nd.

Councilman Twine.

Aye.

Is that a yay?

Nay.

You got a problem, bro.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Hi.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes 7-0.

Thank you.

Uh next item, Don, number 19.

Kind of along the same light.

So there was a document signed in 1993 for the we're we're asked to amend another agreement for the second time.

So in nineteen ninety-three, an agreement was passed with an expiration of twenty twenty-three.

In 2020, there was a three-year extension taking that uh new deadline out to July of 26.

Now, here we're asked for another one year extension to take it out to July of 27.

So it raises a couple questions.

They've had they cite in their reasoning that um they don't want to disrupt maybe the renters, if you will, the stability of the project, so it kind of raises three questions.

Number one is uh when a affordable housing component expires, if you're an investor and you own that, I mean, potentially from a capitalistic standpoint, that's good news because now you go to market rate.

The second thing would be if the o if that's not maybe important to them because they're citing uh disrupting stability.

Even if we didn't amend it and the term expires at the end of 2026, if the owners felt like stability was an issue, wouldn't they have the right to not raise the rents from affordable to market rate?

Uh which would seem logical if that's the basis of why they want another one-year extension.

And my third question is, is there something in it for this owner for another extension?

What's the point of an extension?

They've had 30 years, they got a three-year, now they want another one year.

Why?

Well, one of the things is that the stability is also related to the seniors that are living there.

They they because the the expiration date's coming up, they have to give a one-year notice, a um a six-month notice, and they don't want to disrupt seniors, and they'd be calling us at City Hall because they're saying, Oh my god, I'm being kicked out of my apartment and everything.

So they want to avoid any future noticing till they kind of figure out what their long-term plan is.

We asked them for a three-year extension, similar to the one that was done a few years ago, uh, but they said they just needed a uh one-year one to extend to 2027.

So I don't know what their financial um uh view of this is.

Like I agree that, you know, a lot of people in the investment community would celebrate when the covenants expire because yes, it goes to market rate, but I don't think that's their mission statement.

So I think they're they just want to be able to keep the continuity that currently exists at five points and move on, but yet they want to consider consider what their long-term options are in terms of uh okay, do we need to rehab the project, put more money into it?

Uh and it may require doing an assessment of uh uh potential improvements that could occur.

And they've even indicated that they would even extend the um the covenants even further down the line if the city was willing to provide them a loan for these rehabilitation and and secure those long-term covenants for not just like one or three years, but I'm talking like maybe 15 20 years down the line.

So that's that's their uh motivation for this, is they did they they know it's a they don't want to freak out the the seniors, so to speak.

They definitely do not want to do that.

We had that experience uh I think it was a year or two ago, and we were on the phone all day responding to calls that people got these notices saying that the covenants and the affordability are gonna be gone in you know like six months, and it it really scared the seniors.

So we don't want to they don't want to go down that path.

We don't want to see them go down that path.

So uh we thought it was a good opportunity to for them when they asked when they approached us.

Again, we wanted to do three years, but they said we can do this with only a one-year extension.

So, okay.

I appreciate that and I'm all for seniors having stability, but it it raises a couple of things.

Number one, you know, I don't think the city's in the lending business, we should not be in the lending business.

Number two is um, so they they push this off for one year, but again, if they have altruism as their driving force, they can keep it at affordable rates for as long as they want to.

They don't need us to grant them any extension.

So again, you know, I think the bigger play is hey, let's uh see if we can't, you know, appease the city and then ask them for some money.

And I don't think that works well, but what you know, I think we should consider contemplating a a policy that went a renter comes into an affordable housing unit, there should be some kind of notice of when there is the uh the termination date of the affordable housing covenant so somebody doesn't move in and find out it expires in a year.

No senior should have ever signed a lease knowing that it expires in one year, and if they're not being told that uh when they're leasing, if these people have been in there five years and they know it's coming, at some point life happens.

You know, you can't continue to you know oversee everybody's life as much as we would like to.

Um, but my point is um, you know, number one, we should contemplate a policy that it mandates these people notify renters when the covenants expire, so you don't say, Oh, I didn't know.

Uh, secondly, I would tell this this builder, you know, if you want to keep it at uh affordable housing rates, you know, you've got through 726.

Uh keep it as long as you want.

I mean, why why is it always our responsibility?

Well, the benefit of the city approving the extension is we get the affordability covenants, so they're voluntarily asking to keep covenants recorded on their property saying that they're gonna rent them for lower income extremely lower.

I think it's just low.

Lower income seniors.

So that's that's the reason why they're here because they're asking for act voluntarily asking to keep covenants extended on their property, mandating essentially that they will rent those to low-income seniors.

Through 27, but again, at a macro level, when we're supposed to have 8200, you know, affordable uh units soon.

This is not gonna heal anything.

It sounds good on paper.

Hey, we kept another 40 units or 20, I don't know how many we're talking about here.

But it it's not about the units, it's not about um stability or non-stability, it's about a protocol.

Number one, they've not done a good job notifying their renters, especially new renters when they expire because they think they're gonna continue to get these extensions.

And you know, the way I look at it is what you allow you encourage.

So as soon as we do this with with one set of builders, you know, and again, hey, good news for us if they want to continue to extend it, but um, you know, uh I don't think that's the way to do it to keep coming back to the well asking why are they why aren't they asking for 10 years without asking us to lend them money?

If you want to be good about it, let's let's give them 10 years.

They don't know what they want to do with the property yet.

Well, there you go.

So they're figuring out what they're figuring out what's good for them, not the seniors.

We're not sure what we want to do, so we're gonna keep doing this.

We're gonna keep asking for new amendments to a contract that we signed once, got extended once, we're one another one, so we can figure out what we want to do.

That is selfish.

But in the in the meantime, though, we keep affordable units uh affordable through covenants.

So by them saying we don't know what we want to do with their property, the benefit to the city is we just get longer affordability on in these units.

Then why don't we use some leverage until you figure out what you want to do?

We as a city want you to do it for another 10 years, no money lending.

Let's be the driver.

If we don't want to take control, don't own the property.

I know, but then we can say no to them.

Don, let me jump in, so if you don't mind.

I mean, but I think first.

I'm getting he's confusing me right now.

Aren't we doing the citizens of the senior citizens of Huntington Beach that are living at five point senior villas?

Aren't we doing them a favor right now by this?

So I don't know why we don't do that.

We can't tell the owner, the owner of the place, we're not giving you anything, extend it for thirty years.

I think right now we we got to think about the the residents that live there and not tell the the the um the landlord, huh?

We're not gonna give you another year.

Figure out what you're gonna do.

I don't think that's what we should do as a as a council.

I think we should give our senior uh uh citizens that live there at least a little bit of comfort that they've got possibly three more years before we have to think about this again.

I don't think we need to force the the the landlord's hands.

I that's my my opinion.

All right, Grace.

So I just have a couple of questions.

We had a couple of meetings to discuss this prior to coming to council, um, one on EDC.

So it was my understanding that this extension of one year would facilitate or get the seniors just one more year to decide what they were going to do.

I'm I'm not concerned about the owner the developer or anyone talking about the seniors that this year this extension would give them an opportunity to look into their options if they can't stay in that facility under the new pricing.

I mean that could be the definitely if if they see the writing on the wall and the developers not gonna um uh if we're not gonna extend the covenants yeah I mean it gives them more time to plan it's more difficult obviously for seniors than you know somebody that's 35 years old and everything um given circumstances and where they might be at financially so yes that's that's correct.

And do we know when these seniors the ones who will be affected by this when they rented their units were they aware that there was an expiration date as far as to the affordability yeah if everybody's aware of like uh expiration dates like um you know we we tend to like tell people like when OVE uh Ocean view estates was about ready to close we had to sit down and have them acknowledge you know hey work this thing may be closing in a couple of years so it's kind of like buyer beware and everything so I am sure because there's at least a they've already probably received a one year notice um because the dates was in is right now July of next year I got figure five points is received residents have seen the one year notice and anybody that just moved in today let's say um they would say hey you know covenants expire in eight months or nine months whatever the time period is okay thank you.

Keith so understanding all points and I think I speak for Don on this because we're both in real estate I'm in development the the challenge we have is me especially being you know here almost three years is that you know a lot of places we look the city's getting taken advantage of especially in development so on the previous project we just spoke about I mean these guys are pros minute that they need the city to save them so when I'm in development in a deal if I make a mistake with my seller and I need something I'm gonna have to offer something in return.

That's just business.

So on something like this it's like okay you guys don't know what you want to do and they're looking to us to save you for a year understanding of course we're sensitive to the seniors but what I I think I like I said I speak for Don is just the frustration that they're always coming to us the city as quote unquote the landlord looking to bail them out because they're not tight in their business or their development and they're looking for us to clean up mistakes as a good example the um project across the street at Maine Yorktown I mean they needed to change course and build this the senior assisted living proportion as a through a nonprofit for better financing and through that we're able to get a pilot program so property taxes in lieu of of tax payments when they didn't have to pay it and that was a great benefit to the taxpayers and the residents so it just it irks us again I think I speak for Don unless he wants to correct me in the real estate business and development business when a lot of these projects and lot as developers are either coming to us last minute with a fire drill looking to bail them out or they're just not tight uh with their processing procedures.

So that's my issue and I guess the question is I you know when do they need this decided by I mean I know they need it sooner than later but as like is there like a hard go or no go date of if I recall they were planning to do another notification to those uh those seniors that would be affected by this coming up in like I think the next month okay and so when you say they don't they don't know what they want to do on the financing, right?

Like they're trying to get financing lined up.

Is that the situation?

I have no we haven't dived in deep enough into those discussions yet to know exactly.

They may they may want to um, like I said, put uh take out the loan and put more money into the project to do some upgrades, improvements, um, but they haven't defined what those might be or if that's the plan.

So that's why they need to they need they want this time, this extra time, so they can come with come to again two parts, not have to notify the seniors that you know that they're being evicted or not evicted, but at least being have to pay market rent, and then uh the other thing obviously is figure out what they want to do if they want to if they're gonna put money into this project or not.

Right, and so I think again, just coming from the private sector in development.

I mean, our our goal, why I ran on, and I'm again I think I speak for Don as well, is like we're trying to infuse back best practices and procedures from the private sector so that the city doesn't have gaps, they're subject to liability, the the residents and taxpayers are getting taken advantage of.

So, in this situation, I mean it behooves us to have them extend their covenants longer.

So have we spoken to them about not like as Don mentioned, not doing just a one year but going for a tenure, like why can't why can't why will they not do like a 10-year extension on the covenants?

Uh well, I mean, like I said, we asked, can we do a three year similar to the prior uh amendment?

Yeah, and I and they I think they would probably say, well, we can do 10 years, but then it becomes a negotiation, and that's where I mentioned that they at some point may request like if we could uh have a city loan through our housing funds um to help finance their uh rehab work.

So that's that's that's as far as we kind of got in our discussions because we're more focused on trying to get the one year because they don't have the information to provide the city to kind of say what their future is gonna look like.

So I guess looking from a leverage perspective, like what's our leverage, I feel like if we give just give them the one, they're gonna take the one, and you know, there's not an opportunity to perhaps get a 10 because it behooves us and the seniors to extend those those affordability covenants longer.

So I mean, do we have enough runway two weeks to a month uh to try to negotiate with them to extend these covenants longer?

I I I mean, if they're not gonna do three, they may not do 10 or what or whatever.

I mean, maybe you know, if we say that be based upon tonight's uh uh verdict, if you want to call it, um, it may sway them, but uh I don't know if they would do 10.

I would have to ask.

Well, I guess again, I'll just use the use the analogy.

I mean, in my business, when I if I go to my seller, I'm an escrow with and I'm scrambling, hey, can I get a year extension?

Like, okay, well, what are you gonna give me?

Well, you know, I just please you know what I mean?

So it's just it's it's abnormal.

I mean, I I really think they were looking at maybe a 15 20 year extension with a you know city housing loan uh uh as an offset and everything.

That's what I think they were truly looking at, and I think that's the path they would want to go down.

Now, obviously, if that's not uh in the best interest of the city, then um it you know it wouldn't happen.

Okay, Andrew.

Yeah, I agree with both Don and Casey Sentiment here, and it does feel like the city gets taken advantage of by these last minute decisions where they ask for just a temporary kicking of the can down the road.

But I guess my question would be well, first of all, the loan piece I think is a whole nother another conversation in anvil that's been dropped in here on multiple occasions.

So it's clear to me in reading between the lines that ultimately that's what they want.

They want a loan from the city and they're trying to use this as leverage.

So my question would be is what are the consequences of the decision that we're making today in the event that we say no, what do you believe would be the consequences?

Are they just gonna rip the band-aid off and and exit?

Uh they could let the covenants expire and and move on and make the market rate um senior project.

Uh but they could also it could put you know, scare them a little and that they want to, you know, say, okay, we'll we'll extend to this and uh you know, five, ten years or something like that.

It's something we can broach.

But who are the who are the the victims in this if they let the covenants expire and then they move to market rate, the victims are gonna be the senior citizens that are taking advantage of the affordable units.

Absolutely, yeah.

So that's a that's a a pretty evil perspective.

Got it.

Can I just to clarify something?

When we lose something like those covenants, this is one problem.

I believe I do not like one bit about the mandates put on by the states like Greena uh and these covenants.

If we let them expire, they don't renew them.

They basically get added back to arena numbers, right?

That's what is it?

Several units added to our arena numbers.

Is that right?

And what people don't understand, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Those things are these mandates that they keep issuing year to year to year, they're in perpetuity.

I mean they keep going.

And as they expire, they just get added on to the next the number that exists.

So it never ends, is what I'm saying.

These mandates never end.

And matter of fact, they just keep adding up.

Once we get 20 years into this, like we're hitting right now with these numbers, if they decide not to do it, they get added to our arena numbers.

And then that next year, the next projects, they decide not to, because they've gotten their money's worth or whatever their uh mission is, you know, whether it be philanthropy or what money making or whatever they did it for, but it just gets it never ends, is what I'm saying.

My off base on that.

Uh I mean RENA's been around since 1969, and it keeps growing and growing, and there isn't a city that I know of that except maybe one that's meeting that their arena production goals.

And when you don't plan for your arena, yeah, it gets added to your following arena, which occurs every eight years.

So every eight years we get a new arena number.

Any arena we didn't accommodate gets tacked onto the new arena.

So at some point you got to get real creative to meet those building, you gotta basically seem to me in the long run, it's almost like almost everything at some point in time in the long term would end up with being mandated long-term.

I mean uh low-income housing.

Potentially, when you when you have uh existing affordable units, they're they're based on an old RENA, right?

Whenever they were developed.

So when you have units what we call at risk of converting to market rate, you're usually trying to plan for how you can prolong those as affordable units and not lose them to market rate.

Or replace.

Or replace.

And part of part of a program to uh prevent them from converting to market rate is through like a rehab project, which generally only happens through, like what uh Charles says, through some sort of housing trust fund loan, rehab loan.

So that is probably what they're gonna be looking at.

They sounds like they're not ready yet to figure out what it is that they are gonna move forward with, whether it's that or they sell to uh another affordable housing uh developer who maintains the long-term affordability of those units, or they just let them convert to market rate.

Well, the long-term effect of it scares the hell out of me, I'll tell you.

Anyone else?

Yeah, just real three quick takeaways.

Number one, let me go on record.

I love seniors, I am a senior.

When I go to mother's market, I go on Wednesday, get the discount for seniors on those vitamins.

So let me be clear on that.

Secondly, um, when you have a goal in business and nobody obtains a goal, it's time to reset the goal.

So that's something we can't really change.

But the the arena is ridiculous.

If you just told me that no city hits it, that shows unrealistic goals are being set.

But what I really want to say is kind of what Andrew said, and and and kind of caveat with with what Casey said, we as a city need to do a better job negotiating.

In 2020, we held all the cars, and we should have said, we'll give you that three-year term, but we really want a five-year term, or we want a three-year term and a mandatory second three-year term or five-year term because it protects our seniors.

Back to that.

We just give away three years and then you know, roll over to one.

That's representing their interest.

We have all the power.

We could have said we'll give you three, but you know what?

I'm not gonna give you three, I'll give you five.

Take it or leave it in 2020.

Things like that.

We need to do a better job negotiating when we hold the cards, and in that negotiation, we can hold the cards, set the terms, and protect the seniors and still give them the benefit.

So what I'd like to do is make a motion that we uh delay this and we go back and try and renegotiate not one more year for this extension in 2026, three more years or five more years, not the 10 where they're gonna try and tie some capital uh, you know, uh a loan to it.

Something that they can live with, that's not too long, but let's really protect the seniors.

Let's walk the walk.

Let's say I don't want to give you one year.

Let me give you three years or forget it and see what happens.

But let's try and actually negotiate and not just acquiesce to, okay, here's another year.

Let's let's take that tact.

I think our city can do a much better job.

I've seen a lot of my uh incidents where we get laid away, and we can do a much better job negotiating, and that's one of the things that I think I'm good at.

I'd love to sit down with these guys.

Don, before I second that, Charles, are they have they give us like giving us a official offer for a longer term extension on the covenant?

No, they haven't.

Uh they we haven't even talked about terms.

I I mean they threw out like a 15-year uh term, uh, but that was with a loan, city loan through the uh either the housing trust or the low mod income funds.

I was gonna say if you want to just slightly amend the motion if we just table it to the next meeting and have them give us an official offer of extending the long-term covenants, and then we can I would second that motion.

Okay, all right.

Anybody else?

All right, call the roll.

Item number 19 tabled until September 2nd.

That's gonna be a good one.

Councilman Twiny.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKean.

Yes, Mayor Burns, Councilwoman Vandermark, yes, Councilman Gruel, yes, councilman Williams, yes.

Item passes 7-0.

Okay, we're gonna move on to item 21.

Chad and Butch.

Chad, you called it, go first.

All right, so item 21 off the consent calendar, just from a high view, it was discovered.

Staff during their analysis uh realized that we have fallen behind on uh parking fines and fees uh in comparison to the rest of the market.

And so they're suggesting that we get up to speed with that.

Uh, just to read from the statement issued, the city's current uniform bail schedule for parking violations has not been updated in over five years.

Staff has determined that our parking fine amounts are below the industry standard compared to other coastal cities while parking complaints continue to rise.

Staff recommend adopting a revised schedule that better reflects current conditions and includes a yearly adjustment based on uh CPI.

Uh, this will ensure that parking fines remain fair and consistent with economic change.

And I think that I, like a lot of you, am not real prone to you know raising fines, certainly not for raising taxes.

You talk about T O T or T bid, you know, maybe now you have my ear, uh, but when it's our residents that potentially get caught in the crosshairs, uh, it just doesn't really sit well uh with me.

Uh but in their financial impact uh report, uh, here's sort of the carrot.

Uh the proposed changes are expected to increase parking fine revenue by updating fine amounts and encouraging timely payment through late fees.

It is anticipated that we will see an increase in revenue of approximately one million dollars based on the number of citations issued annually.

The annual CPI-based adjustment will help ensure that future fine amounts keep up with inflation, no significant costs are expected to implement these changes.

And so I would say that does kind of change things a little bit when we're looking at you know this falling in line with trying to increase, you know, revenue for our general fund.

But at the same time, I'm just not real keen.

It doesn't sit well with me, uh, just having that money go dropping into this big bucket of the general fund and kind of disappearing into the ether like a vapor.

Uh and so I just don't feel like I can support it just on that.

Uh, but there is a rationalization to it, uh, which would be if we were to prioritize uh public safety enhancements, I can see a path forward.

If we were to earmark these funds and assure that this would go to fire and law enforcement, I think that's more reasonable.

And so I remember a while back we had visited the possibility of uh two fire captains, and we approved one, and the second was still kind of waiting in the balance, and we're going to be looking for the funds to support that to the tune of about 289,000 for that position.

And when we're considering that position, I think there was it kind of it got overlooked as you know, this is just for special events.

And I just really want to clarify that you know special events, it's not something just to be glossed over, especially in Huntington Beach when we attract hundreds of thousands of people to our beaches, especially through these events.

Um, and so just to kind of go over what this administrative captain's duties would be, it's a lot more than just you know hanging on to our walkie-talkie and making sure that you know all the extinguishers are in the right place.

Uh, planning responsibilities for this captain would be to lead comprehensive planning uh to identify risks, develop response strategies and ensure regulatory compliance.

Uh, they're involved in risk assessment and permitting emergency operation integration, update the city's emergency operation plan to incorporate events specific plans such as uh for floods, hazardous materials, mass casualties, develop incident action plans, IAPs outlining objectives, tactics, and resources.

They're in charge of training and exercises, coordinating with all different types of agencies from you know the FPI, the EPA, the FAA, homeland security.

Uh I know that we're looking at the possibility of trying to partner with the Olympics coming up.

Uh council member uh Andrew Gruel and Gracie uh Vandermark and and Casey uh desire to explore opportunities for the city of Huntington Beach to engage in Olympic-related programming and partnerships.

You know, this just all it involves even even the more, you know, they would be coordinating uh with even um uh the FBI and possibly the CIA.

And so there's a lot on the plate for these events.

They're working with the local agencies, county, and regional, the state agencies, as I mentioned, FEMA, uh I mentioned EPA, and the list goes on and on in terms of these responsibilities.

So again, I can see justification for allocating uh these funds uh towards public safety enhancements, and so I would suggest doing that, and also for law enforcement, there's a whole myriad of equipment needs that they have, and then with the upcoming bio labs, computer labs, the uh drone services that we're looking into, the uh the downlink.

Uh there's these continual needs, and so this would be regular money coming into the city, and again, I hate to just see it splash into the general fund without any direct oversight.

So I want to prioritize public safety enhancements.

And so what I would do is I would move to adopt resolution 2025 53 as presented with the addition that the city council directs staff to allocate the anticipated additional revenue of approximately one million dollars from the updated parking fine schedule exclusively to public safety enhancements, specifically prioritizing funding the second administrative fire captain position, noting that the funding for this position would total approximately 289,500 with the first already approved, and direct any excess funds to the police department to be spent at the discretion of the police chief, and staff shall track this revenue separately and provide quarterly reports to the council on its use to ensure it is not absorbed into the general operations without oversight.

It sounds awesome, but yeah, I think I need some direction if that's possible.

So I think you can provide direction to come back with a plan to use the money.

I it's not it's not this has not been agenda, it's especially not the specifics of hiring a fire captain uh with the money.

So uh again, you can take the take the one action.

Is it possible that we direct the money like from fines for that your market basically?

We want to make sure, yeah, we would want to make sure that any fines that are that are accumulated that money is being used properly.

So again, if you want to, you can you can adopt the resolution, but bring back a plan to use the money.

And so, my understanding with discussing this a little bit with you, Mr.

City Attorney, and looking into our city charter, uh, it says that we can at any council meeting as a council direct funds, we can earmark these funds.

It's not on the agenda, that's why I'm telling you, you gotta bring it back.

Okay, so as part of this motion, though, I would like to earmark how these funds would be.

You can again you can direct staff to come back at the next meeting with a plan to earmark the funds.

Okay, so with that, I would like to make that motion adopting uh as presented uh while directing staff to come back with what a study to direct those funds.

One second, yeah.

I'll second that.

Yeah, with the plan, with the plan how the funds can be used.

All right, but okay.

I just I like the way my colleague uh councilman Williams is thinking over there.

I totally agree with them.

I just wanted everybody to know that the the police department did a huge uh this is uh a matrix of 76 different uh parking infractions that could be given out.

Uh it's very little writing, that's why I have my readers on.

Uh out of the 76 on there, 68 are fine-producing uh parking violations, and we compared or they compared our police department compared uh fines in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Long Beach, and Seal Beach, and I can tell you that we're right in line, if not a little bit less than our surrounding cities.

Um I actually had called up uh uh or uh requested that Lieutenant Archer and Captain Nicotin came up and talked to me today uh because I I saw a couple items on there that that um that I wanted to raise the fine on.

Um most they mostly had to deal with uh handicap parking and and handicap ramps being blocked, uh, because nothing bothers me more than to see uh non-placard cars parked where placards are required.

So I'll let uh uh Lieutenant uh uh Toby talk about that real quick.

I'll just be very brief, but I just wanted to address a couple of your points, Councilman uh Williams.

Uh one, actually to give credit where credit is due.

Uh community services had a lot of research in this and our beach operations team helped put this together with our parking control, so I just want to give credit there.

But um the impetus with this was really during our special events that we talked about, a lot of times we were seeing violations occur because as these events get bigger and bigger, we're charging more and more for parking, and the parking fines weren't commensurate with what the what the parking pass would be.

So people like, well, I can just park here on the sand and get a $42 ticket, or I can pay $40 to park in the state beach.

I'll just leave my car here and take the ticket, and it's only two dollars more.

So we really wanted to make sure that the punishment fit the crime, so to speak.

And so in doing that, we looked at other coastal cities, Seal Beach, Laguna Beach, Long Beach, Newport Beach, to make sure that we were kind of in the same realm to make sure that we were at the industry standard for what a fine should be for all those violations.

And and that was kind of we haven't done this in five years.

So we wanted to make sure that our our bail schedule was appropriate.

And then obviously in in the name of efficiency, we thought, hey, why not just uh increase it with a CPI every year so that we we remain consistent and we don't have to do this every couple years, it'll just incrementally go up.

So that was kind of the impetus behind looking at what the bail schedule was.

Wasn't necessarily to get more taxes, it was just to make sure that the punishment fit the crime so that there was a disincentive for people to commit those violations, especially during our major events when traffic's already an issue.

So that's all thank you.

Mayor, if I may, so I just want to say I think earmarking funds is a is a slippery slope because to counter the comment, to counter the comment made about no oversight.

Our role as council members is to increase revenue responsibly where we can and then reduce expenditures.

Money comes in through the general fund, and then we as council are the oversight and decide where that money is allocated through the budgetary adoption process based on the department's needs by earmarking.

So in this case, if police are bringing in more revenue by your guys' rationale, then it should just go to the police.

Well, what about community library services when they have these events, you know, at the beach, et cetera.

So that revenue just go to that department because they were the ones that brought in the revenue.

So I just think it's it's a really slippery slope.

We there is oversight.

We are the oversight.

We adopt the budget every year.

So the money comes in, and then the departments tell us what they need and the services they need, and then we decide through staff and the city manager how those funds are allocated.

Let's uh discuss that when it's agendized.

Or am I wrong?

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

I'm done.

I I'm just here to answer questions if there are any.

All right, but you got anything else?

I don't.

Um thank you very much.

I thought you had some suggestions on raising.

Didn't that go by the wayside?

Yes.

Okay.

Don.

I just have one category here that I wanted to see if there's something we can take a second look at.

It's the placard, the $880 fine.

So two of the three I can get behind 100%.

One is fraudulent placard or plate.

You do that, you deserve to pay a big big penalty.

The second one is placard holder not present, which you know, for those who might not know, might mean my mom's got a placard, I take her placard, I go park, and they go, Well, where's your where's Mrs.

You know, Kennedy?

Oh, she's not here.

That that's a fraudulent use of the placard.

That again should be fined at $880.

The invalid disabled placard slash plate, I think we should take a look at that.

I had a resident reach out to me who certainly has uh a viable placard, she's done well in in life.

She's had you know a personal assistant slash secretary for 30 years.

She's now a widower.

She she doesn't have to manage her day-to-day life.

Her her secretary retired.

So recently, she found out that her placard is now, you know, she got a ticket and it had been expired for like five days, maybe 10 days.

So now she's forced to pay an eight hundred and eighty dollar fine for really lack of oversight.

So kind of like a fix it ticket.

The first two I mentioned, there's no wiggle room.

This third one, when somebody who's disabled, which there's a lot of reasons people are disabled, you know, health-wise, mentally, whatever the case may be.

But if there's uh a slight lack of oversight, if we could maybe put a window, like if if it's been breached for 30 days, or you get a ticket and you renew your placard because there was a lack of oversight, um, nothing malicious, then it's almost like you don't have to pay that fine.

Maybe you pay a slight registration fee.

But in her case, she's had this placard for probably a decade.

Her assistant retired, she's an older woman, and uh she got a ticket, and she didn't even know her placard was expired, and it's like 10 days in between.

Yeah, so we actually do have that.

There's a vehicle code that allows us to reduce it to a $25 fee if they can show proof that it was expired, but they have a valid one, right?

So what we see sometimes is the temporary permits or someone like breaks an ankle or something like that, they get better, they don't have it, they'll issue the citation.

But if it's something like that where it's a permanent placard or not permanent placard, but it's something they renew every five or ten years, and they display sometimes they display the wrong one, an expired one on accident because they get it mixed up in their car.

As long as they show proof that they have had a current one at the time of the violation, meaning you know, this day they had one that was valid, we reduce it to $25.

But it was valid, but it was expired.

Uh right, so like if if you had one that expired, say August 1st, and you got the ticket today, but you you went and got one that was good from August 1st till you know the next five years, we would reduce it.

Would they issue one backdated though?

Uh they might they might, yeah, but it but I would imagine they wouldn't.

Like if if I if I have it expire on August 1st, I get a ticket on the 10th, I didn't know it was expired, all of a sudden I get a ticket, I find out it's expired, I'm an older person, and then I go to do whatever I need to do.

I don't know how to renew a placard.

I've never and I go down there and they go, here you go, renew it.

They're not gonna say we'll we'll backdate it to August 1.

Couldn't there be a review board?

That's a heavy fine for somebody.

I I totally understand.

And uh it's hard to answer what if questions, but on a case-by-case basis, if that came across my desk, we would absolutely reduce that fine to $25 because in the interest of justice, that's a good idea.

I think I said, Well, what did you do?

And I guess it has to you have to file a plea and send it off to Newport or something to that effect.

They do have to show proof that they had it or they got a new one, right?

Yeah, I mean, so I'll revisit with the resident, but I mean, not just for that resident.

They they happen to reach out for me, but I think, you know, if if any resident had the viability and expired, that's just a heavy fine.

I don't think they would know that they can maybe come visit City Hall, and you know, it's too bad there's not a mechanism that says you got a ticket, you renewed within 30 days.

So just the computer says saw that and it just negated the fines through, you know, some automation.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I don't know how many of those violations occurred that are in that, you know, margin of error, but I do know that is one of the most heavily contested citations that we get.

Because of that reason, people mix up placards or they let it expire, whatever, and oftentimes we're reducing those down.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I'll I'll see what's where she is, what phase she's in, or whatever.

And I'm more than happy to contact her.

Okay.

Thank you.

That was the what he just would uh uh commissioner uh Councilman Kennedy just talked about was exactly the the questions I had when I met with Lieutenant Archer today, brought up very, very similar circumstances when he says yeah, just bring in the current one and it's $25.

So I I think that's completely accepted.

That might just be a procedural thing you guys can maybe improve on, leave a notice with the citation or something like that.

That it's contestable.

But Casey.

Yeah, no, just based on my comments earlier about uh earmarking being a slippery slope and it's not necessary, it's redundant because we already have oversight and discretion how funds are allocated through the the budgetary adoption process.

I want to make a substitute motion just to adopt the resolution as written on the agenda.

I would just like to ask the city attorney for uh clarification.

So if the projected one million dollars is on the agenda, are we not allowed as the financial authority to simply suggest how we would like that money to be allocated?

Perhaps if we just simply did a split, like a 3070 split between fire and law enforcement without being specific in terms of Yeah, I think I think it's better if you're going it's not on the agenda.

All the it's it's pretty specific that you're just adopting this resolution increasing the fees.

There's no mention about how it's separate H item then okay, yeah.

Would it be a separate H item next to time?

Or you can bring it back out, or you want to do it.

Or, well, let me say this there's a motion on or there's a substitute motion on the table.

So I think you need to was my motion.

Seconded the first motion.

I didn't I I don't know if his motion is second, but it's okay.

Okay, Gracie.

Um to the statement that there is no oversight.

I agree with council member McCann, we are the oversight.

I do believe that every time we go and we review our budget, we make the decisions as of to where the money is um better most needed.

And that is part of our job.

I I just don't feel comfortable with earmarking or restricting funds that can go to our general budget to where we can make decisions based on what our needs are at that time.

Um if we don't trust, we can't trust the council to make those oversight decisions, then why are we here?

I think that's our job.

So, so I I've got a just a couple questions uh not directly on that topic, and then I'll touch on that.

On the the are the RVs an issue um right now within the city, the unpermitted RVs.

Have we seen that but more focus on that?

Yes, in fact, I think uh next council meeting we have um an item to just clean up some language for one of our ordinances.

But yes, we with the oversized vehicles and RVs uh tend to be an issue for us.

So so is it the non-permitted ones or and have they been following up on the tickets?

Yes.

But we uh there are some uh parking violations that are included in this that would go up slightly as well for RV things, but uh yeah, they still have to go through the process to get the three-day permit uh if they're gonna park an RV on the street.

And then the um obviously, you know, I think I think it's an it's this is an interesting conversation because when I first saw it, I was worried, you know.

To me, I just read it as like a tax, right?

But I get your point about it being there being kind of an incentive structure right now to actually park illegally or undergo a legal activity, you know.

Not obviously I'm not talking something crazy, it because it's the you do the cost-benefit analysis that makes complete sense.

Um, so you know, I was a little bit apprehensive on it, but I I now understand that point.

I also understand both sides of this conversation in regards to the funds.

I mean, it is nice to see have some oversight generally speaking on like where our funds are going, especially when it comes to public safety fire, and that this is directly related to that.

Um, you know, we don't want to we don't want to tie our hands too much behind our backs, but I also, you know, is there some sort of a compromise here where we know and and maybe this is a question for for the city attorney where at least it's like uh there's a general bucket where we look at this and we say we're increasing this much amount of revenue and it's gonna go into the bucket that's specifically fire safety, something along those lines.

I don't know.

And again, if you want to bring something like that back to the to a future meeting to make that call, you can certainly do that.

Gotcha.

Okay, I'd like to second Casey's motion.

Like I said, we are the finance authority, that is our job, and we can always make those decisions when the time comes and that's needed.

But Andrew, I think I'll you know, unless Travis wants to answer your question, but yeah, I mean, through the budget adoption process, like we go through all the areas where we're increasing revenue and all the areas where we're reducing expenditures, and then you adopt that budget based on on the final results.

So again, we have oversight.

So the goal, like I mentioned earlier as council members, should be to increase revenue where appropriate and then reduce expenditures, and then we allocate the funds to the each department's needs.

Again, I think it's just a really slippery slope to start earmarking money as it comes in when you when you look at the city in totality as a corporation, and as the money's coming in, then we're going to each department to satisfy their needs.

What would you say is the highest priority in our city in terms of departments?

Well, uh the number one rule of government's public safety, but what does that have to do with earmarking funds?

Again, like my analogy of you know, community and library services have done a great job bringing in more revenue when they oversee our big events, etc.

So should all that revenue that they bring in be earmarked to the community library services department?

No, it's the general fund in totality, and then we we allocate the general fund money based to each department based on their needs.

I mean, that's how it works.

So there is a great need for a second fire captain over special events.

We know that this is not just you know an event to kind of give a waving of the hand, no big deal.

Uh it's been expressed.

There's also great needs within our police department.

This is regular money that would be coming into the city, and so if it is a priority, if it's something that we're going to put up front and first, you know, why aren't we funding these positions when we're funding positions that are vacant in administrative roles outside of public safety?

So it just seems like the priorities are out of whack.

We had the money uh during the bubble budget uh proposal.

We had a 1.1 million dollar surplus, and so the request is just for another 289,000 to fulfill these positions, and this is a very critical position, especially the the fire captain over these events.

So it it just it doesn't really comport with me.

Yes, we do have that responsibility when this these funds go into uh the the general fund.

Um I fought, you know, to try and put public safety first.

Some of us, you know, voted in favor of it and others blocked it for reasons that don't make any sense to me.

Okay.

I totally agree with your theory and everything.

I also agree with Casey's, but I believe it's better.

It might that we address it, because unfortunately, having been a policeman and seeing how budgets work and stuff in cities, really what it comes down to is we would just end up adjusting the budget if we earmarked it.

We would just we would just end up, but we're we're really on a slippery slope right now of speaking of something that's not agendized, and I just I love the idea, but I think we ought to make it a council member item, you know, a couple weeks or a month, whenever you decide.

Let's write it up, think about it, just and then but let's deal with these fines increase first, and then we'll deal with your because I like the idea, but I know how budgets work that it would just affect what we allocate.

It could al it could affect that.

Well, for clarity though, and there's validity on both sides that everybody said that, no doubt about it.

But Pat or City Attorney, if we vote for the fines now without deliberating on councilman Williams' position or some of the other positions, are we able to deliberate and let's say his position passed, would we then since we've already passed this uh initiative here for the fines?

Then we could just take that strategy and use it for the fines that are collected, or do does it have to be uh that strategy approved first before we approve the fines?

No, I'm not my mic's on here.

So the what's on the agenda tonight is to approve the resolution, which is increasing the fines.

That's all that's on the agenda.

Okay, yeah, but can't we come back in two weeks if there's an H item, whatever it may be, on how to reallocate budget?

The reallocate the budget for positions or for fire trucks or whatever it may be, then you can come back and do that.

Can we can we uh like say approve cases with the slight change that it's conditional conditional on a discussion set up as an H item that we discuss the allocation when it's agendized?

Like we approved the raising, but you can do that.

So you give it a good idea, uh mayor.

Just bring it bringing H item back.

Yeah, just bring an H item back.

This is clean.

Okay, so what it would be if we did a substitute motion to direct you know staff to place an item on the agenda at the next regular city council meeting to consider directing the allocation of the projected one million dollars in revenue.

So I think during your council member comments at the end, when you have the ability to bring items back.

If you don't you can do items, fair enough.

Okay, okay, call a question on my substitute.

Yes, call the quote call roll.

So just to clarify, clarify my substitute motion is just to adopt a resolution as written on the agenda.

And it was second by Gracie.

And for clarity for double clarity, this passes.

If it does, councilman Williams um can bring an item forward, we deliberate and vote again on his strategy or the council's strategy.

Not tonight, no, not tonight.

Yeah, no.

Yeah, got it correct.

Okay, okay.

I just wanted clarity.

Follow the question, please.

Okay.

For the record, we are voting on the substitute motion, first by McKeon, second by Vandermark, which is to pass the um item as written on the agenda.

As written on the agenda, yes.

Councilman Twine, yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes, Mayor Burns, aye, councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes, Councilman Williams, yes.

Item passes 70.

Okay, I pulled item 24, but I am going to make a motion to pass it, but just with the statement of much frustration and kind of non-understanding of how a roof could be that expensive.

It just the kind of what gets me to is the uh the contingency that it's already assumed that that contingency is gonna be spent.

How big is the building?

It's 1400 square feet of the roof portion.

And to address um the mayor's concern of the cost, um and also the scope, it's not just shingles, it's not just a roof project.

We're also installing new drainage, full siding replacement, fascia, awning, and paint for an entire building.

So, yeah, it's just like ninety-eight bucks a foot.

So it just seems really high.

Prevailing wage, I assume.

Correct.

Yeah, and the only thing I'd other add this is a low bid, and staff is recommending the um lowest bid that um uh abided by the bid process.

Correct.

Yeah, I understand.

Believe me, I but having done some roofing myself, and it just kills me that it's the price tag just kills me.

So, but I'll make the motion to carry it.

Second, any discussion?

Call a roll, please.

Councilman Twine, yes, councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon?

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Hi.

Councilwoman Vandermark, yes.

Councilman Gruul, yes, councilman Williams, yes, item passes 7-0.

All right, item 25.

Yeah, I just wanted to uh poll this to highlight it for the HB residents and more most specifically for my Southeast HB neighbors.

So Chow, can you give a quick presentation?

I want to provide a summary that we received award from the Orange County Transportation Authority for grant application under the complete streets program.

We were awarded 4.6 million dollars, almost 4.7, and our match is $640,000.

This includes uh Magnolia improvements along the corridor, going from Adams all the way down to PCH.

Uh the project scope includes new trees, new sidewalks, pavement, landscape mediums, enhanced bikeways.

So that's that's happening in the Southeast area, and the match is coming from AES funding that was committed by the council several years ago, and this goes strictly towards the southeast area.

Thank you, Chow.

And then I know there were questions about other projects in Southeast.

You just have some couple quick updates for the residents on those.

So back in December 2024, we also applied for the same program under OCTA complete streets.

We received five million dollars for the banning roundabout, four million dollars for Hamilton, and it includes the same scope of work, which is complete streets, trees, landscape mediums, um, new roadway, sidewalks, and as well as bike enhancements.

We're only getting one roundabout.

We're not getting a whole bunch of roundabouts, and that's gonna be on banning.

And the match for that is two million dollars, and that will also come out of the AES funding.

Chow, on the Hamilton complete streets, is that the entire stretch of Hamilton from the no, not the entire stretch of Hamilton.

Second half, right?

It's the second half, the one that has the most um the lowest PCI, which is the pavement.

The pavement is is very poor in that section of Hamilton.

That's what that's what we're gonna fix.

Magnolia all the way up to Burkehurst, right?

Yes, yeah, okay.

And then on the roundabout, when do we anticipate we would start construction?

Would be like next summer.

Both of these products are under design right now.

We're going through CalTrans for clearance.

That's gonna take some time.

We've got some hurdles through that department and Beltrans, no way.

So yeah, we we we're hoping to do construction during the summer to avoid any type of school schedule.

Right, okay, cool.

Thank you.

I'll move the item.

Second, anybody else?

Any other discussion?

No, I just have a quick question.

So in the Magnolia Um project, uh there was a speaker who had asked about the two-way bike lanes.

Is that is that gonna be the case?

Is it a two-way bike lane?

You had mentioned that, or is are we past that point?

So the bike lanes the resident was talking about proposing.

We need to look at the roadway width for Magnolia and to make sure that there's room for enhanced bike lanes.

We have to work within the lane widths and that we are not impacting any type of traffic or congestion.

So if there's gonna be room for any bike lanes, it's gonna be maybe a vertical element, maybe candlesticks to provide, you know, some type of buffer or enhanced striping, you know, a three-foot buffer, but if he's talking about like a pathway or a bike trail, that's gonna take a lot of right-away, and we don't want to impact the travel lanes that are already existing along Magnolia.

So it's okay.

So it's something we can we can we can look at.

Yes, gotcha.

All right, we got a motion and a second.

Councilman Twine, yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes.

Mayor Burns?

Aye, Councilwoman Vandermark?

Yes.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Williams, yes, item passes 70.

I think I'm up.

Okay, we've got 26 and 27.

We already took care of, but there's one issue with 26 that I I mean 27, the treasurer.

I'm not sure why he's up in the stands when he's the treasurer and he's got a seat down here at the table.

Come on down, yeah.

I just noticed that.

I'm like, what's he what's the treasure doing up in the gallery?

Wrong seat.

A humble servant.

All right, move on to 28, Casey.

Yeah, so just uh uh dovetail further on one of our uh campaign promises on our contract with the community about cutting the red tape and rolling out the red carpet for business.

Um, credit where credit's due, this this um item or or topic came up through former mayor uh Eric Peterson.

So looking to create systems and procedures that capitalize on business um where we can and make the permitting process streamlined and efficient.

We get you guys know I've talked about it at nauseum, our streamline program through city hall permitting.

So this is uh focused on special events.

So in 2028, you guys know the Summer Olympic Games will be hosted in LA from July 14th through July 30th, with several official venues and events taking place across SoCal, including Long Beach and San Onofre, where aquatic events, surfing, sailing, beach volleyball, and other uh competitions are scheduled as an internationally recognized coastal destination with a strong identity rooted in surfing, skateboarding, outdoor uh recreation.

HB is well positioned to explore how it can participate in or complement regional Olympic programming.

Uh, the city is home to the uh vans off the wall skate park on the north side, the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, the iconic HB venues that reflect Olympic disciplines and appeal to international audiences.

So in collaboration with Visit HB, city staff proposes to explore Olympic-related engagement across four key areas.

One coordination with Olympic organizers and media entities, explore the potential to serve as a satellite location for Olympic media coverage, live brock live broadcasts or IOC led programming that expands the game's regional footprint, two use of local facilities for training or practice, so evaluate the potential for city or partner owned facilities to serve as practice venues, especially for Olympic disciplines such as surfing, skateboarding, and beach events.

Three, hosting or supporting international delegation activity, investigate interest from Olympic delegations in establishing base of operations or community engagement sites in HB, including potential cultural activations and public exhibitions, and lastly, citywide and community events.

So consider the feasibility of Olympic themed public events such as beach beachside viewing areas, youth sports clinics, cultural showcases or fan zones, potentially in partnership with USA Surfing, USA skateboarding, and other sports organizations.

And so this effort would also include evaluating the beach's proximity to Olympic venues in Long Beach, Anaheim, and identifying transportation, tourism, and branding synergies.

I know there was some heartburn that we didn't land, you know, the surfing or volleyball, Olympic games, but with those would come a lot of heavy expenses for the city that doesn't always translate to long-term lasting improvements.

So I think this is a great opportunity to capitalize on the draw that the Olympics will bring to our region.

Like I said, with the events in LA Long Beach all the way down to Santa Santa Nofra, and we're in the middle of it.

So I think this would be a great opportunity, and hopefully this will create a template.

So when the Olympics are gone, if other events like this come up, we can jump on it quickly, streamline it and make sure we're capturing as much business and tourism as we can.

So with that, the action would be direct the city manager to implement a plan as described above in coordination with appropriate city departments and visit HB to explore opportunities for the city of Huntington Beach to engage in Olympic-related programming partnerships and activation efforts leading up to and during the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.

The plan should include development of a policy to streamline the process for Olympic related activities, such as use of local public or private facilities for training or practice, beach events, culture active cultural activations and public exhibitions and Olympic media coverage and community engagement sites.

And uh this agenda item was co-authored by Council Member Gruel and Councilwoman Vandermark.

I'll make the motion.

We did not get the Olympics here in Huntington Beach, but we will definitely be impacted.

And if there's anything we can do to facilitate any sports practices, tourists, um any of the athletes, it would be amazing and it would be great for us to be prepared to handle any of their needs.

So thank you for including us.

Yeah, I think it's important that we we recognize the significance of this because it kind of, you know, it's it's it sounds good sometimes in the city council meeting, but as a subject in the business community and one who's worked with all the small medium-sized businesses, large businesses as well throughout Huntington Beach.

One of the biggest barriers when it comes to establishing these activations, especially when we have big events coming to the city, is the know-how, right?

So is if if we have established um a position where the city is going to act as a consultant, as I've said on in many occasions, right?

The city should be there to be helping the businesses, not penalizing us and acting as police people but consultants, that we can now establ and and we can really lean into streamline HB, which I think is great because we can kind of see what it can how it can hold up through this process, then we give this the businesses of Huntington Beach really a template through which now they can establish these activations to increase revenue, fix the, you know, not fix, but also amplify their own branding, and then we become the central area between all of these different Olympic um, you know, events, and everybody knows Surf City Surf City USA, Huntington Beach.

Um, I think this is huge.

I think this is going to be really impactful.

So thank you.

I like that point, because I mean, when I first met you uh when I was campaigning, you explained to me getting your restaurant open how it was taking so long, you know, an existing restaurant to take you two years to get through the the permitting process, and that's where really the streamlined HB program uh that was created that idea was at that event.

So I like your point where now if you create the template, not just for the city, but for our businesses where it's like plug and play.

So they prepare all the all the offerings to capitalize on the the Olympic tourism and the customers that'll bring, but then if there's another event and we can have the same system and procedure in place, they can just rinse and repeat and change it for something else and capitalize on that.

So I like that.

It's a good point.

Yeah, and just to come bring to light, this came this the uh the seed of this idea that Casey built.

Well, I think you worked with staff and everything to into what it is now, just came from a simple suggestion from one of our business owners in the area and ex councilman Eric Peterson, that just he w was putting together something uh place for a potential Olympic uh practice center, and they said we don't know if we can do it because it takes too long.

He called staff and got a hold of Casey.

They built this up to now, and this is how this is how we do so much.

We get a call and hopefully we build it up from there from ideas from the citizens.

And this is the epitome of how it works.

Yeah, on that note, you know, good leadership is nimble.

This shows uh real signs of being nimble, responsive, and receptive.

And uh, if you remove the bias from the perspective of what the council uh has achieved, you know, the fab for you guys really have started uh a lot of initiatives that are business friendly, they've been good for the community, uh good for uh good for the residents, and you know, living up to what you campaigned on, you know.

Again, if you want to remove the bias on how you view people's achievements, you guys have really hit a lot of your milestones.

And uh, you know, I'm happy to be voting on this, and uh the way you summarized it, Casey was very well spoken.

Um and Gracie and Pat, uh, you know, Andrew, you were part of the Fab Four, but you're in now.

Um, you guys are really actually, you know, you're producing, and and I'm happy to sit here next to you guys.

Let's keep it going.

It's good stuff.

So, you know, did somebody make a motion to vote?

Yeah, I'm in a motion, yeah.

K Casey made the motion, Gracie second it.

Let's see uh roll call.

Councilman Twine.

Yay, councilman Kennedy.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes, Mayor Burns.

Hi, Councilwoman Vandermark, yes, Councilman Gruel, yes, Councilman Williams.

Yes, item passes 70.

Item number 29, Gracie.

Thank you.

So um actually an idea for this item came on one of the residents um approached me and was concerned about the dog beach, saying the be the dog beach is getting smaller and smaller.

What is going on?

So I reached out to staff and I asked them, I said, is this usual?

Is this because of the season?

What's going on?

And they said, No, actually, this is not the way it normally is.

So if somebody noticed somebody that visits the beach regularly, it's probably because it is changing.

So I asked them why is why is our beach shrinking?

I mean, that is our biggest asset in the city of Huntington Beach, and we have to do everything we possibly can to protect it.

And then we started talking about the sound replenishment, um, the history of how it started, which I had no idea when I when I before I got to council and I started researching it, I had no idea what's why the sound replenishment was needed, how it started, where it originated, and then I had a presentation.

And in that presentation, they explained how the Army Corps of Engineers um started on this program and they created the Yetis, and because of the Yetis, the sand is just not flowing the way it used to.

So now we that sand replenishment is necessary.

Um, so and also it was brought to my attention that sometimes this was supposed to be done.

What is it approximately every five years, I believe, and sometimes because of lack of funding, um, it's been prolonged amount of time before that they actually do the sand replenishment to like eight, nine years, and it's just making the issue worse.

So I brought this item forward so that we can put together a presentation and share that history with the community.

I think as Huntington Beach residents, everybody will be fascinated to understand the history of how and why we're here.

Also, I'd like to bring this item forward also to bring awareness as of to why it is so important to continue to advocate for funding for these for the sand replenishment.

The U.S.

Art the Army Corps of Engineers doesn't always have the funding.

Um Sacramento doesn't always have the funding, and we have to go sometimes up to DC to beg for the funding.

So I brought this item forward to help the community understand why it is that our beaches might be shrinking a little bit, bring awareness to the issue.

We cannot afford to lose our beaches.

We have to do everything we can put to protect them.

And um, along with me is Councilmember Andrew Gruhl and Don Kennedy are joining me on this item.

So I can't wait to see the presentation that you guys bring together and also all the options of what it is we can do to continue to protect our beaches.

All right, Don.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

When you asked me to be part of this, I was ecstatic as one who grew up on the beaches, still loves the beaches, have surfed these beaches.

Um the importance of sand.

I I've I've learned over the decades how the sand does move from north to south.

You know, you can see models of what has happened to the jetties in Newport Beach, the way it it it comes around each jetty.

So sand replenishment, as you said, it's paramount to maintaining it's like keeping the foundation of your house solid.

So when you asked me to be part of this because you know I enjoy the beaches, and um I was just real happy to be part of this.

I'm proud of this initiative that you brought forward.

And if you want to really kind of just get a summary, just read the issue statement that's attached to the uh agenda.

It's got some great facts about the Army Corps of Engineers, when it started, as Gracie just kind of touched on, the need, uh, what they did to reverse the uh the efforts from the 1930s.

They were mandated in the 60s to change what they did to kind of correct what uh was originally put in place, but it really does strike a chord on how important sand is to a beach city.

So I'm happy to be part of this, and thank you for adding me to this.

Thank you very much.

It's a great great item.

Andrew, yeah, just want to add something else to this, uh, not to be a sensationalist, but look, you lose the sand, you lose the city.

I mean, it's that simple, right?

I mean, the sand is the core lifeline that protects this entire city.

So we're talking about coastal protection, recreation and tourism, flood mitigation, and most importantly, from a chef's perspective, ecological support, because ultimately I own a seafood restaurant as well, right?

I mean, marine conservation starts at the point at which the ocean meets the land.

And the I employ I encourage everybody to actually just do like a two-minute uh Google or AI search, et cetera, just to learn a little bit about this history because I think that it's really really important.

But Gracie's right.

Comes down to the dollar, comes down to money.

So we need to obviously take the time and make the effort to go and try and find the funds because nobody's just, you know, we're not gonna be able to get 200,000 city re residents to fill up the back of their, you know, Mazda 323s and dump some sand at the beach.

It's got to come from somewhere.

And uh it's it it's it's so important that we start addressing these issues right now.

So thank you very much, Gracie.

Uh, this is this is huge, and I'm excited to see not just how we can look ahead for this for five years, but even like 10 years, 15 years, and make sure that we continue pushing this issue forward.

So I'd like to make a motion to move the I item 29.

Second the motion.

Call for vote, please.

Councilman Twiny.

Yes, Councilman Kennedy.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon.

Yes.

Mayor Burns.

Aye.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes seven zero.

All right.

Would any council member like to add any new business to the next agenda?

I'd like to do.

Imagine that.

I'd like to direct the city clerk to place an item on the agenda for the next regular city council meeting to consider directing the allocation of the approximately one million dollars in projected revenue from resolution number 2025 53 to the fire department and to the police department for public safety enhancements.

Anyone else?

All right.

With that, I'm going to turn the meeting over to the control of councilwoman Gracie Vandermark.

Um I'd just like to adjourn the meeting in the honor of the memory of Fountain Valley Chief Bill McQuaid, who passed away recently.

So the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council Public Financing Authority is Tuesday, September second, twenty twenty five in the Civic Center Council Chambers, 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, California.

Would anybody like to second my second?

Okay, meeting adjourned.