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

Can I have a roll call, please?

Councilman Twine?

Councilman Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem McKeon?

Here.

Mayor Burns.

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Here.

Councilman Gruel?

Here.

Councilman Williams?

Here.

All present.

City Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

There are no supplemental communications for this session.

Good.

Public comments.

Do we have anybody signed up for public comments?

No.

Perfect.

Okay.

Announcement conference with labor negotiators, agency designated ref uh representatives, Travis Hopkins, City Manager, also in attendance.

Marissa Sir, Assistant City Manager, Mike Vigliota, City Attorney, and Robert Torres, interim chief financial officer employee organizations, uh Huntington Beach Police Officer Association and Police Management Association.

Juan, is that the uh announcement you had we're talking about?

Yeah.

All right.

Uh with that, I'll make a motion to adjourn to you.

Um, where is uh do we have a city manager?

City.

Can't be recognized.

Yeah, go ahead.

I'm notifying the public that as an emergency matter after news broke from the Orange County Register on Friday the 14th, in order to discuss the status of a current city contract regarding the employment of Michael Gates as chief assistant city attorney, and to discuss avoidance of litigation over possible breach, I make a motion that the city council go into closed session for discussion.

Can we wait till the uh city can wait until the city attorney is the back?

Please.

Pause for a second, see if we uh motion on one.

We're gonna put a pause.

You and you're doing so.

Good job.

Mission achieved.

And uh city attorney, there's been a motion on the uh floor.

Uh Chad, would you like to repeat it if possible?

Uh yes, mayor.

Uh I'm notifying the public that as an emergency matter after news broke from the Orange County Register on Friday the 14th, in order to discuss the status of a current city contract regarding the employment of Michael Gates as chief assistant uh city attorney and to discuss the avoidance of litigation over possible breach, I make a motion that the city council go into closed session for discussion.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

Uh do you have a comment, City Attorney?

I do, and I'm a little bit out of breath, so I apologize.

I was literally running down here.

So um this item was not on the agenda, so whenever an item is not on the agenda, the general rule is that the city council can't talk about it.

So as you guys all know, 72 hours before meeting, everything that's being talked about at the city council meeting has to be posted on it has to be on the agenda, and the agenda has to be posted.

There are very limited circumstances where that rule can be changed.

And one of those circumstances is that if there's need to take immediate action on an item that comes before the council or that could come before the council, doesn't matter what it is, and that need to take immediate action occurred after the 72-hour notice requirement, then city council can vote, and it's actually gotta you have to make findings as to why there's an immediate need to the need to take immediate action and it's got to be a two-thirds vote.

Um based on the facts that as I know them, I am not aware of anything that would present a need to take immediate action meaning tonight on the item, meaning there's an alternative, you could have a special meeting, and a special meeting could be called within 24 hours again.

Nothing I'm aware of, and I apologize again for being out of breath.

Nothing that I'm aware of tonight as I sit here would um require the council to go into closed session to take action on anything.

So I think it would be improper in a violation of the Brown Act to do so.

City attorney, uh, can I ask you to please cite the Brown Act uh provision that says that we would, as you stated, need some type of immediate action.

Are you familiar with the uh letter that we received from an attorney?

Uh two emails, uh, one recent one at 2 33 p.m.

Uh addressing specifically uh a concern for immediate action.

I I am aware of the emails, and if and actually before we would even be able to go into close session, you would need to um present the public with the information as to why you're going into closed session, not just that you received an email, but before you before if you want to go down that road again.

Yes, I've received I've read those emails, and nothing in either of those emails and/or documents um presents the need for council to take action to take action tonight on any of it, and as I understand it, according to the Brown Act, it's just that there may be litigation, not that there's a significant risk of litigation, and I can cite the code on that.

So good good point.

So when you're dealing with closed session, before you can even get into close session, there's got to be a topic for the city council to um to address in closed session, and those topics are all enumerated in the Brown Act.

So you can't just go in there and talk about, you know, whatever.

It's got to be one of the enumerated categories that's in the Brown Act, and it's litigation, it's um employment matters, it's uh buying and selling real estate, those are some of the categories that allow us to go into closed session away from the public, so the public can't find out what we're talking about, and we can go into closed session and talk about those items.

As as council member Williams mentioned, one of the items is pending or potential litigation, and there's criteria in the Brown Act that kind of defines what potential litigation is, and there's got to be a significant threat.

If there's not existing litigation, there's got to be a significant threat to the city of litigation.

Um, whether those letters qualify as potential or significant litigation, um it could be argued that the second email we we received today from Mr.

Gates' attorney would could qualify under that category, but that's just the first step in the analysis.

There's got to be, because this isn't on the agenda, there's a second step to the analysis that has to take place, and that second step is that again.

Sorry, I'm still out of breath.

The second step is that there's need tonight, because we haven't told the public that any of this is taking place.

There has to be need tonight to take immediate action, and that's where I don't see the need to take immediate action.

Okay, so I would like to just cite the government code, it's government code from the Brown Act 54956.

And I'm sure history will tell.

And there was an amendment, and the amendment actually lowers the threshold of what is required to go into closed session.

And so this isn't the outcome of close.

I would like to read the government code to you.

But let me stop you.

I'm not arguing the point that you can't go into lit and go into close session to talk about that letter that we received.

I'm saying you can't do it tonight.

So you could call a special meeting, and that may be appropriate during that special meeting or at some time in the future to 100% to talk about it.

That's what I'm saying.

There's two steps to the analysis, and I understand your point, and your point's well taken.

If you read that letter, you could um you could certainly put two and two together and and say there may be a threat of litigation enough to get us into close session.

I would actually like to read what the Brown Act has to say.

I would like to put that on the record right now.

You can do it, but it's it's it's sort of irrelevant to the analysis.

It says for the purposes of paragraphs two and three of subdivision D, existing facts and circumstances shall consist only of the following, only of one of the following facts and circumstances that might result in litigation.

And I'm not arguing.

And I'm not arguing that it might not result in litigation.

You're missing my point.

I've told as I've mentioned before, just and I'm not I'm gonna end the debate that that there's debate, but I'm gonna end like my part of this conversation and say I agree that what you are reading is 100% correct.

I there's not a there's not a word of that that I believe is um is wrong.

I think you're 100% right.

What I'm saying is that there's a second part of the analysis that you're not that you're not citing, and that is that there has to be a need tonight, because again, this isn't on the agenda.

There has to be need tonight for the council to take action in close session.

And I don't see I've not heard a fact that would lead me to believe that that exists.

Well, should there be an adverse employment action, the damage done by the false and defamatory statements about our blameless client would be compounded, and our client may have no choice but to take formal action.

He would much prefer to avoid.

And so we can come to a conclusion.

We can everybody what that where you're reading from and what that means.

We can come to a conclusion tonight to resolve this issue, or we could delay and then find ourselves being served with a lawsuit in the next 24 hours.

So that would be the need to deal with this tonight.

Not only that, that's not what the Brown Act says.

It doesn't say that we have to have a significant reason.

There has to be some type of great need.

That might result in litigation against.

Listen, you're you're you're trying to change the narrative.

I agree with you that there may be based on that email, a threat of litigation.

I'm not arguing that point with you.

What I'm saying is that tonight there is no facts that I'm aware of that would allow the city to avoid the Brown Act requirement that we conduct open meetings and that the pup the public has a right to know and see what's on the agenda and come and speak.

That's that's only done in very, very limited circumstances.

And so, like I said, tonight I'm not aware of any fact that would require us, require the city council to take action tonight.

You could do it at a special meeting, you could do it.

So you're saying if we call the special meeting in two days or something, that would be okay.

But even the exact exigency that he's possibly employed with this now, we're coming across information, that's not good enough to have it in closed session.

Correct.

And just so you so you're aware, Councilmember Williams, the second part of the test is not, we don't need to do that in order to go into close session during a special meeting.

You just have to say that, as you pointed out, that there's a threat of litigation.

You don't have to make the finding that there's a need to take immediate action tonight.

I'm saying that there is a very credible threat of litigation.

We all received it.

I want to have a conversation about it with my fellow council members in close session, and you're saying that we are not allowed to do that according to the Brown Act.

That's what you're then I want to do that.

That's my motion.

That's my motion.

And you're not, I guess I don't know how many, I don't know how else to say it, and perhaps it's time to call for a call for a vote, but yeah, it's not okay.

It's there is a threat of litigation.

It's that because it's not on the agenda, you can't act on it tonight.

You can have a special meeting.

When's uh can we come up with let's then make the motion for a special meeting?

So, mayor, you can on your own call for a special meeting, or we can get four of you to ask for the city attorney.

Just so I understand.

You're saying because it was not on our agenda, we cannot have it tonight, but the agenda was already posted prior to the events that occurred.

That's why I'm calling this government code five four nine five six dot nine.

We can call the meeting to go into closed session because new information has come about.

It's not just and I don't see the need to take immediate action tonight, and that's not just new information.

The Brown Act requires that you have to say.

Okay, so you you're saying that we can't.

So I appreciate it.

You are advising us, but you're not deciding for us, and so I'd still like to call the motion.

Well, I'm gonna.

Okay.

How about twelve o'clock Friday?

Special meeting.

This is what I'm calling for, and someone else could make that motion, but I'm calling for the motion to discuss it in closed session.

Are you making a uh substitute motion?

Substitute motion special meeting Friday afternoon.

Second, all right.

Any discussion?

I'm sorry.

Any discussion on that?

Okay, call it.

Councilman Twine?

Yes to the alternate motion.

Just to be clear, we're voting on the substitute motion for a special meeting Friday at noon.

Correct.

Councilman Kennedy.

For fairness and transparency, as much as I'd like to resolve it tonight or move forward.

I I will be voting yes for the substitute motion.

Yes.

Mayor Burns.

Yes.

Same as Don Gracie.

Yes.

Yes.

And mayor, just oh, go ahead.

Just for the record, the the mayor does have the ability to call a special meeting on its own.

So because there was a motion on the table.

So it's a time.

No, no, noon.

Motion passes seven zero.

And so just from my understanding, Mr.

City Attorney, um, you're saying because it was not already on the agenda that we're barred, the Brown Act does not allow us to have that meeting in closed session based off of what I just read out of the government code.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm you again, you're conflating the issues.

What the issue is that because it was not on the agenda for tonight, you have to make additional findings that there's need to take immediate action.

Because the public generally has the the Brown Act, the whole reason behind the Brown Act is so that the public is aware of what's going on and that there's transparency in government by not telling the public that you're going to go into close session and talk about something requires additional steps.

So it's not something that that should be done or or is favored.

It's something that's done in very limited circumstances where the need where there's need to take action like right now.

And in this case, there isn't.

You can do a meeting in 24 hours and nothing's changed.

Uh so if we get if we get a lawsuit in the next 24 hours, then maybe we look back and say, yeah, we we probably should have done that.

Are you asking?

Yes.

Um I would I 100% stick by what I've advised you right now.

All right.

Uh recess to close session.

Yep.

Motion recess.

Second.

All right.

Um, I think that's a good one.

I would like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council Public Financing Authority.

City Clerk may 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, we're gonna have the invocation.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Huntington Beach Fire and Police Chaplain Roger Wayne.

To me as we begin this evening's city council meeting.

Lord, thank you for bringing us back together again to discuss the issues of our city and to seek your guidance and direction for each council member as they prayerfully consider the direction that you would give to them.

We pray for your wisdom and guidance as they consider each of the issues on the agenda.

May you lead them as they make important decisions concerning our city.

And may you bring your peace, unity, and harmony through all the discussions.

We pray that you would give each council member ears to hear as they receive the comments from those who will be coming to the podium to speak this evening.

And may they earnestly consider all of the concerns that are being voiced.

Keep them open to the feedback they receive so that they may graciously lead and govern with the most complete information and to provide the best direction for our city.

And Lord, please guide each speaker who comes to the podium this evening that they would offer their comments clearly and concisely with dignity and respect.

We thank you, Lord, for the wonderful and safe year that you've given us and for the enjoyable summer season that you've provided to our city with all of its special events.

And as we're now in the midst of the end of the year holiday season, may you continue to bless our city and provide everyone with a blessed and thankful Thanksgiving, reflecting on all the blessings that we've been given by your gracious hand and the blessings that you provide to us each day.

We ask your guidance and wisdom for each of our city leaders and for all of our city employees who so faithfully and diligently serve us all.

Bless our meeting this evening, and may your peace and wisdom guide all that occurs tonight.

And we ask this in your wonderful name, Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

Allegiance with me.

Ready?

Begin.

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

Nothing tonight, Mayor.

City Councils, would anyone like to make a comment?

Well, Don.

Just want to say thank you to Chaplin Wing for those heartfelt words.

It's always a nice way to start these meetings.

Thank you, sir.

Anybody else?

All right.

Uh supplemental communications.

City clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes.

We do.

For the study session.

Um item number seven, PowerPoint presentation received from Bob Page.

Also item number seven, three emails.

Uh Treasurer's report.

Item number nine, revised PowerPoint presentation, received from Jason Schmidt.

Consent calendar.

Item number 10, one email.

Item number 11, two emails.

Item number 13, three emails.

Item number 13, appendix for the city of Huntington Beach 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan update.

Item number 17, one email, item number 19, one email.

Item number 21, revised PowerPoint presentation received from Joseph Pennell.

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

Mayor is it too late to make a council comment?

No, go ahead.

I'll just like to make a remark.

I want to speak to uh the character integrity of uh Michael Gates.

He is a man of integrity and uh he is uh he's a man that stands for righteousness, he knows what he stands for, he knows what he stands against, and uh I'm just thankful for him, and I look forward to serving with him.

Thank you, I agree.

Uh how many do we have to speak?

At this time we have 37 speakers, okay.

Proper corum at city council meetings, imperative in order for the public to remain informed about issues pertaining to the city's business.

The public's 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.

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 in 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 does not allow discussion or actions 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 the city council's administrative assistant at 714536 5553 or emailing the entire city council at city dot council at surf city-hb.org.

And just so you guys know there's a lot of people tonight.

If you want to have a little private conversation with the person sitting next to you below you or above you, take it out in the hall.

Because I'll tell you it reverberates down here and it really distracts from the us listening to the people of speaking at the podium.

So if you want to have a side discussion, please take it outside, and not in the hallway because the hallway is even worse.

Uh so city clerk, call the first 15.

When your name is called, please come down.

Use both podiums.

Andrew Salazar, Mr.

Avery Hansen, Andrew Einhorn, Pat Goodman, Mark Tonkovich, Monica Aspary, Tim Geddes, Ken Inouway, Don Thomas, Laura Ann, Mary Hannah.

All right, we're gonna give each speaker two minutes.

Oh, I didn't I didn't say that on microphone, so I'll say it again, worth repeating.

Each speaker will get up to two up to two minutes.

You want me to go first?

Okay.

All right, go ahead.

Okay, can you hear me?

Thank you, everyone.

My name is Monica Asbury, and I'm a resident of Huntington Beach.

And I hope to start off tonight with some positivity.

On December 13th, we're having our annual toy drive.

I'm with the Orange Coast region of the Porsche Club, and this will be the 13th or 14th year that we have hosted it in conjunction with the Huntington Beach Police Department and the 5th Battalion, 14th Marines from the Naval Weapons Station from Seal Beach.

Thanks to Bose Fensbo and Lieutenant Archer and of course Chief Para for allowing the equestrian team, the K-9 and their static SWAT display team to come and try to get the community involved.

We have 3,000 members in the Orange Coast region, and we would love to see again the City Council represent you as you have been in the past.

So that's December 13th from 10 to 2 at Central Park West in Huntington Beach.

So it would be wonderful if you put it on your calendar.

And Andrew, if you would like a toy box at one of your restaurants, I'm happy to bring you one.

Just to note that's so people know it's over there by the lake.

Yeah, we've had it there every year.

It used to be the pick uh the what is it, the picnic shelter?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And those are gone now.

So we come, the Marines typically bring their infantry weapons, and we have a huge crowd.

We're hoping to fill at least 36 boxes, which is usually the record that we do for them.

And again, we'll be there from 10 to 2.

The Marines will be there in full force.

They'll have their weapons, HBPD, and if the Huntington Beach Hazmat team hasn't been called out, they also come to show their support.

So again, it's for the underprivileged in Orange County, and it's for the USMC Toy Drive.

Great event.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi, my name is Andrew Salazar, and I've been talking with Chris Cole at the City Council in getting the rights to the lease of the Huntington Beach Disc golf course since February.

It looks like I submitted a bid, and it looks like they love it, but it's been stuck with the city's attorney, and I'm just kind of asking for advice.

He encouraged me to come down here and ask for advice on what to do with that if it's stuck with the city attorney.

Fill out a blue card and ask for a meeting.

Yeah, we'll get it to you.

Okay, and the blue cards are.

Oh, the Sergeant Arms will give it to you.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right.

Andy Einhorn, 40-year Huntington Beach resident.

This council is off the rails.

You burn through taxpayer dollars on unwinnable lawsuits, book banning, voter ID, housing, and don't forget the air show settlement fiasco.

Every dollar wasted defending your failures is stolen from our parks, libraries, schools, and neighborhoods.

Your group think mentality is not leadership, it's arrogance.

You are trusted to serve all of it.

We need leaders who will govern for everyone, not from the far right or the far left.

We need balance, not extremism.

Your MAGA orientation is far from the center.

Your vision is toxic.

Your patriotism is a mask for your power grab.

This warped version of leadership has dragged our city in the wrong direction.

And I truly hope that possibly some of you can change your ways because Huntington Beach deserves better.

Good evening.

Next speaker.

Mayor and city council.

I'm here to speak on uh voter ID and the terrible situation of the mail-in ballots that they're sending to everyone, even if you just go to the DMV and get a driver's license, whether you're a citizen or not.

Uh the our voter registration and voter situation is really out of hand.

Um I mean, ballots are going to dead people, they're going to people's pets, they're going to one house, has you know 10 people living in it, and they all have the same name and they all vote and they all turn him in.

Um we need a real organization, a reorganization, I should say, of our balloting.

And it's, you know, it costs money, it costs a lot for the citizens to do this.

So I would simply ask for a hand counted process on election night to restore our trust overnight because there's just no trust in this system at all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um good evening.

Uh I was going to uh refer to Pat Burns as our minute man mayor for a restricting public comments uh without uh except without real heavy volume.

But I was uh I was I was pleased that uh he was uh uh he gave us two minutes.

It must have been all the people he's uh roped into speaking tonight.

Uh I wanted to just comment on the uh the previous speaker.

Uh I've worked for the uh Orange County Registrar of Voters for several elections elections, including the special election just passed.

And she is so far wrong, it is just off the charts.

So I just want to be able to uh say, and if she wants to go down and really talk to the or tour the uh ROV office, she's welcome to do that.

Anyway, uh Tim Geddes in the House.

I uh well I I guess hurricane uh I guess uh Huntington Beach is on stormwatch with Hurricane Michael blowing back into town.

Whatever our former city attorney, uh whatever our former city attorney Michael Gates did or did not do in Washington DC, he helped create a hostile work environment here by pitting our MAGA city council against a large segment of the community and by costing the city big time.

There were no guardrails protecting our local government with a scandalous uh Pacific uh air show settlement fiasco, no guardrails with the ridiculous jousting with Sacramento that may cost the city not only millions of dollars but also lead to penalties, restrictions, and endless litigation.

We need guardrails starting with the election of community-backed council candidates like Darren Palumbo and Ben Davis next year.

Only guardrail representation will protect us.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, mayor and council.

I am Don Thomas.

This happened to be taken at the um Huntington Beach Pier in 2008.

This is my son and I.

Needs to be in charge and step up and run our own elections the way our grandparents did and our parents did publicly, simply, and finished on election night.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

I want to thank you, City Council and the City Manager for inviting Orange County Registrar of Voters, Bob Page to present tonight on election security.

This is important information for all voters and candidates and elected officials.

About 85% of Orange County voters cast their ballots by mail.

Mr.

Page will explain the system of checks and controls that ensure every valid ballot is counted, whether it's cast by mail or in person.

Are there isolated cases of fraud?

Yes, but they are not systemic or widespread, which is key.

Orange County's election system is secure and transparent, open to anyone to observe.

Strong internal controls, well trained and experienced staff, significantly reduce the risk of fraud, even if they cannot eliminate it entirely.

Orange County remains the gold standard for election integrity, supported by the County Board of Supervisors who provide the resources needed for fair and accurate elections.

Thank you for your presentation tonight.

Freedom, democracy, truth.

I am so happy today that Bob Page, the Orange County Registrar Voter, is going to be speaking on the integrity of the Orange County elections.

However, I find it very interesting that he's speaking under what's called the study session.

When you invited United for Freedom to speak, that anonymous woman spoke under presentations.

And I was wondering like why.

And it dawned on me that it was because under presentations, she was telling a story.

And did you know it was a story?

It didn't have to be factual, just a story.

Therefore, when you have Bob Page, the registrar of voters here, you are looking at it as a study on facts and findings.

I will tell you that a number of us did go on United for Freedom's webpage, and the claims that they made were pretty muddled, well, untrue, because they claim to have all these lawsuits, but they failed to tell you that they were dismissed for lack of facts and evidence.

Therefore, the fact that you're going to study and take into account the factual findings of the Orange County elections is commendable.

After all, you all are here because of the Orange County elections.

And if you don't believe in the integrity of the Orange County elections, then shoot.

Why don't we have Natalie, Rhonda, and Dan up here?

Why am I not sitting here?

They were voting.

Thank you for inviting Bob Page, the Orange County Registrar of Voters, who will speak to the integrity of our elections.

Ma'am.

Good evening.

Mr.

Mayor and members of the council.

Elections used to be one day of our entire community came together.

The neighbors talked, the kids handed out flyers, and we felt involved.

Today we're just spectators watching a black box system that none of us understand.

The more we learn about Orange County's administration, the less confidence we have.

Costs skyrocket, results take longer, the participation has plunged.

Meanwhile, ballots are mailed to everyone, even to a dog that somehow voted in the 2021 recall.

If a dog can vote, what does that say about the rest of the list?

There is no integrity in our voting system.

We need transparency.

We deserve a system that's transparent so that any child could explain it.

No more machines, please.

Let's do paper ballots, one day voting results, uh immediately after the voting.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, ma'am.

Amory Hansen.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Mr.

Amory Hanson.

I'm speaking tonight to inform the council that USA snowboarding dropped its bid to be a governing body of surfing.

This means that USA surfing will most likely continue as the governing body of Olympic surfing.

All sports are important to the Olympic movement.

It is important that sports govern themselves to ensure governing bodies are truly representative of the sports played.

I thank the council for expressing support for self-governance and democracy and sport.

I hope the council will continue to have many successes.

City is altius fortius.

Faster, higher, stronger.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

My name's Mark Tankovich.

We voted for and we passed voter ID in Huntington Beach.

Of course, uh didn't take long for the state to turn around and sue us.

So I encourage you to fight them.

We voted for it.

Our votes won.

They want to combat it.

The other thing a pitcher ID is more secure than anything we're using right now.

Every time you go to vote, you prove who you are by pulling that out.

The current voter verification is done by comparing previous signatures to current.

I vote in person sometimes.

Sometimes I use the mail and ballot.

When you vote in person, you fill out a ballot, you scan it, and you sign on a monitor, a touch screen.

You ever sign for a credit card at the drugstore?

It doesn't look anything like your signature handwritten.

So where's the validity behind that?

Nothing can beat a government picture ID to be used when checking in.

We also ought to go back to precinct voting.

That was the simplest.

We can turn it around in a few days.

And uh instead of this cycle we're in right now, I believe it's 67 days from when it starts till it ends.

Actually, today I checked.

We're still counting the votes for Prop 50 in Orange County.

So how secure is the system if a dog voted at least voted twice?

Uh once voted for the recall and once voted for an actual election.

Um that was done via the mail.

I mean, who or what else can vote this way with the mail in?

Uh the woman that did this, she shouldn't be prosecuted for showing holes in our system.

She should be given a medal to show the incompetence of a system as it stands.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, honorable mayor and honorable members of the city council.

My name is Kenny Noway.

I lived in Huntington Beach for over 50 years.

When Mayor Burns was asked to comment on the possibility that, as a result of the congressional redistricting provided by the passage of Prop 50, Huntington Beach could be represented by Congressman Robert Garcia, who is an accomplished openly gay progressive member of Congress.

Mayor Burns replied the following.

One, I hope the new Congressman from Long Beach comes in with the intention to represent the Huntington Beach and not his leftist agenda.

Two, he stated that I hope he doesn't put agenda before people and his party before service.

In light of Mayor Burns' comments, I respectfully request that our city council pursue all future activities in a manner consistent with Mayor Burns' request of Congressman Garcia.

And with the mindset, as stated by one of your supporters, and you know him well, my neighbor and friend, Mr.

Ted Ross, who would like our city council to proceed in the spirit of compromise to achieve shared goals with an emphasis on financial accountability and transparency.

Thank you so much.

Next 10 speakers, Calvin, Ernst and Russell, Cheryl F.

John Nakai, Pete, Lynn Muslin, Michelle Morgan, Jan Midnick, Brenda, Kathy Carrick.

Hello, council members.

My name's Urson Russell.

Mayor Burns, thank you as well.

I'm here to talk about the elections.

I'm doing this for a long time, and it's really disparaging and disheartening just to hear the divide that keeps happening in our communities.

One side's completely convinced that they have it all figured out, and the other side just continues to have questions.

And I just, after three and a half years, I don't quite know what the solution is.

I just I don't see that the state's gonna fix this or that the county that has a centrally controlled system.

And I've been, you know, I I have a lot of respect for the team and Bob Page and everyone that's down at the county registers of voters' office, but there's processes that are followed, and then when those processes are done, things that fell off from being checked just get left on there, and that's where we have voters that are still on our rolls from like the 1990s that haven't voted since then.

So there are all these examples, and it doesn't point to fraud, but it points to the fact that this very, very complex system that isn't being managed at the county level that's being managed and centrally controlled at the state on almost every aspect, the process, the policy, and the way that you go about managing the administrations, is taking away the community aspect, and it's continuing to have an impact on our elections.

It's disenfranchising voters because it seems that every election there's one other pile of ballots somewhere.

There's one other questionable thing.

There's one non-human that voted.

And it's gonna continue on and on until our elections become really part of the community again.

And I don't see that Sacramento's gonna create the program to have community elections important again, and I think that's up to our local communities.

And I see this body in this community here.

If we can get all seats at the table and have some adult conversations, and let's try something that tries to heal what's going on in our elections.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Go ahead, sir.

Okay, well, uh, council members and uh mayor, my name is John Nikai.

I've been a uh resident of Huntington Beach for the past 20 years, and I just wanted to uh voice some of the concerns and observations I've seen.

Um we've uh impemented a lot of the Voider Voters' Choice Act to give people more access, more access.

And so we have this mail-in ballot system, which is extremely expensive, and it it uh is open you know wide open to fraud.

These people the people uh who uh the ballot the list of ballots goes out to people who may have been dead for 10 years or moved away 15 years ago or five years ago, and there's no way to really know if the person uh submitting the ballot is really the person who uh uh is uh legitimately supposed to vote.

There's also no way with a mail and ballot to be able to do any kind of ID check.

No, I know the the voter ID check is a hot topic, but on the other hand, from a common sense standpoint, don't you really want people who are supposed to be voting check to make sure that uh only the people who are supposed to be voting are actually voting.

I mean the Chinese could come in, send a bunch of people and wipe out all the Huntington Beach votes with the number of people they have over there.

So uh I do want to say uh stand up for voter ID, and I think we should go back to the precinct voting that we used to have before uh with the current system, besides all the huge costs of printing.

We turn in all those ballots.

It's kind of like I take all the ballots and I throw them on the floor and I pick them up, and then I have to run through um uh all these expensive sorting machines, and then uh have uh uh herds of people going through trying to uh validate the IDs on the outside of the envelope.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

I appreciate the opportunity to have this clarification opportunity to talk about some of the things found on the Prop 50 election reports that we're seeing currently um in looking at some of the unofficial ballot count reports and if you can drill down you can actually see how many yes votes and how many no votes have been cast well uh as of now we show 525 more votes in the records that are counted more than the total of the yes and the no votes that were cast these are concerning because the numbers should match they did on 11 5 but somehow they've failed to match now another report shows Prop 50 election had 488 under votes and I'm not sure why a yes no vote should have an under vote but this is something it would be interesting to find out.

And there's another election um result unofficial election result versus the daily summary turnouts and on that one there was some concerns because the vote by mail unofficial election results versus the daily summary turnouts showed that 15,926 deletions were taken away from the turnout vote totals and then on the um vote in person uh 4,753 more votes were counted than voters that actually cast an in-person vote and then on this record the turnout totals 17,086 deletions versus what actually came through so those are those are concerns in numbers and I think these are kinds of things that should be adjudicated.

There's another unofficial daily total versus the raw count of in-person votes there's four thousand seven hundred and sixty seven more votes counted than what they're showing as in raw in-person voting records so again there's a big discrepancy there in numbers that need to be adjudicated thank you next speaker please next speaker yeah uh thank you uh good evening uh ladies and gentlemen of the council yeah I want to uh touch a couple of things right now I've been a citizen of California all my life and I've watched the voting process continue to degrade year after year decade after decade and everybody's saying hey let's get computers it'll make it quicker faster and more efficient well if you do a study of how much money is spent in the last 10 years on computers it's cost us more to vote than just the old fashioned way I'm speaking about that because they're uh if Orange County is the gold star of voting why is the DOJ investigating the ROV in Orange County which the ROV and all management has refused to respond to the DOJ what does that tell me as a citizen of the state something's wrong with the gold star of Orange County's voting basically what it is is you uh the the city state county of uh California you've eroded voter confidence and people are just they're fed up they're tired of what's going on they get no answers they get no response to get support from the federal level and the state level box what does that tell everybody we need as a city to stand up and say let us take care of our own voting and our own process and work it out basically we are here as we the people to speak out at this fraudulent voting process here in Orange County thank you.

Thank you sir next speaker please my name is Jan Madnik I'm a 44 year resident of Huntington Beach.

Back on October 21st when you had a presentation by an election denial group.

I was one of the many Huntington Beach citizens to write and discuss and urge you to have Bog Page, our OC County registrar, come speak the truth about election security at a city council meeting.

Thank you for doing so tonight.

And also to a Congressperson Gruel for actually touring the facility, which I would suggest all of you who think that there's some problems with our elections to do the same thing.

I'm so happy that you actually listened to my voice.

It was a nice feeling.

So on that on that basis, if I may use a little more time to strongly urge you not to hire Michael Gates back as an attorney in any position in Huntington Beach.

He does not represent our interests in a professional manner and has cost us citizens thousands, if not millions of dollars.

You can do better.

Next speaker.

First of all, I have gone and observed the ROV, and I've also done monitoring at various voting locations.

But I want to commend and thank this council for supporting fair elections here in Orange County, particularly during a time when fraud seems rampant, made easier by drop boxes, mail-in ballots, and the elimination of local vote sites.

There has been a lot in the news this week about release of the Epstein files, a call for full transparency, and yet we have those in this county, maybe even in this room, who are trying to block the release of voter records that are under subpoena by the Department of Justice in an event in an effort to have that same transparency in our Orange County voting process.

My understanding is that our voter uh registrar of voters, Bob Page, has promoted this resistance, and that's shameful.

I'm sure he will try to justify this.

Do not be fooled.

I want to encourage you all to stand strong, and on behalf of Huntington Beach residents and all of Orange County, I thank you again.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

Tonight I'm here because something fundamental is at stake.

Our trust in the very system meant to protect our constitutional right to vote.

The right to vote is sacred.

It is the foundation of every freedom we enjoy as Americans.

Yet here in California, that right is being strained by systems that are inconsistent, vulnerable, and too often lacking real oversight.

We are told to trust the process, but trust requires transparency.

And right now, voters across this state are seeing warning signs.

Millions of vote by mail ballots are sent out, yet large numbers never return.

We all remember when a mail truck in Huntington Beach was robbed during Prop 50 with ballots inside.

When ballots can disappear in transit, how can voters believe every vote is counted?

Transparency, we are left with a patchwork of systems that fails to guarantee equal protection under the law.

And enforcement, too often when laws are ignored or procedures violated, nothing happens, no accountability, no corrective action, no explanation to the public.

When people can't trust that every legal vote is counted, and only legal votes are counted, our democracy doesn't just weaken, it fractures.

People disengage, people lose faith, and once confidence is lost, it is incredibly difficult to restore.

This council has already shown an interest in election validity, and I want to commend you for that.

Because real reform does not start in Sacramento, it starts right here in our cities and counties where voters demand to be heard.

So tonight I urge you to push for a stronger mandatory post-election audits, full transparency in how ballots are handled and counted, strict adherence to certified equipment, meaningful public reporting from the Secretary of State and the County Election Office.

Thank you.

On a totally different topic, my grandmother, an Alabama cotton farmer, set me down at eight years old.

And that was considered the age of consent in the Southern Baptist Church to explain the facts of life.

She told me that I would be getting the curse that comes with all women soon.

She ordered me not to let any boys touch me because bad things would happen.

She forgot to tell me what those bad things could be.

When her son sexually assaulted me at nine, I knew that I could not talk to her because I'm the one that would be beaten.

The worst part was I wasn't sure what the curse was and what to call what he did to me, what to name it.

When I was 11, I moved back with my mother and discovered libraries.

I lived there, discovering the truth of what happened to me and to begin to understand what my body was and how it worked.

That's what books do.

They help children understand when the parents need help explaining, or they help a young girl who is terrified to tell anyone what happened to her to gain her voice.

Reopen the teen section and quit trying to say you're doing it for the kids.

You're only helping the pedophiles.

Good evening.

Umor in the council.

My name is Calvin.

I'm a resident of Orange County for the past 40 41 years.

And I've uh since I retired, I've volunteered on a lot of things and uh decided to get involved with the uh election process.

And the more I volunteered and went to the ROV and then also volunteered to cure ballots, and the more I kind of got disillusioned with the process, you know, there's a lot of holes in it.

Uh and what really got me was, you know, 2021, I thought uh we can make the better for California with the recall, but then uh that uh that memory came back just recently with a uh kind of told us everything we didn't know, which is the current system security requirements allow a dog to vote.

And uh, you know, that's the thing that uh if that happens, uh what else is being let through the system and not being uh not being um uh you know vetted out.

We still have uh based on some of my uh research, we still have 125 to 175-year-old voters in uh Huntington Beach, and uh also people who haven't voted since the 1990s, so there's a little bit of uh voter roll that needs to be cleaned up, and uh I don't I don't understand why that doesn't get done as a regular routine procedure.

So, you know, with this uh voter choice act and uh the uh paper belt, I mean ballots to everybody, the costs are up, the speed is down as far as counting, uh, voter confidence and in the long run is down too.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Kathy Carrick.

I'm a 50-year resident of Huntington Beach.

How many times have we heard we don't need voter ID because there is no graft?

The problem I have with that is that it is not logical.

When asked for ID at the airport, do we say, I'm not showing you my ID because I don't have a history of crashing planes?

When asked for ID when buying liquor, do we say, I'm not showing you my ID because I've never lied about my age?

Of course not.

We say, yes, here is my ID.

The purpose of showing an ID is to prove you are who you say you are.

I think we all agree that we want secure and fair elections.

We need to have confidence in the results.

Voter ID is simply a way to strengthen the integrity of our vote.

If we require ID to confirm our identity for everyday financial and safety transactions, it is totally logical to require it for the most fundamental act of citizenship.

Voting.

Stop the nonsense.

Follow the logic.

Let's work together to put voter ID into place.

Thank you.

Next 10 speakers, Chris Cloey, John Ridelli, Max Daffron, Delane, Pat M.

Annabella, Linda M.

George A.

Lisa H.

Patricia Pappas.

Go ahead, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and HB City Council members.

Much of what follows with a few updates was presented to the community and library services commission meeting to consider the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

My name is John Rodelli, and I've enjoyed living in the great city of Huntington Beach for well over 20 years.

In fact, I graduated from Edison High School in 1974.

I'm here to respectfully request two things for consideration as it relates to the potential possibility of four more bocce ball courts at Edison Park.

And the restoration of the existing four synthetic resin bocce ball courts at Murdy Park.

First, I respect and understand that the community and library services commission has already passed approval for the amenities at Edison Park that do not include boji ball courts.

My comments here that laid the groundwork for a possible last-minute appeal to the city council to please consider four synthetic resin bocce ball courts in the new park design.

Edison Park is located on the far other end of town, a full six, seven miles away, and would serve a large portion of our community, particularly seniors and recreational players who currently have no convenient access to a quality body facility.

I'm not gonna finish this.

Communication, and I hope you've had the chance, or we'll have a chance to look at it.

The courts are suffering there at Murdy Park, they need restoration badly.

And I had met with Krista Martinez, she says she's gonna put it on the budget for next year.

I hope that's the case.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir.

Hi, uh Chris Clue, Huntington Beach resident.

Um, I want to thank the council for uh allowing Bob Page to present from the OC Registrar of Voters.

Um, I am looking forward to the presentation, and I'm sure it will be factual and filled with useful information that I hope everyone pays attention to.

Um, I would also like to thank Mayor Burns for giving us two minutes, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the crowd of people behind us currently in the audience.

Um but what I would really like to point out is are you guys aware of the atmosphere that you are creating right now?

You talk about distrust, you talk about not being able to trust our voting systems, and you're the ones that are creating that.

You're the ones who brought in the voter denial group to do their presentation.

You are the ones that are eroding what this community has, and for what?

You guys were elected by that system.

You're sitting up there.

You won Congress, you won the Senate, you won the presidency.

Are we to say that those were all invalid?

Because sure, I'll take that.

Are you gonna resign right now?

Are you gonna say that our system doesn't work and actually have the courage to stand behind that and not do this job anymore?

Because I think that you know the system works, and you counted on the system working because it got you into power.

And the people of this city voted for you, and we all have to live with that.

But when you try to call that into account and say that it's false, you are the ones that are tearing America apart.

And I really hope the people behind me pay attention to this presentation so that way you can actually understand that our elections, while not perfect, are fair and they are trustworthy.

So please pay attention to this presentation.

Thank you.

My name is Harry McLaughlin.

I want to thank the council for inviting Bob Page to come here and give a presentation tonight.

And I would like to thank Councilman Gruel for showing up at the tour.

I wish the rest of you could have made it.

Maybe next time.

Nationwide, there has been an ongoing effort to instill fear and doubt in the security and legitimacy of our voting systems.

One of the foundations of our democracy, fabricated entirely out of whole cloth, it is a ginned up solution to a problem that does not exist.

As a poll worker during elections, I know firsthand that this is pure baloney based on falsehoods and misinformation.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters is a national model for how the voting process should be carried out.

Please explain to our citizens why this current Republican council majority wishes to exert any measure of local control over a county election model that currently functions quite well without additional local interference.

I find it curious that the only election shenanigans pulled off either locally or on the national level are those being tempted by Republicans.

Locally in 1988, Garden Groves Kurt Pringle hired uniformed security guards to intimidate Latino voters in entering vote centers.

They were sued and they fined 40,000.

Nationwide, in December of 2020, Republican groups from seven states submitted lists of fake so-called alternate electors to the National Archives.

These included dozens of local Republican Party leaders, four current candidates for public office, six current office holders, and at least five federal office holders.

The indictments at potential indictments of these Republicans for users are playing out in real time as we I speak.

However, our felon in chief has decided to pardon them all.

Nothing has changed from September 14th, 2023 to now.

We can do better.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, everyone.

But what do we have to show for it?

Longer counts, more confusion, reduced voting options, and zero noticeable increase in participation.

Meanwhile, a dog voted in 2021, and nobody was fired.

That alone should tell us the system is broken beyond patching.

We don't need another audit or another task force.

We need to go back to what worked for 200 years.

Neighbors counting ballots in front of neighbors on election night.

Huntington Beach can start that revolution.

Let's do it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nick.

Next speaker, please.

Mayor and council members, I really appreciate you allowing us to come and speak today and your patience with all the comments.

Confidence in our elections is not growing, it's collapsing.

Every new detail we learn about Orange County system makes people feel more disenfranchised.

Many people don't even vote because they don't think their vote they don't bother voting because they don't think their vote is gonna count.

We automatically mail ballots to every name on the list, whether they ask for one or not.

We have voters in Huntington Beach who haven't cast a ballot in 15 years, still listed as active.

And for the November 4th special election, we had fewer than 70 in-person vote centers, down from 190 the year before.

That's not expanding access, that's shrinking it.

We can do better, and we should right here start in Huntington Beach.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

The single biggest threat to our republic right now is apathy.

And apathy is winning because people no longer believe their vote is counted accurately.

Every news story dogs voting, someone caught cheating, endless delays, pushes more citizens towards why even bother.

One day in person, hand counted in public.

If the state won't permit it, nothing should stop our community from doing it for our own municipal races and showing the rest of California how it's done.

We need to lead by example.

Thank you.

Good evening, City Council.

Thank you so much for putting up with us tonight, and hearing both sides.

We appreciate it.

Elections are supposed to bring us together and not drive us apart.

Right now, they appear to be doing the opposite, but I, like many citizens in Orange County, get these in my email box.

You probably get them too.

So they called the election in California before Orange County ROB even submitted one tally for in-person voting.

Later on that night, there were several, like 112,000 votes that were counted from vote centers, and the majority of them voted no on Prop 50.

But we wouldn't know that.

Scanning voting in person the first day, I mean, scanning on election day is the best way to vote.

It is the one that is most cost-effective.

But yet, did you get any flyer in the mail that told you scan your vote?

If you can scan on election day, that would save the county lots of money.

Thank you very much.

Well, uh I picked quite the night to come introduce myself to the community.

Honorable mayor of council is uh my name is Max Daffron.

I've met plenty of you before in the previous week.

I am the new president and CEO of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce.

I'm also a uh lifelong Huntington Beach resident in the Huntington Beach native.

It's great to be here serving the community.

I wanted to come out and actually thank you all uh for participating in the uh state of the city event last week.

The fabulous presentation from the city, uh Mayor Burns and uh Mayor Pro Tem, your your uh uh speeches were incredible.

Really appreciate the partnership.

Really looking forward to continued partnership with our business community here in Huntington Beach.

Uh really the possibilities are endless.

We have over 10,000 businesses in this great city, and uh I'm very happy to be home and uh uh partnering with all of you in the future to make Huntington Beach the best place to do business in California.

So thank you very much, and great to meet all of you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, council.

I'm Delane Bailey, and I'm here because a 12-year old asked me how votes are counted, and I couldn't give him a straight answer without sounding like a conspiracy theorist.

That's a problem.

We have voters in Huntington Beach listed as active who haven't voted since George Bush Jr.

was in office, and with inactive voters, it's even worse.

I heard we had a dog vote.

Drop boxes have no cameras or way to know who puts ballots in.

And yet we're told this is the most secure system ever.

If the state won't let Bob Page fix obvious flaws, then let our city take control of our own elections.

One day in person, handmarked, hand counted, finished by midnight, simple, transparent, done.

Hello, Patricia Pappas.

Um, I'm we're lived here about almost 46 years, and I prepared a one-page document and asked the officer to bring it to the dais.

I actually, on that one-page document, it has uh two photos of the envelopes that the um we put our ballots in.

Um we can I can put a flashlight up through where the vote is cast and see if it's a yes or no answer.

So those are two pictures right there, and then uh something else I'm gonna be talking about, which is um two ballots that were sent to the same resident in Huntington Beach, and those ballots I have right in my hand here from the picture.

Um I help with election by collecting ballots and delivering them directly to the registrar's office in Santa Anna.

Um, so I drove to the ROV on Sunday, November 2nd, 225, 2025, to check in 108 ballots.

All 108 ballots were reviewed to make sure that I had signed the top of each uh ballot envelope, and I asked the person at the check-in window to answer a question for me.

I told her my girlfriend's daughter had received two ballots and asked why this would be.

She gave me the frequently asked questions card with a scan code to use, and also told me that I could call the ROV.

And I said, But I'm here at the ROV.

Then I asked to speak to someone else.

I went to the large window and spoke to Laura.

I told her that my girlfriend's daughter had received two ballots and asked her why that might happen.

Laura stated, well, she probably requested another ballot, and I said no.

Then I said, Well, she said Laura said it was probably raining.

And then she said to me, Well, if you would all just do what you're supposed to do and mail in your ballots, then we would not have these problems.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Tammy.

I'm not a public speaker, so bear with me.

Um did happen last week that um was traumatic for me.

Um, all my life I was taught that you anybody in a uniform to trust them and taught my kids the same thing.

Um, you know, if you need anything, just go to a somebody in uniform.

Um I was on the phone with my therapist, and um my phone was dying, so we put it on the charger and she called me instead of doing the zoom.

Um a lot of things had happened.

My car broke down, my ex had um cut off my spousal support, I lost my job, rent was due.

Um, I just felt like everything was falling apart, and she was doing like a like if you felt like you know you wanted to die or commit suicide or whatever, you know, a list of things I could do to get my mind off things and you know what I would do instead of feeling that way.

And in the middle of that, my phone died, and so um she did what she needed to do and do a well check and sent somebody over to my house, and so I had a well check guy over in Huntington Beach Police Department came over.

They sat there talking to me, and um the well check guy asked me, Do you want to have um somebody come?

Or do you want to go to a place um voluntarily to help you know get some extra help?

Um you can leave when you want to, it's your choice and everything.

And I said, you know what, you know, yeah, I do.

I do want to get some help.

I do want to, you know, help.

And then he asked if I was on any kind of medication.

I said, Yeah, he goes, okay, let me.

I am go get it so we can put it, um, bring it with you.

Um, so I went to my room, he followed me in there.

Um, not him, but the Hennington Beach Police Department followed me in there.

He got um, he noticed the safe that I had in there.

I had guns in there.

Um, he told me that he needed to check the guns, make sure they weren't loaded and everything, um, and he needed to take them.

I said, Well, my friend here is gonna take them, they're half his.

Ma'am, I'm so sorry.

Um, does any but is anybody opposed from giving her another minute?

Thank you.

Give her another minute.

All right.

Thank you.

I just want to say what happened was is we got to go to, they went to take me in, and the whole time we were there talking and stuff, they told me it was voluntarily.

When we got in the car, we got to the place.

First of all, they wouldn't give him my guns.

They um put him in the police car.

Um, they told me it wasn't a 5150.

We got in the car, we got all the way to the place.

We got there, we walked in, the police officer went out and left.

Um, the welfare person told me when we walked in after you know the police officer left, said, Oh, by the way, we're gonna have to put you in as a 5150.

So the whole entire time I'm supposed to trust these people, they lied to me the whole entire time.

I wouldn't have gone if it was a 5150.

Totally going against me, my career, you know, everything else.

The guns were a safety net for me to put a roof over my head to sell them if I needed to.

All right, ma'am.

Fill out a blue card, and we'll see if somebody from the uh police department can contact your bewell and explain what happened.

Okay, that's where I went actually, was be well.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, Roger Noah, let's hear it.

Oh, the funny part was I was there for most of the time because she called me up and said, What do I do?

And I go, Well, store your guns because they're probably gonna take them, and then she took the guns and they took everything that was in the safe.

She's a responsible person, she locks everything up.

She in fact, her daughter put $200 worth of ammo inside the safe, and they took that.

Okay, and now she owes her daughter $200 because she doesn't have it's it's nuts.

And now she's probably gonna have lose her her permit, and they the whole time they're saying, Yes, you I can take the guns and I could take them as long as my the guns were in the car and the the uh cartridges were in the trunk.

There was telling us this the whole time until they went in the in the back and then they completely changed.

They lied, and I want to see a tape.

I asked them if they were recording, they said they were recording, and this is exactly what they do, so then that way they can kiss us to a to a police chief that is that was the one that was running the chief of police here, man, is a person that ran the jails for 20 years, the jails, and when and he created all the all the gang members, all the gangs the the LA sheriff's gangs.

There was only three of them before he started over there.

Now there's 17 of them that were confirmed, and J.

Pero owes all of them.

I mean, it's insane on how powerful this man is.

This guy is a dangerous person that's a sheriff, and everybody wants to lie.

All the cops are telling they're telling people that they're not gonna put them on a 5150.

They tell me, then they throw them in jail, they put them in a 5150, they lose their guns.

I mean, she doesn't have any money to pay for rent, and this was a security thing.

That if she needed money for anything, she would sell some of the guns legally and everything, and now she can't even do that.

So she's gonna be homeless.

She's gonna be homeless.

Great information.

Thank you.

Hey, hey, language, language, man.

Alright, do we have any more speakers?

Yes, Sarah, Sarah Casias, Russ Neal, Nettie W.

Lindy, Chris Jacobson, Guest P.

Beth Culver, Libby, Paula Schaefer, Robert Tarazo, Gino Tarrazo, Syrenid Pickens.

Alright, go ahead, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening, members of the Huntington Beach City Council.

I hope you and your loved ones are all healthy and doing well as we head into the holiday season.

My name is Robert Trazzo, and I'm here to talk about the redevelopment of Edison Community Park.

Partially connected to item 25-872.

I would like to formally submit, if I may, for your consideration, the Edison Park Southeast Plan option three, prepared by a licensed landscape architectural firm, CWDG, with input from community members.

The project's current design places 16 pickleball courts as close to 200 feet away from residents' front doors.

Our plan, among other things, still includes those 16 pickleball courts but places them further away from residents.

One that supports the goals of the city council, provides recreational opportunities for all Huntington Beach residents, and helps protect the peace and livability of the immediate surrounding neighborhood.

We're also not alone.

In only two days, we started a paper and pencil petition and collected 506 signatures, names, and addresses, which reads we, the undersigned residents, and supporters of Huntington Beach respectfully urge the city to reject the current Edison Park Redevelopment Plan prepared by RGM Design Group and instead adopt the alternative plan known as Edison Park Southeast Plan Option Three.

We ask that you please please please listen to our request and that of our fellow HB residents in adopting Edison Park Southeast Plan Option Three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello.

I'm a resident of Huntington Beach since 1999.

I live next to Edison Park for 16 years.

My name is Kimo Trazo.

I'm here to support submitting the alternative plan for the Edison Park renovation to the city.

Just previously.

RJM plan.

Let's start with parking.

The plan has 62 more parking spaces, a total of 333 spaces, then the city plan has 275 spaces.

Okay.

Our park has 16 pickleball courts, but the 16 pickle courts is away from residents and in a location where noise mitigation is much better for the residents near living near Edison Park.

Number three, increase, we have increased personal police.

I mean increased police, ER, personnel safety access road on our plan designed to help fight crime.

RJM's plan, the city's plan does not have this.

Number four, keep most, our plan keeps most of existing layouts to help save costs.

The city's plan is right now budgeted for $13 million dollars.

I think our plan is less because we're not moving anything around too much in Edison Park.

Number five, we keep most of the existing sports, amenities, basketball, softball, tennis, soccer, skate park, hitting walls.

Sorry, man.

Okay.

Um, here's the list.

I like to submit this as well.

All right.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and uh council members.

My name is Sarah Cassius, and I'm here on behalf of P Flag Huntington Beach.

We're part of the P Flag National Network and the nation's largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ plus people and those who love them.

Our P Flag, our new P FLAG chapter in Huntington Beach was founded as a call to action to unite, uplift, and champion the local LGBTQ plus community following a rise in anti-LGBTQ plus rhetoric, hate crimes, and policy efforts at both national and local levels.

We offer peer support, uh host educational programs, and stand up for equality.

If you're interested in learning more, you can visit us at pflaghb.com or connect with us on Instagram or Facebook.

In addition to formal introductions, PFLAG Huntington Beach would also like to advocate for the following one the error to urge the council to fully honor the will of Huntington Beach voters in the June 2025 library election by ending the appeal of the court ruling and restoring full access to the teens section and its materials.

Number two, we asked the council to reconsider the appointment of Michael Gates as chief assistant city attorney as his record demonstrates conduct unfit for leadership.

Thank you for your time and for considering how accountability and empathy can make Huntington Beach a stronger, safer community for everyone.

Thank you.

Mayor and council members, my name is Paula Schaefer.

I'm thankful that you acknowledge your constituents' concerns and invited the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Bob Page to speak tonight.

I also encourage to see that Mr.

Andrew Gruel uh attended the tour of the RCROV.

I think that if you would, maybe some of you uh did that as well, but it's really important that people find this process for themselves instead of just relying on information that they get elsewhere.

The second item I'd like to talk about tonight is that is not on the agenda, but I think it warrants discussion, and that is that the uh announcement regarding the hiring of Michael Gates.

Uh, Mr.

Gates' history as a city attorney resulted in the city's insurer paying two and a half million dollars in damages to two former city lawyers that worked under his supervision.

In the same matter, the city paid approximately 1.5 million dollars in legal fees to outside legal counsel.

This incident alone should be sufficient reason to disqualify him as an attorney suitable to work in the city attorney's office, even when the city current city attorney would be supervising him.

I urge all the decision makers on this matter to rescind any offer of employment to Mr.

Gates, as the other information that's come to light about his employment at the Department of Justice has come to light.

So any investigation should be done promptly.

The result will probably be that you would want to rescind the offer of employment to him.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, City Council.

Um, I just want to thank you for this opportunity for consistently being transparent and allowing us to speak publicly on both sides of the fence.

I want to let you know that I am an American-born Chinese.

I am a daughter of an immigrant uh parents who did spoke minimal to no English, who immigrated with six kids.

So I'm seven of seven.

Okay.

At that time we came, we did it legally, and then for the first time, six at my 68 years old roughly, my mother voted for the first time, took her to the fire department, then took her to the garage, and then we sat in wait and we watched the TV and we knew who was gonna win the next day, the very result.

A person who knows very little English and elderly at the same time.

Now, when I try to explain it to her, I can't.

I need a PhD.

I have to go.

I've observed and toured the ROV three times.

It is so convoluted where she didn't know English at 60 years old, 68 years old, she could understand the results the next day.

I come, my mom's from Communist China and Hong Kong.

Taiwan is Chinese as well.

So it's not about Chinese people, it's about the government.

I feel the impact by caring for my mother, the byproducts of what communism does, and these are all the signposts.

So with that said, I really want to let you know.

Thank you for doing the right thing.

You need to know that much, much of the other cities want to follow your lead, and we look up to you, and we're so grateful for all that you've done and spoken out, spoken for us and represent us.

So you have your our support all the way.

And um, just for records, uh, you know, burned and send some notice out.

We care enough about the issue that we come afterward to be here.

Thank you.

Greetings.

I'm my name is Beth.

I wish I was a resident of Huntington Beach.

I I happen to live in Cyprus.

When I first came to Huntington Beach years ago, I remembered the red line tracks in the sand along the highway.

Does anybody else remember that?

Anyway, I remember them.

So I've been here for a long time, and I've lived in Seal Beach, Long Beach, and Costa Mesa.

But the thing that's the best about Huntington Beach is you guys.

I'm in awe of this city council.

Your courage, your knowledge of our constitution, our state and city laws, and those that laugh are clueless.

Anyway, I your laws, your rules.

How you persevere in the face of seditious bogus rhetoric being hurled at you.

You are an example for all city councils.

And the V Voters' Choice Act is pure, convoluted, unprocessed sewage, and create is a created and complicated, obscure, expensive system.

I've endured 10 years at the uh voters, the ROV, and I have despair at how easy the shenanigans create fraud.

It's wonderful.

It's really kind of something to be written about.

It ruins one health, and those machines, forget it.

It was a community, you all got together, and you knew at the you held each other accountable, and by the end of it when the doors closed, you knew who won.

And everybody knew it.

And you could present that in.

You had a nice little chain of command that turned those votes in.

It was wonderful.

Let's go back to that system.

The old way was so much better and far cheaper.

I mean, I don't care what people say, they just have no clue it's cheaper.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next speaker.

Uh, good evening, Mayor Burns and City Council members.

Thank you so much for this opportunity, and thank you for your attention.

I really appreciate that.

Um, I had last year I found out a bit about our election process by observing at the register of voters several times.

And um, I'd actually been busy teaching the last 20 years and wasn't really a paying attention as we segued from neighborhood precincts, and gradually they funneled us to more and more precincts meeting together, and fewer and fewer places to vote.

And so I've been busy.

Um, I was horrified to find out that people could register to vote on election day.

And I had looked it up, I thought it was in October, and I found out no, they could register that day, which is totally open for fraud.

Um, so okay, sorry.

How many of us could explain our current election process to a friend without notes?

Signature verification algorithms batch uploads.

United States Post Office chain of custody breaks, and the voter boxes or the um where we drop our um ballots.

I'm sorry, I'm not used to doing this.

Um without cameras, it's absurd.

Um we used to vote in our neighborhoods, and we knew our neighbors, and often we would recognize people that we knew that lived on our streets, and so if somebody came to vote, it would be obvious if they didn't live in our area.

And so now we're asked to trust the experts, and I'm sorry, I don't trust anyone anymore with everything that we've seen come out.

Um I'd rather trust my neighbors.

Ah, so sorry.

It's okay.

Anyway, next speaker.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Chris Jacobson, I'm a lifelong Orange County resident.

Thank you for listening.

Um, just imagine explaining our current election system to a kindergartner.

You can't because it's incomprehensible.

It's it's impossible to do that.

Now, imagine explaining a hand count on oversized bingo cards in the high school gym.

Any five-year-old gets that instantly.

That's the difference between trust and distrust right there.

We don't need more technology, and I'm a tech guru and I'm a tech head, but we need less.

We need paper.

We need simplicity, openness, and uh, as many of the speakers have been espousing, we need same night results.

If Sacramento, if Sacramento and Orange County refuse to deliver that to our community, Huntington Beach should.

And I'd like to add, as a Christian, I have a stewardship responsibility for what I've been entrusted with to pass it along in at least as good a condition as I received it.

That's number one.

Number two, as a citizen of America, a valid legal citizen born here in the United States, I have an active civic duty, not just a right, but I have a responsibility to be educated, to be informed, and to vote accordingly, and to hold elected officials and representatives accountable.

So I want to leave everybody with 2nd Chronicles 7.14.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I wasn't gonna speak tonight, but I was motivated by listening to a lot of the um questionable comments from my friends on the left.

Uh reminds me of uh the person that poisons the water one day and they show up the next day as a water commissioner.

And uh, so what we have here is you know the gerrymandering here in California, we're like the kings of gerrymandering.

California, 43% of our voters are Republican, and yet we only had 18% representation, and now with this latest program proposal on 50, we're down to 18%.

No, we're down to six percent representation.

If it was flipped to the other side, the other side would be going crazy burning buildings and pushing over top cars, it's absolutely ridiculous.

Now let's let's look about uh let's see.

Look at why.

If you look at California, we have a the supermajority is the democrats up in Sacramento.

You've got things going on like the bullet train where there's billions of dollars wasted.

You have uh sanctuary cities where we have we have uh illegal aliens all over the state of California and they're allowing them to vote.

That's why we don't have voter ID.

Voter ID you you show up when you go to the bank, you show up when you buy liquor, you show up when you go to the airport, and yet when you're voting, you don't show your ID because it it refill reads of uh a fraudulent uh voting.

At the end of the day is is when you have over a million voters or more of voter when you do a census, you have a million more uh residents, that gives you another congressman.

And I think what's happening on this on the on the Democratic side here in California is they want to continually have illegals come to California so they can have more Congress and then they'll continue this fraudulent process.

By the way, uh Florida is a state that gets everything done in one day, seven million votes, and it's a clean system, and it doesn't have fraudulent issues like we here have in California.

I'm concerned about the council approving a letter of intent with Archer Aviation this evening.

As far as I know, the first time the public became aware that HB was considering entering into an agreement for an electric air taxi type business was just at the last council meeting.

According to that presentation, Archer has several competitors in this emerging technology, yet we've only heard from Archer.

Furthermore, Archer indicated that proposals are due to the federal government by December 11th and must come from cities as the lead applicant, which puts pressure on HB to sign the LOI in time to submit the proposal package.

Why is HB caving to this timeline pressure?

Why hasn't HB looked at presentations from other electric air taxi companies?

Why isn't staff presenting a full analysis of this concept and why it's good or bad for the city and why Archer is the right partner for this endeavor?

Honestly, I don't know if it's good or bad, but we haven't seen any other proposals.

Kind of reminds me of the Symphony for a Flowers decision.

Someone comes in and makes a glossy presentation, council approves it, and then looks back and realizes it's a giant oops.

Please be sure you have actually done your due diligence this time.

And speaking of due diligence, before hiring Michael Gates into the city's law department, please be sure to do a thorough background and employment check.

He has a history of creating hostile work environments that have already cost this city millions.

And according to reporting, he continued those behaviors at the DOJ where he was terminated for cause.

Be sure you are not setting the city up for liability.

Thank you.

And thank you.

I'd like to thank Bob Page for coming out of his busy schedule to speak to us tonight.

I know the two people in a dais there did take the tour and probably can vouch how safe and secure our elections are.

I know I hear these this nostalgia lane having you know to vote in your garage.

How you could count them by hand.

We have how many voters in Orange County?

Over three million.

How are you gonna do that one night?

That doesn't sound very secure to me.

We have 23 million voters in the state of California.

So we used to be able to drink out of our hoses during the summer.

We used to be able to find parking at the beach.

We used to do a lot of things.

A big map was about 39 cents, perhaps, that things change.

We have such a large volume of voters that we just can't go back.

We're supposed to be going forward, and we thank Bob Page for doing that.

Um, I want you to reconsider the hiring of Michael Gates.

There are probably some better candidates out there that will not cost us taxpayers millions and millions and millions of dollars.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Yes, uh, good evening.

My name is Russell Neal, and I live in Huntington Beach.

Our system of personal freedom with limited government is the exception in human history and not the rule.

As we approach our nation's 250th birthday, we should ask ourselves what is the precondition for this blessing.

John Adams said our limited government required a moral and religious people.

If we cease to be such a people, if we cast God's law behind our backs, we will cease to be free.

Let us all keep this fundamental truth in mind.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Next speaker, please.

Go ahead.

Hi, uh, my name is Ellen Riley, and I am a bit concerned about the return of Michael Gates to a position.

Because if the position existed and was an open position, which he left, then it should be a competitive if there's a if there is a position, then it should be competition.

That's what happens with most open positions.

People apply.

So I am concerned about that.

And I'm also concerned about his return because he has cost us millions of dollars, lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit against Sacramento.

I can't say whether they're valid or not, but he lost most of them.

And he lost the city millions of taxpayers' dollars, and that is not something I think we should allow to be repeated unless we look into it very carefully.

And also, if there is an open position, then I think it should be open to competition.

Thank you.

Hunting Teach Beach voted almost close to unanimously that we wanted voter ID.

But it means passed by 80% almost, 75%, right?

And you guys are chuckling over that.

It's sad.

Voter ID protects democrats and Republicans.

The only people it doesn't protect are those who are illegal and those who do not want to work the system correctly.

Like this is this is why we can't have common ground.

You guys don't even want to have voter ID.

It literally is who you're supposed to be, is who you vote for.

It takes California weeks to decide on an election.

India, the largest democracy, has over 640 million votes, and they can decide after one night who won.

Like this is ludicrous.

The longer that this goes, the more we believe that there is fraud, and then we begin to think that it's actually occurring.

Um so voter ID at the end of the day is not meant to just protect yourself as an individual so a dog doesn't take over your vote, but it protects everyone else around you.

Um I was too young to remember the neighborhood times, but I do recall going with my parents and seeing that camaraderie, seeing it in the garages.

I don't know how secure that was, but it seems like from what people are saying, they appreciate it.

You're chuckling again, but look at the system we have.

We have more people more doubtful now of the system than we'd had before.

Like, do you not see that where your cognitive distance is just stopping you from being able to see what you're looking in front of?

Like you have to understand, we cannot trust the system anymore.

So, what can we trust?

Our eyes and our hands, not the computers.

So let's go back to what we can do.

What we know best is what was working in the past, hopefully.

Uh Michael Gates, also uh really forward to having you back.

I know some people in the community didn't like that you were wasteful spending and fighting the government, but over $300 million were spent on Elon breakwater, and it was crickets from the left.

We're done.

There are no more speakers, Smair.

All right.

Oh, we got Butch still.

All right.

Council committee appointment announcements.

Anybody?

Andrew.

Yes, I've got uh I've got an appointment here.

I'm going to be appointing Zach Newkirk to CPAB.

All right, thank you.

anybody else?

All right, AB 1234 reporting.

Does anyone have anything to report?

Anybody?

Anyone?

Butch.

I uh attended uh O COG last week.

All right.

Anybody have anything to disclose negotiation disclosures?

All right, nobody.

Okay, now we're gonna go, Mr.

Paige.

You ready?

We're gonna go into the study session.

Presentation from Bob Page, hey Mayor.

Um, I did have one item.

Oh.

Did I miss you?

No, I just wanted to pull item 24.

Okay, the agenda.

Uh, the public hearing.

Um, item number 24.

All right, item number 24 is pulled.

We will not be hearing that.

My computer here.

And then I'm also going to have it.

Not a clue.

All right.

I want to thank you, Mr.

Page.

I've got to admit I didn't think this would happen.

You're exposing yourself to a hell of a night.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the council, and I appreciate the invitation.

And the one thing I'll say about answering questions is that state law requires that any voter who has a question about process that I'm required to answer it.

So I will continue to do that as during my tenure.

Hopefully it'll answer some tonight.

Yeah.

I figured you guys will have some questions.

I will provide an overview on some of the measures that we put into place to secure the election and the equipment and the vote.

First of all, I just wanted to share our mission statement at the Registrar Voters, which is to provide election services for the citizens of Orange County to ensure equal access to the election process, protect the integrity of votes, and maintain a transparent, accurate and fair process.

And then our vision statement is to ensure excellence in the administration of elections to inspire confidence and trust in the demographic process.

So, you know, those sound nice, right?

But how do we do it?

So this is a list of the different things that we do to try to accomplish that.

I know tonight I'm gonna be focusing just on the security measure bullet here, but if you have other questions in the future, I'm I'm happy to answer those.

So as some people have mentioned, we strive for having every election be accessible, fair, accurate, secure, and transparent.

Now there are a number of different things that we do.

I'm gonna highlight some here.

There's more on the on the slides and what I will actually talk to given the time limit that I have.

Oh we got sir, take time.

Well, yeah, I want to make sure I have enough time for your questions.

Yeah, all right.

So the physical measures that we put into place, and and one of those is that when we before an election, um, we test all the equipment we're gonna use, and then once it's passed the test, we put numbered security seals on all the equipment before they're delivered to the vote centers, and then when they get to the vote centers, those numbers are checked to make sure that the seals aren't broken and haven't been changed.

The other thing about our drop boxes, which have been talked about tonight, they are very sturdy, made of thick secure metal.

They're bolted to the concrete, and each one is individually keyed.

There's no master key that would allow somebody to go to every single one of our boxes and open them.

Technical measures, one of the things we protect against double voting is we use an electronic voter roster with poll books, which share encrypted information about voter participation, very limited information about the voter, just that they cast a ballot or they sign the roster, is shared in near-real time between each vote center and with our office in case we get a vote by mail ballot that we start processing in our office, and then a voter shows up at a vote center an hour later.

The roster is gonna show that we already received a ballot from them and started processing it.

Um I do hear from time to time that the people want us to make sure that all ballots are cast on paper.

That's already the law in California.

Every single ballot that a voter casts is on paper.

They may use a piece of equipment to mark it if they need assistance marking the ballot, but that accessible ballot marking device that we're required to have in all vote centers actually prints an actual ballot, and that printed ballot is what gets scanned.

There's no vote tabulated in that piece of equipment that that marks the ballot for the voter.

The other thing that we do is we, as I mentioned, we test the equipment.

So before an election and after the election, we create test ballots, and then every single scanner that we're gonna use in the election, we run them those test ballots through each scanner before the election to make sure that they accurately count the votes that we pre-marked on those test ballots, and then after the election, we just did that uh at the beginning of this week, finished our post election logic and accuracy test to ensure that the all the scanners that we use in the election are still accurately counting the votes on those test ballots.

The other thing is that we make sure that our voting system is not connected to the internet.

Now, there has been confusion before about the voting system before the electronic voting roster, those two things cannot talk to each other.

So we do have an electronic roster that I shared shares time and near real information near real time, but that is not that's just saying that the voter actually cast a ballot or signed the roster.

It's not has nothing about how they voted.

That's actually in the voting system on the ballots that are scanned, and those two systems do not talk.

Every piece of voting equipment that we use in the vote centers, the printers to print ballots, the ballot marking devices, the scanners, none of those are connected to the internet and do not even have a hardware installed in them to be able to connect to the internet.

In terms of process, so voter file maintenance, I know that's something that has been talked about tonight.

That is something we do on a daily basis.

That within five business days of receiving information either directly from the voter or from an official government source, which includes the United States Postal Services change of address database.

We are required to update that voter's record.

And we're doing that on a daily basis.

And then we go above and beyond that, and actually, before statewide elections, we will compare our voter registration database to a third-party credit bureau to see if they've got a different address for any of our voters.

And then if there is any kind of difference in addresses, we will send a notice to that voter saying, hey, we've got information that you're at this other address rather than the one we have on file.

Please respond to us to let us know where you are.

We can't actually change somebody's registration based on third-party information, but it does give us a clue as to where we may need to look, how we have to reach out to the voter, or to look at other governmental sources to see if we can confirm the third-party information that we've received.

As was mentioned, every single vote by mail ballot that comes in, we are required to verify the signature on those envelopes.

The signature on envelopes is compared to every signature we may have on file for that voter, and we're looking for similar characteristics.

It takes three members of my team to be in agreement that there are significant differences and characteristics between the signature on the envelope and what we have on file to be able to challenge that ballot.

If we do challenge, if there are three members of my team that believe that the signatures do not compare, we're required then to send that voter by first class mail a notice that their ballot has been challenged and give them an opportunity to cure that signature challenge, whether they forgot to sign it or whether we found that the signature didn't compare.

That's the process right now.

There was a mention that we're not done processing ballots.

All we're doing today is waiting for cure statements to come back.

We have we have processed all the vote by mail ballots we received and either accepted them or challenged them.

We processed all of the provisional ballots that we received in the special election, and they've either been accepted for counting and added to the results or they've been challenged.

Um, and we've duplicated every single ballot we needed to duplicate because of an error by the voter or damage to the ballot.

All that work's been done.

We've completed our our 1% manual tally audit where we hand count um every single ballot in one percent of the precincts that are randomly selected for the audit.

All that work's been done this uh by this week, by yesterday.

We've uh this morning we finished the one percent manual tally, we finished processing the last of the provisional ballots uh yesterday, and so right now when this when the Sacramento called this election, they required us to give voters until 5 p.m.

on Sunday, November 30th to cure a signature challenge to the ballot.

So I am prohibited by state law from certifying this election until Tuesday, December 2nd.

But really, all we're doing right now is just waiting for voters to potentially cure.

And because the media called the results of this election at 8 p.m.

when polls closed on election night, none of the political parties have requested lists of challenge voters from us to go out and knock on doors, so I'm not expecting a huge amount of response from voters to cure their challenges.

We've received about 28% of the voters that their ballots are challenged, has sent back cure statements that we've reviewed, but I'm not expecting to get a ton more because there's no political parties knocking on doors this election.

Now, in terms of the people that for every election, we have about um 70 full-time employees uh in our office and in our printing shop.

Um we hire for a statewide election like the general one in November 24.

We hired another 2,000 temporary employees to help us with that election.

Most of those people work in the vote centers themselves.

We make sure all of them go through criminal background checks.

We train them.

The people in the vote centers are trained for at least two full days with hands-on training.

We put experienced people from prior elections, either as a lead in each vote center or supervising four or five vote centers to help support them.

So we go through a lot of that information to make sure that they are prepared to serve the voter and provide them uh their ability to access voting and to cast a ballot.

We also, whenever we are collecting ballots or even in our office moving them between one point and another, there are always two-person teams that are doing that.

So our ballot collection teams that go out to all the drop boxes, they do it in two person teams.

We're monitoring where they are through GPS on their cell phones.

We're in radio 800 makers radio contact with them at all times.

They're required to take several photos before they're allowed to leave the box to go to the next one on their route, and that includes showing that they removed the ballots from the box, that the fire suppression device that's inside the box is still intact, that they have locked and closed the door and put a sticker seal across the gap between the door and the box, and then when they get back to their vehicle, they have to show that they have the key.

So all that stuff gets sent through an app on their phone.

We've got a three-person team that's monitoring where they are at all times that are looking at those photos and then radioing them saying you are cleared to go to the next drop box.

So those are some of the things that we do.

We also have a command center whenever the eleven days of in-person voting that we have at vote centers, we have a team dedicated to answering any calls from the people working at the vote centers who every every vote center has a cell phone to call in if they've got issues, if there's a disruption or if they have questions.

So there is a team dedicated to answering their calls and their um questions at all times.

We also have a sheriff's deputy or sheriff sergeant that's stationed in that command center so that there if there is a disruption at a vote center, that they're there to help us triage it and then communicate to the local police department to explain to them that yes, electioneering really is a crime.

We do need you to go out there because this person's not uh heeding the instructions from the registrar of voter staff.

So that's part of the stuff that we do.

We also have rapid deployment teams, 10 teams that are stationed throughout the county uh to be able to fix any technical issues that get called in, replace equipment, replace batteries, provide extra ballot paper if it's needed, they're out there and ready to help whenever it's needed.

The last thing I'll just I'll just mention is that we have a culture in our office where we are constantly looking to improve how we do things and identifying areas where we can improve.

If there is an oversight or an error made, we are trying to get to the root cause of why that happens so it doesn't happen again.

Um that commitment to our quality management system resulted in uh early 2022, the register of voters received international certification under the ISO program uh for its quality management system, and we get audited every year.

They review you know how we're we're continuing to manage the quality management system.

So that's kind of the overview.

I figure each of you may have some different questions that I will attempt to answer.

What percentage?

I'll start.

What percentage of votes do you think possibly are inappropriate, illegal, or that shouldn't be counted that do get through?

I'm assuming that that's zero.

I know there's a possibility, but I don't I don't make a determination, I don't make a determination about whether.

I'm giving you from your expertise, what would your estimate be?

That's that's all what would you estimate?

But if I if we suspect somebody like in November, okay.

So I won't say zero, because in we do have every election, we have people who attempt to vote two ballots.

Doesn't mean that they successfully have those counted, but they try to.

Um, and we will refer those to district attorney for investigation.

Um, so that the number of those each election could range from two to four hundred voters.

So we when we suspect something, we're immediately going to give it to the district attorney's office to actually investigate.

I don't have any authority to regulate, prosecute, or do those kind of things.

So I have to work with a district attorney to do those things.

Well, the Board of Supervisors, Orange County Board of Supervisors, passed an ordinance that no animals are allowed to vote.

And that's a big story.

The dog voted, but how many others that weren't flagged at from a federal election, just strictly from a state election viewpoint?

Because as I understand it, it was caught because of federal election flags, but we don't have those in the state elections.

Is that correct?

Yeah, so I will say what I can because that is still prosecuted.

That's still being prosecuted.

But the reason that we became aware of the Costa Mesa voter was because she had contacted your former city attorney, Michael Gates, and told him that her dog had received a ballot.

He contacted me, asked me about it.

I immediately then referred it to the district attorney for investigation in October of 24, and then earlier this fall, they actually filed charges against her.

In their press release about the charges they filed, they, as you point partly pointed out, is that she attempted to vote two ballots in two different elections.

So I know people say a dog voted, but this is a person who created a fictitious voter registration using the name of their dog so that that person could attempt to vote twice.

In the the press release says that in the 21 recall election, which was a state election, and therefore under state law, all that is required is that you attest under penalty of perjury on the registration affidavit that you are all the information on the affidavit is correct, you are that person.

That ballot, according to the district attorney, as they reported, was actually accepted and counted.

That second ballot that the woman cast.

The other thing that's in that press release is the second ballot that she cast in the 22 primary election, which is a federal election, and then falls under the Help America Vote Act, which requires that the voter at the time of registration provide proof of identity.

And if they don't at the time of registration, before they can actually have a ballot counted, they have to provide that proof of identity.

So in that press release, it says that the ballot the second ballot that the woman from Costa Mesa cast in that 22 primary was rejected because that proof of identity was never provided for that fictitious registration.

And that was a federal election.

Correct.

That involved the federal election.

Yes.

Okay.

We know the dog got a few votes, but do you have any estimate how many dogs are registered now?

Um the board of supervisors, you mentioned ordinance, it wasn't an ordinance.

They asked me to gather uh animal license information from all the cities to compare the animal license information with my voter registration roll.

Um we've had 23 cities who have provided their animal license information that we've compared against our voter registration record, and there was only one registrant who we suspect might not be a person, and we and we referred that to the district attorney's office for investigation.

But that that registrant we suspect of not being a person has never voted.

All right, yeah, because I know last year when these guys were running, somebody showed us a ballot that was in a their dog's name.

They they didn't have they claim that they didn't have any ID idea how the dog got registered to vote.

But at that same time, a man who was applied for his citizenship, he was very scared because he got a ballot, and he was very scared because he thought he was being tested, and he said, God, if I vote, I'm not gonna be able to come as become a citizen.

But the whole thing is he wasn't a citizen, he got a ballot, and they're and along with that kind of person getting a ballot, I get contacted too often that their son or daughter people have moved away eight years ago to another state.

They haven't been around and they get several ballots to their house in different names.

If they vote lived uh, you know, moved into a place and there were several residences, like an apartment, but they say yeah, we get like six different names to our house still.

That has got to you, and you don't know the number of those kind of ballots, is that correct that are out there?

Well, what I what I will tell you is part of our process before we mail ballots is every one of the envelopes that contains the ballots before we mail them.

That has a barcode that's associated with a voter.

Those barcodes are scanned on every single ballot to ensure that if we know whether another ballot has already been inserted and ready for mailing out.

So if there's if a second one somehow got through the process, we're catching that before it gets mailed.

But if they're in different names, if they're different names, the other thing we do before major elections is that we review every address that has 10 or more voters at it, and to try to determine whether or not that address could actually have 10 or more voters at it.

You know, is it a group home?

Is it a retirement home?

Is it an apartment complex that has the same street address but potentially different um unit numbers that may not have been added to the registration?

So we're looking at those every election.

And then ultimately, you know, if if you get somebody who says that their child who moved away six years ago is still getting a ballot, then what I would ask that parent to do is to write not at this address on the envelope and give it back to the postal carrier so that it comes back to me, and then I can inactivate that voter so that no mail goes to that person ever again.

If the parent just holds on to it and doesn't tell me about it, I can't do anything about it.

So you know, unless there was something where this the child did a change of address, so they showed up on the national change of address database that the postal service has, I could find it that way.

But if they didn't do that, and the and the person at the address is not sending it back as being uh not at that address so that it comes back to me undeliverable, and I can inactivate the voter, and then after two November even numbered year elections, if the person has not responded to a notice I send them that's forwardable to update the registration, at that point I can cancel them.

So everybody every voter that was inactivated before the 22 general election that we sent notices to earlier this year, we canceled more than 176,000 inactive voters.

So there's a there's a process.

There's nothing in federal law or state law that says if you don't vote, you can seventy-six thousand inactive voters, but they see they were inactive since before 22.

So they have not received any mail, but they were we got some that was Orange County.

Yeah, that was Orange County.

Okay, but uh not to cut you off, but the so you don't have an yeah, with that kind of numbers, mice.

Yeah, how many you still don't have an guesstimate on how many are possibly illegal voters out there?

Ballots, state ballots that are getting through the system and counting.

No, all I can give you is what when we find something we suspect of somebody trying to vote twice, or if we get something referred to us that somebody says, I know this person's not eligible, I know how many things we refer to the district attorney for investigation.

Well, how many ballots get returned under those circumstances?

Like somebody says, hey, my son don't live doesn't live here anymore, or hey, these people, these six people don't live in this apartment anymore.

Uh, and but we've received ballots.

So, yeah, so approximately just guesswork.

Well, yeah, I don't I actually have that number.

I don't need to know.

So um in 2024, in the primary election 24, 1.6% of the ballots we sent out came back as on deliverable, which was about um uh half of a percent less than the statewide average, as well as significantly less than the United States first class mail undeliverable stat of 4.3% last year.

Uh, and in the general election, 1.7% of the ballots we mail back, we mailed out came back on deliverable.

So we feel that because we beat the state average and because we are more than half of what the national average is for first-class mail, we believe that's evidence that we are doing a good job of maintaining our voter file.

United for freedom comes out with the thing that uh a number stat that says I believe 19.7 percent of the California, I believe it's California is inaccurate.

They're basically illegal, uh, animals just shouldn't count.

Let's just sum it up.

Yeah, and they have similar data that they have alleged regarding Orange County as well.

But the problem is they I've asked them, show me your data so I can look at it and figure out how you came to this conclusion because but they won't give it to me.

And and my my data doesn't indicate that that is a correct assessment, because of my 1.9 million voters, only one-tenth of one percent of those 1.9 have not provided proof of identity that have been flagged for under Hava to provide ID before they can vote.

So a tenth of one percent versus 20%.

There's there's something that I would need to I would need to look at their analysis to kind of understand how they came to that conclusion.

Well it's pretty scary if they're accurate at all, but um, do you I have two, I'll do two more questions before I pass it on.

Um can you briefly uh explain the voter rights act and how it costs us uh what it costs.

You know about the voters' choice act.

Voter choice, I'm sorry, yes, yes, sir.

So yeah, the elections have gotten more expensive.

Part of that is because in 2019, the Board of Supervisors decided that we would conduct all future elections under the voters' choice act.

Um, and so at the time they made that decision about 75% of all Orange County voters were permanent vote-by-mail voters, so it was an increase of about 20 25% of our voters that we then started voting uh mailing ballots to.

Um, but the cost increase is not just because of the voters' choice act.

There have been a number of changes in state statute that apply to all counties regardless whether they're doing voters' choice act or they're doing polling places, like polling place counties are required to have ballot drop boxes just like voters' choice act counties are um and they polling place counties are required to mail a ballot in California law to all of their active registered voters just like a voter's choice act county.

That wasn't true in 2019 when the Board of Supervisors made the policy decision to conduct elections under the Voters Choice Act, but that has been true since the November 2020 election.

Every election since then, every county California county has been required to mail a ballot to all of their active registered voters.

But not everybody participates, right?

Correct, yeah.

I mean, yeah.

I mean, we it depends on the election.

A presidential general election, you may have about 70 percent or more uh participation.

Uh in a primary, it may be in the 50 percent um in a um election like the special election we conducted for Huntington Beach in June, it could be closer to 30 percent.

Uh it depends on the election, it depends on what's on the ballot uh and who is financing any kind of campaign to get the vote out.

Our office uh has the charge of educating voters about how to vote, their options for voting, that there is an election coming up, answering any question they have.

But my office is not a get out the vote um entity.

That is handled by candidates and and political parties and campaigns, okay.

Last my last question.

I personally, professionally or whatever, would love to see the voter rolls completely cleaned up.

I would love to well I think there's a a great integrity question, you know, being called with our elections and the validity of with like a dog voting, no flags in California elections, but in federal elections.

How do you what do you do you think that voter ID would help uh the integrity of the um and cleaning up these roles where maybe we scrap them and start from scratch and have people come register again with the complete with an ID?

I'm just asking you, sir.

I'm at don't do you think that would help?

I'm an election administrator, so I do not have a public opinion about whether voter ID should be implemented.

What's your if that became if that became state law, then I would implement it.

You wouldn't, but uh professionally, I think that would make your job easier.

My responsibility to be a non-partisan, impartial elections official and administrator.

It's not my job to take policy provisions.

Policy positions are taken by city councils such as yourself or the board of supervisors, not by an county elections official.

All right, uh oh, good.

Here you go, butch.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

You probably don't remember.

I met you uh when uh our uh city clerk, Lisa Lane and I came down there, and you're kind enough to come over and talk to us, and I appreciate that.

I like to think that my personal invitation to you a couple weeks ago is why you're here, but maybe somebody else invited you.

I don't know.

Anyway, well, thank you for coming.

I don't have as many questions as our mayor did.

Um did you say that each I know that the the envelopes that are mailed to us have an identifier, you know, like a barcode on the outside.

Does each ballot have an identifier on it too?

It could be scanned and it could say Butch Twining is voting for.

There's nothing on the ballots that identify it came from a specific voter.

There are barcodes on the ballot that identify what precincts it's from so that the voting system can accurately, you know, in elections.

Obviously, this election there was one question on the ballot for every single precinct.

Right.

But in a normal election in a November even numbered year, there's going to be lots of contests, and so the voting system needs to know this is from this precinct, these are the contests that should be on this ballot from this precinct.

So a uh target filled in at this place on the ballot means this vote for this candidate or this yes or no.

So there's nothing on the ballot itself that identifies the voter.

At the once for for vote, so if somebody shows up at a vote center, state law requires them to verbally say their name and their address, they're looked up on the roster.

Then my staff member will then flip around the roster to show the person say this is you, the person signs under penalty of perjury on the roster, that they are that voter and that they understand the penalties of impersonating another voter.

They're given a ballot to mark.

There's nothing on that ballot they marked that has their that voters information on it.

All we know is that that voter showed up at the vote center to vote and was given a ballot, and then we compare the number of check-ins to the number of ballot sheets that were scanned to make sure that those balance.

Okay.

One of the one of the areas when I was when I was down at the ROV that very that very much interested me was um the signature verification, and I thought that was really cool.

And I saw the difference between signature comparisons uh from previous elections, and then I saw some that it was the there was no signature verification from previous elections, and I remember asking you, I go, Well, what's that signature up?

And I was looking at I think it was the right upper corner of the of the computer screen, and there was there was a signature, and I said, where did that signature come from?

And I believe you told me the DMV.

Is that correct?

Yeah, so for for people who register online or at the DMV, um, the if they register to vote and they provide a driver's license number, the last four of their social, um, and then vote cal, the statewide voting registration system compares that information they provided to make sure that it matches everything else that was filled out, it then pulls the electronic signature from the DM V record into the voter registration record.

One of our processes, if that you know, because obviously it was mentioned here today, how somebody may finger sign on a touchpad looks nothing like how they may sign it with a pen.

Um, and so when we either ballots that are challenged because there's significant differences between the signature on the envelope and signatures we have on file, or if we just notice some differences, even if we see enough similarities we can accept it, but we we're starting we see enough differences to concern us.

We forward we mail out an af a paper affidavit to all those voters a few months after election to a encourage them to fill out a new paper registration affid to give us their signature handwritten on that affidavit so that we have a new signature, but we're also required under law.

Every time we accept a signature either on the ballot envelope or if it's their signature's initially challenged and they send in a cure statement to us and we accept the signature on the cure statement, we're required to take those signatures and add them to the voter's registration record for future elections to compare against.

That's my next question.

So it's all part of the same question.

I thought he forgot.

So yeah, it's right here, number three.

Which is number three.

I've just pulled up the form.

It's on my on my computer right here of uh a guy uh the applying for a driver's license.

Okay.

So a new guy, new person goes in, applies for his driver's license, and item number six on the California DMV uh uh driver's license application says, Do you wish to register to vote?

Yes or no?

All you have to do is check yes.

Right.

See, now this is another question I asked you.

You may remember, I know you see a lot of people, I go, how do you know that guy's a citizen?

You don't.

You don't know because go ahead.

You know, I'm gonna I know that I go ahead and explain what happens after that.

So he checks yes.

Uh uh, how do you know he's a citizen?

Yeah, so under both federal law as well as state law, a voter is only required on the forum to attest under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen.

There's no requirement they're already a criminal because they're here, yeah.

There's just so what do they care?

So there's and then state law goes a step further and says that I am to accept that statement under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen as evidence that they're a citizen.

So I have no authority to separately try to verify that in any way.

So to going to the question about our voter registration rules, as long as somebody checks that box, they're gonna get registered.

So the information that I gave to to DOJ in the summer about voters who had canceled because they were not citizens, they all had said they were citizens when they registered.

That's how they got registered in the first place.

Then they realized they shouldn't be registered and they asked to be canceled.

So that information was all provided to the DOJ.

What I didn't provide to the DOJ was the driver's license numbers, the social security numbers, the signature images themselves, which under state law I'm required to keep confidential to for anybody.

Was this I mean, I uh that was not gonna be one of my questions.

I think somebody else is gonna.

Was that in response to the subpoena or the lawsuit from the DOJ that you provided that information?

Because I heard that the Board of Supervisors voted three to two to not allow you to do that.

Is that is that something totally different?

Yeah, I let me clarify what the chain of events.

The voting section of the DOJ of the civil rights division sent me a letter, uh, Marine Reardon asking for documentation.

There was never there's never been a subpoena.

There still has not been a subpoena.

Um as part of our response to her was if you get a court order, a protective order, or if you're willing to enter into a confidentiality agreement, like I have with the district attorney's office, I will provide you that that sensitive personal information.

Um that offer has gone unheated at this point.

Instead, they filed a lawsuit against us.

What the Board of Supervisors, two members of the board of supervisors voted to direct me to provide that sensitive personal information to the DOJ, and three said no to that request.

Let me ask you a question.

This is kind of this was kind of one of my last ones here, but I added a couple in there.

Do you personally feel that clean voter rolls are crucial to a fair election?

Yeah, we are that's what we strive for every day when we're updating registration.

I hear that.

Uh let's see.

My last one.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this is gonna be my last one, and I'm gonna leave the other 20 on here off.

Um, military ballots.

I was in the military.

Councilman Williams was in the military.

Uh he had a he had a much more decorated career than I did.

I was in Biloxi, Mississippi, and he was over fighting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Um I played golf, he shot guns.

Anyway, uh, just Iraq, just for the record, not as Iraq.

Um, not that old.

I don't remember.

I know I registered, but I went into the military when I was 17 years old.

So I wasn't old enough to to uh vote yet, but I know I registered.

I never applied for, and I don't even remember what happened back in the 70s.

I can hardly remember what I did yesterday, but uh I don't remember how I voted.

Uh I don't remember if I filed for uh uh an absentee ballot if they even did it back then, uh or I just didn't vote at all.

Um, but I do know that today that you you make, you know, all efforts to get military people their ballots.

Correct.

Do you mail it to their home address here in Orange County, or do you wait to get an absentee application and send it to, you know, Germany or Portugal or something like that?

Yeah, so military and overseas voters fill out an application through the federal government to be on the list to receive ballots, and they can choose either to have an email a link emailed to them for them to access a ballot, market print it, mark it, and then either mail it or fax it back to me, um, or we mail it to them.

Under under federal law, any anywhere between 60 days before election day and and 45 days, we have to issue those ballots to miss military and and oversee voters, and if we were to miss that 45-day um deadline, we'd most likely be under some sort of consent degree with a with the federal government for missing that deadline.

So we do not miss that deadline.

Okay, just a follow-up to that one.

If if they do if the soldier doesn't provide uh uh an application or an absentee ballot application, but he is registered and he lives right here on main, you know, 2000 Main Street and Huntington Beach.

Does he get a ballot at 2000 Main Street?

Yeah, if we don't if we don't know that he's overseas and not at that address.

And could anybody, his mom or dad or his brother or sister, open that ballot and fill it out for them and put it in the envelope and forge his name?

They could break the law, yeah.

Okay, that would be illegal.

Okay.

I want to thank you again for coming.

I appreciate it.

It's good seeing you again, and uh again, thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Don, thank you for coming, sir.

A few questions here, and we'll probably bounce around.

Um, can you re-explain the the duplicate uh ballot protection?

I mean, there's a record here uh of a duplicate ballot with the identical name, address, everything, there's nothing different other than the barcode uh on the envelope.

So that's this is a one-time example.

But can you explain to us how you avoid that and and how if you have a process in place, how this happens?

Yeah, I I'd have to look at each individual instance to kind of try to figure out how that instance happened.

But the general process, as I as I laid out, is that w Orange County is the only county in the state that is actually a certified ballot printer to mail out our own vote by mail ballots.

So our print shop actually prints all the ballots.

We have um two mail inserting machines that insert all the materials into envelopes.

Every hundredth ballot is um quality check to make sure that the right precinct ballot is in that envelope, that there's no printing dis um errors or issues with the ballot, and then it's sealed up.

And then before they're actually then trade to give to the Postal Service for mailing, each one of those inserted ballots, the outgoing envelope, are run through our one of our four mail sorters to identify that that voter who's gonna be receiving that ballot has been is gonna be mailed a ballot.

If for some reason there was some error and a a batch of ballots was printed a second time and inserted a second time at the point at the moment we then tried to uh sort those ballots a second time, the system would indicate this voter has already received a ballot, that ballot will be outsourced and not mailed.

There are possibilities, as I said, if we get inform for maintaining the voter roll, if we get information from the voter or an official government source, we have five business days to make that update.

So at any given point in time, there may be a voter that has two records because they updated something and it hasn't been merged at that point.

There there wasn't enough similarity between the two documents where the state didn't automatically merge them, and it was sent down to us to evaluate to see whether they could be merged.

So that's a process that we're doing every day, but it is possible to run a voter file where there are still some records that haven't been updated by that that fifth business day yet.

So you will periodically get a situation where somebody may get two ballots because they had two registration records at the time we ran that that registration file.

But if they tried to send both of those back, by the time we mail them, we've now merged those records.

We know that they're for one voter.

If they tried to cast both those ballots, we would only accept the first one, and then if there was a second one that came in, we'd refer that voter to the district attorney for investigation of trying to vote twice.

So on that note, I guess you you're able to say adamantly that there's never been one person that's voted more than once that hasn't been caught.

I I'm I'm saying that when let me let me rephrase it.

So with that process in place in the the Obviously, the district attorney has charged the women in Costa Mesa.

Right.

No, I no, I'm not talking about that, but every person who's with that system in place, anybody who's ever voted twice would be caught.

A hundred percent.

They should be.

And you can stand behind that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Pretty strong statement.

Um, can you explain the one more time?

Maybe you kind of touch on it with with councilman twining, the online voter registration.

Um forget about is there other ways to do it other than tell me about the online voter registration.

Let me just ask that.

Yeah, so the Secretary of State has an online registration portal.

Um, and as I mentioned, you can if you're at the DMV or doing something online with the DMV, under the federal motor voter um law, the way that California's implemented that is that a voter doing any voter doing something to the DMV has to proactively say no, I don't want to register or update my registration.

If they don't check the no box, the DMV is going to provide their new information to the Secretary of State to update their registration.

If they've made no changes, then it should everything should you know be combined, it shouldn't create any issues.

Where one of the things I can share is the one election where things happening the DMV without people paying attention that does create an issue is in the presidential primary election.

That is the only election where there are actually party ballots to vote for each party's um nominees for president that are going to be um selected by those parties for them to be on the ballot in November.

And there are traditionally there have been three parties that have chosen to allow no party preference voters to vote in their primary, and three that have required no party preference voters to change the registration to that party to be able to get their ballot.

Um and so typically what every time we have that election, we have a certain number of people, and we're required to do a lot of outreach to no non-party, no party preference voters, uh a number of different ways: mail, online, email, any way we can get a hold of them, we're supposed to reach out to them to let them know about this choice they have.

And we will have voters who will come in and say, I've always voted with this party.

How come I'm getting an MPP ballot?

And I will tell you almost every time we look at their record, it's because they did something in the last few months at the DMV and didn't realize that they didn't check no, they didn't want to update the registration, and then when they didn't pick a party preference as part of those screens, it automatically then made them a no party preference voter because they didn't select a party at that step.

Okay, fair enough.

Am I able to sit at home and I've been registered forever, so I I've never had to register online.

Can I sit at home and pull up a website and register to vote?

Yes.

Okay, so you you kind of touched on it.

I guess it comes down to whether or not somebody wants to perjure themselves, right?

Because it's it they say yes, I'm a citizen or yes, right?

Yeah.

Well, as I meant, as was mentioned when I was talking to the mayor, if there's a federal office on the election ballot, then the help America voter act America vote act requires that voters at the time they register provide proof of identity.

So as I mentioned that we've got a tenth of one percent of our 1.9 million voters who have not provided that proof of identity and have been flagged that we when we have the primary election in June, if they haven't provided that proof of identity, we're not going to be counting any ballot they cast.

So, but you would mail to them?

Yes, because under state law, their registration is not fatally flawed, it's still under state law, you just have to attest under penalty perjury that you are eligible, that ever all the information you provided is accurate.

It's only when it comes to federal elections that we have to then do the additional step of making sure that they have provided proof of identity.

I mean, why wouldn't they do that at a state level?

I mean, you know, policies are set at state levels.

If we're gonna do it in a federal election, the process is in place.

Why would they not do that?

Just curious.

That decision was made long before I became a register, so I'm not sure.

I mean, you're right, that is a policy decision.

It's something that they could change if they wanted to.

Uh it's something that this council or the board of supervisors could advocate for Sacramento to do.

Whether they would actually entertain that, I you know, I can't tell you.

I don't think they would.

Do we use the national change of address?

Yes.

We do.

Okay.

Um, so let me let's go through here.

Oh, is there any validity to when someone says there's more voters counted than are on the rolls?

More votes cast.

Like two million votes cast and we have 1.8 million uh on the rolls.

You hear that.

Is there validity to that?

Typically not.

Well, first let's go yes or no.

I I can't definitively say yes or no until I see the data they're looking at.

So sometimes I will find that the person saying that has looked at the number of ballot cards that have been scanned as opposed to the number of ballots, because typically in a primary or general election, there may be two or three cards for each ballot.

And so there I've had a situation before where somebody says you have twice as many ballots as you have voters who cast a ballot.

What is that?

And I'd figure out that they got that information from the cast vote records.

There's a cast vote record for every ballot card, not for every ballot, so they basically double counted.

Um there is a it could be somebody may say there are um more voters in a specific precinct that cast a ballot than you had registered voters on the roll.

When and that is possible, typically it'll be a precinct that has a college campus on it.

And what will happen is that on the on the results, the number of voters on the results report is based on how many voters there were 15 days before election day, and that number does not change on the results.

It's based on that number.

Under California law, somebody can do same day registration and voting a ballot.

So in a you know, in the November 24 election at the vote center at UCI, for every one voter that was already on the rolls, two more came and registered at the vote center.

So obviously, when you look at that data, it's gonna look like there's more people voting a ballot than there are there were voters at 15 days before election day.

But only people who actually registered by the time they cast the ballot will actually be counted.

So there's that possibility.

The other thing that I will find is sometimes somebody will state a number that doesn't include all the ballots.

It may they may say that you've got more in the count than you actually had people casting a ballot, but the report that they looked at may not use, may not include provisional voters, which if somebody votes a provisional ballot, that's confidential.

It's not something that's gonna be on a report.

It wouldn't include somebody who's a confidential voter.

Uh it wouldn't include somebody who voted in jail.

So there are certain subsets of voters.

But the number would match the registrations, though, the voter registrations, correct?

Yeah.

That last example was given that somebody mentioned earlier before I spoke about how some of the numbers from this election weren't balancing in their mind.

And I was trying to explain that the reason for that is that there are certain ballots that weren't in the reports that that person was looking at.

In terms of more voters than there are registered voters, those are the two examples that I've come in contact with, which is that somebody looked at the cast vote records, which there's one for every single ballot card, and basically double counted ballots, or it's been a precinct where there's been a lot of conditional voter registrations, like at a college campus like UCI or or Cal State Fullerton.

What is Florida do that we don't?

Well, why why are they so why are you?

In terms of what, sir?

Why are they why are they able to be so efficient and so accurate and so expeditious?

What are they doing?

This is a genuine question.

That we don't.

So the two main differences that I know about the law for elections in California versus Florida that contribute to the speed of the results being presented, is that Florida requires all mail ballots to be received on election day.

California allows them to be postmarked by election day and received up to seven days later.

They also only provide voters three days to cure it.

Not to interject, but I've heard that the votes have been counted beyond the postmark of seven days.

Is that a fact?

Are you going to be are you?

Are you able to tell me that a postmark ballot on the eighth day has never been counted or ninth or tenth?

Every ballot that we count has to have a postmarked on it that shows it was postmarked by election day, either before in this last election, either by November 4th or before it.

If the post and so of all the ballots we received after election day during that, what's supposed to be seven days, but because seven days after was uh a holiday, we actually had until eight days after to receive ballots from the Postal Service.

Of all those ballots we received after election day from the Postal Service, there were only five that did not have a postmark on them.

Um and so then the next step, if there's no postmark actually applied to the envelope, there will be a fluorescent barcode that the Postal Service has added to the envelope as part of their processing.

We have a special scanner that we can use to scan that barcode, which includes the information about when that entered the the mail system.

So if that barcode shows that the piece the ballot was in the mail system by November 4th, then we will accept it as being not too late.

If there's no postmark, there's no barcode, then state law requires me to go by the date that the voter wrote on the envelope.

That's very in that happens almost never, but that's the next step.

If if we can't have if there's no postmark and there's no barcode that we can check, then state law requires us to base the timeliness of the ballot based on the date that the voter said they signed the envelope.

Okay.

But in terms of receiving ballots after E plus 7 or in this election, eight days after election, the only ones that we will still process are ones where somebody had an Orange County ballot, and rather than dropping it off in an Orange County drop box or dropping it off at a Orange County vote center, they put it into an LA County drop box, or they went they were someplace else in the state and they dropped it in some other county's drop box.

We're required under state law.

If in Orange County, if we receive a mail ballot from another county, we have eight days from when we receive that ballot to forward it to that other county.

So there is a possibility that we received ballots after Wednesday last week that have been forwarded from another county.

But as long as they had the timely postmark of November 4th or earlier.

Yeah, I'm not talking about when they arrive at the registrar's office.

I'm talking about with their postmarks.

So I mean, are you confident and comfortable saying if in E plus 7 in this case E plus 8 because of uh Veterans Day that no ballot with the postmark of the 12th or later would have said or E7 on other uh election dates has never been counted?

I'm not aware of when that happened.

Every time we every ballot that comes in after election day, there are there are people who are reviewing the postmark to make sure that it's pro that it's timely, and they're doing that under a camera so that if somebody's observing, they can watch them actually check the postmark.

And so that's happening.

Every ballot that comes in after election day, they are checking the postmark before they even take a next step.

Okay.

On the third party um address when you're you were referencing um the the three bureaus experience.

How many third party address notices go out and how many come back?

Is it and what what happens to those that don't come back?

I don't have the exact numbers I could follow up with you in terms of that.

I know that the percentage is not high of responses that we get.

I my guess would be it's about 20%.

Those that do not respond, I can't make any changes to the voter record unless I get information from another official government source or from the voter that they've moved.

So what do you do in that case?

And by the way, just 20%'s a big number.

And all I can use from an election standpoint is usually there's pretty big deltas, uh, not 20% in a winner or loser, but you know, I can cite, you know, a longtime friend in and cohort of Huntington Beach, our Orange County supervisor who's won many elections in a million vote cast election, and I went back and looked at the at the uh the OC vote.

She won by three votes.

Yeah, we had a school district in the last five years.

Yeah, so I mean, when you talk about, you know, air, we can't just randomly say it's 20%, five percent.

That's a big difference, you know, and in the mission statement where you you your goal is accuracy and confidence.

From a personal level, I'd have to say the mission statement is failing when you have a large majority of people don't have confidence in the system.

And which is why presentations like this are important, that I am here to answer those questions and provide information and to remind people that that elections are completely transparent.

If they want to watch us process ballots, we open up our doors for them to do so.

Well, I mean, you you hear about scenarios that are or you know, signed affidavits where the the volunteers had to be moved to areas where they weren't able to witness everything that they should.

And we can get into that.

I guess the the let me ask you one one final question.

Let my uh co-counsel ask their questions.

Um there must be room to improve.

It's it's not a perfect system.

And when you have elections, it almost has to be perfect because if there's room to improve, there's room for air, and if there's room for air, there's room for um failure.

Is that a fair statement?

Um, as I mentioned in my presentation, we have a culture of process improvement, and that if there is an error, we are um trying to get to the root cause of why that error happens so that we can make sure it doesn't happen again.

Obviously, there's humans who are working in my office, and when when something doesn't go the way it's supposed to, we identify that, we make we make sure we improve processes so it doesn't happen again.

I said those my last questions, but I do have a last question for now.

Um you don't have to go back a decade or now, but uh let the public know your last three process improvements.

Oh, come on.

I mean, this is you this is your baby.

I mean, uh you would take pride in a process improvement.

No, I do, I do.

Yeah, so give me three of them, please.

Well, the for this election, because it was called only 75 days before, we we couldn't do a whole lot of changes.

We were we had to make sure that we did the basics to find as many vote centers as we could.

Let's take this one out of the you know, well, no, I just but the but in that election, the one thing that we did was because I mentioned at UCI in November 24, we had two voters for every one, every one voter who was registered.

There were two that were registering on the spot, which created long lines up to four hours at one point.

So we evaluated how we could better process voters at UCI and other college campuses to make sure that those lines did not happen again.

And so we instituted a pre-check-in process where um we found out before people got in line were they registered or not.

If they weren't, they went to an area to be able to fill out an affidavit or register um on their phones and then wait until that registration showed up on the system so that they could be checked in.

Um and that improved um that process um significantly.

It's something we'll continue to look at and tweak.

Um, the other thing that has happened recently is the state authorized that if somebody marks their vote by mail ballot at home and they want to still vote at a vote center in person, as long as they sign the roster when they show up, they can actually scan that that vote by mallet and uh vote by mail ballot without putting it in the envelope when they deposit it.

Um, and so that's something that's available to voters.

They can still, if they don't want to wait, if they want to stand on the check-in line and they don't want to sign the roster, they can still just drop off their mail ballot.

But if they do want to actually be the person scanning that ballot they marked at home as long as they sign the roster, they they're allowed to do that.

So those are two uh recent examples of of things that we've done.

Um, but in a you know, between 22 and 24, there were probably a couple hundred minor process improvements we did.

Okay, fair enough.

Andrew.

All right.

Uh Mr.

Page, thank you so much for coming.

Really appreciate it.

I know this is a hot and contentious topic, so you know, it obviously shows a lot of integrity that you came and you came so quickly.

Um, and so we do appreciate that.

Uh I, you know, I kind of look at this uh as like a life cycle here, right?

So you've got the you know, the source of origin, the distribution of the ballot, right, especially with mail-in, and then ultimately you've got the operations on site which you run and then the cleanup in the afterwards.

So I'm just gonna kind of try and be really respectful of your time rapid fire a couple questions that I think are generic questions that can pull people into where they need to find these answers.

Because it's it the truth is that there's so much information out there.

I'm not gonna say miss or dish, but just information I think a lot of people don't even understand how the system works and you've been explaining it with a lot of clarity today.

I should also say specific to being on site and going through and taking the tour like it from an operations perspective it's an unbelievable operation there is you know you can tell that there's a lot of integrity and you put a lot of time into the on-site operation and um I pre- I appreciate that so it because it almost seems as if a lot of the questions that are being asked today and that we've been given also from the outside there are areas in which you don't necessarily have control over like I said that source of origin of the ballot so I just want to I want to make that clear because so first just a couple basic questions.

So what during the counting process I recall during the during the tour that room that's locked down when you're doing the final tally that's never connected to the internet correctly correct that's correct that's the tally room is air gapped and we also have dual factor authentication for anybody to get in that we limit it to about a half dozen people who even are allowed access to that room but every single workstation in the tally room is not connected to the internet so when ballots are scanned in the the scan room in the warehouse the all the information from those ballots has to be saved on backed up onto a thumb drive and walked into the tally room to be uploaded.

Okay so that was my next question was the the thunder thumb drive so people understand that and those there are windows there so everybody can look in and see that I would also highly encourage anybody who's watching this right now to go and I don't want to inundate you with too many people I don't know what the schedule's like when they do that but I think everybody should actually go down and and watch this and continue to ask questions.

One thing I found fascinating was the storage of the ballots so you actually have to keep in the event that there's um uh a lawsuit or a question about anything how long do you keep the ballots um it depends on on whether there's federal offices so if there's federal offices on the ballot we're required to store securely I can't even access them.

Once we're done with the election I have to seal the boxes and I without a corridor I can't access those ballots I have to store them for uh for 22 months and then if there is no election challenge litigation that's been filed that's ongoing there's no district attorneys investigation of criminal behavior regarding the election then I'm mandated by the state to destroy all of the ballots at that point after 22 months we always make sure that we contact the DA's office before we actually take that step because we don't want to um delete any evidence that they may need for anything that they're working on.

For this election we're conducting now when it's just a state election we only have to store it for six months.

Okay six months by the state got it 22 months federally um and then um you you also said that uh it was a tenth of one percent of the ballots that were questionable right can you just clarify what I meant a tenth of one percent of the voters of the of the voters that had issues with the that have not yet that have been flagged because they have not provided proof of identity okay okay perfect thank you and then also um in regards to the somebody mentioned in the comments and I just wanted to make this clear because I also don't you know I I think there's some things that you can control and other things that are outside of your control the calling of the election that's that's not the that's the media that's just the media okay yeah all right yeah I mean there there's a and I and I get this because the media historically has called elections pretty quick.

Obviously this one their polling indicated that they could call it as soon as the polls closed at 8 p.m.

But a lot of because of changes in the way prior to Prop 50, the creation of an independent commission to create districts without paying attention to political party preference or anything else, looking for um communities that should be together, that has created closer contests.

The um threat and litigation of cities, school districts, and special districts to go from at-large representation like the city council has here to going to by district, creates districts with smaller pool of voters to vote, which ends up with with closer elections.

So I would agree that there are closer elections, but it's not taking us any longer to process ballots than it did before.

Okay.

And then in regards to the um oh, the signature piece that that was was fascinating, right?

You have three three screens and everybody's kind of pulling up the signatures and looking at it.

Um they don't get any other information, so it's really just signature analysis, right there.

Do you foresee that in the future that that would end up being automated or like a there would be an AI approach to that, or is it always gonna be the the human eye?

We are we one of our process improvements we've been looking at since I've been there um starting in 22 is whether or not the first review could be used, we could use automated signature verification software for that first review.

Um we have not implemented it at this point because mentioned for a lot of voters the only signature we have is their DMV signature, which is very low resolution.

So the software does not work real well with low resolution images.

So we've been working to make sure that as we accept ballots, we're making sure all of those accepted signatures are being added um to the registration records.

We're sending out paper affidavits people, encouraging them to give us a handwritten signature so we can improve the quality of those signatures so that the there'll be value in actually implementing the automated signature verification software for that first review.

If that software challenges the signature and says it doesn't compare to the signature on file, the state law will still require two humans in my office to agree that there are significant differences between the signature on the envelope and in the file.

Got it.

Okay, and then I just want to pull together there's been bits and pieces about the dog voting, and you know, I'm gonna push back into a heavy topic here.

You know, I I want to make it clear for those who are watching at home.

So what you're saying is it's not like Marmaduke is walking in there and pulling the lever, right?

You know, Scooby-Doo's not getting crazy in the ballot room.

I think I would notice a paw print on a ballot.

What it so what it is is is that it's that somebody is registering on a state level and they are attesting um that they you know, by obviously they're perjuring themselves and saying, Oh, this is a person, right?

Or or to Butch's point about when they register if it's somebody who's on who's illegal and isn't here, they're saying, Yes, I'm doing this.

But that the framework of a rule has nothing to do with you, right?

That's on a state level.

So if somebody if if theoretically people who have a problem with that ever wanted to change that, that wouldn't be in your office, that would be Sacramento.

Yeah, in order to do more on that situation, yeah, I would need a change in state statute.

Okay, but as I as I mentioned, even with a case with the Costa Mesa woman who created the fictitious registration using her dog's name, as soon as I was given information about that situation by Mr.

Gates, I forwarded it to DA the same day to investigate, and they investigate it and they they filed charges.

So that's what I can do.

If I get information from people that, hey, I know my neighbor's getting a ballot, but he's not a citizen or she's not a citizen, I'll forward that to the district attorney to look into.

Okay, yeah.

Personally under state law have the authority to verify somebody's citizenship if they attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.

Okay, yep.

And I just wanted to make that clear that in that system that that is something so that people who do have grievances with it, they understand they need to they need to address this with their assembly people, they need to address it with senators.

It's not, you know, writing you emails isn't gonna change anything.

Um the and there and there is a a bill in Washington DC that's in the Senate, the Save Act that could potentially require uh voters to provide proof of citizenship.

For the initial registration process.

Well, actually, the way the Save Act is written, it's it's written for the initial and every time somebody updates the registration, so every time they move, um, every time they change their political party preference, they would be required to come into my office and provide documentary proof of citizenship.

So it would be even more um have more requirement than even having a real ID where you just do it once and then you have that real ID.

The way the Save It Act is written right now, it would require people to come in every time they updated the registration, which is why when it passed through the House of Representatives and was pushed onto the Senate.

I pointed out that serving those voters to make sure that eligible voters could actually stay on the voter rolls would cost about six million dollars a year for my office to make sure that we could serve all of those voters.

You know, we in 24 we had 847,000 registration transactions in the county, you know, an average of 81,000 a month.

That's a lot of people to serve.

So they would under this hypothetical, they would come into the office and then they would present the ID and then your team, so you would obviously expand your team.

I mean, I'd have to basically double my staff.

Okay.

And get new space to house them.

Does the um of the number of registered voters in Orange County?

What just and that this is a little bit off topic, but what percentage of them are voting?

And I know it changes a little bit by election, but is it like a 50%?

I think I saw in the last numbers or yeah.

So I I think this election will probably end up somewhere in the 50% range.

Um presidential general election, it will be 70 to 78 percent, depending on who's on the ballot.

Yep.

Um, we had a little had there were less voters in 24 than there were in uh less participation in 24 than there was in 2020.

Um, but you know, typically your your presidential general election has the highest turnout.

Um, final question.

When you look at, you know, in in the world of of um registrar voters, do you look is there a North Star for you that you look at another city or within the state or even outside the state and you say they're doing it, or are we the North Star?

Is there a rating system?

Because I know that there has been uh in Orange County, I I and I I apologize in the presentation, I get that didn't get the specific um award, if you will, but kind of what do you look towards?

Yeah, I'm very active in the statewide association of county elections officials and county clerks.

Um we're constantly sharing information with each other.

So if some other county has a good idea, I'm gonna see if we can apply it here.

Um if I think we're doing something good, I'll share that with those other counties and try to give them some help.

So I see it as my role as one of the one of the largest counties in the in the state to be that resource for smaller counties.

But even if if a small county has a good idea, I'm gonna steal it.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate your time.

Hey Mr.

Bob Page, thank you again for uh taking the time to be with us.

We really appreciate it.

Yeah, to your right.

Um, I guess along the lines of uh, you know, ideas.

How if I could ask, how long have you been with the OCROV?

Uh I was appointed by the former CEO on March 11, 2022.

Prior to that, I was a registrar of voters for San Bordino County from July 2018 until I came to Orange County.

And then in terms of uh, you know, ideas and iron sharpening iron and looking at other places and what are they doing?

Um, you're obviously in the business of honing the craft and and trying to come up with the most secure systems possible.

And so if you're if you're looking to come up with ideas that would make things more secure, I guess why not the idea of voter ID?

I don't know how that's partisan, it's just it's an idea that would make things more secure.

Yeah, I if I characterize it as partisan, that wasn't my intent.

I characterize that as a policy position.

So I don't see my role as an administrative elections as being somebody who takes policy positions.

If my Board of Supervisors takes a policy position about elections, then it's my job to advocate for that.

But I don't not the one that the board of supervisors is the only body in Orange County government that has the authority to take policy positions.

And I guess kind of going back to the the infamous dog, yeah, that's voted.

Uh how many how many elections did it vote in here in Orange County before it finally was caught?

How many votes were counted under this fictitious dog?

Yeah, so as I mentioned, what the district attorney's press release says is that the woman in Costa Mesa voted two ballots um in two different elections, the 21 governor uh recall election and the 22 primary election.

The press release says that because it's been mentioned that state law only requires a voter to attest on a penalty of perjury, that they are eligible to vote.

The ballot for the 21 recall was actually accepted for counting.

Um the ballot that was cast by the woman uh according to the press release in the 22 primary was rejected, was not accepted for counting because the registration never provided proof of identity, other under the Help America Vote Act.

So safe to say that it was proof of ID that finally authenticated or at least.

I would say that what led to the prosecution was the voter herself admitting to it to Mr.

Gates.

But at the end of the day, I guess the only way to really verify, right, was because of voter ID.

Well, under Hava, it's proof of identity.

So what typically is talked about with voter ID is in-person voting, that somebody showing up to vote in a polling place or a vote center has to provide ID of some sort to be able to sign the roster, as opposed to what state law now says, which is the voter just has to state their name and their address and then sign under penalty of perjury that they are the voter.

Um so that when people when people talk about voter ID, that's what they're talking about.

Is in-person voters being required to show ID before they're given a ballot.

Um for people who vote by mail, which is still a large percentage, uh, in the November 24 election, um 22 per 22 and a half percent of people voted in person, the rest voted by mail.

But depending on the election, like this election, it's probably gonna be closer to 90 percent voted by mail.

Um, that the vote by mail ballots, what we do is we do the signature comparison, which has been talked about here.

There's no voter ID associated with vote by mail.

Okay, and then along the lines of uh, you know, this vote by mail, I guess the only way to really authenticate that a person is who they claim to be is by checking their signatures.

Currently in state law, currently under state law, yeah.

I've heard proposals from from to Sacramento about adding um an ID number requirement to the ballot, but right now state law just requires us to do signature verification.

Yeah, and just kind of coming at this from a common sense off the street perspective, it's you know amazing because we all have conversations, and yeah, I'm astonished by the fact that, like, the signature that's on my driver's license looks absolutely nothing like my signature two years later.

Right.

And that signature looks nothing like the signature another couple years after that, and I mean the evolution of signatures, signatures, people's signatures change.

I don't know, yeah.

You know, and we and we have to account for changes over time.

Um, and to that point, I I'll help you make it is that the voters who have their their signatures rejected at the highest rate are voters who are young or voting in their first election.

I guess what's remarkable to me is just how many times I voted with different signatures and didn't get you know kickback in the past.

And I'm I mean, we're basically just kind of taking people in and training them on the spot, maybe for a couple few days, and they're gonna eyeball it.

And I'm just thinking if somebody was nefarious, and one thing I have learned in the military is it doesn't take a very small or it doesn't take a very big group of people to, you know, overthrow or influence governments.

If somebody was able to get their hands on, let's say a hundred ballots, uh, maybe it's elderly convalescent people, maybe it's a mix of people that have left the state, they're no longer here, but they managed to get their hands on a hundred ballots and they just decide I'm gonna fill out these ballots, you know, for these people, and I'm gonna try and make signatures match as best as I can if I could get my hands on their signatures, or if not, I'm just gonna kind of throw it out there and throw a signature on there.

Like my signature looked nothing like what it does on the driver's license.

Yeah, maybe they don't have uh 100% success rate, and some of those signatures get rejected, but it would seem to be the case that many of those signatures would get through, and I guess you don't really have a way of catching that person if that's what they're doing.

And if you multiply that, you know, you can extrapolate it from that person gets their hand on a hundred ballots to maybe a thousand ballots, and maybe it's a team of ten doing what I'm asking.

Hey, what I'm asking, like I said, in my experience, all right, traveling the world.

Being a part of special, it doesn't take many people to influence and overthrow governments.

It is not difficult to do.

I just presented what I believe would be one way to get votes through the system.

If if someone knew how to get their hands, so how many ballots?

You said 176,000 came off the roll because people were either deceased or are moved, change of address.

Well, yeah, the hundred the hundred and seventy-six thousand that we canceled earlier this year were actually on the inactive roll, and they they were placed on the inactive voter roll prior to the 22 general election.

Typically, somebody is added to the inactive role because of undeliverable mail that comes back to us, or there the mail comes back to us with a forwarding address that's out of the state.

If it's a forwarding address that's within the state, their registration moves to that new county.

Um but if the if there's no forwarding address or if there's a forwarding address that's out of the state, we make them inactive, we send them a notice that's forwardable that that says it, you know, if you do not update your registration by the second November even number election, we are canceling you.

And then once we get to that point, we send them one more photo note saying in 15 days you're gonna be canceled, and then we canceled 176,000.

Through the beginning of September, we actually count canceled about 195,000 voters, which would include then your deceased voters, voters who were incarcerated in state prison for a felony, uh found by uh a court to be incompetent in some way and not able to vote, um, or they canceled on their own because they moved out of the state.

So there are we're constantly working working those records.

Okay, so it's kind of back to that question too.

Suppose there's some highly motivated bad actors that want to fill out people act like there's not bad people out there in the world, it's wild.

And it doesn't take that many of them.

How would you how would you be able to stop somebody or a team like that?

How do you stop them?

Well, as you mentioned, we verify signatures, so if somehow they were able to get a hold of signatures and and um forge those signatures, that would be a place where we wouldn't catch that.

It would require us to be told by somebody that that somebody was doing that.

Um they could do that at scale.

I've there's not been any cases of that happening, but you haven't caught it under under, is it possible?

I can't say no.

Yeah, I guess it's almost like leaving the free.

We put as many different, you know, security measures in place as we can to try to catch that.

But ultimately, yeah, if somebody wants to break the law and they're committed enough, yeah, they'll find a way.

I think voter ID would make that one ironclad.

But if somebody was at the front door, if you left your front door unlocked, right, and you leave, you go, and then you come back.

How do you really know for sure if somebody went through that front door unless you have some type of a security system?

How are you going to bust somebody like this and unless you finally have actually busted them doing this in the process?

I'm just saying it's it's a way that bad actors could get through at scale.

Uh another example, right?

Um I think we have a couple of slides if we could uh pull that up, Shannon.

And this was presented by one of the speakers today, and I just redacted an address on there.

But you'll see that's the OC registrar of voters.

Uh, you know, that's one of the ballots, and you can clearly tell.

Maybe we can go to one of the other slides too, just to make it bigger for all the folks.

Uh you can see how their vote, you know, was indicated there.

Now let's suppose there's somebody that's harvesting ballots, because you can harvest ballots, right?

You can go to door to door and harvest ballots, collect ballots on behalf of other people.

State law authorizes voters to authorize any person they want to return their ballot.

Okay, so let's suppose you have one person or team of 10 people or 100 people going out there and they're harvesting ballots.

It's their legal right, they're legally allowed to do that.

Um, but before they go and turn in all of these ballots, they use a flashlight and they can indicate how so and so voted and just miraculously, you know, that ballot doesn't get turned into the OCROV.

I guess the only way to stop that.

It's not your turn.

Either shut up or go.

I will say that the truth is is that that experiment shining a flashlight, we tested our office, and you were able, if you put the flashlight in the right place, you could see how the ballot was marked.

Okay.

Well, it says special election California, November 4th, 2025.

All three photographs pertaining to the 11-4 2025 election.

Uh, it's another example.

I I remember I was actually there that day, October 7th.

Can I just say one more thing about the example you brought up?

So, um, you are correct that a voter can authorize any person that they want to return their ballot.

Um, what I advocate and I educate voters about is that they should only give their ballot to somebody they trust, and then they should verify that trust by signing up for ballot tracking so that when their ballot is received by my office, they'll get a text notification or an email saying that their ballot was turned in to the register of voters, and if it's not, then contact me.

Yeah, and I mean we can suggest that people don't trust princes that call from Africa to send them, you know, Bitcoin.

But unfortunately, people get scammed.

There are scammers out there and they're very successful at doing it.

Um, going back to last year, October 17th, it was at a meet and greet when we were campaigning, and I remember exactly where we're standing on Twilight Drive when there was a gentleman that walked up and and with a ballot in hand, wanted to know if the city attorney was around and approached him, and I'm standing right there.

This guy says, Hey, you know, family member of mine who is not American citizen, he is living with me, he was given a ballot from the OCRV.

Is that possible?

And is that even permissible?

Is that allowed?

The answer the answer simply was like absolutely not.

And so we all stood around saying, How can this be?

And I guess that would be the question.

Like, how can this be?

Yeah, so um that was referred to me by Mr.

Gates as well, and that example was referred to the uh secretary of state for looking into.

Um, as I've mentioned before, without specifically talking to that example and and violating that voter's confidentiality, we only register people who have checked the box under penalty of perjury, that they are citizens.

Now, in cases where that lady signed up a fictitious dog, I guess a stranger could sign up many fictitious people, right?

And what are you gonna go do?

Go after a fictitious person?

I mean, how do you unwind it?

How do you follow it back?

If a fictitious person did get signed up and they vote, how do you know that that's a fictitious person?

And how do you get back to the person that signed them up if they're hiding behind anonymity?

I guess that lady, the only reason you got her, right?

Is because she came forward and said, I did this, but how many countless others are there out there that we don't know about that could be doing it?

At the very least, they've been shown the game plan on how to do it.

This is how you do it, just don't go call the press and the consequences are six years in prison, and as I mentioned, under federal law, voters are required to give proof of identity when they register.

So if somebody creates a fictitious registration and doesn't provide a driver's license or Cal ID or last for the social that matches the information they put on that affidavit, they're gonna be flagged as not being able to vote in a federal election.

Yeah, so I guess it's just and before, as I mentioned, before every election, if we've if say it's under your scenario, they they've created 10 or more fictitious registrations all at the same address.

We are reviewing every single address in our county that has 10 or more voters to confirm whether or not that address can actually have 10 people at it.

What if they're not you know that dumb to do that?

They would choose maybe like 10 names and 10 addresses.

Yeah, so as I said, then you're looking at did they provide proof of identity?

And if they haven't, then they're not gonna be able to successfully vote in a federal election.

But they can vote in the the local elections, no problem.

They won't get caught, just stay off the feds radar.

Well, right now, under your charter, this the municipal elections are held in concert with a federal election.

So somebody, as long as you keep your municipal elections in November of even numbered years, that federal requirement will apply to the ballots that contain your contest on it.

It's just like the election we're holding right now, where there owes only a state question on the ballot, and there's nothing else where that uh Hava ID does not apply.

Okay, so I mean I I'm going back to the dog thing, then how many elections did it vote in before it was caught?

As I mentioned, the the district attorney in their charging documents and in their press release said that the woman cast two ballots in two elections in the twenty-one Gubentroll recall election, which was a state election, no federal offices, and in the 22 primary election, which did have federal offices on it.

Okay.

And so just I guess just to recap, you know, I'm based off the picture that we see here.

If someone were harvesting ballots and persuading people to hand them over to them, and if they had a way that they could distinguish which way that person voted, they would be able to dump them if they voted the way that they didn't want them to, and obviously there is the threat of you know perjury or the that are doing prison time, but there's plenty of people that are willing to risk that our prisons are pretty full.

You know, there's bad actors out there in the world, and so there's no real way to stop, I guess, that scenario.

So that's a little concerning.

I'm just trying to think how do we lock that up?

I wouldn't agree with that.

As I mentioned, I encourage voters to sign up for ballot tracking.

So if somebody, if they give their ballot to somebody and then it doesn't show up in my office, they'll find out.

Yeah, and and then they'll go through the paperwork and say, hey, send me another ballot, I'll I'll do it again.

Ballot, yeah.

And I think I think I've even had that happen, you know, to myself where my vote didn't wind up getting counted, and so I had to go back.

But not everyone does that.

In fact, a a large, a large amount of people don't do that.

So it's kind of a reverse-engineered, you know, way to stop it.

I mean, when we find out about significant things like was mentioned earlier about a postal vehicle that was uh all the mail in it was stolen on the day that ballots were being delivered.

We found out about that, confirmed it with the postal service, and identified all the addresses that had mail on that truck.

We can't we canceled all of those ballots so that it could not be voted, and we mailed replacement ballots to all those voters.

In maybe the last couple of elections, like how many people have reached out to the OCRV telling them my ballot seems like it didn't make it?

I I don't have that number handy.

I could get that to you if that's if that's something you want in terms of how many replacement ballots we issue every election.

Could you ballpark it?

Nothing exact.

No.

Tens or hundreds or thousands.

I I don't want to guess a number.

I'd rather typically I don't memorize all this data.

I know where to find it.

So if I get asked a question, I look it up and provide real data.

So I would prefer not to ballpark something I haven't looked at recently.

I guess how would we stop like 10 people that are highly motivated to gather a bunch of ballots and sign on behalf of others and just you know accept that maybe a large percentage of them don't make it through.

How do we stop that?

You have to actually catch them doing it, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is how people running a red light get caught.

Somebody has to see them doing it.

All right.

Um, but the point is they are doing it.

Well, I don't, if I had proof that somebody was doing it, I would refer it to the district attorney.

So we're talking about hypotheticals here.

Right, no, it's understood, but I think not to interrupt uh councilman Williams, but um, you know, let's agree that it does happen at what scale we don't know, but it does happen.

It's that's a fair shape.

I'm not gonna agree to that.

I whatever I suspect I forward to the district attorney, and if they find enough evidence, they prosecute, such as they did the woman from Costa Mesa.

Chad.

May I ask one quick question?

Chad.

How would you catch somebody right that's doing that?

How would you catch them?

At best you might get a signature that didn't match, but you didn't catch that person.

How are you catching that person that did that?

Especially if they're smart and they know to cover up their tracks.

They're not.

How do you catch them?

If somebody tries to, in the examples I gave, if somebody tries to cast two ballots, we refer them to district attorney for investigation.

If we get information from somebody that somebody voted illegally, committed fraud, isn't eligible, we refer that for investigation to the district attorney.

So you can only do it if you got information.

So I'm just saying if there's a person or if we've found information, if that could come if there's a situation, say there's a household where there are say four voters, two parents and two kids, and we reject three of the ballots in that household because the signatures did not compare.

And then we go back and we look at all four ballots, and we believe that the one ballot that was accepted was signed the other three ballots, that person's getting referred to the district attorney for investigation.

Okay, I'm I'm gonna put my I'm gonna put my place in in the feet of a bad actor.

Right.

That's probably not the way they would do that.

All right, I'm guessing the way that they would do it is they'd get their hands on ballots from all over the place, not in just one particular place to bring a lot of heat on that one address.

They would do it from all over the place.

And then they'd gather them up and they would just fill them out, get the signatures on them, vote a certain way.

And if you guys reject even half of those signatures, you reject half of those signatures and you send mail back or whatever, but they got through.

They got through with the other half.

And the only way to bust that person for doing that is if somebody rats them out or they get caught in the process of doing it.

But if they're good at what they do, they're not gonna have somebody writing them out, and they're not gonna get caught in the process of doing it.

At worst, I guess their only risk is that they might not get as many votes through if they didn't do a good job of putting a signature down.

And my whole point too is that it's kind of just funny on the street.

People will say, Yeah, my signature doesn't match anything like my driver's license.

My signature looks completely different, and my ballot gets accepted all the time.

Well, I mean, in your case, if you only registered once, you've never you've never moved, you've never changed a political party, you've never re-registered for any reason.

Never move.

I mean, I've moved all over the place, but had to re-register when you move.

Always been in California home address.

Yeah.

What I'm saying is every time you moved, you had to re-register.

So a new signature was was acquired.

I guess how no, it's going from the signature that you have on your driver's license.

At some point, there's a different signature.

Maybe it's when I moved.

Now I got a new signature when I move.

So which one are you gonna count?

Which one's the real Chad?

The first review, we're looking at the most recent signature in the file.

If that signature is found to not compare by the first person reviewing them, we look at all signatures in the file.

And so there could be 10 different kinds of signatures by the same person.

Which one's the real person?

If I'm not alone on this, I know many people have signatures that look very different than they did when they were younger or when they were middle-aged or when they're elder, it changes.

So, like, which one's the real one?

The law requires us to look for similarities in the signatures and to look at all the signatures, not to make a determination of which signature is the real one.

Okay, and then I just think the common person off the street would tell you my signature doesn't look anything similar to what it did when I was younger.

And if and if we identify those, we mail them a letter a couple months after the election, encourage them to sign a new affidavit to give us a handwritten signature that as it exists today.

So we can use that for comparison the next time.

Okay, I I got I won't take any more time.

Thank you.

I also um would like to thank you for coming.

Actually, I'm surprised because we're a very passionate city, and um, having that we're the only city in the state of California where we put uh voter ID on the ballot and it passed um pretty important to us.

Um so number one, I'm one of those people whose signature does not match my the way I sign my ballot doesn't match my ID.

And I do have to thank your tracking system for giving me peace of mind for that because um when I got on counsel, I used to sign different, you know, when I'm at home.

I wasn't in a rush, and then I got on counsel, and when I was the mayor, I was signing all these certificates.

So I kind of changed my signature so it wouldn't hurt my hand and get carpal tunnels.

So um so I accidentally signed my ballot.

The way I signed the certificates looks nothing like it, and it was counted both the last two elections, wasn't done on purpose.

Um, but I did use the tracking system where it told me we received your ballot, and then later on it said we counted your ballot.

Um so the system does work great.

The signature matching has always concerned me because I am one of those people.

Um, also I actually did observe the signature verifications in 2018.

I went to observe in 2020, and I also stopped by in 2022.

A lot has changed.

When I was there in 2018, we were standing behind a person.

There was there was no partitions.

We were breathing on this person, and there were like, I don't know, 40 of us in there all crammed up.

It made me uncomfortable because I don't like to look over people.

Um, so it has improved significantly since I went out there in 18 and 20.

So thank you for taking those steps.

Which means there's room for change.

And I'm not asking you any gotcha question.

Actually, I met you maybe last month at the Pacific Club.

You were on that panel, and I think you were at the OC forum, yeah.

Yes, and you thought I was going to ask you about the dog.

Because you the minute you saw my question, you're like, no dog has ever voted.

I assume somebody would.

Yes, but I didn't.

Um I was trying to respect the area.

So um, so some of the issues that we have, and one of the reasons that we don't trust the election system, I'm being one of them, being the daughter of immigrants who left their countries, not because they wanted to leave their mom and dad behind, moms and sisters' cultures and values behind, because they had to, because their vote didn't matter.

One of those countries is Mexico.

Right there, you don't only need an ID to vote, you need a voting credential to vote.

And look at the state that that place is in.

You can never take enough measures to make sure that our elections are safe.

And given that every single thing that we do within our day-to-day lives is based on politicians, legislation, we need to make sure that the people we put in those um seats are going to do what's in the best interest of the people, which is why it's so important.

Especially when you hear stories from your parents of how the government never listened to the people.

Um so that being said, voter ID is super important to us, and in your opinion, if we ask, I see if I see the smile, if uh we were to implement voter ID, would it have any detrimental effect in our elections that you can possibly think of?

If you were able to implement that, and you don't change your election day, so it happens on the same day as a statewide general election, the one concern I would have would be voter confusion.

Voters having to go to different locations to get a city ballot than they would to get a ballot with all the other contests on it, different rules at different locations, um, the potential that some with the city mailing out a ballot with the city offices in an envelope, and we're mailing out a ballot with all the other contests in an envelope.

I foresee the potential that somebody could mail the city ballot in their county envelope by accident.

So I see the potential for voter confusion if the election stays on the same day and there are separate elections.

Um do other cities in Orange County have different processes in place for their elections at all, or are we all the same?

Uh all the cities in Orange County consolidate their elections with the general election November even numbered years.

There are cities in LA County, charter cities that do conduct their own elections, but in Orange County, all 34 cities consolidate with the general election.

Yeah, that's what I was asking.

Um, so yeah, so just to clarify, thank you for that answer.

I and I understand because we've been sitting down trying to figure out what the best transition would be if we were to be able to implement the voter ID, how we would do it, because many other cities want to do what we do.

We do not think that asking for voter ID will disenfranchise voters.

We do not believe voter ID will target minorities.

I'm one, and um, you know, a lot of communities.

One of the excuses was that voter ID would disenfranchise community low-income communities of color.

You know, we we like resources, not brain cells.

So we always figured out how to get an ID.

And um, so my question is if we were to implement voter ID at a statewide level, do you believe that that would make our elections more secure, or do you not think it do you think it wouldn't make a difference?

If that became state law, I would implemented it.

Yeah, yeah, but but as a normal person, yeah.

Yeah, I you're I'm not gonna make a I'm not gonna get into a policy debate about what's better or what's not.

I I am an election administrator, you guys are policymakers.

If this is the direction you want to go, then you're pursuing it, obviously.

But I'm not gonna say it's the right way or it's the wrong way, okay?

If if it becomes state law, I will implement it.

Okay, so one of the concerns or if it became federal law.

If if Congress decided that they wanted to weigh in on how states conduct elections and require voter ID for in-person voting then I'd be required to implement it.

So well some of us we we just don't trust a whole lot because we've seen the ballots that people are getting when they're not citizens.

I was there when that gentleman handed up the ballot we know the dog got away with it and she pretty much turned herself in we have a problem with people when they go when they go to get an ID that you pretty much use the honor system that you're a citizen.

We shouldn't use the honor and it's not I know it's not a Mr Page issue but our concern is we shouldn't rely on the honor system to go out and vote.

We we need to verify and that's what our concerns there was a woman who came up to me you know people when we're out there and she came up to me and she said she signed her husband's ballot and submitted it because he couldn't make it back to sign the ballot and they counted it.

We saw that and you know the non citizens so there are it's not perfect.

So there are concerns there.

And and when you were given that information did you let us know so we could have that she came up to me during the two state fair and said hey thank you for everything you guys are doing I supported you guys but I'm telling you I'm worried about our elections I saw my husband she said hi bye and walked away I don't know who she is.

But I have no reason to not think she was telling me the truth because there really was no reason to share that.

But once I know something I can't and I understand myself I've got to do something with it.

I don't know what she was she just came up to me downtown and said something on the street fair.

I'm not gonna follow her home.

So anyway we're concerned we're not trying to be difficult here in Huntington Beach.

We are concerned and we do have valid issues that have come brought to us and that's why we're asking these questions number one I also want to thank you for being so respectful professional and not being condescending to our concerns you've answered every question in a very respectful manner and that means a lot to us um when we have people thank you so when you have people that we say there are concerns and they say oh no the system's perfect nothing is perfect nobody will ever convince me that anything is perfect.

So we're just trying to make sure that we protect our residents our elections if we can't do it at a state level federal level we're trying to start to make the change here at a local level I'm hoping that moving forward we can have a better working relationship and see if there's a way and how we can do this because at the end of the day there's nothing like peace of mind when it comes to voting if I have to show an ID to go buy cough syrup I have to show an ID to get a massage it just seems ridiculous that we don't show an ID to go vote.

So um I'm hoping that later on we can continue this dialogue have these communications find a way to implement this and give the voters a security that they need the people who are sitting here right now what time is it it's nine o'clock that most of them are here to come listen to this because they're concerned and when there's a concern we need to find a way to find a resolution.

So thank you for being here we will definitely be reaching out to you some more and I do appreciate you taking our concerns seriously and actually taking the time to come knowing the temperature of what this uh and the controversy this issue brings.

Thank you for inviting me.

I have one more casey Mr Page I'll keep it brief um thank you for coming obviously you know the comment that the individual made earlier and who keeps giving outbursts from the audience that we are tearing America apart by simply asking questions and concerns about our election process is flat out outrageous and talk about like silencing dialogue and open debate so we're just here because residents have expressed concern and there's nothing wrong with asking you questions which I appreciate you doing today.

And so when you think about other residents in this day and age with mail-in ballots, use of ballot drop boxes, ballots being counted weeks after election day, they have lost faith in free and fair elections, and it's critical that we fix it, even if one person has a concern because that increases voter turnout.

In Georgia, when they implemented voter ID turnout increased significantly like the next year.

And so unfortunately in today's election model, it's administered by you guys the county and then essentially controlled by the state, so it really removes citizens' ability to have real local community involvement.

People touched on that earlier, it brings you know precincts together, but right now it's a one-size-fits-all model.

And in Huntington Beach, when we pass voter ID, our monitoring of drop boxes and increasing polling places, what we told told the voters that they're very well could be a system that is still administered by you guys, the county, and one that is administered by our own city or possibly like a hybrid version.

So I hope you know we win our appeal with the state on voter ID, but that would be the genesis.

Why does there have to be a one-size-fits-all model?

Why can't there be you know more uh cooperation with you guys and perhaps like a hybrid version?

I mean, do you think that's possible?

I would say the decision of it depending on what results from your litigation, right?

If you're given the authority to um require voter ID.

It's I what I've read in terms of the news coverage of what's been argued recently, is the city has argued that it has the right to do this because it doesn't have to consolidate its election with a statewide election, right?

Um, so if you decide you don't want to consolidate in order to do voter ID, you decide not to consolidate your election, then you need to ask the board of supervisors if the register of voters can conduct the election for you, right?

But I mean, I I foresee a scenario where you talked about voter confusion.

You can walk in and are you here to vote for the statewide initiatives?

Are you here to vote for Huntington Beach only?

Yeah, that's and then that's a separate ballot, and that's at the you know, and I would imagine the volunteer could you know implement that.

Well, if you are voting for city only issues, can I please see your ID?

Right?

And I was like, well, we'd have to train every at every person working at every single vote center in the county because Huntington Beach voter could go to any location in the county.

I would imagine that's not very hard to train an individual to do that do so, but I mean it's just a simple question, right?

I understand it's more and I'm not saying no, I'm just explaining that that a vote if if this is implemented and your election is somehow on you know conducted at the same time or in concert in some way with the statewide election, um, then I'm going to have to train because if if the board supervisors tell me to tell me to conduct your election, then I'm gonna have to train all my, you know, 1,400 vote center workers, the different processes.

If this person's in a precinct in Huntington Beach, this is the process.

If they're in a precinct outside of Huntington Beach, this is the process.

That's just something I'll have to do.

Okay, that's fair.

I mean, because when and Councilmember Williams touched on it, really, when you distill it down, this all hinges on signal for signature verification, but if you had voter ID, it would eliminate the need for signature verification.

Just just to clarify, signature verifications only done on mail ballots, sure.

It's in the in-person voting, the voter is signing the roster under penalty of perjury that they are the voter, right?

But there's no signature comparison of the signature on the roster.

Okay.

So again, I've just I use this analogy up here before.

It's so abnormal when you walk in and say they ask who you are, you say your name, your address, and they flip over the screen.

Does this look right?

You're like, Well, yeah, and you just like sign it.

Whereas, you know, if you're going through the airport and TSA is like, can I see your I see your ID?

I'm like, can I just tell you my name and my address?

I mean, it's you can't function in today's society without identification.

So I just feel, I mean, you really can't.

You just cannot function in today's society without identification.

So I'm hopeful, you know, I personally voted for the statewide initiative or sign the petition for the statewide initiative to get voter ID on the ballot in November 26th.

I'm obviously hopeful as an individual that it passes.

I think with working with you guys, if if that other layer of protection is implemented, it's really to give people more faith in our elections to increase voter turnout.

I know the counter-argument that we we all mail, you know, and we're gets a mail on ballot, but again, that's not really the point.

It's like you want to give people more confidence in our elections, and if voter ID just delivers that little bit of extra percentage that people want to go vote in person, and they they re- they really enjoy election day.

I mean, I don't see the issue with that.

I know you can't obviously talk about it.

Um cleaning the cleaning the voter rolls so like what is the current process to clean the voter rolls?

As I said, it's a it's a daily process based on information directly from the voter or from an official government source, which includes um official government sources include United States Postal Service National Change of Address database.

It includes information from the Department of Corrections that somebody has been placed in state prison for a felony, it includes information coming from a superior court that a voter has been found incapable of voting.

Um it includes um information from either county or state or federal that somebody has died.

So this is like a daily thing.

As I mentioned as I mentioned in 2024, there were an average of 81,000 registration transactions a month.

So is it I mean I've read a stat, there's currently over 800 voters in Orange County that are still on the voter registration list but have been confirmed to move out of state.

Is that accurate?

If you know, I I usually when somebody tells me that they've received some information from the national change of address, and we select, say, 10 of the voters that they've identified as not being where the voter rule they have from six months ago, we typically find every time that we've already made the update.

Okay.

So if somebody gave me a list of 800 voters that they said they believe don't live where they are, we would randomly select 10 to see whether or not the information that they had was correct or not.

Okay.

So I I believe you previously attempted to gain access to the jury duty list of people who declined to serve due to citizenship status to compare that to our county roles.

Is that true?

The um supervisor Wagner presented, he asked me to present, but it was his proposal to uh support legislation that would require superior courts to provide information regarding jury questionnaires where the potential juror indicated they could not serve because they were ineligible, either because they weren't citizens, they didn't speak English, or they didn't live in the county.

So that his proposal was that that information would then be shared with county registrars.

It would the proposal wasn't that I would automatically cancel somebody who said on a voter registration record they were a citizen and then on a jury questioner said they weren't, it would have been to reach out to the voter and say we've got conflicting information about your citizenship.

Please respond as to which one's true.

Um, if the person said that they, you know, the way it would have worked if somebody had said they couldn't serve on a jury because they didn't they weren't fluent in English, then the proposal was I would send that voter a letter saying, Hey, did you know that we provide election materials in nine different languages other than English?

Would you like to give us a language preference for your materials?

And so how did that proposal was it voted on?

The board, there were only two votes in favor of it, so it did not move forward.

Do you know who voted in favor?

I believe it was Wagner and at the time Doe.

Okay, thank you.

Um so with the the most of my questions have been answered.

Let's see.

Uh want to focus on the chain of custody?

Yes.

So Chad touched on it with, you know, bad actors.

Is there in the barcode on the ballot when I go to vote in person and I scan that ballot, does it say that I am the one that voted?

No.

There's nothing on the ballot that has personal information about the voter.

The barcodes on the ballot indicate the precinct it's for, um, and some other information we use for mailing the ballots out.

So, what prevents someone from scanning a thousand ballots of the same vote?

So, when somebody comes in to do that, we have a different secrecy folder we give to somebody.

If if somebody comes up and wants a ballot printed that they can hand mark, we give them one previously folder for them to put the ballot in before they go into the voting booth.

If they say they want to sign the roster to be able to scan a ballot they already marked at home, we give them a different colored secrecy sleeve and ask them to edge the ballot out without looking how they voted because we can't know how they voted, but we ask them to push the ballot to the edge so we can confirm that there's only one A card and one B card.

Okay, but so there really is no, again, we're just but if somebody showed up and said, I want to scan my ballot and I want to scan my wife's ballot, if the wife's not there, that wife's ballot's not being scanned.

So again, there's really no mechanism in place to only scan one ballot once.

There's no barcode that that limits that ballot to the individual voting.

So theoretically, you could scan a thousand ballots if there were a bad actor, and they would all be counted.

But as I said, when somebody's showing up at a vote center to ask to scan their mail ballot, we're asking them to show us how many ballot cards they have.

If they had a thousand ballot cards, they're not going to be allowed to go to the scanner.

Right, but I guess why can't a ballot be connected with the individual voting?

I mean, is that that hard on the on a barcode or some some demarcation?

California constitution says that all voting is secret.

Okay.

Um chain of custody and ballot draw boxes.

So they're open 24-7, 29 days with no video surveillance.

Some have video surveillance.

So why don't all ballot drop boxes have video surveillance?

Because you guys live stream at the R ROV, correct?

We live stream ballot processing when we're doing it.

I do not live stream people voting because it would not voting, but I'm saying you the process you live stream, so why can't we have 24-7 video surveillance of ballot drop boxes?

We could.

Okay.

But if I'm not gonna have somebody sitting there watching to see who's putting ballots in the box, because as was mentioned before, state law allows a voter to authorize any person they want to return their ballot.

So if somebody walks up to a drop box and puts five ballots in the drop box, that's not illegal.

Sure.

But so that was my next thing.

The only reason I access the video footage is if somebody tries to tamper with a box, break into it, then I need evidence as to what happened and who tried to do that.

Well, you so you kind of led me to my next question.

So that was part of our charter amendment was to monitor ballot drop boxes.

So you have ballot harvesting, which is legal, and you have ballot trafficking, which is not.

Can you kind of explain the difference between ballot harvesting and what was the last one?

Ballot trafficking.

What is ballot traffic?

So essentially, ballot harvesting, right?

You have to uh if I if I want to go harvest your ballot, I have to you have to sign the envelope that I am harvesting your ballot, correct?

Yeah, the voter is required to sign their own envelope, and then the person who's been authorized by the voter to return their ballot is also supposed to sign the the envelope.

So and then I would then take that and then put in the ballot drop box.

Correct.

You have the person who's authorized is supposed to cast the ballot within three days or by 8 p.m.

on election night, whichever is earlier.

But what's to prevent someone from gathering 50 100 ballots that haven't been harvested and then just stuffing them in the ballot drop box, which would be trafficking, ballot trafficking.

Each one of those is in an envelope.

Yes.

Yeah.

As it was mentioned before, then I'm verifying the signatures on those envelopes before they're being open.

But they would have to have been harvested and they were not, right?

You can't you can't.

I'm saying you can't just go take a hundred people's ballots without having harvested at the legal process way of that voter signing the back of the envelope, allowing you to go harvest it.

So in this situation, someone could have a hundred ballots that doesn't have the back of the envelope sign from being harvested and they're stuffing them and stuffing the ballot.

Yeah, so the the bat if a ballot shows up without a signature of an authorized person, I'm still required to process it.

But I understand.

So I has to have the voter's signature.

The 24-7 modering would allow people if they had concerns, they saw someone coming at three in the morning and stuffing a hundred ballots in there, they go, hey, I don't believe those were harvested correctly.

Can you go check out that ballot drop box, pull all those ballots out?

And I mean, would it would that nullify it if it wasn't harvested correctly?

Would not nullify those ballots because we verify the voter's signature, and as I mentioned, the state law says that if the person authorized to return the ballot fails to sign it, I'm still required to process the ballot.

Okay, so then it does so then there is no, it's not necessary to sign the back of an envelope that it was harvested, is what you're saying.

Not under the law, no.

Okay.

I mean the law says the person is required to sign it, but then it tells me that if it's not, I still have to process.

Okay.

Um that was it.

I mean, the chain of custody is obviously huge, so you just touched on that that's a huge hole in the system.

Um I guess my question you brought it up earlier about the Save Act before Congress.

Why did you opine on that legislation before it was passed?

I made a statement about the potential cost or estimate because we want house.

Were you asked to do so?

No.

Okay.

But wouldn't that couldn't that be seen as like you putting your thumb on the scale potentially before the Senate passed that legislation when you were not asked?

That it was perceived that way by some, but every bill that goes through Sacramento, if it's got a cost, we're estimating the cost and providing it to the legislature.

But you were not requested this.

No, but but it was an important enough bill that it had a significant enough cost.

I thought it was important for people to know how much it would cost Orange County to implement it.

But when people see that, it there was that perception that you're putting your thumb on the scale because you were not asked to put a cost that some people perceived it that way.

That was not my intent, but that was how it was perceived.

If you're trying to be impartial, again, we're trying to, you know, give people faith in our free and fair elections.

Like that to me, you know, was an error because it it showed a partiality to a lot of people, and it just again, that's why you're here.

We appreciate you're here.

And there's nothing wrong with asking these questions, but yeah, you know, I just yeah, I just I just would stress that I see it as part of my responsibility as administrator if there's legislation proposed to put a cost to it.

Okay, so that the people who will approve it know what the cost would be.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for coming.

I'm more impressed that you were able to stand this whole time without having to sit down.

So appreciate that.

Thank you.

Real quick.

I think Bush has got a follow-up.

Oh, yeah, well, uh, real quick.

How many cases do you refer to the DAs and how many get filed?

Oh, numbers.

I actually brought that.

Hold on.

And while you're looking, are you guys subject to the constraints of uh SB 54 where you're not supposed to uh comply or assist uh uh board uh ice like if you come across information that an uh person who here is here illegally, um and they voted in a federal election.

Are you barred from assisting ICE in uh giving them that information?

Never asked county counsel that question before.

If I was given information that somebody was not a citizen and was registered, I'd as I said I'd give that to the DA to investigate, so I would report it.

Whether or not you advise came to you and asked, I then I'd have to deal with that and figure out whether I was what my responsibility was.

Well, then you're probably not constrained by f SB 54.

Yeah, so um in terms of referrals to the DA, um specifically where we suspected that a voter tried to vote twice, and we caught that.

Um in the 24 general election, we referred 345 voters.

In the 24 primary, we referred 437 voters.

You don't know how many were pro uh filed on.

To date, none.

No, none.

Oh, the the Costa Mesa woman's the first voter fraud prosecution other well, second.

There was one also in in the fall of 90 uh of 2004, in which the district attorney filed uh charges against a Canadian citizen who registered a vote in 2016 and cast a ballot in 2016.

Those are the only two since I've been in Orange County.

The all the other cases the district attorney has filed have been related to either um illegal activities related to circulating petitions or candidates misrepresenting information on their candidacy declaration.

All right, those are but other in terms of voter fraud, those are the only two since 22.

Hate do this to you, but Don's got one and Butch has got one.

Okay.

Well, you just answered one, and that was how many have you referred um meaning your system caught it, right?

I was gonna ask you how many you referred to the DA.

It's really disheartening to hear that you've referred close to 800, and there's no files have been uh filed, no charge have been filed.

Yeah, the the DA's investigated them, but they've got to find my you'd have to talk to the DA, but I believe they would only file charges that they could prove intent.

Well, okay.

The intent was there, that's why you caught right.

Yeah.

Again, you'd have to talk to the DI.

I know they investigated everything.

I just wanted to make sure that you are referred to.

Everything we refer.

If you would have told me two or something, I'd be like, well, then either there's no voter fraud or you're not catching anybody, but I guess if you catch a couple hundred against the you know uh a couple hundred thousand uh maybe you're catching them all I doubt it um so the the one thing two things that are a little disheartening and then I'll let Butch has this question.

One we've got two out of the seven people up here that have uh given you classics uh uh incidents where their signatures don't match and their votes have been counted time and time again so I think there's a lot of room to improve that maybe that can be a process I think there I think that's a flaw right there.

And then hearing what you just told Casey that one law says you have to sign the back of the envelope but you don't have to enforce it you're still going to count it to me that's a big breach uh period uh positioning right there somebody could you know back to the bad actor you could go around and just forget about harvesting the ballot from the people he's being grabbing ballots um and some of the listen this is an indictment on the elderly I am elderly but they they might not know they didn't even get their ballot they don't care they don't vote they get a ballot they don't turn it in you know we have a lot of voter apathy so you just getting ballots and then you sign any signature you're only catching some because you're not catching them and the back of the envelope's not signed but you're still processing the ballots so to me that's that's a big flaw and then the other thing that I was really disappointed to hear if we said we gave you a file of 800 people that we thought were uh out of county debt or whatever you're gonna take 10 ballots and if they're correct this is not the Gallup poll you don't take a sample size why don't you say you've got technology why wouldn't you run them all if if that 10 random sample indicated that there were updates to do then we would look at them all but what if what if 10 out of 800 were good what if randomly selected what if 500 out of 800 were good.

What about the 300 that aren't good?

As I said when we've done 10 random ever we've already made the changes on the 10 random that we've selected we've already made those updates and so every indication every time somebody has indicated to us that they have information about a voter um having um information having changed we find that we've already made the change there is nothing in California law that gives a citizen the right to challenge the eligibility of a voter.

So right but I I I would ask you as my registrar voters to to do a hundred how do you check what do you do manually look at it yeah okay we randomly select 10 and then we review the voter file to see what the current information for that voter is.

So I guess I would say not to interrupt you I appreciate your answer I guess if your your Janet win and you win a vote where there are a million votes were cast and you win it by three votes you know knowing that you're only taking sample sizes it didn't affect her then maybe she could have won by more maybe she could have lost I don't know the bottom line is I just don't see why you don't take these files to the hundred percentile even if it's a manpower issue.

Let me be VPC a person power issue.

As I said we we test with the random sample if the random sample shows we've already updated all those addresses for those records we don't see the reason to to continue looking at the other ones.

It's the same thing with petitions there's an option for us to do a random sample of the signatures on a petition and then calculate a projection as to how many what percentage would be valid to determine whether or not the the that's how the Gallup poll does it and that what that's what happened on a recall for for the previous council members you took a sample size of you know a 10% or something out of a 15,000 uh signature gathering and from there you glean that the failure rate was uh at at a level where the whole thing was disqualified and we spent people spent a long time gathering signatures and I think it it was uh worthy that they should have been all counted no matter whose side is looking for the answers you know I think we as voters you know, if you want to instill confidence, I think this could be a process change you you need to validate all uh ballots, not just you know, a minuscule amount, and then say, well, like the Gallup poll, you know, I'm not gonna survey the entire United States, and I can make an educated guess.

Yeah, I guess again, we're not talking about ballots, sir.

We're talking about addresses on registration records and signatures on petitions.

And if if we receive, say a recall petition from the city clerk, the city clerk directs me whether or not to do a random sample or to look at all of them.

That's her decision, not mine.

It's only my decision if it's for a school district or a special district.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, mine is way shorter than that.

Way shorter.

Yes, sir.

Is there any chance that those 500 ballots that got stolen in Huntington Beach were taken out of their envelopes, so now they have no barcodes, and they were given to somebody, and those somebody's 500 of them, 50 of them, five of them doesn't matter.

Were they brought maybe to a uh a voting center or where they could be scanned, maybe the ROV.

Because isn't the ROV the only place they can get scanned?

Any vote center, every vote center has two ballot scanners, and we have scanners.

Okay, so my only question is I don't want to hear about all about that.

Any chance those 500 ballots could have been used illicitly.

Is there a possibility?

The knitting uh group up there just answered my question, so don't you worry because I believe everything they say.

I can answer it the other way.

Oh go ahead, Mr.

Quiet knitting group.

What I would say is that because the because the ballot has no information about the voter, it's only the if the voter tried to turn a ballot that we it would have been showed up as canceled.

So it's based on the return envelope, the code, the barcode on the return envelope.

Under your hypothetical, it took the ballots out of the envelope, somebody took the ballots out and then somehow figured out how to get them cast.

They'd have to either send people to the vote centers to either lie about who they were or they'd have to access um ballot return envelopes and forged signatures.

There'd have to be there'd be a number of steps they have to take to make that happen.

All right.

Well, thank you very, very much.

You've been wonderful.

I got really great answers.

You guys have been awesome up there because we could hear you down here all night long.

Uh thank you so much, sir.

Thank you.

Well, that's a good show.

You guys shouldn't leave.

We're gonna go over our strategic plan update, which is the results of all our achievements and hard work.

You want to postpone that everyone complains about.

You guys should stay and see it.

This is what you guys are always talking about.

You want to see the results?

You want to postpone them and make them still.

Okay.

Uh city manager's report item number eight.

Check, check.

Thank you.

Well, that's a I'm gonna let Case make that motion.

Uh January.

Second meeting in January.

Yeah, um, city manager's report item number eight for year 23 to 27 strategic plan by annual process update number four.

Casey's got a motion.

Yeah, Travis, I mean, this is too important.

The ROV took a long time, so this strategic plan update shows all the you know projects that we have approved to move forward, everything we're working on.

A lot of the res uh some residents that come here always complain that why aren't we focused on the normal functions of the government?

Uh this strategic plan will show the results of all our efforts with crime, homelessness, public safety, infrastructure, et cetera.

I think it's too important to not give it the the highlight and the spotlight it deserves.

So I think we should table this to the second meeting in January, so it gives it the attention it deserves because it's really impressive.

Um it's a really impressive report and results.

So I I really want to give it the daylight.

It deserves, so I say we table it to the second meeting in January.

Pat seconds it.

Yeah.

All right.

Uh got a motion and a second.

Butch is uh got lost again.

He's looking for his ID.

He wouldn't know how to read it.

Yeah.

Here you go.

Oh, there you go.

There's Butch.

Please call the role.

Councilman Twine.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem McKeon?

Yes.

Mayor Burns.

Hi.

Councilwoman Vandermark?

Yes.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Okay, we got the city treasurer's report.

Adopt resolution number 2025-68 approving the 2026 investment policy and receive and file the City Treasurer's quarterly one for year 25-26 investment report.

City Treasure, go for it.

Fun fun.

This is a good report, too.

We're almost going to table this one because you deserve the audience.

You could, unfortunately, we've got to get the uh investment policy filed by the end of the year, so we kind of have to do that.

It's good stuff, this one.

So uh first of all, good evening, everyone.

Uh, I wanted to first say a very special thank you to my predecessor, Alyssa, for her fine stewardship of our investments over the last 15 years.

Uh going forward, my treasurer's report will be short and sweet update on our investment performance for the quarter.

However, tonight, I believe it's much that more extensive comments are warranted regarding our longer term financial performance as a city, both for this council and more importantly, for our city residents.

Given that this is my first presentation as a new treasurer, this is the first time that we've had a new treasure in 15 years, and I'm filing a new investment policy for 2026 for the first time in a number of years.

I know that some of this presentation is gonna seem elementary to most of this council, but I think it's critical for all of us in Huntington Beach to be operating from the same baseline set of facts regarding our city's financial investment situation, so that we're making the most informed decisions.

So, as a reminder for everyone, our city's investment strategy is governed by two things our investment our annual investment policy and the prudent investors standard.

In the wake of the Orange County bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, which was the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history, the California General Code was modified to strictly limit municipal investments, and all municipalities, including charter cities, adhere to those strict standards and apply even stricter ones, and that's where this prudent investor standard comes in.

Under these modifications, every single treasurer must prioritize an absolute order of safety, the an absolute order, the safety, then the liquidity, then the yield of our investments.

This is why our treasury, like every municipal government, focuses on extremely safe assets like U.S.

Treasury bills and actively avoids risky assets like stocks.

That's why you're never gonna see NVIDIA or meta anywhere in our portfolio.

I'll talk about these concepts at greater length in my presentation.

So it's been a few years since we've overhauled our investment policy.

So we did so this year.

We placed a focus on making our policy more comprehensive for professionals and more readable for our city residents.

We use a robust process that included alignment with the California code changes.

We benchmarked against the seven largest Orange County and LA municipalities, and we did and I did informal individual peer evaluations by six different California municipal treasurers of this policy.

After this policy is gonna be it gets approved tonight, we will send it to both the CMTA, which is the California Municipal Treasurer's Association, and the APT, which is the Association of Public Treasurers, which are the two governing bodies, uh, for official scoring.

This has also not occurred in a number of years.

Feedback on this policy from informal basis was extremely positive.

With some peer reviews, your reviewers calling it one of the best municipal policies that they've seen in the state of California.

State law and investment changes were minor, which is down on the bottom.

We focused on eliminating uh investment types that have not been used for decades in Huntington Beach.

We shortened the maximum maturities on certificates of deposits, and more importantly, we limited the amount of long portfolio investments defined as four years or more from 50% of our portfolio to 25%.

We're currently operating well under that threshold.

This move is critical for us to ensure the liquidity given our city's large capital projects.

So just for your reference, included here is a comprehensive summary of comparison summary of our policy relative to the California General Code.

Like all municipalities, we are we are as strict as the code and have opted to be more conservative in certain less utilized investment classes, such as certificates of deposit, repurchase agreements, money market mutual funds, and joint powers authorities.

The most important focus of our treasury is ensuring that our city investments are kept safe and do not incur any losses.

We ensure that by buying only the highest rated instruments, in fact, 80% of our current bond portfolio is rated either triple A or AA.

We diversify our portfolio to minimize the impact of any individual security or investment type on that portfolio.

And we perform extensive quarterly compliance checks against both our investment policy and the California General Code.

This approach has resulted in our portfolio never having experienced a loss, and we've held even lower in lower interest bonds during the pandemic to maturity to avoid any risk of any loss, despite that resulting in a lower return because safety is the absolute priority of this investment portfolio.

Consequently, if you look to the left, we have been extremely fortunate as a city that over the last five years, we've seen our reserves by increase by nearly a hundred and fifty million dollars.

Let me say that again, a hundred and fifty million dollars.

Well, our long-term obligations of a city have not materially increased during the same period.

Our current investment portfolio of over 400 million dollars ranks as one of the top five in Orange County on both an absolute and a per capita basis, making us an extremely healthy city from a financial perspective rather than the doom and gloom picture that some traditional social media outlets might want to present about our city.

Jason, I'm sorry, could you repeat that, please?

Oh, you want me to say that again?

Let me try that one more time.

Start over with the 150 million.

What was that?

Are you you would want me to repeat it?

Yeah, please.

Sure, happy to.

So I said we've been extremely fortunate as a city over the last five years to see our reserves by increased by over 150 million dollars, while our long-term obligations have not materially increased.

And this portfolio, 410 million dollars sitting here, not counting another almost 90 million dollars in fiduciary funds, ranks in Orange County as one of the top five on both an absolute and a per resident basis.

So now I'm gonna make two critical caveats here for all the for all the positive here.

First, like every municipality, most of these reserves are earmarked funds, which means they are for specific needs, things like sewers, things like infrastructure.

So we've marked them out for future capital investments that we know are critical to making HB thrive.

In addition, we do have $400 million in long-term obligations, roughly 75% of which are pension liabilities.

Surprise, surprise.

So it is vital that we continue to be fiscally prudent and keep growing our cash reserves as a city over the coming years.

I think it's helpful, and we're gonna spend a lot of time on this come uh early next year, Travis and I with you, to see what the source of the fund balance increases has been.

I specifically want to highlight the detailed bridge here to see how it's done, specifically because the great news is that much of the increase over time has taken place either in our general fund, which we often call, we often focus on what we call economic uncertainty, also known as the rainy day fund, or categories like infrastructure or pensions, which we know we're gonna have to spend resources on over time to maintain our city.

So Travis and I are planning on returning to this council early next year to have a much more detailed discussion related to our reserve fund balances and the options that might be available to this council to alter our reserves policies going forward and provide ourselves with more degrees of freedom for the amount and the project uses of some of our reserve funds.

Because they have cat they have cascaded on top of each other over time over prior councils, a large chunk of our reserves are actually due to prior council policy, not due to either state or HB voter requirements.

So let's turn the clock forward a little bit.

The second most important focus and absolute priority for our city investments is liquidity.

Liquidity here does not just mean having enough cash overall as a city.

What it means is having enough cash at any given point in time to pay our ongoing expenses, like the payroll that supports our 1,200 employees in our city, payments related to capital projects, and extra funds for emergencies like a pandemic.

As you can see here, our cash position can shift by over a hundred million dollars across any given year.

So we need to keep large cash reserves.

That's why we maintain over 150 million dollars in investments that mature over the next 12 months, and we carry a pure cash and money market cushion of $60 million.

To improve our accuracy even more, our team is currently in the process of building a detailed five-year monthly cash flow model by department across this entire city.

That process is going to allow us to maximize our returns by increasing the amount of funds that we place in longer maturing investments that have higher yields so that we can stretch every single tax dollar that we have been entrusted by our voters with further.

The last priority in our sequence is yield, and that's our actual financial return.

Huntington Beach has been extraordinarily fortunate to see our investment returns increase from a historical average of one to two percent to three to four percent over the last two to three years, as long-term interest rates have returned to their historical levels post-pandemic.

That interest rate movement coupled with our higher reserves has resulted in our investments generating an extra 10 million dollars per year for our city.

And for Casey, I'll repeat that one more time: 10 million dollars per year.

Let's go to Vegas.

Let's talk about a macroeconomic perspective for a second.

Over the last year or two, we've been in a relatively rare situation of an inverted yield curve.

Look at 22, that's a standard yield curve.

That means as you go further out months of maturity, you normally make more money or more return on your investment.

In 2025, as you can see, further out you actually make less, which we call an inverted yield curve.

Now, nearly every major economist believes that the inverted yield curve will end over the next year as the Federal Reserve lowers short-term interest rates.

At that point, longer-term investments will go back to generating a higher return than our short-term investments.

What that means for our purposes is the reality is that we'll make our cash flow modeling that we discussed earlier even more important, so we can invest more of our portfolio in long-term investments that generate higher returns.

Sorry about that.

I think I flipped it out of presentation mode.

Let's see, slide nine.

There we go.

We have an opportunity to extend our portfolio back to two and a half years to capture some incremental financial upside for longer-term investments as our short-term interest rates drop and the yield curve returns to normal.

However, that approach only makes sense for this council and for as a city if we do not want to do any of the following things.

If we do not plan to make any very size, I'll define that as $50 million or more, land acquisitions, capital improvements, or if we desire to pay our pension bonds off early.

Something else we'll talk about in the uh the uh in Q1.

The other place where we have an opportunity to capture upside is from non-treasury investment assets.

So on the right side, you're gonna see our corporate rates, so things like corporate bonds and municipal bonds, as they generally pay a premium spread over treasury bills, although right now it is a much tighter spread than we historically see.

So we'd want to see that spread expand before we would take the risk.

While theoretically, these are riskier on paper, there has not been a single default of any triple A rated asset, which is the only things we're allowed to invest in in the corporate or municipal class since the financial crisis of 2008.

And the only one that that uh went under in that one was Lehman Brothers.

If we decide to expand our exposure here, it is gonna be critical to be highly diversified in whatever individual securities we purchase and watch closely for any downgrades.

The investment policy you have sitting in front of you provides us with the flexibility to sell in a downgrade situation, it's always been our policy, and we will use that flexibility if we see a default risk materialize.

So, in terms of investment performance, this is gonna be what this is gonna be the first of a couple slides you're gonna see, which will be our go forward presentations look like.

For the quarter itself, we returned 3.6 percent.

That happens to be a record high return for the last decade.

And we anticipate that these returns will go a bit higher over future quarters as we roll off the last of our lower interest pandemic era investments.

The current portfolio presents a broad investment mix with a strong presence in U.S.

agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, corporate bonds like Walmart or Pepsi, and US Treasuries.

The portfolio easily meets all of our standard compliance thresholds.

This overall summary page, which you'll see in every quarter, is gonna highlight the quarterly buy-sell activity, financial returns in both percent and absolute dollars, and average maturity overall and by investment type.

As you can see here, we have 90 million dollars in activity that took place during this quarter, and the average maturity for all investments, excluding cash and money market accounts, is roughly two years today.

The detailed portfolio page here is gonna focus on the overall portfolio distribution across two dimensions: investment type and time to maturity.

In addition, we're gonna show the portfolio concentration among top issuers.

As you can see here, the U.S.

Treasury and the Federal Home Loan Bank are the only two issuers that account for more than 10% of our portfolio today.

That's pretty standard.

You'd see that across most municipalities.

Lastly, the compliance page is gonna show separate compliance for both the bond and cash and money market accounts.

The bond compliance will be conducted for each investment type across the investment, across investment limits, issuer limits, bond maturities, and creditor ratings in accordance with the California General Code.

So finally, I just want to really quickly highlight some other major initiatives that our treasurer's office is focused on.

So internally, we are deploying technology to streamline every aspect of our tax collections process, including AI, QR codes, and kiosks, while conducting audits and collecting over a million dollars in pandemic period uh dormant citations to increase our city's revenue.

Externally, we've been actively focused on soliciting community feedback through meet and greets and resident surveys, while introducing and expanding free programs that are gonna help our residents save more save more, like our financial literacy workshops, where we had over 70 signups last week.

Uh, that was round one, uh, free tax prep in the community, and partnering with the police on uh investment and scam awareness trainings.

We'll be providing more information on those programs as they're launched.

So that concludes my treasurer's report.

Happy to field any questions for you before you vote on the 26th policy.

But how do you see bond yields evolving over the next year or so?

So I think their first piece is gonna be what happens in December.

I would have told you I thought Powell drop rates another quarter point.

Um I don't think given what we're seeing in terms of potential recession risk right now, that that's likely to happen.

Now the big place that we will turn the clock is when Powell's no longer most likely will no longer be the Fed chair currently next year.

My guess is we'll see two rate cuts kind of over the next while that'll probably be about 50 bips.

The good news for us in terms of the short-term securities that we're hosting right now, so things like camp, which is our kind of called pulled money market account that is done across the state of California.

It re-rates slowly.

So right now, if you were to look at a bond rate on something like a US bank account, we run about 3.8%.

In contrast, our camp account runs 4.2%, and the re-rate will come down slower, so that gives us time to adjust to what we're gonna see in the bond market.

Are we garnering any um return on our cash reserves?

Oh, absolutely.

So we perform daily cash sweeps, and everyone thinks that we put it over in the corner and it gathers dust.

That is not the case.

So we sweep the cash every single day.

That cash goes in.

I just talked to these two bank accounts, so that goes to that US bank account.

That account is yielding 3.8% interest every day, swapped every single day, compounded every single day.

What happens is, and we just did one today, when that account gets full enough, we sweep that cash over in this camp account, which is the pooled asset account.

This that's uh yielding 4.2%, or we choose to then go ahead and invest it in the bond market.

And then just very very briefly for people who are watching right now.

Can you just maybe touch on why you're shortening the maturity of the certificate of deposits?

Uh we should we just shorten the maturity because we don't use them a lot.

They're not a they're not a heavily trafficked instrument here, and I would rather have us be on the short side of that.

There's not a strong incentive, and in fact, if anything, you actually have a little bit of default risk if you put CDs out to a five-year mark.

Perfect, thank you.

All right, just a quick comment.

Just want to say thank you for an incredible report, um, great information.

The format's easy to digest.

So I look forward for the publishing on the city website, and uh just to give you some accolades.

Uh, you know, it's this kind of thought, this kind of process, this kind of delivery, and this kind of results that uh make me proud to be one of seven that was a unanimous confirmation of your appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Well, so it's just the counter the narrative that we're in like poor financial health, and so I appreciate you highlighting that we're not, and we'll continue to have these reports going forward uh to really you know bringing it to the forefront so the committee understands that.

So thank you.

I'd like to move it as recommended, second.

All right, we've got a first and second clerk when you're ready.

Councilman twenty.

Yes, councilman Kennedy, yes.

Mayor Pro Tem McKean?

Yes, Mayor Burns, Councilwoman Vandermark, yes, Councilman Gruel?

Yes, Councilman Williams.

I pass the seven zero.

Okay, consent calendar.

Do we have anything so anybody wants to pull?

I'll pull thirteen, please.

anybody else?

Yeah, one to sixty.

Which one was that?

Okay, uh then I'll move to uh do 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17 through, I believe it's 23.

Took a question.

Second, our first and a second when you're ready.

Okay, voting on 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23.

Councilman Twenty.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes, Mayor Protell McKeon.

Yes, Mayor Burns.

All right.

Councilwoman Vandermark, yes, Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

All right.

Chad, 13.

All right, this one's pretty simple.

I just wanted to pull number 13 because we've heard from a number of citizens.

Um, I think over the course of the past weeks and and months, and then from a couple of them today that have referenced that there's a little over 500.

Uh community members that have signed a uh petition where they say they they don't like the RGM conceptual plan and they would like to move forward a different plan.

So the Edison Park Master Plan right now, the way that it is, it assumes and it carries forward that RGM conceptual plan.

And I think just to kind of save us from putting forward any kind of administrative inertia into it, because I know that the conceptual plan still creates like a directional momentum.

Um that momentum now makes future reversal harder.

Unseen plan gains legitimacy if approved.

Uh just a few of them I wrote down pausing now, uh, avoids costly unwinding later and avoid staff investing time in wrong design, prevents budgeting around a flawed assumption, and avoids this is a big one grant application tied to RGM plan and prevents consultants drawing plans we later scrap.

And so all I would be calling for is to go ahead and move forward uh to approve the parks and recreation plan update, except for the Edison Park portion, so that local residents have uh an opportunity to present their alternative engineer-based conceptual proposal.

I believe their voices deserve full and fair consideration, and so therefore I move to continue the Edison Park portion to a future meeting after staff evaluates the alternative neighborhood plan and return with options for council review following additional community input.

So if I may the Edison Park renovation plan will come back for to council for approval, so I don't see it's necessary to pull this Edison Park item from the park master plan.

And to your point about the community being involved, the Edison Park uh renovation plan has been kicked around for seven years.

The community has had tons of input.

There's been online surveys, there's been an Edison community group with hundreds of people that have that have organized over the last five years.

They've weighed in on the project, they commented on it when it went through the parks and library services commission.

Um they all signed off on it.

Their architect Max Mirama, who who helped design uh and and weigh in on the current plan that was approved by the parks commission that will come in front of us, that the sequel analysis has been drafted upon, has signed off on it.

The individuals now that were part of that Edison community group have come forward with their own plan.

Um we've I've met with them to share them why uh the concerns with their new with their new plan.

So to say that the community hasn't been involved in this process is is totally false.

They have over several years, like five, six, seven years.

So I don't see the point of pulling the Edison Park plan from the master plan because again, it doesn't mean it's been approved that the Edison Park plan will come before us for for final vote and adoption, and at that point we can also make adjustments at that time.

So I don't I don't see the point in in pulling it from the master plan.

No, I appreciate your comments.

Uh I never said the community was not involved, and so far, while on council, maybe some of the other council members can attest to this, but I've heard nothing but push back on the RJ conceptual plan.

And so the way that the plan is right now, if we move forward with this master plan, what it has baked into it basically is that conceptual plan, and so I'm just concerned that we're getting this administrative inertia like moving forward into drawing up more plans or going for grants with the conceptual analysis put together, uh, that maybe later we have to unwind.

So I'm just trying to present prevent us from having to unwind something or spend a lot of energy in a direction where I can't predict exactly where it's gonna go, but I would say it's probably not going in the direction of that RGM conceptual plan, and I just don't want to so I disagree on that because again, the Edison community group who's been around for five, six years with hundreds of people who have waited in on the on the RGM plan, it's just conceptual.

The sequel analysis based on off of that conceptual plan, it still has to come back for us for for final vote and adoption.

So that inertia is already in process, and so it's gonna come in front of us.

At that point.

You can make adjustments or or have the more involvement, but the community's been highly involved for several years.

I mean, when we first got elected, there was a previous plan that the Edison Community Group was upset about that we stopped and tweaked the plan with RGM.

That plan, they signed off on it and went to parks and Library Services commission.

They all adopted to move forward.

The sequel analysis that's taken months and lots of dollars to analyze is almost finished and coming back.

So this will come back to us.

So nothing by adopting this master plan, you know, increases that inertia, that inertia is already in place and it's going to come in front of us, and we can debate it and we can make adjustments if we want, but removing it from this parks master plan to me that makes no sense.

Well, you know, as I say, it actually does.

It creates this this inertia going in an administrative direction.

So it's already, the inertia is already there.

It's already been it's already been uh voted on by the parks commission.

There's already been a sequel analysis that's been kicked off that's almost done, like it's done, it's coming back in front of us, and then we can make adjustments then.

So removing it is not going to give it any more like input or stop the inertia, like the inertia is already there.

It's already, it's already been processed and sequa is almost done.

So it will come before us.

The residents can come and talk and you know, provide input at council, but removing it from the master plan, it doesn't solve anything.

It doesn't provide what you're looking for.

Again, I just want to give the residents an opportunity to present this other plan.

I've heard nothing but you know, push back on this RGM plan.

I I haven't heard anything in support of it.

I'm not saying there aren't people out there that exist that would support it.

And I checked with uh Travis or City Manager to see if this changes anything as far as CQR, the EIR goes, and what I was told is that that EIR would still cover not only the RGM plan, but it would also cover the other conceptual plan that they put together.

That's not my understanding.

The plan that the sequel is based off of based on this new plan that Mr.

Trouser brought forward, that new plan creates significant alterations that would require new sequel analysis.

Is that true, Ashley?

No, we've actually uh we were early on in the sequel process.

We Mr.

Trazo informed us of his um other plan, and so we've worked with our sequa uh consultant to be able to contemplate um semblances of both options, primarily the pickleball courts, which would be the relocation in the RJM plan.

We're contemplating both the current RJM location and then the proposed location by the Edison Park group, um, right behind the fire station.

Yeah, so which is great.

So again, that sequel analysis is almost done, but you know, in meeting with the Trosville family, like we show them, you know, they have real issue with that that hybrid pickleball court, and in meeting with them, they said we can move it potentially by the fire station and put and still have line of sight from public safety.

They seemed on board with it, but yet they're out here, you know, saying there's this new plan.

So I just this process is already baked essentially, where removing it from this master plan update won't do anything because again, you're gonna have an opportunity to have them come up, have them weigh in at a public meeting, have them provide comments.

We have we have different options that can still fold under the sequel analysis, which their plan does.

So I just don't see the the point of pulling it from this master plan.

So you still are they gonna still have a lot of input?

Uh the residents around there.

Yes.

So we still have through the the lifetime of this the Edison Park project.

The website is still up and available.

You can submit comments on the website, and then when we bring this back for formal adoption, that would be another opportunity for community input.

And in July, um, the community and library services commission approved the current concept that's under sequel review.

So we will will the adoption of the master plan as it is right now, will that prevent us from having any input on the Edison Park plan?

No, the parks and recreation master plan update is is simply a recommendation document.

So um it does not financially obligate us to anything, it does not lock us into any series of plans.

What it does tell us is in a snapshot in today's community, what are our residents looking for, but it does not commit us to anything.