SCI puisqu'il forgot about this

TV.

She comes home late.

Tell me, honey, where have you been?

Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping underneath the moon.

And if I never came back, you know that it would be too soon.

I got up this morning too late to go to work

She told me to get out and she threw me down my shirt

Well I ran to the station and I got on the very next train

And when I opened up my eyes, I was back in bed again

Come on, please let me stand home, girl

While I'm tired of lonely, please let me stand home

I need an order. Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please.

Councilman Grohl?

Here.

Councilman Kennedy? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Twine? Here. Mayor McKeon? Here. Councilman Burns? Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Here. Councilman Williams? Here. All present. Madam Clerk, do we have any

supplemental communications? We have no supplemental communications for closed session.

All right. Madam Clerk, do we have any sign up to speak on closed session items?

We have one speaker signed up. Okay.

The City Council will now receive public comments for closed session items only.

When your name is called, please approach.

Use both podiums.

State your name and organization for the record.

Maureen.

Bless you.

There's a saying, a pitcher is worth a thousand words.

And pitchers are used in a court of law every day.

And I've been coming here for quite a few years,

and I've had my concerns, pitchers, there.

And I think it's a really bad idea to stop people from showing their pictures on the screen there.

I believe it was probably Strickland's idea.

You know, he's done a lot of good things.

But limiting our ability to show pictures is a really, really bad idea.

I believe in freedom of speech.

I've talked about that before.

And you're really limiting my freedom of speech

by not allowing me to show pictures.

And I'm asking you, Strickland isn't here anymore,

I'm asking you guys to please reinstate the photos.

I'm really trying to be respectful

but I'm absolutely

furious about this

and the second

subject is

recognizing excellent

employees

and I talked

to Teresa from Public

Works today and she is

phenomenal

and I really think

people who do an excellent job should be recognized.

I really hope you reinstate the photos.

I don't want this to be a dictatorship.

Thank you.

Just on that comment on the employees,

we actually recognized them during the Mayor's Spotlight Awards,

and we'll have some photos up today recognizing some employees.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, now we'll go to closed session announcement.

so including closed session will be conference with real property negotiators government code

section 549-56.8 property 21 and 22 main street huntington beach california 92648 agency negotiators

travis hopkins city manager marissa sir assistant city manager chris casanova economic development

manager steve holtz deputy director of community development jennifer villasenor director of

community development, negotiating parties not present,

serve city partners, LLC, under negotiation price

and terms of lease slash payment.

Conference with labor negotiators,

government code section 54957.6,

agency designated representatives,

Travis Hopkins, city manager,

also in attendance, Marissa Sur,

assistant city manager, Mike Vigliotta, city attorney,

and Zach Zee, acting chief financial officer,

employee organization,

Huntington Beach Police Officers Association,

and Huntington Beach Police Management Association, PMA.

Council do have a motion and a second

to recess to close session.

Second.

Recess to close session.

Thank you.

Here.

Councilman Burns?

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark?

Here.

Councilman Williams?

Here.

I'm here, too.

I was looking for your name.

Butch.

Butch.

When did you get here?

Butch Twighty.

All right, tonight's invocation will be given by Huntington Beach Police Chaplain James Pike.

Oh.

Mike.

Let us pray.

We give you thanks, Lord God, for a successful marathon weekend in our city, for those who raced,

for those who pushed themselves into new places. We thank you that Huntington Beach is a place that

people can gather and grow. We thank you for those in our public safety who are retiring,

for their years of service, for their way of protecting, and we ask for a blessing in this

next chapter of life. And finally, we pray for those who are elected to govern us, that they

might govern with prudence and with wisdom. And we pray that the citizens who have gathered,

we might work together for the sake of the common good and for a prosperous society.

And we ask all these things in your name. Amen.

Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by John Vasquez of American Legion Post 133.

Before John leads us in the pledge, I'd like to share a little bit about his bio.

John enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2003, inspired by the events of 9-11.

He served in computer systems operations, performing cybersecurity roles during two tours in Rammstein Air Force Base in Germany, a stateside tour, and an overseas deployment in support of the global war on terrorism.

He was medically retired in 2011 and is a recipient of several awards, including the Air Force Commendation, the Air Force Achievement, and the Global War on Terrorism, Expeditionary, and Service Medals.

After his service, John moved to Huntington Beach, working for Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems as a system security engineer,

securing classified satellite ground stations, later consulting for a cybersecurity software company,

and eventually founding his own local cybersecurity consulting business.

He's an active member of the American Legion Huntington Beach Post 133, serving as a board member, California Boys State Chairman,

and as part of the Honor Guard and Color Guard.

John and his wife, Heather, are celebrating 19 years of marriage next week,

and have two children who attend Marina High School, go Vikings, and Mesa View Middle School.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Please remove your hats.

Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Thanks, John.

Thank you.

All right, closed session report.

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

I do, Mayor, if you'll give me just a second.

So City Council unanimously supported filing a petition

to the United States Supreme Court in two cases,

People v. State of California v. City of Huntington Beach,

case number 30-2024-01393606,

and also Bigsby v.

Big, what was the description of that case, that first one?

That's the voter ID case.

Thank you.

As is the second one, Bigsby v. Barnes,

OC case number 30-2023-011-013664.

That's it, Mayor.

Thank you.

Now to City Council Member comments.

Was that your comment, Butch?

Yeah, I did.

I just want to maybe apologize for being a little flippant.

maybe my humor was not very good last meeting when I maybe dissed badminton, the second most

popular sport in the whole entire world. I had no idea. So I want you to accept my apology.

And then whoever in this room really, really loves badminton, I'm going to hand this off,

this badminton racket and five birdies to officer from right over there and you can have it

compliments of me and please accept my my apology for oh whoever wants it who kenny is kenny a big

oh you come and get it then thanks budge i'm giving it to i'm going to give it to officer

from race on down there okay thanks budge what a guy

all right all right uh as part of my duties on council i'm uh on oc sanitation district

and i want to just let you guys know we have a plant in huntington beach a lot of people might

not realize it it's all the way over at brookhurst and just inside the wetlands over there right where

like Brookhurst and Bouchard meet.

And they're building a wall, and it's progressing on schedule, ahead of schedule, more like.

And it's kind of a tsunami wall that they're protecting the plant.

So they're building that.

So if you see the green wall up there, that's what that is.

Along those lines, too, SARF bus, Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency.

A lot of people don't know that exists.

but that is what kind of protects us down here in the basin from flooding and that goes all the way

up into the mountains and everything and starting at seven oaks dam comes down to prado dam and

that's kind of what i'm reporting on now at probably by the end of this year they're still

in the planning stages but that where prado dam is off the 91 that next door to it is the spillway

and they've already raised the Proto Dam through this project 27 feet and then this spillway is

going to be torn down where the flag is painted and all that and that's going to be completely

removed and rebuilt so if you see that going that is what saves us and the completion of this

project of the SARPA Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency it's reducing a bunch of our

if not eliminating the flood insurance for us in the city.

In the county, Huntington Beach has the most flood insurance policies that are required.

And I should have brought those numbers.

It's pretty staggering on the amount we have compared to other cities.

Also, I want to just say that Huntington Beach Hall of Fame was this last,

Sports Hall of Fame, rather, where Edison, class of 24, CIF champs were inducted,

our own Brett Simpson for surfing, Tito for his duties, fighting and coaching and all that,

Joy Fawcett for her work as a soccer player, Olympian, and then Cherokee Parks in his basketball.

Last but not least, this city lost a good guy, a very important member to our society.

He's contributed a lot.

He's a special guy.

He was a teacher at a couple of the high schools here in town.

He brought golfing to it, and he brought a whole lot of other things to a whole lot of people.

Bill Ridenhauer.

We had his memorial service.

And it is a loss to this city.

but he will be remembered by many.

There was over 200 people at least at that ceremony.

So that's it for me.

Anybody else?

I'd just like to say that I've learned a lot this first year on council,

and here is a takeaway that's worth sharing.

Not everything on the consent calendar is sinister.

A lot of it is routine and necessary.

But here's my sincere concern.

The consent calendar is also where multimillion-dollar contracts

and once-in-a-generation agreements can get slipped into the bundle

and slip on by, often unnoticed by the community.

In a single vote by council with zero discussion taking place,

decisions are made that forever alter the trajectory of Huntington Beach,

for better or for worse.

And I'll say this plainly.

If there's ever a place someone in government

could put something they'd hope you wouldn't notice,

the consent calendar is the place to do it.

Not because that's always what's happening,

but that is the place where shameful things

can find their resting place.

And that's why I'm asking our community to stay engaged,

read the items, click on the attachments,

and ask questions.

If it's truly routine, it will stand up to sunlight.

Transparency isn't drama, it's accountability,

and it's good stewardship.

I'll go last.

I'm sure you saw the agenda.

I made the public comments portion,

brought it back to the way it was before.

Always trying to find the most efficient way to do things.

I received a lot of comments that they really liked

the adjustments I had made to have agenda items first,

but also heard a lot from the community

that they preferred the way it was before.

So I just want you guys to know that I've listened to you,

And so we'll bring the public comments portion back up for agendas and non-agendas at the beginning.

But I do like the special community announcements portion for people that want to come up before and highlight something going on that week.

So we're going to leave that.

And then on a fun note, took part in the Sur City Marathon this weekend, which was incredible.

It was our 30th year in a row.

There was over 21,000 runners from 47 states in 18 countries.

It was incredible.

I was there at 5 a.m. all the way till 1 o'clock.

I took part in every wave of runners on the microphone with the air horn.

It was super fun.

And then talk with all the champions afterwards, including Dorothy Strand.

So she's 86 years old, and she's ran every single Surf City Marathon for 30 years.

So it was amazing just hearing her stories.

But more importantly, you know, I was reminded and I reminded the runners that, you know,

it's how blessed we are to live in Huntington Beach.

and just I thank them for coming to our paradise of a city that we call home

and while the rest of the country was in a deep freeze.

I mean, they were out here from all over,

enjoying 70 to 75 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky,

and I just think sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are to live here,

and that really was put into perspective to me

by hearing the stories from people that don't live here

and how much they wish they did.

So it was a really special event,

and I'm really honored that we really delivered an awesome,

there he is right there, look at that guy with the air horn right there.

So it was awesome, so I really appreciate everyone showing up

and supporting it and a lot of good ideas to make it even better,

but it was a beautiful day.

Those two guys there are Marines.

So I did the whole, Ainsley's Angels did the whole 30, you know,

full marathon running that wheelchair there in two and a half hours.

It was impressive.

Those guys were just beasts.

And so it was super fun to be with all the winners at the end

and see little stories.

But, I mean, you can see the skyline.

It was a picture-perfect day.

So come out next year, and I did put on video that I will do the 5K next year.

So I'm tripling down right now.

Butch will be there.

All right.

Next, we're going to do the Mayor's Spotlight presentation.

Again, we do these off-site and just want to kind of highlight people so they, you know, it's not lost in the noise here.

But on Tuesday, January 27th, we acknowledge the following groups for shining our community.

So we did the Mayor's Excellence Award.

Went to Morgan Forster, who was in our Community Development Department, and he's just doing great things in our real estate division.

everything that we wanted to implement and streamline

and be really customer service focused

rolling out the red carpet he's doing that

on his own which is great

we also thank our team of firefighters

Sean Hayes, Garrett Hill

and Adam Hunt and Zachary Young who were able

to save the life of a choking victim

one of our ambassadors

night ambassadors down on Main Street

so he attended a ceremony

to show his gratitude for saving his life

which was awesome

the H.P. Huntington Harbor Commission

yeah you can clap

the Huntington Harbor Commission showed their appreciation

for Sergeant Ron West

with the OC Sheriff's Department

who leads a team of 12 deputies

and responded to various kinds of calls in the harbor

so the Harbor Commission really was appreciative

of all his efforts and wanted to acknowledge him

and then we thanked

the Sac and Stone

charity group who has donated more than $20,000

over the past two years

and have enhanced community events by providing

photo boosts at multiple events

hot chocolate at breakfast with Santa

swim caps at the annual pier swim

popcorn and treats at the overnight

family camp out and so much more

so an amazing group that gives so much

we wanted to honor them

and if you guys didn't know Fred's Mexican Cafe

just celebrated their 25th anniversary

and so they're going to be celebrating

with events all year long

they're actually having throwback

prices to when they first started

in 25 years ago so make sure you go in there

and hold them to that

And like I just said, we celebrated the Surf City Marathon for the 30th anniversary of their race

with all the 21,000-plus participants and just that glorious day.

So Phyllis and Dan and the team really just did a great job.

And I had some good conversations with Phyllis, who's on the left there next to Pat,

about how to make it even better next year and really learn a lot from every year we put on this event.

And then lastly, we thank the many volunteers of Patriot Point.

Mark Mays and his wife and Pat was instrumental in that Patriot Point project.

And we officially cut the ribbon at the site last month on January 10th.

And we wanted to thank them and the many other people that put in so many hours over the years

and they're making it to the beautiful spot it is today.

And like I said before, if you guys see it at night, just north of Golden West, right on the bluffs there,

it's amazing to see. It's really beautiful.

And everyone's super proud of it.

So thank you, guys.

All right, continuing on my business highlight themes,

I just want to take a moment to celebrate some of the exciting milestones we've recently marked in partnership with the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce.

So over the past few weeks, we've had the pleasure of attending several ribbon cuttings, including the Boot Barn on Beach Boulevard, which Councilmember Kennedy, there's pretty much central casting.

That entire outfit he bought was from Boot Barn.

I was actually jealous.

I was wearing a bolo tie, but I didn't look as good as he did.

we did Clatch Coffee which is inside the Sprouts

at Warner and Golden West

really good coffee shop right inside

so go into Sprouts and check them out

ROW Kids, ROWI Kids

Teen and Parent Wellness Center

so both channeled that ribbon cutting

and they were also proud

to recognize a major milestone

like we just talked about for Fred's

celebrating their 25 years in downtown Huntington Beach

so I had a fun ribbon cutting there

all of us on top of the stairs, it was great

and then these celebrations are a great

reminder of just the energy, creativity, and local pride that continue to drive our business

community. And so building on that milestone, we're continuing, as you guys saw, our Minute

with the Mayor series, and we just launched another one this past Sunday, spotlighting

our local business, Susie Macon Wave Salon, located at 320 Main Street. And so we just

want to share that quick video with you guys.

oh what's up HB this episode of minute with the mayor takes us down to Main Street and

Susie's make a wave salon let's go meet Susie

all right Susie so tell me about making wave salon we've been here at 320 Main Street since

1997 we're a family owned business I work here with myself and my son and we

love our community we do men's and women's haircuts we do hair color

corrective hair color and every extension hair extension method on the market

well and what keeps customers coming back would you say well I would hope it's

our customer service and then what what makes you uniquely surf city we just

love everything about downtown Huntington Beach we love the community

the neighbors. We're a mid-sized town that feels like a small town. Everyone

still knows each other, you know everyone's dogs when they come by the

front door. It's just a very friendly neighborhood, we love it here. So if someone

came in for the first time, what would you recommend they get? Or is it more just

kind of customer preference? You know, when you come in the first time we do a

thorough consultation with you and we discuss what your hair needs are, where

you've been before, what we need to change or not change, and we go over all of that

before we actually touch your head.

That's another local gem right here in Huntington Beach.

So remember to shop local and keep Surf City thriving.

I'll see you guys at the next stop.

So please go check out Make & Wave Salon,

and we want to thank Susie and her son, JC,

who has given me a nice little trim up for being part of the series.

And if you guys are interested in being featured,

just apply at shoplocalhb.com.

since we launched that first video the next day so many businesses applied that it actually

crashed the website so uh i make a commitment i'm going to get to everyone um we've already

talked about filming schedules but i think so far today we have over 30 plus businesses that

want to be featured i know that number is just going to increase from here so appreciate the

patience but i think it's really important to highlight these these amazing businesses in town

now to community events announcements uh madam clerk do we have anyone signed up to speak for

the committee events announcement portion.

We have three speakers.

Thank you.

The City Council will now receive public comments

for community events announcements only.

Each organization is allotted one minute for its announcement.

When your name is called, please approach.

Use both podiums, state your name and organization for the record.

Dave Schenkman, Jason Schmidt, Ruby Vergara.

Sorry.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Dave Shankman from the Kite Connection up on the Huntington Beach Pier.

For those of you who aren't familiar with us, it's understandable.

I did just recently start the business here in Huntington back in June or July of 1983.

And we've only been up on the pier since 2000, so we're brand new.

I am here as usual with a monumental announcement.

Now tonight's is a little different. It might save your life.

so in just over a month kite party 22 takes place at the Huntington Beach pier it has become one of

the premier kiting events in the world and you may ask you know how how am I saving your life

well I fear that had I made this announcement just a few days prior the excitement and euphoria

that you would have felt might have been too much for your heart to handle so I'm here a month early

making the announcement and possibly saving your life.

You're welcome.

March 7th and 8th.

Always the time change while we're changing time.

So anyway, free for the public to watch.

Kite Party 22. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers.

My name is Ruby Vergara, and I am the Recreation Supervisor

at Murty Community Center with Community and Library Services Department.

I'd like to share an exciting upcoming opportunity in our department as we prepare for our largest

and most fun season of the year.

We are hiring for all summer programs, including aquatic swim instructors and lifeguards, summer

day camps, youth sports, and office support positions.

We've created multiple ways for applicants to learn more about these positions.

Our first event is a virtual hiring fair info session where we will be reviewing available positions, program details, how to apply, and interview tips.

This session will take place this Saturday, February 7th from 12 to 1.30 p.m.

Following that, we will host two in-person hiring fairs with on-the-spot interviews.

The first will be held February 28th.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

A couple quick reminders and announcements tonight.

First, our third financial literacy workshop focused on banking services.

You can bank on it.

It will be held next Wednesday, February 11th, from 530 to 630 at Central Library.

And residents can join either in person or online.

Second, our second investment scams workshop, Romance Scams, in honor of Valentine's Day,

will be held on Wednesday, February 18th from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Talbert Room at Central Library.

And for those of you who couldn't attend our introductory intro scams class, Scams 101,

it will be available to watch on our website, HBTV.

Lastly, I'm extremely excited tonight to announce that we will be hosting our first community-wide free tax prep day

entitled TN Taxes on Friday, February 20th from 1 to 6 p.m.

at Central Library Room C and D in conjunction with United Way of Orange County.

Free IRS certified tax filing services will be available for anyone who meets any of the following criteria.

Earning less than 70 grand a year, is over the age of 50, has a disability, is a veteran, or has limited English proficiency.

The free tax parade will be in addition to the current free tax prep services being offered to seniors at the Senior Center by the AARP.

And we'd ask anybody who's interested to please sign up early so we can ensure that we have enough tax-prec volunteers in place to fully meet the demand.

And also, please make sure you bring your tax documents.

And a special thank you to Ashley and her team at CLS for arranging the location in United Way for providing the trained volunteers for the event.

Jason?

Yeah.

So for the SCAMPS workshop, that was really successful, alerting our senior citizens.

How many people showed up for that one?

So for the one that we did in January, it was about 25,

but the senior one that we did in December on AI was about probably 100 or so.

Steve Levin, our super volunteer, is here tonight somewhere.

He can probably answer as well as I can.

And also, like, the tax, TN Texas,

is the first time we bring that to Huntington Beach.

Other cities have enjoyed that service.

For the United Way, this is the first time in recent memory

that they've done it in Huntington Beach.

They do it everywhere else in the major cities in Orange County.

Okay.

I want to thank you for bringing it down to Huntington Beach

and also I heard you're working with Newport Beach

and other cities to extend it.

Yeah, so we are extending the invitation to join

the scams classes to our friends in Newport Beach

and we're going to probably have some conversations

with Seal Beach and some of our other neighboring cities.

Thank you, Jason.

Of course.

Folks, hello.

Today I'm going to talk about flock.

Roger, this is portions for special community.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

No, it's not public comments yet.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

No worries, bud.

We're looking forward to it, though.

All right.

Next up, we want to have a presentation honoring Officer Avalos

and retiring police dog, Canine Knight.

So I'm going to come up there.

Thank you.

All right.

So on behalf of the city and city council,

I am proud to recognize a very special member of our police department,

K9 Knight, beautiful dog,

who's officially retiring after seven years of dedicated service.

Since joining the department in 2018,

Knight served as an invaluable partner to patrol and SWAT,

completing more than 200 searches,

assisting in 13 apprehensions,

and participating in numerous deployments

and community demonstrations that help keep our city safe.

Knights serve a distinction alongside Officer Avalos,

and together they exemplify the trust, discipline, and teamwork

that define an outstanding K-9 team.

This partnership requires an extraordinary level of commitment,

both on and off duty.

We also extend our sincere gratitude to Officer Avalos

for his dedication and the lasting impact he has had on public safety in Huntington Beach.

On behalf of the city and the city council, it is my honor to present these commendations

to K9 Knight and Officer Alvalos.

We congratulate Knight on an incredible career and wish him a well-deserved retirement,

training his badge for a lifetime of rest at home with his family.

And also, I was requested to give him a nice present, which every dog would love, but we

have actual beef femur bones from the Beef Palace.

Yep.

So this has to be the first time this has ever been requested

at city council meetings, but I have two of these nice femur bones here for you.

So congratulations, Knight.

And so if the council wants to come up, yeah.

Yeah.

You guys want to come and join me?

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

One more.

One more.

Okay.

Okay.

Looking right here.

One more.

Two.

Okay. Looking right here.

One, two, three.

I forgot about this one and forgot about this one and forgot about this one and forgot

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Sir Avalos, congrats.

Thank you, sir.

I'm ready to go.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

All right, now to announcement of supplemental communications.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes, we have supplemental communications.

We have two emails.

For item number 14 on the consent calendar,

email received regarding the proposed adoption

of the revised city council manual

and also a revised resolution received

from Mike Vigliotta, city attorney.

Two revised resolutions received

from the city attorney, Mike Vigliotta.

Okay.

Now to public comments.

Madam Clerk, how many people do we have signed up to speak?

11.

All right, please call them up.

The city council will now receive public comments

for any topic including items on the open session agenda.

When your name is called, please approach.

Use both podiums.

State your name and organization for the record.

Andrew Einhorn.

Mr. Amory Hansen.

Tim Geddes.

Dr. Bradley Smith.

Ken Ennaway.

Catherine Goddard.

Michael Selna.

Eric Schein.

Pat Goodman.

Please approach.

Good evening. My name is Kenny Noe.

I'd like to start off my comments by thanking Councilman Twining for giving me the bird.

And also particularly thanks to Chad for your statements given the responsibility of the city council people.

That's very important. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

I came here to speak about the agenda item concerning the audit.

I wanted to clarify something because everybody says you get an audit, you get a clean opinion.

What does that really mean?

A clean opinion is a professional standard that doesn't judge the validity, good or bad, of financial statements.

instead a clean opinion as we received here

states that the statements are presented

in accordance with general acceptance standards

provided by the accounting profession

I'm very happy to say that we got a clean opinion

but I wanted to make sure people understood

the scope of it really

also I wanted to make this request to city council

I would like to obtain my listing

of all of the costs

the costs incurred by the city council

on discretionary spending in excess of $50,000 that were not budgeted.

I think the people of Huntington Beach deserve to know what discretionary dollars are spent

on behalf of the citizens because we shouldn't spend money just because we have it.

Also, I noticed in the auditor's report, I'd like to get more information regarding the

identified significant risk regarding compliance with federal grant requirements.

I look forward to receiving the reports at the earliest possible convenience.

Thank you.

Thanks, Rich.

Good evening.

Tim Geddes in the house for a brand new month and a new format.

Thank you, Mayor.

How do you kill a vampire?

You need to drive a stake through its heart.

After many, many full moons of our community being terrorized by the voter ID vampire, the state Supreme Court has finally driven a stake through its heart to stop the hemorrhaging of our civic blood and treasure.

of our, and this city council has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless thousands

of staff hours on its quixotic quest to tilt at windmills in Sacramento. It has alienated many

residents in the community and will bring on waves of protests, if not torches and pitchforks

time from our townsfolk if you do not change course. However, it looks like you are going

down the same wrong road again, and you, I mean, you have to think twice. We don't want to be a

loser city forever. This community, this counterproductive crusade has been the centerpiece

of your ideological effort to turn Huntington Beach into a sanctuary city for MAGAs.

two of your champions tony strickland and michael gates are gone and another may uh another may be

leaving the dais in november isn't it time to return to trump sylvania and give up trying to

suck us dry it's a state it's a safe bet just like many republicans across the country your

mismanagement, misdeeds, and misplaced allegiances will catch up with you incumbents this election

year. Already, community-backed candidates are lining up to dethrone you. Surf city people

power versus outside special interests, right-wing extremists, and those who would place

ideological interests over taxpayer ones, you do not have the community's welfare at heart.

All you have is a stake through it. Thank you.

Mine's a little more lighthearted. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. My name is Bradley Smith. I'm a

35-year resident here in Huntington Beach.

I'm a retired emergency room trauma physician

and a retired commander for the United States Navy.

Small world, my family member was your instructor

at SEAL Training School.

Yeah.

My items are just some things.

This is the first city council meeting

I've actually been to in 30 years.

So mine is conversations will be brief.

You know, I see in these newspaper articles just about fighting for the right for night.

You know, I live in a reasonably well-to-do area, and I just, so many cities have these night pollution ordinances.

Why don't we consider one?

I mean, I know you, it's just something I'm throwing out there that, you know, why do we need to have, you know, why do I need to have my pool lights and my landscape lights and everything on at 10 o'clock at night?

I just, you know, we border the ocean by 180 degrees.

We had an opportunity to have a really nice dark night sky.

and I just would like to throw it out there for the future

if you guys, men and women, would consider

just proposing something that would preserve our night

and maybe make it so that we don't have to have our lights on

at 10 o'clock at night or after that.

I mean, I have a neighbor that keeps his pool lights

and his landscape lights on until midnight

and I'm thinking, why?

We're all in bed.

and then my second one is just it's more out of curiosity

we have these ordinances and I don't know I spent well over 20 years in an expeditionary

warfare unit you know fighting for laws and let's just take noise for example we have a

noise ordinance law and it has a decibel level it doesn't have an asterisk by it that says what

the noise is coming from. It just says a decibel level. I've reached out to law enforcement to come

and enforce ordinance that we have. And I've been returned by saying, yes, you're right. They are

breaking the law or the ordinance. But, and my thing is, well, why is there a but? There's not

an asterisk. A law is a law. An ordinance is an ordinance. You spend the time to debate the

ordinance, write the ordinance, and hopefully to enforce the ordinance. I've come to see that it's

really a police officer is more interpreting what he feels or she feels might be okay,

but yet my thought was the police officer is really there to enforce it. Thank you.

Hey, Mr. Smith, could you fill out a blue card and turn it in to one of the officers,

and I'll get in contact with you.

Oh, sure.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

My name is Mr. Amory Hanson.

I'm speaking tonight in support of item 24,

the item to support legislation by Senator Strickland

to allow judicial review of a city's regional housing needs allocation.

This legislation will ensure a fair opportunity to resolve disputes

regarding Huntington Beach and our city's regional housing needs allocation.

Let's continue to fight against high-density development

in the hills of Orange, in the valleys of Los Angeles,

and in the bridges of San Francisco.

Once again, I urge a yes vote, and I am 24.

Thank you.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach.

Governance is judged by results,

and in Huntington Beach, the results are clear.

Residents are paying for avoidable failures.

The Pacific Airshow settlement fiasco

exposed through a taxpayer-funded lawsuit

that you all tried to hide the financial giveaway.

The city's voter ID ordinance,

sanctuary city, library and housing lawsuits

all ended in costly defeats.

This sounds like a distractor magic game

However, it is not. You're playing with our tax dollars.

Are more appeals coming soon?

So will more litigation bailouts and payouts.

Will you transfer more reserves this year as well?

These were deliberate choices, evidence of poor fiscal discipline and wasted taxpayer funds.

The result is clear.

a collapse of leadership in Huntington Beach as we have seen firsthand.

In 2026, our leaders must reject Magaville ideology,

stop governing through litigation, focus on fixing infrastructure,

and return to the basic duty of governing locally

and not chasing national political fights.

The people of Huntington Beach are not powerless, and we will no longer pretend your leadership is taking us in the right direction.

It is not.

The council has bled taxpayers dry with endless lawsuits and manufactured culture wars, reducing Huntington Beach to a national disgrace and no Olympics.

Thank you.

Michael Selna, 53-year resident.

I'm here to speak about Senate Bill, California Senate Bill 868,

and its positive impacts on the residents of Huntington Beach.

Affordability is on everybody's mind,

especially for those who rent their housing.

45% of Huntington Beach residents rent.

power bills are rising at twice the rate of inflation. SB 868 would allow renters and owners

to utilize plug-in solar units, sometimes called balcony solar, without regulatory red tape.

Units up to 1,200 watts would be authorized, enough to run a refrigerator, TV, microwave,

laptop. I estimate this could reduce a renter's power bill by one-third to one-half, helping with

the affordability issue. These units can be installed on a balcony or on the ground and are

portable, allowing a renter to move to a new location and take the unit with them. Utah has

passed this and over 20 other states are considering this legislation. My request is that you allow me

to work with staff to develop a letter in support for your consideration to be sent to the state

senate. I would also be happy to work with Senator Strickland's office on this. As a footnote, I'm a

licensed civil engineer in California with no connections to the solar industry and nothing to

gain personally if SB

868 is

enacted. Thank you for listening.

Sir,

sir, if you can.

There's an idiot.

Hey, sir, if you can, please pull out

a blue card. I'd like to talk to you about that.

We'll make arrangements.

Oh,

sorry.

Sorry.

Next speaker, please.

Well, it's always interesting to come to these council meetings.

One never knows.

Good.

Okay.

Good evening.

I'm Catherine Goddard.

I've been trying to figure out why the Friends of the Library and this city council cannot come to agreement

about what seems to me to be a mutually beneficial process.

The Friends of the Library, as a 501 nonprofit, 5013C nonprofit,

is a community group of people who enjoy getting together,

talking about books, going to hear new authors,

and donating their books to the Friends of the Library,

then working to turn around and sell them at a discount to anybody that wants them,

and using the gift shop that is incredibly interesting

because it's so different from any other shopping mall shops you see.

So that group, which has the money that they wish to donate to the city,

does use city facilities.

This particular council seems to be stuck in a mindset about business

with the definition that a business exists to make money

and that the business owns things, in this case, the library,

and therefore anybody using the library needs to pay rent.

It's a standoff that doesn't make any sense to me.

The Friends of the Library, which I've been a member for 30 years, I guess,

is a group of people that just enjoy getting together and working together,

but also is heavily invested in the quality of books and materials in the library.

That doesn't mean that group wants to select the books.

It means that group wants to give money to the library for the books,

freeing up taxpayer money to do things like, let's say, fix the fountains at the library.

This magnificent building that we have where the fountains haven't worked for I don't know how many years, perhaps a full decade.

So I don't understand, except for the fact that there's two different business models there.

One is looking at working together and donating and socializing and being part of a community.

And the others, you see, this council seems to think you're running a business as opposed to managing a city.

If you're managing a city, you would be managing all the aspects of the city, the parks, the infrastructure, the lights, whatever,

so that all of us could enjoy our various activities,

including the activities of the nonprofit organizations.

I understand your need for a relationship

between the nonprofit and the city to define what that means,

but what I don't understand is why you can't get past this idea

of people volunteering time and money to donate to the library.

It seems like I just would like to hear some explanation

somewhere along the line of why we're having this back and forth

about the donation the Friends wishes to give to the library.

And I know it's somehow stuck on your concept of an MOU,

but I think there's plenty of room in the middle here to work this out.

I would just like to point everyone to the January 22nd town hall we had at Edison

where we talked about this subject in detail, provided answers,

and we all look forward to finalizing the standard license agreement and MOU

that we do with all our volunteer groups and nonprofits, especially in city facilities.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'd like to share my experience volunteering for the point in time count last Tuesday, January 27th.

I was assigned to a team of four surveying, four fellow volunteers,

surveying unhoused individuals in the early morning hours in West Orange County,

specifically Garden Grove and Westminster area.

We spoke to about 13 people.

Two declined to answer questions, but the others were thoughtful and willing to engage.

What stood out most to me was that all of them that we spoke to had ties to the city in which we found them and spoke with them.

I think that's an important issue to identify.

They were all in their 50s.

only one reported having issues with substance abuse.

And it's quite an experience that I'd encourage people to participate in.

And I was really reminded and thinking about Huntington Beach

and how fairly unique we are

and that we've taken a more proactive approach to address homelessness.

I mean, there were teams here in Huntington Beach doing similar work.

Well, that approach initially helped the city avoid litigation in 2019.

More importantly, it reflects the understanding that this is the right thing to do, to house people, right?

We know that housing the unhoused reduces crime and helps maintain and even increase property values.

This is not just intuitive. It is supported by a 2017 UCI study.

Everyone currently living at the Navigation Center has ties to this community.

Moving forward, I would encourage the council to move forward aggressively with the Pathways Project

at the existing Navigation Center site, combining permanent supportive housing

with continued navigation services.

It would be a major step toward meaningfully addressing homelessness in our city.

And I want to note the broader need for affordable housing for seniors, families, and veterans.

Addressing these needs strengthens our entire community

and helps prevent homelessness before it happens.

and finally

agenda item 17 I hope

at some future date you'll schedule

a study session

sometime in a council meeting

that's the year end audit

for 2024-25

there's a lot of work that goes into

that and there's

a lot of good information

and I think the public is interested

in that type of information

thank you

applause

applause

applause

Hi there.

I actually had some dental work done,

so I'm actually going to have my phone do the speaking for me.

I was threatened with arrest for allegedly obstructing an investigation,

yet no police report documenting that investigation exists.

When the officers first arrived, they asked me how things were going.

I responded honestly, it could be better, it could be worse. I believed I would have the opportunity

to fully explain what had happened. I did not refuse to speak. I simply did not say everything

at that moment and it wasn't until after I was threatened with arrest that I asked for the

officer's name and badge number. At that point, I was told, we'll deal with that in a second.

That second took 26 minutes, during which I remained under threat and effectively prevented

from obtaining even basic identifying information. I also want to point out, how could I even make a

complaint when no police report exists about this incident? On top of that, when the officer arrived

at our home, I offered my flash drive containing all video evidence, yet he refused to take it.

Not only was I denied the opportunity to fully explain what happened on scene, but my evidence

was ignored, making the complaint process meaningless. This situation did not begin with

law enforcement. It began when my wife and I were assaulted from behind by a jogger. That assault

led to our dog being sequestered for 10 days. During that time, she refused her food and barely

resembled the same dog she had been for over a month. This incident disrupted our lives in

multiple ways. We were later told by animal control that we owe $145, despite our dog never

being taken into custody and no clear explanation of what the fee represents. Instead, I was

explicitly threatened with arrest for allegedly impeding and obstructing an investigation.

This threat was entirely unfounded. Animal control had repeatedly told the officer that they were in

charge of the investigation, so he had no investigation to impede. The person responsible

for the incident was already being escorted into an ambulance. There was no one present for me to

impede or obstruct. No impeding or obstruction was occurring at all, yet he threatened to arrest me

and even said he would write me a ticket. That ticket would have required me to spend an entire

day in court explaining this situation. A needless disruption imposed on me with no legitimate cause.

During this interaction, I informed an officer that I wanted to record audio of the encounter.

I was told I could be arrested for filming. The officer said, just like you wouldn't want someone

to get audio of you, I responded that I could legally request that audio at any time. The threat

remained. Video I possess shows additional concerning details. The officer's body-worn

camera was flashing its red recording light the entire time, indicating it was recording.

After I told him I intended to request that footage, he deliberately shined his flashlight

at the camera and turned off the red recording light. The camera was also not worn properly.

It was on his knee, not on his chest. When I later raised this with internal affairs,

I was told officers can wear the... Sorry about that.

Thank you.

Let's go, Roger.

Police, I'm telling you, please, city council, I'm telling you,

the police department here is getting worse and worse and worse very rapidly.

They're getting away with a lot of stuff.

I mean, the Public Record Act, you're allowed to see the police body cams.

right they nope nope nope you have to subpoena if you have to subpoena them what what's the

the public records act for then they won't tell you so you have to go and do the same

every single one of the positions of any department what he done what what your chief does

he makes people change the positions so in that way they can say oh i was never trained for that

i was never trained for that and they won't give you anything okay one of the things that they

have now is called flock technologies.

Flock, like the birds

of a feather flock together.

Every single time that you take

and download within an app

that's free,

you're contributing to

the flock technologies, the flock

hive.

And every single thing about you,

it's known.

Nobody is

mass surveilling you,

but it's all recorded.

It's all recorded until somebody has to do an

investigation and that's a new word too for all the cops investigation just like he said and the

next thing is that they threaten you with arrest this is this is supposed to be a free country

every single time i mean it's insane on the things that we let the police get away with

the flock technologies we have to stop because right now what it knows is that what they do

they put a license plate number on and they know everything they know everything that you have done

for the past three years.

Where you went, who you met,

who you talked to, how long you've been there

with no subpoena, no

nothing. And in

Huntington Beach, once Huntington Beach

has, right now we've been using it for over five

years. It's been quiet, it's been quiet.

Nobody has to say anything about it because

if it doesn't come from your funds

and if they get it from a donation,

they don't have to say that they have it.

In fact, they can lie.

In fact, they have to lie because that's part of

the contract. The contract, you're

not even supposed to see. It's only for them. How is this allowed? And they know exactly where you've

been, how long you stayed, who went there at the same time. This is evasive with no subpoena

for $20,000 a year. For $20,000 a year, for as many searches as they want, and it's not for just

Huntington Beach. If you go anywhere in the country, they know exactly where you've been, how long you've

been there. This is not right.

We have to stop this.

If we don't

in Pennsylvania

there's a few counties that told

a flock that they don't want it anymore.

Because one of the things for $20,000

is that we have to give all our data

to flock. Including

all the LIDAR data

from the police department. From the police cars.

This is bad.

Alright Madam Clerk

is that it?

That concludes our...

All right.

Next up is Council Committee appointment announcements.

Council members, do you have any Council Committee appointment announcements?

Seeing none.

AB 1234 reporting.

Does anyone have anything to report?

Yes.

I attended OCOG last Thursday.

And just for the record, I want to say I support our Huntington Beach Police Department.

100% and I think they're the greatest police department in the world. Thank you for keeping us safe.

Well said, Budge. Anyone else? Openness and negotiation disclosures. Does anyone have anything to disclose?

All right. Next, we'll move on to the public hearing.

To conduct the Tax Equity and Financial Responsibility Act public hearing and adopt resolution number 2026-03,

approving authorizing and directing execution of a joint exercise of powers agreement relating to

the California Public Finance Authority and approving the issuance by the California Public

Finance Authority of revenue bonds in the amount not to exceed $325 million from Marisol HB LLC

with no city obligations as well as payment in lieu of taxes agreement. Does anyone have any

ex parte communications to disclose on this item? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, do we have any

supplemental communications for this item?

No, there's none.

Staff, please introduce the report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Our acting CFO, Zach, will provide the presentation.

Before you tonight is a public hearing

and request action to renew the city's TEFRA approval

for the Marisol Senior Living Project.

This item is returned to council solely

because the prior TEFRA approval has expired

under the federal tax requirements.

Council previously conducted the required public hearing

and approved this action.

However, because the bonds were not issued

within the allowable timeframe,

federal law requires the public hearing

and approval be renewed.

In addition, the project is subject to a payment

in lieu of taxes or pilot agreement,

which provides a measurable fiscal benefit

the city. Under current conditions, the site generates approximately $22,000 annually in

property tax revenues. Based on the projected assessed value following the completion and

stabilization of the project, we are looking at an increase in approximately to $242,000 in property

tax at year five. The pilot structure supports projecting financial financing while allowing

the city to stabilize and realize a substantial long-term increase in property tax. So tonight,

Knight's request action is procedural in nature.

It carries no fiscal impact to the city

and does not approve the project itself

or commit city funds or create city debt

and simply ensures the continued compliance with federal law

so that the project may remain eligible for tax-exempt bond financing.

Staff recommends that conducting a public hearing

under the requirements of TEFRA and the Internal Revenue Code

and adopting Resolution No. 2026-03

to authorize the issuance of tax-exempt bond status.

Here with me I have Scott Struzner,

representing the Maristal Development and our bond counsel,

Cyrus Tarabi, to help answer any questions that you guys may have.

Council members, do you have any questions on the report?

All right.

I'm going to open the public hearing.

Public hearing is open.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

We have no public speaker signed up.

I'm going to close the public hearing.

Council, any discussion?

Anyone?

That was a good synopsis.

I think it was just a continuation of what was approved last year.

So I just need a one-year extension.

There's no discussion.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Can we get a motion?

I think the motion is recommended.

Second.

Councilman Grohl yes Councilman Kennedy yes Mayor Pro Tem Twining yes thank you

Mayor McKeon yes Councilman Burns aye Councilwoman Vandermark yes

Councilman Williams yes item passes 7-0 all right next up is city manager's

report city manager anything to report nothing tonight mayor all right next up

is the consent calendar items 14 through 23 I'm gonna pull number 14 does anyone

have any other items to pull I wanted to pull 19 please okay I want to pull I

lost my number here

Council member Kennedy I think

I meant 22

I was just looking at that

my apologies Mayor

it's item 22

20

not 19

20

alright

I'd like to make a motion to move the remaining items

second

did you get that motion

Andrew Grohl did you

Andrew's pulling 20.

So we'll move the balance.

You pulled 14, right?

Mayor? Yep.

McKeon, Vandermark,

first and second, and we'll be voting

on item number 15, 16,

17, 18, 19,

21, 23,

and 24. Correct.

Not 24.

It's an admin item. Yeah, sorry, 24 is an admin.

Just 23.

Up to 23.

Councilman Gruhl? Yes.

Councilman Kennedy? Yes.

Mayor Pro Temp-Twining? Yes.

Mayor McKeon? Yes. Councilman Burns? Aye.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Yes. Councilman Williams? Yes.

items number 14 items number 15 16 17 18 19 21 and 23 past 7-0 thank you all right item number

14 uh city attorney this is your item can you please present it sure mayor just a very brief

presentation apologize i've got a cold uh mayor and council the agenda item is to amend the city

council manual to add a requirement that any visual presentation proposed to be shown by a

council member during a council meeting must be provided to the city manager the Thursday ahead

of the meeting. This will allow staff to review the materials and discuss if needed with the

council member. The goal is to protect the city from unintended liability that could come from

creating a faulty administrative record. This will also allow the public to review the material

before the council meeting. And that sums up my report. I know there's been some discussion. Does

Does anyone have any questions?

Sure.

Theoretically, would that apply to this meeting?

Good question.

So we had supplemental communication that clarified that the resolution would not take effect until the next council meeting.

Don.

Yes.

So when I was running for city council, I remember the public would come up.

And as that lady addressed today early, and they would give you the thumb drive and there was visual presentations.

And I kind of had forgotten about that aspect of it until this item came up and somebody in the city said that we no longer allow that.

So I was a little taken aback by that because that's not even a public record.

But my thought was, why did we do that, number one?

And secondly, on this, the problem I have with this to a certain extent is when there's a topic that's been agendized, if I have to produce slides that would merely just support my position verbally, basically my verbal articulation,

why am I required under this resolution to present them to you all five days in advance

when you don't ask me to give you a recording of what I plan on saying in a meeting good question

and let me start by saying this is a policy decision for the council I'm just bringing

this forward okay well I think who can who can never answer that I'll leave it to no no I'll

answer the question. So the purpose behind the, again, as I mentioned, is to stop a record,

a faulty record from being created. If the city, if the staff is able to review what's going to be

put up on the slideshow, which looks like something that's being generated from the city,

it gives us the opportunity to make sure nothing's going to be on the slide that could hurt the city

in the future. And you're right, your oral presentation could do the same, but we can

stop the meeting at that point and remind the council member that the discussion is getting

off track, could be violating the Brown Act, or could be exposing the city to liability.

It gives us that quick ability when you're speaking to do it, but if there's a presentation,

we don't know what slide. If there's 50 slides, we don't know what's in the slideshow.

Understood, and let me caveat on that. So by the time I may have said something hypothetically

that could put the city in jeopardy, it's been said.

So on that note, if a slide presentation was being presented

and as the slides were going, they were germane,

as Councilman Williams said last time, to the conversation,

the slides are moving along, there's not a problem,

a slide comes up just as quick as I could have said something,

you could visually see it and say that slide's inappropriate,

pause that slide for a moment.

Why would that not be a remedy?

It would be, like I said, it would give us some forethought.

It gives us an additional protection before the council meeting to review the materials.

It's not something that's just being spoken off the cuff or whatever it may be,

even if it's a presentation that you've orally planned to present.

It's something that's visual, and it's something that's there forever on the screen.

So it's a distinction, and it's something to help us protect the city.

And actually, if it's presented on Thursday, we can get it onto the agenda so the public has an opportunity to review the presentation and it gives public more input on the process.

One of my thoughts is, as a council member, our job is to be the stewards of the city.

So if somebody's going to come before us and I want to ask them questions and have the opportunity to get a true and real answer, not a rehearsed answer, I lose that advantage because the person's going to see my thought process, where I'm going to go with my questions, and they're going to have the opportunity to prepare the perfect statement, which is not really true and genuine to having to think on your feet.

and give us, the public, by virtue of this meeting,

a real genuine answer that can't be rehearsed in advance.

Is there any thought to that?

I mean, they're valid.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good question.

I guess it depends on the context of what the presentation is

and who you're talking to and what the subject matter is,

but giving the public the opportunity to carefully review something,

thoughtfully present to you based on what you're presenting,

again, it just enhances the process as opposed to detracting from it.

If you want to play gotcha, like if it's a gotcha situation where you want to call someone out,

I mean, again, that's why it's a policy decision for the council.

It's not gotcha.

It's just like trying to get true and genuine answers out of people

that at times we're making decisions on true and genuine answers, not rehearsed answers.

I guess my other question would be, you know, we've been a city since 1909.

there's been a lot of smart people that have sat in these seats and some very

shrewd city attorneys and all of a sudden out of the blue we have this item

does anybody know what may have spawned it the proliferation of the PowerPoint

and the visual presentation by the City Council is something new I've been doing

this for 26 years and this is really the first these last year over the last

year. It's really, like I said, it's accelerated and proliferated, and that's kind of the genesis

of why we're doing this, or why we're proposing it. Again, it's a policy decision for you folks.

Thank you.

Just curious, so are there any actual cases where there's been litigation as a result of

PowerPoint presentations? Not that I'm aware of. This is a very, I'm not aware of any other cities

where the council's putting up detailed PowerPoint presentations either.

Not to say that it doesn't take place.

Was this brought to you by a council member, or is this genesis of your own?

The mayor and I talked about it, and that's, I guess, to answer your question.

Okay, so it was brought to you by the mayor.

Let me clarify.

It was not brought to VIG by me.

He said we talked about it.

he was expressing to me there's been situations that concern him that could get us into potential

litigation and violate the brown act and put things on the public record so he asked me about

this this policy i said yeah let's let's bring it up and let's let the council talk about it to me i

think it makes sense i didn't bring this to the attorney we talked about it those are the exact

words as the mayor the attorney brings things to you and he thought it should be good guard rails

to tighten up me personally i think he allows plenty of time if the agenda comes out on wednesday

and you go, hey, there's something on there I want to discuss further,

just get it to the city manager so they're going to be updated to the agenda on Friday,

so update the agenda to abide by the 72-hour posting rule.

That's all it just creates.

It actually enhances free speech.

It increases public disclosure.

Because if you're putting together the presentation,

you're already gone through the work.

You'd want to get it in there so the public can see it as long as possible.

And so that's all just creating a process for you guys to put up whatever you want to put up.

again on the first three years upon council like this that's never happened before where council

members started putting up presentations and so when when mike vignotta came to me with his

concerns i said let's bring up this to the council meeting let's let the council members talk about

it and just have a process so if you guys want to do that just do it the right way just agendize

it properly so you guys can put up whatever you want to talk about just like anything that staff

puts up on the screen it goes to the city manager and the city attorney just to scrub it to make

sure there's no legal issues and so that would happen with whoever wants to do you know put up

a presentation just goes to them the other council members don't look at it and then it just puts

gets posted on the agenda 72 hours before the meeting i think it's a fair process again you've

already gone through the work of creating the presentation so what's the issue with doing it

just a couple days earlier that's all i can address a couple of those things mayor mayor i keep um

hearing you say that we need to agendize it properly so is it your understanding that

these slides need to be on the agenda or agendized 72 hours in advance in order for it to adhere to

the brown act so the talk with the attorney it's when you put things up as coming from the council

you're speaking for the city so it needs to be properly agendized it's going to be on the agenda

as a presentation do i have that correct no let me clarify that so so the brown act allow if

something's on the agenda if Travis or I or whoever put something on the agenda you can have

supplemental communications up until we're having the meeting where information is provided to the

council and then to the public so I don't know if that if that helps clarify what you're asking

yeah so it would seem that the basis of this resolution was based off of a misunderstanding

that these visuals do not need to go on the agenda to actually adhere to the Brown Act.

Understand?

Yeah.

There's a difference.

As a matter of fact, the Brown Act actually contemplates the possibility.

It anticipates a council member showing up with visuals

and providing them to other council members on the actual day of the meeting,

at the meeting itself.

And really the only stipulation is that if you're going to provide some type of visual

to a majority of the council members, you need to make it available to all of the public.

So it actually anticipates this, and probably the most effective way to pull that off is

actually put it up on a screen where everyone can see it instead of trying to pass it out

to everyone in the room.

So the Brown Act actually allows for that.

So in a sense, this policy would be more restrictive and restraining over what the

Brown Act would allow for, correct?

That's correct.

And I just want to make a point, though, that if you put it up on the screen, the public still has to have the ability to get the physical document.

And so maybe if we could, can we pull up the resolution?

It's one of the attachments that we have on the agenda.

I would just like to get a reading of that here for the meeting.

I'll give you a moment to be pulling that up.

and I'll just kind of explain you know my rationale when I was going over it and initially not really

seeing any issues with the resolution the way that it was written but just like so many of these

things kind of like during council comments you know you got to really pay attention to the consent

calendar and you got to click on the attachments and you got to click through and you got to look

at all the details it was pointed out to me that not everything is as it seems in that resolution

So I don't know if we have it ready to go attachment wise.

And before you pull the resolution up, I would like to make sure that it's the last supplemental communication because there was an error in one of the resolutions that did not call out that the agenda or that the materials had to be provided the Thursday before the council meeting.

Okay.

Yeah.

Let's take a look at that.

I'll need a minute to retrieve the amended resolution.

And may I real quick, just an observation.

before Councilman's resolutions pulled.

I mean, I like everybody up here on the dais,

like you guys, like my councilmates,

but I mean, there was already a contradictory statement.

You said there's been a proliferation of presentations,

and Mayor McKeon said in three years there's been none.

So, I mean, it can't be both.

Well, I just, man, this, I apologize,

because three is up to this point.

The first two years, zero.

This last year, a lot.

So, my third year.

I mean, I only recall two in the last, you know,

couple of meetings.

Other than that, I don't recall any other presentations being presented, unless I forget.

Forgetting.

Okay, Bunch?

But anyway, so I don't recall a proliferation.

I mean, I just think this might almost be a reaction, not a proactive stance.

It's proactive in essence, but feels reactive in my opinion.

But let's see the resolution.

okay so if we can expand that a little bit i don't know if you can but um i can almost read

it from here so hopefully folks can read it um i'll just go ahead and go through it so it says

whereas on march 18th 2019 the city council approved a revised council manual by the adoption

of resolution number 2019-09 amendments to the council manual have been approved by resolution

whereas June 4th, 2024, the City Council approved a revised council manual by the adoption of

resolution number 2024-23, whereas the City Council desires to amend section 4 of the revised

manual to include a requirement that city council visual presentations during council meetings are

provided to the city manager prior to the city council meeting. I'll just pause. Council member,

that's not what it says. Okay, sorry, I'm trying to rewind off my screen, so there was one that was

updated? Yes, that's what I was mentioning before you started speaking. Okay, let's see if I could

read it from here. Whereas the City Council desires to amend section four of the revised

manual to include a requirement that the City Council visual presentation during council

meetings are provided to the City Manager, there it is, the Thursday before the City Council

meeting. So what I read the first time around, it didn't have that qualification about the Thursday

of the city council meeting. That's why I didn't catch it. And then it was brought to my attention

based off of the community. There's this uproar in the community, like, hey, do you see what's

going on? This is an attempt, again, you know, at suppression. The very first motion that the

mayor ever made as mayor was a suppression of visuals. And so the pattern continues. And so

it was actually buried way down. And if we could now scroll down to the red, because so what was

there before was simply turn it into the city manager and I thought to myself well I got no

problem with that because essentially that's what I do anytime I turn in a slide I'm turning it into

staff the city manager is going to see it but that's where you start to get this detail about

the Thursday before and so if we could go scrolling down I believe it's going to be oh I forget what

page it is just wait till you hit the red it should be part of the attachment the actual city council

manual now that's part of the exhibit you might have to click over on something else the copy that

I have actually has the council manual attached. So if staff could just click over to the manual,

we'll see the fine print in red. It'll be on page number nine of the council manual.

There it is in red. And so if I have the same thing that you have there, which I believe this

is identical now that's where you get that added item under h it says any visual presentation

proposed by council members must be provided to the city manager by 5 p.m the thursday before

the council meeting in order to be shown during the council meeting so that's five days in advance

and number one that is more than what the brown act calls for um this is sort of a tightening

if you will, of our ability to express ourselves. It makes it very difficult to be transparent with

the public if we were to go forward with something like this. Just imagine there are many things that

come up over the weekend, maybe things that come up the very day of a meeting, and it is not

difficult to turn a slide in if a council member wants to use a visual to make their point.

In fact, the way that it used to be, as Councilman Kennedy had pointed out, I remember the days as a

candidate, any person, individual could come in here, and they're going to speak at public comment,

and you could literally just turn in a thumb drive to one of the staff members prior to,

and they would upload it, no problem, you can go through a presentation, and then slowly there's

been this sort of de-evolution, and the de-evolution that began to take place was there was a stipulation

on when public commenters could show visuals, I have the minutes here, it's March 19th, 2024,

It says, Mayor Vandermark announced new procedures for public speakers beginning with the April 2nd, 2024 City Council meeting.

Request to speak forms can only be turned in starting 30 minutes before the meeting starts up until public comments begin.

Supporting presentations or audio visuals materials must be submitted to staff at, and it gives the email address, no later than 9 a.m. on the meeting date.

and so we went from you could turn anything in you know actually at the meeting to now any member

of the public you need to turn something in at least before 9 a.m on the meeting date and now

it's even devolved devolved even more to where nobody in the public can ever show any kind of

visual presentation whatsoever well this this restraining this restricting has continued and

now we see it taking place in terms of council members the city council members themselves

can actually provide a visual if this were to be adopted now uh stephanie if we could go to

my presentation i know you got to click over to the the powerpoint let's go to slide number one

and i just want to take a look at what the brown act actually has to say and requires

in terms of agendizing something.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

What did I say?

I'm so sorry, Shannon.

I apologize.

A lot going on inside this brain of mine.

So Shannon, not Stephanie.

So what we have, the Brown Act requires the topic item

be on the agenda.

That's it, the topic on the agenda,

not the slides on the agenda.

With a brief description, it gives the government code.

As you see in these bullet points,

it does not require council members' slides

to be turned in in advance or posted along with the agenda. To the contrary, as I mentioned before,

the Brown Act anticipates late materials. If writings, visuals are distributed during the

meeting, they need to be made available for public inspecting at the meeting. The easiest way to do

that is to put it on a slide, and you have the government code there. Additionally, because

improvements are anticipated to be... Ha! That's a whole other bullet. Forget that one right there.

Bottom line, slides are supporting material, visual aids, not an agenda item.

And so that's all I have for that slide right there.

And so the point I guess I would really like to make is, look, the Brown Act actually anticipates turning materials in at the meeting itself.

These are visual aids.

It is helpful to the council members to make a point.

I don't see any sense in adding these restrictions to ourselves.

And so what I would like to do is I would like to move to adopt the council manual with an amendment as presented, except what I would like to do is delete the Thursday 5 p.m. deadline for council member visuals and otherwise keep the amendment allowing the council to take positions on statewide initiative ballot propositions.

So that's my motion.

I would second that.

And just a point in clarity, it's not just Brown Act concerns, it's concerns that presentations that will be put up on the screen are not germane to agenda items that are publicly posted.

So this actually occurred last meeting.

I know, Don, you said it's not a proliferation, but it occurred last meeting, if you guys recall, where you wanted to put up slides that weren't germane to the agenda item that we were discussing and voting on.

and that creates a risk and a conflict for the city

where now you're putting up presentations

that are part of the public record

as if you're speaking for the city

and if situations go awry,

you're potentially providing ammunition

for potential litigation.

So that is actually the main concern

is that just the presentation that's going to be shown

is germane to the agenda item

and not so much the Brown Act

and Council Member Williams made a comment

that I'm suppressing speech

and now you can't provide a visual, that's not true at all.

It's actually enhancing your guys' ability to put up presentations

and provide visuals.

It's just creating a policy where you just please do it properly

so it's properly agendized and noticed for the agenda item you want to present.

And that's all.

So it's, again, it's a concern that Wednesday is not soon enough.

I mean, if you guys would like, we can have you come in to agenda review on Monday.

I've asked Marissa, our assistant city manager, to meet with you guys earlier.

to walk through the upcoming agendas

to make sure you guys are up to speed

on what's coming down for you to vote on.

I know that's been happening these last couple weeks.

So again, just trying to find procedures

and processes that make sense

and make it efficient

and protect the city from potential litigation,

protect us all up here from speaking

as the voice of the city.

And so I'm always looking to,

like I made the adjustments on this agenda,

I'm making it more efficient,

but always want to protect the city.

and its residents with everything I do,

and I just think this is a common-sense policy.

Again, you're going through the work

of putting together a presentation.

You're going to want to present that

on this agenda item coming up,

so it just gets ran through the city manager and the attorney

to make sure there's no legal trappings

that can get the city in trouble.

Then it gets approved, and I would imagine

if something happens over the weekend,

Council Member Williams, then he can just update.

I was going to say, this is a procedural rule,

So at any time during the meeting, council can vote to set aside the manual and allow something to be placed on the screen.

And Council Member Kennedy, your comment that it's reactive, not proactive, and it wasn't proactive because it's never happened before.

So we're reacting to something that is the attorney had mentioned.

It's making him uncomfortable that we're potentially putting ourselves in precarious situations legally.

and so he's like this would be a policy that we could tighten it up still allow the council members

to show visuals just put get it agendized 72 hours before that's the agendized rule

has to be done 72 hours before the meeting which is friday by five so that that was get it to the

city manager by five on thursday have enough time for him to review it with the city attorney make

sure it's all good legally put it up and we're all good and then you know something comes up over the

weekend i'm sure you can add a supplemental communication to the presentation that's it

It's not meant to stifle anyone's speech or what they can do.

It's actually to enhance it and also increase public discourse.

So if there's really a presentation you want to take the time and thought to put together and show the community,

wouldn't you want them to see it over the weekend and really digest it and go, you know, that's a really good point.

I'm going to come down to the meeting on Tuesday and publicly speak about it.

I really appreciate that foresight and that thoughtful presentation they put together.

So wouldn't you want to get it up there earlier and increase public discourse?

That's when Mike Vigualt, the city attorney, brought it forward.

I thought it made sense and just creating a clear process.

There's no ambiguity.

There's not me up here going, guys, please don't put up that slide.

We're not talking about that agenda item.

Please don't do it.

Okay, it's just one slide.

Now it's two.

Now it's three.

It's this uncomfortable situation.

It happened the very first night.

It's happened three times since.

So it just made sense when the city attorney brought it to me that we just create this

process to remove that conflict so everyone's on the same page.

I would imagine, like I said, if something happens over the weekend, you can still put up a supplemental slide.

So as soon as you put that guardrail in, what if something happens five minutes before the presentation and I just have an epiphany and I completely change everything?

So is that going to be allowed?

That's number one.

Number two, to Councilman Gruhl's question to our city attorney, does he know of any case law or precedent where a city has got into jeopardy from council presentations in violating the Brown Act?

His answer was no.

Is that correct?

Well, visual presentations.

Many cities have gotten into trouble by presentations that were made by council members during meetings.

What Don meant the visuals, exactly what?

The visual presentation.

Not on the visual that I'm aware of.

Okay, well, that's what we're talking about, the visual presentation.

So Councilman Gruhl asked you if there's ever been any issue or case where a council was jeopardized by a visual presentation.

You said no.

Okay.

Okay, so now we're legislating for something that's never happened, so either we believe we're going to be the first one.

But more importantly is we do want civil discourse and public discourse, and I think if they see the agendized item, that's going to be more than enough to move them to come down and not necessarily a presentation will or will not engage the public.

The public's going to show up if they want to show up, no matter how much information or how little information is going to be presented.

I just think what we're doing is we're trying to now set a precedent.

If you told me that there's been a ton of Brown Act violations from visual presentations that weren't vetted, if you told me that, yeah, I guess if you told me that, it would be a different story.

Now, Councilman Williams, on that slide citing the government code, were those bullets?

Let's go back to that.

Were they summarized by someone, or was that all part of the Brown Act delineation?

Those are summarizations, but we could pull up the government code as well.

And I would add, I completely agree with Councilmember Williams.

Thank you.

That is exactly what the Brown Act requires.

But Councilman, I think the main point,

and I would point a privilege

if you acknowledge this happened last week,

the main concern isn't the Brown Act, right?

I think we've gone through that.

It's putting something up on the screen

that is not germane to the agenda item we're talking about.

And this actually happened last meeting.

Do you recall?

I think you may,

I think Councilman Williams actually can elaborate

a little bit on the germane.

So I had a conversation with the city attorney afterwards.

Is it all right if I divulge?

our conversation about that? I don't know what you're going to say, so probably no, but I guess

I'll begin to cut me off, but we had a conversation over essentially how the meeting went down

and how my point was that I was on topic. I was on the Brown Act topic of the $1.3 million

completion bond because we know about that $1.3 million completion bond only because there's a

lease agreement that lays it out and the visual is we're going to be a visual of that lease

agreement and we have to take into consideration when we're making a decision as council members

there's certain things we ought to weigh and one of the things that we ought to weigh is whether

or not that contract is in good standing or not hypothetically if it was not in good standing i'm

not saying it wasn't hypothetically now we're getting off now we're getting off the topic that

as actually germane to the discussion here,

which is, do you want...

The mayor brought this issue up

to make one of his points,

and so I think it's all related.

Yeah, and I don't recall the conversation quite that way.

And again, the point is,

do you want to,

if something's to the mayor's point,

one of the concerns is that items,

discussion points, slides will be brought up

that were not on the,

it was a topic that was not on the agenda.

That's what we're trying to protect for.

And I guess, Council Member Williams, it's like, why take that risk of the kind of clunky back and forth with the attorney and a council member going, no, this is germane.

He's like, no, it's not.

I mean, again, like you're going through the work of putting together the presentation.

So why not just go through the extra step to make sure that it's signed off by the attorney and we're good legally?

And then it's posted three days before, three business days before the meeting.

Like, I don't understand why that's a concern.

It just makes everyone understand the process, gives you plenty of opportunities to do it.

Again, to your point, if something happens over the weekend, then just, you know, update a supplemental communication before in, like, you know, the Brown Act process.

It's just trying to remove this ambiguity and this clunkiness back and forth and, like, arguing with the city attorney and trying not to let you guys, like, put slides up.

I mean, it's just, it's awkward.

I don't think it needs to be that way.

I think this process is pretty fair.

Can I respond to that?

Go ahead.

Bush, before you go, can I respond to that?

Okay. Thank you. All right. Yeah. So to your question, it's a slippery slope. You know,

I think that we all campaigned on less government, more transparency. I'll give you a prime example

of why this idea doesn't really work. Today, I was doing research all the way up to the final

moments, talking with staff members, sorting things out. My slides radically changed, I would

say by 3 45 p.m today before i turned them in i got certain confirmations from you know different

professional agencies that had they not responded to me and given me the information i actually

would have been stuck with a slide i would not want to be putting up i probably could have struck

it then but the point is is that things change we're living in an evolving world right no but

and look i'm not because i want to get this right so let's say you have your presentation

sent on Thursday,

it gets scrubbed legally,

and it's like, good, this is a good presentation,

and it's posted. And then now you have

a slide to update that same

presentation. You could do it through supplemental,

right? Because now you've already

blessed your main

presentation and things will come up, and then you can just do

a supplemental, right? If you're going to

show it on the screen, I think you would need to

vote to

suspend the rules and allow

the additional communication to come through.

Which is just wild. It's more

steps, it's more government, it's less

transparency, we're all adults, we're all

elected officials, maybe we should just

start turning in our notepads in advance

too, just to make sure, like city

attorney, scrub my notepad,

you know, we all have ideas that we're writing down.

Again, I'm trying to walk

through and understand your point of view, I'm not being combative,

I'm not being dismissive towards you, and I'm

not being flippant. I'm just

saying, like, I just, it's happened

a few times now where it's this awkward back

and forth arguing with the city attorney, can I put

this up or not where this process just allows you to do put the meat of the presentation in and then

to your point if it does come up that something happens over the weekend at that point then you

hey guys it's really important you know okay let's as a board let's just wave it or set it aside but

I mean how often does that happen where you're getting like last minute updates again is it

like should we give you heads up earlier so instead of Wednesday the agenda is posted we

bring you guys in on Monday go hey here's agenda review guys here's what's coming up next week on

the agenda here's how much runways you need to really do your research do you guys want like

two weeks notice again i'm trying to just create remove this conflict and this arguing back and

forth with the attorney and just create a process that their process that everyone knows it makes

it like seamless that's all if i may just say one thing so the dynamic right now you might be able

to come in at the last minute with a updated slide and your council members here we're kind of all of

the same uh thought process to a certain extent say no problem let's vote he says we need to vote

on, we vote, 7-0, it's approved. If you have an adversarial council, and we know that us, the HP3,

haven't experienced that, but you guys had that adversarial. You had different opposing camps,

and it was not cohesive. It was fine, but if there was four on one side of the aisle and three on

the other side of the aisle, and the persons happen to be on the team of three, and they say,

I have a brand new two updates. I just got confirmation, put it to a vote. He would then

or she would then be stifled by the opposing council members who sit in the majority. So now

you're basically saying, well, you can amend it to the last minute. He says you have to have a

supplemental vote. We have a dais that's split and you're in the minority. You will not get your

visuals approved because you've come in at the last minute because in this day and age of

information. You learned something last minute, which happens all the time. We have information

flowing constantly. So now you have stifled your council member by virtue of the vote. And now

we're talking about something. There's never even been a proven Brown Act violation by visual

presentations. Yeah, there's been a little clunkiness, but that's why we have this beautiful

parliamentarian over here in order to moderate the conversation. It may have been clunky, but in the

end, Councilman Williams, in that case, stopped the conversation, and we moved on with the

meeting.

So we have a method in place that works.

Go ahead, Budge.

I'll be quick.

What I've seen, and it's not just tonight, but maybe over the last three or four meetings,

is things happen up here, and others, some of us think there's some sinister problem

plot going on to quash somebody's First Amendment rights. I don't see that. I read this item,

and I thought, that is great, because two weeks ago or four weeks ago, there was an item on there

that some of us up here had different views on. We didn't see anything until the surprise

surprise slides came up, and all of a sudden I'm going, well, I could have liked that. I want to

see both sides of everything. I want to see what you're thinking. I want to see what you're thinking.

I want to see what you're thinking. I want to see what you're thinking. I don't think I'm always

right. In fact, I know I'm not. So I like to look at opposing views. I just don't like looking at

opposing views when I get about three or four minutes to read it up on a screen, and then I

have to think about what it is. And so when I saw this, I, again, I don't think that there's some

sinister plot to hide things from other council members or hide things from the, from the, uh,

from the public. I liked it because I said, oh, good. The slides will be out there on Thursday

now. And the general public that, that pays attention enough that goes in there and opens up

the items on the agendas that they get sent, they're there. So again, I don't think there's

some sinister plot there. But now that I've heard everybody, I'm going, okay, I understand that

you could have this thought in your head. I don't believe it's true, because I love all you guys.

I would never do anything like that. But Chad proposed an amendment. I think that was

pretty good. It was getting there because you came up with a plan B. And I always say,

if you're going to shoot down plan A, at least have a plan B. And Chad had a plan B.

Now, I didn't exactly, you know, agree with the whole thing, but I think you're on to something

there. And if we can, you know, if there's going to be these last minute situations that requires

a new slide at, you know,

5.55 on Tuesday of city

council meetings, then okay.

Just let us know. That's all.

I remember asking one of the council

members up here,

you know, if I would have seen that slide,

I would have changed my mind, and the vote would have been

totally different, but I didn't get to see the slide.

So,

consider that when you're making

an amendment. If I could just

respond to that, too, Councilman

Twining.

Mayor Pro Tem.

sorry not doing well tonight I'm sorry Shannon

you know I can only divulge to two other council members before we show up I know the desire to

know what all the other council members are thinking before they come in and oftentimes

there are opinions you know that could be embedded in these and so I also see how there's the

potential of this actually you know becoming a Brown Act violation because we as a majority are

not allowed to confer you know with each other and so it's going to always be a surprise if we're

adhering to the brown act um of what's going to come out of somebody else's mouth i i can kind

of assume i could think that i know you know mayor pro tem you know twining i think i know how he'll

vote on something based off of you know a past pattern but yeah you don't really we can't confer

with each other in advance and so two weeks ago i would have changed my book but i couldn't have

shared it with you because I did share it with two

other council members. I couldn't have.

I would have loved to if I could.

If it's properly agendized, it doesn't create a brown eye

conflict.

As long as you don't discuss it amongst one another.

You can see information

as long as you guys don't

speak about it. It's fine.

One point, too, just real quick, is also

with the presentation, if it was agendized

properly the Friday before and something

comes up, you can always just verbally go,

hey, I know my presentation

was posted Friday.

new details have come to light,

I want to verbally tell you what those are as well.

Does it always have to be a visual presentation?

I mean...

I think agendizing, like our

personal opinions or

leanings prior to

the meeting, that has Brown Act

violation written all over it, and that has

litigation written all over it.

The attorney just said, again, it doesn't, if it's properly

agendized. You want to clarify that? Because if

somebody expressed that,

how they think that they might

you know be leaning on something or they imply it and it's on one of their visuals and it gets

put out there in advance i've seen lawsuits where votes have been completely wiped out

because a council member expressed uh to the public you know they're leaning on something

just their opinion on on an issue okay we're getting so you're conflate conflating a little

bit so if council members are expressing their views and and i that's part of the reason why we

want to see these PowerPoints before they go out. If you're expressing your views on a quasi-adjudicatory

matter, meaning something like a CUP or something like that, if you're talking about it beforehand,

that could absolutely be a problem, a due process problem. It's not a Brown Act problem. If you

folks see one of the PowerPoint presentations and then four of you talk about it, then we have a

Brown Act problem. But how is that any different? We see it, but then don't talk about it. Now we're

getting into the granular details of communication verbally or visually. And furthermore, that makes

a good point because Butch said specifically, had he seen that presentation, he would have voted

differently. He just said that. So had he seen that- It's just information, Ant, about Councilman.

Yeah, but information, I mean, like we say, journalism should perpetually be objective,

but the biomission or what you write or how you write and what stories you cover, your opinion is

ultimately displayed by virtue of that general information.

Information in and of itself can be...

Right, and you all should vote whenever you're voting.

I guess, and again, we're getting way off topic here,

but when you're voting, you should be voting

based on all the information that you receive.

If it's from a council member,

if it's from the members of the public,

from staff, whatever it may be.

So you should consider all the information

that's before you vote on private.

So the point I wanted to make...

You just can't talk about it.

The point I want to make that's much more general is like we're getting into this really detailed debate right now, which is interesting, which goes to show that we haven't put too much thought into this.

When you govern and you add layers of more and more government, and I've always said the unintended consequence of government is that it puts us in an area that we never anticipated.

And I'll use the story of the nuclear option, if anybody remembers this.

In 2013, Harry Reid was a Senate majority leader.

The Democrats were frustrated that Republicans were blocking all of Obama's judicial and executive nominees using the filibuster, the 60-vote margin and threshold.

So Reid pulled the nuclear option, which dropped it down to a simple majority, and everybody clapped, and they were able to push all of their executive appointments forward.

In 2017, when the shoe was on a different foot and it was McConnell, guess what he did?

He used a nuclear option, and everybody laughed and said, why did you do that, Harry Reid?

You made a huge mistake.

The point in that thesis is that when you do something rapidly and you create another layer of government, it's always going to blow up in your face.

Councilman Kennedy just made that point.

He said, what if we have a 4-3 on the dais and people don't get along?

And then in two or three years, this exact rule ends up blowing up in our face.

That's the way life works.

That's the circular pattern of karma.

So, you know, I'm becoming more and more apprehensive of this.

Go ahead, Pat.

I'm like kind of split on this as far as as orderly to run a meeting I understand that but

I do have issue with the main reason we have like we follow these brown acts and Robert's rules of

order is we do our homework we study we bring it all together and then we bring it to council

and for transparency reasons we bring it out forward and have this discussion in public

really not beforehand and if we want to have something and that's why I'm kind of sketched

about I do most of my prep during the weekend and if I want to present something and I discovered

something that I want to present and I didn't give it on Thursday evening then god I'd be kind of

bummed out that I didn't have that opportunity to have it reviewed and everything else and it takes

away, like you guys are saying, that ability to present.

And for transparency, it's built into, again, the Brown Act and Roberts Rules that the reason

they do that is to have this discussion out in the open, to have it transparent that we

collect all our thoughts, all our investigation, and we search answers, and we don't come here

with preconceived decisions because we want to have the discussion.

I want to listen to what everybody says and then make my decision right here

in the dais right in front of everybody after the discussion has been had

because we're not going to be able to gather all the information that we want

or that gets presented up here beforehand.

And that's part of Brown Act is that so you don't collude

and develop little pockets of prejudged decisions that others won't have participation in.

So really, I understand the theory of it, and I respect it because it kind of does bring some more order to it.

But unfortunately, part of the show is to have this deep, in-depth discussion,

and I like bringing it forward and I'll do my investigation.

Maybe I'll talk to a couple people, but when it comes down to it,

I come to the table, clear-minded, decision-free,

and make that decision when I get up here.

And that's after we have a big –

sometimes those discussions are ugly as hell like tonight.

And that's just the way it is, the way it's been designed,

and I support that.

and I just don't kind of,

I'm kind of thinking we might be rushing into this,

that's all.

And that's fine.

Again, I just,

when the attorney brought this forward,

I thought it's, you know,

this is a good conversation to have

because it's like,

I'll defer to my council members,

but when this happens in the future,

if it does and there's this debate

on what's up on the screen,

which is now going to be part of the public record,

is not germane to the agenda item,

what's your guys' solution there?

like what do we do because no that's why we're here to talk it out yeah gotta be one thing that

i think has been kind of a little dodgy is respect for other people's input and everything

and respect of listening and being open-minded and even in the presentation of things or any

discussion we got to be somewhat respectful and just listen and be open-minded that's all no i

know but i guess what i'm asking is when there's a dispute of whether what's being put up on the

screen is germane to the agenda item that we're talking about or voting on there's been this

conflict with the attorney and it's it and there's from what i've seen there's not an agreement on

whether the attorney's right or or the council member is correct so how do you guys solve that

where i thought this process made sense because that would remove that conflict because the

attorney would already bless it. So if you guys keep it the way you want and that situation arises,

how do we solve that? I think that we solve it on a case-by-case scenario in the moment as if

it was verbal, right? How would we solve it verbally? You'd kind of cut them off or say,

look, that doesn't fly because it's not specific to the subject that we're talking about. It could

put us in risky territory, hot water, whatever cliche you want to use, but we would actually have

more of a lead time in the event it was a presentation, even in the moment, had it not

been previously screened, just by virtue of it being up on the screen and then, nope,

that's not going to work. I mean, ultimately, it would be Vig who says that.

And it would just be back to the same old vetting process. And again, this is a policy

decision for you folks. I thought it was a good idea to maybe clarify, get actually more

give the ability to the public

to see the presentation beforehand,

but I'm not wed to this.

This is certainly not a hill I'm at all into.

We've already, you know,

we beat this horse to...

Yeah, but it's also good to talk about, right?

Let's be gentlemanly and ladylike about it,

where we all understand now,

if we leave it the way it is,

should this problem arise again,

I respectfully request as a chair,

if the attorney gives us direction

that it's not appropriate

to put that up on the screen,

Will you guys agree with the attorney?

Well, I would think on that note, Casey, and I appreciate that direction you're taking it.

But first off, I think we're all as professional acting as professionals on the dais and knowing that we represent the city.

We would never want to do anything to put our city in jeopardy.

But germane is somewhat subjective, but I think we'll always try and be germane to the agendized topic.

Now, what I don't want to have happen is the second our parliamentarian says no, that we don't have the ability to then challenge him respectfully to a back and forth debate.

Maybe I can make a point that he finally concedes and says, you know what, actually, with that perspective, proceed.

So we can have that professional, respectful dialogue and not just as soon as our parliamentarian says no go, we go, oh, okay.

And that's not even part of the, so Robert's rules does allow for you to object to any call I make.

Can we highlight that real quick?

That's just kind of the point that I wanted to make, is that even if he advises us a particular way,

says I suggest you don't throw that screen up there, I'm pre-screening you right now, I'm censoring, I want to censor it,

you can't actually censor us.

We could say, you know, I agree to disagree with you, nevertheless, I'm the policymaker, you're the attorney, the advisor,

I'm going to press on, and I'm going to show what I wanted to show.

I can do that, correct?

First of all, I would never censor you.

The only time I would stop is if something was not on the agenda

or it was patently going to get us into some kind of trouble litigation.

That's all I'm saying.

As a gentlemanly agreement and lady agreement up here,

if we leave it the way it is, you all agree that if this issue arises again

where the attorney is like, guys, this is not on the agenda,

we shouldn't be talking about it, we listen to the attorney.

Sure, you can question if that's true or not,

but trying to remove that conflict and if i'll have an agreement up here to to follow that

protocol i'm fine with leaving it the way it is and i think if the parliamentarian makes a judgment

and there's still discussion then i think it comes back to the chair to say hey here's my rule

that's here we're gonna follow the parliamentarian to be safe that's the and i think that's what's

robert rules perfect so chad what was your uh motion uh just to add to that though with regard

to whether or not something would be you know a brown act violation that's actually a full that's

a council decision that would take a majority to make that determination rather than just leaving

it into the hands of one but the motion is a move to adopt the council manual amendments as presented

except delete the thursday 5 p.m deadline for council members council member visuals and

otherwise keep the amendment allowing the council to take positions on statewide initiative ballot

propositions. I moved it. I think it was... So just to clarify, just so everyone understands,

so stay away positions, okay, and then just remove this... 5 p.m. deadline. Perfect. I'm okay with

turning my slides in before the meeting to the city manager, so there's still opportunity if you

want to, however you want to put it, content gate or vet it or whatever you want to look at it.

Just to clarify that too, so everyone's on the same page, so if you were to give a presentation

per the normal bionic rules, right, then we all have to get a physical copy, and then the

public correct a copy correct if it's a presentation that's made at the council meeting it's got to be

provided to the public as chad pointed out digitally or paper yeah if it's a digital it'll

have to be provided uh physically to the to the public i was like how is that done so we'd have

to print we'd have to print it out and hand it out to the public to the audience yeah got it

so so again this is why we're having this conversation guys just tighten it up so like

how many copies? Like, how does that work? I mean, so I was reading in a manual that actually what

would suffice is even so much as putting up a QR code that people could. And I read that in a Brown

Act manual that we don't actually have to provide physical copies to everyone. That that's the

beauty of the screen is you present to everyone. In fact, I remember city attorney Gates, when he

was here, he presented a presentation on the Kennedy commission. And he said, folks, you can

get a copy of this. If you scan that QR code, that's up on the screen right now. That was the

way that it was made as long as a copy made available to the public it's it's acceptable

thank you i would like to make a substitute motion to chad to leave it as is not do anything

yeah just leave it alone i second that strike it all i do like that but there's something else in

the manual that i believe the mayor had added along with this what he added you talk about

the statewide? Yes.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, so let's just, Pat, if you're a substitute,

just remove

all the additional presentation

language, but leave the amendment that we want to be able to

take positions on statewide issues.

I don't remember that part of it.

Yeah, that's part of the manual update.

So we can, as council, if we want to

take a position on a statewide

bill that's coming through.

You know what, Mayor, if we could...

Want to take it back? Yeah.

We'll take it back and table that issue.

Bring it back.

Just bring it back clean.

You guys good with that?

Yeah.

All right, cool.

All right.

Well, let's make it, yeah.

Second is the table it.

You want to remake that motion?

Just leave it as is.

Leave the manual as it is.

Perfect.

I'll second that motion.

Okay.

I want to make sure that the presentation visual thing isn't coming backward.

We've completely struck that.

Is that clear?

That's gone.

That's gone.

All right.

All yeses?

Yes.

Okay.

that's good professional dialogue right there and i commend you mayor for um i know this was

passion uh but listening again here out loud and deciding you know what let's just move on

well that's always a goal right there's i don't want conflict up here so let's just air it out

and you know see if there's a way to find a resolution if not we'll bring it back and try

again that's all just try to move the deliberation yeah likewise i know that was very um matter a lot

Is she going to call the roll?

Oh, yes.

It's my turn.

Is it my turn?

Do you want to call the roll just to be safe?

Yes, do it.

I'm happy to call the roll if you'd like me to call the roll.

Please.

All right.

The motion is to leave the manual exactly as it is.

Correct.

First and second was McKeon, Burns, and?

Don.

Kennedy.

Kennedy.

Okay.

Councilman Gruhl.

Yes.

councilman kennedy yes mayor pro tem twining yes mayor mckeon yes councilman burns yes

councilwoman vandermark yes councilman williams yes motion passes 7-0 all right item 20 andrew

councilmember gruel yes so i know this was simple this was merely a rejection of bids or lack of

bids but i just wanted to bring up this point because since i've been on council you know it's

kind of been mind-boggling to me. I know Pat's brought it up on multiple occasions about how

much it costs to re-roof a building. And then this is something that I learned in government,

and I just wanted to relay this information, is that basic work like tiling, paving, roofing,

side rock repairs, typically now what I'm learning is in government, specifically city government,

they cost two to three times more than it should because state law piles on excessive mandates,

these kind of rigid procurement rules, excessive insurance requirements that have nothing to do

the actual job. Why can't you just go out on the street and get somebody to be able to fix a couple

tiles at the pool, which is what we're trying to do right here is a question that ultimately I asked.

But, you know, the results here are obviously predictable, that taxpayers pay these Cadillac

prices for pickup truck work. And this isn't about safety or fair pay. It's kind of about this one

size fits all rule that's written by Sacramento that treats a $20,000 repair like it's a $200

million excavation project. So I just wanted to bring the point to we did not, we are rejecting

these bids because the bids were just excessively over or we didn't get enough of the bids.

In addition to the hard work that Public Works has to go through with a limited number of

contractors who are even bidding to begin with because of all the hoops and the barriers that

they have to go through to get through that kind of government bureaucracy, and then it leaves us

in these situations where we end up spending $120,000 on a roof. So what's the answer to this

versus me just complaining is I do think that it's incumbent upon everybody to talk to their

legislators, and we need to take this to Sacramento in some capacity. Gracie, I look at you.

and try and just give some autonomy to these cities

so that we can start developing our own set of rules

in the way in which we bring vendors and contractors on board

so that we can save money.

Because when you look at these numbers and you say,

oh, somebody's, you know,

there's always this nefarious conspiracy theory of like,

you paid $250,000 to fix some tiles,

somebody's brother or cousin or uncle's making money off of that.

And it's like, no, the unfortunate reality is that

that's just the way government works.

And, you know, I think it's fraudulent to some degree

and that so many people make so much money on the backs of the taxpayers.

But I think that's something we ultimately need to fix.

So I wanted to bring that up within the context of rejecting these bids to fix the tiles at the pool,

which seems to be a simple job, but it's not, and it's taking months and months and months.

But I would also, you know, talk about prevailing wage.

Yes, thank you. I mean, that's one of them.

Yes, the prevailing wage is an element.

So, Chow, can you just give the community, like, so what is prevailing wage,

and how much usually does it add to, like, a budget or a contract?

So prevailing wages is dictated by the Department of Industrial Relations.

It's basically you're part of a union.

It's welders, it's electricians, it's plumbers, a lot of the trades in the industry.

So you do end up paying higher wages because they do have, they're part of a union.

And so they have to be registered.

Every contractor, every work that comes through our city, you have to have a DIR.

You have to be registered with the DIR.

You have to submit payroll, certified payroll,

to make sure that you're paying these tradesmen, these tradespeople, proper wages.

And so there's a lot of compliance.

There's penalties involved as well.

And that limits to Council Member Gould's point.

It limits the amount of companies that can bid on it

because a lot of private construction companies don't have union labor,

so therefore they can't pay a prevailing wage.

so it just adds i mean is there a percentage is like 10 15 20 percent that you've seen over private

do you know joe it's it's at least 20 so at least a 20 percent increase in the cost of a project

because you have to use prevailing wage because that's just on the wage piece and then throwing

the insurance and the permits and the and the fact that there's a limited number of people who can

even bid.

When I was still working, I had a union company and a non-union company, and my union people

were making in excess of $120 an hour, and my non-union people were making about $85 or

$90.

So when you're talking about several hundred thousand dollars to provide the inspection

services, that is a lot of money, extra to pay for using prevailing wage, which contractors

that do work for cities are required to do.

We're just going to have to bring a bunch of coffee cups in.

The unfortunate thing is it's almost that the government is founded on something that

John Rockefeller said prior to the formation of the Federal Reserve, and that is competition

is a sin.

they wanted to monopolize everything everything with the banking and that's really why the federal

reserve which is not a federal reserve it's a sham but that's why it was formed but john d

rockenfeller said competition is a sin and it seems like that's a foundational basis for government

and that keeps a lot of very capable trades people out of the business and it puts it right

into the wallet of the taxpayer.

It's a shame.

So I'll make a motion to reject the bid

as listed.

Second.

Somebody second?

Yeah, I did.

Casey.

I second it.

Councilman Grohl? Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twining?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

Aye.

Councilman Vandermark?

Yes.

Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

All right.

Item 22, Councilman McKennedy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I pulled this item actually almost to highlight the inefficiency,

but then to shine the bright light of basically kind of a compliment to the way we remedied it.

So this is, again, something that's a pet peeve of mine.

And we're solving these.

It's a low bid.

Come in, get the job, and then look for change orders and look for all these different things.

And we're changing that entire protocol.

And Director Vu has been very responsive to my request for how we allow the bids, who they are,

transparency, what they've done, what their awards are, what their qualifications are,

and I really appreciate that.

So when I was in my council briefing the other day,

and I saw that we now need a new increase on a not-to-exceed of $300,000,

I said, what is this?

So the short story is we had, let's say,

contractor A come in on the lift station.

So on the lift station, they get the bid,

and they fail to foresee some shortcomings.

The next thing you know, they're asking for more money.

We're not going to give it to them.

We have to bring in somebody who remedies the short-sightedness

of vendor A. The only reason I pulled this is I was happy to hear. I was not happy at the start

of my conversation, but I was very happy to hear. And I believe I'm correct in saying,

because this is what I've heard. The good news was we fired contractor A and we're suing them.

And we're going to go ahead and solve this problem. But what I thought was shining brightness

is that we aren't throwing good money after bad on a vendor

that put us in a proverbial trick bag.

So I want to make sure, because I've now said we fired him and we're suing him.

And is that a correct statement, city manager?

I believe so, yes.

Okay, so I just want to make sure I'm not espousing something that's not true.

Anyway, when I found out that Director Vu was there

with one of her very capable right-handed leaders.

I don't know his title.

And I was very happy.

And she said, oh, you're going to pull my item?

And I said, for this reason, I'm going to let you know

that I'm happy to hear that you guys took a stand.

You got rid of a weak link.

And we're actually, we didn't, and we're suing him.

So long story short, ciao.

That's the way you have to handle business.

We have a saying in the private sector.

no weak people, and that's exactly how we should be in government.

No weak people, no weak vendors.

Thank you, Chow, for doing that.

On that note, I move to approve the item 22.

Second.

All right, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor Protem Twining?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

Aye.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Yes.

Councilman Williams? Hi.

Motion passes 7-0.

All right.

Item number 24, administrative items.

Authorized sponsorship of legislation related

to regional housing number allocation.

RENA. Staff, please introduce the

report. Mayor, I'm going to introduce

that report if it's okay. Of course.

Hopefully not have such a

fight about it. Yeah, go for it.

I apologize to the public and council.

I've got this cold.

Anyways, I'm pleased to announce that I've been working with Senator Strickland's office on legislation to begin reforming the regional housing needs assessment allocation process.

One of the problems cities face is that it's impossible to challenge the housing distribution numbers in court,

in part because of a couple bad court of appeal decisions, one of them Coronado v. San Diego Skag and City of Irvine v. Skag.

This legislation, if adopted, would allow cities to challenge arena allocation numbers in superior court.

We've been asked to sponsor the bill, and I think Shannon's got a slide on it if you guys want to see it.

Good evening.

We wanted to add that sponsoring legislation will help provide local control,

and that cities typically tend to sponsor legislation when they would like to seek change in state law.

Only legislators can formally introduce bill, and as their city attorney stated,

Senator Strickland's office has asked us to sponsor this bill.

and obligations of sponsoring a bill would strongly expect us to provide good base support

like testifying and lobbying in sacramento which we are prepared to do with yourselves

our city attorney and our state lobbyists and there would be follow-through if the bill passes

to exercise authority provided in the law as necessary so you know what sponsoring legislation

of this nature would would provide through the legislative session

thank you no i mean i'm pretty sure i speak for everybody up here it's just

i mean all anyone's ever asked for right it's just i mean the independent auditor years ago

said the arena numbers the methodology wasn't based on facts it was fraudulent and no data

statistics to back it up so all we've ever asked for is a is a mechanism and a medium to

protest those numbers and then give it the state and be like how'd you come up with these numbers

you know we're 95 built out here's what we can deliver i said it so many times it's a misnomer

that we haven't delivered housing i mean we're in the top five in orange county in affordable housing

being delivered and that's where we are in terms of population so we've we've done our fair share

and and we're just to have a mechanism to actually protest these you know outrageous 13 368 units

which is the highest amount of units per acre of any city in California,

is just a welcome change.

I'm hopeful that the state will pick up and pass,

but it just makes so much sense because it's not a one-size-fits-all,

heavy-handed approach that the state has that's going to work.

It's not working.

It hasn't worked since Reno was first established,

and so many cities can't live up to it.

So like I've said so many times, I know my colleagues have as well,

is like if the state was serious about solving this issue,

sit down with cities and go, hey, what can you guys do?

Let's put together your housing element, what you think is appropriate based on your unique characteristics as a city, your topography, your geography, your sensitive environmental elements like we have the wetlands.

And it's a unique case-by-case situation.

So this would create a mechanism to hopefully to do that.

So, I mean, I can't vote yes on this enough.

For me, this is just a step towards local control.

And that's my main mission.

I think we're quite capable of governing our own city.

Sacramento's proved that it can't do anything right.

They've lost control of $76 billion that their own auditors say they can't even find.

And our lovely governor says, oh, well, maybe we'll do better in the future.

No, you ought to explain where the hell that money went to.

And part of it's going to this kind of crap where they're dictating overbuilding and high-density stuff to cities that don't want it.

So this is a step towards local control, and, well, I'd like to take about 10 more steps towards it in any way we can.

And I'd really like to send that message to Sacramento to stay the hell out of our city.

I'd like to thank Senator Strickland for working with us and sponsoring this bill.

We're allowing us to be part of it.

He sat here with us.

He was here just butting his head up against a wall thinking, what can we do to protect ourselves?

We fight for local control, but we really have never had a mechanism to actually do that.

So, you know, like Pat says, we've got what you say, 10 steps.

I think we need about 20.

But this is a step in the right direction.

And I'm actually proud to move this item.

And thank you, Vic, for working with Tony on this.

One other bright spot is when I was discussing this item, which is phenomenal.

and thank you to Senator Strickland and his office.

I asked what kind of financial obligation do we have for this,

and the answer was nothing.

So this is something where there really is something

that we're going to get with no commitment of dollars,

and the upside would be just dramatically beneficial to our city,

as the council members have said.

Local control is something I believe that everybody in this city

is in agreement on. We've tried to get there in different ways.

Some ways half the city likes, half doesn't, but the idea

of local control is something that I think we can all agree on. This is a

fantastic item. I'll be fully supporting.

Gracie moved it. I'll second it. Go ahead, Chad.

I just want to affirm everything that my fellow council members have shared and

just reiterate how important this is to us as a city, Huntington Beach.

you know there's a desire from outside to essentially erode what we consider to be

you know precious to us we like our land use and zoning we like our neighborhoods the way that they

are we're 95 built out there's really not any space to be including these 13 368 units that

have been prescribed to us by an outside agency and I think it was pointed out that roughly about

8,000 of those units are at a 20% inclusionary rate. So anytime a developer builds 100 units,

only 20 of those will count towards putting a dent in that 8,000 number. The only way you get

there is we're going to have to add over 40,000 units to our housing stock that is made up of

about 80,000 units right now. We're going to have to 50% increase. As far as local control goes,

I mean, we have this authority granted to us from the highest authority in the state. It goes beyond

any legislator. It goes beyond a governor. It's the California Constitution. It doesn't mean

anything anymore to be a charter city. And so what it does mean and what that highest authority is

in Article 11, Section 5, it lays out that we have supreme authority over land use and land zoning.

We ought to be the ones that decide. And so it's part of our city charter. This is really part of

the identity of what it is to be a part of Huntington Beach, and it's something that's worth

fighting for absolutely good all right I'll move the item grace already did Pat already seconded

awesome please call the roll councilman Grohl yes councilman Kennedy yes mayor pretend McKean

Twining yes mayor McKeon yes councilman Burns aye councilwoman Vandermark yes councilman Williams

item passes 7-0

alright last item

council member items number 25

councilman Williams please introduce the report

okay Shannon if we could

pull the powerpoint

presentation up and

maybe question myself or sound like did I say the wrong

name again

alright so it's coming up and we'll

jump in here at it looks like what's on your screen is slide number three yeah

okay so with regards to this item this is really i guess you could call it a presentation and

really just a high view of 21 main street which also includes 22 main street the bathrooms across

the way from it there's a lot of questions in the community in terms of like how did this come about

where's this coming from they didn't know what was in the agreement they didn't know where we're at

in terms of you know the construction so uh the desire here is to simply put together a high view

for you all and so some of the key milestones you'll see april 2019 the city released an rfp

and by may 24 2021 city released it's called a request for qualifications and so of the

respondents there were four respondents but only three of them really qualified

to provide what they needed. You had Rising to the Top, Let's Go Fishing, Ruby's Hospitality Group,

and Surf City Partners, if we could go to the next slide. And so then there was a council meeting

that took place September 7th, 2021, and there was a recommendation that had come from staff

and what the staff had recommended, as it states, to authorize and direct the city manager to execute

an exclusive negotiating agreement with Ruby's Hospitality LLC in a form approved by the city

attorney to negotiate the terms of the lease agreement for 21 Main Street. So recommended

action, what the staff had recommended you have there, Ruby's Hospitality Group, if we go to the

next slide. Staff didn't work alone. They actually worked with the National Development Committee at

that time and the Economic Development Committee as well. And they gave their reasons, their rationale

for not recommending Surf City Partners.

They had noted, as it says in the bullets,

it was most ambitious with required entitlement approvals.

You can imagine going through, you know,

Coastal Commission, State Lands Commission,

getting your Coastal Division permit, the CUPs.

There's a lot going on.

Parking, outdoor dining, 81 seats,

ABC license for alcohol sales.

And so they note, upon review,

the construction timeline and revenue projections

appear aggressive, with revenue highly dependent

on sales during the summer months

and 40% of sales derived from alcohol.

And they noted this is part of the report.

Typical restaurant is about 20 to 30%.

They say additionally, because improvements are anticipated to be funded using debt,

the proposal is riskier than the other two finalists.

We go to the next slide.

And so you'll see that this is part of the RFP that Surf City Partners had proposed.

You'll see in the highlighted section that they projected a timeline of approximately seven months.

They had a goal in their RFP that was presented to council to be done by May of 2022.

Next slide.

Going back to our timeline in that same meeting, we do have the staff recommendation there.

Going to the next slide, but this is how it went down on that day.

Councilman Mike Posey amends motion to select Surf City partners.

It was seconded, it was moved, and you had a six to one with Eric Peterson,

Councilman Peterson at the time being the only nay. Go to the next slide. And so this progresses.

November 2nd, 2021, the city enters into an ENA. It's approved March 11th, 2022. The ENA is amended

to include 22 Main Street. So before it was the Let's Go Fishing building that we all remember,

21 Main Street, and now there's this addition to include the bathrooms. My understanding at the

time was that it was expressed by the then city manager oliver chi there was a desire to upgrade

the bathrooms and then talking with the applicant they worked out a deal to where the applicant would

renovate those bathrooms as part of the project and there was an agreement that took place november

2nd 2022 interestingly the exclusive negotiating agreement had expired and i looked into this and

we couldn't find any documentation of it ever being reinstated nevertheless the city press is on

november 16th 2023 it's a key date that's why it's you know in the red bracket there california

coastal commission approved coast development permit number 5-22-0804 requested by surf city

partners we can go to the next slide and so approximately one year later we arrive at october

1st 2024 there is a lease agreement with surf city partners that is executed and so this is

just simply a screenshot of that first page i don't know if you folks remember it go to the

next slide my comments earlier this evening about paying attention to the consent calendar because

so often multi-million dollar agreements and generational contracts are entered into that

completely changed the trajectory of our city for the better, for the worse.

This is one of those scenarios. So on that date, October 1st, 2024, there it is. It's there on the

consent calendar. Does anyone notice it? Go to the next slide. We highlight it there on consent

calendar. It's item number 15. The thing is, is that that day it never got pulled. It never got

discussed it was just put on consent calendar and it was in there with the bundle got voted on with

a bunch of other things all at once next slide shows the outcome and so it was at the time

mayor vandermark motion by mayor by vandermark and seconded by strickland and you see the outcome

of the vote it's to approve and authorize the mayor and the city clerk to execute

they're executing the lease between the city of Huntington Beach and Surf City Partners and so

there must have been some type of discussion in terms of what this lease agreement looks like

but on that date October 1st 2024 it was voted on and it was voted 7-0 so it begs the question

what does that agreement look like well you do see one aspect of it approve the waiver of up to

$50,000 in city fee permits we can go to the next slide and so here's the vote that we have and

here's the lease terms, and I'll just read from the top. Base rent, $66,000. Now, if I could

mentally take you back to what was in the RFP, and the RFP, the proposed annual base rent was $180,000.

But what we actually get in this agreement, we wind up with $66,000 per year. That's $5,500 per

month with 3% annual increases. The percentage rent, 3% of gross sales over 2 million per year.

And so what is required is for this location to achieve $2 million in revenue. And then from that

point forward, then the city will begin to get a cut of the revenue share. You could determine for

yourselves, I'm not going to draw any conclusions for anyone else, whether or not you think

that it could cross $2 million per year.

The idea, I guess, is if it doesn't,

I guess we'll never see any revenue share.

Rent commencement, earlier of business opening

or 15 months following lease execution.

And so what they end up receiving

is 15 months of rent abatement.

And from the time that the lease was executed,

which was October 1st of 2024,

it extends that timeline out to December 31st, 2025.

And then you see on top of this 15 months

of rent abatement, they also get $300,000 of rent credits for restroom improvements at 22 Main

Street. In other words, it's going to be another four and a half years worth of rent of just

straight up rent credit that ultimately doesn't get paid to the city and down the term. The initial

terms, approximately 19 years to align with the city's lease, we actually lease out the property

at the pier. It's not our property per se, that sand and water that's underneath at state lands,

And so we have a lease with the state lands and then we sublease it out.

And so they're just aligning the contract really with that lease.

But what that gets us is you have about 19 years right there with three 10-year extension options.

And so we're looking at a 50-year agreement.

That's what I'm talking about when I say a generational agreement.

This won't come up again for a very long time.

and then in terms of fees that were waived you see the waiver of up to 50,000 in plan check and

building inspection fees and so when the community wants to know how how did this come about well you

got to pay attention to these consent calendars because this is one of those things that got

slipped into the bundle and it slipped right on by it never got pulled it got a 7-0 vote all eyes

if you look at those terms you don't think those terms are any good that's what we're locked into

essentially but hey we have what we have here right go to the next slide this is part of the

agreement and it discusses that rent abatement that we were talking about and i'll just jump to

the highlighted section by exhibit e it says in the event that the leasee fails to complete the

construction of the improvements as described in exhibit e within 15 months for the date of lease

execution all abated rent will become due and payable without prior written approval for any

construction extensions by the city manager at his or her discretion. And so just real brief,

15 months of rent abatement, essentially what this says is, look, that's an incentive to get

construction done. If you don't have construction done in that time, you owe us back rent for those

15 months. Although the city manager at his discretion can give you an extra month or two

or three if that's what you need to get across the finish line. And that's really all that really

contemplates. Going to the next slide, that key date that I'd bracketed before, this was an

interesting one, and this is actually a development that came up just today, really. This is why it's

important to be able to turn these slides in prior to the meeting. November 16, 2023, familiar date,

we looked at it, Coastal Commission approved the Coastal Development Permit requested by Surf City

Partners. This is actually lifted off of that Coastal Development Permit. Anyone can see it on

the lease agreement that's attached to the agenda. It's under the exhibits, but I extract this

section where it says on November 16th, 2023, the California Coastal Commission approved

Coastal Development Permit number 5-22-0804 requested by Surf City Partners, subject to

the attached conditions. Now we look at one of these conditions below, and what you see is number

two, expiration. If development has not commenced, then permit will expire two years from the date

on which the commission voted on the application. And so what was the date that the commission

voted on the application? November 16, 2023. If development has not commenced within two years,

then there is an expiration that takes place. I asked the city manager and staff, you know,

as far as I know we haven't developed right there hasn't been any constructions like no

what begs the question I guess did did they ask the coastal commission for an extension because

it does allow for that so I reached out to them and they said no uh no extension uh has been

requested or granted at this stage it's too late to even ask for something like that and they were

shocked they said no construction has taken place like no no construction has taken place just this

previous meeting, we greenlit the $1.3 million completion bond, which was a prerequisite to even

get permits. And so they said, wow, well, I'm going to have to figure something out about that.

So they took a week to think about it. And this is actually, they got back to me today. This is

what they came to. And so this is kind of what saves the day on this. That was kind of interesting

that part of the conditions of this development permit was a hot dog cart. That's something for

the future, right? We're going to have a whole new restaurant, new bathrooms, and on the outside,

there's going to be a hot dog cart. They said, you know, we got around to thinking about it.

This is just relayed to me today. And they said that, you know, because a hot dog cart was rolled

out over the summertime outside of that location right now, that actually changed the use. It used

to be a fishing store, but by rolling a hot dog cart out and serving hot dogs, it changed the use

from a fishing store to it became essentially, in their view, a restaurant that day. Therefore,

they did develop. They look at that as a development. So I would say that's good news,

I guess, right? Like, all right. So that's not a problem. And so that just came about today.

Let's go to the next slide. Part of our own CUP as a city, and again, this is all an attachment

that's part of the lease agreement. We have one of the conditions five. It says prior to the

issuance of building permits which we have not issued yet the applicant shall provide a parking

plan that includes an executed lease agreement approved to form by the city attorney for nine

off-site parking spaces located on the property located at 300 pacific coast highway so i

investigated that because look i'm just trying to read the contract and get up to speed and understand

what the contract actually says and so that's what it says that's what's needed as a prerequisite to

even go and get building permits, there is no lease agreement at 300 Pacific Coast Highway.

But after digging around, investigating a little bit more, the applicant had requested for that to

be deferred. And our city is very generous and kind, even though there are certain terms in

contracts sometimes, they say, you know what, we'll give you a free pass on that one. And so a pass

was offered up to him on that one. Next slide. Familiar slide here is just a reminder of that

rent abayment that after 15 months, if the construction was not, you know, completed,

or, you know, then he's going to owe the back rent. We can see this construction timeline. What was the

expectation in terms of construction? Next slide. What was supposed to happen? So they projected

we'll be done by July 7th, 2025. That's the soft opening date, construction schedule soft opening.

January 1st, technically, January 1st, 2026, that's the 15-month contractual completion

deadline. That was the deadline that this was due by, or else. Or else what? Well, according to the

contract, if you go to the next slide, next slide, it gives section 37 default. The occurrence of any

one or more of the following event shall constitute a material default and breach default of this lease

by the leasee. Under subheading H, what does it say? Leasee's failure to complete the construction

of the improvements, exhibit E, what we just looked at, and open for business within 15 months

of the execution of the lease or other time approved by the city. And so we don't have,

what do we have there, you know, right now? Do we have that construction completed? Are we in this

default territory? I'm not going to draw any conclusions. I'm just showing the community

what the contract actually has to say.

And in terms of what we actually have right now,

how much construction has been done, next slide, that much.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Councilman.

Very detailed information.

That sheds some light on something that's near and dear to me.

when I was on the campaign trail, I really had two planks, managing inefficiencies and creating

opportunities. And this fell right in line with managing inefficiencies. And this kind of

shows why last council meeting that although the construction completion bond is a good bond,

what I felt and the reason I voted no, and the reason when Chad asked me if I wanted to be part

of this H item. I said, of course I do, because when I took the time, I didn't read the lease

beforehand because I wasn't party to approving the lease. Had I been party, it would be different.

So it wasn't until the completion bond came on the agenda that I took the time to, because I knew

there was a lot of time in between the execution and where we were in today. So I've read quite a

few leases. I have a commercial real estate background. I spent a lot of time in that space.

And so the first section I went to was default. And I wanted to see, you know, if somebody's been,

you know, in play for this long. So let me see. And I won't beat that horse anymore because

Councilman Williams has done a fantastic job with very detailed information. But I saw those same

type things. And, you know, we are allowed to confer with no more than two other council members.

So I did spend some time with Chad. And, you know, I just wanted to say that our single biggest asset class, our single biggest item of value is as a city is our commercial real estate.

There is nothing that has more face value than our real estate holdings.

When I came on board, I basically, when I found out how much real estate we own, including cell towers, which are no brainers, I said to myself, we're basically a real estate company.

And we are.

We have a lot of valuable assets.

So that's when I really sat down with leadership.

And I said, we, first thing I asked for is how do we manage our real estate?

And I was disappointed in the answer.

The good news is this is not here to be doom and gloom.

I just wanted to take a moment to point out the fact that our focus here is going to be continuing to improve the efficiencies of things that are of substance value like our real estate holdings.

So in my last council briefing, you know, what you've heard previously is I've spent some time with my other council members.

I'm not taking sole congratulations on this.

Together as a team, we've worked to provide our real estate division with a ton of headers in different ways.

And until we get a software system that can manage our real estate holdings, we've given them the opportunity to manage our real estate holdings via spreadsheets, which, you know, as I used to say, you know, companies like GE used to run with folders and paper pre-contracts or excuse me, pre-software.

So we have made some great strides in managing our real estate holdings, holding our tenants accountable because of visibility.

And I've heard from many people in the real estate division, including somebody I met with just the other day said, you know what?

The information you gave us has helped us.

So our collections have improved.

But what we need to do is we need to continue to focus on managing these things.

And quite frankly, to be candid, there has been a lot of missteps in the management of this asset.

And I'm not laying blame on anybody.

This is a very general statement.

There's room to improve on all sides.

So I'm going to continue to hold people accountable, make sure they know what's expected.

As they say in the private sector, I have a lot of cliches that I've grown to love because there's validity in them.

and that is if you don't inspect it, they won't respect it.

So we're going to bring a level of inspection to everything that we put our hands, eyes, and signatures on.

And that is one of my confirmed commitments to our city.

It's really the only reason I ran for city council.

I'm not aspiring for other offices, and there's certainly, this is not for the pay.

It's because I love the city, and I am too a taxpayer.

our customer is our taxpayers and that's who I'm here to represent so when you can set policy to

improve what we do as a city especially on things like this we're not talking about you know nickels

dimes and pennies we're talking about you know I would say maybe our you know I haven't put a

valuation on but I would have to say our real estate holding is probably in excess of a billion

We have very valuable land value in itself alone.

So with all that said, fantastic presentation by Councilman Williams.

Not to place blame on anybody, just to expose and really kind of not even expose, let me change that,

to kind of lay the landscape of how we got here, what we're doing to improve our process

so we don't repeat the mistakes and we improve our process flow.

and with all that being said, that is why I was happy to be part of this H item. Again,

not to place blame on everybody, but there are people that need to own their duties,

own their responsibilities and their expectations. I will continue to do so.

My other council members as well, I know are doing so as well. We're growing and learning as a body

and we are focused on bringing the best possible results to our customer, which is our residents,

and that is why I was happy to be part of this.

Thank you for your presentation, Councilman.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this.

I won't belabor the point.

I think that you all have said enough already.

My objective here isn't to opine on how we got to where we are.

I think it's more just to introduce more transparency as the public has been asking for it.

When there is an absence of facts, people start to fill in the blanks with their own conspiracy theories,

whether the blame falls on the city in many of our business practices, whether it falls on other outside elements.

That's ultimately for us to determine.

We've ultimately made it our point to try and make the city more business friendly.

and dissecting deals like this is essential for us to figure out where we have holes in our system

and how we can fix it.

So that's really kind of the key for me here, and ultimately, on a go-forward basis,

making sure that we put the best deals forward, as Don has explained here.

All right.

There's no formal action requested, so do I have a motion and a second to adjourn?

Motion.

Second.

All right.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council

Public Financing Authority is Tuesday, February 17, 2026,

in the Civic Center Council Chambers, 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, California.

Thank you.