I don't want to get a job because work is just a waste of time.

I'm gonna be a fan of person for the rest of my life.

But if she catches me at home, she's gonna bring me all about the head.

And if you come in shouting, you better get yourself to bed.

Come on, please let me stay at home girl.

I said come on.

You can give your love every day.

Every day when you smile at me, I can see your giving all the love that we share, and it's all I'm living for every day.

Every day every day's a name written on my door, and it's mine could be yours if you really want to learn more.

Don't you see?

You can lay all your troubles on me.

Let them go fly.

So your troubles away.

Let them go fly.

Looking like a fishman.

I'm dropping a line in the sea.

Good evening.

I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council Public Finance and Authority.

Madam Clerk and May have the roll call, please.

Councilman Gruel.

Here.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor McKeon.

Here.

Councilman Burns.

Present.

Councilman Williams.

Here.

Pursuant to resolution number two zero zero one dash five four.

Councilwoman Vandermark and Mayor Pro Tem Twine have requested permission to be absent from this meeting.

If there are no objections, it will be reflected in the minutes.

A quadruple bypass.

What a legend, quadruple bypass.

On a Thursday quadruple bypass, he's here on Tuesday.

Amen.

So with that, let's give the invocation.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Huntington Beach Police Fire Chaplain Bob Ewing.

Gracious God, we pause at the start of this meeting to give thanks.

We are grateful for each member of this council for their time, service, and willingness to carry the responsibility of leadership on behalf of this community.

I especially am thankful that Councilman Twining is here briefly.

I pray that you would continue to watch over him and bring healing to his body.

We also give thanks for the many residents and community members present, those who are engaged, attentive and invested in the well-being and future of Huntington Beach.

Father, in this season of spring, as the days grow longer and new life begins to emerge, we are reminded of renewal, hope, and fresh beginnings.

For me, this season is also marked by Easter, a time that speaks of restoration, grace, and the promise of new life.

May these themes inspire us as we gather, encouraging us to approach one another with patience, humility, and a spirit of cooperation.

We lift up in gratitude and prayer our first responders who serve this city with courage and dedication each day.

We especially remember Chiefs Parr in McCoy, asking for wisdom in their leadership, strengthen their service, and protection over them and those they lead.

As we move forward in this meeting, may our words be thoughtful, our actions respectful, and our decisions guided by a genuine concern for the good of all.

Help us to listen carefully, to speak kindly, and to seek understanding, even when perspectives differ.

May this time together be marked by a unity of purpose and a shared commitment to serve this community well.

And your most holy name, Jesus, I pray.

Amen.

Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Gary Robles of American Legion Post 133.

Gary served in the U.S.

Air Force and Air National Guard from 1980 to 1986 as a personal affairs officer and staff sergeant.

We're serving with service at Lachland Air Force Base, Kessler Air Force Base, Sky Harbor ANG, and Davis Monethan Montan Air Force Base.

His duties included managing personnel affairs for enlisted and officer personnel, ranging from military code violations and promotion reviews, next of kin uh notifications.

Following his military service, Gary built a successful corporate career, starting as a commercial banker before being recruited by Johnson and Johnson.

He later retired from Pfizer and served as a regional manager with BBI, an ophthalmolic surgical company until his retirement in 2021.

Gary has lived in Huntington Beach for 10 years, has been a dedicated member of the American Legion for 29 years.

Thank you for your service, Gary.

Thank you.

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.

All right, closed session report by city attorney.

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

One matter to report in uh case of Grant Parks versus the city of Huntington Beach at Al.

Council upon motion by Councilmember Gruell, second by Council Member Williams.

The council voted to authorize the city attorney's office to enter into settlement discussions.

Vote was five in favor, none against twining and Vandermark absent.

Thank you, City Attorney.

All right, next is Councilmember Comments.

Um I'll go first.

I know there's a lot of people in the room tonight.

And regarding agenda item 22, I assume, which is the presentation of professional services contract.

And although we don't need to go to RFP per municipal code section 3.03.100, and also our city charter section 13.

Several people have requested an RFP for other bids.

Wolfhouse has no issue with submitting through an RFP process as they are highly confident in their track record and work they can provide to improve our community.

And I don't want to, I don't want the negative attention of not performing an RFP to ruin the massive community benefit and revenue potential this project can bring to Huntington Beach.

Therefore, we will pull item 22 from the agenda and open an RFP process.

But before we do, I want everyone to be on the same page for transparency as to the scope of services that will need to be performed.

One, a firm who can build, fix, and run a brand ecosystem consisting of media, merchandising, licensing, events, tourism, film, sponsors and partnerships, cultural programming and optimizing our city venues.

The firm needs actual media and film relationships and local and international artist relationships to help optimize our art center.

The firm needs to build a creative direction strategy and communication infrastructure within City Hall and train our staff to implement and operate.

The firm needs to develop and implement a city controlled merchandising program that trademarks finally and captures the economic value of Huntington Beach's global identity and tourism traffic.

The firm needs to create and implement a film and digital media office permitting and location marketing system.

The firm needs to create a pathways project, most importantly, that works with Golden West College and our high schools to implement internships within this new ecosystem to provide our youth with school credits and job training so that they can find a future and career in Hindson Beach.

And their proposal needs a milestone deliverables that have to be verified so that the contract moves forward.

If there are no if there are so many firms that can perform and deliver all these requirements as people have claimed to me on email, there should be not be an issue receiving bids very quickly.

I also hope the bids are from local firms.

There's a great opportunity to capture the America 250th birthday celebration, merchandise and revenue opportunities.

So if we decide to move forward, we need to pick a firm quickly.

And also to clarify some correct information I've received, the city does not pay visit Huntington Beach.

The hotels do.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thanks for that, Mayor.

Just a little I'm happy it's going in RFP that uh, you know, the city deserves the transparency.

I think he laid out a scope that seems to be uh what needs to be achieved.

I just wanted to make one point for everybody's awareness that the RFP, although it is a process and it's it's a transparent process, there is no guarantee of quality of work of um scope met on time and all the variants that could be uh garnered when they are pick a winner.

With that said, we've uh secured contractors through RFPs and in turn have to terminate those relationships, although they came through an RFP.

So the RFP is not the golden arch that guarantees results, scope, and all these different things.

So I am very happy that we're gonna go through the RFP process uh and we will see where it lies.

I just wanted to remind everybody that an RFP RFP does not guarantee unequivocal unequivocal success.

Thank you.

Anybody else, Andrew?

I just wanted to make note because I gotten a lot of emails, so I figured this would be a great forum to mention it.

This was in uh specific relation to the HB landscaping concerns.

So those emails were really about the median and um some other parts in regards to the streets and even some unpaved areas.

So, you know, in speaking with public works, I know there was delays in regards to finalizing a new landscape maintenance contract, and that was a result of the gap in service and the contractor's mobilization.

So there was once again that temporary lapse in service, but I just should mention that crews are now in the field public works expense, all median and parkway maintenance to be fully caught up within the next four weeks.

Obviously, everybody uh, including and most specific more specifically public works, appreciates your patience, and we're continuing to monitor that situation closely.

So, any other questions, feel free to email.

Comments, yeah.

If I could, uh, just coming off of the heels of Easter, and you know, I realize that not everyone might share the same views, but you know, humor me because it is council comment right now.

Uh, I just want to remind everyone that it's a very holy uh day for many of us.

Um, Jesus is the reason for the season.

And I would like to encourage some of you, maybe just to do a little bit of historical research, and maybe I could share something with you.

This is kind of off the cuff in terms of something you didn't know before.

If you look at the historical documents that talk about the historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, then you don't just look at the Bible, but you treat these as separate uh historical documents.

You have not only Christian history, but you do have Jewish history like Flavius Josephus, you have Roman history like Tacitus or Mar Bar Serapian that talk about the historical figure.

And there's certain historical facts that actually come to the surface about this person, Jesus.

And when I say it's a historical fact, I mean that the majority of historical New Testament scholarship agrees these are facts, even uh you could say hostile towards the New Testament or or critical.

The facts I'd like to kind of lay out for you guys, just with the couple minutes that I have here, uh, would be that it is a historical fact that Jesus was uh crucified.

Uh it's a historical fact that he was buried in a tomb.

You know the location.

Um, it was Joseph of Aramithia.

It's also historical fact that the tomb was discovered empty, and it's a historical fact that his disciples went around saying that they saw postmortem appearances of Jesus.

A couple other interesting facts that come to the surface would be uh James, which was a half-brother of Jesus.

Uh, after the resurrection, he went around saying that, you know, he he basically was a leader of the church.

And you gotta ask yourself what changes a person like that.

Well, it was recorded in 1 Corinthians 15 that he appeared uh to James' half-brother.

And I think one of the biggest ones to consider would be uh this member that was known as Saul of Tarsus, who was hostile towards uh Christians, he was actually going around and killing them, and he himself became he went from being a foe to a friend of the church.

And you have to just ask yourself why.

And when you take into consideration those facts, you could draw your own conclusion in terms of a hypothesis.

You know, that he was crucified, that he was buried, that the tomb was discovered empty, that his disciples said that they saw him, that Paul went from being a foe to a front to a friend.

Um, and you have James, the half brother that was an unbeliever to coming becoming a believer.

What's the best explanation of that?

And and Jesus said that here's the big authenticator.

Here's how you'll know that what he says is the truth.

That if you destroyed this body in three days, I'll raise it up.

The best explanation I would suggest to you all is that God raised Jesus from the grave.

You are free to draw your own conclusions, and all I want to encourage you with this final remark is that if you lack any peace in your life, I just suggest that you look, I suggest you just look to the Prince of Peace and cast all your cares upon him.

So thank you for humoring me and just allowing me to share my personal views during that council comment.

I just uh two things.

There was a big we got a lot of emails and there was a lot of discussion since we're pulling it about soul source on um the one contract.

It's very typical we do Soul Source, and I know I belong, I've been on the vector control, Orange County, um, Sand District, and a lot of different other agencies that I've been on the boards.

Soul source is not uncommon when it it's justified.

So that I just leave it at that.

We do it all the time, and uh I'll make any, but we're not gonna go sole source, we'll go RP, I guess.

Um the other thing is I think what we gotta do recognize is the value of our commissions, boards, and committees.

I'll tell you, I I what it would be almost impossible to do this job without the benefits of having them on basically call to do that advisory work for us.

They make some big decisions, they pass it on.

They it's basically a big shortcut often uh for us in making decisions up here.

I'm really proud of some of the work they've done, like planning commissioner uh Brian Thenis has gone above and beyond with his investigations and stuff like that.

And that goes right along the boards with the other commissioners and all these things.

They've they go really out of their way in for really nothing but a parking pass.

Yeah, and I want to just thank them immensely for what they do for our city.

So thank you.

All right.

Moving on to the mayor's spotlight section of the meeting.

At the March Mayor's Spotlight Awards, we recognize over 100 people.

I think that's an all-time record.

Uh, we first started with the HB Mayor's Excellence Award that went to public affairs officer Jessica uh Jessica Kucchia in the city manager's office.

Uh yeah, Jessica's impact on her community goes far beyond managing the city's social media presence.

Day in and day out, she tells the story of our city, can be residents informed, connected, and engaged with transparency, creativity, and care.

And what makes this recognition recognition even more meaningful is the strength and compassion she has shown behind the scenes.

While continuing to serve our community at the highest level, Jessica faced the heartbreaking loss of a close family friend, and she turned that personal tragedy into helping lead and support a kidney donation effort for Sean Cortez, who's a uh a good friend of mine I grew up with playing ice hockey.

And she gave Sean a second chance in life.

And Jessica should be really commended for it.

Um it's hard not to get emotional about it, but she's selfless and she deserves everything.

And uh, you know, I wish he was here.

Uh, we will bring her back.

And I talked to Sean recently, and he's still not um able to come to big public gatherings, but when he is and he and he's on the men, we're gonna have a big celebration for him, and we just want to honor Jessica for that.

So thank you, Jessica.

Next up, we recognize a few members from our code enforcement team.

Who always does a great job.

Um officers Josh Charlin and David Chapman.

They uh responded to a resident complaint at Pacific City and immediately took charge, addressing each concern with professionalism, responsiveness, and genuine uh sympathy.

Over the course of a month, they kept their resident informed every step of the way, ensuring progress is made and the solutions were confirmed.

So just thank you want to thank them for their efforts.

And because of that, residents can now enjoy a peaceful living environment once again.

So thank you, Code Enforcement.

And on that same thread, another code enforcement officer, uh, Eric T, whose dedication is making a meaningful difference in our community.

A resident shared um her gratitude for Eric's compassion, patience, and professionalism over the past five months as he met with her every Monday to assist with her brothers' brother's extreme hoarding situation, and through consistent support and understanding, Eric went above and beyond to help not just address a code issue, but to truly help a person in need.

So thank you, Eric.

That takes a lot of patience.

Then we honor the entire Huntington Beach High School cheer team who competed at nationals in Anaheim, and all three HP High School cheer teams made history, each advancing to day two of the finals and placing in the top three in the nation, an accomplishment never before achieved in the program's history.

The freshman and JV teams both earn an impressive third place in the nation, while the varsity team brought home the ultimate honor, first place in their division in the national championship.

Who's that guy on the right over there?

Up next was Marina High School's own Aubrey Storm Gutierrez.

She's amazing, a star wrestler.

Aubrey has made history as Marina High School's first ever two-time CAF Southern Section Masters and California State Champion, an incredible accomplishment that reflects her unmatched dedication and talent.

And as a sophomore, she completed a flawless 47-0 undefeated season in the 2025-2026 wrestling campaign, dominating the competition at every level.

She has her sights on the 2028 Olympic Games, and she's ranked sixth in the nation in girls' wrestling.

And right after this photo, she took uh Butch down to the leg lock.

We then honored the the aid and under Charger Cheer team for capturing another national championship.

And we honored them last year as well as they continue their success this year.

So just dominant.

Then next, we were proud to highlight Fred's uh Mexican Cafe and their incredible commitment to giving back as part of their 25th anniversary celebration.

Fred's is making a meaningful impact by donating 10,000 each month to a local charity.

And this month, the assistance league of Huntington Beach was the grateful recipient of this generous contribution.

And last but not least, we recognize the men and women that make up the board of directors of the HB Board Riders Club, founded in 2017 by local friends Chris Moreno, Ziggy Williams, and Casey Wheat.

This nonprofit 501c3 organization has grown from just three clubs and six contests into a thriving global community, now boasting over 50 clubs and more than 600 members.

And thank you, Don Kennedy, for putting this together.

Congratulations, everybody.

It was awesome.

All right, moving to our business highlight section.

Uh Huntington Beach continues to see strong momentum with new businesses opening across our community.

And we're excited to finally welcome, not finally, excited to welcome uh several recent additions.

So Brandy Mel Melville uh did a relocation at 300 PCH.

Long awaited the coach's lounge, finally opened at Magnolian Adams at 8911 Adams Avenue.

If you haven't been, it's it's incredible.

The Fakasha House opened at 200 Main Street, Offside Department, opened at Pacific City.

Stride Fitness at 6'86 Bolsa Avenue.

Surf City Escape, an escape room, also Pacific City.

The Fur Seasons, great name, at 16901 Beach Boulevard.

Wing Stop, 6918 Warner and Wolf Gang, also a great name at one near 19051 Golden West Street.

So thank you for investing in our community.

And then we're also proud to continue to spotlight the people and businesses that keep our community vibrant throughout our minute with the mayor series.

And tonight because of the extra long break.

We have three videos we want to show for our local standout businesses.

The first one is Crave Personal Training with Taryn.

So thank you to Taryn and the Crave team for keeping Huntington Beach strong.

We had Expert Tech Automotive.

So thank you to Gary Fromm and the Expert Tech team for keeping our community on the road and running smoothly.

And then Facet's 58 Jewelers.

Thank you, Councilmember Kennedy, for uh recommending them and for them applying.

And we want to thank uh McKay Contrucci and the Fastest 58 family for helping Huntington Beach shine for nearly 40 years.

40 years.

So we're gonna take a look at these uh quick videos.

What's up, HB?

I'm Mayor Casey McKean with special guest Mayor Pro Tem Bush Twining.

And today's episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us to Adams in Alabama to Crave Fitness.

Let's go meet the owner, Terrence.

Come on, Casey.

Let's go do some personal training.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

So Taryn, tell us about Crave Fitness.

We are a private gym that offers strength training, functional training for all ages.

And then we have a second location, which is contracted with the city.

Nice.

Um, where we take care of our 50 plus.

Why did you choose Huntington Beach?

The city of Huntington Beach lives outside.

So it's kind of the perfect place for a strength training gym because you need all those muscles in order to keep doing those fun things that Huntington has to offer.

In addition to that, is it's not just about staying active, but it's about aging and continuing to be independent.

That's where strength training is really important.

What's at your training approach apart?

It's so personalized.

Training is gonna look different at 40 and at 70 and at 25.

So my coaches are really aware of that, but also the lifestyles.

Are you playing with kids?

Are you golfing?

Are you sedentary at a desk all day?

All those things are important to creating the right strength training plan.

So we're very customized.

We're not a one cookie cutter type of gym.

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

So remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next stop.

Oh, yeah.

Kneel lower on that squat next time.

What's up, HB?

I'm Mary.

All right, Expert Tech Automotive.

What's up, HB?

This episode, a minute with the mayor takes us to Expert Tech Automotive, right off of Calverton Beach.

Let's go meet the owner, Gary.

So Gary, tell us a little bit about Expert Tech Automotive.

Expert Tech Automotive's been here 33 years.

We are open six days a week, Monday through Saturday.

Uh we work on all makes, all models, do every bit of work except for body shop work.

And then why'd you guys choose Huntington Beach to open up your business?

Well, I'm a fourth generation Huntington Beach resident, and there's no other fitty I'd rather be at.

What do you would you guys say keeps customers coming back to Expert Tech?

We treat our customers with uh respect and dignity, and we always want to treat them the way we would want to be treated if we are on that side of the counter.

And if someone comes in for the first time, what's usually like the number one service they get?

Either an oil change or a smog inspection.

Okay.

And we do a safety inspection with every vehicle comes in and let them know what an update on their car.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

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

So remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next stop.

All right, what's up, HB?

Facets 58.

What's up, HB?

I'm Mayor Casey McKeon with special guest, Councilman Don Kennedy.

And today's episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us to Facet's 58 Jewelers at the corner of Maine and Yorktown.

Let's go meet the team.

McKay, tell us about Facet's 58 Jewelers.

So we're a local jewelry store.

My dad started the company back in 1987 over in Bellatero back when it was the Huntington Beach Mall.

He kind of chose Huntington Beach because of the family-friendly environment, and uh he just wanted to start a family game.

What's the forte here at Fastet 58?

We specialize a lot in custom fashion jewelry, custom bridal, engagement rings, basically anything you guys can think of if you try to specialize in that.

You could also uh sell your gold here as well, right?

Yes, we buy and sell gold, all old antique jewelry, stuff that was passed down from family members.

If you don't want it, we will buy it.

The local vibe you give, I know because it's close to home.

You do watch repair, batteries, come on in, free cleaning, do all that kind of stuff, right?

Yep.

Yeah, we try to offer services that you don't always have to pay for.

Um, so we do offer free cleanings, non-verbal appraisals.

We try to specialize in everything.

Every little thing, we're a one-stop shop.

And what is the 58 of Facets 58 means?

Uh, there's 58 facets on a perfect round diet.

Why'd you guys choose Huntington Beach to open your business?

My dad really, really liked um the community here.

He met his wife here.

Uh my mom is born and raised here in Huntington, and I think they just wanted to settle down here.

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

So remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next stop.

Don't try to leave without watch.

All right.

And for our local business community, uh, we mentioned this last time.

Applications for our Surf City Small Business Digital Grant Program.

Uh open April 13th and close April 28th, 28th.

So please uh get involved in that.

The three-week program will help brick and mortar businesses strengthen their online presence with expert uh advising, hands-on digital marketing train marketing training, and a thousand dollar ad grant.

So space is limited.

So please learn more at hb uh biz.com.

Lastly, we're excited about an upcoming opportunity to connect and learn.

The Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce's AM Connect on April 9th will include a listening session on the city's zoning administrator and conditional use permit process, provide an opportunity to hear directly from our business community about what's working and where improvements can be uh may be needed.

So a registration is available on the chamber's website.

Up next is our community events announcement portions, a two-minute time limit.

So, madam clerk, do you have anyone signed up for the community events announcements?

We do the city council will now receive public comments for community events announcements only.

Each organization is allotted two minutes for its announcement.

When your name is called, please approach, use both podiums, state your name and organization for the record.

Marissa Beck from HBUHSD VAPA.

Hadley Ruiz from the same organization, and Pat Goodman regarding community service day.

Good evening.

My name is Marissa, and I'm oh I name's Hadley.

We're here representing the Marina High School Art Department to announce the Huntington Beach Art Center School District Wide Art Show Creative Visions.

You guys can pull that.

Yeah, pull that mic down.

Oh there you go.

Thank you.

All semester, students from each high school in the Huntington Beach School District have been developing our own exhibition from concept to artwork selection to exit exhibition layout.

Every creative choice is made by the students in this program.

Join us for the opening reception Friday, April 17th, 5 30 to 9 p.m.

at the Huntington Beach Art Center.

There will be a panel discussion with students at 6 30 p.m.

We think it's an amazing opportunity to see the students' art and hear about our experience creating the exhibition.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor McKeon and Council.

Um Pat Goodman, and I'm here to speak about the Community Service Day, the annual community service day on Saturday, April 25th.

And uh it's sponsored by the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council.

And service projects will take place from 9 a.m.

to noon, and you have to register online.

You can either go through the GHBIC.org website or community service day.org.

And then following that is a community picnic.

Um there's entertainment and local arts groups and um service nonprofits that have booths along the way and games and prizes and all kinds of good things.

Kowanas will be barbecuing, and uh it's a fun day.

Uh hopefully it won't rain like it did last year.

But uh we soldier on even if it's raining.

So there's over 40 projects and everyone's invited.

There's all kinds of levels of activity, so age is not an issue.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor, and um guests.

My name is Donna Brandt, and I am the president and one of the instructors at the Therapeutic Writing Center of Huntington Beach.

Our mission is to empower people with physical and developmental challenges to discover their greatest strengths and gain a sense of self-confidence and self-reliance through the special relationship with a horse.

Um I'm very excited to announce that we have a second location.

We are actually have been in Huntington Beach since 1990.

Our program has grown um crazy big.

So um we have acquired another location in Long Beach.

Um we are at a uh formally um the program was called Dreamcatcher.

We opened in January.

It's been a year of back and forth trying to um get the license through the Edison Company.

Um we're successful and we're open.

Um so we wanted to invite everyone here to an open house that we have in Long Beach.

Um it's gonna be April 19th, one to four p.m.

We've done a lot of work to make the program over there open and running.

We have six horses.

Um we have 40 students right now just opening slowly.

Um we're gonna have face painting, pony rides, horseshoe decorating, bound south, taco truck, um ice ice and the Kona Ice, whatever they're called, I can't remember.

But anyway, we'd love it if you guys could all attend and support this um second location.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And ma'am, the first location, ma'am.

The first location is at our equestrian center.

Is that a given?

Say it again, I'm sorry.

The the first location is at the equestrian center, right?

The first location is at the equestrian center.

Yeah, we have 10 horses there, um, 150 clients, a mental health program, and we're gonna um hopefully be growing to the same um size over there as well.

So come and visit us, it's gonna be great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Announcement of supplemental communications received after agenda distribution.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes, for item number 17.

A PowerPoint presentation received from community and library services director Ashley Waisaki regarding the proposed approval of amendment number two between the state of California acting through the Department of Parks and Recreation and the City of Huntington Beach for the operating agreement A0-40 for Bolsa Chica State Beach.

Item number 16, one email received regarding proposed adoption of resolution number 2026-07, declaring weeds and rubbish a public nuisance and scheduling a public hearing on May 5th, 2026 at 6 p.m.

to hear protests and objections to the abatement.

On administrative items, item number 22, 22 emails received regarding presentation of professional services contract between the city of Huntington Beach and Wolfhouse for brand media press and digital ecosystems comprehensive audit marketing and assessment services for city council consideration.

Council member item number 23, one email received regarding discussion of state audit.

Thank you.

Public comments, Madam Clerk.

How many speakers do we have?

40.

Okay.

Please call up the first uh 10.

One moment, please.

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, Sally Westcatt, Tina Vere, Dom McGee, Brenda Glim, Mr.

Amory Hanson, Charlie Jackson, Hannah Bass, Brittany Bass.

Just a reminder to the public agenda item number 22 was pulled from the agenda.

Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, Dom McGee, 25-year resident of Huntington Beach.

Um, I know we're not supposed to speak about item 22, but uh I would say when conducting the RFP, you might want to choose a company that has a DBA because Wolfhouse doesn't seem to have a DBA, a business license or an LLC of any kind.

You might also want to choose somebody who doesn't have a sex line on their website as their official as our official telephone number, okay?

Because that's what Wolfhouse has at the moment, along with nothing else on their website.

Uh this is a little disturbing to me.

I've uh supported most of the people on this city council for a long time, but it seems that certain people are ruling by feat.

So I would take all those things into consideration before you give away contracts to people for cronyism.

The last thing I want to talk about is the somewhat secret meeting that happened a few weeks ago between uh uh Mayor McKeon and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, while the police officers association representative Pete Mitchell was also present.

I'd like the city council and anyone else who was in that particular meeting to provide the minutes so that we the people, the great unwashed, can determine if the city or indeed some of the people present in that meeting were the beneficiaries.

I ask one question when any of this goes down, and that's key bono.

Who benefits?

Again, I've supported most of you on this council, but my support is waning.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Go ahead.

Um, good evening, Mayor and Honorable Council members.

I'm Sally Westcott, and this is my partner, Tina Varae, and we're the owners of the Surf City store on the pier in Huntington.

And we realize that item 22 has been pulled, but we did want to clarify some misconceptions and downright inaccuracies that were pertaining to our business on the on the pier, and we were very disturbed to hear our business misrepresented by Mr.

Wolf.

Um he conducted an audit but did not speak with us or consult with anybody associated with our store.

We're not aware that he ever came into the store.

And we had participated about a year or so ago in another audit done through the city to uh talk about some changes that needed to be made with our building and some suggestions.

So we knew nothing about this audit, and it was brought to our attention at 7 a.m.

on Easter morning.

We have partnered with the city for over 30 years, and it has been our great privilege and joy to be on the pier to serve the people of Huntington Beach and also as ambassadors to the city, support local schools, charities, and organizations such as our sister city.

Um references were made with regard to the trademark that the city did let lapse.

Um, and however, we do protect the Surf City Huntington Beach trademark.

Uh, we do notify the city when we see infringement of the trademark, and so this was misrepresented as well.

And also some misrepresentation was done with regard to the amount of money that is gross.

And Tino, you might want to uh address that.

Uh yes, just briefly.

Um, we were expecting that there would be a presentation by this organization tonight, and one of their PowerPoint uh slides indicated sales for two years of 1.5 million, and the item below that was the city fee that was paid for roughly 75,000 at a 5% lease rate.

What Mr.

Wolf did not take into account, because that assumes, and he stated further in that document, insinuating that we pocketed, you know, roughly a million dollars.

The fact is from that 1.5 million, we had 1.143 in expenses, payroll, products, fees, all the expenses it takes to run a business.

And our net profit for the two years was roughly 371,000.

So it made us appear to be a greedy bunch of people that were taking money that belonged to the citizens, and that is simply not the fact.

Thank you.

Uh Sally, if you wouldn't mind filling out a blue card, uh so sorry that's a way to get a hold of us, and we're really sorry if uh that apparent misrepresentation happened to you guys.

And we've it's been our pleasure to work with the city, and we look forward to doing so for a long time.

Next speaker, please.

I'm Brenda Glenn, and I'm here tonight as city as a city council candidate.

As a certified project management professional, when I reviewed the contract, um, I know what to look for.

I examined the Wolfhouse contract that was online with some scrutiny, the same I would be would have used in my professional work.

And let me tell you clearly, I would not have approved it.

This contract is vague, filled with buzzwords that mean nothing measurable, phrases phrases like strategic frameworks and institutional knowledge sound impressive, but there are no deliverables attached.

None.

There were no clear work program, no project schedule, and no definition of city's responsibilities.

And in the world of project management, that's unacceptable.

Since February, there's been no operational website and zero transparency.

We don't even know who their other clients are.

Has anyone from the city verified their experience or checked a single reference?

If this were a private sector deal, it would never make it past the first review.

But here's the most troubling part.

Why now?

Why is this being pushed through at this moment?

To the public, it looks like a political campaign funded with taxpayer dollars.

720,000 taxpayer dollars.

This council has had four years to show integrity and leadership.

Yet again and again it has failed to represent the majority of our citizens.

It has spent these years promoting a Christian nationalist agenda, sidelining our LGBTQ black and brown neighbors, and silent silencing anyone who dared to disagree.

Meanwhile, lawsuits keep piling up, draining millions from our city budget, money that should have gone to our parks, our schools, our safety.

And let's not forget the image this council has cultivated.

Proudly placing a bust of the current president in chambers while claiming to be nonpartisan, keeping banned books hidden on the fourth floor of the library, even after the appeal was denied, standing shoulder to shoulder with extremists at rallies instead of condemning hate.

It's behavior that has earned our city an ugly reputation, the city of losers.

And now they want to funnel nearly three quarters of a million dollars into what looks like a re-election slush fund disguised as consulting.

Enough is enough.

This isn't just mismanagement, it's a boondoggle of the worst kind.

Our residents deserve transparency, accountability, and ethics from those who govern, not political theater paid for by the people.

As your future council member, I will demand real oversight, measurable results, and respect for every citizen, because this city belongs to all of us, not a chosen few.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Mr.

Amory Hanson.

I'm speaking tonight in support of item 20, the purchase of a new spotlight for the police helicopter.

The new spotlight has a 360-degree range of motion and it's integrated with the police helicopter camera system.

This spotlight is long overdue.

The spotlight is not just for the lost soul, but the lost child.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach.

This council spent your money on voter ID legislation and never thought about the qualifying ID standards or the conflict of state laws.

Now they're spending more money defending it in court.

Just blind loyalty to Trump's debt fraud myths.

When Trump wins, it's the will of the people.

When he loses, the election is rigged.

Here are the facts on non-citizen voting.

The right-leaning heritage foundation's election fraud database found 68 cases of non-citizen voting since the 80s.

State prosecution records show non-citizen votes account for approximately three in one million voters.

Non-citizens risk prison and deportation for illegal voting.

Experts agree deterrent.

This deterrent works and a systematic fraud is non-existent.

This evidence is clear, but not to this council.

Non-citizen voting myth is a fraud.

This council weaponized a trumped-up lie into voter suppression and build the Huntington Beach taxpayers before it.

Before your next bright idea becomes policy, have your outstanding staff review and run it through a SWOT analysis.

It might limit the lawsuits, the failures, and the cost dumped on the taxpayers.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Charlie Jackson.

Um I'm glad that Butch is doing well, but it reminds me that we need to update the city charter to fill vacancies.

Basically, the HBC would appoint a temporary replacement, then at the next election, people would run to finish the term.

If a ballot initiatives are put on a future election ballot, please add a city charter change to update the vacancy policy.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Illen Riley.

I've lived here a long time.

And I want to make a recommendation.

I am hoping you're not preparing to open up any oil pipeline, which has been recommended by the president of oil, oil pipelines up and down the coast should be reopened.

And I hope you don't do that because it covered there was a spill, an oil spill, as many of you know, like five years ago, and 13 square miles were affected.

Um the air show was canceled at that time, and uh 24,500 gallons of oil spilled on our beach and killed 116 dead birds.

So I hope you will not consider think about opening up any of our oil pipelines at this time at all.

Um, otherwise, um, I have talked about the housing element, and I'm hoping that we fulfill some part of the housing element, if not all.

We've lost every lawsuit that we have brought against the state.

Everyone costing us up to four million dollars to fight the housing element.

Um that's our money, money that all of us put it paid for our taxes.

Um Hunting and Beach has been um ordered to pay 3.5 million to the Kennedy Commission and five $50,000 in monthly penalties for failing to fulfill the housing element.

And there are big fines also that I think hunting and beach is paying, but if that's not true, somebody should let me know.

And that's about it.

Thank you for listening.

For the record, we were not fine to $50,000 a month for the housing element.

Just want to put that on the record.

That is not correct.

Next speaker, please.

Okay.

Um, before sharing my speech, I just wanted to say since April is um sorry, since April is autism acceptance month, I wanted to share my speech and show the importance of inclusion.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Hannah, and I'm in fifth grade at Lakeview Elementary.

During our our classroom discussions surrounding inclusion, I was able to bring a firsthand experience.

My experience with my brother offered my class a different perspective and gave the opportunity to answer questions they had about inclusion and showing respect and empathy to those who may not look, act, speak, or think like how we expect what we think is normal.

Umclusion is important to me because since my own brother is autistic and has high support needs, he often gets treated differently and excluded.

Although he needs what people call special treatment, he is kind, helpful, creative, and overall just a loving person.

My brother also loves swimming, coloring, and singing, which he's great at.

Um, without my brother, I would be a whole different person.

As his older twin sister, by three minutes, it is my responsibility to make sure he is always included and knows that he is loved by so many.

And April is autism acceptance month.

Please join us at our fundraiser for the Amuse Fund for Autism at the annual Lions Club Crabfest.

Saturday, April 11th, 2026, 4 to 7 p.m.

at HB Senior Center.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good job.

Thank you.

I can teach your people skills.

Are we ready?

Yeah, go for it.

Thank you so much.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Brittany Boss, and I'm the founder and president of the Amuse Foundation, also known as Amuse for Autism.

We advocate, educate, connect, and provide.

Children with disabilities often spend hours being taught how to interact with others.

Why don't we spend a little time teaching those without disabilities how to interact with them?

Our organization advocates for autism acceptance and inclusion through action.

We provide accommodated community events, educational seminars, scholarship programs at Golden West College, IEP assistance.

We advocate for the special education department and their needs, and we offer peer-to-peer support.

Not all special needs are visible, but art, music, and kindness are universal languages.

We are proud to offer community service hours to students while educating our youth about invisible disabilities.

We initiate and participate in ongoing dialogue with our community about possible behaviors one might encounter with an autistic individual and how to de-escalate and be of safe service.

Recognizing autism acceptance month at this meeting is our friendly reminder to be kind.

Everyone has a story, everyone should feel included, represented, and dignified.

Our neurodivergent families often feel isolated, misunderstood, and face everyday struggle that most do not see.

Amuse offers a safe space and are a voice for those families.

We see you, we are you.

Autism acceptance month means so much to so many.

It is our time to show gratitude to those who have changed our lives, whether it be a child, a family member, a friend, or a neighbor.

Most families worry about raising their children until they are 18.

Neurodivergent families have to worry about support and care for their adult child with disabilities beyond their years of existence.

This is draining and exhausting to think about.

Typical children have 28 classmates, one teacher, one principal.

Neurodivergent children have a special ed teacher, paraeducator, multiple aides on rotation, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, some I'm sure I missed.

Most of these educators and classified employees become our child's only form of friendship.

This month we thank you and we highlight you.

Your willingness to serve our delegate demographic means more to us families than you'll ever know.

Thank you to the friends who stick around, grandparents and our support systems.

We as parent givers, care parent caregivers carry the weight of the fact that we know what you may incur from a day-to-day.

Thank you is not enough.

Huntington Beach has been a pillar of support with every department we've come in contact with, shared our ideas with, collaborated with, and our seminar initiatives, as well as donating their time, effort, and willingness to learn.

Special shout out to Huntington Beach Fire Department for participating in our training video that we use to educate other first responders, and to our police department who show their support every April with their autism patch program.

We thank you for your support.

April 11th is our annual um fundraiser this year with the Lions Club, the Crab Fest.

If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website, AmuseFoundation.org.

You've got a friend in us.

Thank you.

Excuse me, ma'am.

Ma'am.

Excuse me.

Miss Ma'am.

I believe we met when I was on the CPAB a couple years back.

Yes, much.

So that was very impressive with your daughter there.

Why don't you fill what one of those blue cards out?

Let's get together and check in, see if there's anything else we can do for you.

You've always had that passionate energy been following through on it.

I really appreciate that.

What a fine young lady you raised.

Thank you so much.

I have boy girl twins as well.

Thank you.

You know it.

Good job.

I appreciate you.

Thank you so much.

I'll do that.

Fill out one of those cards.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Madam Claire, call the next 10, please.

Andrew Hard, Grant Walker, Deborah, Ben Davis, Stephanie Dufour, Luann Shoop, Ann Palmer, Russ Neal, Kathy Carrick, John Ertie.

Go ahead, Loanne.

Good evening.

Well, since we pulled uh item 22, I have something else to talk about.

But first, I do want to comment on uh competitive bidding.

I worked on the space shuttle program for 10 years, and I worked in the purchased labor department, and we used to have a saying you get what you pay for.

And just because someone comes in with a lower bid doesn't mean you're going to get a better quality project.

And I will leave it at that.

I love the one minute with the mayor, going around to the different businesses.

I'm finding about all kinds of businesses I didn't know about.

I'm gonna check out that jewelry store.

Whoa.

Um girl can never have too much jewelry.

Um but it's been uh a long journey.

Been I have been working with Casey for over two years on cleaning up downtown, and I know he cares a lot about our city.

And Breen and Tyler, I think he has a lot of good ideas.

And you know, you can't always stick with the same thing all the time.

People don't like changes, people don't like spending money.

But the thing is, I think you need to look at the revenue that he has looked at and helping us bringing in also.

This isn't just spending 750,000, this is also about making money for the city.

And I think people need to take that into consideration.

So that's all I have to say.

And once again, thank you, Casey, for cleaning up our downtown.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Lynn.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Deborah, and I'm a 39-year resident of Huntington Beach.

And I do have two questions for each of the city council members, if they could answer before uh considering the different companies who will be applying for the public's work item 2632.

A wise person is credited with saying insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So keeping this statement in mind uh as you answer the following two questions I have for you.

First, how are each of you going to change your behavior and decision making actions to improve the city's reputation?

And then secondly, how um what are you cutting from the budget to cover the new $720,000 expenditure?

I personally believe changes in your focus and actions to meet the needs of all the residents of Huntington Beach can help improve the city's reputation without spending almost three quarters of a million dollars.

So I look forward to hearing your answers, and remember actions speak louder than words.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please, good evening, Huntington Beach City Council, and thank you for your work in serving our city.

My name is Stephanie Dufour.

I'm a 47-year resident of Huntington Beach, homeowner, and I uh own an insurance agency.

I specialize in nonprofits and special events.

I've worked with a lot of cities, counties, I've reviewed a lot of RFPs, contracts, and conflict of interest policies.

Part of working with these clients is conducting risks risk assessments.

And although the city of Huntington Beach is not my client, it's my city, and I feel compelled to warn the city of the risk pitfalls of awarding a $720,000 contract to Tyler Wolfhouse.

First, our municipal code and California public contract code requires competitive process for services over $30,000 unless there's a clear exemption for unique expertise.

His expertise is doesn't appear to be unique, and there are several reputable firms in Orange County who have a proven track record of working with other local municipalities and film commissions.

Revell and Costamesa is another long-term partner.

Both of these firms are high touch, high-tech, and low risk for city contracts.

In addition to inviting other reputable firms to apply for this contract, I recommend including an advisory committee of local business owners and public servants to weigh in and provide their wisdom.

If Tyler's makes sense after the review and recommendations, then we need to have all council members disclose any conflicts of interest.

Conflicts of interest rules under the Political Reform Act and our code of ethics demand full disclosure.

Friendships or small uh political interests aren't automatic disqualifiers, but they trigger scrutiny, complaints, fines, or even worse, expensive lawsuits.

Third, Wolfhouse doesn't appear to have any proven municipal ex municipality experience.

I didn't find any city audits, public contracts on record, clear business license, which I think is required for consultants, even uh the incorporation details of his business are unclear, and there's no public financial records.

That doesn't mean he's terrible, but this is a big contract to assign to someone without deep relevant experience.

I read the 38-page report Tyler put together, and I agree with some of his findings, but I question some of the assumptions and the ability to deliver.

Some of the comparisons uh to the Laguna Arts Center, for example, and to Los Angeles for film permits, uh, are lacking in quantifiable measurable outcome metrics for evaluation.

And his proposal also risks alienating some of our long-term amazing.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Ma'am, could you fill out a blue card?

I'd like to hear the rest of what you had to say if you could fill out blue card.

My name is Janet Ewell.

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

I come before the city council willing and even anxious to believe that your political positions and your religious beliefs are sincere, not self-serving or a matter of convenience.

I extend that charity whether or not my positions agree with yours, and I will hold on to that charity as long as possible.

It behooves you to represent your beliefs well and to protect them from shame.

That would include adhering meticulously to the law, including the Brown Act and the Constitution and the First and the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment in particular.

Providing maximum transparency in all your civic doings, following procedures designed to protect public funds, and providing accountability and remembering that the servant is not greater than the master.

And in a democracy, the people are the public figures masters.

You have need of improvement in avoiding the appearance of evil, in following the law, the best practices, in protecting public funds, and in your relationship with the people to whom you should be accountable.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Ben Davis.

See I am running for uh Huntington Beach City Council as well.

Uh I want to thank you for pulling agenda item number 22.

Um thing about that.

If you're not going to be able to get it taken care of in a short amount of time because it's going to take a while, be okay with that.

What I do want to say about the audit, uh, that it did get a couple things right.

Uh the city staff are operating under real strain, uh, which I'm sure is partially due to the loss of highly capable staff with decades of service and experience.

But the bigger issue, the public perception perception carries real implications to reputation, and this affects tourism investments and civic pride, which all of you are aware of.

Uh the city reputation um this reputation is due to the high visibility press, that political and controversy focuses.

That was in the that was in the um uh report.

So take that in uh take that in context.

But this bad press isn't arbitrary, it's a problem of the council's own making.

And the solutions offered in the report is that the city just needs to get better at press.

The sense is that if the city gets louder about the good things, no one will care about the bad things.

This doesn't get rid of the real problem, which is bad management, culture war agendas, and self-enrichment.

You can't say this uh any more pleasant.

You can't polish a turd.

To fix the city's issues, policies need to change, the people need to change.

Please thank you very much.

Thanks for listening.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Andrew Hard, and I'm a local business owner operating a Duffy rental business here in Huntington Harbor.

Back in 2020 and 2021, or sorry, I'm here tonight because of experience firsthand how the city enforces its zoning and permitting requirements, and what I'm seeing now is a clear inconsistency that needs to be addressed.

Back in 2020 and 21, when we attempted to open a Duffy rental business on Pacific Coast Highway, the city made it very clear that we could not operate without full compliance.

We were cited and we were issued notices of violation, and we were required to either obtain approvals or shut down.

Specifically, we were told we needed a conditional use permit, a coastal development permit, and an adequate and adequate off-street parking.

And importantly, we were not allowed to operate while those approvals were pending.

Ultimately, we were forced to relocate our business in order to comply.

Now, fast forward today, another operator, Huntington Harbor Boat Rentals, move locations along Pacific Coast Highway from one address to another.

That move resets their entitlement status, meaning they are required to obtain a conditional use permit and meet the same parking and zoning requirements that we were held to.

However, there is no conditional use permit on file.

There are no there are known parking constraints, and they have been allowed to continue operating for well over a year.

I personally filed the code enforcement complaint on 814, 2024, and the city has acknowledged that there is an active investigation, but despite that, the business continues to operate, and the case has effectively been placed on hold.

So my question is simple.

Why was my business required to comply immediately while another operator is allowed to operate in violation of the same rules for over a year?

This is about fairness, equal treatment, and consistent enforcement of city code.

Given this issue has gone unresolved for over a year and a half, and that communication from code enforcement has stopped.

We've consulted legal counsel to better understand our rights.

However, we are here tonight because we believe this can and should be resolved without litigation through consistent enforcement of the city's own rules.

We're simply asking that the same rules that were applied to us are applied consistently to everyone.

At this point, we respectfully request a clear explanation of how this business is currently allowed to operate without a conditional use permit, whether they have been instructed to cease operations, and a defined timeline for enforcement.

This has been going on for far too long, and active investigation is no longer a is no longer a sufficient answer.

Thank you for your time.

Andrew, it's uh fill out a fill out a blue card, we'll look into it.

What's that?

Fill out a blue card and and let's look into it.

Okay.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Yep.

Appreciate it.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name's Grant Walker.

I'm actually Andrew Hart's business partner.

Uh I had a three-minute speech, but his was better than mine.

So it's pretty true.

We just want to see what's going on with code enforcement.

Why is it taking a year and a half to get something settled when it was taken upon us, and we shut down, I think within three months.

Okay.

So that's it.

We just want resolution.

Yeah, we'll look into it for sure.

Thank you.

Good job.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, Council members.

My name is John Eardy.

I'm the president and CEO of Visit Huntington Beach.

I wanted to come in.

I've been on the job now for three months, and I figured it had time to come in and say hi.

Um I come to you with 30 years of experience and leadership in tourism, hospitality, and sales.

My past 15 years, I was a CEO of Visit Mammoth.

Uh back in 2010, I founded the organization.

In 2013, we put in a groundbreaking funding source.

Uh we expanded our T-bid past just lodging to include restaurant retail and our ski area.

Um, and we went, we were able to drive the TOT for the city from $10 million average to almost $30 million in that 10-year period.

Um, as you mentioned earlier, Mr.

Mayor, visit Huntington Beach is a private not-for-profit 501c6 uh destination marketing organization, and we are funded solely by the T-bid.

Uh for those who are not aware what the TBID is, the TBID is uh funding through the hotels.

It's an assessment that the hotels can pass along to the guests.

That funding is then uh submitted to the city and then returned to visit Huntington Beach for our marketing purposes.

Uh visitors also contribute heavily to the city's revenues via sales tax and transine occupancy tax.

Uh they're number two and number four on your revenue list.

Um my team's two objectives are crystal clear.

If it's not driving overnight visitation or guest experience, we're not doing it.

Our job is to fill the hotels and drive your TOT coffers.

Uh visit Huntington Beach's efforts include marketing, so brand and content creation, telling the Huntington Beach story, uh, digital first marketing, website emails, search engine optimization, genitor of generative um engine optimization, which is all the AI that you see now, social media, digital and photo libraries.

Um tract and promote events that drive that overnight visitation.

Awareness of accessibility, and it was great to see Brittany and Hannah up here from Imuse Foundation.

We actually have a film crew in here this week working with us uh from a group called Wheel the World, talking about uh different abled people and how they can get around Huntington Beach, including surfing.

We also have an event coming up or a uh uh partner coming in called Culture City, which goes to the neurodivergent talk that she had mentioned, really training all of our lifeguards first responders, uh, hotel front desks on how to uh work with folks of neurodivergence.

We have two visitor centers, uh, one on the pier and one on our office at Fifth Street.

Uh, we work heavily on public relations, both domestically and internationally with writers and influencers, and really we're trying to get that third-party endorsement.

That that article written about Huntington Beach is way more valuable than anything we could buy for advertising.

International sales, you know, we're going after folks from around the world that are gonna stay longer and spend more money with us here.

And then last but not least, really on the conference and meeting sales.

This is a big one.

Um, our VHB sales team drove nearly 90,000 conference room nights last year.

What that amounts to with the hotels, uh the hotels have their own sales team.

Our team did 90,000 uh room nights, and that's really producing nearly 3.5 million dollars in TOT that comes back to the city.

So thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hi, Ann Palmer, 30-plus year resident, and I want to state first that I support every single one of you.

I think we have the best seven-person council we've ever had in the history of this city.

I appreciate what you've done to clean up the city.

We have the safest, cleanest city.

We have a path to success for our homeless, and I couldn't be more proud to live here at the time.

I'm here to speak on agenda item 22, and I too have a question.

How did Brands, Missouri become the live music capital of the universe?

Why do a million people a year visit Galina, Illinois?

Populu population three thousand two hundred.

And what makes a home within Beverly Hills zip code worth 500,000 more than one across the street in an LA zip code?

Well, I can tell you, it may be market driven, it may be a trend, but where it started was with a branding agency.

They've developed brands that are desirable, aspirational, and destination driven.

They used agencies, experts, consultants, and measurement tools to guide their success.

Of course, this item 22 is controversial.

That's okay, but I know we want to avoid taxes, and I believe there are eight cities in our county that have either just instated sales tax or have one on the agenda.

So I believe that you may succeed with an RFP process, but I want people to know that a municipal brand is not exactly a hot topic among the top agencies.

So you may get a film distribution company, you may get an event company, you may get somebody that knows brand marketing, but I urge you to look at the consultative process of any company that is going to propose a brand marketing platform and program.

We need to create a comprehensive RF RFP and not make it so definitive that you're bidding on things that may not be the best solution.

And once the project is underway, you don't need just a solid template with milestones.

You need an iterative process that will continue to assess what works, what's not working, and adjust and grow with our brand because our brand is not what people say on Reddit, and it's not even what people say in these internal forums.

Our brand is what people experience when they come here.

And I know that people have visited here, I've talked to them, I spent a lot of time with them, and they love this city.

So thank you for what you've done.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

All right, uh, Russell Neal, Huntington Beach.

Concerning the what I call the manufactured issue of the airshow settlement.

Uh, first, in my opinion, the settlement was no great deal for Pacific Airshow, with most of their loss recovery pushed into the future.

Second, the settlement by itself tells us nothing about whether it was a good or bad deal.

You would have to know everything that led up to the settlement to answer that, and none of that information is in the settlement.

Third, for that reason, a state audit of the settlement cannot really be done.

The auditor will not have that information either.

Fourth, as a result, we can see the proposed state audit is just a political stunt designed to generate political talking points for the fall election.

Fifth, most efforts to analyze the cost-benefit of the air show have been wrongheaded.

We have a lot of activities that would not show a net financial benefit if analyzed that way, including our parks and beaches and even road repair.

Yet all of these things contribute to making people want to live, work, and visit here, improving property and sales tax revenues.

This is how we should think about it.

Sixth, and finally, the idea of having the California state auditor of all people who cannot find the billions of dollars of fraud in this state that a kid with a camera can.

Thank you and carry on.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Kathy Carrick.

I'd like to take just a moment to pay tribute to our amazing military who spare no effort to rescue their fellow Americans.

Their heroic dedication is an example of the values we hold dear and the very same values that allow each of us to come to this podium to share our thoughts.

For that I am grateful.

In that spirit of service to our community, I am here tonight to speak in strong support of item 22.

I want to thank the council for your leadership in bringing this forward.

It shows a commitment to taking bold, proactive action to secure our city's financial future without simply defaulting to the same old let's raise taxes mentality.

We need these types of innovative revenue streams to ensure that Huntington Beach can continue to provide the high quality services our residents expect and deserve.

While there will always be critics, it is refreshing to see this council thinking creatively to keep our city fiscally strong.

Thank you for your hard work and for your willingness to explore new solutions.

I fully support this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, next time, please.

Kaylee McHugh, Donna Brault, Tim Gedis, Brother Stephen Gerard, Sidlusky, Kristen Carroll Nelson, Roz Pierce, Dave Pertell, Kanem Durham, Libby, Bethany Webb, Wendy Rincon, Pat Goodman, David Reinerson, Patricia Pappas, Roger Noor.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Tim.

Um good evening, Mayor and City Council, uh, Tim Geddis here.

I I guess we'll never uh we're never going to get a closed session report update from the city attorney on any of the litigation involving this the state of California, specifically what uh attorney general Rob Bonta has in mind has in store for us.

Our staff time and legal costs must be a real drain on the on the budget, and any punishments, restrictions, or other negative impacts that taxpayers may be facing are kept in the dark.

The exact opposite of transparency, the surf city citizenry deserves.

Why don't why won't the council fess up?

The war against Sacramento over housing, voter ID, and other issues is likely to hit us like a ton of bricks, and yet the council continues to pretend that all is well, and our residents should just uh sit down, shut up, and take it.

By the way, just uh what is going to be discussed at the bottom of the agenda regarding the state audit.

The state is clearly looking into the sweetheart deal regarding the public uh the Pacific Air Show settlement perpetrated by the incumbent council members up for re-election.

The agenda item is being raised by current council members not elected in 2022.

This state audit could really reveal the sell the skeletons in the closet well before Halloween.

Once again, is the public uh being left in the dark.

Remember, Tony Strickland isn't here to front for you, neither is Michael Gates.

I'm reminded of the famous quote from the movie uh blazing saddles.

This is this is an election year, and in six months, even some of those who voted for you last time may consider changing horses.

They voted to they voted for change all right, and now many are having buyers' remorse.

A new slate of candidates, honest, infinitely more transparent, and truly representing the entire community is revving up its engines, and all the partisan special interest money you have scrolled away will isn't going to save you if your actions have screwed our residents.

All the dog and pony shows cooked up by the mayor to uh put a business-friendly uh face on things are going to turn sour when everybody, including the business sector, suffers from uh uh suffers the fallout from the what the state may do to us.

It's time for new change, real change that will let uh the let the for the record the attorney actually reported out a closed session about that autumn item that you were talking about.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I'm Roz Price, not Pierce.

Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council members and all the guests here this evening.

As I reviewed tonight's agenda, I was encouraged to see several items that reflect the values so many of us care deeply about here in the city of Huntington Beach.

Public safety, environmental stewardship, clean neighborhoods, and responsible government.

From continued coordination regarding Bolsa Chica State Beach to addressing weeds and rubbish and public nuisances to strengthening our stormwater permit implementation.

These items may seem administrative on the surface level, but they directly impact the quality of life our city is looking to.

They affect how safe, clean, beautiful, and well managed Huntington Beach feels for the residents, families, visitors alike.

I also appreciate the city's continued investment in public safety, including our police department's air support unit, keeping our first responders equipped with the tools they need essential to protecting our beautiful community.

And when it comes to contracts, audits, branding, and environmental review, I believe residents want the same thing I do.

Transparency, accountability, and wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

We want a city, a city government that communicates clearly, plans carefully, and always puts Huntington Beach first.

As far as agenda item 22 goes, I'm glad you guys chose to go through the RFP process, making this right.

It makes us wonder what was going on in the people's heads who chose to not do that initially.

These are not just agenda items, they're reflections on the kind of city we want to be.

The city that's safe, strong, clean, and fiscally responsible and proud of its identity.

This is exactly why I'm running for city council in November of 2026.

I care deeply about this community.

The city, I believe Huntington Beach deserves leadership that listens, shows up, and follows through.

I've been here for almost 50 years.

I'm Roz Price, your Huntington Beach City Council candidate for 2026, showing up for public safety, clean neighborhoods, strong families, transparency, common sense, of course, and Huntington Beach, we can all be proud of.

And I also want to God bless every single one of you here and continue prayers for Butch Twining during his time of healing.

And I also want to extend my condolences to love's family, friends, and everybody that supported her.

We will miss you so much, love.

Our city surf city splash organizer, president of the CN dollars, which accorded Ms.

Hetty to Beach and the scholarship, will always remember you.

It will never forget you.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Kayleigh McHugh.

I moved here a decade ago.

And was enamored with the weather and how welcoming the people of the city can be.

However, the city has earned its current negative reputation due to this council's failure to meet the needs of its residents.

I and many of my generation are struggling with the rising cost of housing.

Your rejection of that truth and costly legal fights are costing me and everyone in this city twice as much as California citizens.

We are paying for both sides of these unnecessary legal fights.

For what?

You can easily fix this city's reputation by actively addressing the needs and cares of your city residents instead of wasting even more of my taxpayer money on a costly and phony social media contract.

As Ben said so truthfully earlier, you can't polish a turd.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening.

My name is Dave Pertell.

I'm a local resident, and I'm trying to find out why Overlook Park remains closed to vehicles and uh and the public.

Uh initially it was closed because of COVID.

They didn't want people congregating in the area.

And we've we're well past COVID now.

I've talked to people in the parks and recreation, and they don't know why the park's still closed.

They say they don't control.

What's which park, sir?

Overlook park.

Overlook.

Okay.

I I know most people don't know where it is.

Do you know where it is?

It's at uh Sea Point and Garfield.

Yes, sir.

And it has remained closed since COVID.

We're past COVID.

And I just wondering why is the park still closed.

There's no other park in the city that is still closed.

Any answers?

Yeah, fill out a blue blue card and we'll contact you and get you going.

Yeah, if you put out a blue card, we'll try to give.

All right, thanks.

Yeah, Sergeant in Arms right there.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Brother Stephen Gerard Sudlovsky, beloved Huntington Beach Mayor, City Council.

You're being provided uh an information sheet.

Uh and citizens, uh, I was delighted to be able to make the California March for Life.

So you're gonna get some of the wonderful pictures in front of you for that March for Life.

Uh, I would say well over 4,000 citizens attended a few Mondays Mondays ago at the state capitol.

And um I continue to amplify in my travels and now back here in Huntington Beach, the new possibility for USA pre-born personhood cities.

So on the back of that, of course, I continue to give all of you the resolution and support of a Huntington Beach, California declaration of a safe pre-born personhood city.

I love to hear the term public safety.

I've heard it several times.

Well, public safety, we have to learn to love God, and we have to love our neighbors ourselves.

And public safety means that the child peacefully developing in the mother's womb is also our neighbor and should be part of that public safety now.

We can now move in this new direction of passing this resolution for all of you, possibly by Mother's Day or Father's Day, because the US Supreme Court Dobbs decision did not just send this decision back to the state, it also sent it back to the counties and cities, especially with charters.

So this is just step one.

I looking forward to all of you pondering this, putting this on your agenda, and possibly passing even by Mother's Day or Father's Day.

I know we have National Day of Prayer coming up, what, the first Thursday of May?

I'm sure your city participates in that also.

So I'm just delighted that I'm here before all of you.

I have collected signatures from citizens all throughout the state of California, and I can tell you I have at least 20 more signatures from citizens from Huntington Beach, encouraging you to put this on your agenda, past this pre-born personhood resolution, because remember, the joy of the Spirit of God is love for his creation.

Thank you for your great love and all that you do.

God bless you all.

Thank you.

Go ahead, ma'am.

I do not know him.

Um, let's see here.

Um I'm here in strong.

This is my friend Steven Selevsky.

Um he would love to have a pro-life resolution um passed in your city.

Um I went to the um, so I'm in strong support of this.

I went to the March for Life in Sacramento this year.

Uh, the March for Life is fun and everything, but um, and to take a stand for the baby peacefully developing in the womb, but it's not gonna solve anything.

Walking around a city does not solve anything.

What we need is we need to show um God that we care, that we care about what his ten commandments say, we care about what his word says, that we acknowledge him as Lord of all, that we acknowledge that he is the creator of all things, and that he comes first, that there are no other idols or gods before him.

And we need to um absolutely we need the word of God, of course.

Everybody knows that the word of God is spirit, the word of God is God, um, and he created us to know him.

So um, we should decide to take a stand on his word and make a righteous decision for a pro-life resolution in the city, um, and to revere it uh the one true God.

Amen.

Um, so we're so that we uh continue to um we and unless we decide to take a stand on his word and make a righteous decisions that revere the one true God, we are going to continue to see little value placed on human life.

Amen.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Uh Kenan Durham, happy Easter week.

Um I wanted to open up with uh Casey.

I actually think what you're doing with the Minute with the Mayor videos is awesome.

Um I think it's really cool.

Um, aside from that, I am opposing agenda item 22.

Um, I'd like to echo the earlier bipartisan concerns about cronyism, lack of experience, and a lack of trustworthy business information.

Um, I myself worked as a buyer for a decade and reviewed a lot of vendor contracts, and I would agree with the earlier speaker that this specific contract that was on the website uh lacks the concrete information that I would generally expect in a contract of this type, especially when it comes to the cost of nearly three-quarters of a million of taxpayer dollars.

Yes.

This city has a PR problem, but we seem to have a misunderstanding of why we are struggling with tourism dollars and business contracts.

I constantly find myself meeting people who are afraid to come to this city, not just resistant, not uninterested, but afraid.

Not just resistant, not uninterested, but afraid.

Rejecting autism inclusion infrastructure efforts, opposing laws that intend to make council meetings more accessible to disabled folks and English as a second language folks, writing marginalized people out of our policy on human dignity, dissolving our Human Relations Commission, regularly targeting the LGBTQ community, aligning with ICE and with the Proud Boys, opposing affordable housing efforts during a cost of living crisis, leaning into racist dog whistles, becoming known as the porn city, thanks to Chad Williams, while attacking librarians, and repeatedly setting up a physical idol of Donald Trump on the dais, who just yesterday called for the genocide of Iranian people, many of whom have family here in Orange County.

Aside from the questionable business decision that it would be to dive into an untested sweetheart contract, I'd argue that this three quarters of a million dollars will be going down the drain until the actions and words of this council fundamentally change.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Uh Patricia Papas, happy to speak to you, the honorable group here, the mayor and council members, all of them, um, have lived here 46 years and have had the opportunity to see that we just don't have enough money.

We past council members, past councils, have not known how to run business, they haven't known how to bring money into our city, and that's become a problem for you.

And so I believe that we have the um the most hardworking mayor and city council members that I've seen in a long time in my 46 years.

Uh, when Mayor when uh Strickland, Vandermark, Burns, and McKeon joined the dais as our newest council members, they immediately took to reviewing the needs of the city, uh, both budget, infrastructure.

I was on the infrastructure committee, and we had to go around and do surveys and find out what the um what the residents needed, what they wanted.

We went on tours, we took meetings, we saw the degraded um bridges, etc.

The um at that time, about when we've lived here about 42 years, um, and I have to tell you a little story about my neighborhood.

I live up in the north, and the north did not get a lot of attention from the last previous council members.

And so when I did wait for this new four to come in, I can't contacted all of the um council members and asked for someone to come.

I said I need to my neighborhood.

I said I need a decision maker.

And um our trees, our streets, uh the the water, the just it was just really, really bad.

And so um Councilman McKeon at the time sent some decision makers, sent Chavu out, sent Denny Bacon out, and I have to tell you, four years later, and we had hardly any service in the first 42 years, okay?

But he sent the Chow Vu again and Denny Bacon and then Frank and then Greg with Trees and Trees, and they came out, it's just been they're in our neighborhood now, they've been in our neighborhood working and cleaning it up, and I just so appreciate you when we could never get any help.

So when you're looking at bringing more money into our uh neighborhoods and into our city, I totally respect that, and thank you for all that you do.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

The city council has repeatedly said that they will run the city like a business.

It's well past time that you stop simply talking the talk and start walking the walk.

One of the first principles of a well-run business is that you don't treat the symptoms, you treat the cause.

This is what makes the proposed contract with a PR firm a bad decision.

This city's reputation is in tatters, precisely because of the endless ill-advised lawsuits that this city council has brought to bolster their political standing, suits that offer no benefit to the citizens but cost us money and goodwill.

It was the repeated losses in these lawsuits that prompted the Orange County Register to rebrand the city, city of losers.

What good is it to hire a PR firm to try to monetize the city's brand when the city's brand is city of losers?

What business in their right mind would want to be associated with a city of losers?

No.

The correct response, if you're running the city like a well-run business, is to take action to restore the city's reputation.

Stop the posturing lawsuits and start running the city for the benefit of all its citizens.

Stop doing sweetheart deals behind closed doors and fighting their exposure.

Stop governing for the benefit of your supporters and friends, and instead for govern for the entire community.

When and if you have accomplished that would be the time to consider engaging a PR firm.

But having spent 40 years in business, contracting with private firms as well as all levels of government, from local to federal, the way that a PR firm should be selected is another principle of good business.

Unless the contract is for something only one firm can offer, such as a proprietary technology, which PR is not.

Competitive bidding is how the firm should be selected, especially in government when you are spending public money.

Typical is an RFP with at least three responding bids and a selection of the least cost compliant bid.

Failure to receive at least three compliant bids means that the RFP must either be rerun or a detailed cost benefit analysis must be performed to ensure that good value for money is being received.

The current proposal complies with none of these requirements, and as such should be rejected.

Good evening.

I'm glad item 22 has been pulled, and you'll be preparing an RFP.

But I urge you to take the time to write a thorough RFP that isn't tailored to fit your friend's proposal exactly.

Tyler Wolf purports to be a highly qualified brand manager, yet he can't even get his own website up and running to demonstrate his amazing skill.

Until this morning, the only thing that worked on the website was the phone number that went to a sex line.

Is that the kind of professionalism we can expect?

I wonder why he has the symbol of Russian social media on his website along with the Facebook and Twitter symbols.

His Instagram is private, which seems odd for someone that wants business.

And the only references that are provided are a couple of quotes from well-known entertainers and a bunch of well-known logos.

But there's no way to verify that these weren't just grabbed off the internet.

And none of these references are municipalities that have actual laws that govern what they can and can't do in contracting.

And I wonder who will actually implement all these ideas.

But the city's understaffed.

At the budget presentation, we learned that the city council is currently saving millions of dollars by not filling open positions.

That means staff is already stretched extremely thin and likely can't take on all these brilliant ideas.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor McKeon and City Council.

Thank you for pulling item number 22.

Uh, and not to beat a dead horse.

I would just want to point out some things that struck me as odd or uh really not getting the best product for the city in such a contract.

And in exhibit A, um, I felt that it was incomplete.

It does not identify city staff responsible for the implementation or contact for the contractor.

What are the contractors' estimated hours, hourly rates, contractor staffing, and will there be any uh expenses reimbursed to the contractor, including travel from the contractor's address in Sheridan, Wyoming.

The council should not approve that contract until some of this information is made available.

Although mentioned in the contractor's audit, the contract makes no mention of visit Huntingdon Beach, which owns the registered Surf City USA trademark.

City legal staff should review item 14 to include trademark and intellectual property in order to determine how the city moves forward, given VHB's ownership of that mark.

While Mayor McKeon and the council have made recent efforts to highlight local heroes, acts of patriotism, businesses and community events.

No marketing contract fixes a governance prophet.

The consultants' own audit found that 75% to 80% of a hundred sampled media stories about Huntington Beach were negative or political.

The underlying causes are all well known.

A branding strategy is only as strong as the governance it represents.

I love the city, and I want to die here.

Uh, and I hope to live for many years with a welcoming and inclusive environment.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Bethany Webb, long time Huntington Beach resident, homeowner, still anti-fascist.

Been a while since I've been here, and what I found out right away is grifters gonna grift.

The idea that, oh, I do want to back up for a second to the very beginning of the meeting, where once again the chaplain excluded many of us that do not consider ourselves Christian.

And then we had Chad give us a little sermon from what is supposed to be a again uh speech that represents all of us, and there still is a separation of church and state.

I do have a question kind of aimed at you, Chad, when you bring up Easter, since you're all MAGA self, you know, self um identified MAGA.

What do you think of your dear leader's post on his truth on Easter?

You like when he says he's gonna fucking annihilate people?

That's what the president's language is.

Talking about committing genocide on Easter.

A real religious leader, the Pope, has condemned him in every way possible.

To get back to this, the newest script that that Casey has brought to us.

Instead of spending 720,000 dollars of our taxpayer money to find out what the problem with our reputation is.

Go to Lowe's, buy some mirrors, and look into them.

Your constant culture wars, divisions of our city, our beautiful, wonderful city, is what is causing the damage.

Stay a save us all a bunch of money and start acting like you care about all of us.

Mr.

Grohl said he was coming here to care about all of us, and then called the half of us barnyard animals.

It's time that you stop this.

And by the way, I bought a lot of uh Olympic tickets this weekend, and I couldn't help think, boy, it sure would have been nice if Huntington Beach had a venue in the Olympics when everybody knows people connected with the Olympics have been out front.

We lost the Olympics because of your culture wars, because people don't feel safe coming here.

And yes, you don't care if there are people of color or LGBTQ people that don't feel comfortable here.

You don't care if Canadians don't want to come here.

All you care about is your riverside 909ers who feel right at home with racist ambigots, but the rest of us would like people from all over to feel welcome in our beautiful city.

Next speaker, please.

Wendy Rencon, 52 year resident.

It seems that agenda item 22 is pulled because once again, you were caught with shady cronyism, much like the code for settlement.

I'm not sure why you're rushing with desperation to do a PR study now.

730,000, give or take, to survey why our reputation is in tatters.

I'll do it for free during my speaking time.

Let's start with former Pat Mayor, former mayor Pat Mayor, uh Pat Burns, excuse me, calling my daughter and I quote, sorry, a fucking cow on a hot mic.

Or Pat Burns displaying a bust of a war crimes Trump.

Cutting off speakers like me when you do not agree with them, leading to the ACLU sending you a seasoned assist letter on my behalf.

It could be the treatment of our librarians over the past several years, leading to one librarian tearfully quitting while standing at this podium to cheers from many in the audience while many of you smugly looked on, accusing librarians and community members of indoctrinating children, grooming them by allowing for access to age-appropriate books.

I know one thing, not one of our librarians is on the Epstein list.

Or it could be the numerous lawsuits that we keep losing, not against uh only against our state in California, but also against community members.

It could be the anti-LGBT attitudes of this council and city, or it could be Chad porn Williams, proselytizing from his city council seat.

Sir, this is a government building and a government meeting.

I did not come to your church sermon.

If I wanted to do that, I could have gone to your church on Sunday.

How dare you force your religious magical thinking on us?

I came to a city meeting to talk to the city council members.

If I wanted a Christian pastor, I know where to find one, and you wouldn't be it.

Here's the real money maker that could really solve our problems.

How about we tax the damn churches?

Thanks, Chad.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, City Council.

The police the police department has implemented a policy where emails from the tenants and higher ranks auto-delete in just 15 days whenever they choose.

Auto-delete their emails.

Okay, I mean, so that way you can't use it as evidence.

Okay, if they uh and they admit this, okay.

I mean, this is insane.

It's kind of like the the mission impossible where it says, you know, this tape will self-destruct, so there's no evidence at all for anything.

So they can lie, they can do anything.

Okay, and they admit this, okay.

I the perfect environment for making statements to the public or co or council that could never be verified, a built-in shield that enables lying with uh without any paper trail or accountability.

This is not transparent government when a department controlling nearly one quarter of our city budget can make its own records disappear so quickly.

I mean, okay, residents lose the ability to trust what they're being told about policy, budgets, and public safety.

I asked about a body war camera, and they said that doesn't apply to the the uh uh to the public records act because it's a very narrow thing, but but body camps don't you have to still subpoena those.

I mean, things like that when they they can auto-delete anything that they lie about within 15 days, and in fact, even if you take it and then you you put it in a file, it explodes.

And I mean it doesn't and it's gone.

I mean, this is insane that we have, I mean, they have that power.

Uh uh and Chief Eric Perry, I want to apologize for last the last time that he wasn't here and he had mini me instead sitting in his uh position because he was his mom was or his uh his mother-in-law was sick.

I apologize for that.

But the rest of the times that you weren't here, naughty naughty, especially okay.

Then okay, we must okay, we must immediately stop this 15-day uh uh email deletion policy and enforce proper retention uh standards under the California Public Records Act.

Okay, and remember Eric Perra, okay, during his time interim city manager while still serving as police chief, and that was it, and that goes against his his contract as the chief of police.

He wasn't allowed to do anything else except that he still he still got paid double, okay, as the interim city manager and the chief of police.

Okay, Eric Perry personally, he was the one who personally placed the library's outsourcing item on the agenda and spearheaded the entire effort of privatizing the libraries, okay, in March of 2024.

Okay, he initiated the push to solicit bids for private contractors to take over our public libraries, which costs about seven or it's our budget is seven million dollars a year.

He promoted that it was a way to maybe save around a million dollars.

Okay, or it could be a lot higher.

Okay, savings that we were never guaranteed, and it could easily end up costing the city more while disrupting the services and harming all the librarians' pensions and benefits.

Thanks, Roger.

All right.

Moving on to council committee appointment announcements.

Council members, do you do you have any council committee appointment announcements?

None.

AB123 reporting.

Does anyone have anything to report?

All right.

Openness and negotiation disclosures.

Does anyone have anything to disclose?

All right.

City manager's report.

City manager, do you have anything to report?

Nothing tonight, Mirror.

All right, consent calendars items 16 through 21.

Would anyone like to pull an item?

I'm gonna pull uh 19.

19.

anybody else?

All right.

I'll make a motion to move the balance.

All right, motion and a second.

Voting on items 16, 17, 18, 19, pulled by Gruell 20 and 21.

Correct.

Councilman Gruell.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

All right.

Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Items pass 502.

Councilman Gruhl, item 19.

Yeah, I do I pulled item 19, not because I have an issue with it, but I just kind of want to explain it to the public because you see 700,000 and there's kind of a sticker shock there.

But this is actually uh an interesting interestingly something that I learned through this process.

This is really part of the more grander wholesale streamlining HB approach.

So the 700,000 is not an actual allocation of funds.

It's the built bringing in contractors and experts that are specifically within this field of understanding CEWA and then ultimately any ERIs that are connected to development projects in the city.

So when somebody comes and they won have a project in the city and ultimately it gets approved, then if there's some sort of an environmental analysis that's required and obviously SEQA work, then um they pay for that, however, the city conducts and you know provides those services, and then we get the money back.

So this isn't $700,000 that's allocated and then goes away.

The amount of time that it takes in many cases after speaking with um city city members and those that work within the city and the team members is that the amount of time that it takes in many cases in order to bring on some of these companies can be upwards of three to four months.

So by having these on call contractors ready and in the pipeline, we're actually saving three to four months.

Time is money as we know, and that's a small piece of streamlining this process and procedure.

So I just wanted to kind of call that out.

I think that that's a real interesting interesting piece that I learned as a new council member, and I also for people who are looking at the sticker shock of $700,000.

Want them to understand that's not money that we're allocating specifically right now for our projects, it's just the contract element and ultimately a lot of that.

Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jennifer, but that is paid back to the city in many cases through the developer or other projects, right?

Yes, any time we use one of these contractors for a development application, we also do a reimbursement agreement with the developer who deposits money to the city and we pay the invoices to the consultant using that money.

Thank you so much.

Because the city is required to undergo the the um EIR or any of the CQA elements, correct?

Yes, any development application or entitlement application that's submitted to the city is subject to CEQA.

Thank you.

Jennifer, just real quick, too.

These are some smaller firms as well, right?

That kind of open up the the bidding pool for other firms that were necessary the larger firms that we kind of had on the roster, correct?

Yes, we have an um a variety of firms.

Right.

But I know that was a a desire from some uh smaller firms, so I'm glad that we're able to kind of open up the roster to bring in some other environmental groups.

Yes, thank you.

So that's it.

I'm ready to move the item, and I just wanted to make note of that.

Second.

All right, motion and a second.

Councilman Gruel?

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

All right, Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Item post item passes 502.

All right.

22 is pulled, 23, Councilmember Items.

Well, I mean, we we discussed this when we read it through the closed session, so I don't know how much more detail we need to go into on you guys.

It's your guys' item.

You want to just read out what's on the uh on the memo?

I could read it.

Yeah, go for it.

Okay.

So on the memo here, it says authorize legal counsel to compensate settlement discussions with council for the state auditor regarding the grant parks case.

The goal would be to arrive at a settlement of the lawsuit, thereby ending further legal fees and related matters.

Any settlement agreement would be submitted at a future council meeting for review and approval.

And so this is just a great opportunity for uh transparency and reconciliation.

And so I move the item.

Second councilman Gruell?

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns?

Hi.