With the check-ins and savings, uh, credit cards and personal loans.

Um, the difference.

Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please?

Councilman Groel.

Here.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twine.

Here for a while.

Yeah.

Mayor McKeon.

Here.

Councilman Burns.

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Here.

Councilman Williams.

Here.

All present.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

We have no supplemental communications for this portion of the meeting.

Do we have anyone signed up to speak on closed session items?

We do not.

So included in closed session is conference with labor negotiators, government code section five four nine five seven point six.

Council do have a motion and a second to recess the closed session.

There's a name written on my door, and it's fine with the if you really want it and more.

Security so you see you can nail your children.

Good evening, everyone.

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

Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please?

Councilman Grohl?

Here.

Councilman Kennedy.

Here.

Mayor Potem Twine.

Here.

Mayor McKeon.

Here.

Councilman Burns.

Present.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Here.

Councilman Williams.

Here.

All present.

Thank you.

Uh tonight's invocation will be given by Heinsey Beach Police Chaplain, Mr.

James Pike.

Not just for the sake of our own the community good.

We pray also for those who have been elected to our city council for their leadership.

We pray for their discernment.

We pray for deliberation in this time of division or alternate opinions.

And we pray that our entire city might be governed with wisdom and justice for the sake of this beautiful place that you've put us.

We thank you for those appointed to commissions.

We thank you for those serving on city staff.

We thank you for those who serve as first responders in our city, and we ask for your blessing in your holy name.

Amen.

Thank you, James.

Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by David Bigel of American Legion Post 133.

David served as captain in the United States Air Force from 1984 to 1992.

Bigel earned his navigator wings at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento and was an electronic warfare officer on the B-52.

He sat on alert duty at Griffith Air Force Base in Rome, New York for two years before returning to Mather as an instructor.

Face the flag and say with me.

Nothing tonight, Mayor.

Thanks.

Councilmember comments.

Does any council members have would like to make a comment?

I do.

Mr.

Burns.

And then Special Olympics had a gala.

Congratulations to Big Joe for uh athlete of the year in that.

And I just want to say that a lot of been getting a lot of emails about our uh recklessness with our financials and things.

And I just want to remind people when we came in, we had an adopted 2223 budget with a deficit of 41,634, 329.

And we have not had that deficit.

We have not experienced the deficit.

We've been able to manage to be right on it and uh balance the budget every year.

And it's only getting harder.

They are not making it easier for us with all the mandates and things are requiring or taking away.

Uh Sacramento are I consider them evil in the sense that they try to take away local control, and uh, but we're working our butts off, and it's in the best interest of this city.

So when people question it, I invite you to look back and see what we're coming in with and what we're working with.

And that goes with some of the you know mandated increases in fees, and it's not like we want to raise fees.

We live here too, and so we're doing our best, and it's for the people, which we are part of.

So please understand we're doing our best council McKennedy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to point a couple things out.

Um, you know, we do read all the emails, and I just wanted to show the commitment that this council has had towards the council uh the uh the CIP, the uh improvement construction improvement projects.

So I took a tenure snapshot on the adopted budget, and I grouped them into three years succinctly in a row, took out the uh the year of 2022, 2023 was inaberation, it was 59 million dollars.

Uh we got a lot of COVID money.

So the first three years, 16, 17, and 18, the capital improvement project budget was 73 million, rounded up 74 million dollars.

The following three years, 19 or 20, 21, actually 1920, 2021, 21, 22, those three years equated to 110 million, the budgets allocated towards uh the CIP.

Then in the years 23, 24, 24, 25, and 25, 26, the years that these council members, my councilmates, including myself, butch, and Chad have been up here.

We've allocated 140 million towards capital improvement projects, more than any other three-year term.

And in the last two years since the HP3 came on board, we've combined to uh allocate with our councilmates almost a hundred million dollars in CIP budget, so far outpacing any other three-year segment.

So that's a lot of potholes being filled.

So when you think we're not investing on our city, as they say the numbers don't lie, so you can check it out.

This is right off the adopted budget.

So the point is the numbers don't lie.

The falsehoods uh run rampant, but they're just not factual.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doc.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Um, I'd like to remind everyone that this Saturday we are hosting our pet adoption expo.

Um, we will be waiving all adoption fees for dogs and cats that will be brought in.

The county's working on waiving the uh dog fees.

We are working on waiving the cat fees.

We want to get all these um pets their forever homes.

Um we will have affordable cost services available like vaccinations, fecal exams, dewarming.

Well, wellness exam cheaping nail trimming.

Um no appointment necessary, and I'd like to thank Orange County Supervisor Janet Wend for working with Orange County Animal Control and the city to put this event together.

So that will be Saturday, April 25th from 1 p.m.

to 4 p.m.

at Central Park West.

Perfect.

Councilmember Grule.

So being a council member, one of the things that is great is that we get to work with so many good team members within the city.

We've got so many people working on so many different projects.

Many of those projects are they fall in the category perhaps of the mundane or the monotony of what it takes to keep a city moving on a go forward basis, but we hear about them and they're all absolutely wonderful.

So I wanted to use this moment.

I had brought up more recently a question uh in regards to the Olympics because it's been a discussion point um amongst the community.

What are we doing?

What do we have going on?

But most importantly, what are we doing um in regards to trying to draw people in and then ultimately generate revenue through the Olympics?

So I just wanted to kind of toss this one over to uh Chavis Travis, our city manager, because he actually has been doing a lot with other team members in order to generate that buzz in business.

Yes, we are um continuing to work and look at opportunities for the city, um, including the we're working with the Orange County um sports uh commission.

Yes, and they're and they are being and they're helping us organize with LA 2028 for opportunities coming forward, whether it's being associated with LA 2028 and doing uh those events on the beach or as um being our own events and looking for those opportunities.

So we are meeting with them and looking for those that coming forward.

Um finishing up the Olympics, we're hearing we're gonna hear more information near the end of the year on bringing those forward, and we'll be reaching out to our city partners on opportunities and advanced.

And then just so everyone understands how the mechanics of it worked with the city.

There was an H item, gosh, it was probably eight months ago where you set up the committee to be able to streamline a lot of the processes by which we can activate some of those events.

So as Travis brings that information forward, we'll show you how that dovetails into the new process, and then we'll continually update everybody so they know what's going to be coming when it comes to the Olympics because the blink of an eye it'll be here.

All right.

Chad are you good?

All right.

Um exciting news.

We'll talk about this uh uh later, but we received uh $500,000 from the county thanks to Supervisor Noen to help with our navigation center costs.

Um so just another good example of creative solution to bring in revenue to help offset the burden to the taxpayers.

So we'll talk about that later.

That's but that just is breaking news, so that's big.

Just want to thank again the community for giving me the opportunity to be your mayor uh this year.

It comes with a lot of fun activities.

So uh this past weekend on Sunday, I was invited by the C uh Seaview Little League to throw out their first pitch at their annual hidathon, and thankfully I uh piped it over the right corner of the plate knee high.

So I was excited about that.

It was on video, so I was a little nervous, obviously.

As Pat touched on it, I want to thank the yacht club for inviting me to their 61st annual opening day at the yacht club event, which is awesome.

So 1965, pretty cool when it first started.

And then lastly, I want to thank our Sister City Association and our sister city Anjo Japan for inviting me on Sunday to their annual cherry tree planting ceremony.

Uh we planted six new cherry trees this year at Central Park to symbolize our continued friendship and shared culture and student exchange programs that we've had with Anju Japan since 1982.

So pretty awesome.

Thank you.

So thank you, everybody.

And then uh point of order, council members, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to move item 17 up, which is the uh safe insane fireworks lottery up just after uh item 13, if everyone's okay with that.

Okay, city clerk.

So we'll do that.

Uh mayor, I also have a point of order if you would indulge to move the new item that councilman Groel and myself have uh put forward um ahead of uh I guess it would be um the H item that you guys had put out, which would be item number uh 27.

I think it just logically would flow that way more naturally.

So you're talking about the H item at the end?

Correct.

I'm fine with the way it is, but I'll you know defer to others.

Doesn't matter to me.

Okay.

I think it came in sequentially posted on the agenda, but I guess we can talk about that when it comes to it.

Is that okay?

Can we take a vote on that?

Input I mean, I'm good with it because we're discussing the item, so ultimately it would be relevant to have it ahead of any other subsequent discussion.

I'd I'd like to leave it as is because at that point I'm gonna give my input on why I think it's necessary.

Okay, and then have that discussion.

Thank you.

I don't care one way or the other.

I you know, I've been gone for as most of you know for the last three weeks, so I'm not totally up to do date on this thing.

So I like the way it's the way it is, but it to me makes no difference.

I concur with uh council member Kennedy that to leave it the way it is.

If I if I could just make a point, maybe this wasn't clear.

So logically, the flow I think would flow more naturally.

I I know that sequentially our item came in after uh your item number 27 there, but let us suppose uh that our item prevails and there is a termination of uh the RFP moving forward, then it doesn't make any sense to have a discussion about an ad hoc committee that would meet about an RFP.

I guess in that scenario, if that were to happen that it would unwind the previous item, right?

So I think it's okay the way it is.

But it's again that's not up to me.

Councilmember Vandermark.

I don't care if you guys want to move it, leave it.

It doesn't matter.

I mean, either way, we're gonna discuss both of them.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Sounds like consensus to leave it, unless you guys want to put it to a vote.

Okay.

Sounds like a safe.

Okay.

All right.

So moving on to awards, uh presentation, section thirteen or agenda item thirteen.

So tonight we have a special presentation for those who assist us in caring for our public safety employees.

The orthopedic fast track program was designed to provide a professional sports team level of care for public safety employees.

And injuries to public safety members, as I'm sure everyone can imagine, are unfortunately part of the job, and these injuries occur based on the physical demands of the job and are overwhelmingly orthopedic in nature.

And so this program's primary goals are to one expedite care by removal of administrative barriers akin to our streamline program, provide a list of approved doctors with pre-approved treatment options, reduce and control costs, and then improve the injured workers and their families' experience.

In 2023, prior to the fast track program being implemented, the police department spent $2.3 million in injured on-duty hours and back term backfill overtime related injuries.

And after full implementation in 2025, and the police department assuming the responsibility of the program internally, the department only spent one point one million dollars in injured on duty hours and backfill overtime related to injuries.

So that program saved the taxpayers one point two million dollars.

And this program has uh provided exceptional care with some of the best doctors and surgeons in the area participating.

And the speed of care was has resulted in better outcomes for the injured worker, their family, and the taxpayer.

This innovative program is cutting edge with other police agencies actively working to implement our program in their departments.

And we will continue to innovate and are currently working with O2X, which is a human performance specialist, and a potentially more efficient management system, centralized in working and compensation utilization review, bill pay under the third party administrator.

So we would like to thank their our key participants who are here today for their willingness willingness to build this program with us.

So today today we have uh Dr.

Edwards, Dr.

Grabo, Dr.

Smith, Dr.

Aryanjam, Dr.

Coleman, Dr.

Binder, Dr.

Mir, John Frone, Esquire.

Calm down.

Hey guys, take a photo?

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

It is.

And I was just informed by one of the doctors that the city of Anaheim just implemented this same program.

So the biggest city in Orange County.

Great job.

All right.

Everyone's favorite part of City Council, the adoptable pet of the month.

So tonight we welcome back Jonathan Volski from OC Animal Care that has two special dogs tonight, Zion and Gucci.

This is Gucci here.

No, not the last two.

So we're going to be able to do that.

Hey buddy.

He's smart.

He knows his name.

Zion.

As soon as I said his name, he looked up.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, he's large.

Beautiful.

What's his what do they call that?

Yeah.

What about Gucci?

What do we got over there?

Gucci?

Last two did not get adopted, but the records.

Jonathan, uh, sorry, we're having a technical difficulty, so could you come in this microphone?

Sure.

Tell us about uh Zion and Gucci, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

Thank you very much, Mayor, and thank everybody in Huntington Beach.

We're happy to be here tonight.

I have our operations manager Jamie Link with us, and she's got Zion.

And I have the puppy, about 18 months old.

This is Gucci.

And they've only been with us for about a month.

They're both great dogs.

Uh they walk pretty well on a leash as well as a puppy does, uh, but love treats and are looking for their great homes.

So we just want to say thank you again to Huntington Beach, Mayor, you and the council in the city for the partnership, not only allowing us to come here, but also, as the council member mentioned, Saturday's event from one to four at the uh at the park.

It's events like this that help us get these dogs great homes.

And if I may, we have one more program I want to share.

We just launched something called Dog Stay Out.

So if you like a dog and want to spend an afternoon or a morning with a dog, uh you can sign up on our website, OC PetInfo.com, dog stay out, and you can take, and actually Zion and Gucci are in the program.

You can take a dog out uh Thursday morning, Friday morning, Saturday, Sunday morning for between eight and eleven, and just go to a park, go anywhere that's business friendly and spend some time with a pet.

So we've just launched that program, and we hope that you all take advantage.

And hopefully you find your forever pet and they find their forever home.

So thank you, sir.

You're welcome.

And then if uh people want to go adopt these fine animals, where do they go?

So you can come, we're open seven days a week from 11 to 5 for adoptions at our campus.

It's uh 1630 Victory Road in Tuston.

You can make an appointment in advance.

You can go on to our website, OC Petinfo.com and look at all the animals for adoptions, dogs and cats.

You can actually make a appointment to come see them, or you can just walk in and we'll set you up where you spend some time with a dog, and you can actually go home with a dog that day.

And we're running a special right now that dogs over 25 pounds and over six months old.

We're waiving all the adoption fees for that.

So we hope you come and find your perfect partner.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

We appreciate it very much.

Excuse me, sir.

Uh mayor, sir.

Do you guys have a did you give us a website?

Did I miss it?

And can you donate on the website?

Just cash to help out.

We we do have a donation link on the website.

We actually take those donations through our nonprofit partner, but you can get information there on how to do that.

Our website is OC Pet Info.com.

Are there pictures of all the uh animals?

Every animal we have for adoption, we have a picture, a little write-up about them and their characteristics, and then a video of them also.

Can you say that website adjustment once more?

Thank you, sir.

OC PetInfo.com.

Okay.

And last time I asked you, but make it clear to everybody, you you still take bedding sheets and blankets, things like that.

Yes, we appreciate those donations of soft goods, and we use them with our animals, and you can just drop those off at uh at our shelter at 1630 Victory Road in Tuston.

And do you take pet food too sealed bags of pet food or no?

You do?

Yes, we do, and pet food's very important, not only for our pets, but on the second Saturday of each month, we have a pet food pantry.

So people who need a little help can drive through and get food for their animals.

So donated food for that is very helpful and comes right back into the community.

Fantastic.

Thank you for everything you're doing with these beautiful animals.

Thank you.

Thanks for those great questions.

Ryan, come up.

As you all know, uh Ryan Russin is uh sugar the surfing dogs owner.

And we declared uh December 5th.

Step on up.

Sugar the Surfing Dog Day.

Forevermore and Heights and Beach, and tonight we're gonna codify that.

Um unfortunately Sugar passed away a few weeks ago, shortly after that evening.

Um obviously been very challenging, as you can imagine for Ryan.

Um he's got a new edition of the family, but but I know uh Mayor Pro Tem Twenty wanted to give him a special special treat.

Sugar is sweet.

So Brian.

So Ryan, the the the new pup is named Sweet, right?

Yes, sweet.

So the the question is has sweep in on the uh surfboard yet?

In the jacuzzi only, he says, but she's in training.

Yeah, she's at the VA hospital yesterday.

Ryan does a lot of great work with uh for therapy to the c with veterans and takes his his dogs, his three dogs in uh to give therapy to the veterans, so it's awesome.

We uh uh up here we commissioned uh our own militia murals to memorialize uh Ryan and Sugar.

Uh especially for the uh the the new sugar syrup.

Hello.

Okay, anyway.

And so we commissioned this is just a small uh uh a sample of what the big pictures going to look like that we are going to share here at City Hall for a few weeks, and then after the opening of the International Surf Museum, we're gonna be taking the painting down to the International Surf Museum so that it is it is displayed forever and everything.

This is not really terrible.

She's an amazing artist, and uh uh just love the city just embracing me like this and skin sugar, and she's only been gone for three weeks.

She's only been gone for uh three weeks now, and uh just through the through the um sugar passed away and through all the messages there is this pup came along, and there's a litter.

She caught her, she was born on the day of sugar car last wave on March 7th, and it was just uh I can't believe just how it happened, and I now I don't have to be like I could have ended up uh just basically this dog's really cool and uh and her name is Sweet, so uh you'll see her even if just should just come and get kisses.

She might not surf like sugar, but at least she'll all you know.

Yeah, she's been in Jacuzzi a couple times and she's pretty pretty good.

But uh I just want to say thank you to all you guys while you guys have just been so lovingly and sugar.

I don't have honestly don't have mom or dad, but I just feel like the city has just been the past like at least like four or five years.

You guys have just been like embracing me, and I'm I'm I'm totally grateful for you guys.

Thank you.

Sugar is limited.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's definitely a two second.

Yeah, just be careful.

Who's who's gonna start the food?

Me.

And everybody direct their attention to the screen on the wall there.

Yeah, okay.

She's gonna be so big one day and then we go to do this.

All right, one, two, three, four.

Woo.

Oh my gosh.

Good job.

All right.

That was awesome.

Actually, right, but I have a bigger painting.

It's gonna be made, and then we're gonna put up in the surf museum.

So just a small sample.

All right.

Um, let's see.

Now the lottery, Madam Clerk.

Yeah.

Yeah, fireworks lottery now.

Okay, you want to introduce your report?

Yes, there's a PowerPoint.

Okay.

No problem.

Uh yeah, just wait till I'll call you up momentarily.

All right.

Welcome to the twenty twenty-six fireworks stand lottery.

So what is happening is done by resolution number twenty twenty-four-zero eight, a resolution of the city council of the city of Huntington Beach, revising and restating resolution number twenty sixteen-zero one related to implementing charter section eight oh five municipal code charter five point nine zero regarding safe and sane fireworks.

This year's public high school winners are Edison High School, winners Edison High School Field Hockey Booster Club, Edison High School Men's Basketball Club, and the alternates are Boys Volleyball Booster Club, Charger Aquatics Booster Club, and Girls Flag Football Booster Club.

And I should say before we move on that the way that the high schools are chosen is they each high school is allotted one lottery, a booth, and they internally raffle it off between their booster clubs and sports.

The winners are Huntington Beach Volleyball Boosters Association, Huntington Beach High School Cheer and Dance Boosters, and the alternates are Huntington Beach High School Boys Soccer Booster and Huntington Beach High School Band Boosters.

The winners there are Marina High School Surf Team Boosters.

And for our private high school, Liberty Christian High School, and that's an all-team booth that they have there.

For our civic organizations, we had 19 applications that were received and approved for tonight's lottery.

We will be driving drawing five winners and up to three alternates will be drawn for each organiz uh for each category.

We are sport, we are one sports academy, Huntington Beach, Elk's Lodge, 1959, Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach, Orange County Children's Theater, Huntington Beach, Huntington State Beach Junior Life Guard Association, Monarch Preschool, and Robins Nest.

For our youth sports, ten applications were received and approved for tonight's lottery.

And again, we will select five winners and three alternates.

And from Youth Sports, we had HB Chargers, Youth Football and Cheer, Huntington Beach, or Huntington Valley Youth Football and Cheer, Team 90, DBA, California Rush, Culture Football Organization, Rise OC Volleyball, NHB Football Club, Huntington Valley Little League, Cypress Football Club, doing business as FC Premier, Vanguard Aquatics, Sea View Little League.

And to help us this evening is Miss Huntington Beach, Gabrielle Sammy.

I want to wish all of the lottery participants good luck.

And once you are selected, information will be provided to you, and you will be contacted from the fire department for further instructions.

So Mayor, if you could come up, and we will walk you through this.

Okay.

Miss Huntington Beach will be spinning the lottery and you will be reading the winners.

So you guys go on.

Check.

All right, Miss Huntington Beach.

Let it rip.

Number ten.

See you little league.

I swear I had nothing to do with it, even though I threw out the first pitch on Sunday.

It's on camera.

All right, number five.

We have NHB Football Club Inc.

No, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Rise OC volleyball.

Apologies.

He owned it for a minute.

Yeah.

Number one, HB Chargers Youth Football and Cheer.

Number two, Huntington Valley Youth Football and Cheer.

Number five is number three, which is Team 90 Inc.

DBA California Rush.

So we have five.

Okay, so we have five.

The three alternates.

Miss Huntington Beach, take it away.

Oh, come on.

There you go, does all right.

Number, is that a nine or a six?

Nine.

Vanguard aquatics.

All right, number six.

Said it before, NHB Football Club, Inc.

I got bailed out on that one.

There you go.

Number seven.

Huntington Valley Little League.

All right.

Congrats to the winners.

Five.

Alternates for nine.

You got that?

All right.

It's a lot of tension in here.

All right, the next category is civic organizations.

Okay.

Yeah, we'll do five and then.

Eighteen.

That is Monarch Preschool Inc.

11.

Beach City Classics.

Number five.

Therapeutic writing center of HB.

All right.

Number 12.

Orange Coast.

Gecko in Inc.

Okay.

Sorry.

Good enough.

Goku in.

There you go.

Three.

Three.

American Legion HB Post 133.

That a boy.

Three, 11, 18, 12, and 5.

Okay.

Number two is the Knights of Columbus Council 6020.

Yes, in the audience.

Fifteen.

Which is Compass Bible Church of HB.

Six.

First Samoan Congressional Congregational Christian.

All right.

Congrats.

All right.

Is that it?

Okay.

Thank you.

Is that the all the cutter?

That's it.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Miss Huntington Beach.

Just give me a share as well.

That's a fix.

I just sent you a sort of information.

Yeah.

Congrats to all the winners.

I know that's a big deal.

So good luck on all the sales.

Alright.

Next to the business highlight presentation.

So as a reminder, um, sorry, for tonight's uh business highlight, we have a few quick updates for our business community before we spotlight two great local businesses.

So as a reminder, applications are now open for the Surf City Small Business Digital Grant Program.

Uh this program, we touched on it about a month ago.

We'll award a thousand dollar grant to five uh 15 local businesses along with experts uh advising on uh hands-on digital marketing marketing and training.

So if you're a brick and mortar business with two to twenty-five employees looking to strengthen your online presence, we encourage you to apply.

Applications close April 26th, so visit HBbiz.com to learn more.

HBBIZ.com to learn more.

Last week we had a really good uh AM Connect at the chamber, and I want to thank the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce for hosting a recent AM Connect session listening session and the discussion focused on the city's entitlement uh processes, and we received valuable feedback from our business community, and we appreciate the chamber's partnership as we continue uh working to create more business friendly uh procedures and processes uh through our streamline program.

So it was a very lively discussion, a lot of great takeaways and some good ideas were kicked around.

Um now for the business spotlight.

So tonight we're uh highlighting two outstanding local businesses through our Minute with the Mayor series.

So first is Stoney's Pizza, and Stoney's Pizza is located at Warner and PCH.

They've brought a true New York style slice to Huntington Beach and have built a strong family-run business.

So we want to thank Jennifer and Brent Stebbins and their family for their investment in our community and their contribution to our local dining scene.

And then second will be the Huntington Academy of Dance, and so our second spotlight is the Huntington Academy of Dance, a longtime part of our community that continues to inspire young performers.

And for 50 years, they have trained dancers of all ages from toddlers to adults in ballet, jazz, hip hop, and musical theater.

And they'll be uh performing the Little Mermaid at Central Library on April 25th and 26th.

So please be sure to check that out.

And uh they asked me when I did that Minute with the Mayor series, which you'll see after this one, to become the official nutcracker of Huntington Beach.

So I said it's not up to me, it's up to the people.

So after that video, you guys are gonna see a little special preview with them tonight.

So let's play this Stonies video.

What's up, HP?

This episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us to Stony's Pizza at the corner of Warner and PCH.

Let's go meet the amazing family behind this business.

Right, guys.

Yeah, Brett, tell us about Stoney's Pizza.

So we are a New York style pizzeria.

We try to bring I'm from New York and I try to bring that flavor to Huntington Beach.

And uh we have strombolies, calozones, a bunch of different things that you would find in New York with that New York flavor.

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

Huntington Beach has always kind of supported small mom and pop businesses.

And for us, we saw a city that supports that, and that's what we want to be a part of.

I know I'm not.

I know you guys give a lot to the community, so can you kind of walk us through everything you guys are doing to help out?

Um we donate to the fire department, the police department all the time.

Um we also, when they had the Bosa Chica fires right over here by us, we saw the firemen.

They were all it was super hot that day, they were all struggling, so we made as many peaches as we could and just walked over to right here to the fire station and made sure that they were fed, make sure that they had refreshments to be able to continue to save our wetlands.

So if people can dine in or get delivery, where should they go?

We're a very small hole in the wall type of place.

But if you go to New York, those are always the best ones, right?

It's always a little tiny hole in the wall.

Uh no glitz, no glam.

We just do good food, good service, and you can always just find us on social media or stony's pizza menu.com.

That's another local gem in Huntington Beach.

So remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next stop.

Woo.

What's up, HP?

All right, now the Huntington Academy of Dance.

What's up, HB?

This episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us to the Huntington Academy of Dance at Edinger and Edwards.

Let's go dance with the owner, Kimberly.

Kimberly, tell me about Huntington Academy of Dance.

Well, Huntington Academy of Dance has been a part of the community for 45 years.

I took over the studio when my mentor retired.

And when I took over the studio, it really felt like a homecoming because this is where I grew up and where I learned to dance, and now I get to be a part of the Huntington Beach community that helped foster my love of dance.

And then what sets you apart from other dance studios, would you say?

Our studio is more than just a place to learn to dance.

It becomes a home for our dancers.

We spend a lot of time together building friendships, creating lifelong memories, and the dancers grow and learn confidence and become these incredible young people surrounded by a community that loves and supports them.

What do you guys love about serving you know, Surf City and the community?

Well, Surf City is an awesome place to raise a family, and we love being part of the local families and the local communities.

If someone wants to take a class, where do they sign up?

So you can go to our website or you can you can take a class here at our studio, and we also offer classes in partnership with the community services department at the three local community centers, Edison Birdie, and City Gym.

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

Just remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving.

See you at the next time.

Yes, Bush, that was a plea.

That was my attempt at a plie.

Position one is Councilman Burns said, All right, like as I mentioned, the nutcrackers want to be declared the official nutcracker of Huntington Beach, so they want to come out and give us a uh a special performance.

So please welcome join me in welcoming the ballerinas.

So what does everyone think?

Should we name him the official knot cracker of Huntington Beach?

All right.

It's official.

Thank you.

We gotta take a photo of that, everybody.

Come on.

If you can't see me, I can't see you.

So I think you could do it.

Okay.

Everybody looking right here.

Everybody saying nutcracker.

Our nutcracker performance will be the first two weekends of December at the Huntington Beach High School Historic Auditorium.

This season will be our thirtieth nutcracker.

And the auditorium will be celebrating its one hundredth year.

So it'll be a milestone year for sure.

But this weekend we have our little mermaid performances at the library theater.

And so we're super excited about that as well.

So we're always dancing.

So thank you for making us the official nutcracker.

It's official.

Excuse me, ma'am.

What's the age group from youngest to oldest in the studio, roughly?

Yes, so our youngest students are eighteen months old.

All the way through our partnership that we have with the senior center.

And so one of our teachers is ninety-eight years young.

And she works with a group of um senior seniors.

Older adults.

Yeah, unfortunately, we only have one mic tonight.

That means you need better.

Hey Jim.

Hi there.

Two minutes.

I thought I had three.

You can have three.

Go for it.

Okay.

Hi.

Mayor, council members, city manager, city attorney.

My name is Jim Rossman, and I'm the commander of Huntington Beach Legion Post 133.

Our post is in part of this community for over a hundred years.

There are over 10,000 veterans who live here in Huntington Beach.

Amazing.

Jim, isn't that the most of any city in Orange County, right?

Pardon?

Isn't that the most of any city in Orange County?

I think we're not sure whether.

Whether they're number one or number two.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We serve uh Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, and Fountain Valley.

We're a very uh active post.

We participate in 4th of July parade and work closely with the city to assist Memorial Day, Veterans Day activities at the Pier Plaza.

We also speak at local schools and operate the Veterans Resource Center, located inside the Huntington Beach Central Library.

At the VRC, we assist veterans with essential services, including obtaining a DD 214, which is a discharge paper, which you have to have.

Other important papers, navigating veteran benefits, filing PAC Act claims related to conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq related to Agent Orange and Burn Pits.

We help with burial of benefits and signing up to care at the Long Beach VA Hospital.

Our hours are Monday through Thursday, 2 to 6 p.m.

and Friday, 9 to 1.

Additionally, we offer financial assistance to veterans in need, helping with auto repairs, gas food cards, utilities, rent, clothing, just to name a few items.

To fund these vital programs, we are hosting our fifth annual car show this August 9th.

You can find out more information about the event at CarShow HB.org.

We are a 501c3 organization.

We welcome it any donations and or prizes for our site and auction at Raffle as well as general donations to our post.

Our website is WWHB Post133.com.

If you would like more information or wish to contribute, please contact me at J.

Rossman 480 at gmail.com.

In 2023, juniors from Edison High School established the Veterans Booster Club.

This is now grown to Marina High School and Huntington Beach High School.

They assist us in buddy calls and post events.

We also sponsor boys and girls' date events.

There's a uh great article in the Huntington Beach in the April event, uh, the Huntington Beach Living Magazine about the VRC.

And it's written by uh Brian Newan, who's a junior at uh Huntington at Edison High School.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to share this information to you and to the city.

Thanks, Jim.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you, ma'am.

Sorry, Max, you only get two minutes.

It's all good.

Great to see y'all, uh, Mayor and Council.

It's always a pleasure to see you.

It's always a pleasure to be here in a beautiful Huntington Beach.

Like to invite the community out for this Sunday for a perfect Chamber of Commerce Day for the third annual taste of Huntington Beach.

I say it's the third because it's the third year the Chamber of Commerce has taken over this event.

Uh, it's very, very exciting.

We've got over 80 vendors this year, over 80 Huntington Beach businesses here to come and support.

I will be at the sports complex at Central Park.

We'd love to invite the community to come out and join us.

Taste HB.com or HBCOC.com is where you can find information on that event.

But we're very excited.

Hope all of you will join us.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Max.

Uh Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes, Mayor.

For public hearing, item number 15.

We've received 14 emails regarding appeal of planning commission's action on conditional use permit 22-011 and Coastal Development Permit 22-009.

Huntington Club Remodel and Bungalows.

Item number 15, City Council presentation number two submitted by Jonathan Bailey.

Item number 15, letter submitted by Jonathan Bailey regarding Huntington Club Remodel.

Item number 15 received from EPD Solutions Inc.

on behalf of the appellants.

On the consent calendar, item number 18, we received two emails received regarding April 7th, 2026, City Council public financing regular meeting minutes.

Council items number 25, one email received regarding the proposed declaration of May 7th, 2026 as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Huntington Beach.

Item number 26, four emails received regarding the proposed establishment of City Council lease review ad hoc committee.

Item number 27, 14 emails received regarding the proposed establishment of a city council ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on the request for proposals for the creative strategy branding, merchandising media communications, and film industry systems.

New item nine emails received regarding council discussion on the origin and procurement process of the city's assets and revenue audit and the proposed 720,000 Wolfhouse Agreement.

New item request for proposal, creative strategy, branding, merchandising media, communications, and film industry development services.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, uh, how many speakers do we have for uh public comments?

25.

Please call them up.

10 at a time.

The city council will now receive public comments for any topic, including items on the open session agenda.

When your name is called called, please approach.

State your name and organization for the record.

Pat Goodman, Amory Hanson, Andrew Einhorn, Jeannie Parris, Luann Shoop, Ann Palmer, Ken Inoue, Jerry Donahue, Andrew Hard, Guest P.

And as a reminder, unfortunately, we only have one microphone tonight.

So we have two now.

One was taken off.

The Wi-Fi microphones aren't working tonight, so we'll have one that's you know, wired in.

Is that correct?

Julie?

Yeah.

Yes, we only have one microphone tonight, unfortunately.

Go ahead, please.

My name is Luann Nichols Shoop.

I'm a fourth generation property owner in Huntington Beach.

A street even has been named after my family, Nichols.

You could say I have a vested interest in Huntington Beach.

In 2009, the city had these ad hoc meetings asking how can we improve in our image.

I raised my hand and said, How about we do an art walk?

So there I was, roped into running the downtown and Huntington Beach Art Walk from 2010 to 2012.

Then I passed it on to the Huntington Beach bid.

In 2021, I was asked again, are you happy with Huntington Beach?

I said no.

They said, Do you want to do something about it?

I said, Yes.

I was back.

Downtown Main Street looked like a third world.

The homeless were out of control.

The entire city was out of control.

There were homeless camping in our parks, making it unsafe for children.

The beaches were a mess.

I had friends who no longer would do their early morning walks on the beach path because they would get harassed by the homeless.

You could not walk on the beach out of fear of stepping on a hypodermic needle.

The parking structures were unsafe because there was a homeless person camping in every corner.

And Main Street at night after everyone would go home.

The homeless would have a heyday with sleeping on the outdoor restaurant furniture, pissing, shitting, and barfing all over everything.

And let us not forget the cockroach incident.

This was intolerable, and something had to be done about it.

The only way we could clean up our city was to get a majority in the city council.

So I and my friends and Tony Strickland, Gracie Vandermark, Pat Burns, and Casey McKinnon went to work and we worked hard and won.

So what has happened in the last four years?

First thing our city council did was to enforce the no camping law.

Plus, they added and passed additional ordinances to enhance the no camping laws, such as no loadering in the parking structure or public restrooms.

There are no longer homeless camping in the beach, harassing innocent morning walkers.

There are no longer homeless camping in the parking structure, nor the parks.

Main Street opened back up, has cleaned up and improved their appearance by replanting the circular planters, enforcing codes, replacing the missing bricks on the circular planters, painting the ballards and cement trash cans with a repellent.

Over the last three years, Huntington Beach has achieved the greatest homeless reduction number in our city's history.

There has been roughly 40% reduction in homelessness, and Huntington Beach is one of the only Orange County cities to see their homelessness numbers decrease.

Crime has gone down 26% across all categories.

Some crime is down over 80%, like the cadillac converter theft.

While so many of you trash our city council, I have to ask, do you really want it to go back to the way it was?

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, city staff, and people living here in our community.

Kathy Ryder, a homeowner and voter in Huntington Beach since 1985.

I'm strongly against agenda item number 27 because I believe we should form a resident ad hoc committee who works along with our city staff to review the submitted RFPs, and then that committee could make a recommendation to the council for some vote.

But my main topic here tonight is the political sign blight on our public property.

Thousands of us don't like it.

I don't like it.

And I've even paid for some of the signs.

As a reminder, in 2023, there was an agenda item to only allow political signs on private property and to limit the size of those signs to just the standard yard signs.

However, Councilmember Burns offered an amendment to authorize billboard size signs on both public and private property.

Can you imagine a billboard on your front yard?

That agenda item ended up being withdrawn, and no vote was taken.

So if you don't like those large corner political signs, I ask the residents to contact this current council and demand that they change the rules of political signs.

There's no reason why they can't.

Because there are many cities who manage to elect officials without these large corner political signs.

And guess what?

We could do it here.

I'd also like to take this time to thank the members of the Huntington Beach Fire Department who over the last six months who have come to my home multiple times and provided excellent service and care to my husband.

They have treated him with kindness, graciousness, and professionalism.

And due to their swift action, my husband is still here today.

So a heartfelt thanks from my children and I to the Huntington Beach Fire Department and their care to my husband.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council, Pat Goodman.

Um, and I uh ask you to pull or rethink uh items 26 and 27.

And I find uh the self-appointed ad hoc committees proposed in those two agenda items troubling as they conflict with the transparency essential for a democratic government.

The city council's role is to set policy and direction for staff and not to operate through informal self-selected bodies.

Item 26, I think is unnecessary.

Staff should submit the requested reports directly to city council for presentation at a public meeting where open discussion can take place and discuss the leases and issues related to them.

Uh and the public has full access to the documentation.

And item 27, uh, please direct the city manager to appoint a committee of professional staff to assess the branding and marketing proposals if you go forward with that.

Uh the committee should return their top three recommendations as cited in the uh code, or a full ranking of all submissions with written justification for each.

This approach ensures transparency and protects the council, you folks, from the appearance of self-dealing, favoritism, and uh impropriety.

We're looking out for you.

Uh we often hear that the city should be run like a business.

And um I think there's room for discussion on that issue itself.

I was gonna speak about that, but um, they have two different really missions and goals.

Uh, but some of the things that they um have in common is efficiency and um uh value to their customers, right?

Taxpayers versus customers.

But um I hope that you'll take these comments to heart and um really look at the way you select vendors and contracts and respect the process for what it's meant to uh give taxpayers, residents, and yourselves the protection that you deserve as elected officials.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Yes, hi, my name is Ginny Paris, longtime resident of Huntington Beach.

I want to today I want to especially thank all of the council members for your hard work and what you're doing to try to improve Surf City.

But tonight I particularly want to thank our mayor, Casey McKeon, as well as our previous mayors, councilwoman, Gracie Vandermark, and Councilman Pat Burns, and also a shout out to Tony Strickland, who is also our mayor.

The four of you were overwhelmingly in and elected to solve some big issues.

We all remember how bad the homeless situation was, as well as the crime rates, the outrageous arena numbers, as well as the city budgets to name a few.

You came in with a different set of eyes and hit the road running.

In three years, we have seen a significant drop in homelessness, 30% drop in this city, the only city in OCDC decrease, 26 drop, 26% drop in crime, continuing to tackle Sacramento to protect local control, and taking us from a 41 million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2223 to a surplus based on expense reduction and revenue generating policies, all without raising taxes.

Thank you for that.

Now we have an opportunity to explore different avenues to generate revenue and promote growth.

Streaming our systems to improve how we do business in the city from branding, merchandising, media, communications to local internship sounds different, but I think it's something that we need to look at.

Whether we pursue the route remains to be seen.

Whether we go with the Wolfhouse or another entity from the RFP process, I think it's worthwhile exploring these options.

You have proven yourselves to be very successful in the past.

I'm all ears.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, Ann Palmer.

I'm usually passionate about speaking about marketing, housing, art, advertising, nature, but tonight I want to speak about budget.

And yes, it's boring.

I'm not going to get into a lot of numbers.

I've watched as other people present numbers and nobody pays attention.

But personally, it took me years to move to Huntington Beach.

And when I was deciding to move from LA County to either Huntington or Newport was exactly when the OC scandal happened in the late 80s and early 90s.

It eventually terminated with Orange County going bankrupt.

There was a lot of problems, and I decided I needed to look at budgeting and municipal finance a little more closely, but I would still leave it to the professionals.

From 2011 to 2025, Huntington Beach had an excellent treasure, Alyssa Baxstrom.

She was skilled, honest, and forthcoming.

She kept the budget in good order, and there were many who enjoyed working with her.

But there was also some leadership in the city that made, in my opinion, some unwise financial decisions, and they lacked long-term planning.

That set us off into what was a long-term trend downward.

And even though we received COVID money that bolstered it a little bit, with that downward trend was still existing as it does in many cities because of increased costs and because of unfunded liabilities.

Eight cities in this area have either increased or will be increasing their sales tax.

And I know that you're all working hard to avoid that.

One thing to consider if you talk to the uh car dealerships, uh a lot of people come here to buy cars from the neighboring cities because a percent or two may not meet may not make a difference on your weekly grocery bill that's noticeable, but when you buy a big ticket item, uh it makes a big difference.

So at this point, you're looking at raising revenue uh through some branding.

And I'm gonna come back and talk more about that because marketing is an area of expertise for me.

You're going about the right direction.

Every city needs a revenue source that isn't just out of the pockets of its residents.

So this is a little different than your general RFP.

You're looking for an agency pitch, and a lot of it will be subjective.

There are a lot of processes that can help you through that, and I don't think this city has done that before.

So it would still be clear and resolute.

It would be tied to your objectives and your mission, but what is presented to you?

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach.

The Save Act, a solution in search of a problem.

The Save Act requires one of the following to vote, a valid U.S.

pair passport if you have one, or a certified birth certificate.

An estimated 69 million American women do not have a birth certificate matching their current legal name.

When a woman marries, she faces something no man ever does, a bureaucratic gauntlet, just to provide her identity.

Her driver's license shows her maiden name.

She pays 46 dollars for a new one.

Social Security requires two certified documents, marriage and birth certificates, each with fees.

A passport adds another $130 to this.

She could easily be out 260 or more dollars.

So she orders a certified marriage certificate from the county recorder, exactly as instructed.

She arrives at her Social Security appointment, still may be rejected because the Social Security Department requires a physically quote raised seal that the certified online copies do not have.

So she starts over again, paying fees again.

Creates a poll tax with a goal of voter suppression.

The seal requirements for both marriage and birth certificates still appears unclear for each state, which may cause further confusion for election officials.

If the SAFE Act is your idea of government oversight, voters look forward to new council members with meaningful solutions to city problems, not your trumped up voter ID diatribe.

Your $720,000 branding study delivered one verdict that I certainly noticed.

Your political agenda is destroying our city image.

Residents have been telling you that for free since you took office.

As a former business owner, I would never accept one bid or one RFP.

And I was in business for 30 years.

Have a great night.

Next speaker, please.

And as I was walking, I I saw a sign I don't normally sign.

And it said community service day.

So I would uh I would like to have more civic engagement on behalf of these faith groups.

And I want to remind council members that government and faith are two separate spheres, and council time is better used by promoting activities of this sort instead of espousing personal religious preferences.

Again, that's the Huntington Beach Interfaith Council.

Tomorrow is Earth Day.

I want to push to Earth Day events.

I am a member of Amigo State Bolsa Chica.

This is our 50th anniversary.

Fifty years ago, they wanted to build 5200 homes in what is now the Bolsa Chica.

A group predominantly of women stop this thing.

And tomorrow, rather Saturday at 8 o'clock, we are having our annual running is for the birds, and that will take place at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

The following day on Sunday, April 26th, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy on the corner of PCH and Warner is hosting an Earth Day event where there will be numerous booths and vendors and just a wonderful family day celebrating nature and especially celebrating the wetlands.

I volunteer at the wetlands, and so many people drive by at 60 miles an hour and have no clue until they pull in the parking lot and say, This is a jewel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Mr.

Amory Hanson.

I'm speaking tonight in support of item 25, the mayor's item to declare Fodore Roosevelt Day.

This item makes Huntington Beach the first city to honor President Roosevelt, America's 26th president.

He was also president when Huntington Beach was incorporated on February 17, 1909.

He was a true environmentalist supporting conservation efforts, including several of America's early national parts.

He also filed 41 antitrust lawsuits because leaders file lawsuits.

The Huntington Beach City Council is honoring these legacies by continuing to fight the high density Moarkee.

I intend to do so as well when I am a councilman.

I urge the council to honor President Roosevelt with this resolution and our ways.

Once again, I f you urge a yes vote on IM 25.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, members of the Huntington Beach City Council.

I'd like to welcome Butch Twining back.

I'm glad she came back healthy and ready to serve us again.

My name is Kenny Noah.

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

As a resident of Huntington Beach, I was quite concerned about the fact that the closed session agenda refers to the fact that the City Council had discussions concerning six existing or pending lawsuits, which may have been caused by actions taken by the city council.

Since each of these lawsuits will or could cost the city millions of dollars in future costs and penalties, I respectfully request that all future lawsuit agenda items contain a brief explanation of the nature of these lawsuits, so that the residents of the city can make an evaluation and then the formed assessment of the assess of the actions taken by the city council.

In addition, I was very disturbed to note that an action taken on the April 7th City Council meeting that the City Council authorized the City Attorney's Office to enter into a settlement agreement with a state auditors lawsuit, whereas the state had requested information regarding the airshow settlement.

As a resident of Huntington Beach, I respectfully request submit that this lawsuit could have been avoided had a city council simply told the truth from day one when it was asked to disclose all of the factors regarding the settlement.

That is not proper government.

Given the financial challenges facing the city, we cannot afford to have a city council, which can continues to adopt policies which will or cost this will or could cost the city tens of millions of dollars.

Now, Don, I respectfully acknowledge the fact that you mentioned that we have over 100 million dollars of infrastructure payments during that period.

However, I'd like to remind us all here that three years ago I asked Pat Burns to make an assessment of the infrastructure report that we had we had 10, do we had $2 billion of deferred maintenance, much of which is related to infrastructure items that could jeopardize public safely?

So I respectfully request and acknowledge the good work of public works, but also respectfully request that this city council seriously take its responsibilities to safeguard the safety of every resident regarding the infrastructure.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council.

My name is Andrew Hart, and I'm here to follow up.

Sorry, let me grab my glasses on an issue I raised at your last meeting regarding a business operating as Huntington Harbor Boat Rentals at 1672 Pacific Coast Highway.

At that meeting, I asked a simple question.

Does this business have the required approvals to operate, including a conditional use permit?

And if not, what enforcement action is being taken.

Since then, I received a response from code enforcement confirming that notices of violation, including a final notice have been issued.

And that and that the business is currently in the process of applying for approvals.

However, the city still has not answered the core question whether this business is actually permitted to operate right now.

I followed up twice in writing asking for clarification, including whether a conditional use permit exists, and I have not received a response.

This issue is now approximately two years old.

In that time, I have reviewed public records and have not found any conditional use permit for this use.

I've also submitted a legal letter from our land use attorney to the city confirming that this type of operation requires a conditional use permit and a coastal development permit, neither of which we have been able to identify.

Based on our own business experience operating the exact same type of business, a Duffy rental business in Huntington Beach.

So the question is very simple.

If the city has already issued violations and the business is applying for approvals, why is it being allowed to continue operating?

There's a very different standard than what was applied to our business.

Additionally, the property is displaying large signage advertising Duffy rentals and paddleboard and kayak rentals painted on an exterior wall along Pacific Coast Highway.

I submitted a complaint about this over a year ago and have not received confirmation of any enforcement action.

At this point, we are simply asking for clear clarity and consistency.

So tonight we respectfully ask that the city council direct staff to provide a clear answer on the following.

Whether this business is currently authorized to operate, if not what enforcement actions are being taken, and why it is being allowed to operate while while approvals are still pending.

We provided both we provided both our attorney's letter and prior city documentation requiring our operation to cease until approvements were in place, until until approvals were in place, and we'll leave copies with the council.

Thank you for your time.

Can you fill out a blue card, please?

Yeah, did you fill it?

Did you do that last time or I can't remember?

Did fill out a blue card.

I'm gonna give you my card and then call me in Butch and I will jump.

Yeah, thank you.

All of us will help out.

Great.

Appreciate it.

Sorry.

Next 10 speakers.

Rory Bevins, Brother Steven Gerard Siloski, Russ Neal, Shania Breslow, Tim Gaddis, Charles Jackson, Sonia Beale, Paula Schaeffer, Kanin Durham, Larry Slonan, Libby, Patricia Pappas, Roger Noor, Denora Echeverra.

Please proceed.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members.

Uh, my name is Rory Bevins.

I'm a Huntington Beach resident, born and raised, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and uh introduce myself.

Uh my family and I recently met with the city regarding our deep appreciation for the Parkbench Cafe and Central Park.

Um we've also had an opportunity to connect with and spend a lot of meaningful time with the current owners and have a great respect for what they've built and the role the cafe plays in the community.

Uh I'm not here to present anything tonight, just to introduce myself and express how much it would mean to me and my family to become a business over owner in this great city.

Uh Huntington Beach is my home.

I grew up here, and now my wife and I are lucky enough to be raising our two daughters.

Um I'm truly excited and grateful for the potential opportunity to give back to this community.

Uh I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the city and uh what a great place it is to be.

And if anyone had any uh doubts about that, how many times you show up to a city council meeting and have uh nutcrack performance and uh a surfing dog uh uh kind of video play in the background.

So just want to say hi and appreciate all you do for our city.

Well said, thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, beloved council mayor and citizens.

I am Brother Stephen Gerard Sidlovsky.

And uh I continue to amplify new USA personhood cities throughout the United States, even here in Orange County.

And uh I just want to give you an update of some of the progress of this new direction.

I have been generating a California pre-born personhood advisory petition since I've been in your area for the past four months, and I'm delighted to let you know that about 44 sheets have been uh completed by citizens in LA County and Orange County.

And uh that's about 263 signatures so far.

Citizens learning about this new direction of the sanctity of life in America.

Uh and of those signatures, about 39 do come from Huntington Beach.

And I'd like to just list off the last three names of citizens who signed this wonderful advisory petition, and that would be Benjamin Cobbziff.

It would also be Guy Hill, and it would also be Shirlene Diane Peterson.

One of the wonderful marketing efforts that I got when traveling to the California March for Life says equality begins in the womb.

Wow, what a wonderful expression of a quality.

In my past uh journey of life, I was asked to actually write on the topic of equality, and I was asked by a particular city council in Ohio on how you could get the very words of a quality right in the city charter.

And I'm delighted that I was able to actually come up with inserting the word equality in the charter.

It will also include, however, the child peacefully developing in the mother's womb.

Where are we going in America?

Well, we've got Mother's Day upon us, Father's Day is just on the horizon.

I've delivered the wonderful uh pre-born personhood resolution to all of you.

That's step one.

I hope that your agenda will be pacified a little bit, where you'll actually be able to vote on that resolution here soon.

That's step one.

My time is now limited.

Just remember we all have one thing in common in council chambers.

Our mother said yes to all of us.

Thank you all.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Yes to mothers in the womb, but what about after they're born?

Who helps take care of them?

They get dropped.

A lot of them do.

There's over 300,000 kids that are in either uh not in homes, not in homes.

They are and they are let out when they're like 18.

I like the life thing if you're gonna help people all the way through their lives, not just while that happens.

Thank you guys for um embracing Sugar and Ryan.

We all felt that sweet vibe.

If you could find compassion, acceptance, love, and inclusion for others who aren't like you, you could probably save us 720,000.

How take care of Huntington Beach and stay out of the political arena.

Too many people don't come to Huntington Beach because of political differences.

Making HB less political and more about humankind is a great start.

Character matters here, being ethical matters here, and I just want to I want to feel that in all of you guys.

Um please listen to Mr.

Ken.

He's a brilliant man, and he has a lot to say for you guys to learn from.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, good evening, and uh thank you for your time.

My name is Shana Breslow.

I'm a local educator and surfer, and I am part of Creek Team.

I wanted to share some of what's been going on in our county.

Over the last couple of months, we have uncovered violations that Orange County Public Works has had with their application of herbicide throughout Orange County, especially within the waterways.

There's currently an investigation going on for multiple offenses with the agricultural commissioner.

There is also an additional investigation with California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as U.S.

Fish and Wildlife to investigate the violations of the lake and streambed alteration agreement that cover the waterways here in Orange County.

We are concerned that the current policies have not been followed as far as application and usage of chemicals monitoring and record keeping.

As a county, we should start to move in the direction of an organic first approach.

Many other cities and counties already do this throughout California.

We understand the need for targeted application for invasive species in specific instances, but the blanket spray of herbicide that is currently being done is outdated out of compliance and causing harm to endangered species, critical habitats in our communities.

This would be a combination of using herbicides like suppress mechanical removal and targeted stronger chemicals when needed with clearly defined thresholds.

Creek team is currently working on communicating this concern to each one of the supervisors.

And we are looking for we are looking for every city in Orange County to support this progressive transition to improved policies.

This is where you come in.

Please stand with Creek Team and let the Board of Supervisors know this is an important matter to us all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Ms.

Can you, you know, can you fill out one of those blue cards?

I'd like to is Creek an acronym or is it like a creek like a little creek?

So Creek Team is uh just the group of concerns members down at uh San Juan Capital Carno uh by the domini.

Okay.

Okay.

If you fill that out, I'd like to hear a little bit more about uh the the herbicides.

I don't really like those either.

Go for it.

Uh good evening, Mayor and City Council, Tim Geddis in the House.

Once again, we have no disclosure from the city attorney on closed session litigation with the state of California regarding state audit, housing, voter ID, and God knows what else.

Is the public be deliberately being kept in the dark?

Is the council too embarrassed to say anything at all?

What we're up against or what we're in for so much for transparency.

Or is the ability to see through you good enough?

Not only is it transparency we're lacking, but without proper explanation, cronyism enters the picture.

Like it or not, that concern has been around since the Pacific Air Show Settlement Agreement.

Now we have the Wolfhouse fiasco, which was roundly assailed for its lack of transparency and cronyism.

Even an above-board RFP process will remain suspect to many.

So what to do?

I notice you have two proposed ad hoc committees on city leases and the infamous creative strategies, branding, etc.

etc.

Uh, but who will be on these uh ad hoc committees who isn't part of the problem to begin with?

There is no outside measure of accountability, just the good old boys who might have rolled over on the on last meeting's agenda item 22 had not members of the public objected and cried foul.

Will further litigation be called for if the ad hoc process lacks transparency and accountability?

How about creating two more ad hoc committees on transparency and accountability with some expert outside input?

Few in the community, a few in the greater community outside your own suspect supporters will trust your judgment or your recommendations unless transparency and accountability is assured.

It's time to start start representing the entire community honestly and effectively.

It's time to trade in your ideological idiocy for some good solid problem solving and act uh and action on our behalf.

We need leaders, not lawsuits.

Be careful or some hot new new community slate will replace your old discredited and not so fabulous current one.

This is a change election and tag, you're it.

Next speaker, please.

Never sticks the landing.

Uh hi.

Uh first of all, I'd like to echo um the woman who came up here uh from Creek Team.

I've been following the work that that organization has been doing, and I would love to see this city work with them and see how we can make sure that our ecosystems are protected.

I know I've had conversations with both of you over the last couple years, um, where I've expressed that my own concern, and I think the concern of a lot of people who live on the city or in the city on both sides of the aisle are looking for accountability and transparency, and it seems to me that this agenda item is an effort in in that direction.

So thank you very much for listening to your constituents and bringing that forward.

Um and lastly, I'd like to make a comment on um, I'm I'm not sure if it was Casey or or Don, but uh one of you in your opening comments today were talking about well, you know, there's all these concerns that we're getting all these emails about this uh about the you know how the m how the city is spending our money, but we've spent all of this money on you know city beautification and whatnot.

And I don't personally have an issue with flag poles or red, white, and blue lines on Main Street, but if we are focusing on those kinds of efforts with the city's budget while also having all of these lawsuits and having this, you know, this contract that people are concerned about, it seems a bit like painting your car but not changing your oil.

So um thank you and have a good night.

Thank you.

Yeah, just to clarify, Councilmember McKenney was talking about infrastructure projects that we funded, actual infrastructure projects.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker.

Arthur Red White and Blue painted by the bid.

Uh public works, but as part of the annual painting process anyway.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Paula Schaeffer.

My discussion tonight is related to agenda item 26673 regarding the creative strategy RFP.

This RFP process wreaks of cronyism and patronage by the city council in which you intend to use taxpayer funds to burnish your image prior to upcoming elections.

To date, you tried to cram through a $720,000 contract as a sole source process.

When that sole source effort failed, spectacularly, I might say, you reluctantly issued an RFP.

However, rather than relying on city staff to conduct the initial review of any submitted proposals, which would be the appropriate procedure, you plan to form an ad hoc committee of city council members who will review the proposals.

These actions do not engender confidence that this entire process has been given any careful thought or planning.

Finally, if approved by the entire city council or perhaps only a majority of the city council, it will solidify the public's perception that this RFP is a done deal and the eventual contract will go to Wolfhouse.

Why don't you follow typical RFP procedures and direct staff to review any proposals and with only the acceptable proposals that meet identified criteria forwarded to the city council for a vote?

That's what staff is for.

Your process of subverting staff's role to perform the initial review of the proposals negates any effort of transparency that you think could be achieved by having the entire city council vote on this.

Have you considered the reputational damage that you have done to the city with your efforts to date?

This is a creative strategy indeed.

However, perhaps not as you intended.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please thank you for allowing me to speak.

Patricia Pappus, uh, honorable Mayor McKeon and full council and staff.

Um about two to three years ago, four of us, Jeannie Delane, and Ann were thinking about our city.

We what what were we missing?

We came up with an idea called Local HB.

Our ideas focused on local state and national history.

Uh the four of us met with counselors McKeon, Vandermark Burns, and Strickland, and eventually Mayor Pro Tem Twining.

And the um all of the council, of course, approved this.

So I what I brought tonight um is a uh a handout or actually a little photo display.

Um we met with these, this group of counselors, and they listened closely to us.

This was in 2022.

And our council developed what is now named the celebration committee.

So with Julie Toledo leading us, and uh Butch and also um Mayor McKeon.

We have and our seven member council.

We've looked at councils looked at budget, safety, public works across the city, and to this are incredible, we think it's an incredible idea.

Um celebrating our great town.

And these images here are for you.

They show the beginning of our celebration committee and a little bit of a write-up about how that developed.

We show our Chris Epting um talk that actually we had a talk um was that about a year or so ago, and now we're having a new one come up, which is um very soon.

Our Animal Shelter Drive that we put on, and people came from all over.

We just filled up that area uh in the lobby.

Our peer photo uh competition, and you'll see some of the pictures on here.

They are now displayed outside in our uh lobby area.

You can see the equestrian center.

That was a great event for local people, and then also really important is the year, our 250th anniversary.

So some of our committee members on our celebration in our celebration group, they have written articles, and some of those are here.

Um, those articles are going to be posted, they're going to be framed and put up in the lobby.

Um, you probably have seen the uh photo display, but I just want to give you something to tell you thank you for what you are doing for our city and for our community, all of you.

And go to Facebook, X, and Instagram, and you can see these articles and pictures.

Thank you.

Thank you for the artwork.

It's beautiful.

Next speaker, please.

Okay, thank you.

Um good evening.

My name is Russell Neal.

I live in Huntington Beach.

There are two underlying issues with respect to the proposed creative strategy RFP.

The first is the urgency of getting something done in time to take advantage of the upcoming Fourth of July opportunities.

The second is meeting concerns about openness and fairness of the bidding and awards process for this contract.

The RFP currently on the table is a compromise, which meets neither concern.

It is too slow for the first and too fast for the second.

I propose splitting the procurement into two parts.

The first would be a directed procurement to Wolfhouse for the limited scope of the Fourth of July plan.

The second would be an RFP for the whole long-term creative strategy plan without the Fourth of July time pressure.

More time could be allowed for development of this RFP, consideration of community input, and for better response.

If this approach is acceptable, we could perhaps move on to things more productive and less acrimonious.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Good evening to everyone.

I want you to pay very clear attention to what I have to say.

I respect all law enforcement, but I have four power for sheriff and ball.

And they tell me, tell the Huntington Beach, France and my uh officer, do not cover corruption.

I am tired of corruption housing, and I'm super stressed.

The judges are in ball.

I was brought by Federal 1969 from Cuba, and I've been discriminated by people from Mexico.

Ask Lieutenant Smith, very nice officer.

And he knows I don't do drug, neither drink or smoke.

Neither my family, neither friends.

And my mom and dad are in heaven.

I have amazing life say new bond by dealing with the wrong employee for Mexico and government have been super stressed.

And I mean it.

I put an application for coastal, the same people that you guys got in Long Beach, supposed to be the state in Federal that they sent me there 301, East Ocean Boulevard, Suite 300, Lone Beach.

That they don't exist, get the same government to subsidize the two-bedroom that I put for Coastland the first person because I went to Fontaine Valley and I talked to Bodani there.

And Jennifer told me, yes, the city will put 506 low-income model income in a affordable.

And I said, I will 40 years and pay taxes.

I'm a low income now.

She said you'll be okay.

And I've been discriminated by people from City Hall, which is local government.

And that's trend that I never had in my life that now everybody's very aware, you guys better.

Call me so for my key for coastland.

And you can uh Gracie, you became a mayor with my vote in 2021.

And I got also my friends to support you.

Now you're not going to be cute if you have break news for Miami that I have family in Cuba, Miami, very angry.

And government supports Cuba in this country.

So pay a tank shirt, because I have great family from Mexico from the 70.

They were not running anything in government.

I grew up in Orange County.

So if you allow Mexico, Vietnam to the this the I mean um they're saying espanual, but so you couldn't.

To the prime of housing, it's gonna be made your problem.

So the sooner you will call me with a key for coastland, the same people that you guys got to get those young girls in there, make it happen for me.

I don't have no right in this country, you let me know, because there's Congress standing by, and that's what I was told every seat, including Huntington Beach, Fontaine Valley Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Hi, uh City Council members.

It's neat to hear about the tie between Huntington Beach and Teddy Roosevelt.

Some people compare him to current political figures.

There is no comparison.

Teddy Roosevelt was a war veteran, not an entitled playboy.

He did not start any wars as president, not like this year.

Roosevelt did not have any known extramarital scandals and was considered devoted to his wife Edith.

Not like this year's political scandals on both parties.

Roosevelt was a significant supporter of women's rights.

When he held traditional views on uh gender roles, he advocated for equal pay, improved working conditions, property rights, and endorsed women's suffrage, the right to vote.

This is in contrast to the SAVE Act that will disenfranchise many women.

In contrast to the efforts to reduce health care.

I guess Teddy would support no tax on tips.

Roosevelt's square deal emphasized justice for workers and consumers and was demonstrated by his fair mediation of the anthracy coal strike, by his successful attacks on trusts he considered to be harmful to the public interest, and by the enactment of such landmark laws as the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and Interstate Commerce Commission with meaningful regulatory authority over the nation's railroads.

In contrast, inconsistent tariffs, a war, and giveaways to the Epstein class.

In contrast to the lack of control of monopolies.

Sound familiar.

Imagine living in 1969 when we were stuck in a meaningless war, sending people to the moon, and our president was a crook.

Is this what MAGA means?

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Larry Sloan.

I'm strongly opposed to agenda item number 27 and having a setting up a three-member committee, primarily because it's just of the city council members, which you have already shown over the course of the time that you've been here, that you are not impartial, that you vote as a block, and you think as a block, regardless of however many things you different people you talk to and say you have a varying opinion, you don't display that.

Pri you know the you're recommending that we have a uh you know three member city council or three members on the city council.

We need to have more people involved, such as what's been suggested as you know, a resident mate of other residents or other staff that are more impartial and more objective.

Lack of fiduciary due diligence and accountability are glaring on this council.

The suggested price tag that was brought came up in the study that was proposed of $720,000 is unqualified, unsubstantiated.

It's just thrown out there, and that's a tremendous amount of money to be out there randomly established and discussed and overseen.

We need more RFPs to take a look at that to justify that.

Wolfhouse's preliminary audit and report on page 17 made the following paraphrased observation.

Our city council's negative base political agenda is damaging the reputation and economic well-being of Huntington Beach.

We, the resident tax fairs, can't put up with that any longer.

The approach taken by this current proposal only perpetuates Huntington Beach's negative public relations and image.

It's not how you guys run a responsible government.

It's just not being run the right way.

You need to get back on track.

Thank you, next speaker, please.

Good evening.

So what's the common theme tonight?

There just isn't a better word for it.

Cronyism.

The President Theodore Roosevelt Day is an obvious attempt to promote your friend's book.

Theodore Roosevelt was known as a progressive and a conservationist.

Neither of which aligns with this council.

Running the city by ad hoc committee is another example of cronyism.

Making sure your friends rise to the top of the pack when evaluating proposals is clearly corrupt.

Analyzing and evaluating the city's leases in an ad ad hoc committee is quite suspect as well.

Both of these attempts to use closed door ad hoc committees for things that should be done by staff and then discussed in public reek of cronyism.

It seems to be common knowledge that Mayor McCann is trying to navigate a city contract to his friend for rebranding or marketing to try to clean up the city's image after it has been trashed for the past few years.

I strongly oppose issuing any further contracts to Wolfhaus.

It's already concerning that the city paid him $30,000 two months before he even had a local business license.

At the last council meeting, you were actually ready to issue a $720,000 contract without competitive bids to a company that can't even get its own website up in the several weeks since we've all become aware of this plan.

How long is it going to take him just to get his own website up?

If he can't manage his own website, what makes anyone think he can manage anything for this city?

Instead of closed door ad hoc committees, this council should work to include citizens in this process.

The lawsuit was ended months ago.

The election was what, eight, nine months ago?

You can you've gotten the word of what the citizens want.

It's time for those books to be put back in the children's library.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Welcome back, Butch.

You're looking good.

To quote Alanis Morissette.

Isn't it ironic?

Isn't it ironic that this very city council that just a year ago spent their energies to yell out groomers, pedophiles, pornography, who called librarians, librarians, and community members, groomers, pedophiles, and pornographers.

Has this year proposed to give a $725,000 contract to Wolfhouse, who has a website with a phone number 1 800 556 Wolf.

It's the hottest talk line.

Which was soon changed to 1886 Wolf.

But 1800 556 Wolf is the hottest talk line.

Let's sample that, won't we?

If you call that number.

Welcome to America's talk line.

Guys, ladies are waiting to talk to you.

That's one now.

Ladies to talk to you.

Interesting and exciting guy three.

Guys, run now.

Ladies.

Okay, I think you get the gist.

Is there no oversight on the city council?

Have they changed their morals?

Have they changed their outrage about sexualization?

Second, while the whole pitch RFP for a PR firm, a PR firm to clean up the bad reputation you generated is going too far.

I still go back to Alanis.

Isn't it ironic?

And one last note to Andrew Grohl, since you did host ironically, the divisive author and his book, his new book on Theodore Roosevelt at your restaurant, connecting more cronyism to Theodore Day to boost book sales.

Perhaps you should recluse yourself from that vote.

Thank you.

Any more speakers?

Is there anybody else in line?

No.

All right.

Okay.

Now we'll move to council committee appointment announcements.

I put my name in.

Oh, you did?

Come on down.

Yeah, I know.

Ed five or no.

At the last city council meeting, the item to approve of a nearly three-quarter million dollar PR contract was pulled before the meeting began.

It looked for a moment like the city council might actually be listening to their constituents, as they had received a ton of emails opposing the contract, and also received an earful from citizens opposing the contract during public comment.

But alas, it seems that maybe only one or two council members were actually listening, while the others try to play misdirection and obfuscation.

I direct your attention to this week's agenda's items 27 and 28 that concern that very same contract.

Item 27 suggests creating a special ad hoc committee composed of several council members to make recommendations for the proposed PR contract.

I spoke at the last city council meeting about how contracting processes work in the real world in both business and government, and how far removed from that process things seem to be under this council's guidance.

Normally, the staff would review the RFP responses to ensure their compliance, flag differences between them, and then make their recommendations to the council.

But item 27 proposes that select members of the council take over the evaluation process, which sounds striking like let's circumvent the normal RFP process so we can force this contract to our buddy.

But I'm afraid that that is also the least egregious violation of normal contracting procedures under this city council.

You see, in a normal contracting process, if you're involved in the research development and analysis for an RFP, you are forbidden from bidding on it.

The reason is your inside knowledge gives you an unfair advantage over other vendors, and also because it allows you to potentially develop or shape the RFP by inserting requirements or conditions that competitively advantage you and disadvantage your competitors.

Given that Wolfhouse performed the initial analysis and made the recommendations for what the PR program should look like, they meet the very definition of being involved in what the RFP creation process should be and having inside information.

As such, they should be forbidden from responding to the RFP for these PR services.

Now agenda item 28 appears to show that at least two council members were listening.

They appear to at least be challenging this headlong rush to bypass normal contracting procedures and hand over nearly three-quarters of a million of taxpayer dollars to affirm the citizens have every right to be skeptical about.

I look forward to hearing that discussion.

Thank you.

All right.

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

I do.

All right.

I have I'd like to appoint Jared McKnight to the my CPEB position.

Anyone else?

AB123 reporting.

Does anyone have anything to report?

I do.

Um I went out to Sacramento in support of Tony Strickland's item to, in other words, to give us um some kind of a process to challenge Serena numbers.

Um last week, two weeks ago, I think.

Uh two weeks ago.

Perfect.

Openness and negotiations and disclosures.

Does anyone have anything to disclose?

All right.

Now we're going on to the public hearing, which is appeal of the commission action on the conditional use permit number 2022-011 and coastal development permit 22-009, Huntington Club remodel and bungalows continue from the March 17, 2026 City Council meeting.

So as a reminder, um this was continuing for March 17th.

Does anyone have any ex parte communications to disclose on this item?

Casey.

I'm going to recuse myself.

Councilwoman Vandermarks recusing herself.

I'll be recusing myself too.

Uh Mayor Pro Tem Bush Twanin is recusing himself.

Madam Clerk, Grace, can you just announce just briefly why you're accusing the owner of the property uh made a contribution to my campaign?

But you don't need to.

Okay.

Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this item?

Item number 15, 14 emails regarding the regarding appeal of planning commission's action on conditional use permit 22-011 and coastal development permit number 22-009, Huntington Club remodel and bungalows.

Item number 15, City Council presentation number two submitted by Jonathan Bailey.

Also, item number 15, letter submitted by Jonathan Bailey regarding Huntington Beach remodel.

Item number 15, letter received from EPD solutions in on behalf of the appellant.

Very good time to open it, right?

Say that again.

I'm gonna go ahead and reopen the public hearing.

So I'm gonna now reopen the public hearing.

Mayor?

Yes.

Uh before uh you open the public hearing.

We were not intending to give uh presentation, but we can update or pick up from where we left off at the last meeting and just recap the um reasons for continuance.

Perfect.

And if if the council wants the full presentation, we're happy to give it, but we are not intending to right now.

Okay.

Okay, with that, I'll introduce Joanna Cortez, principal planner.

Okay.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, members of the city council.

So, like Jennifer mentioned, we're just gonna go straight into the continuance portion.

Um, so just a quick recap.

The project was continued to today's meeting to address the following to allow further discussions between the appellant and the applicant.

The applicant is here and he can expand on that further.

Secondly, provide an update on the entitlement plan amendment, which is the condition from the original planning commission approval to light up the six unlit um tennis courts at the site.

Uh, an update in terms of that where that um application is at.

Staff has reviewed it and provide uh comments and corrections to the applicant, and so that's the next step is for them to work on that and to resubmit it to staff.

And lastly, to confirm that the lighting violation that was brought up during the last meeting, which the fact that there were two of the six uh tennis courts had were lit that weren't supposed to be lit up, to confirm that that lighting violation had been resolved.

We spoke with our code enforcement staff and they confirmed that the lights have been removed uh removed, so that violation has been uh resolved.

So just really quick, since the last meeting, just to kind of focus on just new information that's been brought up since the last meeting.

Uh the city received a letter from the appellants' lawyers highlighting safety concerns related to uh pedestrian crossing, a new drive aisle between the tennis courts on the site, and that a safety report was necessary.

So planning staff has worked with our other city staff members from fire, police, and public works and reviewed the issues raised in the letter and ultimately determined that a study was not warranted.

In addition, a third-party environmental consultant also reviewed the letter and determined that there was not substantial evidence to support a separate safety analysis.

The applicant has provided a response letter, which is part of your agenda package today.

The in addition to that, city staff has worked with the applicant.

The in addition to that, city staff has worked with the applicants, so the aforementioned city staff members worked with the applicant to incorporate some design features to help alleviate any perceived concerns related to safety in that particular area of the project.

So some of the design features that were proposed were adding gates, adding uh pavers to highlight the crosswalk right there, um, different colors and materials to add to kind of distinguish where the pedestrian walk crosswalk would be versus the rest of the drive is home.

And the applicant has provided renderings that are also part of today's agenda packet, and I have them available here should the council want to see them.

And so it's up to you.

Um, with that, that's kind of just the last update since the last meeting, and staff is available to help answer any questions, and the applicant is present as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joanna.

All right, I'm gonna open the public hearing.

Public hearings open.

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

Yes, we have three speakers.

Okay, please call them up.

When your name is called, please approach the podium, state your name.

Tom McDaniel, Jesse Bowling, David Reinerson.

Built off the wrong color.

Go ahead, sir.

Afternoon, Mayor, Council members, uh Tom McDaniel, longtime member of the Huntington Club, Huntington Beach resident.

You know, I spoke at the uh the hearing on the 17th of March.

Um, and a number of things were brought up at the end of that that uh compelled me to want to look deeper into some of the issues that I think are important to this pro to this project, and specifically um questions about the uh the role of uh the club management in the operation and management of the bungalows, and certainly the other is on the financial projections associated with the bungalows being put forward.

Um and so I dug back into that.

And what really struck me at that hearing was that the club management wasn't in the room, and they have an important role in this project that I think needs to be clearly understood.

So I dug deeper to try to understand what those issues might be coming from them.

And the first place I looked was basically getting five different emails from camaraderie club asking members to approve new rules and regulations.

And ordinarily you wouldn't give that much thought, but they wanted this to be effective on March 16th, the day before the the hearing, and approved by April 30th.

And if not approved or signed, you could lose your club privileges, which seemed pretty pretty severe to me.

Um and so if you go into the body of those rules and regulations, something really stood out to me, and that is under 1.3b that the club has the right to close down their facilities during periods of construction, project construction for indefinite periods of time, and during that shutdown, members' dues will not be abated.

And when you put that up against this project from an operating standpoint, it's a train wreck.

A project in which for extended periods of time, fields facilities are gonna be out of out of out of operation.

Um, and the impact on the members are gonna be significant.

And so from camaraderie's perspective, they're looking at a project that's gonna be unbelievably difficult from an operating standpoint.

That's point number one.

Point number two on where they stand with regard to the bug bungalow project.

Uh February 7th letter from Camaraderie to um to members stated three specific points.

One as it relates to the economics of the bungalow project.

They didn't endorse those economics being brought forward.

Who better to understand cut kind of what club membership's interest would be in that book bungalow project than the club manager?

And I think it really brings into serious question if those assumptions are wrong on that.

You've got a project embedded that creates just an enormous amount of disruption across the board that could fail.

Second, they clearly stated that they have no interest nor contractual obligation to manage those bungalows, and then third, that they're really point of of interest was to impel um GRF to uh really uphold their obligation.

Um improve the fitness facilities and the swimming pool.

No mention in there about the bundle of project.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Should we believe Sir, sir?

Sir, sir.

So you want to finish?

You can finish.

Finish your thoughts.

Yeah, go ahead.

Two.

Okay, yeah.

Please.

Sorry.

Yeah, sorry.

So let me let me finish.

Um you put all that together, and I think there's three key areas that need additional uh review.

One, this is a complex construction program in the middle in-field project of an operating facility.

And I've seen nothing in the record that really gets down to what's the construction plan, the staging plan that's going to implement this project in a way that's going to be safe for everybody involved.

Number two, I think you need an independent financial review of the bungalow project, supported by a member survey to see what the true need is going to be.

And then third, really is an operating plan.

And how does camaraderie plan to operate this club through a very difficult period in order to frankly retain membership and avoid severe economic harm to their own operational capabilities.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, everybody.

Jesse Bowling, I'm the attorney for the three appellants.

Um pleasure to be here.

I just wanted to say that this is my first opportunity to be in front of the Huntington Beach City Council, and I've just been so impressed by all of you up here.

Um you have a difficult and sometimes thankless job.

I recognize that, and your staff has also been wonderful.

You really have a great team.

Um I would like to point out that there's one item up here that I wondered maybe it has been resolved, and that's um that the applicant was going to provide some sort of management study or example, and maybe that's forthcoming.

I haven't seen in the documents, but it wasn't listed there.

I remember that from the last city council meeting.

Um, but I'll get into it.

So one of you mentioned that the Huntington Club, formerly Seacliff, is the crown jewel of Huntington Beach.

Somebody said that at the last hearing.

Uh and I remembered that, and I've gotten involved now on a pro bono basis.

And you know, my goal here is to have a win-win-win, right?

For the membership who are the citizens that are members that live here, right?

For a landowner who is clearly trying to improve and make his property more valuable, and a tenant who obviously wants to run the club in a way that's profitable.

And I just don't think we can get to that win-win-win without further study of this issue.

And so today, I'm not asking you to approve or not approve this plan.

I'm asking you to continue, right?

It's a simple, easy decision to move the decision making process to later when we have more information.

And I think at that time, we can come back here and we can make a good decision that is supported that um hopefully is supported by all three parties rather than um the situation we have now.

And so most of my contentions in my letter are speculation.

These are not things that are absolutely going to happen.

There are things after a quick study on a pro bono basis that I pointed to and done some research on, and there's concern with the community that this could end up being a very bad situation.

And of course, I'm a lawyer and I'm a trial lawyer, so I'm thinking about liability, and I would contend that a safety study protects all of us, right?

The applicant should absolutely do a safety study done by an independent third party, right?

That's you know, preferably chose by the appellants or the city council, uh, because that if they follow it, they're resolving themselves of liability if there's an accident later, right?

Uh and that's something that we can all do together rather than approving this uh conditional use permit now and making it a condition and putting it in the hands of the applicant um at the end of the day.

And that I have three more seconds.

Uh that protects you both politically and it protects you and insulates you from liability because you have this safety studies done, you're probably issuing conditional use permit that says it needs to be followed once you get it.

And of course, for my clients and a lot of club members, it opens up two opportunities, right?

One, you can tell families that hey, look, a safety study has been done, and everybody is in agreement that if these protocols are file uh followed, you don't have to worry about your kids getting hit by a car.

And then two, maybe it opens up the opportunity uh to change this plan in a meaningful way where some of the things about the club that we love in the tennis community can be addressed.

And I'll point one out is just if those back courts are not lit, like tennis will change at that club forever, and players like me and others will have to move on to different facilities because there won't be enough lift courts at night.

And so I just contend no yes, no, just continue, maintain this.

We need you to be our voice, right?

It's a non-equity club, and we ask you if you kick the can down the road a little bit, we'll work in good faith to make sure we get the answers to our questions and present them to you.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Any more speakers, Madam Clerk?

No, more speakers.

All right, I'm gonna close the public hearing.

And now we can open up to questions and deliberation.

Council members, anybody have any questions?

Mayor, before you begin, let's just make sure we focus our discussion tonight on the land use component.

Last time we kind of got off track talking about some economics and and whatnot.

For sure.

I'm sure there'll be more questions about that, but that's a good point.

So I don't have any questions I want to start.

Go for it.

So I read the attorney's very lengthy letter, thorough.

Thank you.

It was submitted to us countless times by many of the um uh members, and we appreciate that.

I took the time to read it.

Safety comes up quite a bit in there.

So let's just address that.

I heard Joanna and our uh building department over here say that you did you look outside or just staff reviewed the need for a safety study?

Jennifer?

We consulted with our city's traffic engineer, trap traffic manager, we consulted with the city's fire department and the police department.

We had them review the plan for basically the design to see if the project design creates a hazardous condition.

Jennifer, sorry, real quick.

Do you is it possible just to put that up on the screen?

So at home so we can people can see what we're talking about.

Sorry to interrupt.

Yeah, so we asked them to review the plan to see if the does uh proposed design creates a potential um hazardous condition or any safety concerns.

Um all three departments came to the same conclusion.

Um, and then we also had, and we can provide more details on that, but effectively, based on the design, the layout, um, one of the uh one of the points of the letter was that this is a proposed road.

It's it's actually not a road, it's a drive aisle with parking, 90-degree parking on one side of it.

So um, and then it leads to the the intersection where the conflict zone is stated only leads to about 20 parking spaces.

So you have um one minimal numbers of parking spaces of cars driving back there, and also you have slow speeds due to um people entering and exiting the parking spaces that combined with the site distances that are required, as well as some gates at the entry to the driveway, as well as gates that are at the pickleball courts, and which the police had recommended and the applicant had suggested gates at the tennis courts.

Uh they didn't believe that a separate uh safety study was required.

We then had uh our third-party environmental consultant, um, their traffic person review the site proposal and the letter and come up with some um recommendations as well, and and also determine, give us their feedback on whether or not they believed that a traffic study was warranted, they came to the same conclusion.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um safety is a concern.

It that sounds thorough.

That's probably not the answer that the the uh applicant, the appellant would be looking for, they would potentially prefer an outside study, but I've got to say that we've worked with the fire department and our building department for years.

I mean, we have the best fire department in the country, and safety's part of their mandate hands down.

So if I was just to say I'm just gonna rely on the fire department alone, I would have to say unequivocally, I believe that they've done a thorough job.

When you bring in the building department, and trust me, I've seen the building department compel you know, applicants and uh people that are trying to get CUPs or enhance them, get put through the ringer.

So the fact that they thought that it was uh well thought through and safe gives me a certain level of confidence that it is safe.

So on that note, I just wanted to bring that forward.

And just to uh clarify for the the attorney, so the CUP was issued back in you know with the 90s, the original CUP that they were talking about.

So the CUP still runs with the property.

Um as the city attorney said in all reality, this is a very emotional topic, but when it boils down to the responsibility of the city council, it really boils down to what do we decide in terms of a land use.

So the CEP was an initiated when?

I mean, the original CEP for the entire site was the 60s, but the tennis court area, uh the tennis club house is actually 80s.

Okay.

And that term you said is uh the use with the bungalows agreeable, Jennifer.

What would what's the term you used?

It's a agreeable with the ancillary use?

Yeah, ancillary use.

Get that wrong every time.

So for this fact for the the residents, the members, and I know a lot of members.

I live I live closer to the country club than anybody on this dais, and I'm not even a member, and I've never been one to say let's build, but I'm also one to try and be as fair as possible and keep a motion out of it.

You know, I have a lot of members saying, I love it, some of my friends, no, not yet.

So I have to just kind of take the noise out of it and make a decision that I believe is based on facts.

So when you say ancillary for definition for anybody who might want to get a little bit more description, that means what the bungalows fit into the CUP as written.

They're ancillary to the primary use, which is the golf, the private golf and tennis club.

The uses such as like the fitness center, the spa, the proposed bungalows are all accessory or ancillary to the primary use.

Okay, thank you.

Let's summit my uh councilmates.

Andrew, do you want to go?

Can you just put that plan back up on the screen, Joanna?

So that people at home can see it.

Uh which one?

Just the site plan that we're looking at on the screen.

I don't think that people at home can see it.

They can, that's fine, but oh, there it is.

There you go.

So is the concern looks like there's a crosswalk right in the middle of those tennis courts.

Half the way halfway, is that is that right?

And then there's like another one on the northern northern edge of the tennis courts.

Correct.

Right.

Okay, so there's two crosswalks.

So what is how can we assuage their concerns that people, children when they cross those crosswalks, because it looks like there's a lot of landscaping there, have line of sight that they're not getting hit by a car that's just entered that gate on looks like the southern edge of the tennis courts.

I think if we can get comfortable with that tonight, it sounds like that would assuage their concerns.

But has that been looked at?

Yeah, so um, and and actually the applicant, if if you guys, if the council does want to bring them down, come on down.

Did create some new renderings.

Um, and this was based on the conversations with um PD to create uh a basically a different color and texture for the crosswalks as well and materials as well as the drive aisle, it creates a slower vehicle or move movement.

The colored crosswalks will make it more visible.

They also um are proposing some signage that would basically make people be aware that there could be people crossing at the northern um crosswalk.

And then the last thing was I think they did propose to remove some of the lower trees, still keep the taller palm trees, but remove the lower trees to create more visibility in the area, and then the final um improvement would be to gate the tennis uh the the tennis courts so that if you're entering and exit the tennis courts, you have you're slow slower because you have to open and close the gate or open a gate to get out.

Okay, so thank you for being here.

So again, I'm a child, uh adult, and I'm crossing the tennis courts on that crosswalk.

How do you swage the concerns that there's a blind line of sight with those trees from someone jutting out small child, um, which I've seen often around there, and I believe that's a concern is cars are coming up, and the child darts out from out of those trees or adult darts out from out of those trees.

How do you swage their concerns about that issue?

Because that seems to be where this is really focused on.

Is that a question?

Yes, please.

So like Jennifer pointed out is hold on, sorry.

You good now?

Yeah, there you go.

So, like Jennifer pointed out is um Joanna, if we could scroll down maybe a little bit more.

Yeah, that works.

Um, so first is there's a gate when you're entering this area, and at the start of that gate, we're gonna go from the black asphalt that's currently in that part in both parking lots, the golf club parking lot and the tennis club parking lot, and then it's gonna transition to pavers.

So the pavers do a couple things is that the pavers is one is that it's a visual cue that you're entering a new area, so you need to be cautious and alert.

Number two is that it's a textured material, which automatically will make drivers slow down.

And then number three, it's also auditory, is that it makes a noise when you drive over it, which helps alert the pedestrians that there's an automobile coming.

Um, then once you uh and then on top of that, once you enter the gate, is it's a hard right turn from the parking lot into this sort of T um drive aisle and hammerhead.

And so you're almost at a complete stop when you're gonna be making that right turn into the gated area, even if that gate were to be open, say during daytime hours.

And then, like Jennifer said, is that we're going to include um yellow, you know, caution drive slow signs and pedestrian crossing signs at both the crosswalk in between the pickleball courts and at the more northern crosswalk.

And then the crosswalks themselves are different materials and colors than the pay or then the pavers, so that will also be a visual cue as you approach those crosswalks that hey, this is a crosswalk.

Could you guys put up any like pedestrian crossing signs or some variation of what you see on our public roads where there's actually like a you know, you push the button and it illuminates in the ground, some you know, flashing beacons.

I understand you want aesthetics, but is there a way to have people you know notify cars coming in somehow?

I think I guess looked at that potentially.

Um that was not one of the uh police department recommendations, they just recommended kind of the basic road signs, the yellow ones that say pedestrian crossing or caution drive slowly.

So I know the illuminated ones you're talking about, we would be open to that.

Okay, and then what I guess those pedestrian crossing signs, where would those be located?

Those would be located at the crosswalks.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm just trying to think if you guys had some again, and I'm I'm not trying to get crazy like you see on public streets, but just some kind of illuminated because I just I just know, man.

I'm you know, I've I've been there, I've I see it, I see kids there all the time, they're just running quick, and people are playing tennis and they're in pickleball with their their children and they're darting around.

So I just didn't know if there's a way to maybe illuminate those crosswalks or something like that.

I think we could illuminate the signs, maybe.

Yeah, signs.

Yeah.

I I often don't trust the uh the pedestrians more than the drivers.

That's why I was kind of thinking on the sidewalks, worn like something just to wake up but draw the attention of the pedestrians, because I like I mean, they're at a club having fun who talking, you know, not even look and walk right in front of a car.

That's uh my big fear.

Yeah, so maybe we put signs at the on the crosswalks right before you at least a line or something.

Or could you maybe again we're just we're spitballing here, right?

I mean, is there like a sensor that you know when that gate opens, it then illuminates the crosswalks for pedestrians knowing, hey, like a car's coming in?

So you can kind of do like the inverse?

Definitely possible.

Okay, drive right.

So as soon as the gate opens, it triggers like a crossing signal for you know, pedestrians that were hey, there's a car coming in.

Okay.

Yeah.

What's the total distance between entrance to where you could turn right or left in the hammerhead?

100 feet?

115.

So it's about 50 to the first, it's essentially the the crosswalk in between the pickleball courts is equidistant.

It's about 50, 55 feet.

The total to the northern crosswalk is like a hundred and ten, and then it's like another five feet with those planners or so.

So about I guess one fifteen to answer your question of right or left.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

I'm real quick.

It's obviously been kind of an emotional for some of the people in there.

I don't a lot of the issues that were been brought up is in our realm of like this is a club issue.

And I mean, it's a tough decision, but they've asked for continuance.

Uh uh, have you guys talked to them about uh a agreeing to a continuance?

But we're staying out of that aspect.

I'm just trying to ask you if you've talked to them about it, and that's between you guys kind of.

So after the March 17th continuance, is it was you know, one of our homework items was to go back, continue discussions with the appellants.

Um we did so, and we did so in good faith, is that you know, we reaffirmed our agreement um for their request to one uh fix the playing surfaces of all the tennis and pickleball courts to number two uh refinish or replaces needed all the fencing for the tennis and pickleball courts.

Um number three was to uh host planning workshops for them to weigh in on equipment and furnishings for the new clubhouse, and then number four was um to continue the lighting application, which of course is already a condition of approval we agreed to on uh from the planning commission, but that was one of their requests, wanting to make sure we did that.

And in that vein, since that March 17th continuance, I had our lighting consultant fly down from San Francisco and meet with me and the appellants at the Newport Beach Tennis Club, which is a club that uses our uh consultants' technology.

And so we walked the property.

Um, and the meeting consultant pointed out, you know, what would be similar or different to our proposed lighting plan at the Huntington Club for courts 11 through 16.

And it was a productive meeting, and we had some good takeaways from that.

One was that we're gonna lower lights to 18 feet, and then number two is that we're gonna study potentially putting some landscaping that would go higher than the tennis fences to additionally you know mitigate any potential light spillover.

Um, and so those were the takeaways.

Um but uh we frankly the appellants continue to make more demands, as I stated in my letter.

Um, and so you know, these continued continuances, um, we don't think are are going to get us anywhere new.

Um, and they're just delaying us starting this project.

So no.

So no, yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

So thanks for being here.

Appreciate it.

Um this really has no bearing on the decision, but there's a couple questions I'd like to ask.

So, you know, one of the concerns was raised, and this isn't really a concern, it's more of an observation.

So the same uh entitlement process was granted in the Newport Beach Country Club, correct, to build some bungalows.

From what I was reading from some of the letters submitted, there there was uh the right to build that was granted well over a decade ago, and then was just recently given it an additional extension.

Is that true?

Uh not entirely.

Is back in 2012 there were entitlements at the Newport Beach Country Club to do a similar bungalow and loft project, but that was put on hold because that had not to get too detailed, but it had certain um basically parts in it that we decided that we didn't want to do anymore.

And so we amended it in 20.

I think the approval was in 2023.

I think it was November 2023, was what we call plan B, and it changed the project.

So basically that was the that was a big reason for the delay is that we decided that we wanted to do something different than what was originally approved.

Okay.

I know one of the concerns um for a lot of uh residents would be so there's there's gonna be the condition placed uh added to the C UP, I believe that um this is for only for members and member guests, correct?

Correct.

So the concern I would have is even though that's added to the the CUP would be the CUP um there's ways that you can extinguish the CUP, I believe uh it could be overturned by uh a future legislative body council.

Is that true?

We talked a little bit about it.

You want to opine on that real quick because then that'll cave out into one thing that I think is gonna be important.

Well, there would have to be findings made that there was a vi some kind of ongoing violation, and in that case, that'd be one reason that we could uh get rid of the CUP.

But it would have to be a public hearing process.

Okay.

The thing that um knowing that that is the intention through perpetuity, you know, I don't think there would be any reason that you guys would push back.

I'd like to see some kind of a deed restriction on the property that guarantees that if Mr.

O'Hill decides to sell, because that's a that has a separate APN, correct?

I I believe that they did a lot a lot split to refinance back in like 2018.

Um so that could you know, it could be entitled, it could be built, and you know, just to make sure that although the CUP would run with the land, I guess, in in the case of a sale, just to assure residents who've worked hard to have these single family homes that are surrounding your beautiful club to make sure that that could never revert to any type of short-term rental.

Uh they could circumvent the member and member use only caveat or covenant, if you will, because to me, um the protection of that right needs to be through perpetuity.

You know, so but Don also a deed restriction to not allow permanent residential housing as well.

Well, yeah, that's fine too, because that would that's not gonna be ever.

Yeah, we want to make sure that what you're proposing is what stands to be there forever because that's the point of us saying yes to this is short and not short term, member housing, you know, beautiful bungalows for members and member guests forever, never short-term rental, never uh breaching outside, you know.

Well, that's a guest of a guest three generations down, you know, three three degrees of separation.

Next thing you know, people are coming and going.

I think a lot of people can deal with beautiful bungalows.

The financial uh forecast you guys gave.

I said this last time means nothing to me.

Uh yeah, I don't care if you don't make a penny because Mr.

O'Hill is gonna have to cover the debt service period.

Um, and so I I don't factor that in.

But the the bottom line is you you've stood before us and said we want to build this, member units, member guests, and limit it to that, and it's very important.

So I mean, we can say the CUP covers that, but to me that doesn't I mean feel like enough, is it?

Maybe it is.

I'm with you, but uh, you know, we'll let others talk.

Yeah.

You want to jump in?

No, I'm trying to look at this high level.

I mean, I understand there are concerns and disagreements surrounding the project just overall.

I've read every single one of them email emails, but also I understand that my role as a council member is not to step into private disputes, and our job is to look at the land use, the conditions approval, and ultimately the real impact to the residents.

So I understand I like getting granular like this, but I would defer.

I don't I don't know whether we can adjust things and to that degree.

I d I don't I would I'm not an attorney.

I'm just here to look at it from the land use perspective.

Um so back me up, we're talking about adding a condition where what are the protections of the current CUP that guarantee that it stays as a uh bungalow for member and member guests?

What what what certainty do we have?

And I and as council member Gruul said, and we start off this hearing.

This is a land use decision, but this is part of the land use.

So this is material to the discussion.

I agree.

So I guess I'm missing the what are you talking about?

Do we put a covenant on the well, yeah.

I mean, it does the C UP give us enough certainty of perpetuity protection, or could somehow 20 years from now, you know, the world changes.

There's new council members, uh, short-term rentals are the uh the thing uh that everybody's hot on now, and except you know, everybody who lives in all the sea cliff areas that worked hard for single family residents, and next thing you know, something that was voted on 20 years ago by a council is you know old news, and somebody comes in and says, I don't care about that CUP.

We want short short-term rentals.

So you got a new owner maybe sold it off, and next thing you know, we have short-term rentals.

Tell me how we can avoid that.

And well, I think first of all, the CUP would in order to modify it, there'd have to be two things that would happen.

One, they would be in violation of something as far as their land use approvals.

They're they're not they're not acting um up to whatever they agreed to as part of the CUP in the first place.

So at that point, we could bring a revocation hearing and revoke the CUP and CUP could sensibly go away.

The second Well that's go ahead.

And then you can ask and then second, uh the CUP will run with the land, so it will transfer and it will run in perpetuity, and a future council couldn't unilaterally come in and change the CUP.

It would be a vested property right with the applicant at that point.

So the only way to change it would be with their concurrence.

So when you say vested property right with the applicant, if you have a new owner, would he have the right to try and uh revoke it?

No, no, that's what I'm saying.

He could come in and apply for a modification to the CUP, he or she.

Well, what if the modification is I want to turn it into short-term rental?

Right.

And and it in the future, if something like that were to happen, it would have to be voted on by the planning commission and the city council.

Okay.

That's the deed of restriction, then it would make it a little tougher.

What would you think Mr.

O'Hill would say if we said Mr.

O'Hill, we'd like you to put a deed restriction guaranteeing that because what he just said, we've seen our planning commission go from we lean more conservative, I would say one way or the other.

The planning commissioners may mirror our thoughts, maybe not, but if you have a completely different uh political makeup up here, you're gonna have a completely different set of appointed planning commissioners that typically may think like their council member that appointed them.

So if that's the only stop gap, that that's a little scary.

Personally, and let me let me mention I mean they it wouldn't just be the C UP.

There would have to be a depending on what uses were permitted and and whatnot in that area.

Might have to do his own change or or make some other legislative decisions, but it could be done.

But could we also to council member Kennedy's point uh condition of approval?

Can we put a deed restriction on it preventing short-term rentals and long-term residential housing?

Would the applicant be agreeable to something like that?

So Mr.

O'Hill is visiting his um daughter in Spain right now, otherwise he would be here.

Um that I I don't know.

I mean, I can't I can't speak on Mr.

O'Hill on whether or not he would be acceptable to a deed restriction.

I mean, he fully intends for us, you know, to only have this available to members and guests of members.

Um, and of course, he's comfortable with the condition that the planning commission imposed, where you know that is a condition of our uh condition of approval on our C UP.

Um, but doing a deed restriction is I can't answer for him on that.

If I could just kind of chime in, you know, as much as we might like to think that our decisions are the right decisions, you know I'm not so sure if the decisions that we make are you know locked in indefinitely into the future.

Perhaps there is a future community one day, a future council one day that you know has that that latitude to make you know that decision, I guess it would take the property owner ultimately desiring to make that change of use or or at least apply for that that CUP and I don't know, I just think that's kind of a big decision.

Um and big decisions like that that we lock in, you know, like uh measure C for the park that usually involves you know the entire community uh voting on it.

So it's kind of I feel like it's a little bit of a big ask.

And there, and I will say there, I mean, through the CUP process, there are protections in place that will that will safeguard against what you're trying to protect against.

But this would be an added measure that again, I I without the owner here to agree to it, I would be loath to put that as a condition.

Right.

I mean understood, but you know, intentions and time don't always stay aligned.

Things change, you know.

What people thought about 50 years ago is not what people are thinking about today.

My point is um, you know, if we were to vote, I'm gonna be in support of the you know of this initiative, but I would probably make a substitute motion that says, you know, I would vote yes with uh with the applicant's approval of a deed restriction.

And I I don't see why Mr.

O'Hill would have any reason not to approve that because if he sold the property, the value is still there as a member bungalow and member guest only.

Uh if he hopes to sell it and somebody can get a different use and monetize it at a higher level, that's not the intent that I would be voting on tonight.

And that's the intent that I would be protecting against.

So my substitute motion when it comes time would be to approve it with the condition that the applicant is willing to um put that deed restriction on the property.

Yeah, I'll second that.

But everything you just said, it seems like he agreed he would agree to it.

You just say you almost reiterated everything that we're asking.

It's just that without him being here.

Yeah, no, understood.

I just don't want to, you know, you don't want to you don't know if you have the authority to speak for him in fact.

I mean, because everything you said was basically what we're asking in his intent until he sells it, but then that's somebody else.

If he sells it and they the other new people want it, that's their own.

Yeah, and and I mean something too is I will admit is my ignorance as to a deed restriction in terms of like exactly what that involves, what that looks like, what other you know implications could that have that are not even related to just us making sure that the bungalows are only used for members of members' guests.

Is I don't I just don't know.

So that's another reason why I can't, you know, sit here and say, yeah, that sounds great.

I mean you can let's just let us let us just suppose that we do vote on that and that prevails, and then it turns out that he's he's he doesn't want to do that.

I mean, where does that put us as far as the hearing goes?

And are there any kind of added costs to him personally in order to apply for you know some kind of a sort of a locked up deal like that?

There would be added costs, I don't know what they are.

But I mean one way and jet Jennifer, you can you can maybe jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean I one way to do it would be to add the condition on the condition that the applicant agrees to it, and if not it goes away.

I don't see uh go ahead, Jennifer.

I mean, there's there's there's no negative value attached to a property when you put it uh first off, it's gonna be negligible, it's gonna be a covenant recorded at the county recorder's office.

Yeah, of course.

There's no cost there.

Yeah, it's recorded on the title report.

Yeah, and um, you know, again, with his intention to be member units and member guests, and that's already conditioned the C UP, all we're doing is guaranteeing that that that language is locked in and it stays with that property and it doesn't have the wiggle room to get out because again, time and intentions change, and that's just factual.

I don't see why Mr.

O'Hill would have any any uh pushback, but I can't speak for him as you can't.

But you know, I'm willing to make a motion to approve the land use or as it's stated the right to you know to move forward with that.

And if he doesn't want to do that, I would say he has to come back and lobby.

Maybe somebody will change their mind.

I don't know.

I wouldn't want it to be the kiss of death if he says I don't want that, because he's not here right now.

And if I would imagine Mr.

O'Hill would like a vote tonight.

He wanted a vote a month ago.

I'm just wondering, you know, since we're spitballing here, is there anything else that would give the council comfort that we can think of or um Mr.

Bigliota, if you could think of that, you know, could more so solidify this conditional condition, but without it being, say, maybe a deed restriction, something that I could know.

Maybe I really need to speak better too.

Yeah, there really isn't.

Yeah, I can't, not that I can think of again, not to belabor belabor this, but the the CUP does offer enough protection.

You're this is you're definitely belt and suspending the the process, but without the applicant, the property owner here, I I think what's it what uh Mike, what's his mechanism if we uh approve that condition as a of a deed restriction?

He comes back and doesn't like it.

Can he protest and bring it back in front of council?

It would have no head, JV.

No, the answer is no, I hope.

Yeah, no, he wouldn't be able to do that.

I mean, I guess what he could do is apply for an entitlement plan amendment to remove that condition.

Okay.

So there is a mechanism in place.

At some point, but how much would that cost?

Yeah, that would that would involve going back to planning commission.

Yes, it has to go back to planning commission, it requires another public hearing.

Um the entitlement plan amendment, I don't know the fees off the top of my head, but it's a few thousand dollars.

Okay, so to give Mr.

O'Hill um some certainty, can we call for like a straw vote?

Well, you know, give me the explanation of the straw vote.

I haven't called for straw vote.

Is that an informal vote that says in this in this context you can't do a straw vote?

A straw vote's only to get essentially to get the temperature in the room on a future vote that you're gonna take during the meeting.

Well, why don't why don't we just um just a hypothetical, right?

With your your substitute motion, just ask him to do it in good faith, but it's not a a condition upon you know approval and that's fine if he wants to do it.

That way he could say no and and everything still moves forward.

Yeah, I mean, I uh the only problem is you know, two city councils ago, the uh there was a completely different collective thought process, completely different planning uh body.

So in two elections, things have changed dramatically, which could mean two, three, four, five elections from now, things could revert back to others that might say, I don't care.

We love short-term rentals, you know.

Uh I don't know.

I don't want to cabosh the guy's project over over the language, but um, I wish he was here right now so we could ask him this question.

You know, why don't maybe this is maybe this is just um a good segue to delay the vote for one more meeting just till two weeks from now, give you a little bit more time.

I know that they keep asking for things, but we kind of meet a compromise with them, a little bit more time to talk to these guys.

I know you don't have to say yes to anything they're asking for, you don't have to say no, but we accomplish that.

We get Mr.

O'Hill here, we kind of run it by him.

Um again, I'm not trying to kill the guy's project.

I want to support the project, but I have to be uh protective of the fact that you can overturn a CP.

And the bottom line is the residents around there do not want that.

That and Mr.

O'Hill says he's not gonna do that.

But time and things change.

Mr.

O'Hill will be in heaven someday.

His kids may think different.

Whoever his heirs are might say, I don't want that, I want the revenue of a short-term rentals.

I I'm willing to spend the money.

Let's let's quash that thing.

Got a new, you know.

Just just curious, because I actually don't know the answer.

Is let's say we put on the deed restrictions, just like the process, because I understand that it's just like if we if if we future owner, whoever ever wanted to modify the CUP to say for the short-term rentals or something else, is that they got to go in front of the planning commission, they got to go in front of the city council.

Basically, the process we're doing right now all over again, is that if you add the deed restriction, what extra protections does that actually give?

Is it not possible to overturn the deed restriction?

Is it a another series of public hearings, or basically how would that work?

In other words, how easy is it to remove a deed restriction?

I mean, that's the same process from the city perspective, right?

So if the council, let's say the council uh required a condition of recording a covenant on the property, right?

That it can't be used for short-term rentals or um uh permanent residents, um, because it's a condition of approval, they would have to go back through an entitlement plan amendment to remove that condition approval at a minimum.

And then like what uh Mike was saying is that it could also include having to amend the zoning and do some extra processes right now, you couldn't do those things in that zone, right?

So it would depend on a bunch of factors what the process would be.

And if the council at that time approved an amendment, right, to uh remove that condition so that a future owner could do those activities, then part of that would be agreeing to remove the uh would have to include a removal of that deed restriction.

So an extra per it's just an extra hurdle.

So so in essence, if the if a future this future ghost body ultimately wants to do it, they can do it.

And us putting an extra hurdle, if they want to do it, they're gonna do it.

So are we just I almost feel like now we're putting the applicant through an exhaustive process when we've all kind of generally decided where we want this to go.

I'm just I'm apprehensive about delaying this again and then putting it back on the agenda, et cetera, when we're all kind of generally they've they've met all the terms that we asked of them.

And from a land use perspective, there's nothing outside of the I agree with the extension and stuff, but the I don't I don't mind putting the extra hurdle on so they keep their word, they're locked more into their word of keeping it what that's designed to be.

That's what I'm really interested in.

Yeah, and leaning it, and I'm I'm interpreting it as even with that extra hurdle.

If somebody wanted to do it, they could do it.

It would just take maybe a little bit more work.

So our reason our kind of double lock safe we're putting on can still be broken into.

So we're kind of we're we're we're almost in the same situation on the grand scale.

I would love an idea like this for a publicly owned asset, you know, but this is this guy's private property, and it will be somebody else's private property one day, and who knows what those property owners want to do with their property and the rights that they have.

My whole thing though, they're in the middle of a community and they gotta live within a community.

You can't just do whatever you want in a community.

You gotta kind of melt into it and be a good neighbor.

And that's where I get where okay, he puts that and all of a sudden he goes, you know, I don't want to put a little hotel there, or I want to do this.

I want to do no, stick to your word.

If we get put that extra hurdle, and it's not asking that much, but yet it's makes it safer for the community.

If I could though, there's a process where they would have to go before the community and apply for that, and there would be a public hearing in the community come out and speak against that.

I mean, we have a process for these things in the future as well.

Yeah, I don't think we need to take a private owner to property ever to take it to a public hearing.

That's that's not the spirit of private ownership.

I'm I'm not trying to uh make this unreasonably difficult.

Like I said, I uh I'm in support of this, and it's a difficult decision.

I've I've thought about it for a long time.

And like I said, you know, I'm very close to that uh play proximity.

And you know, I don't want to stand in the way of uh somebody's right to build within the confines of what's already been dictated as their right to build.

They haven't, they're not even asking for any exceptions.

So, you know, um you don't want them to change.

Yeah, I don't want them to change it.

I I I know the CUP uh, you know, maybe I'm like overthinking it with the planning, the CP uh and the council.

It's just it could happen.

I guess anything could happen in life, though.

I mean, yeah, but Don, to your point, he's approached us to create these bungalows inside the club, which is different from the current use.

So he obviously wants this plan to go forward with this land use.

I don't see why they would he would have an issue of I don't speak for the the man to then further commit to his his plan of with a with a deed restriction, to your point.

I mean you're just to Andrew's point, double locking in, but this is the project he wants to build.

I mean, you know, bungalows.

So why why would you have an aversion to a deed?

A deed restriction puts no negative value on your there's not a negative connotation because the use has already been identified as a permanent use.

So you know, a deed restriction could have a negative value if you were hoping to change the use to you know what might be considered higher and better use, but because he's made the commitment forever, the deed restriction would have zero negative uh value to his his real estate asset because he would have to sell it as what it is.

If you can run it better and make more money than he did, you know, that would be the attraction to a new investor if you wanted to buy that, but he would be buying you know, member and member guests.

So uh not hey, I can get a change so I can move the needle with planning and counsel.

Don I would support your motion if we could add the condition about the the crosswalks, like some kind of if you agree to a notification, like could you do it both ways for pedestrian notifications and vehicle notifications on those two crosswalks?

Yeah, I mean it could probably what I'm thinking is you know what we were talking about with the illuminated sign is that the sign like blinks or something when there's pedestrians, or maybe it just blinks like generally if you open the gate, you're gonna see the blinking crosswalk.

Could you also maybe sign yeah, as a way to uh the other way as well with pedestrians coming, then it would notify the cars?

Yeah, okay.

I'm sure that's doable.

Yeah.

Okay.

The fact that he is not here, um, I'm not comfortable putting that that requirement of a deed restriction on when the applicant who's got a lot of time money invested in in this initiative and wants to better the club uh and is given you know, the and the CUP protects it, you know, the extra if he was here it'd be good to have him, but I don't want to vote in I don't know how anybody's gonna vote, but if it didn't go through because of that deed restriction or it went through uh and he wasn't you know with the condition and he wasn't willing to do that, then he doesn't really have the right without going through major cost and time.

Uh I don't think that's fair to the applicant.

And in if you want to call for the vote, um I don't know, this I guess.

Well, yeah, so would I mean would you your motion be to continue it to one meeting?

Or you may have motion to for the deed restriction.

I said if you will if you're withdrawing Yeah, yeah, uh I mean without I don't know.

I think you're being reasonable, Don.

You know, with I mean it's his property and no matter I mean the double lock, it could be broken open.

Um why are we adding I feel like we're grinding that this guy down now at this point?

And that's not my intent.

No, no, no, and we're just having a conversation about it.

I'm just deliberating together with you.

Yeah, no, I get it.

Um if if you were to said, hey, if we approved it that way, Jennifer, and he said no.

Um if you said he could come back and you know, lobby in you know, one more time in person, I might be more inclined, but you know, to make a uh vote with that kind of a restriction on it that he might for some reason be thinking about something that I'm not thinking about.

He's a lot smarter than I am, he's a lot more successful than I am.

And maybe there's another reason that I'm not contemplating right now that he would not want that.

Um so I'm not comfortable uh with my motion with since he really doesn't have a fair remedy and he's not here.

So I'm gonna have to rely on the C UP and and the language uh in the you know the CP and uh and and the fact that we're it would still be a lift to get that changed.

Is that correct?

It would still be fairly arduous to change that.

Yeah, it would take at a minimum a public hearing of of amending the CUP, but um if the zoning that's currently in place stays in place, you would have to also request a change to the zoning code as well as a change to the local coastal program and have to go through coastal commission.

So Jennifer, does the current zoning prevent short-term rentals and permit and long-term residential dwellings?

Yeah, that would be have to change to residential zoning.

Okay, that makes me feel a lot better.

All right, I withdraw my motion.

Okay, so then Pat It's withdrawn.

Okay.

Can we put on the confirmed as a condition?

Would you like me to repeat it on the Yes, please?

Yeah, just um to put illuminated uh pedestrian and vehicle uh, I guess crosswalk warning signs both ways.

So when when the gate opens, it illuminates at the crosswalks.

When the pedestrians cross the crosswalks, it illuminates.

Okay.

Mayor, yeah.

Do you also want to so right now the differentiated materials for the crosswalks and the dry aisle are not in the current conditions?

So we have to do that.

Please.

Okay.

So you want can you repeat them all, Jennifer, so we can hear it?

Signage for both the pedestrians and the vehicles at the dry aisles, as well as differentiated materials and colors at the crosswalks and in the dry aisle.

Perfect.

Anything else?

Anyone else?

Yeah.

You want to make a motion?

Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve of those conditions.

And Jennifer, can you also just repeat the current conditions that the planning commission put on it as well?

So just all all the conditions now total.

So everyone's on the same page.

Hold on, how much?

Yes, we'll split it up right now.

So these are the conditions.

So kind of in point saying the use will comply with the following, and these are the loss will be limited to the Huntington Club members and their guests only, less than 30 days only.

We have condition two B that says that the units won't be converted into residential units or short-term rentals.

Open to the public.

Occupancy of less than 30 days are subject to play attacks on the rent charged by the operator at the rate equal to the current combined state and local use tax rate.

There will be signage added around the bungalows to enforce quiet hours between 10 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

Facility personnel will be present to enforce those quiet hours to limit congregating around the bungalow's loft units to protect the residents in the area.

And then in the event of multiple verified complaints of violation of the Huntington Club noise control, a violation of the city's noise ordinance, the applicant shall immediately meet with the community development department to discuss mitigation measures.

And the applicant will work with the community development department to process an application to provide lighting for up to six unlit tennis courts on the properties, which is what they're working on.

And the rest are standard conditions, but those are very specific to this use.

And you also committed uh with the uh appellate.

What was it to resurface the courts?

What else did you agree to with that?

It was to fix the surface of the tennis and pickleball courts to refinish or replace as needed.

Basically, the tennis fencing, pickleball fencing structurally is fine, aesthetically, it could use little help.

So refinish or replace as needed.

Um, and then the last one was to do workshops with them uh so they may give input on equipment and furnishings for the new clubhouse.

Can we add that as a condition as well?

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, go ahead.

Um thank you guys very much for the uh uh deep conversation on this.

Uh on behalf of my clients, um, you know, seeing where things are going.

We were hoping that in G, it shouldn't just be that they shall work with the community development department, but that they will a condition of getting this permit is actually getting them lit.

Right?

The backcourts lit.

I think the issue though, right, is the that's another entitlement process.

Correct, it's a separate one.

We can't can necessarily there's no control, it's uh discretionary review.

Yeah, that's the weird, I know.

I have an issue with that one as well.

It's a weird loophole vortex that we can make it a condition, but that has to go through a process, and I think the shell makes them go through it, right, Joanna?

Yeah, and to be clear for just my clients, it could be rejected and the plan could go forward.

Correct, right, Joanna?

Yeah, they would still have to go to the public hearing.

It's up to the hearing body in this case, the planning commission, to either approve it or deny it or could you make a I hate to keep the conditions on, but if it were denied, could you condition the applicant to appeal that to council to satisfy this condition?

It's difficult when it's a separate entitlement.

Right.

I mean, I'll let you know.

Well, if the language says that they have to get the back courts lit and then eventually they don't, then this use permit fails.

Yeah, so what happens there?

Well, that's why we don't want to have a condition.

That's why the planning commission didn't make a condition that said they have to have the back courts lit because the planning commission cannot deter predetermine a future discretionary action.

Right.

Which is why they said they had to work with staff to basically apply for that.

And what is that process right now?

Uh it's been deemed incomplete.

They the applicant has comments.

It's a plan check.

Some it's not in plan check, it's in the early stages of the entitlement review.

We are working with them over some corrections that we had.

Okay.

Uh if if you'll uh let me put a few more out there just for your consideration.

Um, in addition to the court light improvements, uh, there's an important word differentiation between court reconstruction and court resurfacing.

Uh, our talks and just to say Jonathan has been very candid and upfront about what he can and can't do.

You know, it would be our request that a there'd be a condition for court reconstruction as opposed to just resurfacing.

Those courts are 50 plus years old.

You know, there's gonna be a lot of construction in that area.

It'd be um great for the membership, and I think great for both the landlord and the tenant to show brand new courts as possible.

This and this is the time to do it.

Uh, in addition to court reconstruction, he went over the fencing and court infrastructure, and I'd just like to put that on the record.

Sure.

Being um items we we hope the council puts into the use permit.

I I don't I don't personally don't feel comfortable with that.

That's government, I think, impeding too much on you guys' private agreements amongst each other.

So yeah.

I think in good faith, Mr.

O'Hill will probably recognize the value in doing that.

Let's hope.

You know, I don't think he's a man who is short on capital and um let's just as Casey said, uh we're we're not in a position to put that mandate, so to speak, but let's hope he continues to act in good faith.

I don't think he wants this to be adversarial.

I think he wants this to be something that he looks on with pride and and hopefully over time the members will as well.

I remember you know, I was against Pacific City when I was young.

I I didn't want any part of seeing that kind of growth.

I love my Huntington Beach.

Now I love Pacific City.

You know, it's one of those things that kind of grows on you.

So let's just hope that his vision and his pride becomes the pride of the membership and uh he does you guys the right in there in every way possible.

Okay, so just again, Jennifer to recap.

So the current planning commission conditions, the ones we added, correct.

Repeated, and then can you add the ones that Jonathan just mentioned as well with the resurfacing the courts and the with the fencing, right?

Yeah.

Can you just repeat those for the record?

It was so it was fixing.

So there's certain tennis courts that are not leveled, so it's making sure they're all leveled.

So essentially leveling the tennis courts and pickleball courts, and then refinishing or replacing as needed the existing tennis and pickleball fencing.

Okay.

Is that clear for the record?

Yeah, for the record.

So we have the tennis court improvements, uh, pickleball tennis slash pickleball court improvements, the safety improvements, and then the planning commission conditions.

Okay.

Everybody good.

All right.

City clerk, please call the role.

Was there a second?

Pat yes.

Pat.

Councilman Groel?

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor McKinnon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Hi.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes five, zero, two.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

All right, moving on to the city manager's report.

Uh city manager, please introduce your report.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Um, we have an uh uh e-bike update report to be provided by our um police department.

Yes, Sergeant Mike Thomas will give the presentation.

Uh good evening, uh Mayor, uh Mayor Pro Tem and Council.

Uh Mike.

Mike Thomas with the uh police department.

Uh just gonna give you a quick update uh on uh on our e-bike situation in the city.

I know many of you have asked about it, and I've uh spoken with you firsthand.

So we're gonna talk about some of the steps that we've taken, uh talk about the statistics that has defined our strategy, um, and then we'll also talk about some things that are coming up on the horizon uh in our proactive stance in dealing with the e-bike situation uh and particularly the emoto situation in Huntington Beach.

So when we started keeping statistics about five years ago in 2022, we were at 72 crashes citywide.

Uh through last year, we're at 198, which uh represents a 175% increase.

Um of course we have been um increasing every single year, uh, but we have adopted some strategies to be proactive uh to address the issue.

Uh and of course, e-bikes are becoming just more and more affordable and uh more prevalent, and so the statistics that we're seeing at Huntington Beach are not uh uncommon for other agencies, particularly in Orange County, uh, where really we're kind of the hotbed for e-bike and e-moto activity.

Just an overview of our statistics, the things that we pulled out.

About 50% of all of our crashes, and this includes those who um who are not at fault.

So, really, like if a car pulled in front of an e-bike and they're on the right side of the road, uh, this would also take into consideration that number, but about 50% of our crashes involve someone under the age of 18.

Um we started looking at last year, was the first year that we actually started pulling out uh the under 18 group, and we defaulted to the 11 to 14 and 15 to 17 year olds, so essentially middle school versus high school.

Uh as you can see, uh middle school out of the crashes 44 versus 23, so almost double the amount when you're talking about the middle school riders.

Um, we have a focus, a lot of our efforts when it comes to education and enforcement around middle schools, particularly, uh riding on the wrong side of the road.

Uh though the the third most common, what we call primary closure factor or reason the reason for the crash.

Uh for under 18, it's the number one reason uh for uh that contributed to a crash.

And then finally, as I mentioned, uh many of the crashes that we see, almost one in three of our crashes, the rider is not at fault, which really has affected the way that we have dealt with the situation, uh, which I'll get a little bit more into.

So these are just kind of a general overview.

This is all ages, uh, the top three reasons for the crashes, they're in order, unsafe speed or speeding, unsafe turning, and as I mentioned, wrong side of the road, though it is number one for under 18.

Uh going back to that one in three statistics that I talked about.

Um, we uh we recognize that many of the riders that are on the road, particularly when it comes to the young riders, a lot of them just don't know better, and uh we feel that education is a very effective strategy uh coupled with enforcement, of course.

I'll talk a little bit about our diversion program that we've been doing in Huntington Beach.

Um, but one of the unique things that we've done in Huntington Beach that others are starting to um really emulate in their communities is our hands-on rider training.

Um addressing the actual strategies, I'll get into that.

Looks like I'm stuck here, maybe need to hit that arrow on your screen.

Okay, perfect.

So our our strategy is essentially two-pronged enforcement and education.

Really, you can't have an effective solution without both of those.

Um, and you can't just do one or the other.

Um, there's a group, I call them the one percenters, really the kids that are on the electric motorcycles that I'm sure a lot of you are aware of.

Many of them have pegs, but not always.

Uh that's a dead giveaway.

They look like dirt bikes.

Uh, but those kids already they're on the road and they they know that they shouldn't be on the road, and a lot of times they're the ones who are running from us.

Uh, and of course, that also goes out to other agencies throughout California and really the nation.

Uh, but it's kind of a different mindset because if you're on the road and you know that you shouldn't be on the road, every time you see a cop, you already have an idea that you're probably gonna run from them, which a lot of them do.

Um, so we've been proactive uh with just really monitoring those and not just chasing them outright, but just kind of doing a follow-up later on if we can't catch them uh in a driving and safe way.

Um, and then of course, education we'll talk about that.

Uh one of the things that we've developed is a team that is the word has been used ancillary, so essentially a secondary assignment.

Uh many of the officers work patrol, or we have our school resource officers who are uh part of this team.

Uh it's six officers and myself, a sergeant.

Uh we're looking to expand the team, but really um we do primarily most of the enforcement when it comes to e-bikes and e-motos, because we're really the specialists when it comes to this subject, um, along with the training.

Um the training that we do is is pretty labor-intense, meaning uh we go through a formalized rider training program, which I'll touch on a little bit here.

I won't get into the weeds about it, um, but really you need a specialized team in order to affect the solutions that we've adopted.

Uh going to enforcement, uh, these are just some of the body worn camera videos from some of our officers.

We've very effective when it comes to enforcement.

We are uh ensure that we put this on social media.

As you know, kids talk.

Um, so a lot of the things that we're doing, they know officers by name, uh, they're responding to our social media posts, but really the word is getting out and is really affecting the way that some of the kids are riding.

Not all of them, but we got to start somewhere.

Um so far this year we've done 11 operations, if you will, or really a planned uh operation where we go out.

Uh, we're gonna begin incorporating uh the uh beach service road.

We have some officers that last week that three of them were trained on LIDAR, essentially like a radar detector.

Uh, we're gonna be using that on the beach service road.

We've done that in years past, uh, but they're gonna be team members, so it's gonna be a little bit more effective, and we can do it.

Uh we just organize and then just uh rally if we need to deal with an issue.

Um, and also with our sidewalk ordinance, uh, which uh council member uh Grandma uh Vandermark um brought uh last year and has uh been a great for us.

That obviously deals with the the speed limit, so that'll be helpful.

Uh 78 citations so far, many of those written by the team.

Um really quick this case was from November of 2025.

I won't get into the details, but essentially uh two minor riders, same father riding the same motorcycle.

We let the motorcycle go.

He had good reason two of the three times on the third one we took it, and we ultimately approached the DA's office, and the DA's office was very interested in the case and ended up prosecuting the father.

Uh it was a misdemeanor, but that really was the catalyst soon thereafter.

Uh, your Belinda, the OC sheriff's department, they filed a felony case, though predated ours, uh, the DA is their talk.

And so really our case was a kind of uh that first domino that fell, and now we've had a number of cases since this time uh get filed with the DZ DA's office at other agencies.

And so we're very proactive when it comes to working with the DAs, and of course, with our law enforcement partners.

Uh, just so to give you some more totals and get you up to speed on everything.

So far this year, we've had six pursuits.

As I mentioned, our policy states that unless we have a uh serious imminent threat to the community uh that we can articulate.

Uh we're not going to pursue them.

We're we're not going to be traveling on the wrong side of the road, which is what they typically will do.

Uh going high speeds, we will really dial it back and uh go into an observation mode and when possible use our drones uh or HB1.

Um as you can see, 11 impounds.

Now on to education.

So really the big thing about our educational program.

It's not the average education program where you watch a PowerPoint, you take a test and you get a school permit.

Uh we've adopted a formal rider training program.

So think of it like a mini DMV test.

It's pass or fail.

We don't just say, hey, kids have a good time.

Uh we felt that it was very effective to have the kids come out and actually show that they can uh ride their e-bikes in a safe way, at least have that basic level of understanding to operate these really these vehicles on the roadway.

And so that was kind of the first of its kind in California.

And so our district, uh, Huntington Beach Union High School District and the HB uh City District starting this fall, it's going to be a mandatory program.

Uh, over the past few years or so, they had the written testing where you had to get a permit and take the test.

That's still part of it, but this is now the secondary.

So, like I said, like a mini DMV where you actually get a written and a hands-on practical uh training all at the same time.

It's typically the two hour session.

We run them at least once a month.

We'll ramp that up over the summer to start picking off some of the students that are going to be going into the school for the fall, so that way we can hopefully get as many riders training as we possibly can.

Uh, we're very proud of that program.

The chief's been supportive about that.

All of you have been great when it comes to supporting our efforts and of course the community.

Uh, we've had a ton of feedback from those who have attended our uh our events, and I know that a number of you have been to them in person.

If you haven't, I I would recommend that you do because it's great.

A lot of the parents actually get there and they have absolutely no clue about what it is that they're gonna see.

Um, they'll see some of their their uh student riders or kids, and they'll say, Wow, I had no idea that this was a rule, or I didn't know that you know, maybe not this bad, like riding it on the roadway.

And so it's a great way for us to really highlight safety in a creative way in a and where the kids are actually being able to demonstrate.

And as I mentioned before, we've had a handful that didn't pass, and so it's a great way for us to then pull that parent aside who we wouldn't have otherwise had that conversation with and say, Hey, you need to work with this child, your child in an area secluded so they could get a little bit more experience.

And I had one girl in particular who can't couldn't even turn her bike around.

She literally would go finish the exercise.

Her dad had to pick up her back tire, turn her at 180, and she'd come back.

So, about exercise two.

I said, Hey dad, she's not gonna pass, but keep practices with her, give it some pointers a couple weeks later.

She came back, she passed.

Uh, but we would have had that conversation.

She would have been out there on the roadway, and heaven, heaven forbid, it was my daughter or one of your children.

I know any anyone here in the audience that has kids, uh, you would really couldn't live with that.

So it's a great way for us to be very proactive and creative about it, so much so that uh we created this post-course uh police officer standards and training for those that don't know, but it's like the gold standard of law enforcement training in our state.

Only course in California that does this, and so we actually have had since March of last year, we've had 28 law enforcement agencies throughout California as far as uh Walnut Creek.

Um, 75 law enforcement officers trained.

We have our next one in June.

Um, I'm already getting my phone ringing off the hook.

I'm constantly getting contacted by people from other agencies asking us, hey, what are you doing?

What's your program?

We want to do it, and of course, obviously that all leads to what we're doing here and how great you guys have been in Huntington Beach, really leading the way uh with affecting change within our state.

This is just a picture from our very last uh rider training.

We I think we had 60 riders that day.

This is just one of two groups, uh, and it doesn't even capture the whole picture.

But smiling faces, parents are extremely happy, happy, thankful.

Um, we've had a lot of connect uh connections with the kids.

It's been really great, and it's been very rewarding for my side of it as well.

Uh, since our first one that we've done in May of last year, we've had 737 riders and their parents through.

Um, and again, that leads California really because we're we're at the forefront of this program, and it's just a great number to point to to just the success that we've been having in our city that others want to emulate.

OTS has been a very great strategic partner, they're all about it.

Um, they're always calling me, I'm talking with them.

I want to be at a symposium uh that they have uh in the chief as well uh in June, that's gonna be in Sacramento.

Uh this will be my third year in a row being a guest speaker, talking particularly about e-motos and e-devices, but always talk about how uh Huntington Beach has been so great and leading the way in this uh this situation, which is uh so important to many people.

Uh these are just some upcoming things that we have planned.

Uh the 25th, that's just our standard rider training.

This is actually the first of its kind where really everyone that's in the course is someone who's gotten a citation.

I think we had 60 citations issued last month.

Uh I did not tabulate those numbers.

I'm sorry, uh, we did not add that in, but I I looked at it before I came here today in March.

We had 60 citations.

Many of those riders are coming to that diversion course, if you will.

Think of it like a driver's ed type of deal in lieu of a fine, they come to the class, and then you know, as long as they pass, uh, then they're gonna get a permit and also get their ticket waived.

Uh so that's this uh this Saturday.

Uh May 15th is uh is our uh HPPD e-dut device symposium.

Uh I say e-device that really incorporates anything that's got electro motor, but really the focus of it is going to be fixated upon e-bikes and e-motorcycles.

Um, so we'll have um representatives from health, education, law enforcement, uh, even some e-bike manufacturers, the IPA family is gonna be there.

Uh Jesse Hayes and Casey Hayes is also gonna be there.

They're actually going to speak along with the medical director from Shock in one of the first blocks, really just touching the heartstrings of people and connecting with the room.

But we've opened that to the essentially the state of California.

So we have many agencies, even from Northern California that are wanting to come down to to be at that event.

So that's gonna be a big deal, and that's gonna be on May 15th.

Uh and then finally, as I mentioned, the post-course, June 16th through 20th.

Uh, we have a bunch of agencies that are very interested.

I think we have 10 officers signed up of the 20 that were allowed.

And that wraps it up.

Some questions, comments?

I do.

Yeah.

Um, I was reading in the paper the other day that I think I think it was the city of Newport Beach outlawed all e-bikes or east motorcycles that don't have pedals.

Um, you know, that can be powered by pedals.

Is that uh uh regulation or law in Huntington Beach?

So if they don't if they don't have pedals, they're absolutely not an e-bike.

If they do have pedals, they might be an e-bike if that helps to fix the problem for you.

So there's there's a lot to it.

I I for us speed is the number one indicator to tell whether it's a pocket bike or an electric motorcycle or an e-bike.

Um so there's some other factors too that define what an e-bike is.

There's three different classes, but without really going into the if it doesn't have pedals, outright we know it's not an e-bike.

Absolutely not.

Thank you.

And uh, just one more question.

Um is Huntington Beach in you know, basically out in front of, say, just even in the state of California with our regulations and uh enforcement uh uh basically our enforcement regulations is are we more stringent here in hunting communities than you know, other places in California?

Are we ahead of the curve with the state?

Uh not to brag, but yes, we are.

I've gotten calls from people in Australia before, if that gives you an idea of what we're doing here in Huntington Beach.

But really, we're taking the the vehicle code and we're really going in.

And I I can't, I I will not take credit for this, but like talk working with uh others within our agency, other neighboring agencies, but just the traffic community, particularly in law enforcement is very tight-knit.

So, really just and that was really the idea for the post-course that we developed is setting up best practices for law enforcement.

But we bring in the DA's office, we bring in representatives from health to talk because there's so many different stakeholders, if you will, that this touches.

I felt bringing everyone together under an umbrella and actually teaching the cops to then be able to go out and share that education with their communities is gonna be the most effective way.

Thank you.

And I think I speak for everybody up here.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you for being part of the greatest police force, I believe, in the United States.

And it's because of officers like you.

Thank you, sir.

I can echo that.

It it's it's great to be leading in so many different things here in Huntington Beach.

We lead the way in a ton of stuff, and e-bikes is important.

Couple quick questions.

I remember when you used to go to traffic school.

Not you, me.

The first time I recall it might have been free.

You always paid a little bit of a fine, but you didn't pay the ticket, and the ticket didn't go in your record.

But you know, over time, try even traffic school, although they take away the ticket, it's expensive to go to traffic school.

So with these kids, you kind of you you kind of uh equate it to like traffic school.

If they get a ticket, what is the cost of a ticket?

Let me ask you that first.

So the cost of a ticket, if it's a municipal code violation, we just go by the bail schedule.

I believe it starts at 275.

Okay.

So 250.

Um I know that if you if you get like something related to the California vehicle code and it goes to court, it's about 400.

Uh Bobby, you would probably know better than me.

He's been in traffic court lately, but I know we had a registration citation that that was um recently went through and the judge said guilty and it was like a 400 file.

Okay, so yeah, there's some there's some pain.

But if they go through your course, you take away the ticket the first time, right?

What if it what if it's a second offender?

Can they come back to the course or they're done?

So it's always officer discretion.

Okay.

If there's some extending circuit circumstances where the officer feels, you know what, let's just send them back to, but that'll be ultimately up to the officer to decide.

Um, but of course, being the leader that you know, we our stance is well, you could you warn them one, and if they if they do it again, then I would recommend citing them to court.

But again, I'm not telling them to do that.

I'm just that's just something that I feel is the best way of handling it for them to bet best learn because we gave them one warning, so what are we gonna do from there?

We can't just keep giving them warnings, right?

Fair enough.

My next question is how do you get uh new e-bike purchasers to your course?

There's one way you get a ticket.

How do you get everybody who's under 18 to your course?

I have an idea, but I'd like to hear what you guys do.

You do anything.

So our my idea was if the schools are on board, unless they go to private school, they're gonna come through our course because the school's gonna mandate that they come through our course.

So that but of course that's talking about Huntington Beach, right?

Right.

Um so yeah, so that's my solution for it.

And I also want to want to emphasize that what we've learned along the way is that this could be the greatest program in the ever uh uh in the world, but if the parents don't know what they're missing out of or don't necessarily know that their kid is part of the problem, quote unquote, they're not gonna bring their kid, they're not gonna want to come out out on a Saturday and spend their Saturday to come to this class.

So I felt the best way of doing it would be for it to be mandatory, and the schools agreed.

Uh, because the riders that do come through showed a notable improvement, and and to their own testimony, they say, wow, this is they I learned so much here.

And to me, that's just fuel to just keep going.

And and but to your point, yes, I think it should be available to really anyone who's riding an e-bike, particularly if they don't have a license and have haven't had any sort of rules over the road type of training.

So, what I was just what occurred to me, like if if you had a hang tag on you know, every e-bike store here in Huntington Beach, if you guys had a hang tag with the QR code, and when somebody came in to buy an e-bike, a lot of times it's a parent, and they could you know inquire who's the bike for it's for Johnny, Johnny, how old's Johnny?

15.

They have to scan that QR code.

When I was younger here in Huntington Beach, you had to go to the right here and get a bike license.

You know, that's the that's out now, I guess maybe.

But if if they scanned a hang tag and it took them to some kind of a mechanism that says, you know, you now you need to sign up and attend one of these courses, it's not necessarily mandated, but it becomes a little bit more voluntarily suggestive, you know, that the parents now see this.

What is this?

They scan it, and all of a sudden it says if your kid is 18 or younger and this is intended for them, you know, sign up for one of these courses and it takes them to the signups.

You might get some, you know, uh some signups that way, and it doesn't hurt the e-bike sales, it doesn't do anything but make the parents more aware when they're at point of purchase.

They scan the, you know, you go down and just hand them to all these bike shops, you just hand them hang them on the handlebar, buy it, scan it, and it takes them to some information.

No, yeah, I I think that would not that's not an outside the norm what uh ask for the and I know the e-bike shops are very on board with wanting to help and be part of the solution.

They want to make sales, but at the same time they also want to keep their customers safe.

So um, so I I feel they would be open.

Obviously, that would unless there's a law that stated that they needed it to, which I know that there are some uh I think they would voluntarily comply.

Yeah, you know, if they took them to user-friendly, you know, and supports the reason, you know, how great e-bikes are.

It's just something to think about.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you for keeping the kids safe, and I can guarantee that uh you're making an impact in you know, hopefully saving lives, which I'm sure you are.

Absolutely.

I got I got a nine and a 12 year old, so I just think of them all the time too.

So that's what keeps me going.

And uh yeah, uh everyone that's uh on the team also believes in the mission too.

So it hits the heart.

Yeah, I'll just say just I know I speak for my colleagues, but this is one of our most uh proudest achievements.

You know, when we got elected in 22, sat down with the chief and asked him what the number one issue in the city was, and he said e-bikes.

And we worked so hard at it with you guys and your help, um, creating new ordinances, working with all the schools to require safety classes, and just evolve with constant attention to it.

We I think again, if I speak for my colleagues, we don't get a lot of e-bike emails anymore and concerns, and you know, I've said you know, out in the public that we lead the county in e-bike safety, but now as you can see that we actually lead the state, and so much so that you know Pat and Butch and I are the intergovernmental um relations committee, and they're actually finally at the state level pushing a lot of e-bike safety legislation bills, and I believe it's all because of the attention we brought to it, the our focus about it to find solutions.

And I was at my OCTA meeting a couple weeks ago and they talked about it and they talked about Huntington Beach and and you know, we're just again leading the county now leading the state.

So we're really proud of it.

It's a very complicated issue to resolve.

I'm not saying we're fixing it, but we've done such great work, and I really um appreciate you guys looping in the the IPA family and Jesse Hayes.

If everyone remembers, he's our e-bike safety ambassador.

He actually died on an e-bike and was resuscitated multiple times on the scene.

And uh we were honored him last year, so I'm really excited to hear that he's involved in that.

What what was that date again?

May 15th?

Uh May 13th.

May 13th, okay, at the senior center?

Yes.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll be really brief here.

Um, so one the emails that I do get are more specific to the uh Pacific Coast Highway, the corridor right there, um, between pier at the pier and all the way down through to Sunset Beach.

And one of the mi primary concerns is that there are people walking or there are people just slowly biking biking, and then you've got a 30 plus mile per hour e-bike that comes by safety issue.

People have been hit or narrowly hit.

What's the um strategy in regards to mitigating against that?

So uh we uh we actually have uh we've actually ran LIDAR on the or the radar on that beach service road before.

Uh so we have one officer on our team who's already been trained, but then we just had three more trained last week.

So we're anticipating already as it as it begins to warm up and those complaints that are going to be coming in as they do every year.

Uh so our way of addressing it is just being out there and doing enforcement uh and doing education, warning when when feasible, but if it's egregious or it's a repeat offender, or the officer decides hey, this person needs to get a citation, then we're gonna cite them and we're gonna be we're gonna be proactive about it.

All right, anybody else?

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh now moving on to the consent calendar, items 18 through 24.

Does anyone want to pull any items?

I myself uh need to need to pull 18 for the minutes to make a quick correction.

Anybody else?

I'm pulling number 19.

Okay.

Anyone else?

I was just discussed 18 as well.

Perfect.

Do we have a motion to move the balance?

Motion to move the remaining ball items.

Okay.

So that's uh 20 through 24.

I think that's councilman Gruel.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twine.

Yes.

Mayor McKean.

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Hi.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Items number 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24.

Pass 7-0.

All right.

So uh Madam Clerk, just on the minutes on 18, that first sentence in my council member comments.

Just says Mayor McKean announced that per municipal code section 3.03.100 and city charter section 13.

It should should say city charter section 613.

City charter section.

Is that what you did you say 613 during the hearing?

I don't believe so, but that was my intention.

So I think the the minutes have to accurately.

Did that did the video say 13?

When I reviewed the video, I saw that it said 13.

Okay, that's fine then.

All right.

My intent was 613, but that's that's okay.

And I think we're gonna be able to get the minutes pulled up on the screen here in just a moment.

Before you s before you start, council member, just so we're clear, you the the minutes are as they were stated during the meeting.

If there was uh error in the minutes, that's okay, but we can't correct or change what was said during the meeting.

Understood, yeah.

And I guess my concern would be more of the the substance of of what was said, you know.

Doesn't matter.

This right, it's it's got like I said, it's got case.

Yeah, no, I was just saying my intent, but it was what I said on video, so the minutes are just an accurate reflection of what was was stated at the meeting.

Okay, let me just read something then real quick here because uh if we can go to council comments, uh Mr.

McKeon's comments there, and maybe this is just something that can come up later then.

Um but there was a statement uh essentially that that council had decided to pull this agenda item.

Um let me just put it this way.

So I I see it.

So uh if we can go to McKeon's comments, we have there.

Um we got his words up.

It'll be a little bit, yeah, further down, you're right there.

Oh okay.

So just reading it from the top here.

So is uh Mayor McKeon announced that per municipal code section 303100 and city charter section 13, the request for proposal process is not required for administrative item number 22 regarding a professional service contract between the city of Huntington Beach and Wolfhaus.

He added that council, due to express community concerns, has withdrawn this item in order to implement the RFP.

Um again, this might be more technical or substantive, but um, you know, city manager, if I could just ask you, and and this is a conversation that we had had before.

Uh this was an administrative item.

Was this something that you directed to be polled?

And the question isn't whether or not you're happy it was pulled, but did you direct this item to be pulled?

I discussed with the mayor about polling the item.

Okay, but was there any direction to pull the item directly from you?

We've I mean you've given me the answer multiple times before.

Yeah, we talked together about pulling the item.

Okay, I guess again, did you direct him to pull the item?

And again, we're here to clarify if the if the if the record says what it says and it's accurately reflected there, then we're not here to correct something that's on video as supported in the minutes.

That makes sense.

Okay, we'll get around to it uh when we talk about the H items.

That's fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

Second.

Motion and a second councilman Gruel.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twine.

Yes.

Mayor McKeon?

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Item number 18 passes 70.

All right.

Vandermark number 19.

So this is an item I'm excited about.

Um this is actually a partnership with supervise between supervisor Janet Wanda County and the city.

Uh, one of the promises that we made while we were campaigning was that we were gonna tackle the homeless issue.

We were gonna reduce the numbers.

And um we started working into to look into the funding.

We started working with the homeless task force and uh our police chief and our fire to see what it is that we we can do.

And then we started looking into the funding of the navigation center, and we found out that our navigation center, we we were funding it through ourselves through a city while other cities were actually receiving help from the county.

So when our supervisor Janet Wynne was elected to the board, I was a mayor at that time, and I approached her and I asked her if there were any county programs for that we can use to help us with the shelter, something we can partner with to assist us.

Uming other cities were getting assistance, I asked our goal why are they receiving assistance?

Well, we're not just a second.

Sorry.

So I asked them why are they receiving assistance, but yet we are not, and apparently former council members from other cities when they opened their navigation center requested the county help them financially.

And they did receive the help, but the former council never asked.

So because they never asked, we never received any funding.

Um so at that time when I was a mayor, and I did ask us not Senator Supervisor Janet Wynn if she can look into any program.

She found this one.

Uh her staff they looked, and I'm so grateful that um after us reaching out and saying we need help with the navigation center, what is it that you can do?

They actually jumped right up and looked for the funding and came up with 500,000 dollars that they can um help their toss our way so we can help with our navigation center.

And this wasn't really quick.

This actually took a few years.

It started when I was a mayor, and then when Pat Burns became the mayor, we continue to work with it, and it's not until now that Casey is a mayor that this finally came into fruition.

And the 500,000 capital and proved its funding.

Um, through this partnership, we're gonna be able to maintain the safe, functional, and welcoming facility for community through the navigation center.

Um, our homeless task force and many other groups are helping the homeless residents find the help that they need.

And one thing I'm really proud of is that while our numbers were reduced, we didn't reduce those numbers by sending them off to our neighboring cities.

We actually found them the help that they need.

And that's one thing that not even the state was able to do.

Um we've carried the shelter on our own budget since day one, and this partnership with the county, it finally recognizes that homelessness, it is a regional challenge, and it does require a regional approach.

And I'd like to thank Supervisor Janet Wynne, the county staff, council member Pat Burns, Mayor Casey McCann, as well as our city manager Travis Hopkins, Jessica Keldy, our homeless task force.

You guys have been amazing.

Um for helping us get this done.

If it wasn't for all the work you guys did and the success that has come through our navigation center and the homeless task force, the county might not have seen that this these are funds well spent.

So thank you for all the work that you guys have done for us.

And that was 500,000.

500,000 dollars.

Fantastic.

Yep.

Anyone else?

Yep.

Um I'd just like to make a motion to approve this.

Second.

All right.

Councilman Gruel.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy, yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twine?

Yes.

Mayor McKeon.

Yes.

Burns.

Hi.

Councilwoman Vandermark.

Yes.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes 7-0.

All right.

Uh moving to Councilmember Items.

Uh number 25 is is mine.

So this is uh to declare May 7th as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Huntington Beach.

So uh this proposal recommends designating May 7th as Theor Theodore Roosevelt Day, Huntington Beach, California.

The day marks the anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's first visit to California in 1903 uh during his well-known nine-week Great Loop Tour, one of the most memorable presidential journeys in American history.

The year 1903 is is also notable for several local uh milestones in American history, including the Wright Brothers, first flight, the first World Series, and the introduction of the Teddy Bear named after Roosevelt, and the historical significance is May 7th, 1903, is mean uh meaningful for several reasons.

So it's the first the first official recognition, and so this would be the first time a city in California officially sets aside a day to honor Theodore Roosevelt, whose impact on conservation at uh and national parks is still felt today.

It has connections to Hyundai Beach's beginnings.

So in that same month in 1903, Henry Huntington purchased Pacific City, which eventually became Huntington Beach.

This shared timing creates a strong historical link uh between Roosevelt's visit and the city's founding.

The influence on conservation.

So during the 1903 trip, Roosevelt spent three days camping in Yosemite with naturalist John Muir, and that experience helped shape his commitment to conservation and the protect protection of public lands.

And then a deeper historical connection is that the story of Yosemite's preservations goes back to Abraham Lincoln in 1864, influenced by photographer Carlton uh Watkins, Watkins had ties to Collis Huntington, whose railroad was later passed on to Henry Hineson.

So these connections highlight how local and national history are closely linked.

So it's also worth knowing that in the in the 1930s, the Pacific Coast Highway running through Huntington Beach was named Roosevelt Highway in his honor, uh designating May 7th as Theater Roosevelt Day would help reconnect with that history and encourage continued appreciation for conservation and environmental stewardship.

And recognizing this day would honor Roosevelt's legacy while also tying into the celebration of our nation's 250th birthday this year.

And so this would also um one of the speakers talked about it with our celebration committee.

We're big on history, that's been a very successful uh committee of like local and national historical events, and so that's another way they can weave this into their celebration.

So the recommended action was I would just like to make a motion to request staff to bring forth a resolution at the May 5th, 2026 City Council meeting, declaring May 7th, 2026 as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Einstein Beach.

Second questions, comments clerk, please just a quick comment on that.

Clerk, please.

Just a quick comment on that.

Yeah.

You know, I just my wife and I, along with five or six other couples spent almost two weeks in Croatia this last September.

And the number one thing the Croatian people wanted to come to the U.S.

to see was the national parks.

I couldn't believe it.

They were so excited to talk about the national parks and when we were telling them the different parks we've been to, they were astounded.

Croatia's got a lot of beauty, but they I talked to so many people who said, I want to come to the U.S.

I said, why?

They go, we want to see the national parks, national parks.

So they're the jewel of the United States, these national parks.

And I believe maybe you said it.

Was he was like integral and creating he create the first national park?

Yes, yeah.

Yep, create the system.

So it's incredible.

I like this.

Okay.

Clerk, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilman Gruel.

Uh, per one of the residents' requests, given the fact that I hosted a tether Teddy Roosevelt event with an author, an author listed here.

I will recuse myself from this.

Okay.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiny.

Yes.

Mayor McKeon.

Yes.

Councilman Burns.

Hi.

Councilman Wompan Vandermark?

Yes.

Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes 601.

All right.

Next up on the agenda is item 26, uh submitted by Councilmember Kennedy.

Uh Mayor McKeon and Councilman Burns to create a city council lease review ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on city leases.

Councilmember Kennedy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to quickly read the issue statement.

The city maintains a diverse portfolio of assets, including numerous properties leased for a variety of uses throughout the community.

The city council has undertaken ongoing efforts to ensure these leases, these assets are managed strategically to maximize their value and deliver intended amenities that benefits residents, visitors, and the city's overall financial position.

These efforts have resulted in several key initiatives that I'm proud of with it.

Including the centralization of lease administration, improved management of lease revenues, updating outdated agreements, and aligning lease terms with current market conditions.

There are additional areas of improvement that should be considered, including the implementation of an open bid leasing process in which percept prospective tenants actually compete in a transparent and competitive environment.

Given the scope and importance of the city's lease portfolio, establishing a dedicated forum for focused review will enhance oversight and strategic alignment.

An ad hoc committee composed of city council members would provide the opportunity to review lease agreements, evaluate terms and conditions, review market alignment, participate in or provide input on lease negotiations, evaluate open bidding leasing, and develop recommendations for city council consideration.

My thought is this as we you know when I first came to council, I kind of summarized out loud that Huntington Beach is is really a real estate company.

We have so much valuable real estate, and I've been privileged to partake in you know the uh watching the process uh of lease negotiations and things like that.

What I've learned in the private sector is real estate was one of the last major marketplaces to be disrupted.

And the people that I spent almost 30 years with were the founders of two very disruptive real estate technologies, auction.com and 10x.

What that showed us is a transparent and open bidding platform is really the best way to drive value because what that does, it makes sure anybody who's interested in an asset, whether it be a lease or a purchase, knows exactly what the market is bidding and willing to pay for that given asset.

So that can trickle down to a lease.

We have some incredible leased assets or assets that will be coming up for lease.

And from what I've heard, there's been a couple of different times where other people maybe we've uh uh picked a lesssee, and you know, through through the grapevine, we've heard that other entities might have said, Wow, you know, I probably I wish I would have known uh this is all it would have taken, or things like that.

The spirit of this initiative would be create not necessarily for every asset, but for the for the A locations that would drive competitive bidding where there's real value in in being the lesse on these uh locations to let every participant know exactly what we used to say in the auction business, where the money is.

So, in other words, if if I want to lease property A down here, and I'm a person or an entity and I say I'll pay pay this much uh a month, I will put this much money into the property, uh this, that, and the other thing.

Somebody else that might want that asset a little bit more in a transparent environment, might say, Well, you know what?

I'll pay X plus one.

I'll actually put a little bit more money into that asset, and I'll do X, Y, and Z.

And then that gives anybody who's interested the absolute knowledge of what it's gonna take to be the winning bidder, the winning lessee for that property.

There's no better way to drive value than having an open, transparent marketplaces.

That's why uh Sotheby's and you know, some of the greatest assets in the world uh are done through uh auctions, valuable paintings, coins, cars, what you name it, anything of value, you want to drive value.

You make sure everybody who's interested is aware of it and make sure they know exactly where the money is.

So I'm not talking about a complex system, but I am talking about instead of a sealed bid, an open and transparent bid where people that are interested in a property know exactly what it's gonna take to be what I would say in the money or the top bidder, uh, and everybody has a fair opportunity to counter outbid, so it's a great way to drive value.

So this is something the ad hoc committee is not designed to uh to pick winners, it's designed really the the ad hoc committee is designed to have oversight on the process number one.

You know, people uh and we're gonna see this on the next thing with the the Wolfhouse.

RFPs are not a perfect science.

So I'm bringing my private sector experience into government, and I'm seeing uh with the with my cohorts here, we're making a lot of progress on managing inefficiencies and creating opportunities.

So this is I'm not saying it's inefficient the process, but I'm saying there's room to uh develop and enhance.

So the ad hoc committee is going to be designed to kind of be a steering committee in regards to a better way to uh bring to market our starting with our A locations.

That's number one.

Secondly, as we've gone through some of these lease negotiations, in the end, you know, as I'm sitting there, I'm thinking to myself, I've got a lot of experience in commercial real estate and lease negotiations.

I want to talk to these tenants.

I want to be party to these negotiations.

We have a lot of um in industry knowledge up here with people that have a lot of commercial real estate properties they own, uh, businesses that they're in.

And I think that we should be part of the negotiation when we're getting down to you know, some of these locations, rather than us kind of giving the talking points to somebody that doesn't have this is not an indictment on anybody who's the messenger, but if they don't have the the experience that we have up here as a council that currently we're not leveraging, I think it would be beneficial for the city, the residents, and everybody involved that uh there's a few people that are part of the negotiation process with the potential lessees.

Again, I'm not talking about every small location, but some of the A locations we can start there so that the communication doesn't get lost in the messenger or lost in the translation, where we can uh negotiate you know, deal points right then and there and come to some deal points with the winning person, the winning lessee, uh if you will, and uh basically drive the best value for the city, fair value for the lessee, and the best possible revenue out of our A locations starting uh that benefit our residents.

So that's the spirit of this initiative.

Um regarding an ad hoc committee, you know, I'd like to be part of it.

I would nominate myself.

I would nominate Butch Twiny because he's well versed in leases.

He owns a lot of commercial real estate, and the other person that has a lot of commercial real estate experience is Casey McKeon.

So unless there's objections, I would uh I would move to uh point us to the ad hoc committee.

Again, this doesn't mean we pick winners, this doesn't mean we have final say, this means we have oversight on the process.

We're involved in negotiations.

Everything will involve council input as well, but you can't put seven people in front of a lese, you'd overwhelm them.

So that's the spirit of the ad hoc committee.

Thank you, Don.

I would second uh the motion, but just the salient point you make, and again, it dovetails on the next item is that the electorate elects us to represent them in their local government.

And so what they're electing us is to weave in our private sector experience to make government better.

I've heard comments about, well, that's what staff is for, which is true.

However, we live in a constitutional republic, so the electorate wants to be represented in government to provide again private sector experience to you know work with staff, provide recommendations as this ad hoc uh, you know, um agenda item says.

And again, it doesn't mean other council members can be involved in these ad hocs, but to Don's point, only three can get together at once.

So that's the genesis of these ad hocs is to is to weave in and contribute our private sector experience to make government better to make these systems better, and then provide recommendations with staff.

And to Don's point, you know, uh myself, Butch, and Don have extensive commercial real estate experience.

So I know that'll be a benefit to this process, and I'm excited that this is moving forward, and I appreciate you uh nominating me nominating me to be on it.

So I I just want to make a comment.

I think so.

The open bid leasing element of this, I think that that's great.

I I think that the everyone who's bidding on a project should see what everybody else is bidding on a project.

That's that's free market right there.

I think that that is important.

If we were just looking at ways in which we could expedite and make this clearer and more transparent, especially for the people who are bidding.

My only concern with a three-person board is is that we're boxing out the rest of the council members, right?

So you have three people who might be interested in a project, and then by the time the all the decisions are made and it comes to council, it's already been moved forward to some degree.

I mean, I have a I have a problem in general with just having meetings with three people only when it's not transparent to the public or with all of council involved, even if it's in closed sessions.

So I'm just I I'm I mean, I don't understand why we need three people to do this when council members already have the ability to have these conversations with the city manager, and they can they can get we can already right now engage in those negotiations.

Why do we need to galvanize it through a specific three-person committee?

Well, I will ask the city manager and the city attorney.

My understanding with the ad hoc is that it creates a mechanism for three people to collaborate, then they could share that work, of course, right, with other council members through the city manager and our city attorney, like updates and progress.

My vision, let me just jump in because it's my vision is not to box anybody out.

My vision would be first off, thank you for your comment.

But if that was true, why aren't we negotiating with lessees right now?

We're not.

We're negotiating via a messenger.

So that mechanism, if it was available, we're either not using it or it's not viable.

The ad hoc committee would be there not to would be to uh first off develop the process, number one, give it some oversight.

Secondly, once we start seeing bidders come in, there wouldn't be any negotiation on deal points without the closed session consensus of the entire body.

Like what do we want to here's where we're at?

Who do we like, or whatever the case may be, but what are the deal points that we think are important just like we do right now, but instead of then sending a messenger off that doesn't have anywhere near the experience that you know we do collectively, then we take the collective body's input, then we utilize a couple of voices to do the negotiation directly with the potential lesse.

And that those three people can change.

I don't care.

I don't have to be, I don't even really want to do a bunch of different negotiations.

I want to get the process started.

The decisions will be based on hey, what do we want as a body for this lease?

What terms and conditions, here's where they're at, how do we want to counter them?

What do you say?

What do you say?

You, you and you, yes, that makes sense.

Okay, write them all down, and then instead of somebody who goes back with zero experience in commercial real estate and saying, here's what we got, can we do it?

We go back with you know some you know subject matter expertise in the space and say this is what the council is looking for.

And that voice represents the input of everybody in our meetings.

Mayor, I I think you pointed a question over to me.

So I I did want to I did want to mention in the recommended action, and this has to be true of all ad hoc committees, they have to be for a limited purpose and a limited time.

Right.

So it's it can't be uh infinite uh and and is this meant the it is still December 2026, end of the year.

Yep.

But I guess Vig, my question is um ad hoc allows three individuals to work together and collaborate, but then can the those updates be then shared with the other council members via you know their city manager updates?

You'll you'll run into a brown act problem.

Okay, how's that?

What's that?

If you start sharing the information at a unagendized meeting, you end up running into a serial meeting situation.

Okay, wait a minute.

So we we create a process where three different people want to lease a an asset.

And this process has nothing to do with the ad hoc committee.

We already laid out a process that everybody goes, that's a good process.

This guy bids X, this guy bids X plus one, this guy bids X plus two, but he's got a couple of different things he likes, this so in the end collectively we go.

So in the end, collectively, we go.

Which one looks like the lead horse?

Kind of what we do right now, don't we discuss, you know, what the asset should bring, and then we send off the messenger.

So we talk about it in a closed session, and we say, here's the deal points.

How do we how do we counter?

They can also bring it to the dais, right?

I mean, they're here's whatever you want to do.

Here's who we interviewed, here's what we came up with.

I think I think the ad hoc committee is a good idea.

I think again, you're gonna you're gonna be limited in scope.

It's probably a good idea for the ad hoc committee to set up a process, have that process in place, and then pass it off to uh pass it off to staff.

Okay, that's fine.

But in the end, more importantly, that's fine.

I can pay I'd love to give away all that stuff, because I don't really want to do it all.

But what I do want to do in the end is I don't want to leave our negotiations up to somebody that I feel like I'm a way better negotiator than, or Andrew is, or Butch's or Casey's or Chatters or Gracie or Pat.

Not just in no indictment on the people that run back to uh the potential bidders, uh less C's, but I guarantee there's more better negotiating skills on this dais than what we send out to the marketplace.

So I don't care who goes and does that, but I think it should be somebody from our city council that wants to do it that we believe is good at it.

And it could it can alternate.

I don't care.

There's there's no want to be the guy.

If I could just chime in, Councilman Kennedy, I think that the way that it is right now, it's fluid, and there's certain times where you know Councilman Grohl might be the best man for the job because it has something to do with like concessions or restaurants.

There's other times where you know, maybe there's commercial development and you know, councilman or uh mayor tem uh twining be the best man for the job or or yourself.

It's fluid the way that it is right now.

If we create this ad hoc committee and say I'm not on the committee or Pat's on the committee, great, we're barred out.

We're barred out.

Because we just said that the ad hoc right now, then we'd have to re-vote for the ad hoc committees over and over.

But the way it is right now at any given time, we pay attention to these leases that are coming up as council members, and we could decide just as you okay?

Yeah, we could decide just as we as as we have with uh some of the recent ones that we've we've worked on that as council members, we can kind of just dive into this.

We could I'm like, hey, I'm gonna roll up my sleeve, I'm gonna jump on this one right here.

That's fine.

So let's create the process.

You know, I'd like a little bit of input from the ad hoc committee, create the process.