NewWed, Jun 10, 2026·Huntington Beach, California·City Council

Huntington Beach City Council Meeting Summary – June 10, 2026

Discussion Breakdown

Library72%
Technology and Innovation28%

Summary

Huntington Beach City Council Meeting Summary – June 10, 2026

The meeting covered a range of topics including financial literacy education, a new police drone program, and a children's storytime program at the library. Council members and staff presented updates, discussed public safety improvements, and reviewed community programs.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • A speaker named Jorge works two jobs and cannot visit a branch; an online bank was recommended for its lower fees and higher interest rates.
  • Lewis's job requires travel between cities; the speaker noted that online banking allows access to ATMs and branches across different cities, counties, and states.

Discussion Items

  • Financial Literacy Class: The next class on savings and managing debt was scheduled for March 11, at the same location and time.
  • Police Drone Program: A representative explained the new Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program. The drone pilot, stationed at the real-time crime center, can launch a drone to a call location within two minutes. The program is reactive, not proactive, and is used for legitimate calls for service, crime in progress, and search for missing persons (seniors and children). Other agencies reported that 20–25% of patrol calls were handled by drones. The city currently has three drone stations, with plans to cover the entire city. The goal is a two-minute response time citywide, which the speaker described as "unheard of" and a "game changer" for public safety.
  • Children's Storytime: Miss Laura from the Huntington Beach Public Library presented a digital storytime session titled "Who's Hiding in the Ocean?" She engaged children with shape and color recognition, ocean animal guessing, and a song about fish of different colors. Miss Maribot later introduced a virtual family storytime with a dance party theme.

Key Outcomes

  • The next financial literacy class is scheduled for March 11, same location and time.
  • The DFR program is in its first phase with three drone stations; expansion to full city coverage is planned.
  • The storytime programs are ongoing at the Huntington Beach Public Library, both in-person and virtual.

Meeting Transcript

Why a credit union? Yeah. So yeah, better rates. Usually they have lower fees as well for your um checking accounts. Then we have Jorge works two jobs and doesn't have time to visit a branch. Online. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So online bank uh would be the best option. I know some people have mentioned uh to me that nowadays even traditional banks and credit unions offer the same services online. But the main difference uh with online banking again is that they have lower fees or they have no fees and the interest rates are usually higher. So if I want to open up uh an account with lower fees, online banking is going to be the best um option on this case. Uh Lewis's job requires seems to trouble between cities. Uh what would be the best option for him? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh again, like I mentioned, there's uh you are I you are able to access um ATMs, the uh branches on different cities, different counties, different states. Okay. So that's all that I have for today. So uh for the next class, we're gonna be talking about savings and managing debt. Uh it's gonna be March eleven, uh, same location, same time. So thank you. On the left side of the structure, top level is uh checking door handles. The two-minute response time is unheard of. Um when you call us and we're there in two minutes, you won't even you'll barely be hanging up the phone, and we're there. That is something that's unheard of because it's a common complaint throughout law enforcement. We just started our drone as a first responder program that's called the DFR program. The pilot, the drone pilot is sitting at a location in our station, our real-time crime center. From here, we can hear the call go out. We can punch in the location and have the drone on scene normally within two minutes or less. If it is a crime in progress and we realize or we get up-to-date information from a witness in that area that that suspect is moving, we're able to also in real time update that location, or I can take over and start changing that location. Once the drone is on scene, the pilot can transmit the officers if there is in fact a crime occurring or if there's no need for their response at all. If we don't have video uh of the crime occurring, sometimes those cases go nowhere. So if we're able to get a drone overhead recording that happening, uh, not only is it helpful for the officers for us to direct them to know where that suspect is going, it also helps uh not only the investigators but the district attorneys in the prosecution of that case. So this program is a completely reactive program. It's not proactive. We're not out proactively looking, looking for crime. We're not looking in people's backyards. We are there because there's a legitimate call for service. We'll respond to that call for service. We will have the drones' ability there, and we will use it to the maximum extent. We need real-time situational awareness so we can get there and save people's lives. These drones give us that capability. It's disaster preparedness. It is helping us to look for seniors that are lost, and we have silver alerts. It's helping us for kids that get lost. It is off of the charts in terms of how much better public safety becomes because of this. Other larger agencies that have already begun their DFR program have reported between 20 and 25% of their patrol calls were actually handled by the drone. So right now we're in the first phase of our DFR program where we have three of these dogs positioned throughout the city. Eventually, we want the entire city covered, which means we're gonna install more dogs eventually.