It's very important to keep your eyes on your children when they're in water at all times.

Even things such as innocuous as a bucket or a bathtub.

One to two inches of water can be dangerous.

Children have drowned while parents are replying to a text, checking a fishing line, or applying lotion.

So never leave a child alone and unattended, especially when they're in rivers, lakes, ponds, or the ocean.

Leaving pets or seniors or any person inside of a vehicle is very dangerous.

The ambient temperature outside is usually 30 degrees hotter inside of a vehicle.

Many times children are left in vehicles with the air conditioning on, but a car can malfunction and stop, and then you'll will have a person unattended in a vehicle that may not be able to save themselves, especially if they're older or their young children.

It is a potentially dangerous situation.

So there's a differentiation between heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Heat exhaustion can be reversed versus heat stroke.

You need to go to an emergency room and have the intervention to help you come back from those symptoms.

When someone's experiencing heat exhaustion, they typically have nausea, dizziness, fatigue.

They feel muscle cramps, they have abdominal pain.

So those can be reversed by finding a shady spot, sipping some water, using ice packs in the armpits or in the groin.

When you have heat stroke, the person can't drink or sip water anymore.

They are unconscious.

They could be having a stroke, they could be having a seizure.

Stepping up to celebrate local improvements and heating the call to keep moving.

This was a block party that began with getting some steps in.

The Black Fire is going to feature games, information for kids and for families.

And just a real chance to celebrate.

I rode my bicycle here.

I live right down the street.

So come on, get your body moving.

Let's have a great one.

Schools are back this week, but there was just enough time for one more event on summer break.

Council members Eunicius Hernandez and Isabel Herado gathered with their local community to help everyone get ready for that return to school.

Today we are on the border of CD1 and CD 14, celebrating our annual Lincoln Heights backpack giveaway, where we are giving over 1,200 backpacks out to community and families here in Lincoln Heights, as well as have over 30 resources and organizations here providing access to health care, access to food.

We're doing everything we can to support our families, and we're doing it in partnership with our neighboring districts.

Our teachers, your principals, everyone in schools are ready for you to come back and start learning.

Start connecting and playing with your classmates, and you know, making sure that you're safe.

So all the families and parents, I want to let you know that the safest place for your children is in site school.

So they will be safe.

We will protect them and everybody's ready for the first day of school.

I know these are hard times, and our communities are afraid and rightly so, but in these moments, getting together and seeing one another and sharing space makes me feel safe, and I hope you all too.

No matter what, our community has to continue showing up, and that's what our offices are doing.

We're providing backpacks, a safe space.

We haven't had free haircuts down the way, and that's the kind of thing our community members want to feel right now.

I know Councilmember Hernandez and I are committed to making sure that you have more safe spaces here in the city of LA, Lincoln Heights, and beyond.

Councilmember Adrien Nazarian has broken ground on new tiny homes in Van Eyes, which he says will add 100 beds and help give unhoused neighbors a path to stability.

The 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count reported that the unsheltered homeless population in Nazarian's district had decreased by 36% since 2024.

According to Nazarian, in the last eight months, interim shelters and a navigation center in his district have provided services to more than 1,500 individuals and shelter to 866.

In addition, Nazarian says the new tiny homes support his goal of helping those living in dangerous conditions and will help residents enjoy a cleaner and safer neighborhood.

For more information, visit CD2.lacity.gov.

Mayor Karen Bass announced the completion of the ELAN Solar Plus Storage Center, one of the largest solar and battery energy storage projects in the country.

ELAND is the latest addition to LA's clean energy sources from the Baron Ridge Renewable Energy Corridor in Mojave.

According to Bass, this center pushes the city's clean energy share above 60%, marking a major milestone in LA's transition to 100% clean energy by 2035.

The ELAN project can provide enough power to supply more than a quarter of a million households across LA.

For more information, visit mayor.lacity.gov slash press.

The authority added that Section 8 is a lifeline to over 50,000 low-income angelinos who might otherwise find themselves out on the street.

For more information, visit HACLA.org.

Surfs up at Venice Beach.

When the ocean calls, Reckon Parks wants to make sure everyone can answer.

ParaSurfing is an all abilities program that teaches young Angelinos how to paddle out and catch the waves.

And we're trying to promote surfing.

And this is the Venice Beach.

And the surfing people are surfing there.

Play LA is all about getting kids from all over the city, all ability, all ages, to come and truthfully just have fun.

Today's event is like um surfboarding.

Because some of the kids think that surfboard needs fun, including me.

When the families come out to Venice Beach or Cabrillo Beach, the kids light up.

They have support from our staff.

It's a beautiful experience for them because otherwise they wouldn't have access to surfing boards and getting these lessons from our staff.

We're gonna paddle!

They enjoy it.

They want to come back over again, and we get repeat kids that do this program more than once.

I love this program.

I love this team.

This is a really great opportunity to enter the ocean and enter surfing.

Surfing has a lot of barriers to entry.

It can be an expensive sport, it can be a very intimidating sport.

Um, a lot of parents, you know, reach out to us and want their children to feel safe and confident in the ocean, and they might not necessarily have those skills.

So being able to pass that on and to see kids having fun safely in the water is just truly the biggest gift of all.

It's really important and it saves lives.

First, you gotta get the surfboard, and then you you've gotta like scorpion on the surfboard, paddle, and then like catch the way.

And then you gotta bend your knees so you can balance better.

We want them smiling.

That's the most important thing.

Smiling safety stoke, and doesn't matter where you at, we will meet you where you need.

Um, getting involved with the families is also really important.

We make sure to have a close rapport, check in.

Some, you know, some disabilities are more apparent than others, and we just want to make sure that we're being um available to all.org to research any type of activities we offer to any type of children with disabilities or without, and they can join in and have these experiencing like surfing, which is called para-surfing on our website, and we also offer paddle boarding, we offer swimming and a variety of other aquatic programs.

And they'll see that their kids, once they come out here, even if they're a little scared, they'll enjoy this experience because it's a wonderful experience, and we offer these beautiful affordable programs to all of the children in Los Angeles.

We um where you make friends, have fun, go surfing on the water.

And the kids certainly are safe, smiling, and stoked.

LA's Public Library presented a celebration of black excellence in honor of Juneteenth and the achievements of African Americans.

With something for everyone, it was a day of blessing, learning, culture, and joy.

It's an incredibly special day here at the beautiful historic Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

We are here for June Jubilee, a celebration of black excellence.

I want to lift up our incredible staff who've done such a great job to put together this event as they have made the program happen in July this year.

It's extra special, and we're looking forward to many, many Angelinos coming to Central Library to explore all that we have to offer.

It's important that the library celebrates all cultures, and it does a great job of doing that.

And I think here at June Jubilee, you'll find displays like Karen Collins, whose African American Museum of Miniatures shows the history of African American culture.

You'll find performances like Jametta Rose and the Voices of Creation, who are bringing joy and happiness and unity to the people of LA.

We're here to celebrate Black Culture, Black Excellence.

We started off the day with a libation and a drum ceremony.

There's lots more to see, including uh author presentations, craft activities for people of all ages.

We're gonna have the Afro American quilters, which are gonna be on the second floor rotunda.

When you walk up on that floor, it's just gonna be an amazing site to witness all of the African American quilted stories that these women have put together.

We are also going to have an amazing Emmy nominated documentary, Black Barbie.

It's gonna be happening in the Mark Taper as well as a discussion panel.

For our community, all of you who are here, and we'll be going through these doors shortly.

This is your day, and don't forget, this is your library.

It's not my library, it's not the commission's library, it's not just the mayor's library, it is your library, and that's why we're here and we exist for you.

Not just at Central Library, but all of our branches throughout this amazing city of Angels.

To all of you, welcome to June Jubilee.

It's gonna be a great day.

Thank you so much.

Young players stepped up to the plate at a citywide tournament.

LA City's Wreck and Parks softball and baseball tournament brought four neighborhoods to the field, bringing out the best in competition and community pride.

We are excited to host the citywide baseball and softball tournaments today.

We have four regions represented.

That means players from all over the city coming from our recreation centers to compete for a citywide title.

This is extremely important for the kids because it's not every day they get an opportunity like this to play on the night's build like this for the championship for the city.

It's a big deal for our community.

You know, the parents are very dedicated, a lot of practice throughout the week, and they're able to get somewhere here to the championship, so something that they're gonna remember for a long time.

It's really positive for them.

We're hosting the baseball softball tournament right now, but we do have year-round sports.

You can find out information at LA Parks.org, where we have four different seasons of baseball, basketball, softball, flag football, soccer, and we're increasing and adding programs in new sports at all times because we're also part of the Olympic initiative.

So we're trying to make sure that we give opportunities for youngsters to get exposed to new sports and have an opportunity to try out and play things that are new for them.

The kids are able to exercise, take out all their energy.

They play for their parts, they make friends, and this is the culmination of what we have going on for the past three months.

What it brings to the kids is self-confidence, self-esteem, community pride.

We're giving them an opportunity that they're never gonna forget.

It is an area of South LA where we want to make sure that we have a lot of alternative actions for young people to participate in and to foster a great path for them.

When they make choices about what they're gonna do with their time, we're here to support that, give them activities to belong to, and we have this happening throughout the city, not just in South LA.

So we're happy to always provide that year-round.

That program is a home run for Wreck and Parks, and there are many more sports detailed on their website.

In this week's feature story, gratitude is the theme of the 2025 Nisei Week Japanese festival in LA's Little Tokyo, honoring the legacy of the district has never been more important.

And the cultural celebrations kicked off with the Nisei Week Grand Parade.

We're kicking off Nisei Week here in Little Tokyo, celebrating our Japanese American community.

The theme for this year is Hancha, which is gratitude.

It's just a celebration.

A celebration of all the uh Japanese Americans who have been in LA over 100 years, actually.

And it's just a reminder of uh all the things that we need to cherish about this place and about our culture.

A lot of people in the Los Angeles are not aware of the although this event is actually every year.

You don't ever want to lose your cultural heritage, it's important to keep that identity, and so this event helps to reinforce that on a regular basis.

It's important to have these parades in large part because it's a way for people to learn more about the culture and to be appreciative and um in tune with what the community wants, right?

It's important to lead from community, and that's what the Japanese American Heritage and Nissai Week is all about.

Yeah, it's a great way to support the Japanese community here in Los Angeles.

It's important for representation.

I think that's kind of the state of our country right now.

I think having this representation to showcase like inclusivity and that we care about our community.

It helps to bring people and community together.

Celebrating diversity, definitely.

Yes, yes, for sure.

That's why we're here.

Living in such a like diverse city.

We're so lucky to have all of these wonderful cultures around us that we can experience, and I think coming to events like these, you really get to feel you know the things you don't get to see in your everyday life.

So I'm excited to see all the Nisei Queens and Princesses.

I'm really excited to see uh the winners from the beauty pageant.

Um, they're my favorite part of the parade.

We went to Tokyo earlier this year, and being in Little Tokyo is just like a little snippet of uh actually being in Tokyo.

I've been coming to Little Tokyo since 1968, I guess.

It's changed greatly, but it's still really the as far as I'm concerned, the heart of Los Angeles and the jewel of Los Angeles, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this.

LA is a melting pot, and so to have our vibrant communities represented, especially in these times where we've been devastated by immigration ice raids now more than ever.

Just so excited to be here to celebrate the diversity, which is the strength of our city.

I am so happy that the people from Los Angeles they do appreciate this event.

In this week's things to do, keep LA beautiful at the seventh annual beautification conference.

Learn more about our coastline at Cabrillo and enjoy a special edition of Back to School Venice.

All this up next on Things to Do.

On Saturday, August 23rd, the Board of Public Works and the Office of Community Beautification presents the seventh annual beautification conference, celebrating people, purpose, presence.

Connect with fellow Angelinos to share stories, learn how to get involved, host your own community cleanup, and discover all that local partners and city agencies have to offer.

There will be over 30 exhibitors at the community Resource expo, and the conference will cover community engagement, volunteering, the My LA Three One One System, and Composting One One.

Head to the Lincoln Heights Senior Center for the seventh annual beautification conference on Saturday, August twenty third, beginning at ten AM.

Find out more under the Keep LA Beautiful tab at LAOCV dot org.

Enjoy a guided walk with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Educators on Saturday, August 23rd, when they will be interpreting the various habitats of the Cabrillo Beach Coastal Park.

The walk begins at the Aquarium Courtyard and takes in the native garden, salt marsh, beaches, and tide pools.

Along the walk, you'll see fossils, native plants, and other interesting finds of the coastal park.

Pack a snack, head outside, and meet at the aquarium for this Cabrillo walk on Saturday, August 23rd at one PM.

For more information, see the events calendar at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

On Saturday, August 23rd, join Councilwoman Tracy Park for a very special coastal cleanup and fire relief edition of Back to School Venice Beach.

This will be a coastal wellness experience and community celebration dedicated to supporting families, celebrating youth, and showing up for those impacted by the January wildfires.

Join Councilwoman Tracy Park for Back to School Venice Beach on Saturday, August 23rd, beginning at ten A.M.

For more information, visit the Instagram account of Councilwoman Tracy Park.

And that's a look at some things to do.

And that's all for this week.

I'm Susan Huckle, and from all of us here at LA This Week, thank you so much for joining us.

Remember that you can watch us online anytime at LA Cityview dot org.

We're also on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube.

See you next time for more LA This Week.

All right.

Good morning and welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting for Los Angeles City Council.

Today is Wednesday, the 20th day of August in the year 2025.

My name is Marquis Harris Dawson.

I serve as president of this council.

Public comment for this morning's meeting will be taken in person in this chamber only.

Yes, sir.

Bloomingfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Hiraro, Lee, McCosker, Nazarium, Padilla, Park, Price, Rahman, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Yaroslavski, 12 members present in quorum, Mr.

President.

Alright, first order of business.

Approval the minutes of August 19th, 2025.

Councilmember Rodriguez moves.

Councilmember McCosker seconds.

What's next?

Commendatory resolutions for approval.

Councilmember Price moves, Councilmember Yaroslavsky seconds.

Can we run through our agenda?

Yes, sir.

Item number items one and two are items noticed for public hearing.

Items three through forty-four are items which public hearings have been held.

For item twenty-six, the Valley Village Neighborhood Council submitted a community impact statement in support of this matter.

Item 40, uh the budget and finance committee report has been submitted, posted online under the council file, and available for council consideration.

For item forty-two, the Sunland Tohonga neighborhood council submitted a community impact statement against the proposal.

Items 45 through 53 are items for which public hearings have not been held.

Item 54 is a closed session item for which public hearing has not been held.

And on the continuation agenda, item 56 is an item for which public hearing has been held.

Ten votes are required for consideration.

All right, without objection, those items are now before us.

We'll call for specials uh members at this time.

Councilmember McCoster.

Thank you very much, Mr.

President.

I would like to call item 22 special for comments.

And I would like to also call item 45 special for questions of staff.

Thank you, Council President.

Item 56 for comments and 42 for a separate vote.

Alright, Councilmember Hernandez.

And 53 special for a separate vote.

1729 30 through 35 and 53 special for a separate vote.

And um, if we could please hold uh thirty-eight on the desk.

Thank you.

All right, without objection.

Ums Price.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, out of an abundance of caution.

I'm accusing myself from item forty-one because I'm unclear who is working on this project.

You're unclear who's working on it?

Correct.

Wow.

Okay.

Just to be safe.

In case, right?

All right.

Uh, any other specialist members?

Council Member Rodriguez.

Uh items five and thirty-nine for separate votes, and uh 45 for comments and a separate vote pending the amendment, and forty-two for an amendment.

Got it.

All right, any other special members?

Madam Clerk, you have everything you need.

All right.

Uh, while the clerk is uh organizing our items to vote on, I want to uh turn over to council district three.

Um, I'm sorry, for council district eight, uh, which looks like a three.

Uh, we have a testimonial this morning uh from folks who work at Lupita's bakery.

Um this is in regard to what we will do every morning that we're here until um the siege of our city in the name of immigration enforcement is done.

Uh so we'll invite them to uh tell their story uh at this time.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Abel Diaz, and I represent a bakery, a pastry shop here in South Central Los Angeles, and I and a chain of banquet halls for uh events with more than forty years of serving our community in Los Angeles in San Bernardino County.

We we have been part of uh of the heart of this neighborhood, working hard every day, enduring difficult times, and contributing to the local economy with honesty and effort.

We face many challenges over the over the years, the riots, fires in nineteen ninety-two, the Kobe, pandemic on twenty twenty, and now immigration riots.

There are spreading fear in our streets and deeply affecting our families and businesses, since these riots begin, our sales have drop between thirty and forty percent, not only in our storefront, our product are also sold wholesale in supermarkets, and there too.

The cells have fell dramatically.

People are afraid.

They don't want to go out.

They don't want to take the risk, and it is uh legitimate fear.

Because we now, because we know that uh any moment they can be separate separated from their families simply for not having papers.

The fear has also reached our banquet halls.

Some families have canceled their events because they are afraid to get in public.

Others having having forced to cancel, because a loved one has already been taken by ice, leaving the leaving them unable to continue paying for their celebration.

This is not fair.

But that is not what is happening.

What we are seeing is the arrest of workers, fathers and mothers, people who have been here for decades, who have paid taxes, who have contributed to the community, to the country in every possible way, except for having a document that has been denied to them for years.

Honest, hardworking people who only ask for an opportunity.

Today they are they are there, they face the fear of being turned away from their families, from their children's, from their homes, their entire lives.

Here is where is the humanity?

Where are the solutions to see children crying because their parents don't come back from work?

To see families broken apart by political decisions, it's something that breaks the heart of all of us who have one.

Today I raise my voice, and not only, not only for my business, which is suffering economically, but for an entire community that is being hurt and criminalized injustly.

We keep the local economic economically alive.

We deserve respect, protection, and a fair opportunity.

Thank you.

Bakery in the heart of the 8th District at Florence and Western.

If you're ever in the neighborhood, please please please stop by.

Uh Lou Pizza's Bakery and Banquet Hall.

Madam Clerk.

Where are we at this time?

Yes, sir.

Um there are several requests.

There is a request to continue item two, two weeks to September 3rd, 2025, as well as continue item 54 to August 27, 2025.

54 is continued to one week, sir.

Alright, without objection, that'll be the order.

18 through 21, 23 through 28, 36, 37, 40, 43 and 44, sir.

Alright, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Fourteen eyes.

Alright, what's next?

Next, council may also vote on the closed session item 55.

That was considered by budget and finance committee yesterday.

Council Member Yarsowski.

Thank you, Council President.

Budget and Finance Committee considered and approved items 55 in committee on August 19th.

I recommend we approve option one, which is what we uh voted on in budget unanimously, and I I ask that we send that forthwith.

Alright.

Yes, sir.

For item 55 in the case entitled Griffith J.

Griffiths Charitable Trust et al.

versus City of Los Angeles at all.

There is a recommendation to adopt the recommendations of the city attorney report dated July 16, 2025.

All right, let's open the roll.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

14 ayes.

Alright, what's next?

Mr.

President, I believe the chair of budget finance committee requested this go forthwith, sir.

Without objection, that'll be the order.

Next, uh council may move on to public comment, sir.

Alright, uh, Madam Clerk, Mr.

City Attorney, if we can prepare us for public comment.

And just for uh the audience, we will take public comment for 30 minutes.

So we will stop at 11 a.m.

Uh and we'll take as many speakers as we can in that time.

So just be mindful when you're coming to the podium.

Uh, try to get there as quickly as we can and uh begin your speech and time uh so as many people can uh speak as possible.

I will begin by calling names.

So uh before we start calling names, I have a few instructions to uh provide to the audience to people to people providing public comment when it's your turn to speak.

Please state which of the agenda items you'd like to speak to.

You will have one minute per item, up to three minutes total for the items open for public comment.

We will tell you when your time is up.

When speaking on the agenda items, you must be on topic.

Our goal is to get through as many speakers as we can.

If you are not on topic, or if we cannot tell whether you were on topic, you will get one brief warning from me or the council president.

At that point, you need to get clearly and immediately on topic.

If you do not do so, or if you again stray off topic, you will forfeit the rest of your speaking time, and we will move on to the next speaker.

The items open for public comment on the agenda are items number one and items 45 through 53.

Again, the items open for public comment on the agenda are items number one and items 45 through 53.

Item number two and item number 54 have been continued.

Members of the public may also speak for up to one minute for general public comment.

During general public comment, members of the public may speak to any of the items or anything else in a city's subject matter jurisdiction.

A couple more announcements.

If I could have the interpreters make this first one aloud to the room, please.

If you require a Spanish language interpreter, please make sure to pause every few sentences so the interpreters can interpret.

Finally, uh, the order in which we take public comment is at random, that is to say that it is randomly generated.

So please wait until you hear the name that you signed up under, called aloud before lining up.

After you hear the name that you signed up under called aloud, you can line up in any order on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

Thank you.

I will begin by calling names.

Jose Miguel Ruiz.

Peanut head, pimple face.

This has to do with the sidewalk.

Categorically, Scientology has a sidewalk.

Belongs to us, the public, but yet we cannot use a particular brick laid sidewalk.

Because ASO attorney there.

Nope, this is not on the agenda.

You need to speak to you.

To the item specifically.

I'm on item number one.

Speak to the item.

Okay.

You ask for it.

Fucking communication from Armando Herman, the fucking engineer for the first consideration of the motherfucker relative dedication.

Dedication, everybody.

You've exhausted your one minute on item one.

Please move on to another item.

What?

I can't.

You have exhausted your one minute on item one.

Please move on to another item.

There's other items, asshole.

Relax.

I understand that.

46, for example.

Is that one on the issue?

Fucking juju Bloomfield and that dumb Sambo up there.

Due to the windstorm and extreme weather, like the weather or not this asshole attorney under the Los Angeles administrative code fucking cares about smoking scanning me.

All we're trying to do is alert the American people that Donald J.

Trump has the answers for fire and the weather system that's going on in California.

That's shut it down.

Shut the fucking system down.

You're wasting money.

You're fraudulently stealing, and you're still a big head, animal eating dog herder.

Now into my other item.

South Lorena Boulevard.

Rent escrow.

Well, well, well, am I on topic, Mr.

Attorney for the record?

Am I on topic?

So I will.

This is your opportunity to address the council, not the audience.

I'm addressing Donald J.

Trump, MAGA.

Okay, not on the agenda.

You have one minute for general public comment.

You have been warned multiple times.

You have one minute.

Brandon Berg versus Ohio.

You're all familiar with Brandon Berth versus Ohio.

We plan to send the Jews back to Israel to save America.

How do we do that?

We get our new support by our now outstanding president, Donald J.

Trump for the record, to save all of you from the condition of the So again, Mr.

Herman.

This is your last warning.

This is your opportunity to address the body, not the members of the audience.

If you do it again, you will forfeit the rest of your speaking time.

Okay.

Holders time really quick.

This is your first and only this is your first and only warning.

Do not disrupt this meeting.

You're interrupting my instructions to you.

Mr.

President, he's continuing to disrupt this meeting and is eligible for removal pursuant to Rule 7 Rule 12, if you would like.

Fuck to you, Mr.

Attorney.

I'm on topic.

It's my time.

Mr.

City Attorney, this person has violated a number of uh council rules, at least seven and twelve.

So uh he is ordered removed from this meeting.

Correct.

And he is immediately.

And he's been warned multiple times.

Yes, and you've been warned multiple times.

And thank you for the free hats.

Alright, let's go to our next speaker.

Hello, hello.

Okay.

Hello.

And before you begin, thank you everyone for your patience.

Again, it can.

Well, thank you for your patience.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Um I would like to speak to general public and then one, two, and maybe others, and hopefully with um the council people paying attention this time.

So, let me repeat the items that are open for public comment because I understand the previous experience might have caused us to forget which ones were uh open for public comment.

So, um, for everyone, the items that are open for public comment on the agenda are items number one, items 45 through 53.

So again, item number one and items 45 through 53.

Mr.

Herman, you've been ordered removed from this meeting.

You've been provided multiple warnings.

Get out of this council chamber.

What are we talking about?

Welcome to council, everyone.

Uh, again, thank you for your patience.

Uh so I to the extent it wasn't clear.

The items that are open for public comment are items number one and items forty-five to fifty-three.

So I'll give you three minutes for the items and one minute for general.

Before you begin, item number two.

I know you requested it, was continued.

That's why it's not open for public comment.

So go ahead.

You have three minutes for the items and one minute for general.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, okay, first on number one.

It sounds like you're giving property back to the city, which I like to see.

That makes me happy.

Because you know, I've been coming here for uh over a year now, talking about El Ron Hubbard Way, which is public property, but you guys act and the Scientology acts as if it's not.

They act as if they own it because they have an R permit, they believe that that's the same thing as a street vacation.

So I am hoping that that this trend towards taking back city property um continues and that you continue it with El Ron Hubbard Way by revoking their R permit since they have been illegally, you know, using you're not allowed, it's against your laws.

You you guys made the laws that there's no religious exemptions for underpaid workers, and people are making 47 dollars a week to work on that street, okay, when it comes to these permits that you can that you guys give them.

And that's illegal by your own standards, and you're not enforcing it.

They're also um doing um, you know, their security, they're not they're not in contract with you guys to do security on that street.

But because they have this R permit, um that you know they they believe they can.

And we had somebody, one of uh a survivor of Scientology assaulted for the second time.

Okay.

Okay, well, with that all the housing ones, right?

I wanted number two, so I'm a little bit behind.

But the with the housing stuff, okay.

Oh, and you know, shout out to Smoking Scan.

Um, I'm glad that they're watching all this.

And uh, you know, the thing about the housing is that there's been a lot of mistakes made, okay.

I don't really feel that everything is really being done.

You know, I mean, you had court cases wondering what's going on with all the money.

There's all kinds of stuff.

There's people that really need help that don't seem to be getting help.

I I've seen people, I've known somebody who you know who came to me for help, and they're told, well, you know, you can't do this program.

You're not, you know, you're not homeless enough.

Is what she's living in her car, but because she's living in her car and not in an encampment, and she can't get certain help, like it's just so convoluted and confusing.

I wish you guys could just get it together.

Now, is the one with the emergency is that available because I would like to discuss that.

So, the homelessness emergency is what you just spoke to because that's the only housing item on yes, the fire one is there.

Go ahead.

Okay, the fire emergency, yes.

I mean, we had a horrible, you know, fire situation that I also, I mean, no offense, feel that you guys had um didn't really handle very properly.

Neither did the mayor, neither did the you know, you know, everything.

And so, yes, the emergency continues, but you guys need to get a better grip on everything.

You guys need to and let them rebuild.

Why can't people get the permits to rebuild what they want to?

Why do they have to be forced into building what they don't want?

Um, it's just so ridiculous.

It doesn't feel like you're here for the people.

And I also want to say, um, Mr.

Lee, if you're ever listening, I couldn't be here yesterday to support your motion to uh go against 79.

Okay.

Public comment.

Yep, go ahead.

You have one minute.

Okay, all right.

Um, I asked you guys not to go to um Scientology's national night out.

And I'm thankful that the police fire everyone didn't, because otherwise you'd be opening yourselves up to a lawsuit.

Because what they did is they did not allow me to go in.

It is open to the public, it stated open to the public, but I just went in and I was immediately rushed by guards who are, you know, to tell me to get uh to leave and I'm not welcome there.

That's called viewpoint discrimination.

So luckily, since you guys didn't go, and I don't even know if you gave permits for that, um, then you're not held liable.

But you need to continue, you need to realize that's what they're doing.

Every time, Mr.

Martinez Martinez, that you're helping them out and you're giving them these, um, you know, letting them keep their R permits and stuff.

You are the you're you are permitting viewpoint discrimination.

I don't go and disrupt, I'm not a disruptive person.

I have a right to go and not like what they do and still attend a public event that's related to, you know.

Speaker, your time has expired.

Next speaker.

Before the next speaker begins, I will call a few more names.

Terry Hara, Sherry Acona, Sophia Armin, and Sean Michaels.

Good morning, Speaker.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Uh, general public common, but I'm also here on item six, twenty-five zero seven sixty-seven.

Uh, my name is José Miguel Ruiz.

Hold on, before you begin.

So, the other items you requested are not open for public comment, but you can speak to them during general.

So, you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Great.

Uh, my name is Jose Miguel Ruiz.

I'm the executive director of Cultiva LA.

We actively grow in 10 acres of community farming, and I'm here today to thank all of you, but in particular, Councilmember Hernandez for investing in green spaces.

Uh, three weeks ago, the MacArthur Park uh got raided by law enforcement, but today it's a win for item six.

We get to bring a healthy community garden to the Pico Union neighborhood where there will be resources on tenant protections, growing food, but most important, as a social worker is teaching the next generation how to grow local food.

So, for that I thank you, and I wanna uh again thank all the members.

It has taken five years to get to this point, and also parks and recreation that have been leading the way.

So thank you, Parks and Rec and City of LA.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Um, see, adelante.

Uh, is Jose Felix Larius?

Good morning, my name is Jose Felix Larius.

So, can we pause this time really quick?

Can we just ask you to pull back from the mic a little bit?

That might help with the audio.

Okay, buenos días, a todos y todos.

Good morning, everybody.

Number 25, 07, 67.

Eunice Hernandez for excellent trabajo.

I would like to gracias.

I would like I came here only to thank uh council member Hernandez for point number six, twenty-five, zero seven and sixty-seven.

Thank you for your work.

Yes.

Good morning.

You have three minutes for the items and one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Good morning, Officer I Lauriaga.

My name is Sean Michaels.

Uh for item number 45 is about the local emergency, about housing and homelessness.

Well, there is a reason that we are having a homeless cry uh homeless crisis, and then the reason is our council president uh Harry Starson continue to invest billions of billions of money of their scam, fraudulent homeless uh complex, uh homeless industry, and the so-called non-profit homeless project.

Yes, yes, billions of billions of money throw it away uh to release all of the criminal gangbangers, uh billions of money throw them away to helping people change their penis to their vagina, change their vagina back to their penis over and over again.

That's the reason why with people asking the city council for more money for homeless, and then uh our council president has absolutely no money.

Now let's move on to item number 46.

It's about a local emergency about the fire on January 7th.

There is a reason why we have like 2000 firefighter shortage right now.

There's a reason why we have 5,000 LEPD officer shortage right now, because our council member, our council president continue to focus on how can we make it cheap and affordable to change your penis to your vagina, to change your vagina back to your penis, and then you do that at once every year, uh every twice a year, three times a year, and over and over again because our council president uh wants to support LGBT.

And I was wondering that when our council president will become LGBT, when does our council president will change your penis to your vagina?

And then when does our council president will actually save the fire, will actually hire have more firefighters and have more of police officer.

Now let's move on to item number 53.

Uh item number 53 is that our council president wants to make sure that everybody is sitting, lying, sleeping, storing, using some sort of a public uh uh public sidewalk, and you know, everybody became a criminal.

Yes, I'm very lucky because uh when I was sleeping on the sidewalk, my nurse Dana took me back to her house.

So that's why I have a place to stay.

But right now, I'm aware 100,000 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles.

They do not have a bed.

They don't have a home to go to uh to go back to.

They do not have, not every single homeless person is lucky as me to have a Dana can take me back to her house and house me right there.

So I want to make sure uh everybody knows that our council president continue to incriminalize every single people sleeping on the street.

But why we are punishing people sleeping on the street is because you failed 100,000 Los Angelinos.

You failed them.

You do not allow them a chance to have a house.

You do not allow them a chance to have a job.

You do not allow them to have a chance to continue to pursue their American dream.

You only care releasing all the criminal gangbangers.

You'll only care to provide more services to the illegal gangbangers.

You only care on the meet and the continue to provide whatever services to illegal gangbangers.

And then I want to make sure that uh to shout out to our uh council member smoking scan and then our future council member uh Spindler, and then I also want to uh thank my uh friend Dana.

Maybe I will be deported by my pre by the President Harris Dawson.

Maybe I will be deported by ICE, but Dana.

I left my heart at the Santa Monica Brazilian barbecue for you to peek up my heart anytime you want.

Thank you, Dana.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Uh 22.

Okay, so 22 is not open, but you have one minute for general public comment.

So one minute, go ahead.

Okay.

Good morning.

My name is Terry Hara, president of the Termo Islanders Association.

Today's supportive vote by the full city council will help preserve the last two remaining buildings that represents what was once a thriving fishing village, the rich history and legacy of 3,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans that lived and work on Turmo Island.

They were directly responsible to help create the nation's tuna industry, but all that changed with the bombing at Pearl Harbor.

Their lives were destroyed and forced off the island into horse stables and concentration camps because of hate and paranoia.

I ask for your support of the HCM designation, Termo Island Futusato, Tuna Street for the history and legacy of Tumor Island.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I'm here speaking on general public comment and item 56, please.

So item 56 public comment was already held at committee or previously, but you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Good day, honorable council members.

My name is Dr.

Sophia Armin.

I'm the co-chair of the California MENA Civil Rights Coalition and the ED of Armenian American Advancement Network, a civil rights and immigrant rights organization.

I come to you today on behalf of over 20 MENA, Middle Eastern and North African constituency-based organizations that make up our coalition.

The first of its kind actually in the state.

Thank you so much.

Before the next speaker begins, I will call a few more names.

Basha Jamil, Robert, Eva Garcia, Bill Weeks, Stuart Little.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

Um item number 22.

I wasn't sure to come up now or to come up when the items actually appears.

But now's okay, so you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay, my name is Bill Fujioka.

Um I was here just the other day.

I'm the chair of the Board of Trustees for Japanese American National Museum.

Um I came here today in support of Council Member McCosker's motion to uh regarding the two historic buildings on Terminal Island.

What's important is that this community, in the Japanese American community, we have many enclaves.

I happen to come from Borough Heights, which is one terminal island is special, folks.

In 1942, after the executive order 9066 was signed, that community, the residents in the businesses were virtually destroyed, all of them were destroyed, except for the two buildings we're talking about today.

It's important to pass this motion to ensure the history of this community is preserved.

At the Japanese American National Museum, we have over 20,000 artifacts.

Our most important artifact is a historic building, because it represents the strength of the community and that we preserve through the atrocities and the injustice of World War II.

Today's motion is important.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, everyone.

And if you can't, but if you run out of time to finish your public comment, or if we run out of time today and you're unable to provide public comment, you can always provide additional written public comment at la councilcomment.com.

Again, that's LA Council Comment.com.

You can find that URL at the top of every council agenda.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I'm gonna uh talk in Spanish.

I have a general public comment.

Adelante.

So um organizador in criminals the collective communitario yesterday para pedirles can actually lay Larso.

I am Sarah Garcia, community organizer from community power.

I am asking I'm here today to ask you to update Larso, the law, because our members are suffering.

It's a market.

Um the small market for for the people who have no money and a big market for those who have the money.

And even though we have a laws to regulate the rent, there are a lot of abuses.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Okay, so you have one minute, go ahead.

Due to continuous refusals of accountability, no transparency, systematic abuse, gross negligence, and a variety of deaths, the men's central jail needs to be closed immediately.

All of the juvenile detention centers need to be closed immediately for the same reasons.

To further get rid of the California Police Officer's Bill of Rights, it protects lewd and abusive officers and gives them an above-the-law status.

It is a threat to our society, the common good, and a contagion in our neighborhoods.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

It'll be a general public comment.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Uh good morning.

My name is Basha Jamil, and I'm here on behalf of the Council on American Islamic Relations or CARE LA.

And as a proud member of the California MENA Civil Rights Coalition, we're asking you to support AB 91, the Middle Eastern and North African Inclusion Act.

For too long, MENA communities have been rendered invisible in state data because there is no distinct MENA category, meaning MENA individuals are counted as white.

And this mess classification erases their realities and leaves them invisible when it comes to policy, funding, and civil rights protections.

Our communities face unique barriers.

Immigrants need language access, refugees are struggling to rebuild.

Muslims experience Islamophobia and surveillance, yet none of this is captured in state data.

AB 91 is a simple but historic fix.

It ensures MENA Californians are accurately counted in state demographic data.

It already passes state assembly unanimously, and so now we respectfully urge you to support AB 91 and stand with the MENA community.

Thank you.

My name is Bill Weeks.

I have a general comment on item 22, the terminalizers.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I thank you for everything you guys, you people do.

Appreciate it.

We have an opportunity here that's historic.

We can have a monument to a time when government overstepped its boundaries.

A monument that is important now more than ever.

Let's do this.

I would like to see a quote by Justice Matthew Todbrenner added to this monument when they ruled on the Merghia decision in 1975, which says that you cannot.

Well, it says neither the federal nor state constitution countenances the signaling out of an invidiously selected class for special prosecutorial treatment, whether that class consists of black or white, Jew or Catholic, Irishman or Japanese, United Farm Worker, or Teamster.

If an individual.

Developers overprotecting the 60% of Angelinos who rent.

The biggest problem facing the city of Los Angeles and its people is housing.

People across the economic spectrum from working class, lower income, middle class, all struggle to find safe, affordable, clean private housing with a reasonable distance of their job sites.

Cap the rent at 3% and 60% of inflation.

Thank you.

Hold on, just one second, please.

Anisha Williams, Allison Shaler, Becky Dennison, and Corey Out.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

General public comment, please.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

My name is Anisha Williams.

I'm a part of the Fast Food California Fast Food Workers Union.

And I also work at Jack in a Box.

As you know, yes, we have had a heat exhaustion in Los Angeles.

And that's why I'm speaking.

Working in the fast food industry, working in the fast food business, period.

It gets extremely hot in the kitchen.

And I have seen firsthand workers get very dizzy from the heat.

It can get up to 90 degrees up in the kitchen.

I had to get a towel and put run cold water on the towel to give to the cook in the kitchen so she can cool off because it was so hot.

I was afraid that she was gonna pass out.

If we get if we fall out in the uh store in the kitchen, I don't know what to do.

So that's why it's so important that you guys help us pass our ordinance here today.

And we will be having reports to you uh to you guys' office.

Thank you.

I'm giving general palm a comment.

Okay, good morning.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Good morning, I'm Becky Dennison with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and a member of the Keep LA Housed Coalition.

I'm here this morning with others in the coalition to urge you to take action to reduce rent burden for tenants in LA, too many of whom are coming through our doors with evictions.

Changes to the rent stabilization ordinance have been pending for far too long, and the tenant majority in LA is demanding this much needed change.

The RSO is one of the most important tools that this council has to protect tenants and also balance the playing field between tenants and landlords, especially in this time of all of the federal attacks.

Annual rent increases are harming tenants who simply cannot keep up, but the data shows that landlords are doing fine because they recapture rent through tenant turnover.

So the time is now to take action on all of the keep LA housed recommendations, fully fund rental assistance, and especially cap the rent at 3%.

We urge agendizing this item ASAP.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Alison Shallert.

General Public Comment first.

Oh, sorry, just general.

No, also 53.

Is it 52?

The single staircase?

52 or 53?

I don't know.

All the papers are been taken back there now.

Yes.

So you'll have one minute for items.

I apologize.

Item 42 is not open for public comment, but you can speak to during general.

So you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

All right.

I find the constant work on this council's behalf preventing the construction of housing despicable.

I, today's docket, floored me with the amount of numbers of the criminalization of homelessness and poverty.

I I was taken aback by how many motions are up that make it a crime to be poor.

And also, it's your when the next time you see someone on this street that's unhoused, y'all need to take your responsibility in that person's circumstance.

I hope you hear my voice in your head reminding you that it's your fault that that person is on the street.

It's astonishing.

Your behavior is unreal.

Next speaker.

Wow.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

I'm here to speak on item 42, but I understand I'll be speaking general comment.

Yes.

Okay.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

Thank you, members, for your time and attention this morning.

My name is Corey Alt.

I live in Little Tokyo, Council District 14.

I'm here to urge your support for single chair reform in Los Angeles.

I'm a single issue voter on the issue of housing production.

I'd like to thank my representative on this council, Member Jurado, for her leadership on this issue.

As she does, I care deeply about protecting tenants from displacement in my neighborhood and restoring affordability for those already displaced.

To achieve those goals, we need more homes.

This proposal would allow more homes to be built, helping lower the dramatic rent burdens placed on families like mine and helping to allow more of your constituents to live inside.

With that in mind, IRG yes vote.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

Good morning, General Comma item number 22.

Okay.

So you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

I'm Paul Hirosi Boye, Term Islanders, Association Board Member, Descendant, and Chair of the Coalition to Protect, Rehabilitate or Reconstruct the two remaining buildings for an adaptive reuse.

Today can be remembered as uh truly momentous occasion that would be an important step towards significantly honoring the legacy of the Terminal Island Japanese immigrants and the Japanese American children.

We'll be extremely grateful for the LA City Council's unanimous support of the HCM designation.

The designation of the Terminal Island Furusato, Tuna Street Buildings as a historic cultural monument, was facilitate these historic buildings to be recognized as essential to American history.

The stories of immigration, resilience, and community will be formally commemorated, protected, and passed down to future generations.

Thank you.

Before the next speaker begins, I will call more names.

Stacey Sagara Bollinger, Simon, Kristen Peterson, Jason Reedy, Janet Wyland.

Good morning.

Which items would you like to speak to?

General public comment.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Uh, good morning, uh, council.

My name is Andrew Salimia.

I'm the director of advocacy at the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Uh, we're asking you today to support the designation of the Terminal Island Buildings, Furosatu, as a historic cultural monument.

Um, for too long, these places have been overlooked, and I think that's true for many of our immigrant communities or diverse communities in Los Angeles.

Um, it's taken decades for um us to actually recognize the importance of this place, but we see the echoes of what's happening, what happened at the site throughout the city today.

I think you all see that um relevance.

Um I want to specifically thank um Councilmember McCosker's office and his dedicated staff, um specifically Axel Palacios for getting us here.

Um I want to thank the Port of LA for working with us and for the Terminal Islander Association for leading this charge and being the stewards of the site that their families helped create, and we hope to keep it on this planet for another generation.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh looks like that concludes public comment for today's uh meeting, Madam Clerk.

Uh, what items are before us at this time?

Uh yes, Mr.

President.

Uh, first of all, there is a request to send item 40 forthwith, sir.

One more time, I'm sorry.

Item 40.

There's a request to have that go forthwith, sir.

Alright, without objection.

Um, and the first thing that council can do is item 41.

That was called special uh by Mr.

Price, Mr.

Price.

Uh, we're on item 41.

Mr.

Price is recusing, just in case.

Alright, let's open the roll on 41.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13.

All right.

Can we?

Can we go to item 22, Madam Clerk?

Yes, sir.

Item 22, that was called special by uh council member McCosker for comment, sir.

All right, and Mr.

McCosker has on his gear.

And so now we will uh go to him for confidence.

Thank you very much.

Uh to be efficient with my time before we get into the substance of uh item 22.

Can I ask that item 38 be continued for one week uh to resolve some uh questions uh on the impacts?

All right, without objection.

Thank you so much.

Uh for the record, Mr.

McCosker, item 38 continue for one week.

That would make it August 27, 2025, sir.

Thank you.

It fits into my calendar.

Perfect.

I'll be here.

Item 22.

I want to thank the Terminal Islanders for their years of dedication and advocacy and hard work and keeping the spirit alive to get us to today.

Members, I know we've talked about this before.

It is more important today than ever before, and it was certainly important leading up to today.

In the early 1900s, Terminal Island, which was also known back then as East San Pedro, was a Japanese fishing village.

Japanese families uh came to East San Pedro and innovated, innovated tuna fishing in Southern California, and they preceded the Great Croatian and Italian tuna fishermen.

Also great at their trade and their craft.

They proceeded, they innovated.

These Japanese families on Terminal Island in East San Pedro brought a vibrant vibrancy to the island and to their own community.

And by the 1940s, there were about 3,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans by right of their birth who resided on the island.

Even before executive order 9066, Terminal Island began to be cleared of the rightful inhabitants, residents of East San Pedro, and by April of the year following the executive order, the island was entirely cleared, and folks were moved to concentration camps, as our tragic history has told us, and that island became property of the Department of Defense, and later became properties for the port of Los Angeles.

Virtually every evidence of this great, beautiful, vibrant community, whether it was temples or schools or houses, businesses, was eliminated.

Was raised to the ground, except for two buildings.

Two buildings that remain today.

And I was raised with this sort of the sadness and the shock that generations before me expressed, of course, once removed from the tragedy of this event.

And I did have, I did grow up with Japanese Americans who would remind me of the story.

Remind me that Terminal Island was what it was.

It's a vibrant community that was snatched away.

And one of the tragic ironies is that as properties became terminals and became a prison and became a Coast Guard station on Terminal Island, that Coast Guard station, which is out on the farthest point towards the ocean, is a very place today where 200 to 250 ice agents stage every single day to prepare for raids across Southern California that are we know from other testimony are in complete violation of the restraining orders and the rule of law in the United States.

And to think of that tragic irony, we have the the events of the 1940s, and then the community of generations of Terminal Islanders or Islanders who are trying to protect that memory, and thank goodness they are protecting that memory because it is a lesson for today.

It is a lesson for today, and it's a tragic irony that this very property, some of this very property is being used to commit similar violations of constitutional principles of people's due process rights or people's autonomy over their own bodies.

Here's the good news that the Terminal Islanders working with the community, working with our office, working with the Port of Los Angeles has brought us to this day where those last two buildings that have not been torn down, they were used for dry goods and grocery goods.

They are on tuna street appropriately, in the island, on the island, in the middle of the island, are still up.

The buildings are in disrepair, but they are still there.

And we've had a chance to walk through them.

They need some work, but they still evoke the memories of what that village was.

And today we get the chance to designate as an historic monument each of those buildings and create the leverage that we need.

We've talked about leverage, the leverage that we need to make sure that the buildings are restored, are protected, and can be a more complete evidence and memory, a living memory for visitors of the great Japanese fishing village that was in East San Pedro on Terminal Island.

And I'm so grateful to the Terminal Islanders for your perseverance and for being here and for being always present and always ready to say, let's stick up for our history.

So, members, I know that it's an easy ask, and I'm grateful to you for that.

I'm going to ask for an I-vote, and I'm going to ask that we preserve these last two buildings as a memory of what was of the tragedy of 1941 and a reminder today today that we should not let anything like this be relived.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh, Mr.

McCosker.

And I want to join Mr.

McCoster in requesting an I vote and make an additional request to Mr.

McCosker's um request for an I vote, and that is for everybody who has not been to the site to visit it.

Uh I had occasion to go there over the recess, and it is one of the most moving and spiritual experiences and places you can be anywhere in the city of Los Angeles.

You literally can feel uh the energy uh left from what happened there, and what people have refused to forget as much as history over these years has tried to erase it.

And you know, you we we're doing this today.

Yesterday, the presidents of the United States is saying that our museums talk too much about people's oppression, and we should stop talking about slavery and stop talking about the internment and stop talking about all those other things, and we should just say how great America is.

Um here we're saying America's great because of our stories and because we've overcome uh these things and because we've been through them, and it's because we've been through them that we know how dangerous it is to go back.

So again, thank you so much, uh Mr.

McCowski, this is a big big deal.

And uh everybody uh, when you have a chance, you ought to get down there to see this site.

Uh, it is truly one of the places that makes Cal makes Los Angeles special.

All right.

With that, we'll open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

149.

All right, congratulations, everybody.

Forthwith, urgently.

All right, what's next?

Next, Mr.

President.

Uh council may now vote on items one and forty-six through fifty-two, sir.

All right, let's open the roll on those items, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

149, sir.

Alright, what's next?

Next, council uh has uh items five and thirty-not nine, five and thirty-nine was called special by council member Rodriguez.

Five and thirty-nine.

Okay, comments?

Councilmember Rodriguez.

Yes, thank you.

Um I'm uh again gonna continue to vote no on any candidates that have not had their financial disclosure uploaded.

So I just want to remind the mayor's office to please work with the city clerk to have these documents uploaded before these votes.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing no other comments, let's open the roll on these items, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Nice.

No.

All right, what's next?

Next would be items 17, 29, 30 through 35, as well as 53, and that was called special by uh councilmember Hernandez for a separate vote, sir.

Councilmember Hernandez, any comments?

All right.

Councilmember Raman.

Uh could I have 53 voted on separately?

Five-three.

All right, can we restate the items we're voting on?

Yes, sir.

Those would be items 17, 29, 30 through 35, sir.

All right, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

That would be 12 ayes and two no's.

All right, that takes us to item number 53.

Yes, item 53.

That was called special by council member Raman for uh separate roll.

All right, let's open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Eleven nice, three no's all right.

What's next?

Next would be item 45, and that.

Well, let's come back to that.

Can we do?

Uh council may uh vote on item 56, and that was called special by council member Nazarian.

All right, Councilmember Nazarian.

Thank you, Council President.

While the federal government chooses who it wants to recognize or not recognize in its census counts, I appreciate the state taking important steps to make sure all communities are seen and heard.

Um and so I just respectfully asked for uh the support of this council of the resolution.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Let's open the roll on this item, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Fourteen ayes, all right.

Forthwith without objection.

All right.

You have two additional items that you would like to send forth with if you can let us know what those are at this time.

Four three and four-four?

Yes.

Without objection.

Thank you.

All right.

What's next?

Uh Mr.

President, just to double check.

So that is 43, 44, and 56 are forthwith, sir.

Yes, okay.

Um, uh council has two items next.

Uh it could be either 42, uh that was.

Let's go for 42.

That one, there's supposed to be an amendment.

It has not been circulated yet or received.

But 45.

I think that I think it has been circulated.

Apologies.

Uh the signed copy just came to me.

So uh item 42, the amendment uh by council member Rodriguez, second by uh councilmember Park is here, and also Mr.

Nazarian called 42 as a separate vote.

All right.

Comments anybody on this, Councilmember Rahman?

Asking that we take a vote on the amendment separately and to uh respectfully request a no vote on the amendment.

The original motion and the report that's in the file has included extensive consultation with the fire department.

Fire department staff were at the plum committee meeting, express no issues with it, they have the expertise to uh advise on this issue and any future um legislation that we're writing will include their guidance, it's part of the work that's ongoing and will require concurrence with any state building codes and fire codes that exist.

Anything that comes out will be in concurrence with any state existing legislation on fire as well as our building codes, and I believe that the motion as is or the report as is takes all of that into consideration.

I would respectfully request a no vote on the amendment and a yes vote on the underlying item.

Thank you very much.

Got it.

Councilmember Rodriguez.

Thank you.

So I introduced this amendment because I had concerns about some of the issues that might result from a code change of this magnitude.

And what we're doing is essentially just covering ourselves by going to the state fire marshal to ensure that we have vetted everything to the greatest degree possible because these are fire life safety issues that we're talking about.

When we make some of these changes when it comes to stairwells, it's an access issue in the event of an emergency, no different than some of the ingress-egress issues that we've seen occur on our streets.

We're talking about just making sure that we're vetting this and making judicious decisions in advance so when the ordinance comes back, it's all compliant.

And so I know there's room in our code to make adjustments, and this item is here to facilitate making sure that on smart small parcels that we are creating the most optimal opportunities for construction.

And what we're speaking of uh conceptually, as it is in the report, I just want to see that the draft ordinance has a more robust conversation and is ensured compliance with the state fire marshal.

There's no different, this is no different than the procedure what we experience when we when planning goes and consults with HCD before we change our zoning code.

So this is merely ensuring that whatever we get back is fully compliant with the state fire marshal so that we don't find ourselves going back and forth.

Again, procedurally, it's no different than what planning does when they consult with HCD.

So it doesn't delay, doesn't do anything other than ensure that what we are engaged in is compliant when we get the ordinance coming back.

So I ask for your I vote.

Council Member Park.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, members, yes, we need to build more housing, and yes, we need to make it easier to do that.

Um, but we can't do it without ensuring that our residents and our first responders are safe.

And I'm just not convinced this is a good idea.

I don't think as a body, we've heard enough about fire safety concerns.

Uh we certainly haven't heard from our firefighters on the ground about what they have to say.

Um, I for one would like to hear directly from the LA Fire Department fire marshal and the fire prevention bureau to hear what they have to say.

Um I personally spend a lot of time at the fire stations in my district, and I'll share with you what I have heard from the guys and gals on the ground, and that is concerns about limited evacuation routes.

They're not being redundancies if one exit is blocked, and delays in firefighting operations.

So just starting with the obvious observation.

Generally in life, when you have more exits and evacuation routes, things are generally more safe.

Whether that is a building or an outdoor concert venue, or a standard 40-foot metro bus, which by the way has two primary exits and entrances, and emergency hatches in the ceiling and the windows.

So what happens if a fire occurs on one side of the building and the staircase is unusable?

Smoke and fire rises through stairwells, so if there's only one stairway, it can become unusable for all of the floors above.

With two stairwells, firefighters can use one to attack the fire and lay hose lines and direct occupants to the other ones for evacuation.

And in a single stairway, firefighters and those evacuating have to compete for the same narrow space if it's not blocked or clouded with smoke or fire.

So we already know that the state fire marshal is going to be producing a report on this in January of next year, and it's possible that the uh international building codes may change in coming years uh with respect to stairways on buildings up to four flows, four floors, but none of those things have happened yet.

Um we already have a beleaguered, half staffed and severely under-resourced fire department that's already responding to 500,000 emergency calls a year without the resources they need.

And I worry that we could be forcing yet another problem on our firefighters and our residents without having done the diligence that we need.

And I know that you know they've looked to Seattle as an example of where this has been done, but if you look at the staffing at the San Francisco fire department per capita compared to what we have here in the city of Los Angeles, it's not even close.

So I'd like to hear from the department uh on their thoughts and any issues or concerns that we have because it feels like we're asking the city attorney to draft this before we've had the information from the state fire marshal or even a briefing with our own fire safety experts, and to add to that, uh there are legal concerns about the lawfulness of the proposal in front of us, and we haven't had a closed session or a briefing from our city attorney either.

So um I am supportive of councilwoman Rodriguez's amendment, but on the substance of what's in front of us absent that I have very, very concerns.

Serious concerns.

Sorry, Councilmember Bloomfield.

Thank you.

Um the amendment.

Well, I'm I I love the idea of getting more input from the fire folks.

I am worried very much about the timing because we are all under the gun.

There is a a state law that says come September 30th, we're not gonna be able to change our codes for a couple of years.

Um and so innovative ideas like this, if we don't get them in now, they're not gonna be in for years, and that's a lot of housing that could be at play.

So I would love to ins you know, maybe instead of saying, you know, present the result, just instruct the departments to consult with state fire marshals and those folks, but do it simultaneously as we give the instruction to do the ordinance, then so that we can at least we have a fighting shot at getting this done before that prohibition of years.

So if we could change it so that it's not because if you have to wait until you have the draft ordinance in hand and then present it to the marshal, we are never gonna get this done.

And by the way, we did in Plum, we did call up uh the fire department to ask them for their opinions on it, and they raised no objections.

Um, but frankly, they also weren't uh all that conversant.

So I I get it.

Like we want to have as much information as we can.

We all are dedicated to safety and more housing, and I think there's a way to do both.

So I if you're I mean, if you're willing to make it into just consulting, and we could do it simultaneously as we give the instruction to do the ordinance, then I would support that uh because I want this ordinance to move forward.

Uh I don't want it to be slowed down, and we can have those hearings as the ordinance comes forward and bring in anybody that we want to deal with the fire issues, but this is a really innovative thing.

It's not, and it's and we're not even on the cutting edge.

There's a lot of other cities that are doing this.

There's there are ways, you know.

The issue is not about one staircase or two staircase, it's about safety, and you can pressurize a staircase.

You can do other things that can make it in conformance with our building codes that that can make uh a project work that may not work with you have to pull it in two staircases.

So I I support the underlying uh bill and or ordinance, uh pushing for an ordinance as we did in committee.

I'll support the amended version of this if we can amend it to consulting and do it and making it clear on the record, it's a simultaneous consultation.

It is not going to slow down the drafting of this ordinance because again, we are on a tight window.

If we're gonna have any chance of getting this done, we need to get it done, and they need to work on it right away.

So I would urge your I vote on the underlying uh ordinance and as amended so that it's clear that it's simultaneous and it's consulting before the ordinance is actually written.

Councilmember Yarosovski.

Thank you.

Um I think there was a second to Councilmember Blumenfields, but if not, I'll second that concurrent, I think is is appropriate given the time crunch we're under.

Um so I also am very much in support of this moving forward as uh amended by councilwoman Rodriguez.

I think it advances the kind of smart, safe, and pragmatic changes that will make this city more affordable and livable uh for families.

And so with our vote today, we're gonna be directing the Department of Building and Safety and the fire department to return to council with the draft ordinance that would make the necessary changes to the city's building and fire codes to allow for these single exit buildings up to six stories, which is a building type that's actually found across most of the world.

Um these changes are gonna allow for smaller, more attractive apartment buildings and also make it easier to build family-sized apartments because there's not so much space set aside for a second stairwell.

Um we have as a council have repeatedly stressed the need for larger apartment buildings uh for families, for multi-generational families for different types of living situations.

It also allows for greater natural light and ventilation.

These buildings, as we know, are less expensive to build and enable smaller developments to actually pencil out without making any changes to zoning.

Um, and I'll just say, in light of our conversation yesterday, as Sacramento continues to insist upon blanket solutions to our housing crisis, and in fact, has made our efforts to reform some of our outdated codes harder.

Today's vote, if we move quickly, will help establish LA as a state national leader and common sense housing solutions.

So I urge an I vote.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rahman to close.

As long as we're able to move the motion forward in a timely fashion.

I think the time crunch is really important.

I do want to underscore that fire risk is extraordinarily important to me.

Uh personally, in my district, we uh uh many many portions of the district are very high fire severity zones.

Um the biggest difference for safety is actually newer buildings tend to be much more fire resilient than older buildings because of how good our new building stock is, and we want new building stock here in Los Angeles.

We want to be able to make sure that people can live in buildings that are safe.

Um, and new building codes do get us that.

Uh, again, as Councilmember Blumenfield and Councilmember Yaroslavsky stated, this is not uh particularly innovative.

Uh, it is being done in many other cities and has maintained fire safety standards in all of those cities.

And as long as we are able to meet the deadline, um, and get it in before state laws prevent us from being able to make these kinds of changes that can actually generate new kinds of housing that we haven't seen here and potentially the kind of housing that can be built even in a very tough investment environment uh nationwide.

I'm comfortable with moving forward as amended.

That's fine.

Thank you.

All right.

Um so we've got an amendment before us that uh uh yes, has been amended.

Yes, just to recap, uh, the original motion uh amendment uh Rodriguez Park was uh amended again uh by uh Councilmember Bloomfield Yaroslavsky.

That is recommendation number four to read instruct the participating departments uh consult with the state fire marshal and any other state agency charged with fire slash life safety responsibilities so that their preliminary feedback can be included in the report presented to council along with the draft ordinance.

This should be done concurrently with the ordinance, and that was accepted.

So that is what is before council uh amendment Rodriguez Park as further amended by councilmember Blumenfield Yaroslavsky.

All right.

Uh let's open the roll on the amendment, close the roll, tabulate to vote.

All right.

That is 149s, and now is item 42 as amended.

Alright, let's open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13.

One no.

All right, what's next?

Next would be uh the amendment on item 45, and that amendment is amendment uh uh introduced by council member McCosker and seconded by council member Rodriguez.

All right, uh Mr.

McCoster.

Thank you very much.

Uh Mr.

President and members.

Uh this amendment pertains to uh a motion that uh Councilmember Rahman and I put in with a second from Lee and Jorado very recently on the question of the termination of the local order, local determination of emergency for homelessness.

In our motion, we asked for two things.

We asked first for a report from the CLA and CAO on the legislative, the legal, the budgetary issues uh that might be impacted should there be a termination when there is a termination of the declaration.

Uh secondly, on a slightly longer timeline, we asked for implementation plans or guidance on implementation of the termination, which is coming of the order and how we will be able to work seamlessly and continue the uh the work of bringing folks inside.

We have gotten the report back, and I'm gonna ask the CLA and CIO, particularly the CLA to come to the table.

We have gotten the report back, and the report back is very thorough, and it indicates in its conclusion that with respect to the first order, the first question what would be the impacts that in looking at BoE and the the provisions that they're operating under, there would be no effect.

Uh, in looking at wreck and parks and the assumptions and the the laws that they're operating under, there would be no effect.

Looking at planning because of existing statutory law that relates to the similar issue, there would be no effect or no impairment of our ability to continue the work should there be when there is an end to the declaration of emergency.

Uh the report also indicates that in discussions with the mayor, there were issues raised.

Great.

I think it's important to raise those issues.

I think they are all addressed, but I appreciate those issues being raised.

In the second part of the report back in response to the motion that we put in, it says on implementation, there are some outstanding reports to come in.

There are some things that we need to see on how we would take this end of the of the emergency order and the fact that there is no change in what we are lawfully permitted to do, how we would make sure that we seamlessly implement and improve.

I think.

I think we're all interested in improving into the next step.

So the amendment that I put in today is actually less than where I started.

Let's be frank about this.

What I thought made sense was pick a date and terminate and pick a date out into a short future so that we could do the things that the CLA and CIO's excellent report tells us we need to do on implementation.

And I think then in reflection and in conversations with the mayor, I was asked, and I think it makes sense, and I'm going to ask you to be with me on this, to continue this item, continue the state of emergency to a date specific, so that we can have those conversations, we can work with our departments, we can work with our CLA and our CIO as necessary, and put ourselves in a position where this item comes back on this agenda in front of us, because meetings are what drive decisions, meetings drive decisions.

And so what I put in this, what I put in this motion is that we would, in order to facilitate the further development of this strategic termination of the declaration, that we would move this item to 45 days from now, October 3rd, 2025, and that this the declaration would come back to this agenda within that 45 days, that we would ask the CLA again and the CAO to continue their work in furtherance of the motion to give us the implement implementation plan, and for good measure, just to be sure that we are all on the same page a provision that says that except for that 45-day return, we would not have another agendized continuance of the emergency.

This is our chamber, this is our process.

And so what I'm asking members is not that we set a date of termination, although that would have been my first preference, but we set a date for this item to come back.

It gives our operating our policy committee an opportunity to consider all of the issues that are in the report.

It gives us all the chance to engage in the conversations with our constituents, with the mayor's office, with each other appropriately, uh in committee, and then we know that in 45 days or within 45 days, we will have this matter before us.

We will most likely be ready then, but if we are not ready then, the law does allow us to continue it, which I will not be for, uh, up to and including the 90 days, which I am not for.

So this is designed to be responsive to the mayor's office, and to be gracious in the way that we work together to strategically and competently wind down the emergency, but make sure that we continue the good work and advance even better work because working together is always better.

So I'm gonna ask for an I vote.

I'm also going to ask for the CLA to come up to answer a few questions because probably not fair for me to speak to her excellent report.

She should speak for herself.

May I, sir?

Yes.

Thank you.

I'll begin with the uh what my wife and I jokingly call the Rachel Maddow Rachel Maddow question.

You just heard everything I said.

Did I basically get it right?

Because I'd like to you to give an overview of phase one of your report, which is should the should the emergency end today, what effect does it have on the work collectively that planning, reckon parks, boe as examples, our budgetary issues, what what effect does it have on our operations?

Yes, um, good morning.

Um you did basically get it right.

Uh Nita wrote a very lengthy report, did a lot of research, uh conducted many surveys, um, spoke to several departments that would be most impacted by an end to this declaration.

Um, and she's here to present the report uh and answer any questions that you might have.

But the basic conclusion of all of this is that there are already existing statutory laws that do not require a declaration of emergency anymore.

There are some contracts that we do have contracts in place.

Basically, what the emergency is allowing is a circumvention of the normal rules and laws that we have as it relates to competitive bidding.

And so that needs to be resolved, and that would be part of that 60-day report back that you have asked for.

But basically, our conclusion is that this emergency could end and that we can actually begin a normal process of uh handling these types of contracts in the long term.

This emergency has been in place for two and a half years.

The intent really is to address emergency situations two and a half years is a very long time.

And we should have the normal processes in place to operate normally.

And so that's what this report says, but I'll turn over to Pranita if you want her to walk through some of her findings as it relates to this declaration.

Mr.

President, would that be your will to have to have uh CLA go through her report briefly?

Briefly.

Good morning, Pranita Amate from the CLA's office.

Um, like Sharon has stated, we uh did a survey of all departments and asked them for any contracts that they might have entered into during the period of emergency declaration.

And we met with, in addition to the survey, we met with uh multiple departments that we believe uh work more directly in the homelessness programming world to discuss any um urgent impacts that they would face if the declaration were to end.

Uh we talked with LASA, CAO, DBS Planning, and BOE.

Um, and we found that there are a lot of um, like Sharon stated, there are a lot of local statutory regulations or legislative actions that would uh allow the city to continue homelessness programming and uh putting up homeless facilities, as we have been doing uh due to the state shelter declaration that is in place and will be in place for uh until 2036.

And additionally, there are other uh local laws that will allow the city to continue expediting um or streamlining affordable housing production as well.

So um, yeah, in summary, we did not find any immediate or any um impacts to homelessness program and housing that would um that the city would face if the emergency declaration were to end.

And if I can just address the amendment, the amendment, the way we understand it, uh it would actually allow for the declaration of emergency to continue for another 45 days, at which time it would come back to the council again for consideration of uh either allowing it to end or possibly extending further based on some of the reports, additional reports that are being requested.

So that's how we understand the amending motion that is before you.

All right, we got a lot of speakers.

Uh any more questions, Mr.

McCosker?

It might be thank you.

It might be informative just to go over the second part of the report and the issues that are outstanding or can be outstanding for a smooth uh transition and implementation of our policy goals without a declaration.

And the calendar for that for what Mr.

McCosker just asked for.

In the second part of our report, we would um meet with uh specifically uh GSD to go over the list of contracts that they have shared with us.

We would go over what would happen when those contract periods end, and if the emergency declaration is not in place, what would the process of uh reprocuring those contracts look like?

How long that would take if any of that process would change without an emergency declaration, but the list of contracts that they shared with us is part of this attachment.

We would just have to um explore further what happens when those contracting periods end.

That's the um that's the primary um area of concern that we would include in the second part of our report.

And we would execute.

Yes, we can also um evaluate executive directive one further to see if there are any other concerns that have not been covered in this report, and we would do that um and we would be back with the report within the next 45 days.

So, in 45 days, you'd come back to us and tell us what happens when the contracts end.

We will try to do that, yes.

Okay, all right.

Any more questions, Mr.

McCoster?

No, all right.

Uh council member Blumenfield.

Thank you.

Um first, Ms.

McCosker, thank you.

You may you make this much easier.

Your first one uh before you made it this report back when you were actually terminating it was a was a much harder uh decision for all of us.

But um, you know, particularly I'm I'm my biggest concern is ED1, making sure that we get that codified, and I don't want us to toggle off the emergency before we can codify ED1 because ED1 has been very successful, um, and we've been waiting from planning department to get that uh codified version to the committee so we can get that through.

Because as I understand from uh the CLA report, that is one thing that were we to end the emergency tomorrow, we don't have that codified, we're gonna lose that very valuable tool.

And mayor gets major kudos for putting that forward.

We want to make sure that that doesn't go away.

Um it's I think that the world has changed since when we first did the emergency order, you know, several years ago.

You mentioned the state law, the uh state shelter declaration, the local laws.

That now, as I understand, uh from the CLA, we can pretty much everything we're doing, we can do with or without the emergency declaration.

Um so in that case, you know, we need to get back to regular business.

Now, if we remove the emergency declaration, it does not mean that we're rolling out uh a banner that says mission accomplished, far from it.

We all know that that mission is far from accomplished, but it is saying that we need to we need to lean in and basically get into the regular order of things to be solving our homelessness issues and and make sure that we have the transparency and the processes to go with that.

So um I support what you're putting forward, which again is not to end the declaration, but to bring it back 45 days when it would normally come back 90 days.

You're basically shortening the time frame of which we as a body look at this declaration and trying to put a little light a little bit of a fire to get this done.

And I I respect that and appreciate that and therefore, you know, I'm am supporting that.

Uh, and I just wanted to make sure that in terms of the ED1 stuff that that's as that's the only thing really that we have to do legislatively in that would be different.

Is that correct?

Mr.

Button planning is here, so we should probably talk directly to representative from planning on that on ED1.

Well, we can talk to planning about ED1 getting it done, but uh but in terms of the CLA, in terms of the one thing that we don't, is there anything else that state shelter declaration or local laws would, you know, that we're currently doing that we would not be able to do if we did not have the emergency, I think this is probably the single most um critical one.

We we believe that the contracting that GSD does can be addressed in the interim uh to the extent that they need to do any competitive bidding or do any extensions of the agreements.

Again, the agreements could come back to council uh for approval as well.

It's just that right now with the declaration, it is being it is not being brought to you for consideration.

In theory, a contract that GSD holds that may have been sole sourced, may have been for a very good reason, could actually come to the city council for approval for a sole source determination as well to for extension.

But right now, all of those types of regulations are being circumvented, and I think the the important point is that we want to normalize this so that all of the review processes that this body uh has an opportunity to review those types of contracts, and so I think that was the intent of uh instructing us to report on the types of things that you know what would the impacts be and whether there are the normal processes that could be implemented to ensure that we still comply with our our local laws and the administrative code, etc.

as it relates to contracting and giving the council the ability to review those types of contracts.

Great.

And that makes sense to me, and that's what again.

If we can continue to do everything that we're that we have been doing, and just in bringing it to the regular order, that makes sense.

I don't want us to lift this until we actually get ED1 codified, but I think the 45 days gives us that chance.

And because it's not a trigger, it's really a report back to council.

Um we'll be able to review it in 45 days.

If we're not there, we can extend it a little further.

Um so that's why I'm I'm comfortable with what uh Mr.

McCosper is putting forward, the new version of what he's putting forward.

Thank you.

I think it's holding all of us accountable to reporting back in 45 days with that transition um plan.

Thank you.

Uh we have a planning here to comment directly on ED1, and I would love it if also someone who was here from the city attorney that can speak directly to um contracting.

I've never seen the city attorney return a contract amendment in 45 days, much less execute a new contract.

But we'll I just want to hear directly from them as opposed to hearing what the CLA is saying you told them.

Yeah, thank you.

Kevin Keller, executive officer of city planning, and really uh thanking the CLA for preparing the report.

We did collaborate with the CLA.

We're happy to provide some more information.

And um the specific questions regarding ED1, executive directive one does receive its authority from the emergency declaration.

It waives procedures, it promulgates alternative procedures.

It's been a very popular program.

We have about 35,000 units in the program, 29,000 units approved, and that's 380 projects approved.

We do have a number of programs that are available as the CLA report stated for affordable housing.

We have the state density bonus law program, we have the new uh citywide housing incentive programs.

Each program is a little bit different, and no programs are exactly the same.

So we are available to present and share some of the unique uh uh streamlining that is in ED1 that has not yet been codified.

For example, projects that are located in overlay zones or specific plans are normally not eligible for other programs.

It's it's a nuance, but we'd like to provide that information.

We're happy to report back on that.

Planning uh in response to a uh uh council motion from 2023 and a recent uh plum hearing, planning has transmitted uh this week a revised ordinance with a lot of policy options for council consideration on considering an adopted ED1 program.

So we're delighted to have presented that.

Um we're gonna be, I believe, coming to Clum whenever that's appropriate and can provide more information there.

But that is something we transmitted this week and is available for council's consideration.

So happy to answer any more questions on that, and we look forward to uh any kind of follow-up we can help provide with the CLA's office.

Got it.

Thank you, Councilmember Padilla.

I just want to make sure I don't know if you can answer this now or if you can also tell us in the next report, um, how this will specifically um affect tiny homes in the pipeline and the future production of tiny homes.

Um we believe that uh the production of tiny home villages can um continue as it is now under the state shelter declaration crisis, so we can use the state shelter declaration crisis to um expedite and streamline the production of any tiny home villages as we've been doing under the declaration.

So there'll be no changes to how we've been operating as is, or will there be some kind of um needed effort to make sure it is uh streamplained?

I believe there will be no changes, but we can for our second report we can meet with BOE and DBS again to confirm that, but when we met with them, that was our understanding that as long as the state shelter crisis declaration exists, we can use that as we've been using the emergency declaration.

Thank you.

All right.

Councilmember Lee.

And then uh, if you or Kevin can answer the under the municipal code 1280, the shelter crisis declaration.

I understand what you said regarding tiny homes in the future.

There are certain variances that we did not have to go after for some of the shelters that are in place under this emergency declaration.

Will that affect them in any way after if we were to end this?

Does it bring back the process to want to clear that, make sure?

So are you asking about the projects that already went through?

Already exist, correct?

Yes.

We asked DBS specifically that question, and the answer we got was there would not those projects that have been approved would not be impacted.

Okay.

And this is Kevin Keller speaking for the planning department only in my role.

Um the underlying shelter crisis still is a 2017 approval that for planning entitlements regarding the tiny homes that are city developed, we feel that would still provide coverage from a planning perspective for city developed projects if that's the question you specifically asked.

Okay.

And colleagues, you know, I agree with Mr.

McCosker.

I think the council needs to take care of take back this process.

Um, you know, I think we should allow the mayor's office uh ability to and the rest of the city departments to build an off-ramp program to, you know, the different things that this obviously affects.

I don't want to have this 45 days and then continue another 45 days.

I want to put the mayor on notice that this is the last time I'm approving any type of extension at all.

And so I think it'd be fair to give her the full-time extension, let her office and all the city departments work out that off-ramp program, but uh this is something we do need to take out control, but I am comfortable with giving the mayor 90 days.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Roman.

Um, I just wanted to ask a question to the planning department because from the report, I saw that the mayor's office had concerns that ED1 would be impacted by the ending of the declaration, but I don't understand the linkage between those two.

What is the link between the executive directive and the declaration?

Kevin Keller, city planning.

I can speak on behalf of planning in terms of the link between the executive directive and the emergency declaration.

Sure.

Correct.

So uh the emergency declaration provides the legal authority for the executive directive to accelerate and waive procedures.

So projects that are eligible for ED1, affordable housing, 100% projects do not require hearings, they are not appealable, they are still consistent with underlying zone and the general plan.

But if they check the boxes, they are processed in under 60 days and they are approved, and that's that's our process on those.

That ability of the department to do that, because that does overrule a lot of our existing planning procedures, would come to a close for that type of project.

We do have a the ability to adopt a permanent ordinance that would do the similar thing or the same thing.

We also have, I think the CLA report said, there are there's a whole whole toolbox of different entitlement programs that also exist, but the exact toolbox for ED1 does not yet exist as a legislative option for those projects.

The projects that are in the pipeline, you know, under state law will be able to continue, but we will uh the department would have to shut the program, close the doors on that program upon the evaporation of the emergency.

Okay, and colleagues, I just wanted to uh thank you for that.

That actually does clarify things because I didn't understand the link between those two.

Uh but I also wanted to just uh, you know, I was happy to co-present this motion with Councilmember McCosker.

Um I think that sometimes the speed that an emergency declaration allows for contracting can um sometimes prevent us from being able to go through the normal contracting procedures, which are in place for transparency and accountability.

And I think the need for transparency and accountability on homelessness is incredibly important, something that I've worked a lot on and made progress on in my time here, and work that I've been very proud of.

But I do also want to lift up Councilmember Lee's point about the time it takes to respond to the changes that are required for both contracts and for things like ED1, and also to underscore how much work the staff in our city who are currently doing homelessness response work are undertaking right now, all of which feels urgent and pretty big.

It's challenging things.

So we are now for the first time collecting and monitoring performance data across all of our four big areas of investments, all of that work collating, analyzing data and using that data to actually push our system to fill PSH units, which we're doing more quickly than ever, and filling older PSH units, which we're doing for the first time, takes staff time and effort and work, and we're doing that now every week, every month.

We've been asked to look at as a city to take how it would be to take all of our contracting in-house, and there's another motion today, pushing us to think about what would it mean to take all of the dollars that we're putting into Lhasa and actually contract them directly through the city.

Something again I'm very open to.

We still don't have a report back on what that would take for us and how much staff that would take, but we have not we've not even considered or contemplated what it would take for us to do that yet.

We're asked to evaluate the impacts of the county pulling out of Lhasa and what it means.

Those two questions are connected, but they're also separate.

We've been asked to get more from our county on county partners on mental health, on services, which we're again doing both through the alliance settlement and through the MDTs and coordinating those MDTs and trying to get more from them in terms of getting those resources.

We are looking at creating our own COC.

We're assessing the loss of funding, and this is really urgent, and this is gonna impact every single person in this room.

So I hope you guys know it's happening.

The loss of funding for thousands of time-limited subsidy vouchers and thousands of emergency housing vouchers, both of which are sunsetting now through the end of 2026.

That's about 5,000 people who are currently housed through funding from our system, who we have to figure out another place for, or they'll end up back on the streets.

So this is like just what I'm remembering from what we're doing from the homeless services system right now, and all of it feels hyper urgent.

And we have like 12 people across the city who are working on all of these issues, who will also be asked to work on these issues, and they prioritize this report back over some of these other things, some of which feel you know, feel very urgent to me.

You know, actually, all of them feel pretty urgent to me.

So I would just request, I would echo Councilmember Lee's um uh kind of timeline and just say, again, I have no problem with moving forward on this.

I was happy to co-present the res the motion with you.

I want to see us be as transparent and accountable to the public as possible.

Um, and but we are deeply understaffed on this issue, especially given the scale of the spending that we're doing.

And I am worried about 45 days is if we have a meeting twice a month, it's two meetings to get through all of the agenda items that we need to get through in order to get to a place where at 45 days we can say we can end this emergency, and it's not going to impact anything except for the better.

Um, and so that would be my response here is just to say, can we give this a little bit more time just so that the system can respond with the responsibility that this is asking us to take on, and the the um the amount of work that we have ahead of us that all feels um, you know, a little bit overwhelming for the city to be taking on within a very short timeline.

So I I would just underscore councilmember Lee's request for 90 days here because I want to do this.

I think it's important for us to do this.

It's it's just a lot happening right now all at once with very little staff time and resources, and I don't want us to be having the same conversation in 45 days, Councilmember Rodriguez.

Thank you.

Um, so I appreciate the spirit and the effort that Mr.

McCosker has brought forward with uh with this amendment, and I was happy to second that.

Uh there's a reason why I've continued to be a no vote on the extension of the emergency order because what is fundamentally at the biggest problem that we're facing right now is the lack of accountability and transparency with all the contracting.

What the the fundamental issue?

So, first actually, I want to talk about ED1.

We are the legislative branch of this government.

You want to codify CD1, ED1, codify the tenants of ED1 without frankly having to, because it's not perfect.

We're watching RSO units be decimated in exchange for it.

So, what's the net win?

So if we want to do it, let's do it right.

And we are the legislative branch that can accelerate and adopt it, working with planning to make that happen.

So let's not, let's not cause a boogeyman out of ED1 jeopardizing or excuse me, the emergency order uh threatening ED1 when we're the legislative branch that could advance it, advance it, and adopt it in a responsible way that doesn't jeopardize losing RSO units, which we know has occurred.

The HEA reports, it was my amendments that we introduced through the budgetary process when the mayor's office actually refused to provide us information on the cost of the contracts, on the cost of the services, uh, the cost of the housing because they're all being sole sourced.

Make no mistake, the city knows how to do these contracts.

The only thing the emergency order provided was the ability for the mayor's office to bypass the approval for this council and for us to have transparency and accountability.

We had a fight for that through budget because that was not forthcoming.

In fact, the mayor's office refused to come to homelessness and housing committee and provide us the data to even let us know where these facilities existed and the cost associated with it.

So make no mistake, we have all the functionality to do this in a fast pace.

We can do it, but what this council has repeatedly agreed to is surrendering our authority and fiscal oversight on these contracts, and it's why I voted, I've been voting no for the greater part of a year, more than a year.

How can you continue to give your authority away when there is no accountability for the expenditures that are being made of taxpayer dollars, especially in this fiscal crisis?

So I appreciate now we're gonna go 45 days and let's see if we can get all the responses, but let's make make no mistake.

And by the way, the only reason why we don't have the staffing here is because we keep outsourcing it.

We keep giving the money to Lhasa, we keep giving the money out in contracts to all these other agencies to do this work.

So we have the resources if we reprioritize it to allow the right departments to have the staffing to actually do this work.

I know we have the city staff that is capable, qualified, and able to make good judicious and fast decisions.

I've watched it happen in real time.

We've done it through COVID, we've done it in a number of circumstances.

We've got the talent and skills if we stop outsourcing it, and we start actually having some accountability around here for how the money is being spent.

So, you know, for me, renewal of this uh emergency declaration, that for me, that moment passed a long time ago, and I'm happy that everyone is finally talking about okay, let's get everything lined up so we can uh continue to address this, address it with a crisis that it is, but I cannot allow the surrendering of our authority for the fiscal oversight.

The HEAs continue for the last I appointed this out, the last HEA that came through, still goes back to 2023, with zero financial disclosures around what the actual costs are associated with those contracts.

And for me, giving further authority even for another 45 days doesn't stop.

There's nothing in here that stops the mayor's office, and you can, and Bernita, thank you for doing it.

You always do an outstanding job with your reports.

I gotta give you a shout out for that.

But is there anything with a 45-day extension that prohibits the mayor from engaging in new contractual obligations in soul sourcing?

No, I don't think so.

Thank you.

So we got 45 more days, potentially 90 more days of green lighting sole source contracts happening with no greater fiscal oversight by this body, and that is absolutely something that I cannot support.

So I will support this amendment because it's a step in the right direction.

It's a slow step, but nonetheless, I'll take a step forward.

That's great.

I support this body exercising what we were all elected to do.

I support that, but I do not support the continuance of this emergency authority because it has been, frankly, I think abused with the fact that we are getting information withheld from us.

And I can't continue to support that.

And I well, I will continue to vote against this emergency order.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rodriguez.

Uh, a couple I have a couple questions on this.

Um, and I asked the city attorney to be here to answer this question with regard to contracting.

Um, you can answer them from the desk there.

Um, I the the you know, one one middle point about contracting in this city that I've observed the 10 years that I've been here, is the public will say, oh, the council slows things up.

Going through the democratic process slows things up.

When you actually analyze what happens with contracts, at least the ones that we track closely, they spend the most time in the city attorney's office.

Actually, when they come to committee, they come to committee, they literally can be voted on the next day.

Um, so I I just curious, what difference does the emergency order make in how the city attorney off city attorney's office engages in contracting, and what what uh difference would taking it away make, if any.

Hi, sir.

Uh Michael Dundas, City Attorney's Office.

Um for the most part, unless the city attorney itself is contracting for services, like for our own court transcribers, things like that.

It's the department that prepares the contract.

And so the the extended period of time to get to the point where it's ready for our office to review and then to be transmitted if needed under the municipal code or the admin code to city council for consideration is when it's in it's in the departments because they're the ones that normally would have to comply with the competitive processes that are required under the charter.

So the acceleration of time under an emergency declaration, whether it was the pandemic or this homelessness emergency, there's an exemption in the charter for prepares of declared emergency, which you can forego the competitive process in response to the emergency.

So that RFP or mini bid or RFQ, whatever may be done, would be set aside in return for a sole source.

And the balances that are, you know, the trade-off, the policy trade-offs are considered by the Department of the City.

Council in that circumstance.

Um, answer your question.

For our office, there is no difference whether there's an emergency declaration or not.

We reviewed the contract on its four corners and we would process it.

And so, so under the emergency order, you're still reviewing the contracts.

Yes.

And the short the thing that shortens the time is the time that you have to put out to wait for competitive bids.

The time it takes the departments to do that, yeah.

Got it.

And so if we were to end it today, we'd have to is it your understanding?

Let me ask it this way.

Is there a way we could end the emergency and still truncate the time that we lose rating for people to respond to an RFP?

To the extent that the departments commit the resources to focusing on those contracts in lieu of the other ones that they may be dealing with for other services unrelated to the homeless emergency, then they could presumably, I don't want to speak for them, accelerate that that timeline, even absent the emergency declaration to, but they would still be following competitive processes for the most part, unless there was some other sole source justification.

And so you believe there's a way to do competitive contracting as fast as you do sole source contracting.

I wouldn't suggest that.

Another question about contracts.

No, all contracts that are run through the general funded departments where they're under council controlled funding, they're all posted on the city clerk's website, whether they're sole sourced on an emergency basis or competitively good, every contract is public and publicly listed.

And even those that aren't publicly listed are still public, you just have to make a records request to say the proprietary departments, for example.

So just like we got a copy of the Gibson and Dunn invoice last, or the newspaper got a copy of it, the public could get a copy of the contracts that are happening under the emergency order.

The contracts in all of the related invoices too.

Got it.

Okay.

Uh thank you, members.

Uh, we got Mr.

McCosta to close, but but uh members, I'm gonna ask for a no vote on Mr.

McCosker's motion.

I appreciate the energy and the intent and the way it's been handled, uh, and you know, working with the mayor and working with the council, but I maintain that this council can on Friday, two days from now, 10 days from now, 45 days from now, or 90 days from now, bring a vote on the emergency order and end it.

We absolutely we've we've had that power from the very very beginning.

Um and I think uh you like Mr.

Lee, I want to give the mayor's office as much flexibility as possible so we can continue the work and get this done in a seam seamless way.

At the same time, I appreciate what Mr.

McCosker has done because I do think we need more urgency around it and the urgency around moving off of the of the uh emergency order and getting our house in order so that we can move quickly on a regular basis and uh with uh with regular uh order, but again, we absolutely have the ability to vote on this at any time, again 45 days, 60 days, 90 days, Friday, we could vote on it.

And so, um I'm not offering that we're gonna vote on it on Friday, Mr.

McCosker, but I recognize that actually, but one of my so thank you.

Hold on, hold on.

I'll call on you when I'm done.

Um, and just to confirm with the the clerk, I just want to confirm that what I'm is what I'm saying is not political hyperbole.

We literally can end it on any day, right?

City attorney or CLA.

I believe you can.

Um the ad code states that it can be renewed every 90 days, it does not state when it can be terminated.

So my reading of it that I'm not the lawyer here.

Well, we have a lawyer right behind you.

Let's say that the council at any time could bring it in for termination.

Yeah, the I would agree with Sharon.

I just add some specificity.

Um, under subsection E, the renewal is it would last for 90 days, it would terminate on its own after 90 days.

So the the renewal lasts for 90 days, but under subsection F, upon review of the reports that have been requested by the council, the the council can act independently of those 90 days to terminate it at any time.

So, okay, so we have the ability to do this, uh, members, and I'd ask that we maintain the flexibility of this council and you know, the council in the future uh to take up this matter and to take up our business uh as we see fit when uh and I cannot emphasize this enough.

When we are sure this is not gonna set us back.

Because I was on this council before there was an emergency order.

When we were in regular order.

And and let me just tell you, as frustrating as it is to give up our authority to approve contracts in that, I was here when we approved every contract, and we were in a materially different place, and the city was not moving towards ending homelessness.

That has changed, the material conditions have changed.

We're in a much better place now.

I think we're in a place where we can talk about ending it, but I want to do that in a way that gives this council and the mayor's office as much flexibility as we can possibly have.

Councilmember McCosker.

Thank you.

First, Mr.

President, I apologize for interrupting you.

My apologies.

So this, I love this debate.

This is a great discussion.

It's absolutely fantastic.

And it's what should happen in not just the legislative body, but the governing body of the city.

City Council is the governing body of the city.

And the question on contracts, which is an important question, is sort of an illustration, writ small of the bigger issue, the issue that we're addressing today.

The difference between the difference between the emergency order and contracting sole source and contracting sole source under regular provisions is on the other side of that rail.

We do stuff publicly.

Yes.

Among the hundreds of thousands of documents that we generate every week.

If we do it publicly, now we are giving dignity to the people we represent and saying we're about to go sole source on something, and you can ask the question, and you don't have to accidentally bump into it doing a mega search of all of the records in the city of Los Angeles.

Is there a role for emergencies?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Can an emergency go on forever?

No, absolutely not.

It is antithetical to our democratic process.

It is certainly antithetical to the city council being the governing body of the city of Los Angeles and being the legislative body.

Now, we've just heard a call for a no vote on this motion on these amendments.

There are three bullets, and they all three have great import.

The first bullet says 45 days.

People want it to be 90.

Okay.

Come to that in a second.

The second bullet says that we need to continue to get these reports and get the reports back on the second half of the motion so that we can make a smooth transition, whether this thing ends today or Friday or tomorrow, or 45 days or 90 days.

And that's important.

So I'm not gonna, I'm gonna urge that we don't throw that away.

The third bullet goes to this secret government issue to make sure that we don't have exactly what was described, that it can be ended on Friday, it can be ended on Wednesday, it can be ended on a week from Friday.

That's not fair to the public.

This is an open and public meeting, and I think we need to commit ourselves to the work.

I don't think there's anything wrong with saying in 45 days we're gonna come back and have this discussion because this is a great discussion.

This is an important discussion, and if we come back in 45 days and we're not done and we have the discussion again, guess what we've just done?

We've had an open and public meeting about an issue that is the most critical issue to our public.

And to say that we can do this any time if I just pop it onto an agenda, that my friends is offensive.

That, my friends, is not what we were elected to do.

All I'm saying, I got the question asked of me.

Will you please continue this item so that we can meet and talk to one another about how to end it?

Stupid me, I said yes.

And guess what?

That wasn't really the question.

Apparently, the question actually was will you just approve this thing and we'll move on and pretend like it didn't happen.

Members, we're the governing body of the city of Los Angeles, and we are facing the greatest existential challenge to our public as possible.

Is 45 days fast?

Yeah, it's really hella fast.

Does that mean that we only get one or two meetings in?

Maybe.

Is there a better number?

Maybe there's a better number, I don't know.

But what is wrong with being back in 45 days to talk about this issue?

Is there something more important we're gonna be talking about?

So members, I say we lean in.

I think it is absolutely critically important that we pick a date that we come back and not say, hey, we're gonna play whack-a-mole and maybe we'll show up one day and maybe we won't show up one day.

I think the public deserves that.

I think it's absolutely critically important that we say we want to get the rest of the reports.

We want to get it all in, we want to come up with a plan.

I think it's critically important that we work closely with the mayor, who is doing a fantastic job and working like endlessly on this issue, and say how do we work together to make sure we wind this down?

Because I guarantee you that the emergency order will not last forever.

It's not a question of whether it's going to end.

It's going to end.

Will it end in a competent way?

Will it end on a day where it just pops up on the agenda?

Will it end with fewer discussions or more discussions?

I vote for more discussions.

So members, I'm gonna ask for an I vote on this amendment.

And I can't imagine why there would be a no vote.

Someone's gonna have to articulate why we would say no, we don't want it to end someday, or no, we don't want to come back in 45 days and talk about it, or no, we don't want to talk to the public about it.

A no vote on this amendment, and I'm sorry to be so black and white, but someone's gonna have to articulate an argument why a no vote makes sense.

Because it is a no vote to discussing this issue in public in front of folks.

So I'm gonna urge an I vote.

Councilmember Roman.

So I just want to be clear.

I'm not, I I don't want a no vote on the amendment.

Like I have no problem with these steps.

Absolutely not.

All I'm asking for is can I think we can get to a place where both of what you are saying can be accommodated in this timeline, but also takes into account the limited capacity of the city.

45 days, I know the city can move fast.

I have a lot of faith in city departments, and I want us to do more of this work in-house.

It's part of why I pushed for the creation of a place in the city where we're actually taking ownership over the work, and I thank many of you for your support in pushing that forward.

What I don't want is to have the same conversation in 45 days, or a very similar one because we just haven't made any progress on it.

So if we could just get to a point where we just get a little bit more time for the departments to do the work to figure out the contracting to make sure that we're not leaving anything behind, uh dotting our I's and crossing our T's, that's really all I'm saying here.

Like we can do this work.

I think it's there is actually the report for me clarified that there is actually less impacted by this than I had feared, and I think we're fully capable of taking that on, but we also really do have only a handful of staff in the city who are working on these issues, and there are things that will lead to people losing their vouchers, losing their homes that we also do need to work on multiple meetings that people are attending at the county.

Like if we could just get to a number that makes a little bit more sense for us, and Councilmember Lee said 90 days, I'm fine with that.

I think we can actually get to a point where we can end this emergency and have done it in the most responsible way.

Um, and I think we can we can agree with both of these, both of these goals and outcomes because I think they are really important.

This is obviously work I believe in.

And again, I have absolutely no problem with this at all, at all.

It's really not my um, but we just got this report, the first phase of this report just a few days ago, and we will need to to do uh to get the second phase and also to take action on the basis of that second phase.

So again, this is not to undermine the very good points you're making, Casper Member Cosker.

I want to have more of these conversations out in the open.

I want to have more of our information, data, oversight, all of that.

I want to make that publicly available that's part of the work that I've been leading on and pushing on so this is transparency accountability better performance fiscal responsibility these are all things that I think that we can do and we are doing more of and I'm really proud of that I just want us to be realistic about our city's capacity given how few staff members we have and yes Council Member Rodriguez we need to hire more I agree with you this is again nothing that nothing none of this is um none of this is going against anything of what y'all are saying it's just like we are we are limited we're very limited um and I want to be able to do the work and I want to be able to do it right um and we have a responsibility the public to for that too and I take that responsibility very seriously so that's all I would ask and if we can just come to a resolution where we can find a number that works for everybody let's just do that and move forward with it.

Mr.

Soto Martinez uh thank you so much Mr.

President I'd just like to call a question on this item please all right the question has been called Madam Clerk to speak before the question is called we you know so that's good although I'll put on a question.

So the question has been called it is not debatable um it does I believe require a second and I don't believe everybody's spoken twice yet so the threshold will be 10.

So if you would like to continue this conversation uh then vote no against the motion to call the question but it will require 10 votes unless and until we have everybody has the opportunity to speak twice or people waive their opportunity to speak twice.

All right let's open the roll I'm asking for a no close the roll tabulate to vote we're asking voting on the question.

We're voting on where to the vote now or to keep talking.

Yes so if you just to clarify so we're all on the same page if you can probably so when we say there's a vote to call the question it means if you want to allow members to continue speaking to this then vote no.

In doing so it will allow this body to continue this conversation if you want to in debate on this now and immediately force a vote on this then vote yes on Mr.

on Councilmember Soto Martinez's uh motion to call the question it requires 10 votes currently to pass and let's open the roll close the roll tab you'd like to vote 10 no all right council memberski thank you just to pick back up on um what councilwoman rahman proposed which was something more than 45 can we I don't know if Mr McCosker you're open to something between 45 and 90 but it sounds to me like that would give a little bit more time.

I will make I will make an amending motion but I will insist on a second 60 days I'll second that it's been seconded all right.

We got a bunch of other speakers on the queue but we got an amended amendment Mr.

Bloomenfield I'm sorry Mr.

President just to clarify so uh this uh amendment is to change it from 45 calendar days to 65 calendar days is that correct six zero six zero sixty six zero in bullet two places in bullet one and one place in bullet three okay and that was uh amendment McCosker and Yaros no Yarsawski and McCosker thank you all right council member Padilla you know I think I'm right before speaking glad we reached a different number um that's probably gonna get us somewhere all I wanted to contribute was, you know, the last time that I voted to continue this, I mentioned that we were going through a lot of changes, right?

As a county, as a city, just so many different emotions and different things were happening.

So I thought that we needed it for the consistency.

But today it sounds like everyone is um, and I'm excited about it.

Everybody is finally ready to put the pressure of getting a lot of the motions that multiple members have put in together to really understand what the future is of everything we do with homelessness.

So, you know, if this report is going to tell us that it's telling us that the contracts will be fine, I also want to know not just uh contracts related to building, but also how is this again?

By the time we talk about this again, I hope that we can have a report that tells us how it's also or won't how it will or won't impact programming and the service providers and everything related to making sure that if we get rid of this emergency declaration, how is it going to improve our ability to govern more uh meticulously within our districts?

Because I'm assuming that that's the goal that we want.

It is definitely something that I want, but if I don't see a report that actually spells that out, like what the difference is, then that's a problem because the last time I voted to extend this was because you know, I mentioned the five years ago, you were not seeing uh homeless encampments consistently hit, hit, hit, hit.

That just wasn't happening.

Um, but now it is happening.

But if we can do it uh you know more directly by releasing this emergency uh order, then I want to know that.

But I want to be able to go to my service providers and contractors interested in coming into my district uh in a way that they'll know that I'll be their direct contact more than um what has been the status right now.

So I am going to vote that we uh extend but definitely get the report back within the 60 days as has been amended and presented.

Mr.

Boomerfield.

Thank you.

I mean, at this point we're just quibbling over days because the reality is this thing has to be renewed every 90 days, so it's coming back to us in 90 days no matter what.

Mr.

Cosper was saying let's let's cut that in half to 45 days.

Made sense to have it come back to us.

60 days is fine, but but I just want us to realize like we're we're starting to dance on the head of pin with you know uh it's just a question of days.

So 60 days is 30 days less than it would come to us at 90 days, few more than 45.

Uh let's just move this thing forward.

And uh at this point, I think it's as much symbolic as it is real, uh, because we're we are making a statement here as a council that we want to regularize business, and we want to get all the all of our our house in order in order to be able to do that.

So I support this and support the 60 days.

Consider Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I just wanted to correct something because the idea, and I'm glad you agree to 60 days, whatever.

I've waited almost two years now for this moment to arrive.

But the reality is, guys, is that you're still enabling the contracting authority of the mayor to start to continue to sole source and obligate ourselves to additional contracts without any oversight.

So 45 days, 60 days, 90 days.

At what point are you gonna be willing to finally say enough?

Each HEA report continues to tell you to pound sand to your face because the data isn't fully complete, and that's the biggest part of my frustration that it's been like this for well from the beginning, but we had a fight to get these reports through budget last year.

So now here we are.

The idea that we don't have the staff, that's nonsense.

I'm just gonna call out the nonsense of some of what Ms.

Raman has stated.

When we direct our city and staff that this is a priority, they know how to move.

If you make it a priority, it will get done.

Just like if you make it a priority, ED1 can be codified, but it's been languishing for two years.

So let's stop pretending that you don't have the authority.

Let's stop pretending that you don't have the power, you have the power.

Exercise it.

Just as we have the power to improve the circumstances in our own districts.

There's a reason why I started an R V to home pilot in my district.

If I had to sit and wait for the mayor to decide my district was important, then I would get the services.

I had to solve it myself.

I can't wait for someone else to solve my problems.

I gotta solve it for my community.

I'm not gonna relegate my authority and my ability to serve my constituents to someone else.

I was elected to do that.

So I'm gonna continue to exercise that authority with this no vote.

I look forward to the conversations of all of the motions that I've introduced, whether it's the centralization of this work in the city, either through a department or some other means.

I've introduced these motions that have not been scheduled in committee.

That those conversations and we've been there's been a foot dragging that we cannot ignore.

And the paper trail is my proof.

So I'm not gonna continue to enable this lie that says, Well, we haven't been able to do this.

Yes, we have.

Tighten the belt and just do the work and stop relegating it, all the authority to one person who is basically empowered to decide who's gonna get rewarded with an encampment resolution.

That's basically what's been happening, and I get it.

For those that have been the benefactors of it, cool, they're gonna rubber stamp it.

No, I'm not.

I haven't been doing it for more than for nearly two years.

I look forward to the policy conversations finally being scheduled and not slowed and ignored in policy committee.

And there's just gonna be a point where I mean I got the receipts.

We all have the receipts.

Let's stop playing games.

If we're serious about it, give the instruction, whether it's 45 days, 60 days.

I promise you, if it's a priority for this body, you're gonna have everybody showing up and facilitating this and getting and getting the outcomes that we want.

They are perfectly capable of doing it.

Mr.

Bloomenfield, are you sure?

No, all right, good.

There's nobody on the roll.

Let's uh call the roll.

Mr.

McCosker.

I just want to say I do love this debate, and I think it is important for us to have these public debates.

I still haven't heard any reason to vote no on the amendment, and we'll wrap it up.

I'm good with 60.

Let's move.

I urge an I vote.

All right.

Uh, this matter would go to April, excuse me, October 17th, 2025.

All right, Madam Clerk, what's before us?

Mr.

President, what is before council is amendment micoska Rodriguez as further amended by uh council member Yaroslavski and second by Councilmember McCosker, and that is for 60 days, not 45.

All right, let's open the roll on Mr.

McCosker's amendment, close the roll, Mr.

President.

Just for the clerks.

Um that would be 60 days, and also to specify October 17, 2025.

That would be the 60 days.

Yes, noted.

Thank you.

All right, we'll open the roll again.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Seven ay, seven no's.

Congratulations, everybody.

Uh, with seven ayes, seven no, this amendment fails.

All right, all right.

What's next, madam clerk?

Next would be item 45 itself.

Mr.

McCosker.

Can I ask that we send the amendment to the committee?

Excellent.

And so we do it in open and public and not have this pop up somewhere when no one's looking.

Thanks.

All right, without objection, thank you for that, Mr.

McCosker.

Madam Clerk, uh, Mr.

President, what is before council now is item 45.

All right, let's open the roll.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13 ice, one no.

Housing and homelessness committee.

Thank you, sir.

For for the motion for 45A.

Yeah.

All right, Madam Clerk.

What's next?

Mr.

President, council has motions for posting or referral.

They are posted in referred announcements, Councilmember Yaroslavsky.

Council President, I'd like to request that items 40, 41, and 42 move for forthwith.

Uh without objection, I think that might have already happened, but without objection.

All right.

40.

Can you say the numbers again?

40, 41, and 42.

Thank you.

40, 41, 42, 40.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other announcements?

Announcements, members.

All right.

I'll ask everybody in the chamber to rise for adjourning motions.

Ask if there are any adjourning motions.

I see Mr.

Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Colleagues, today I rise to adjourn in memory of Gary Lee Washburn, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and dedicated member of the Chapworth community.

Gary was born on January 14th, 1942 in Huntington Park, California, to William and Mary Washburn.

Gary graduated from Fresno State University.

He earned a graduate degree from Boston University and served our country honorably as an officer in the United States Army, attaining the rank of first lieutenant.

Of all of his accomplishments, Gary was proudest of his marriage to his wife Judy.

A gifted storyteller, he loved sharing the tale of how they met while he was stationed in Atlanta.

Gary was someone who was deeply engaged in public service and community life, serving as an emergency medical service commissioner for Los Angeles County, working in real estate, volunteering at his church, contributing to political causes, and serving as California Highway Patrol senior volunteer.

To know Gary was to love him.

On July 14, 2025, Gary passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his three children.

He's survived by his brother Bill, his children, Bob Sue and Kim, seven grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his wife Judy, his parents, and his brother Bob and Jim.

Gary Lee Washburn lived a life anchored in love, service, and connection.

His legacy will be felt in the many communities he served and the countless countless lives he touched.

May his memory be a blessing.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Lee.

Any other adjourney motions?

Seeing none, we are adjourn.

See you on Friday.

A celebration of black excellence.

I want to lift up our incredible staff who have done such a great job to put together this event as they have made the program happen in July this year.

It's extra special, and we're looking forward to many, many Angelinos coming to Central Library to explore all that we have to offer.

It's important that the library celebrates all cultures, and it does a great job of doing that.

And I think here at June Jubilee, you'll find displays like Karen Collins, whose African-American Museum of Miniatures shows the history of African-American culture.

You'll find performances like Jametta Rose and the Voices of Creation, who are bringing joy and happiness and unity to the people of LA.

We're here to celebrate Black Culture, Black Excellence.

We started off the day with a libation and a drum ceremony.

There's lots more to see, including uh author presentations, craft activities for people of all ages.

We're gonna have the Afro-American quilters, which are gonna be on the second floor rotunda.

When you walk up on that floor, it's just gonna be an amazing site to witness all of the African-American quilted stories that these women have put together.

We are also going to have an amazing Emmy nominated documentary, Black Barbie.

It's gonna be happening in the Mark Taper as well as a discussion panel.

For our community, all of you who are here, and we'll be going through these doors shortly.

This is your day, and don't forget, this is your library.

It's not my library, it's the commission's library, it's not just the mayor's library, it is your library, and that's why we're here and we exist for you.

Not just at Central Library, but all of our branches throughout this amazing city of Angels.

To all of you, welcome to June Jubilee.

It's gonna be a great day.

Thank you so much.

Young players stepped up to the plate at a citywide tournament.

LA City's Wreck and Parks softball and baseball tournament brought four neighborhoods to the field, bringing out the best in competition and community pride!

We are excited to host the citywide baseball and softball tournaments today.

We have four regions represented.

That means players from all over the city coming from our recreation centers to compete for a citywide title.

This is extremely important for the kids because it's not every day they get an opportunity like this to play on a nice build like this for the championship for the city.

It's a big deal for our community.

You know, the parents are very dedicated, a lot of practice throughout the week, and they're able to get somewhere here to the championship.

So something that they're gonna remember for a long time.

It's really positive for them.

We're hosting the baseball softball tournament right now, but we do have year-round sports.

You can find out information at LA Parks.org, where we have four different seasons of baseball, basketball, softball, flag football, soccer, and we're increasing and adding programs in new sports at all times because we're also part of the Olympic initiative.

So we're trying to make sure that we give opportunities for youngsters to get exposed to new sports and have an opportunity to try out and play things that are new for them.

The kids are able to exercise, take out all their energy.

They play for their parts, they make friends, and this is the culmination of what we have going on for the past three months.

What it brings to the kids is self-confidence, self-esteem, community pride.

We're giving them an opportunity that they're never gonna forget.

It is an area of South LA where we want to make sure that we have a lot of alternative actions for young people to participate in and to foster a great path for them when they make choices about what they're gonna do with their time.

We're here to support that, give them activities to belong to, and we have this happening throughout the city, not just in South LA.

So we're happy to always provide that year-round.

That program is a home run for Wreck and Parks, and there are many more sports detailed on their website.

In this week's feature story, gratitude is the theme of the 2025 Nisei Week Japanese festival in LA's Little Tokyo.

Honoring the legacy of the district has never been more important, and the cultural celebrations kicked off with the Nisei Week Grand Parade.

The theme for this year is Hencha, which is gratitude.

It's just a celebration, a celebration of all the uh Japanese Americans who have been in LA over 100 years, actually.

And it's just a reminder of uh all the things that we need to cherish about this place and about our culture.

A lot of people in the Los Angeles are not aware of the although this event is actually every year.

You don't ever want to lose your cultural heritage.

It's important to keep that identity, and so this event helps to reinforce that on a regular basis.

It's important to have these parades in large part because it's a way for people to learn more about the culture and to be appreciative and um in tune with what the community wants, right?

It's important to leave from community, and that's what the Japanese American Heritage and Nisai Week is all about.

Yeah, it's a great way to support the Japanese community here in Los Angeles.

It's important for representation.

I think that kind of the state of our country right now.

I think having this representation to showcase like inclusivity and that we care about our community.

It helps to bring people and community together.

Celebrating diversity, definitely.

Yes, yes, for sure.

That's why we're here.

Living in such a like diverse city.

We're so lucky to have all of these wonderful cultures around us that we can experience, and I think coming to events like these, you really get to feel, you know, the things you don't get to see in your everyday life.

So I'm excited to see all the Nisi Queens and Princesses.

I'm really excited to see uh the winners from the beauty pageant.

Um, they're my favorite part of the parade.

We went to Tokyo earlier this year, and being in Little Tokyo is just like a little snippet of uh actually being in Tokyo.

I've been coming to Little Tokyo since 1968, I guess.

It's changed greatly, but it's still really the, as far as I'm concerned, the heart of Los Angeles and the jewel of Los Angeles, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this.

LA is a melting pot, and so to have our vibrant communities represented, especially in these times where we've been devastated by immigration ice raids now more than ever.

Just so excited to be here to celebrate the diversity, which is the strength of our city.

They do appreciate this event.

In this week's things to do.

Keep LA beautiful at the seventh annual beautification conference.

Learn more about our coastline at Cabrillo and enjoy a special edition of Back to School Venice.

All this up next on things to do.

On Saturday, August 23rd, the Board of Public Works and the Office of Community Beautification presents the seventh annual beautification conference, celebrating people, purpose, presence.

Connect with fellow Angelinos to share stories, learn how to get involved, host your own community cleanup, and discover all that local partners and city agencies have to offer.org.

Enjoy a guided walk with the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Educators on Saturday, August 23rd, when they will be interpreting the various habitats of the