The yourself, your city, your rights.

It's a gender and public safety symposium, and we have a number of workshops, starting with gender-based violence, prevention, and support.

There are people who are dealing with tough situations and things that people don't like to talk about.

But by us being here to provide the information we can change and save lives.

When asked about public safety deeply and in dialogue with people, the conversation is not about cops and robbers and victims.

What we heard today about public safety is that what makes people feel safe is economic security, is strong community, self-empowerment.

At Calcett LA, our mission is to educate the next generation, and that includes civic engagement.

So beyond their major or their specific programs, they have a role to play in the civic community that they choose to be in.

And so today is all about giving them those resources to do that work safely.

This is where young people are with bright minds and they're open-minded still.

They're here because they want to learn something.

So why not share?

In a space where people are open to learn and can be contributors.

Well, I want them to not just live in fear.

Counted among the safer large cities in the nation, LA has built its progress on collaboration.

City leaders, community members, and the police department work side by side, strengthening neighborhoods, protecting immigrant angelinos, and partnering with residents to address crime where it happens most.

And we all come together and we have presentations, we share ideas, we share intelligence, things that are happening on the streets, best practices, and how to combat and address the human trafficking epidemic that we see on the streets of Los Angeles.

Figaroa, of course, is the most famous of all the tracks as they call them.

And that's where children as young as 12 years old are being trafficked.

Support groups and service groups can't do it alone.

We all have to work together.

And also the prosecutorial part of that with the city attorney and district attorney, the U.S.

Attorney's Office of going forward with the prosecution of those who are offending and of those who are trafficking these, especially minors here in the city of Los Angeles.

We can't walk by situations where somebody is being held against their will.

Somebody is being put in an extremely dangerous circumstance over and over again.

So we all have an ability to be able to do something about it in our communities.

All of you are doing that every single day.

And the courage it takes to do what you're doing is amazing.

Los Angeles is also advancing smart city initiatives, upgrading infrastructure like connecting street lighting that responds to real-time conditions, expanding public Wi-Fi, and exploring new mobility solutions to reduce congestion and emissions as part of long-term plans through 2028.

Strong relationships lay the groundwork for lasting success while working together toward a common goal.

Sports, especially team competition, build discipline, perseverance, and resilience.

A truth often echoed by basketball greats reflecting on the journey behind their achievements.

I'm about to take you to the hole, ready.

Excited about being in LA as the CEO of the Legends of Basketball.

Wanted to make sure that we got into the community and do the same thing for the community it did for us, which was to raise us, give these kids an opportunity to hear from us, learn from us.

One, two, three!

And feel the energy that we bring into any gym that we walk into.

Come on, make a shop, big shop.

We're here in the 10th district at Michelle Barack Obama sports complex.

And what we have is an amazing thing.

A free clinic from kids from the second grade to the ninth grade.

We got so many great legends from WNBA legends, Paul and Globe Trial Legends, ABA Legends, and NBA legends, just given the fullness to the game.

Just showing the kids life through basketball.

And we're just excited to be here.

Sports teaches us so much.

And I was lucky to have a safe environment to experiment with different sports.

And I quickly learned that it taught me discipline.

It taught me perseverance, how to fall down and get up, how to believe in myself, how to be confident in who I am.

And so I'm hoping that we can come here and give our kids that same message because I know when we do, they end up being something far greater than they thought that they could ever be.

It is important for us to be here and put on these clinics because we again we want this, we want to show the kids the opportunities.

We want to instill in them what someone instilled in us, and that's the morals, the values, the hard work, the dedication.

Just being here is step one.

And so once they're here, now we're going to teach them some of the life skills as well as basketball skills.

In today's world of all the technology that we have with social media, the internet.

We're seeking to always empower our brains and our minds.

But if they don't learn how to move their bodies in a way that keeps them healthy and not just healthy, but keeps them connected to others and having fun, uh, then we're giving them something that is really going to be detrimental as they get older because we need to learn how to take care of our bodies.

I really just want to tell the parents continue to put your kids in sport.

They may not be NBA player, WNBA player, next, you know, major soccer player, but there's something important about being on a team sport that they can carry over into the workforce.

They can just carry on through life about being a teammate, about dedication, about sometimes working together for a common goal.

So there's bigger opportunities, there's bigger reasons why sport is good for young kids.

If you can't stop, won't stop, shoot the rock till you're good enough to reach the top, won't you?

Nobody knows the troubles.

Cam was founded in 1977.

So we're coming up on our 50th anniversary next year.

For over 40 years, Cam has been collecting African American artists, and we've been at the vanguard of that work.

So we have an incredible collection of works that range from Betty Saar to David Hammond to Noah Purafoy to John Outerbridge.

And uh we try to show them as often as we can.

And it's a special place.

It was made by the community for the community.

At CAM, we say Black History Every Day, but we recognize that Black History Month is an important opportunity to reflect and celebrate the contributions of Black people, past, present, and future.

It really is a unique place in Los Angeles where all people, but particularly black people can come and be in their joy and their sense of togetherness.

At CAM, we rotate our exhibitions regularly.

So there's always an opportunity to come back and see something new.

We also have a slate of programs that range from talks to performances to workshops to art activities to yoga to dance parties.

So there's something for everyone here at CAM.

When visitors come to the museum, I hope that they leave with an understanding of the contributions of African Americans, but also to understand that that experience is multifaceted, diverse, and extraordinary.

Thanks for joining us.

You can watch these stories and more on Channel 35 or at LACity.gov forward slash TV and follow us at LA City on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube.

Until next time, get out there and explore all that Los Angeles has to offer.

Hi, I'm Kat Prickett, and I'm the Marine Environmental Supervisor of the Water Group here at the Port of Los Angeles.

And this is my career report.

Alright.

Why cats over dogs?

Well, let me tell you, I could give you a couple of silly answers.

Have you ever tried to housebreak a dog?

I haven't, but I know friends have.

It's a long, awful procedure.

You need newspaper.

How do you even get newspaper these days?

Cats, step one, show them the litter box.

That's it, you're done.

But more seriously, I love both cats and dogs.

I grew up with both in my house, but when I was six, uh I got to take care of my very own cat for the first time.

And so ever since then it's just been me and cats.

So what kind of challenges have you faced in your career?

Well, one of my main challenges came this morning where I had to figure out what kind of adult clothing I could actually wear after one year in a pandemic.

But more seriously, uh I've had three different big jobs in my career.

I went from a public sector toxicity testing job to private sector consulting, and now I work here at the Port of Los Angeles back in the marine environment, which I really love.

And I think every single time there is challenges to a new job and a new situation, things you have to learn, uh not just technically what you do today to day and continue to learn more about those things, but also who are you dealing with?

Who are your friends gonna be?

How does the job work?

Um, what kind of procedures are in place?

So all of those things are uh challenging, but um they they make uh they make the change exciting and I and I've enjoyed that as well.

Was this your first job choice?

Um that that is a really interesting question because I would say that um I've wanted to be marine biologist since I was eight years old, and when I was eight, I had a very different idea of what I might be doing in my career, and so uh I love the ocean, I love the animals in the ocean, and I thought I was gonna be working much more hands-on at that point.

When I went to college, one of the first things they told me was that there were no jobs in marine biology.

So I wasn't sure how to deal with that except to continue to go forward and think, heck yes, I'm gonna be able to get a job in marine biology.

You can't tell me that.

When I got the opportunity to come to the port of Los Angeles, it was my third major career move.

Even at that time, maybe it wasn't my first choice.

But now, after being here for 12, 13, 14 years, uh, I think it really is my first choice.

I don't think I'd want to work anywhere else.

I love the mix of um work and life balance.

I love being an expert at the port, everything that goes on here with the water quality.

Um, and uh that that really appeals to me.

So now it is my first job.

Did you play any other sports before soccer?

Um I started playing soccer pretty late in life in my 30s.

Um, and so you'd think I would have played a lot more sports before then.

I was uh pretty sporty.

I was an outdoors kind of girl.

I like running around, I like playing tag, I like playing kickball, I like to ski, I like to bike, I like to do all those kinds of things.

But uh I actually never played any kind of organized sports during school or after until I started playing an adult recreational league with soccer.

So never too late to start to find something new that you love in life.

Oh, I should have headed back.

Do you miss Washington DC?

If yes, what do you miss about it?

Uh I grew up in Washington, DC, that was my home until I came out to California for college.

I still have family there, so uh yes, I miss Washington DC.

And of course, number one is my family that lives there.

I miss them a lot.

Um, but outside of that, I really miss the seasons that you get in DC.

They're not too harsh, um, but you do get to see snow.

You do get to see a beautiful, beautiful spring where everything's coming out of winter, and everything blooms at once, and there's a bush there called azaleas, and everybody has them in their front yards, and it's uh it's just beautiful when that when that happens.

Hmm.

How do you check the water quality at the port?

I love this question.

There are so many different ways that we are able to uh check on the water quality here.

From instruments that you can just dip directly into the water and find out what's the temperature, how much dissolved oxygen is in there, um, you know how how turbid is the water, how much light will penetrate through it, all of those things that have an impact on the water quality and the things that that live in our in our harbor waters.

Um but if you want to get a little more technical, then uh you need to take some samples, send those off to a lab, and they have lots of different methods, lots of different uh instruments that they use, and they can find out things like how many how much metals are in there, how much pesticides are in the water, um, how much you know DDT or PCBs you may have heard of those, how much of those are in the water.

Um, and then they come back with you and they give you all all the results.

One of the first things I ever learned about how to check water quality when I was a student was a thing called a secchi disk.

And this is a circle, and it's painted in a grid, white and black, and there's a rope tied to it, and you just lower it in the water until you can't tell the difference between white and black.

And then you pull it back up and you measure the length of distance, and that is the depth of the water clarity.

So anyone can do that, um, and uh it's a pretty cool way to start to get into know what what the water quality is like in your area.

I'm gonna pick that up because that's bad for the water quality.

One of the first things you will see as you are landing is the ever iconic LAX theme building.

The LAX theme building is a modern icon and recognized worldwide as the space age landmark of one of the world's youngest most influential cities.

The LAX theme building serves as the symbolic gateway to Los Angeles and a futuristic design intended to convey new prosperity in the embrace of technological innovation.

It has been and continues to be a constant reminder of Los Angeles' drive to be the city of tomorrow.

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

Today is Wednesday, the fourth day of March in the year twenty twenty six.

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

Um Clerk, if we can begin our proceedings by calling the roll.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Bloomenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Harado, Lee, McOser, Nazarion, Padilla, Park, Price, Raman, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Yaroslavsky, ten members, and a quorum, Mr.

President.

All right, first order of business.

Approval of the minutes of March third, twenty twenty-six.

Councilmember Blumenville moves.

Councilmember McCosker seconds.

What's next?

Commendatory resolutions for approval.

Councilmember Rodriguez moves.

Councilmember Hutt seconds.

Can we run through our agenda?

Items one through sixteen are items for which public hearings have been held.

For item ten, a revised economic development and jobs committee report has been submitted and is available online under council file number two five-one five zero nine-s one.

Items 17 through thirty-two are items for which public hearings have not been held.

Ten votes are required for consideration.

All right.

Councilmember Raman.

After consultation with the city attorney, there's a I think I may have to recuse for nine, ten, eleven, and fifteen.

Any others members going once?

Councilmember.

All right.

Any other special members?

All right, seeing no other specials.

Um, where does that uh leave us with regard to votes?

The council may now vote on items three through eight.

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

Thirteen eyes.

All right, what's next?

Would the council like to move into public comment?

Well, we have the item, uh, Mr.

McCosker's items that he wanted to make comments on before public comment.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I forget the number.

Item number two.

Item number two.

Item number two, members, is the appointment of Teresa Sardisco.

Hello, say let's say let's everyone say hello to Teresa Sardisco.

To the Board of Animal Services.

And we are grateful to the mayor for making the recommended appointment.

And I'm going to urge members that we unanimously appoint Teresa Sardisco to the board.

Teresa is somebody who I go way back personally for decades, even though she's very young and I'm very old.

Uh she was an advisor to Jim Hahn when Jim Hahn was city attorney and then mayor on animal rights issues, on animal care issues, and was very instrumental in the last time that we had the opportunity to really expand and advance our practices in caring for animals in our city.

And I am so excited that she is willing to serve.

Teresa has brought out a big group of Harbor area folks.

Everybody, if you're if you're here to support Teresa, raise your hands.

Look at that.

That is civic engagement.

And I think it's so wonderful that when we make an appointment to one of our commissions, that the community is excited for you because these are folks are going to work with you, support you, give you advice, you're gonna give advice back.

I'm really really grateful.

This is a difficult commission, extremely important issue.

Uh and again, I'm grateful to the mayor, and I'm grateful to the support that Teresa has given to the entire community.

Uh, she has been running San Pedro Pet Palace for many years now, and the folks that are going to be responsible for carrying on San Peter Pet Palace and supporting her are all here.

And she's got friends and family, and I'm grateful to you and the friends and family of Teresa Sardisco is also very deep in city service.

Firefighters particularly.

So I just want to commend to you all, Teresa Sardisco, and I want to thank the mayor again for making this important appointment to the Animal Commission.

So thank you, Teresa.

Thank you so much, Mr.

McCosker.

And uh with that, uh, we're urging an eye vote.

Let's open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the votes.

Thirteen eyes.

All right, congratulations, commissioner.

And thank you for your service.

And with that, we'll go to public comment.

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'll 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're on topic, you will get one brief warning from me or the council president.

At that point, you need to get immediately and clearly 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 17 through 32.

So again, the items that are open for public comment on the agenda are items 17 through 32.

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 than the city's subject matter jurisdiction.

I have a couple more announcements, if I could please have the interpreters make this first one allowed to the room.

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

Don't worry.

Um the order in which we take public comment is at random.

That is to say it is randomly generated.

So it is not necessarily in the order in which you signed up.

So in order to help us accommodate as many people as possible as we have a full house today, uh, we'd ask that you please wait until you hear the name that you signed up under called aloud before lining up in any order on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

Thank you.

We will now be proceeding um with public comments.

I'll be calling the next few names.

Angela Moss.

B, capital B, V.

Christina L.

Capital D, or excuse me, initial D S.

And then first name Elgin, last name Biller.

If you've heard your name called, you can line up in any order on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

For the record, I send up as uh Elgin Baylor.

Um general public comment and 31.

Okay, so you have one minute for the item and one minute for general.

Please begin with the item.

Go ahead.

Um item 31 is on beautification in CD 14 and the Board of Public Works.

And the problem with public works is we have a five-headed monster presiding over our city with no one in charge.

Some of y'all have sought to abolish the Board of Public Works, but the mayor's minions on the Charter Reform Commission have refused to make any relevant changes to it.

The only thing they are doing is ensuring that we create a director of public works, but they refuse to entertain former Commissioner Schlager's proposal to actually empower the director of public works.

That person will simply be another layer of red tape, a figurehead that is forced to be subservient of the board.

Um all of you have complained about how departments are pulled in multiple directions, and even supporters of council expansion have like Councilmember Rahman have said that it would do more harm than good if we don't address that dynamic.

Um, the commission's doing nothing, and it's wild because the mayor is looking up to looking to gobble up power left and right, but doesn't want to touch this one essential change.

Um this charter reform commission should be launched into the sun.

I say that it is somebody who advocated for it to be created, but it is doing more harm than good.

General.

We're looking at a two-year budget.

Everybody here wants to have a two-year budget.

Everybody has been pleading, give us more time as a council to consider the budget.

Guess what?

They're gonna make you do a two-year budget and not give you any more time.

Absolutely insane and disrespectful this body when everybody has made clear you need more time.

This staff was caught last week producing a report that hallucinated policy proposals because as you can see in the footnote, they were using chat GPT.

We are being served up charter slop, AI charter slot by incompetent staff who have no idea how this city works.

The mayor is proposing that they, the mayor, should be the presiding officer of this council, a non-voting member, able to introduce and second legislation.

Absolutely ridiculous.

I don't even think she wants that.

Marquis would welcome her with a red carpet to come here any time.

This is just a power grab.

It's just about getting leverage and making this a whole hot mess that you can't handle once the budget hits.

Next speaker.

Before the next speaker proceeds, I'll be calling additional names.

Ellen Endo, Aaron E, Gilbert V, and Jacqueline I.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

I'm not sure the numbers, but it's the filming in Los Angeles and also general comment.

Okay.

So uh thank you for pointing that out.

So actually, yes, the film LA items, there are multiple items on the agenda.

Uh, public comment has been satisfied at committee.

However, you can speak to it during general public comment, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

My name is Christina Lamont.

I am a SAG After member.

I actually serve in governance with SAGAFTRA.

I also happen to have a card with AyATC and it's been Iahtzee for 25 years.

This last year has been the most difficult year of my life.

Because of the lack of work, had it not been for the death of several family members and small inheritances that I got, I would not be standing here today.

So please, on behalf of everyone here, please help us bring production back to LA.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

This is in relation to the Stay in LA initiative.

Okay, so you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Hello, Council members.

My name is Aaron.

I have lived in Los Angeles for over 14 years, like many people behind me.

I moved out here to pursue my passion in film and television.

I got my bachelor's in film and uh film arts from C Sun.

Um I'm a proud Angelino.

I'm originally from Northern California.

And it is from the bottom of my heart that I implore you to pass these initiatives.

Los Angeles has been the epicenter of the film industry for over 120 years.

We have housed countless studios across our great city.

We have employed millions of people through the past 50 to 60, almost 80 years at this point.

We have the infrastructure, the talent, the knowledge, the know-how to get this city back up and running.

When people think of Los Angeles, they think of Hollywood, they think of film, television, and the history that this city has created.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi.

Um, general public comment on the city filming.

Oh, I heard general.

And what was that after?

General public comment for city filming.

So you'll have one minute, and this goes for everybody.

If you'd like, you can adjust the microphone.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Jacqueline Iniguez, policy manager for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber supports a citywide filming conditions framework, a dedicated city film liaison, streamlined sound stage permitting, an independent auditing of film LA, and free microchute permits.

Together, these measures make it easier to do business in Los Angeles as we face growing competition from other states and countries, um, counties offering faster, more predictable processes.

A modernize state sound stage approvals and free microchip permits will support small and mid-sized productions and provide flexibility for independent creators.

The creation of a city film liaison will improve cross-department coordination and resolve um challenges efficiently.

The chamber respectfully requests that the city move forward with these improvements to straighten competitive tourism, support job growth in the industry, and reinforce Los Angeles as a global leader and the creative capital.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Um I'd like to speak on item uh 10.

10?

Yes.

Okay, so you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Ellen Endo.

I am the interim executive director of the of the newly formed property-based Little Tokyo Business Improvement District.

And uh I also uh am someone who worked in the entertainment industry for 24 years.

I have uh four adult children, three of whom are are working in the industry.

Uh this the uh the issue here for me is jobs.

It also, you know, uh the ability to encourage uh production, not discourage it.

And uh if we don't kind of adopt realistic rules, the uh production community will continue to move to Vancouver, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago, uh, everywhere but Los Angeles and Los Angeles is where the industry belongs.

Thank you.

I will now be calling I would now be calling the next few names.

James D, Jims Riverez, Lamar Odom, Landy S.

and Linda C.

Okay, so again, if you've heard the name that you signed up under, please feel it line up in any order on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

I see a couple people coming up, but I don't know if you want to read a few names as well make their way to the podium.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh the economic jobs and development uh committee recommendations, the Keep Hollywood Home Filming.

Okay, so you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Okay, hi, I'm James Bavin.

I am a Sherman Oaks resident.

I'm a member of SAGAFTRA and part of Stay in LA.

And I ask you today to approve all the motions that are presented to you.

Because this effort is really about modernization and bringing production home and setting us up here in LA for future success.

Our systems just simply haven't kept pace with a rapidly changing industry.

And you see, efficiency and cost competitiveness are operational necessities.

And when those permitting procedures and filming procedures work well, well, that means that productions could then choose Los Angeles.

And when they choose Los Angeles, that supports the jobs of arts workers, labor, small businesses, and also neighborhoods across the city because the entertainment industry is the heartbeat of our city.

And by approving these motions, you make sure that heart beats for years to come.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

My name is James Delhower, and I would like to speak to the Stay in LA initiatives.

Okay, so you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Thank you, sir.

Uh my name is James Delhauer.

I am an assistant representative with IATSC Local 871.

And in a previous life, I was a low-budget film producer.

LA has been the heart of the film and entertainment community for over 100 years now.

And just this past year, the state government passed the expansion of the state feder uh the state film tax incentive program in order to keep programs here in Los Angeles or in California.

However, Los Angeles has not kept pace with that.

We do need to streamline our processes in order to bring production back home and bring lots of strong middle class union jobs back to our city.

So with that, our local strongly supports these initiatives so long as strong labor standards are implemented in the or are included in the implementation process.

Thank you.

Before the next speaker begins, I'll be calling the next few names.

Linda C, Lauren McDonald, Malachi Simmons, and Marco.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

General comment, please.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

I'm here to support items nine through 15.

I grew up in Georgia, and as a kid watching TV and movies and seeing this beautiful city, I would constantly think to myself, I want to live there.

So 20 years ago this July, my new wife and I packed everything we own into a Honda Civic and have made Los Angeles our home.

Anything we can do to shine a spotlight on our wonderful city, we should support.

Anything we can do to make it easier and more efficient to film in town, we should support.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh the Film in LA initiative.

Okay, so you have one minute for General.

Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Laney Saram.

I'm a SAG AFTRA actor.

I'm also a writer and a producer, and have been involved in the entertainment and business since I was very little.

Um LA represents Hollywood and movies and television, and I currently have three projects, none of which can film in LA due to the difficulty and financial challenges that come with the way things currently are.

So we urge you to uh make it possible to make productions here viable so that we can work where we live and love.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I'd like to speak to items nine through 15.

Okay, so you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Sure.

My name is Lauren McDougall.

I'm a resident of Lincoln Heights and a proud member of uh IATSE Local 728 set lighting.

I'm speaking in support of items nine through 15, but I also feel it's important that there are labor protections included within them.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

Um I'm speaking to items nine through 15.

Okay.

General comment.

Oh, perfect.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Good out.

Good morning.

My name's Malachi Simmons.

I'm the vice president of IATSC Local 728, representing 2300 members in the craft lighting.

I'm here to speak in favor of items nine through 15 and encourage strongly encourage the incorporation of strong labor protections included.

Thank you.

My name is Gabriela Querales, and I've been in Los Angeles for eight years.

And what would you like to speak to?

I want to keep production here in Los Angeles for filming.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Can I go?

Yes, you can.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Uh so when a filmmaker hit the wall and cannot find a permit to fit in Los Angeles, they don't find a workaround.

They find another city.

I try to figure out this process myself.

And it's complicated.

It is hard to find the information.

And once that you find some information, it's all over the place.

I believe this motions change that.

I'm very excited about what we can do together to keep production in Los Angeles to keep bringing jobs here.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Mr.

Groat, I'm gonna speak about uh uh public comment and then about a few of the other issues.

Okay, and what were the other two items?

Um the economic of uh Hollywood and uh film industry.

So it's all so it sounds like it's all general public comment.

So you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay.

So um I want to speak to you guys.

My name's Gilbert Botella Jr.

I'm actually running against Hugo.

Um I'm gonna run a little short.

Um, I work in the industry too, and I just want to say that one thing I'll suggest on my industry is to make sure we pause this time.

So, speaker, this is your opportunity to address the body, not the audience.

So I'm gonna ask if you'd like to continue your own.

I can look the other way if you need the informatics.

It's fine.

So um, I just want to speak to the public back here and tell them that one thing we gotta do is register all the people in this time across Hollywood to vote.

It's not about which way you're facing, it's about if you're directing your comments to the audience and you're at you want to provide them with information, now's not the time to do it.

It's a public comment.

But what is the what is the definition of public comment or and I'm I'm not gonna get a little debate with you.

So I'm gonna I'm not debating, I'm just asking what the definition of public comments are to hear those rules, or you're gonna forfeit your speaking time.

Okay.

So how would I would you okay?

I'm trying to address the public in a public comic setting, right?

So I'm I'm just I'm just stating things that I think I don't understand the issue here.

Go ahead, keep going, please.

So, what I'll say is one thing we could work on is having a global corporate uh minimum wage uh and starting in Los Angeles because we're such the hub of the film industry to make sure no matter where they take the jobs that they never drop below.

So if the union or some or non-union takes a job to another country, it always stays at the same level as what it pays here in Hollywood.

And so another suggestion I would say to the public comment is that maybe we have everybody here in the city council wear a body camera, just like the police and the sheriffs do, so we can know what you guys are doing full-time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

I'll be calling the next um few speakers before the next speaker um proceeds.

Max Kleber, Rebea, Brandon A, and Mia C.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Um, I was gonna speak to items nine and fifteen, but I guess I can only do public comments.

Yes, so General, and before you begin, if you could just uh uh adjust the microphone so we can make sure we can hear you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

You have one minute.

Okay.

Um I'm a property owner in the film liaison for pan-american loss in downtown.

We're two large parking lots above our buildings and frequently use them for base camps.

I uh support efforts to modernize the filming rules and streamline the permit process.

However, I firmly oppose provisions contained in item 10, specifically clauses one and two.

These provisions singularly target and disempower DTLA residents and also pose a health and safety risk to all your constituents.

Rescinding well-established neighborhoods filming conditions without new measures in place, leave residents at the mercy of all productions with no recourse, and risk exposing your pre constituents to harmful fumes, invasive lights, and sleepless nights.

No one is more committed to this revival of DTLA businesses and DTLA residents.

We take great pride in seeing production activity that surrounds us daily.

Um, but asking us to sacrifice our own welfare and physical health to film production is wrong.

What other film-centric cities do this?

Special neighborhood filming conditions do not adversely affect or hinder production, they're not tyrannical, they protect your constituents.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh it was just public, public general comment.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Uh yes.

So yesterday I came in, it was my first time in a while.

I was being disciplined housed at the Los Angeles County jail for three months.

I'm not gonna complain.

I'm 31.

We all deserve it.

You know, after our, you know, past, but uh yeah, it is what it is.

We don't all deserve it, but at the end of the day, I just want to say I learned a lesson and I appreciate life.

And I can't wait till the Olympics come, and I want to appreciate this city.

It is one of the biggest cities, I assume, in the country.

So you guys do have a big price over your head.

But I just want to say uh thank you guys, and LA County Jail wasn't so bad for a 31-year-old who used to party back in his day.

So thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Motions nine through 15.

Okay.

So you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

My name's Robbie A Khan.

I'm a key assistant location manager with local 399 Teamsters.

I support motions nine through 15, and I want to thank the council for their support.

The motions aren't perfect, but I hope to continue having conversations to make sure that they serve production and the city.

Thank you.

Before the next speaker begins, I'll be calling the next few names.

Andrew Salomon, Bob B, and Eric Pats.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh nine through 15.

Okay, so you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Hello, my name is Mae Apple TAM.

I'm a constituent of CD 10.

Hello, Heather Hyde.

And I am a member of SAG AFTRA.

I've been an actor in Los Angeles for 19 years, and this last year was the worst year I've ever had.

And I am just one of many.

And uh I want to keep my dollars here.

I want to spend money here, and I want to keep the businesses alive here.

And I have been sent to Vancouver and New Orleans and Atlanta to film.

And guys, have you been to Atlanta?

It sucks.

So Los Angeles is cool.

We gotta keep it here because Los Angeles is cool.

We all know it.

We all love this place, and we're here for that.

So vote nine through 15, guys.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning, Andrew Salimian speaking on item eight on behalf of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Okay, so you'll have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Um we're here in support of the appeal for Angelinos for Historic Preservation.

Um rejecting the EIR that has been approved for the demolition of the Barry building.

The Barry Building is a designated HCM.

It's owned by an owner that has sought every remedy of to to extinguish that HCM through neglect, through intentional demolition, and through gross mismanagement of the property.

What this city is doing is allowing the senseless demolition of an HCM, which is a dangerous precedent for an empty lot that will sit vacant due to CEQA.

So we're asking you to uphold the appeal, and um thank you for hearing our comments.

Next speaker.

Before the next speaker begins, I'll be calling the next few speakers.

Melissa Woods, Ziggy Kay, and SIBA.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I was gonna speak on general public comments and also agenda item eight.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

What one minute for both.

One minute for general.

So item eight is public hearing was already held at committee.

Okay, which one I'm speaking first?

So you have one minute for general public comment, and that's it.

So I'm ready.

So on general public comment, I wanted to bring up the subject of AB 52.

That's tribal consultation on uh what we've discovered through public records is a failure in our tribal consultation done by Department of City Planning.

I hope we take a realistic look at this.

Um there's been an a ruling in Koi Nation uh of Northern California versus the city of Clear Lake.

It was ruled last year, and we're in clear violation of that, and I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

So I would suggest an audit of any tribal consultations that were done where they could not reach an agreement.

It's very important to to investigate that and if possible involve the tribes as well in the audit, so it's very transparent.

And uh the second item I wanted to talk about was agenda item eight.

I wanted to say I strongly support the appeal to save the berry building.

In 2007, the city council designated this HCM without owner opposition creating a legal duty under your time has expired.

We have to move on to the next speaker.

So no, I explained item number eight is not open for public comment, but you you could have spoken to it during general, but we do need to move on to the next speaker because we have to provide everyone with the same amount of time.

Understood.

So it for everybody here, uh, if you run out of time to speak, or if we run out of time to call your name, uh, you can always provide additional public comment in writing at LA Council Comment.com.

Again, that's LA Council Comment.com.

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

You can also do a quick Google search, and it should be the first thing that comes up.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh hello, my name's Eric Pet, the all the film LA amendments.

Okay, so you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Hello, Green Council members.

My name is Ert Pet.

I'm a local uh born and raised, not LA, but Orange County.

But nonetheless, in the film industry.

Um I am an engineer, founder, and uh producer.

We need to keep production here for multiple reasons.

There we are the creative epicenter of the film industry for the last hunger twenty and for the future ongoing, hopefully.

Um we have generational talent.

You're not gonna find in any other city.

We have people who are like within the stunts, you have rigors, and they are six generations passing down knowledge, and you're not gonna find that in another place because there's not a core to calling to a centralized focus of of staffing.

It's also a huge benefit to our local civilian population of the screen.

Um blue colour, blue color work.

It's it's a great industry for people who didn't have degrees and fill in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh good morning.

I would like to speak on item eight and general public comment.

Okay, my name is Ziggy.

We advise your time hasn't started yet, so don't worry.

Um, so as we advised the last speaker, so item eight is not currently open for public comment, as public comment was satisfied at committee.

But you will have one minute for general, so you can speak to it there.

Go ahead.

Okay, then I combine all that.

Then it'll just stay on the historic preservation in general in the city of Los Angeles.

If a developer can just pay to play to tell the people Teradam what's old and I vote you something new, but I actually have no problem not providing you with the project at this time.

There's something wrong with the city to accept it.

I see lots of people, well, actually, three people that were supposed to be paying attention at K Plum.

Ms.

Raman, Ms.

Nazarian.

They were present, but they were not.

Anyway, moving on to the next item.

KOI Nation versus the city of Clear Lake, AB 52.

Very familiar, Ms.

Ramon paid intense intense uh attention to the Papi speaker at that time by not communicating with them, but instead having a communication with Mr.

Blumentfield.

So AB 52 is a state law that the city ignores by pushing the Indian nations out of the discussions and just say out with your ancestry if you just do it, what we want to do.

I'm paraphrasing because this right now seems pretty much a Robert stamp.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hello, uh, General Comment.

Okay, perfect.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Hi, uh, my name is Melissa Woods.

I'm a member of the Art Directors Guild.

I moved to LA in 2016, and since then it's been an incredibly slow bleed.

Uh I joined under what was called a new media contract, which are now no longer in existence, which just shows you how much the industry has changed.

Uh LA has failed to change with the industry.

Um I just wanted to do real quick a uh round of applause from all the people here in support of the permit reform.

Okay, so while we obviously don't have time for everybody to comment individually, I just wanted to show you how many people are here in support of these nine motions.

Um additionally, um over 10% of small businesses that serve the film uh industry in Los Angeles have closed over the last four years, and that's completely unacceptable.

Uh that's 83 small businesses that are now closed and gone forever.

So thank you.

I'll be calling the next few names for public comment.

Alex Raymond, Andre S.

Chris Collin, and Debbie P.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

All items in general public comment.

Okay.

So you have three minutes for the items.

That is items 17 through 32, and then you'll have one minute for general public comment.

Please begin with the items.

Go ahead.

Items 20 to 27 are rent escrow account property removals.

The city is dead broke and has burned to the ground, and these rent escrow items are the best incompetent Dawson and these council clowns can do.

I demand that these escrow funds be returned to these property owners and special wording and these items that will set up an audit.

Investigation and referral to the district attorney for more embezzlement charges added to current prices, already 12 count indictment and arraignment this month exposing prices, criminal benefit to his wife's businesses with the city.

Item 29 by Jim Witt Nithya and Raman is nothing more than a $399,000 mayorial campaign contribution gift to herself for the illusion that she is doing something for the people.

This item is how our corrupt city government siphons off another $399,000 for their own benefit.

The $399,000 of our resources in this item should not be used for the ridiculous joke mayorial campaign of an incompetent Dimwit like Nithya Raman.

In my opinion, all but one penny of this item funds should be diverted to fund an investigation of how Dimwit Nithya Raman and Sleazy Dawson evicted the black community's 20-year-old community culture center and turned it into COVID site, COVID testing site.

Item 32 is by incompetent poverty Heather Hutt for a 41.18 motion to harass, arrest and evict persons from three sites.

The black community has zero representation public by contrast in this item.

Bob Genocide Bloomfield walked out of here yesterday with 80 million dollars for his community while Steppenfetchett poverty pimp Heather Hutt sits there on her butt and delivers homeless eviction harassment to the black community via 41 homeless eviction notices.

I demand that all sources of this poverty pimp hut motion be used to assist the homeless and the people of the district instead of evicting them.

An item by demonic trailer trash racist, Tracy Park is to end rent reductions for people, typical of a demon.

General public comment.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Public Marquise Dawson CD8 is a food desert, the highest unemployment rate in the entire country, the highest homeless rate.

Sleezy Marquis Dawson evicted the AFIBA Center, the black community's 20-year-old community and cultural center and turned it into a COVID testing site with votes of Dimwit Nithya Raman, Bob Gaza Genesis Bloomfield.

That is what they really think about black culture.

Our city, state, and federal tax dollars are being used to drop bombs and yet another war for Israel, and I demand an immediate resolution from this criminal criminal coward council that condemns yet another war against the Iranian people at the behest of Israel.

We the people are starving while these cowards are silent while this government drops bombs for Israel in genocide Bob Bloomfield.

Here is a solution.

Let's see let Dimwit Nithya Raman mayor public.

When you hire clowns, you get a circus.

Black history is world history, not these clown shows of entertainment put on by corrupt poverty pimping career Uncle Tom's.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

On the filming uh okay stuff.

So you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Good morning, everybody, council members.

Thank you for uh for all making it.

This is important to all of us.

My name is Alex Anguilar.

I'm the principal officer for Layuna Local 724.

We represent approximately 2,000 members that work in the entertainment industry.

I'm here today to ask you to vote yes on keeping film production in Los Angeles and to protect the industry standards that our members have fought for for decades.

Those standards are fair wages, strong benefits, safe working conditions.

Our members are the skilled workers who help keep this industry running.

Our members are the skilled workers who help keep this industry running when production is when production stays in Los Angeles.

It means good union jobs, stable careers for thousands of working families across our region.

We respectfully ask you to vote yes on this because this is very important.

We also ask you to please keep the amendments that we originally presented, and that we again we urge you to vote yes on this because this is important.

We need to keep filming in Los Angeles.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi, my name is Chris Collins.

I'd like to speak generally on film LA same.

Okay, you have one minute.

Go ahead.

All right.

So my name is Chris Collins.

Like I said, I'm an independent producer.

Uh working on a few movies, and we have gone to every distributor, every studio.

They all say the same thing.

Do not shoot in California, which is insane.

This is where films were made.

This is the cultural center of the film industry.

It should be where films are made.

There's no reason that they're they aren't.

I know some people out here, Councilman Nazario.

I know uh councilwoman Park have been very, very instrumental in trying to keep film work here.

To these nine motions, I just say jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.

That's it.

Keep work in LA, keep the money in LA, keep the cultural center of film in LA.

Thank you very much.

Before the next speaker begins, I'll be calling additional names.

Carlo Perez, Eddie, M, Gabriela, and Gabriela Q.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi, I want to speak to um all the stay in LA business.

Okay.

So you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Thanks so much.

Hi, my name is Debbie Pizer.

I'm a member of IATSE Local 798.

I also reside in District 10.

Looking at you, Heather Hutt.

Um, I'm here to speak to these motions.

We need more work in LA.

I haven't worked in a few years now.

I've worked in entertainment for the last 25 years.

I don't have any other skills.

I'm not, I can't even believe I'm crying right now.

I don't have other skills, and I don't have I don't want other skills.

I love working in film.

I love filmmaking.

I love the art of it.

I love the way that it brings community together.

I don't want to live in any other city.

I've lived in Los Angeles longer than I've lived in any other city in my life.

I need to work.

We all need to work.

And we need to sleep in our own beds.

We need to sleep in our own beds.

We need to have dinner with our families.

We need to work in the city that we all choose to live in.

I don't want to live in Atlanta.

I don't want to go back to New York.

I don't want to go overseas.

I want the money to stay here in Los Angeles.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

Uh I'd like to speak to item three.

So you have one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh I'm a resident of the Woodland Hills area of the city of Los Angeles.

Um, just here to thank uh Councilman Blumenfield for the work he's done to help keep my community safe.

We've recently been in the inundated with a high uh density development proposal.

And in our community, it's it's very small.

There's not a lot of area to get in and out.

My neighbors and I are extremely concerned about our safety in the event of a fire.

So I'm just here to thank City Council and specifically Councilman Blumenfield for all the help that he's given us in uh and trying to get the development to uh stop the fast track and to get us back into uh the regular development procedures in order uh for the community to be held safe.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh general public comment, please.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Yes.

So my name is Andre A.

Salivra, and I'm here today.

I'm running for mayor of Los Angeles this year in the 2026 Los Angeles municipal elections, and I'm here supporting Stay in LA because we need to protect our entertainment workers.

And I'm encouraging all of you to take this seriously.

Seriously, get off your phones and listen to these people.

What you guys might not realize is that entertainment is the fourth biggest industry in our city behind real estate, commerce, and tourism.

And those three fall apart if we don't support our entertainment workers.

So I'm encouraging all of you to take this very seriously and make sure that we have permitting processes and other processes that are available to these people to keep them employed here in the city of LA.

I was driving down Broadway, and I see all along the street there are theaters that used to be in LA that are closed.

We're not doing entertainment the way that we used to be.

There need to be pathways in the city that are created through City Council, through the mayor's office that allow for more production, especially live entertainment.

People go to L if go to New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas for their live entertainment.

Why don't they come here?

Because we haven't created the pathways that facilitate that.

That's what we need to change in LA.

So I'm encouraging all of you to please take this very seriously and support entertainment and our workers here in LA.

Next speaker.

Before the next speaker proceeds, I'll be calling you this.

Just a second.

I think they're hold on.

You'll get your four minutes.

Don't worry.

Um I believe.

Yes, Rob Q, said, and Suzanne Holly.

Good morning, Speaker.

I'm sorry.

What would you like to speak to?

Oh, good morning.

Uh, regarding the film in LA and the uh nine through 15.

And one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Yep.

So my name's Carlo Perez.

I am the business manager for the studio plaster, mold makers, and sculptors union.

And my family's worked in this industry since 1932 here in Los Angeles.

And I've the amount of change I've seen, my grandpa, my dad, myself, and uh the amount of change I've seen in over 120 jurisdictions competing for our work is disgusting.

And it's it's horrible.

I agree with them.

I've worked in Atlanta for years.

I've worked all over this country, and I shouldn't have to have left Los Angeles.

It was uh I worked on a uh film in called Fast and Furious in Georgia, and they took the lights and plates off that said Georgia, and they put California plates on there.

I mean that's really disturbing.

So anything you guys can do, we all appreciate it.

I support the motions, I support the uh uh whatever amendments were presented to uh refine them, but it's extremely important that we keep this work here.

There's there's people all over the place in our industry that who've they've lost everything, they're homeless now, and we need to stop this.

We need to cut it off while there's still something to save.

So thank you very much for the work you guys are doing.

Thank you for listening to us.

Appreciate it.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh, which is agenda item is for 4118 that Hutt put up.

So item 32.

Yeah, 32 and general public comment.

So you have one minute for the item and one minute for general.

Please begin with the item.

Go ahead.

Yes.

Um, I'm here to tell you to oppose anything to do with 4118.

It is a measure used by the city of Los Angeles to yes, um deal with the house list, but also LAPD uses 4118 to remove peaceful protesters at 535 Alameda Street, which is the protest that happens in front of the detention center last year.

LAPD used 4118 to take away canopies, our chairs, our tables.

And unfortunately, no one in city council held LAPD accountable of using 4118.

So, City Council, I understand that you guys like to use 4118 to get rid of the houseless, and that's unfortunate that you do that.

But also, you should stick up for protesters that are being punished with 4118.

Okay, I'll go into general comments.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

So um, talking about LAPD, um chief of police, Jim McDonald said that he would not enforce a no mask law.

He said it's a misdemeanor and it does not make sense for LAPD to do anything.

That is a clear reason for removal.

Two-thirds of city council.

Thank you.

Two-thirds of city council, these city council members can vote to get Chief McDonald out.

Ninthia Raman is the progressive, right?

Soto, Soto, Hernandez, and Jurado usually vote against LAPD, and it's great.

Ramen is it's really strange.

Last year, I have I think 18 votes where she voted in favor of funding LAPD through the Los Angeles Police Foundation, which if you don't know what that is, it's a shadow budget.

Um, but it's weird that Ninthia Raman voted for that.

Sh that's not something a progressive would do.

She should not be our mayor.

Next speaker.

Hi, good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Item 10 under general public comment.

Okay, so item number 10 is but so you have one other.

Yeah, one minute, I got you.

Go ahead.

Okay, great.

Hi, good morning, everyone.

I'm Suzanne Hawley.

I'm president and CEO of the DTLA Alliance.

As such, I represent the business improvement district in the central business district of downtown Los Angeles.

And we strongly support filming Los Angeles as a critically important economic driver to the city.

Uh that said, I I represent 325 buildings in my district.

One out of five of those buildings are residential.

There's one item of concern, item 10, the first item that restricts surveys to residents in downtown.

I'm very concerned that the voice of the residents is being excluded as part of the communication process.

And I can tell you out of my work with the bid and out of my work 15 years in commercial real estate management.

What works with filming in LA is communication and collaboration with the community.

Please don't cut the community out of this conversation.

Thank you very much.

I'll do I'll be calling the last name for public comment.

Terry.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that name one more time?

I couldn't hear it either.

Terry.

Going once, going twice as Terry standing up.

No.

So if there are no more names, I believe uh we have exhausted public comment.

Hold on just one second, please.

We have a new additional name, Chris L.

Okay.

So um I believe we're having a technical issue with the names.

I realize there are a lot of people here.

Um we're also coming up on an hour for public comment.

So I believe we're gonna take 10 more minutes for public comment.

So if you'd like to provide public comment and you have not already done so, uh, please line up again.

We'll try to get through as many folks as we can, um, and that'll take us right up to an hour.

If we cannot get to you today, uh then you're always welcome to provide general public comment at a future meeting, or as we stated earlier, you can provide written public comment at LA Council Comment.com.

So good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Item 16.

So you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Yes, good morning.

My name is Chris Longoria.

I'm a state certified electrician and business representative for IBW, uh, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 11.

Uh, you're receiving a presentation today from the BSL and the city's street lights.

Our street lights are aging and are funded at 1990 levels.

Street lights protect Angelinos by reducing traffic collision collisions and deterring criminal activity.

Council off offices should should not need to use their discretionary funds to fix street lights.

We need to increase funding for our streetlight infrastructure.

All signs point to the importance of asking the voters for their support.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I'd like to speak on items nine through 15, please.

Okay.

So you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Great.

Um, hello, my name is Angela Moss.

I am um IATSE political coordinator for local 706.

We have over 2200 members in our local makeup and hair guild.

I came to Los Angeles.

I came to Los Angeles from San Diego.

I'm a California girl because I had a dream.

I watched movies as a child.

I watched television shows, I watched award shows, and I said, Oh my gosh, I want to move to LA.

This is fantastic.

So I was the only one out of my group of friends that came to LA to achieve that dream, and I have.

And we are the LA entertainment capital.

Let's bring it back to that.

We are your cons constituents.

Oh, I want to just say so much more.

It's on, it's on all of you to vote yes for these motions because that's who we are.

Next speaker.

Bring it back.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh my name is Tom Davis.

I'd like to speak to items number nine through 15.

Okay, so one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

So again, Tom Davis here on behalf of the California RTFC Council representing about 45,000 entertainment workers in the Los Angeles region.

I'm here to, on behalf of the California ITFC Council, to thank Councilmember Nazarian for his hard work and for uh everything he's doing to assist us in bringing back productions to Los Angeles.

We believe that the motions that have been put forward will be helpful.

And we also believe that with any public uh uh expenditure resources, labor standards, and safety standards have to be part of the uh the equation.

But again, I want to thank uh Councilmember Nazarian for uh his efforts and for the other council members who are assisting and making sure that Los Angeles is the home of the entertainment industry.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What items would you like to speak to?

I bet you can guess.

Okay.

Hi.

One minute for general, go ahead.

I am Jolie Fisher.

I am the president of SAGAFRTA Los Angeles local.

When I think of home, I think of a place where there's love overflowing.

Please, I am a Los Angeles local.

I am born here, raised five children here.

I am Hollywood royalty.

And please pass motions nine through 15 and keep film in LA.

Make Hollywood Hollywood again.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi, staying in LA for film industry.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Alison Reyes, and I'm a producer and founder of Vision Ray Entertainment, also an LA local, born and raised.

Um I have applied for permits in the past and spent 400 on the application alone, only to find out that the permit itself for a one-day permit was going to be $4,000.

And when you're working on a short film pro short film project, that was about one-third of our budget.

And unfortunately, we were unable to film or hire the necessary crew that we needed to make that project happen.

So I really urge our members to pass these motions.

Furthermore, the micro free micro budget permitting would be life-changing for a lot of smaller productions and really help keep not only filmmakers in LA, but also help keep other industries such as food and beverage, tourism, uh dry cleaning, etc.

Uh, in business as well.

So thank you for your time.

I really appreciate it.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi, I'd like to speak to the Keep Hollywood Home motions.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Victoria Male.

I've been a resident of Los Angeles County for nearly 12 years.

I'm an award-winning writer, producer, and I also had the great privilege of working for Ivan Reitman on the Sony lot for five years in development and production.

Yet none of the major films I worked on with Ivan shot in Los Angeles, including the mega blockbuster Ghostbusters Afterlife.

The passing of these motions don't only provide a much needed rebuild rehabilitation to the industry that built this city, they also keep money and jobs here, as well as bring in additional money via tourism.

Since as a bona fide film nerd, I can attest that I've spent spent my hard-earned cash on touring the sites where my favorite films and TV shows have shot.

I urge you to vote yes on all of these motions and know that how your your vote will be at the top of our minds when we next visit the ballot box.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi, I'd like to speak on the stay in LA motions.

Okay.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

My name is Tatiana, and I'm a non-union makeup artist.

Um I have worked in this industry for over 20 years.

I moved halfway across the world from Germany to Hollywood to follow my dream of working in the film industry.

I haven't worked on a film set since November.

I also run a small women-owned and operated business creating prosthetics and special makeup effects, which depend entirely on production staying in LA.

This past year has been the slowest I have ever seen.

Slower even than during the pandemic when we were still shooting.

My husband is also in the industry.

We are not statistics.

We are families trying to stay in the city we love, doing work we're passionate about.

These reforms are exactly what we need to keep LA competitive and keep cast and crew members like me and all these folks behind me employed.

I urge you to please vote yes on all seven keep home Hollywood home motions.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I would like to speak to you also about the filming in LA initiative.

So you have one minute.

Go ahead.

My name is Rory Ross.

I am a SAG AFRA member, proud, as well as proud of part of this LA film community that is behind me.

There are so many amazing talented crew and staff that are part of this community.

But something I also want to notate is that here in LA, the filming in here has staggered, it's gone down 50% over the last three years.

And on top of that, we've had so many dysfunctional in terms of trying to get the permits.

And then in addition, it has been hard on these small businesses.

Now to give you an example, per the LEDC, for every one dollar spent on film production, that's $24 that are flown back to into the labor and to local businesses.

That's 2,440% ROI for LA.

So please help us and help our community and help the businesses that are here that support us.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Hi.

General comment on the Keep Hollywood home 1915.

You have one minute.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Veronique Vowell.

I'm a location manager, a member of Teamster Local 399 for 35 years, a founding member of the Location Managers Guild International, and a board member of Film LA.

While I support some but not all of the changes in the fee structure and permit requirements regulated by the City of Los Angeles, I am not in favor of putting any of the financial burden on those changes on film LA.

Film LA is an effective, efficient, and vital component of the permitting process.

Without them, we how would the city process permits, collect fees, and deal with conflicts in the field?

I look forward to learning how the city will address all of these issues in the motions as well as how they will pay for them.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh general comments on items nine through 15.

Go ahead.

Great.

My name is Alex Tonison.

I'm the national executive director of IATSC Local 600, the International Cinematographers Guild.

I'm here today representing over 10,000 hardworking camera crew and publicists.

We appreciate the council's support and efforts today to keep TV and film thriving in Los Angeles.

Local 600 represents below the line crew and should be included from the beginning in any discussions about motions that impact our industry.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Um I'm here in support of the film production.

Thank you.

Hopefully, and welcome home.

Um, this is your home to the film production.

And uh we appreciate the council, you know, doing everything in their effort to bring them back and bring them back home.

We do have some work to do.

I believe the mayor's directive was well intended as it may have been, has actually hurt uh production.

Um it's hard to expedite a permit when you only have half the staff to do it.

Um we're running into problems with safety issues out in the field.

Um when because the monitors are limited to one for large production sometimes.

I uh when you have a production that's spanning over uh football field long, it's hard to monitor that and and be safe at the same time.

But I do want to say welcome back to everybody.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, everybody.

That uh concludes our time for public comment this morning.

I know there are a lot more uh speakers, but we've got to get on with the business of the council this morning.

Uh Mr.

Clerk, what's before us at this time?

The council may now vote on items 17 through 31.

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

Close the roll.

Tab, you'd like to vote.

All right.

149.

What's next?

The council may now vote on item number one.

Let's uh motion Boomenfield McCosker to adopt the plum report as amended by uh one C Rodriguez for Padilla Park.

All right, let's open the roll on that item, close the roll.

Tab you like to vote.

14 eyes.

All right, and uh Mr.

Clerk, there's a uh um I'm making a motion to reconsider item number eight and continue it for March the sixth.

Um is there a second?

Do I have a second to that?

Councilmember Park?

Second yes, thank you, Councilmember Park for the second.

All right, let's all open the roll, close the roll.

Tab you like to vote.

14 eyes.

All right, what's next?

And for the record, Mr.

President, that was to continue the item to March 6th, 2026.

Correct?

Yes.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The next item is number 10, called special by Councilmember Jorado for comments and an amendment, and for Councilmember Rama to recuse herself.

All right.

Uh, we'll allow Councilmember Raman to recuse on this issue.

And as she has left the room, we'll call on Councilmember Jurado.

Thank you so much.

I'm proud to see our city investing and bringing film production back home.

This industry is part of who we are.

It drives jobs, support businesses, and keeps Los Angeles at the center of global storytelling, and we should absolutely restore it.

And the report before us proposes exploring an exemption for downtown Los Angeles.

Our office is one of the offices that deeply supports filming.

When there's filming on the Seak Street Bridge, we're there on the weekend, making sure that Jordan Stein can go across the bridge and other car commercials and removing the roadblocks that exist.

But for our small businesses that receive no advance notice when a production closes its street during peak holiday hours, a time when businesses rely on increased patronage, this can be so detrimental to a fragile recovering downtown LA.

And our goal is to show that LA is open for businesses, but when streets and parking are inaccessible, customers take their business elsewhere.

They had a huge event where they had 200 folks that were uh coming to an event, they got late notice, they had to cancel it, and that was gonna make them money for the rest of the month.

And so with downtown facing these intensifying challenges, we're not scared of the things that we need to take on for the city, but we look forward to working with Councilmember Nazarian to make sure that we carefully consider um downtown as we promote the film and TV.

So with that, I'd like to withdraw the amendment 108.

All right, uh the amendment's been withdrawn.

I want to thank you so much, Councilmember uh Jurado.

You know, we have a special responsibility in the city.

Downtown LA is apparently the most filmed location, uh filmed neighborhood in the world.

Um, so it's really important uh that we do the work to keep it that way, and I want to give a special shout out to Councilmember Nazarian uh who's uh taken this flag and uh run with it in a way that this uh entire council can be proud of and a way that delivers for the people of the city of Los Angeles.

So thank you so much, Mr.

Nazarian.

With that, uh Mr.

Desarian.

Thank you, Council President.

Very much appreciate that.

And thank you very much to my gentle colleague from CD 14, uh Isabel Jurado.

Uh uh, you have my commitment to work on the issue together and make sure that we come up with a amicable solution that ensures continuing of filming without being disruptive to the communities nor to the businesses, because those very businesses are the ones that many of you are here to protect and preserve.

So thank you for that.

Um I I just wanted to say first of all, thank you to everyone that's here.

Everyone from the bona fide film nerd to everyone who has come and spoken about their uh experiences, uh, the impact that this industry has had on their lives, and or the impact it is now having on potentially breaking up their families.

These are the stories that have culminated into these set, these set of seven motions that we're voting on today.

Today is not for me another policy discussion.

Today is about the finish line for phase one and an inflection point for Los Angeles' signature industry.

For more than a century, this city has been the global capital of storytelling, but history alone will not protect us.

Production is mobile, capital is mobile, talent is mobile, and jurisdictions across this country and around the world are competing aggressively for what we once assumed would always stay here.

Over the past year, my office has engaged directly with the people who live this reality every day, above and below the line.

Grips, gaffers, set decorators, cost uh costumers, location managers, producers, studio representatives, independent filmmakers, entertainment unions, auxiliary businesses, city departments, county film office, and film LA.

Yes, Film LA also, by the way.

But let's not forget I heard the comments about Film LA.

And let me just say this also to my colleagues, to this chamber, and to everyone listening.

Film LA exists to serve us, not the other way around.

Film, film LA's, film, film LA's objective is to make sure that the processing and the handling of the permits, the city issues is done in an adequate and efficient way so that the filming moves forward quickly.

We need to make sure that that happens, and we play the oversight role in making sure that that happens.

They, Film LA responds to us and our oversight.

That cannot be lost here.

So since last March, we've held more than three dozen policy focused meetings.

13 with labor organizations, 10 with city departments, and countless conversations with working angelinos whose livelihoods depend on whether filming stays here or not.

Colleagues, the package before you right now is not symbolic.

It's not theoretical, it's not aspirational.

It is targeted, practical reforms built from lived experience, and it is ready to effectuate change.

Let's be clear about where we stand.

Other regions modernized their permitting systems, other regions reduced friction, other regions streamlined approvals and they're eating our lunch right now.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles layered on outdated conditions, duplicative fees, inconsistent enforcement, and administrative barriers that do not meaningfully enhance safety, but absolutely increase cost and uncertainty.

And uncertainty is not a friend of business or more importantly, investment, long-term investment.

And in this mobile industry, uncertainty is poison.

The motions before you address the friction points we can fix right now.

We create free micro shoot permits with accountability safeguards.

We modernize obsolete neighborhood special conditions that have not been reviewed in decades.

When there was a lot more filming happening, when we've lost filming, now we need to reevaluate and change those obsolete requirements.

We ensure implementation of executive directive 11 is transparent and real.

We commission a controller review of interdepart departmental performance so we know with data and certainty where we stand.

We launch a made-in-la initiative to strengthen civic pride and economic visibility.

We fast-tracked soundstage and production infrastructure development, and we begin aligning regional rules to reduce cross-jurisdictional inconsistencies.

These are not radical ideas.

They are the responsible, overdue and bare minimum modernization necessary to help us remain competitive.

To those who have raised concerns, I hear you.

Safety will not be compromised.

Labor standards remain intact and will continue.

Nothing in phase one undermines worker protections.

What it does undermine is duplication, outdated bureaucracy, and what it does undermine most that I'm proud of is the dangerous assumption that Los Angeles can coast on reputation only because that's what we've been doing.

We've taken this industry for granted.

We can't afford complacency.

We can't afford complacency.

This industry sustains tens of thousands of working class jobs.

It fuels small business revenue.

It supports vendors, caterers, truck rental companies, dry cleaners, construction crews, and post-production houses, just to name a few.

So when we lose production, we don't lose headlines.

We lose paychecks.

Colleagues.

This is the moment to stabilize and save an ecosystem that defines Los Angeles.

We're almost there.

The work has been done.

The stakeholders have been heard.

The reforms have been shaped and proposed, and all of these, by the way, that I said will continue.

More conversations to come, more work to be done.

Now it comes to us for these seven items.

Your I vote today will send a message that Los Angeles is serious about competing, that we stand with our working class workforce, that we are willing to modernize, and we believe the industry that built this city is worth fighting for.

That is key.

So to every crew member struggling to string together work.

To every crew member struggling to string work, this is for you, and this council supports you.

To every homegrown production company considering leaving, this is the signal that we are changing course.

And to my colleagues, this is a balanced, data-driven, responsible governance.

I thank you for our conversations.

I thank you for the committee hearings we've had.

Um this is the finish line for only phase one.

Let's not hesitate.

Let's act, let's keep Hollywood home.

I respectfully ask for your I vote.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you so much, uh, Mr.

Nazarian.

And uh thanks to CD 11.

We already got Bay Watch back.

Uh and it's on onward and upward from there.

Uh with that, uh, let's open the roll on this item, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Thirteen eyes.

All right, congratulations, everybody.

And this will go for forthwith without objection, Mr.

Nazarian.

Two things.

Two things.

Two things.

You got the fourth with council president, because you're always on top of it.

Two, uh, there will be uh some press opportunity in the fore court, and I welcome all colleagues to join us.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

All right, Mr.

Clark, what's next?

The council may now vote on items nine, eleven, and fifteen.

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

Thirteen eyes.

All right.

What's next?

The council may now vote on items 12, 13, and 14 with council member Raman.

All right, we'll give Councilmember Raman an opportunity to return.

All right.

With uh 14 members' presence, let's open the roll on this item.

Close the roll, tabulate to vote.

14 eyes.

All right.

All right, what's next?

Item number 16 called special by council members Rodriguez and Hernandez for questions.

All right, Councilmember Hernandez.

Thank you, Council President.

Um we have the Bureau of Street Lighting, please join us.

Thank you.

Colleagues, today we're joined by Miguel Sangaleng, General Manager for the Bureau of Street Lighting.

You're gonna hear some staggering numbers, but the most important one is 45 million.

That's been BSL's annual assessment since 1996, 30 years ago, despite labor, copper, and technology costs skyracking skyrocketing over the years.

Our city's investment in BSL has remained virtually frozen, unchanged for 30 years.

BSL operates on 0.5% of the city's general fund.

That's about 17 million dollars.

We cut positions, maintenance gets deferred, and then we pay the price in the courtroom and in liability costs.

Our constituents have made it clear that they will no longer put up with us continuing to ask the Bureau of Streetlighting to do more with less.

We need we need to get smart uh and implement tangible, cost-effective solutions to turning lights back on and keeping them on.

Today I'm asking for radical honesty.

I want my colleagues in the public to hear the truth.

We need to talk about right sizing BSL's budget to meet actual demand and rising service costs.

And I have a series of questions, but I did want to lift uh just a really important piece that I just learned about the department.

That we have the Bureau of Contracting as one of the bureaus in public works, and that department has 361 authorized positions this fiscal year.

But the Bureau of Street Lighting, which is in charge of about 220,000 lights, only have 315 authorized positions.

So BSL right now is the smallest bureau within the Bureau of Public Works, which I think is important because they cover the entire city.

So Miguel, I'll pass it to you to start your presentation, then we can get to questions and questions from my colleagues.

Thank you, Councilmember, for the opportunity.

Again, Miguel Sanglang, director of Bureau of Street Lighting.

I'm joined to my right by uh Megan Hackney and Fabian Cheng, our assistant directors.

To my left is Sylvia Torres and James Masood, our superintendents for the Bureau of Street Lighting.

Uh going through the presentation, I'll try and make it as quick as I can.

Uh the slide just showing our mission is to light the way for Los Angeles.

We do that by building, maintaining, and operating the world-class systems that deliver benefits to our residents.

One thing I do like pointing out uh is the fact that scientific evidence actually proves what people feel.

So good lighting makes spaces safe.

And there was a study by Chicago's urban labs uh a few years ago that showed a 35% 36% reduction in index crimes.

That's a subset of serious felonies that are were reduced in outdoor settings at night, uh, with an overall 4% in reduction in index crimes in the areas that they had tested.

So again, this was a randomized control trial.

It was the highest level of scientific evidence uh there.

Uh the Bureau of Street Lighting today, um, as the member had said, we have a quarter of a million street lights spread throughout the entire city, 470 square miles, with over 400 distinct styles.

Our responsibility is to operate and maintain that entire system.

Generally speaking, we do that through regular maintenance programs, pole replacement, fixture, or LED replacement, and conduit replacements.

About two-thirds of the cities, um, about two-thirds of the city is uh lit up by our street lights.

There's underneath it's connected by approximately 9,000 miles of conduit with 27,000 miles of copper wire.

So it's a very big network that's actually under our purview.

Half a million access points via hand holes and pull boxes, those are usually access points where our electricians can actually troubleshoot and fix any issues that we um have.

We're also one of the first cities in the world to use LED.

We save 10 million dollars annually and are now deploying other technologies such as solar battery neighbors street lights to combat theft and actually make our neighborhoods a little bit more resilient.

Uh you actually uh uh gave a big punchline there, uh uh, council member.

Uh I was going to say what most people don't know is how scrappy we are.

Uh in contrast to other infrastructure bureaus and departments who usually total in the thousands when they have uh physical um items under their control.

Uh we total right now at 315 authorized positions.

We actually have about 30 vacancies, so we're about 285 or so, Megan.

Right.

Yep.

Uh and so over the past three years, the Bureau has lost a total of 90 positions uh or 20 per 22 percent of our staff now.

Uh we also operate so mostly out of a single yard in East Hollywood that is a five-acre yard.

Uh most of our employees are stationed there.

We have two satellite yards that I will have to give a shout out to our sister bureaus and departments who have given us space uh like uh street services, uh, where we then share a satellite yard in West LA and also in the valley.

We have been expanding into more technology such as uh uh 3D printing and plasma cutters to actually reduce some of our costs.

So, one of the things I like to share is uh our base door.

This is a uh again, the hand holes are secured by base doors.

Typically, we had to buy those off the shelf for about 125 dollars a pop.

We now produce that in-house at a cost of five to ten dollars, so almost 90% savings on just our regular maintenance costs.

And the things that we've done actually with um the support of um the government efficiency.

There was the uh innovation fund grant that was given to us.

We're now producing pool boxes in-house uh originally costing us around 300 uh dollars.

We're now able to produce that in-house for about 85 dollars.

So looking at every single way that we can cut costs.

Um BSL's main funding source uh uh actually then kind of makes it so that we have to be a little bit scrappy.

Uh it generates 45 million dollars annually since 1996.

Uh in the context of that, we are subsidized to an extent, or most of our operations, any augmentation has been subsidized either by general fund or discretionary funds that have been given to us this year.

It's 17 million dollars that that was subsidized, and that primarily paid for things like related costs.

And on the right, you'll see a chart where our with our funding levels over time, and the red line there is just the average days to close.

And so the last few years have have seen really the last four or five years have seen uh great increases in the average days to close our service requests.

Uh those are essentially our repair times, and I'll get into that specific um soon.

One thing that's not seen from just the budget line item is the fact that most of what we should be doing, the regular OM has been cut.

So the LED replacement we had uh the budding start of a program back in fiscal year 2223, where we were able to replace about 13,000 fixtures.

We essentially have no budget for that today.

We have no uh pole replacement program that was elated uh during the Great Recession in 2010, and we have no conduit replacement program as well.

Uh the result of which is this graph where we have around 32,000 open service requests.

Those are predominantly reported by MILA 311 that then come into our uh back office system we call OMS and our repair average is essentially a year.

Historical data shows that for all of our completed repairs, about 40% or so is related to vandalism repairs.

The other 60% is deferred maintenance, and some of the uh information shortly thereafter I'll show shows how important that is.

This next slide here on 11 shows the growing number at of the growing number of assets that are out of service life.

Um the red dotted line essentially shows the halfway point.

Uh a little hard to see, but if you were to take that halfway point and the orange line, which shows our uh LED line for how many are in service, uh, it actually shows that this fiscal year half of our LEDs, 100,000 LEDs are considered out of uh out of service, end of life for us.

Those are things that we must replace.

Uh this is actually uh the thing that keeps me up at night, this and poll replacement, those are going to incur greater liabilities in the future.

Uh the blue line there is the pole replacement uh that we would need to undertake.

Essentially, half our polls will be end of life by around 2050.

The next picture is actually an example of what I'm talking about when they're we're discussing end-of-life primarily LED assets.

Uh on the left are actually some of our LED lights that our field office had discovered where they have essentially been worn down by the elements and have been broken essentially in half there.

Uh so these were installed on Crenshaw between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Obama Boulevard, and these were some of our early installations in 2012.

On the right is um a couple examples of LEDs that are essentially failing.

These are lights.

I I think these are the Leotechs.

I I forget Fabian if you can remind me, but these are LeoTechs.

I think they have about 30 LEDs that are contained within the fixture itself.

Uh the picture shows two or three, uh, maybe at most, kind of operating.

These are some of our earliest installations that were installed in 2010.

Yeah, that is correct, Miguel.

Can you see?

Yep.

Okay.

Um this has translated into growing risk and liabilities.

This is taken from the controller's dashboard where we have uh seen payouts that have increased a few years ago, back in 2010 uh 2020.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh back in 2020, uh a few million dollars uh uh throughout until 2023.

Last couple years we've seen major payouts, one large settlement actually that was uh found against us uh was about a 23 million dollar payout that was given because of uh uh assets that had fallen off of the street light themselves and actually injured someone.

Uh the theft and vandalism is our most glaring issue.

This is the issue that takes out whole blocks, neighborhoods uh where uh you you would see two, three, four blocks of our neighborhoods just completely dark.

Um this has been a growing issue for us since the since essentially the start of the pandemic, uh and it has gotten progressively worse.

We have seen every year just with uh additional theft and vandalism and service requests that are actually related to that.

From the 56,000 or so service requests we got from 311 last year, about 19,000 were related to theft and vandalism.

To fix this, we've actually formulated a suite of solutions to ensure that our lights are on.

Um from the left, we have fortification and restoration.

These were things that were introduced in the Bureau back in 2022.

Fortification is essentially our our heaviest protection.

It is when we build castles around our street lights.

We use cement, we bury pull boxes, we weld everything shut.

We actually sometimes uh create cages as well from our welding shop.

Uh we've uh then moved on to make sure that all of our design standards for any new projects that are going in, especially looking at metro projects and other things that are going to be helping uh the community.

We have changed our design standards to make sure that it incorporates the the latest um uh best practices and other technologies that we have seen uh effective out in the field.

We are very data-driven.

Everything we we look at all of our data, make sure that we're able to pinpoint exactly uh locations where we would have had repeat issues of theft and vandalism uh and try and deploy our fortification resources to prevent that.

There are also some places where we look for deployment of solar as well.

Uh speaking on solar, we've been moving to deploy actually more battery and solar street lights.

This has been 100% effective.

Every single solar street light that we've put up, especially some of our early ones, including um the the um orange, or I forget exactly always what letter it is, the orange line uh uh bike path that was installed three years ago.

It's still effective today.

We used to go repeatedly to that area two, three times a year.

Uh so just installing that solar light has prevented uh has essentially saved us money from from crews and labors.

Um the last bit there, there's also uh technology such as sensors and cameras that we are deploying.

Uh as we roll out any any infrastructure we touch, we have been putting smart nodes on there, any infrastructure that we're replacing as part of our normal OM in terms of LED lights, we're putting smart nodes on there.

This helps us actually determine what is actually out and on, uh out or on, and and helps us with deployment.

It will actually also improve other dangerous conditions that we can learn about where if you had an accident, uh God forbid an accident, and it tilts the uh uh there's a vehicle that then hits our infrastructure.

Generally speaking, it can be dangerous because it it's shaken loose or uh damaged in a way that the a 400-pound asset can actually fall on someone.

Just by having the smart node, we'd be able to tell the the tilt and whether there's power on or off.

So we would know from some of these information that we get that there's a dangerous condition we must react to immediately and deploy resources.

Um the the last part I would say on this page, and it's it's highlighted in gold there, uh, is the general fund and discretionary funds.

A few years ago, we had an inf um uh an influx or at least uh uh an augmentation of general funds that we had used to actually uh increase the number of repairs we've had.

That that was very effective.

Uh, in the recent years, we've done several things like uh deploying overtime additional new crews uh this year uh based off discretionary funds and solar as well, and all of those have been uh uh effective at augmenting what we currently have.

Uh just a little bit more detail on the our suite of solutions.

These tend to be uh a compare, uh these are a comparison of what we usually do.

Generally speaking, if we're dealing with routine maintenance or troubleshooting um wear and tear issues, ground outs at single lights, uh, usually costs us about $500 a light to fix restoration where we're going to see some damage from theft and vandalism, generally speaking, costs us about 1,500 per light.

When we're going with the castle building, fortification, it where every single street light on a circuit is fortified.

Um that ends up costing us around $2,500 per light.

So uh in cases where we have about $13,000 DWP service points throughout the city.

Uh on average, there's around 18 lights per service point.

So at that cost, it'd be around it'd be over $30,000 at least for us in order to fix an entire circuit based off of fortification itself.

Uh the next slide 17 uh predominantly explains how we deploy our resources.

The Bureau itself establishes service levels that actually dictate our our operations and maintenance.

So very early on in the presentation, I had shared that we're supposed to follow routine maintenance cycles, 75 years for a placement of poles, 10 years or so for the replacement of LEDs.

We also intake my LA 311 service requests for lighting outages and respond to those.

And given the influx of all of the service requests, plus the fact that we have limited resources to respond, we've established the service level of one year repair time for our uh for for any my LA 311 service requests that comes in in-house.

Separately, as I mentioned before, there has been use of general fund or discretionary funds that has allowed the Bureau to augment its uh its field forces and repair things faster.

Uh this has been a uh a uh a way for us to also concentrate resources in in particular areas.

The these do not fall within the same kind of restrictions that the assessment does.

So with regards to the assessment, we we have to abide by state law and and the fact that we are a special fund, we must use our funds in a very specific way that that safeguards the the the use of those funds with general and discretionary funds were able to actually uh target very specifically different locations.

The next slide um which is titled Outages Service Requests and Average Repair Times just gives a breakdown of what the total of 32,000 lighting outages are and broken down by a council district.

It's in descending order, so those are the total the um the the top council district is the one that has the the most amount of um outtages or open SRs uh um uh going downwards.

Uh the next line or column I mean is outages that are open uh greater than a year.

This is how we actually come up with with the one year repair uh average repair time.

It is a mixture of what we see as the the actual average repair times plus the fact that we have about one in seven of our our service requests that are actually older than one year.

And so um uh th those are how we come up with the the kind of blended average to have the one year official time.

Uh the following right two columns are just what was open and closed in the fiscal year.

As you can see, we have a little bit of a deficit, so we are not closing as many are being opened.

There was about uh 56,000 that were opened.

We closed about 45,000 service requests, and below that you would see how how many we closed um depending on the council offices as well.

The next chart shows um circuits with repeat issues and the amount of discretionary funds we've also received from the different uh council offices.

Citywide from the 13,000 service points that we have, or the power drops that we get from DWP, about 2,100 have repeat issues.

Uh those are also broken down by council district directly below.

Um I'll also highlight that there's been discretionary discretionary funds that have been given for overtime or additional crews.

Um to read the graph, it goes overtime slash then the funding that went towards the additional crews.

I also want to make a note just because um we will have an updated presentation or submit this separately.

Uh but uh this this graph does not actually take into account the solar that has been invested.

So for instance, CD1 has is invested about 500k for uh 500,000 for about 91 solar lights for for places like Lincoln Heights, Council District 3, uh nearly a million 967,000 dollars uh for solar along the orange orange path bike uh orange line bike path.

Cd 12 had given us uh th 300,000 for 54 street lights in Sunshine Canyon, and we're in discussion with other um council districts as well in order to implement more solar.

Uh the following slide is just a uh ballot timeline.

Last month the city council had approved our contract.

Uh this I have questions too, Council President.

Just said to okay, Councilwoman Rodriguez, followed by councilwoman.

Thanks.

I just wanted to catch you before we you keep advancing.

Can you go back uh two slides?

Okay.

Uh on these numbers where it shows the open and closed.

Where it says the closed, is it closed from the number of open or is it closed of the combination of those two numbers?

Uh pardon me, can you say that again?

So when you have fiscal year 2526, and you show the service requests.

So for CD 14, you have 3163 opened and 2400 closed.

Is it 2400 of the 3163?

It is the it is the total number of that that which is opened.

So it's five.

So you're telling me there were 5,000 incidents of which 2400 are now closed?

Or are you telling which way which way are we?

No, that that is the total number of incidents that were opened that fiscal year and closed that fiscal year.

Got it.

So right now CD 14 currently has roughly seven, eight hundred, whatever still open.

For ones that have been opened this fiscal year.

That's that's what I wanted to clarify.

And if you can uh go to the next slide.

Well, we saw can you just finish the presentation?

Two more slides.

Okay.

I just wanted to clarify these things.

I know, but we'll we'll have questions after he's almost done.

Please, uh Gentlemagic, go ahead.

Sure.

Um again, as uh I was saying uh last month we had submitted our contract for uh support contract for uh council consideration.

It was approved.

We are now moving forward with the update to our uh council report or in its intention and engineers report.

We we intend to submit it by this Friday for council consideration.

Uh we have actually just last night submitted um our engineers report to the city attorney's office.

We're gonna follow up and make sure that we're able to um to get all the paperwork in order for us to do that.

Um two dates that I'm highlighting for council's awareness is the March 24 date.

Um that is our essentially last time where uh last moment that we can have any approval if the council and mayor should decide that we should go forward with a ballot.

Um that would be the absolute last date that would uh would allow us the time in order to create the ballots, send out the ballots, and and meet the 45 day timeline in order to affect next fiscal year.

April 17 is the last date for us to actually mail out ballots in order for us to again meet the 45 day timeline, council process necessary in order for us to meet um fiscal year 26-27.

Uh the assessment itself, I I intend to present to council a 125 million dollar assessment.

Um it can be breaking down into major categories, such as maintenance, about 51 million dollars there in maintenance that actually augments staff to do things like our normal OM operations and includes uh issues like theft and vandalism.

So uh in comparison, in contrast to the current kind of assessment and engineers report, the current assessment engineers report does not contemplate the levels of theft and vandalism that we see today.

This new one will contemplate that and and is intended to address that within the assessment.

System protection about $18 million to convert vulnerable systems to solar or fortify the street lights.

There's also $26 million that will constitute our uh reconstitute our lifecycle replacements of poles and LEDs and conduit.

Finally, support services that will help the technical expertise, uh help instill the technical expertise needed in order to support a larger bureau, and also institute a three-year audit of the Bureau and operations that that would be mandatory for the Bureau as well.

Then with that a new assessment, some of the things and council president had asked me very directly before what are the things that people will get?

Um the the biggest highlight is the reduction of of repair times to what I'm saying one week, one month away from the current year.

Uh one week for most minor issues, uh, one month for any major issues that include theft and vandalism uh for us to deal with, um, reduced liabilities and outages with proactive maintenance and and the appropriate capex investments, and finally increased accountability with the mandatory three-year water in party, uh mandatory three-year audit, third-party audit.

And with that, I'm happy to take more questions.

Thank you so much.

Um Miguel, can you please go to slide number nine, service requests and backlog?

You mentioned that over the last two years the bureau lost 90 positions, 22% of your staff, which has limited crew capacity to about 35 electrical crews.

How is this reduction in staff and resources impacted response times and the ability to minimize the backlog?

And given the limited resources available, how does the Bureau prioritize where to fix lights?

For example, is it one by one, grid by grid, or a combination of both?

Sure.

Um with the reduction of crews, it has made it difficult for us to repair uh repair as many service requests as we would like.

The the amount of effort uh has actually increased quite significantly, especially when we're talking about theft and vandalism and fortification as a response.

So for instance, what would have been traditional uh uh OM where we take one single bucket crew that's a a pair of uh electricians that go up on a bucket truck to replace LEDs?

Um now if we're dealing with theft and vandalism, it can take upwards of 10 10 people or three different crews from cement from uh welding to all the electricians that actually then rewire the entire system.

So the level of effort has increased.

Um the sheer number has increased, but the the reduction in the staff has made it that we are we are unable to to really meet the demands of what uh is is made of us.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Uh I just have a couple more questions on liability, the assessment, and solar if that's okay.

Um Miguel, can you go back to slide 13, the growing risk and liabilities?

In fiscal year 2025, the city paid 21 million in liability payouts because of a 2.8 pound decorative cap of a city street light falling on someone.

That is nearly half the revenue this bureau receives from the street lighting assessment.

What risk does deferred maintenance pos to public safety and city liabilities?

And if the bureau had access to that 21 million, what repairs of programs could have been funded.

Um the Bureau actually sees a significant growth in the risk and liabilities from just the pictures that I showed with regards to the LEDs that are actually broken to the fact that our streets are no longer lit to our standards that we we have set in order to meet uh in order to make sure that it is safe.

Um, to the fact that these are very heavy assets, each pole is around 400 pounds.

And so all of those, we've had actually an issue where um a street light had fallen over cars.

These were degradated at um uh cast iron poles that degradated uh degraded, I'm sorry, at the bottom of the pole fell over on a car with someone in it.

So there are issues like that where we're going to face.

In fact, it's probably going to be growing as well.

Thank you.

And I think even in my district, when I was trying to hang up some signs, I was told that the polls were too degradated to actually put signs on there, which is that's correct.

It actually prevents us from doing other things that we would like, which include EV chargers, the the very popular banner program that actually highlights uh community events and nonprofit events.

So so lots of the things that we had done as amenities uh we're no longer able to do as well.

Understood.

And just a couple more questions.

Um colleagues, BSL's budget has remained virtually unchanged for three decades.

And Miguel, can you please restate the importance of getting the assessment completed within the proposed timeline and the risk if this uh the city runs if we do not get this in on time ahead of the next fiscal year?

Uh the the risk the city runs if we're unable to meet the deadline for the uh assessment or the timeline for the assessment, is that we would continue to have constrained resources in reaction to the future.

In 206 and 27, we would be reliant on general fund subsidies or other sources of funds in order to actually operate.

Um we would uh continue to have I think the liabilities if if the pole replacement, LED uh replacement, conduit replacement are not funded, those are just continuing to be uh growing liabilities as well.

So those are the risks that are posed by not meeting the timeline.

That that is our hope to actually start instituting repairs as quickly as possible.

Great, thank you.

And my last question is around MICLA.

Um, in the public works and budget and finance committee, we just approved a motion that Councilmember Yarosovsky and I co-introduced to utilize MICLA funding for solarization.

Would this MICLA motion, what would this MICLA motion allow your bureau to do?

What would be the timeline for implementation, and what resources, such as assessment from such as assistance from the personnel department, would you need to begin this work?

Right.

Um we're we're still formulating the official report, but I can obviously give what um some of our in uh insight is or at least the the work that we have done uh uh with regards to our research to what we would need.

Essentially, if we were looking at uh $65 million MICLA expenditure to uh purchase solar lights, uh we would be looking at at least 7,500 um solar lights that we would be able to deploy throughout the city.

That's essentially 500 solar lights per council district.

Um that that's our intent.

Uh there would be a a the start of a little bit of a uh pull replacement program, um, depending on whether our assets are aged or not, uh in a way, we might actually be able to squeeze out more solar lights.

Uh we would require around 30 staff or so in order to um to accomplish such a feat, but we think we can actually deploy it within two years.

So it would be um completed and done in two years?

That's correct.

Okay.

And and uh we also see it as addressing you know, with the 32,000 service requests that are open right now, that's almost addressing a third of the total service requests we have out.

And I do think that um, you know, talking with some of the manufacturers, they've expressed a willingness and I hope uh the ability as well uh to actually produce thousands of solar lights for us.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Councilman Rodriguez.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um so colleagues, I just wanted to kind of reframe it.

But the item before us today was based on a motion that I actually introduced back in December, because we're in a crisis situation.

And it's not unique to BSL.

This is a crisis situation with all of our workforce in every single department.

So when you talk about being scrappy, you're talking about every department in the city of Los Angeles having to be scrappy, just born out of the last one billion dollar deficit that was closed and the staff and the position eliminations that have happened.

So BSL is not unique to that situation.

Everybody is.

That being said, we have an obligation to make the most with the resources that we have.

And that's why I introduced this motion back in December, that I wanted to have this conversation here in the council chambers, because I know it's material to every single council district.

This is not something that is just, you know, I wanted it to have be here in council because in committee, there's a limited number of participations and caught in engaging in this conversation.

And so I wanted to make sure that we are all kind of clear-eyed, based on the resources that we currently have available, based on seeing certain colleagues allocate discretionary funds for specialized teams, and trying to make sure that BSL is maximizing the resources that it's being afforded for us to address the largest number of outages possible.

And so that's what prompted all of this for me to introduce this back in December, and I'm glad here we are in March, finally uh getting this scheduled for this conversation.

So again, so basically what I'd like to what I'd like a number on for each of the council districts is understanding that we're talking about the delta at this point of what remains out, correct?

Pardon me?

So for whatever remains open, so I I guess I want to know in terms of total remaining outages, we're still talking about nearly third just over 32,000, nearly 33,000 currently that are out.

Total service requests averages, yes.

And so uh in your report back, I got I heard two different numbers.

Uh you indicated that you have uh currently 19,000 that were uh impacted by uh vandalism you indicated when you were uh when you were speaking about uh 19,000 uh 19,000 service requests that were related to vandalism.

Vandalism, okay.

So, but that wouldn't that would actually be more like 60 percent.

It's 56,000 total, so it's uh divided by that.

Can someone do that?

So I just I just want to be clear in terms of what we're talking about in terms of deferred maintenance versus what we're talking about uh in terms of vandalism, and there's there's there's a there's a rationale to this because it's also about what we're doing to protect this infrastructure because as you indicated, there's a lot of the repeated locations.

If you go back to, I forget what slide it was.

If you go back to uh the slide that showed the council offices by council district, uh the repeat service with the the repeat uh incidents.

So again, based on that, the bigger concerns is we can't continue to fund the same solution to a chronic problem.

We're chasing our tails, and so I want to know what efforts you are deploying to help address these, not just with the solar lights that people are doing with discretionary resources, because again, I couldn't even get the uh I couldn't even get a firm account when I saw what Ms.

Herado was getting in terms of the number of lights or circuits that were getting corrected with her discretionary money, we were getting completely different figures and and estimates.

And so I want to understand how you're prioritizing as a department the restoration of some of the chronic resources, not just with solar lights and hardening, but what are the other efforts to curtail that repeated location from the vandalism that is clearly ensuing in those locations to protect that infrastructure?

Because one of the biggest challenges that we're faced with is obviously the theft that's not even just affecting uh our our uh our street light infrastructure, but we know it's also affecting uh the um fiber optic networks and and everything from all the other uh associated um you know, telecom.

So I want to know have you investigated any opportunity for cameras for uh any other type of preventative measures that helps to protect this infrastructure, given that we clearly don't have the money to continue to chase it.

We can talk about 218 all day long, just as we can talk about every other tax measure, but we're not there yet.

So we got to talk about how we're making the best of what we've got.

And I want to know as a department what you're doing to to address that.

So on slide 15 actually um is part of the answer for what you're asking.

And the the suite of solutions that we have do include some uh fortification, and this is something that we've instituted back in 2022, where we again take the entire circuit and fortify the circuit using cement steel and and as much as we can camouflaging any of the vulnerable spots there.

In addition to that, we've changed the design standards, we've been looking at data.

Um I I know you said other than battery and solar, but battery and solar is actually a major uh component to trying to avoid theft and vandalism because it literally removes the incentive for it as well.

Uh and then when you uh you're asking about cameras, that's actually something that we deployed this year.

We also received about 1.5 million dollars in order to do deploy smart city infrastructure light cameras to start building cases and enforcement uh for those issues.

Now, the the only thing is uh I would have to defer to my my public safety colleagues in city attorney's office and LAPD in order for the enforcement because mine would be you know uh copper and and boom trucks.

I don't have the badges to actually enforce.

I can help build the case.

So um street services does have investigators that are also sworn and can do that.

Have you been engaged with street services since they're not really enforcing some of the issues like around street vending and whatnot, they have flexibility and availability to support that.

Have you engaged with uh your colleague uh Keith Mosai or Chief Harris to identify how you might be able to, again, this is about resourcefulness and being scrappy, and we have to be scrappy and resourceful with our existing uh support resources because again, we keep chasing our tails, and prevention is a hell of a lot more cost effective than investing in all the chronic restoration of of what we're trying to do.

And so we have to, when we talk about, we we've had a number of task forces.

Uh I know that there was $50,000 worth of copper wire theft that LAPD managed to capture in my district in Mission Hills uh just last year.

So there's obviously that ongoing collaboration, but I want to know what other efforts you have deployed to engage in those conversations with law enforcement and or with street services with their inspectors, so that we can start doing some of that preventative work that would also help to achieve that.

Right.

So the the Bureau of Street Lighting supports any effort for enforcement.

We continue to work very closely with LAPD.

We try and build cases again, creating um the the uh the the camera network in order for us to build those cases.

Uh we we have engaged with them.

We are part of a a task force previously.

There was also cases that have been referred to us by the city attorney, so every information that we can give we have given to our law enforcement counterparts in order for us to actually start enforcing against this.

Uh we have talked, I believe, with the street services before.

We have even asked for in previous um cycles, asked for inspectors ourselves.

Um we do have an issue in that this is fairly prevalent uh for um theft and vandalism, and I I do not believe the bureau is equipped to handle the enforcement side of this uh equation.

So you do not believe, but you've engaged with that conversation with Chief Harrison to identify what can be done or I can't.

Sorry, Megan Hackney.

Um I can't recall the fiscal year, probably 1819 around that time we did engage with street services and their investigators to see how they could be helpful for these things.

Um it was determined that we wouldn't be able to use their staff enough to keep up with the level of the issues we were having.

That's when we did put in a budget proposal for uh investigators for the Bureau of Street lighting in our budget packages.

And the issue with theft and vandalism also is that in some cases, well, in a lot of cases it's fairly quick.

So what takes us hours or days to repair, people are able to rip out of the ground within mere minutes.

So having us deployed.

I I know how that works.

I'm I guess Megan, I want to go back to and 1819 was back when we were also still using street service uh inspectors to do some of the enforcement uh around um around uh sidewalk vending and whatnot, which they've appearingly have ceased doing, so there might be additional capacity, so it would warrant that that's we're in two, we're in 26.

So it would be worthy of a conversation, and the reason why is because we have to build up the cases.

We know the the impact.

It's not uh these are not individuals that are this is not a victimless crime.

There are added impacts to public safety, the cost of the restoration of this would make it an absolute felony.

So we have to figure out how to add more teeth with what we've got, and and the reason why I'm saying all of this, and the reason why this is all so important, is because there's a lot of people asking for tax increases, not just here in the city, but across the county, up and down the state.

And I think it behooves all of us that if we're gonna have an ask, it's not about oh, we don't have enough people.

We know we don't have enough people from top to bottom we don't have enough people, but how are we being resourceful with what we've got?

And how are we actually helping to protect the majority of this infrastructure that is continued to be compromised?

That's really the question that we have to all put our heads together on.

And how do we make the most of the discretionary dollars that are being afforded?

Because I see the numbers that are provided to different council offices for their discretionary accounts, the amount of overtime use.

It varies so dramatically that it begs the question how are we maximizing these resources?

And it's not enough to say, well, we don't have enough people.

Everyone can say that.

We have to be scrappy to use your words.

We have to be more resourceful, and we have to be more creative about how we're taking care of as many outages as possible, particularly in the areas where we're starting, not just to see the chronic ones, but you know, we we know what the um we know what the implications are of this not getting repaired.

Just if oh sorry.

If I may as well, um, you know, we we have actually been a source of in information expertise actually to other cities as well for issues of theft and vandalism.

So we have gained a lot of expertise.

Um we see everything that we're doing is best practices for the nation.

Um the things that we're doing, even for enforcement, uh, just to add on, because we were part of the working group that actually then instilled with assembly member Mark Gonzalez the the new updates that increase penalties for theft and vandalism, those are things that we were part of to make sure that we can enforce more.

And again, with the things that we're doing in the Bureau, we're doing what what we do best.

We have electricians that can connect cameras that can help build the cases.

We need help on the other side to actually enforce against those cases, right?

And which is why I'm saying we've got to have a conversation with street services so that we can maximize that effort, and that's the kind of thinking that I want to see coming out as well.

That it's not just about we don't have enough money, we don't have enough resources.

Every single department can operate from a deficit mindset, every single department.

Everyone is living through it, but we have to ask ourselves what can we be doing differently and more effectively to protect this infrastructure and to deter more of it from happening.

What is the current um number of uh street lights that are um covered by your uh notification system, your uh smart light system or about 20% of the entire network?

Uh 20, 25 percent?

20 20 to 25% of the entire network is covered by these smart nodes.

So, in the numbers of outages, what is that uh what does that represent in those outages?

So of the outages that you have, so this is what I'd like, and I and I'd like you to come back with this information.

Help me help you.

I want to know, and Fabian, you you'd be you're yeah, I know you're gonna be great at this.

I Fabian, I already know you already know what I'm talking about.

What I want to know is in terms of how do we identify the greatest grouping of outages?

How do we look at, you know, obviously with the uh smart light system, as soon as we're notified, what is the rapid response for the repairs in those?

Because you're not sitting there waiting to be called by a 311 ticket, which by the way, we all know that system is a little busted right now.

So I want to know how you can help be proactive with uh with the ones that you're automatically already identified.

I also want to know how you're gonna help build out that infrastructure on that system where you only have 20% of our street lights that are doing it, because if we're relying on the people just to call to 31, we know there's a delay in that.

We know there's a delay, and we know there's issues around three the 311 system that is not being uh that is still yet to be corrected in terms of some of the functionality of those things.

Um with regards to the build out of the the larger smart system, that's absolutely what we intend to do.

It's actually part of our life cycle replacement program.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to have a lifecycle replacement program from from um from its elimination a couple years ago.

Uh in order for us to essentially complete out the entire system, it's around 180 per light in order to have that smart load, uh smart node, it would essentially take about 30 million dollars in order for us to deploy all those smart nodes.

But if we're doing a hundred, if you're telling me 180 per light, and let's say my colleague puts a million dollars in her uh in the restoration of, or I mean, I know I've put several hundred thousands of dollars.

If you told me that you could for a hundred and you know, for a buck fifty that we could tack this on so that we could have more real-time data of when we have those outages, that's money well spent.

So I want to I so I want I look, I'm looking for the data that helps us to shift how we actually are doing these restorations.

And we know that the hardenings have been compromised to some degree.

So we have to figure out what are the alternatives, what are the all the other pieces that we're missing in this conversation?

That's what I'd like to get addressed.

Uh, on the dispatch from the different yards.

So you have the central yard on Santa Monica.

Where in the San Fernando Valley is the other uh dispatch.

Uh it is part of the I forget exactly what Raymer Yard close to.

Ray's so in Panama City?

Cool or Van Ice?

Van Ice.

Yeah, nice.

Okay.

Uh how many crews do you have dispatched out of Raymor?

Essentially one.

Okay.

Is there an ability to increase the capacity given the number of call loads for restoration that you have in the San Fernando Valley?

If we were allocated more space.

Okay.

Uh and so the Raymer Yard is what street services?

Um GSD.

GSD and D.

GSD?

Okay.

So then we need to look for, so because timing is everything.

If you're dispatching from the Santa Monica yard to the San Fernando Valley, there's the travel time.

How do we help cut down in the response times to the locations to dispatch?

So that's an opportunity to help accelerate the response time to get some of the crews out there dedicated in the areas.

So Santa Monica is a great central location, but for South LA, for I mean the harbor, it's a little bit of a track.

Where the other ones in West LA.

So you got what you got uh how many crews at West LA?

Essentially one.

One.

So I think it would behoove all of us to make sure that we have a regional approach in terms of our distribution so that we can help make better use of our time.

Because if they have less travel time, you're gonna increase the numbers of locations that they're able to address uh across the region.

So that's so those are the types of solutions that I until we talk about more money, which we're always gonna talk about more money, but how do we make good with what we've got?

And that's what I'd like you to come back and report with, so that we can start getting those pieces moving.

I I can answer those right now, actually.

Um, with with regards to the yard, this council actually passed a motion a couple years ago for us to actually expand and look for a yard uh in the valley.

Our hope with the assessment well let me finish that thought first.

So this council has already acted to look for a yard for us.

We were in in the midst of uh actually uh going through that process.

We had one that went through MFC.

Unfortunately, that that deal fell through and belt tightening happened, so we have been unable to actually secure an additional yard in the valley.

Our hope is to have one in the valley and also one in the harbor area because of the the fact that we have nearly you know one and a half, two hours that is lost just due due to drive time.

So we we absolutely agree with you when it comes to the um the regional approach and deployment.

We're looking for satellite yards that will actually help us with our O and M.

Um those are things that we've got to do.

I think we can listen.

I can talk to you about a couple of locations in my district where we can talk to street services where we've got yards.

Uh we've we've got all of those things.

So happy to help.

I'm sure each of my colleagues would be happy to help, because I also understand sometimes when it's just a conversation between uh different departments.

There's a oh well, we can't, or we're sorry we can't help you.

Uh, but this is uh a group of individuals that I'm sure will help you identify exactly how we can help do this because these numbers are our crisis mode.

And until we get those resources, this is what we're dealing with.

And so it's not enough to say that well, until we get more.

No, we have to figure out constructively how do we accelerate the restoration and make the most of the dollars that you do get, especially if you're offering if if people are offering discretionary funds, we need to make sure it is the duty of everybody, whether in street lighting or in the council office to make sure the maximum the maximum return on the restorations that we're garnering the greatest efficiencies in that.

Last thing I wanted to ask was um high voltage.

Is that all still are those all resolved, or do you still have a lot of high voltage?

We have around, I believe nine or ten percent of the system that remains high voltage.

How many circuits is that?

Correct, a little bit less than uh 3,000 units uh throughout the city.

Uh the SCM pro funding was uh reduced or eliminated a while back, so we haven't been able to uh continue to to change those systems.

Okay, so 3,000.

Okay.

Um I know that presents a great deal of liability to the city as well, and so to my colleagues on budget committee, that's that's a big one.

Um then on the explain to me what happened with the utilitarian light.

I know there was a that was listed in my original motion, and there was a subsequent motion that was introduced specifically to address the utilitarian lighting.

Um but again given the crisis mode, where are we with that in terms of the conversation with DWP?

So in uh this past uh budget cycle, we were informed by the CAO's office that uh the the funding would uh the uh funding would would not be there.

It was it's uh essentially a reimbursement from DWP that we had gotten that was essentially eliminated.

Because of that, we've been unable to actually have a person dedicated to utilitarian lights.

Right, remind me that's what a hundred thousand or a hundred and fifty thousand.

Around a hundred uh it's a full person, it's like a hundred and twenty thousand or something.

120,000.

So we're 120,000, folks.

And the Department of Water and Power purportedly was unwilling to fund this, or the CAO said that.

I would say that that would be a very fairly quick response that we could probably get from DWP that could help us manage the situation right now.

Again, this is crisis mode.

So in this crisis, we gotta act with the level of urgency that this moment deserves.

And so for 120,000, we can have a staff person that would be dedicated at the Bureau of Street Lighting to ensure that we could actually augment some of the outages that we're experiencing or to help illuminate areas that are currently without because we don't have assessments in those areas to maximize the safety and security and lighting for neighborhoods.

So uh I'd like to I'd like a I'd like you to report back about the conversations with the Department of Water and Power.

I will call Janice personally, but I suspect either in the next FSR or at just some miraculous moment that somehow DWP is gonna find 120,000 dollars so that we can have this position because this is where we need to be.

And this shouldn't have been uh, oh well, it wasn't approved.

We should have all been raising hell for this because of the situation.

I get it.

You guys have your hands tied behind your back.

I got it.

I'm trying to make sure that we get you what you need so that at a minimum the people of Los Angeles get what they need.

If I may add on a positive note, um I think we will probably have that discussion, and unfortunately I can't discuss it more because it would be uh within the the proposed budget for the mayor.

We're in a crisis, so we'll figure out how to make that happen sooner.

Thanks.

Thank you so much, uh Councilmember Rodriguez, and uh we should get busy because in the time we've been talking, uh the leader of DWP's announced her resignation.

Councilmember Jurado.

I made a mistake.

I can get uh I rescind my request to speak.

That was a mistake.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hernandez.

Thank you.

Is that serious or a job?

Seriously.

So that's uh interesting news that we will have to deal with uh now.

Um, but I just want to thank you so much for being here and for giving this presentation.

And for me, I feel like I know some of this uh with like in my sleep, but it is because we have made it a priority to talk about it and talk about it often because it is urgent and it has been building up over time.

And I don't want us to yes, it is about processes, it is about how we fix things, it is about how we prioritize things, and you all are one of the bureaus that I point to when we think about saving money.

You've brought fabric uh making the the panels on the light poles, you brought that indoor.

You're fabricating your own pieces that you need in this fortification system, saving money.

And you've also taken steps to bring in revenue into this city.

And so you're doing the work, bring trying to bring in new money, saving money, and bringing up this conversation of what we need to do.

Y'all are doing the best that you can with the resources that you have, which is 45 million dollars plus 17 million of the general fund.

That is nothing, that is not even crumbs compared to the entire system that you have you all have to hold.

So I just don't want us to look away from it is about resources.

And we have underfunded and defunded the Bureau of Street Lighting, and that's the urgent piece that we need to take action on, and that we will be taking action on in the next couple weeks in order to begin generating revenue for fiscal year 2627.

So it's urgent, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I know that we're all on having those conversations to get us there, what has not and to get us to a place and to do the work that has not been done since 1996.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Council President.

So much, uh Councilmember Hernandez, and thank all of you for uh coming and sharing with us uh this morning.

You have a recommendation for us on this item or any motions on this?

Just okay.

All right.

So uh with that, let's open the roll on this item.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

All right, what's next?

Mr.

President, there's been a request for items nine, eleven through 15 to go forth with today.

Without objection, that'll be the order.

And then we have item number 32 called special by council member for a separate.

All right, let's open the roll on 32, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Open the roll.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Nine support, no.

All right.

What's next?

Council has motions for posting and referral.

They are posted and referred.

Uh announcements members.

All right, seeing no announcements.

My uh my the leader of my uh legislative team is smiling because uh it looks like our DWP leader is going to Puerto Rico, her homeland, his homeland.

So she's really needed there.

So I'm excited that uh they would make that connection.

I'll ask everybody in the chamber to rise for adjourning motions and look to my left.

I see Mr.

Blumenfield.

Thanks.

I know I know we have uh a number of yes, myself and then Council Member.

Councilmember Hernandez and yeah, together we have a number of uh friends and colleagues who have I've seen you sitting here the entire meeting patiently uh observing this this meeting for this adjournment motion ultimately.

It's with a heavy heart that we adjourn today's memory, adjourned today in the memory and honor of Richard Melendez, an unarmed model of crisis response responder who was a night shift therapist with Penny Lane.

Uh he passed away unexpectedly and and not while on duty, but he was a pivotal part in making sure Angelinos and our neighbors get the care that they deserve.

You may remember him from the client testimonial video that we shared during committee.

His colleagues define him as a man driven by purpose and who set out to make a difference, which in fact he really did, as evidenced by by that video that we saw where uh he helped someone who was on the verge of suicide.

He was a walking encyclopedia of mental health and education experience.

He used humor as well as therapeutic approaches to engage individuals and earn their trust.

And his co-workers say that it was because of Ricardo's 12-hour grueling shifts that the shifts went so much faster because he always added a lightness to those shifts.

Heavy work, but he approached it with a positive spirit.

He was full of light, and his light continues in the work of colleagues who have learned from him and learned how to make a difference.

May all those who loved him and learned from him be comforted by the fact that his memory will be a blessing, especially his family here today, brother Eduardo, Mother Maria, Sister Elizabeth.

We're also joined by colleagues, uh Parvez Nefari, Tiffany Rahm, Junior Sberis, Melissa Calderon, Dolores Hernandez.

And I want to uh give to my colleagues to add some words as well.

Thank you, Councilmember Boomerfield.

Thank you for letting me join you.

And my deepest condolences.

Maria Eduardo and Elizabeth, thank you so much for allowing us to honor Ricardo.

And he really was a real life hero.

He really saved lives.

He's that young man that Councilmember Blumenfield talked about, was about to take his own life, and Ricardo saved his life.

He he is what we think about as a superhero.

And I'm just grateful that he was spearheading this program that is saving thousands of lives across the city.

He was the epitome of that.

Penny Lane and his UMCR team, we feel this loss with you.

Um we know by the way he moved that I'm sure he was someone phenomenal to work with.

And so thank you for sharing him with us as well.

And today, uh, we also feel Ricardo's power.

He helped pave the future for public safety in this city.

He showed us that unarmed crisis response works and that unarmed crisis responders are brave and that are willing to walk into issues that can seem scary to most.

Ricardo had a gift for making everyone feel present and seen.

He used storytelling to provide safety.

Ricardo used humor to build trust, and in his work, meeting people where they are with the resources they need can be life-saving and life he did save.

To the Melendra's family, I want to leave you with this promise.

Ricardo's work was not in vain.

As we move to make UMCR a permanent program, we do so with Ricardo in our hearts and making sure that we can meet the standard that he set for saving lives in this city.

Ricardo, you are deeply missed, but your light remains a North Star for the future of public safety in the city of Los Angeles.

Rest in power.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh, Mr.

Bulloon Phil, Councilmember Hernandez, and thank you all for being with us and uh the gift of Ricardo.

All right.

I other journey Councilmember Jurado.

Thank you, Council President.

Today I rise with a heavy heart to honor the life and legacy of John Jackson, a tireless organizer, a mentor, and a champion for those too often unheard.

Born in 1953 to Mary and James Jackson, John was raised in Boyle Heights in Aliso Village, one of seven children.

From an early age, he learned the meaning of family resilience and community.

He carried those lessons with him throughout his life as a devoted son, brother, uncle, and great uncle.

In 1996, John became a community organizer with Acorn, the association of community organizations for reform now.

For the next decade, he helped thousands of working Angelinos organize, develop leadership skills, and fight for better conditions for their families.

He believed that real change doesn't come from the top down.

It comes from people coming together, finding their voice, and demanding equity.

John also organized an in-home child care providers, early childhood educators who for too too long were invisible in our economy.

His leadership helped them win union representation, better wages, and better benefits.

That victory changed lives.

But perhaps John's proudest achievement was the say yes to children at work, which brought together advocates committed to securing greater funding for early childhood education with young people at the center of leadership.

He didn't just organize campaigns, he organized people.

He taught that justice required persistence and that true leadership means lifting others.

And that was John.

Always building, always empowering, always thinking about the next generation.

But beyond his work, John was a person who lit up every room he entered.

He had an infectious smile, a laugh that could fill a room, and a gift for making everyone feel seen and heard.

He loved to tell stories from his childhood in Boyle Heights, sharing lessons about family perseverance and community, and he never missed a chance to celebrate the people around him, whether it was cheering on a neighbor's child at school or mentoring someone just starting their organizing journey, and some of them are on our staff.

And he lives, he leaves behind his loving sister Gloria, nieces, nephews, cousins, and countless friends, and a city that's better because he fought for it.

May we honor his life not only with our words today, but with our continued commitment to the communities he loves so deeply.

May you rest in power, John Wesley Jackson.

Thank you so much, uh, Councilmember Jurado.

I'm having a I'm I apologize, I'm having a bit of a moment up here.

I didn't realize John had passed.

I knew there were health challenges, but I uh would love to join in this uh journey motion.

Um, you know, John was one of the people that was there when I became an organizer, and he'd always threatened to embarrass me by having more meeting, more people at the action or protest than I did.

Uh but a person that, like uh Isabel said, always lit up a room and always emphasize the importance of people in communities not getting caught up in the rivalries and fights of people around this horseshoe and in Sacramento and everywhere else.

Uh, and always emphasized his even though he worked a lot in South LA, he always emphasizes Boyle Heights roots and talked about the commonality of the struggle all the time.

And so uh we're very uh grateful to have experienced uh John Jackson and and uh sorry to see him go.

May he rest in power.

Thank you so much, Councilmember uh Jurado.

Any other journey motions, members?

All right, with that we're adjourned.

Thank you so much.