Council - Regular Meeting

Oh so close.

Good afternoon everyone, I'd like to call the special meeting of the Anaheim City Council meeting to order clerk Are there any additions or deletions to the special meeting mayor there are none and do we need to call roll for the meeting?

Yes, we'll go ahead and call roll council council member Bayless present I Council Member Bacalva. Present. Council Member Kurtz. Present. Council Member Moss. Present. Council Member Meeks. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Leon.

Present.

Mayor Akin. Here.

Let the record show we have seven members present. So I'd now like to open the floor for public comments on agenda item number one. City Clerk, do we have any speakers to call forward on the item?

Mayor and City Council, we did not receive any public speaker cards or any in-person speakers, and we only received one electronic comment related to the agenda item number one that was distributed to City Council as well as posted on the city's website.

Thank you. So I'll now close the public comment portion of the meeting and address item number one. Item number one is a resolution ratifying the local emergency. Mr. City Manager, could we please have a staff report?

Yes, Mayor. I have a brief staff report summary of this item. On May 22nd, 2026, the City Manager's Office issued a proclamation of the existence of a local emergency due to conditions of extreme peril caused by hazardous materials involving a chemical leak at an aerospace company in the city of Garden Grove, which also threatened homes, residents, and businesses here in the city of Anaheim. At the time of the issuance of the proclamation, the City Council was not in session. Therefore, the proclamation will not remain in effect past a period of seven days unless it is ratified by the City Council. At this time, it is recommended that the proclamation be ratified by the Council, and the City Council find that the conditions of peril that constitutes the local emergency are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of the City of Anaheim. That was the reason for the local emergency declaration at the time. Unless this proclamation is extended by City Council action, the local emergency shall remain in effect through May 29, 2026, which is seven days following the date that it was issued originally, and that would be Friday. At this time, staff is not recommending the extension of the emergency proclamation, but we would like to seek council ratification of the emergency proclamation that was issued last Friday. So that concludes my report, and I've assembled the team here to answer any questions you may have about this proclamation, but also about the event as well.

Thank you for that report, Mr. City Manager. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you and just reflect on what an incredible job our team did this weekend. From the moment that we were alerted to a potential problem, to keeping everyone on staff and on the city team informed as it escalated. And then of course, as the evacuation zone shrank and we were allowed to welcome people back to their homes from start to finish, I think our city hit it out of the park in both responsiveness, commitment, professionalism, and compassion. And I think that last point is one that really was felt on both our business owners as well as, most importantly, our residents. The commitment from this council in aiding the Savannah High School and the high school district to set up the shelter, the compassion with which our community services team as well as local businesses that offered their assistance showed to our residents. is not lost on me, and I don't think thank you is a big enough statement to really share how prideful and proud I am of how our team really came together under pressure and through a crisis. And I know I've shared with some of the leaders here that when we did transition the shelter over to the Red Cross, we had people asking for Anaheim to come back. That was the just level of compassion and professionalism that we were able to show and the speed with which we were able to stand up services to our community. And also of course special thanks to our public safety professionals both in fire and in police that were attending the meetings the briefings with the county Navigating all of the public service announcements that our PIO office was doing three to four times a day We really set the bar think not only in this this county but in Southern California for how you respond quickly professionally and compassionately to times of crisis so thank you very much I'm sure there will be some other thoughts to share but I just want mr. city manager if you could just extend to everyone on the Anaheim team how thankful this council is for their efforts over a three-day weekend and Time away from their family is not lost on me either. I only had just, I mean, one question with three parts. As far as reimbursement for our businesses, our residents, and public safety, do we need to take any further action or does this proclamation put us in a strong enough place to seek reimbursements from the county as well as the state?

Yes, Madam Mayor. Thanks for the question. Excellent, astute observation. This is vitally important for us to ensure that all avenues of commiseration and compensation is returned. So evaluating all aspects and signing this proclamation ensures that not only the businesses, any of our overall costs associated with activating the EEOC, these will be covered under the federal umbrella. So it is important to do so.

And, Mayor, I can add to that that we are already in the early stages of trying to explore whatever resources may be available for both our businesses and residents. We know, while thankfully we don't know of any major loss of life or anything like that, we know this was a major disruption to both businesses and residents, not just in our city but in our neighboring cities. So with our help of our economic development department, we are currently out doing what really would be the first step, which we call a economic impact survey that we have extended out to our businesses, which we estimated about 150 in the Anaheim evacuation zone. trying to gauge from them what sort of impact that they saw and of course we know they did see an impact if we get enough of those that's the first step for us to then take that information share it with our county partners and hopefully Open up resources from our state and federal partners and we have the same commitment for residents We are still in the early stages just having gotten past the most critical phase of this incident But now we are in what we would call the recovery stage even as folks continue to work the incident but in the recovery phases where we really start looking at potential possibilities of assistance for those who were documented and impacted.

Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to my council colleagues. Council Member Bayless.

Thank you. I think I'm going to echo already some of the same comments made by the mayor, but maybe I'll take this in just a little bit different direction as well. I'd just like to take a moment to share a couple of quick thoughts, really, on the situation that took place over in Garden Grove over the weekend. And first, if you don't know, let me say I got to live the event firsthand as my house was in the evacuation zone. It was Friday, my wife had left for school and I was gearing up to get a smog check actually on a vehicle I had when I received the alert to evacuate. I ended up grabbing some clothes, a sleeping pad, our dog, and I have a go bag in the garage. We took that with us as well, took the dog to a friend's house and then started to come into City Hall. I think I'd received my first briefing on the way and when I arrived at City Hall, I made my way over to where the EOC, where I could see some of our city departments coming together to work on the situation. It turns out that I would get to know them really, really well as all of them worked the entire weekend. And I could continue in detail from there. But truly, what I want to say is thanks. Thanks personally from me, and thanks personally from all the residents that you were working for this weekend. Chief Sid, the entire police department, thank you. I know I stopped and said hi for some of the officers late in the evening doing traffic control out there. Ted Greg the entire all of the city administration Mike Lister the Pio team Even Edgen from our IT department saw him out there this weekend Dooku the utility staff especially the customer service operators who came in to answer all of the questions that came in Rudy the public works department. I know you guys assisted Garden Grove with providing equipment for traffic management and forward staging of the equipment and and personnel in case it was needed. So it was kind of surreal to drive by West Anaheim and see all that equipment out there in the parking lot. Grace Scepter, Heather Allen, the building department, Debbie Moreno with finance, Robert Fabella, Tom Morton, Linda Dell from HR, Sergio Ramirez, economic development, Teresa Bass, city clerk. I mean, we had a ton of people out there working the entire weekend, and I'm sure many of them, like myself, probably had a great plan for how they were going to spend this weekend as being a holiday weekend. But I want to give them a special thank you. And you know, it's kind of weird sometimes. I know we don't usually call ourselves out, but you know, if there's one person I also want to extend a great thank you to is Councilmember Leone and Madam Mayor. I know I saw you guys out there at the shelter. And I mean, I couldn't ask for better people to be out there. Carlos, you really did care for the people that was out there. Same thing, Madam Mayor. So thank you for that. A special thank you goes out to Shawnee Larson Cash and all the community services department. I know you guys set up the Savannah Shelter and made it look super easy. You did a great job. And I know for the first night, you had the largest number of evacuees. And I saw several of them actually videoing the area and telling their friends that Anaheim was the best. So it was fantastic to see. Not only did they take great care of the residents, but they also took great care of the animals as well. So we also had a community show up with donations. A special thank you goes out to the Olive Garden, Lowell's, McDonald's, the Anaheim Hotel, the Westin Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, Target, T-Mobile, Walmart, Starbucks. Who else, Helping Homes, Savannah Alumni, Across Borders, Southland Community Clinic, Raising Cane's. I mean, just, just everybody came out. I mean, it was astonishing, really, to see all of the, you know, just the community come together. I cannot begin to tell you how many calls I got, even calls from council to say, hey, if you need a place to stay, you can come over. I think some offered a couch and some offered a bed. So I mean it was it was fantastic to see that I was overwhelmed and I know I talked to many of my neighbors with the same Experience that was out there. I visited several of the shelters You know except for the inconvenience Every positive out there, or every comment was very positive, and I can tell you, you guys get a five-star comment review from me, so thank you, Shawnee. A really special thanks goes out to our fire department, Chief Russell, Deputy Chief Michael Baird, the Deputy Chief of Operations Grant Riley, the entire EOC staff, and many people don't know this, but our Station Six hazmat team was out there, and I know they were in the forward area, literally putting their lives on the line, and for that, I salute those guys that are out there. So I'll end by saying this. The one thing that stood out most for me during this incident had been ways the people came across cities. They came together to support one another. And that spirit of teamwork and collaboration and compassion says a ton about our community. And then the last piece I'm going to put out there is, you know, I don't know if this is the right place to ask for this tonight or if it's at the next city council meeting, but I would like to ask that when fire gets back and they get rested up, I'd like them to go out and survey the businesses that are in Anaheim, all of Anaheim, and identify if we have any of the same chemical storage or hazard conditions that exist, and then triple check the safety systems out there to make sure that... that something like this doesn't happen in Anaheim. So with that, again, a super big thank you from District One and from myself as well, thank you. Oh, sorry, one last thing. Interestingly enough, I talked about other people. I got a call this morning from the mayor of Stanton, Dave Shover, and he also wanted me to extend to all of the Anaheim staff. He said, look, thank you. Your city even came over, you know, did a lot of stuff in Stanton. And so that's just one more example of the collaboration that's going on. So thank you again.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Temp.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I feel like I can just say everything that's been said, but double. But over the last several days, we really have seen the very best of the city of Anaheim. Even though this incident did not originate in our city, our team stepped up. immediately to support families who were impacted, frightened and looking for answers. I also wanna echo my colleagues in extending my gratitude, my appreciation to every member of our city staff who answered the call this weekend. Every department, Dr. J, Cody, you guys really stepped up and everybody really stepped up. Every employee who worked long hours behind the scenes to make sure that residents had support and accurate information. Even when you had elected officials getting in there trying to figure out what's the latest and what we can do to help, you all handled it very much professionally and there's nothing but gratitude. I especially want to recognize the incredible work that went into standing up and operating the shelter at Savannah High School. In a matter of hours, our city staff transformed that gym into a space that was safe, that was welcoming for families during an incredibly stressful moment. People will remember how they were treated during that difficult time, and the Anaheim team very much showed compassion. They showed professionalism and genuine care towards those who were affected. I also want to thank my colleague. I know that he was in the evacuation zone. Councilman Bayless was probably running around more than even I was at the EOC and then Incident Command and then at the shelter and a combination of those. And so I want to express my gratitude to him as well. even being part of that evacuated zone and having to live through that difficulty, still being out there and answering the call for public service and supporting the residents in the city of Anaheim. And I also want to echo his comments regarding the importance of proactively reviewing areas across Anaheim where if there are similar operations or storage conditions that may exist, particularly near residential neighborhoods, that we take a look at that as proactively as we possibly can. I really believe that residents deserve confidence that regulations are being followed and that every precaution is being taken to protect public safety. With that in mind, I'd also like to direct staff, if you can return to us with whether it's draft letters or resolutions that we can consider that would be addressed to our state and federal partners, urging a broader review of policies, of regulations, of oversight, any legislative changes that may be necessary to help prevent cities and communities from facing situations like this. Again, I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I know there's a lot of learning that we still have to do as to the how and why we got to this situation, but as proactive as we can be, that we can urge our state and federal representatives to address this on their side as soon as possible. I also want to extend my gratitude to Savannah High School, Dr. Perez and the entire team, the custodial staff, Julio and Nick. They were absolutely amazing. They brought comedy and humor when it was necessary, but very much answered any requests that we had or that staff had to set up that shelter. They were there without hesitation. and I just it was a very much a team effort and I just got to say there's been a lot of really I don't want to say that this was a cool situation but there's a lot of memorable things that I've been able to do as a council member but one of the most memorable is going to be watching our city staff come together and set up that shelter our community services team public works showing up with trucks full of materials and and and just really It looked like a well-oiled machine, and I was incredibly, incredibly proud. All I did was stand there and cheer people on, but it was just a sight to see everybody coming together to make this happen. I'm incredibly proud of that. And lastly, I want to thank the residents of our city, of our community for their patience throughout this rapidly changing situation. And of course, all of our first responders and emergency personnel across the different agencies who really worked around the clock to make sure that we did not just have to be limited to those first two options that had been shared with us, that they looked for option C, and that was the best case scenario. I'm very much grateful to everybody, and let me just end with Anaheim responded with urgency to this situation, with compassion, with professionalism, and I cannot express my gratitude enough to everybody who really came together and helped support our community during this time, so thank you all.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Moss.

Thank you. I echo everything that's been said. I share the gratitude with all city staff, all departments. I do have a technicality that I need to, a statement that I need to make though. I want to say for the record that I did listen over the phone to one of the emergency briefings that was conducted by our emergency operations over the weekend. After the fact, I learned that there may have been, sorry, I don't have my glasses. other council members that were part of the briefing. While the purpose of the meeting was for information gathering and the council members did not talk amongst themselves in an abundance of caution and in the spirit of transparency, I just wanted to put that on record so we can take action. The call did not include a discussion of an emergency declaration, which is the sole action item before the council this afternoon. So thank you for allowing me to make that statement. Just one question I have. We know in an emergency there's no such thing as perfect. When can we expect to have an opportunity to go over all of our responses and identify maybe gaps in communications between departments or areas where we could do a little better?

Thank you, council member. So we actually have what is called a after action meeting scheduled for tomorrow at nine. That will be the first step in a critical evaluation of what worked and what could have done better. We thank you all for your kind words. But of course, there were challenges and we many of us know what those challenges were. And none were fatal, none were critical, but of course, there will always be things that could have been done better. And we will take a look at that. Tomorrow would be just the beginning of that process. But over a course of days and a few weeks, we will have a good idea of what worked and what lessons learned we can take away for the next emergency.

Thank you, much appreciated. And again, thank you to city staff. Shout out to community services. I stopped by the shelter on Friday. I worked in emergency services for several years, so my inclination was just to go towards the shelter. But after recognizing the potential Brown Act violation, I distanced myself and just shared accurate information. So thank you for sharing information accurately and in a timely manner on our city's social media sites.

Thank you. Council Member Rubicalva, and then Council Member Kurtz, and then Council Member Meeks.

Thank you. I just have a couple of questions, and Greg, I'll start with you. I think for the good of the order and any residents that are listening, can you explain the purpose of the emergency order and what we're voting on today? I know we've briefly alluded to the fact that it's to get reimbursements, but can you just clarify that, and then at what point or position did you feel it was important to go ahead and declare a state of emergency?

Yeah, great question. And thank you for the opportunity to discuss that a little bit further. So we all localities have the ability to declare a local emergency. And it really does give local jurisdictions a few extra tools to put into play if and when they need them. And really, there has to be the right environment, which is a threat to residents and property, extreme peril, if you will, to infrastructure or individuals and residents in town. And so we felt that that was met Friday evening when they started evacuating our residents because the threat of a chemical release or blast was significant. And so... Amongst ourselves and the policy team, we decided that the need was there. And again, it was just to give us the tools necessary to act quickly should we need to. And so a local emergency declaration provides a jurisdiction, a ton of tools in the toolbox. Some of them as simple as, you know, the ability to request to the governor to declare an emergency, to issue or suspend orders and regulations necessary to protect life and property, to provide mutual aid to any affected areas, to ask state agencies and other jurisdictions for mutual aid, require emergency services of any local official or employees to kind of... activate the employee base as necessary request necessary personnel and materials from any city department acquire or if necessary commandeer vital supplies that's a big one you know this this occurred on holiday weekend and if we needed critical supplies to do our jobs to make people safe then this would give us the ability to do so impose penalties for violating orders just another thing that can be done under a local emergency and then conduct emergency operations without occurring legal liability throughout the incident. And so those are just an example of some of the things and tools that are available to local jurisdictions once you declare a local emergency. Now, at the time, it was... You know, it was a tough decision because we didn't want to just race into this. However, looking around us, we kind of thought that the county was going to declare an emergency as well as jurisdictions around us. And we started to see that. And so we didn't want to be behind. And so we made the decision to do it Friday evening. rather than wait any longer and always with the intention of coming to this council and having it ratified and Thankfully the situation doesn't exist as it did last week and therefore staff is not recommending an extension of it Although this would be the proper form to extend it. We're not recommending it at this time. We believe we're through it We believe we we have the process in place to get reimbursed should there be reimbursement available from the feds or the state and And so, yes, that was the reason why we did it and why we're not recommending to continue it beyond Friday.

How many Anaheim residents were displaced, or at least within the, and you could do households, it doesn't need to be people within the evacuation zone.

Yeah, so that was one of the first questions that we challenged the team to try and figure out. And so we had our GIS team working with communications and with fire. And so I'll let Mike dive, he was into the weeds on that one. So go ahead, Mike.

Yes. So our best number at this point is 6,152 West Anaheim residents. That would be approximately 2,000 households with multiple members in households, of course. I had mentioned earlier we estimated about 150 businesses. A portion of those would be home-based businesses, important just the same. So those are the best numbers we have. Our evacuation really covered a portion of West Anaheim from Friday morning to Monday night. I had the honor of going out to the community today. I wanted to see it for myself. Trash service took place on Tuesday. That would be a day after the holiday with the regularly scheduled day on Monday. And street sweeping was going on. So despite the incredible incident that happened, there was an amazing return to normalcy with families going about their daily activities. And I know it was a big disruption for them, but it was really great to see the neighborhood as close to back to normal after everything that the residents had gone through.

The response was amazing and I think people felt at ease. How many estimated overtime hours do you believe that we accrued in fire, police, public utilities, public works, community services? I'd like to know the number separately if possible because I know that everybody, beyond the fact that we were celebrating a holiday weekend, our city doubles in size every day and I'm sure it got even bigger. with the number of people who might have been visiting for the holiday. How many more resources did we have to expend and what mandated overtime was required as well from our employees?

Thank you for the question, ma'am. These are some preliminary numbers. Obviously, we're still gathering and confirming before we turn these in. As far as hours, we put in for reimbursement for Hours overtime and the burden on that in hopes of recovery for that So just some some quick numbers as far as personnel assigned fire 16 for a total of 1292 hours estimated at 196,000 296 police department 169 personal personnel about 20,037 hours at 252,000, just a little over 252,000. Community services, 97 folks, 13,090 and at about 125,000 estimated cost. Public Works, 42 personnel, about almost 600 hours and at about 125,000 for totals of personnel, 324 at ACASA, roughly at about 698,435. we're still looking like I said to finite and we'll include this into the package from the incident management team and then we'll have time to go through and finite and add some things if we need to and then we're looking at about five thousand five hundred sixty four with supplies and a lot of that out of community services that number may go up a little bit as people turn in what they had to purchase to assist our citizens or or you know feed first responders and that kind of stuff so a little Those numbers are a little bit soft right now, but that's a good ballpark.

Great, thank you. And I know that our fire and police department are top notch as well as all of our other departments. Can you explain a little bit about how our hazmat team was utilized? Because I sit on that board and commission and I know the work that we do across the county. So not only in Anaheim, but we partner up with other cities. How were we able to utilize that part of our fire department?

Yeah, thank you. So to go a little bit deep, Anaheim manages the CUPA program for Orange County, which is every city with the exception of Orange County Fire Authority. So that is the regulation component of hazmat storage and compliance. There's two HAZMAT teams of Huntington Beach and obviously Anaheim that work in that CUPA program and Orange County has their HAZMAT team. So even though we've already had discussions on looking at and verifying with our HAZMAT disclosure program and our CUPA on where we are with some of our chemical storage, Anaheim does a very, very thorough job of that and we bill for that. As far as the hazmat response specifically, I'm very proud and thank you, Councilman Bayless, for recognizing our hazmatters responded on the mutual aid and played an integral part in this assignment. They were the team that went downrange when they got the temperature reading. Of what it was that it was how they backed out and the next day they went downrange again to pull over open up get the true assessment of the tank and really put us in a Once we had that Intel back at the command post so we could really start with that plan C or plan D to eliminate and start putting the neutralizer in the tanks and start equalizing that to come up with a better plan than then waiting for it to to blevy or waiting for that tank to fracture and spill and That chemical all over so and I'm has that team is looked at in the county for further expertise, and they definitely showed it on this incident.

Thank you. And then one final, one of my final questions is I think it was asked about Anaheim businesses and how they recover. They don't recover from the city. They would recover directly from the state or the federal government. Is that correct? I just want to make sure it's clear that we're not responsible for any of the losses that some of these businesses may have entailed. Sure.

Sure. That's my understanding. They would, they would get support from state or feds, but obviously we would be, we would have a role in facilitating and making sure our businesses are connected properly in our, Economic Development Department is already well underway in that process.

Perfect. And then final question. I just want to ensure because a lot of residents were reaching out. I know District 3 was not really impacted directly, but they were concerned about some of the vapors or any of the chemicals getting out into the air. Can you explain how that was contained or if any of it would have any impact on residents who are in Anaheim?

Yes, I can start and of course I'll look to my colleagues to expand. We can say with confidence that there were never any significant air impacts. That has been shared and that everyone today in our city, including in the previously evacuated zones, can go about daily life with a high degree of confidence. And even when we did have a partial evacuation in our city, there was no concerns whatsoever about our major venues, our theme parks, our stadiums, our arena, our convention center. And then, of course, going down from there, that would also mean there were no concerns for our small businesses and our other operations in our city. Unfortunately, in an incident like this, you will see some misinformation. And there was at no time a major chemical spill. Nor was there a major contamination to the air and of course I would turn to the chief and my colleagues here to see if they have anything to add but everyone in our city during the crisis could rely on the information that was being provided and Of course today they can continue to go about everyday life with a high degree of confidence. I

The only thing I would add on that from from the time on this incident that they got air monitoring up from EPA Orange County Health and the hazmat teams They did not record any release product and that was very early in the incident so they were they've been we've been monitoring that around the clock since the incident started and

Perfect. Well, thank you. And I just want to extend my gratitude to everybody for the response and for keeping our residents calm. I think that was the key in just making sure that we were keeping everybody up to date. Mike, I know you were alone this weekend, so thank you for all of the work that you did as well.

When you're fifth in line to speak, all your questions have been answered, and all of the comments that I would have liked to have made are already made, so I don't want to repeat that. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone, to our acting interim city manager, to our interim city manager, every department head, and our employees, thank you. We often talk about the Anaheim way. You demonstrated the Anaheim way. Again, thank you on behalf of residents and businesses. There's not a whole lot more I can say, except I learned something today from our Public Works Director. who was worried about having to call out people on a holiday weekend because he thought, you know, am I going to be able to get enough people? He said people were calling him to volunteer to work the holiday weekend. Some that were evacuated called and said, I want to work, I want to do something. That's just the picture of our employees. So I'm incredibly grateful and incredibly proud to be part of Anaheim. Thank you.

I will echo all the thank yous and I will say I'm not surprised. This is what we do. This is what Anaheim does and we come together and we've always done that. I am Such a strong believer in when we hire people, we don't hire just the skills. We hire people that have a passion to serve. And that's what we proved this weekend. People showed up. We hire people that will show up and will do what needs to be done without question. So... You all did that and we are incredibly grateful and proud to represent you as the council. But yeah, you should all pat yourselves on the back although I know you're already just back to your normal routine and making things happen as you always do. So I will move approval since I'm the last one to speak.

Thank you, so we have a motion for approval. I'll second and then we have a comment by Council Member Bayless.

I just want to follow up one thing, let you guys get the opportunity. I didn't know this until Monday, and I had a couple of comments actually from the residents, and I know we just had a question on the air and any contaminants that were out there, but somebody had asked me, hey, what about all the water that went on top of that tank? And I didn't actually know this until Monday, and I'll let the fire chief elaborate, but I guess you guys also test the water outgoing for contamination as well. And I'll let you finish that.

That is correct. Water has been part of the incident, and they do have controls up to control and minimize the storm runoff from when they were running the Duluth system and the ground monitors, and that product is tested as well to make sure that our water we're not sending, and that has all been good as well.

Thank you. I didn't know if that was important, but I know I had the question, so I thought I'd bring it up. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Rubicava?

Thank you. I also just want to recognize the fact that we didn't just do things on a shoestring. We actually brought in employees. I had residents this weekend who had break-ins in their neighborhood. The residents were broken into, and one of the comments that I received was they were not happy that their home was broken into, but the response they got from Anaheim PD was very positive, and they were able to get out to them right away. And I just want to thank all of our employees, including the police department and the fire department. Just your response, I think, has been above... And the first responders really are what our residents are measuring a lot of the things that go on in our city and safety is a priority. So I just want to recognize the fact that they were happy that somebody came out at 1 a.m. to make them feel at ease. And resources were not just allocated to one part of the city, but we were still making sure that residents in District 3 and 5, 6 were all taken care of. So thank you.

Thank you. So we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

A resolution of the City Council of the City of Anaheim ratifying the proclamation of a local emergency issued on May 22nd, 2026 by the Acting Interim Director of Emergency Services of the City of Anaheim and finding that the conditions of peril that constitute the local emergency are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of the City of Anaheim. And the vote is seven ayes, no nays. Motion carries.

Thank you. Mr. Interim City Manager?

Yes, Mayor, thank you. And I just want to lend my voice to the thanks to the entire team. Listen, we all know that we have an amazing team. They're all all-stars, but it's in incidents like this where they truly shine. They truly, truly do. And they go above and beyond. Everybody does, from the crews on the street to the executive team in the EOC. And so... I just wanna, it's an honor to lead this team and they're incredible. I also didn't want to let this pass without thanking the council because these situations are fast moving, information is limited sometimes, and I know the need for information is is real, especially in this age of social media and everything else. And every single one of you was so supportive of this team and letting us do our jobs, letting us get you the information when we had it, and being super respectful to us and being supportive of the team. So thank you to all of you. And the team did discuss that, unfortunately, we are not perfect. We get that. And so one of the most exciting things for me is doing the postmortem on these incidents because then it allows us to improve. And there are some things that we need to improve on. So I really look forward to doing that. I will report back to council with what we've learned about the incident, things that we can improve, some tweaks here and there, and then also meet with you and get your feedback as well because that's super important. And so with that, thank you so much.

Thank you. So with no other business before the council, we stand adjourned until June 9th.