City Council - Regular Meeting

It's clear.

Check one, two, check, check. Check, check. Excuse me. Check, check.

Well, I I muted it because

we're having some issues so I didn't know. Oh, okay. No worries. Sorry. Check one two.

Check one two. Well, good evening everyone. We ready?

Lauren. Good evening, everyone. Hi. How are you? Wonderful and blessed.

Is the mic up? Yes. Now you can hear me. First of all, let me thank everyone for coming out again to this meeting. We do have just a little update on the extended stay, but I wanted to also share with you another project that's gonna be coming to North Carson in the same district.

And I did not want you to be blindsided when it because it has been approved. And to give you some information on it, it's a battery storage project that's coming to South Carson on Broadway. I want to have our attorney to come up because what I'm going to be asking everyone, we left off at our last meeting, you had a lot of concerns, and was also, you were informed there was really nothing that we could do to eliminate, to get rid of this extended stay homeless project. And I just wanted to share with you what the city has done and what I'm going to be asking you to do to assist us in this endeavor with the unhoused extended stay project. So I had my attorney to he's going to speak in a few minutes to to give you an update on that.

But please know that we heard you loud and clear, and the LA County heard you loud and clear. And at this moment in time, I think that hotel is 98% complete, and they are ready to move forward. But I think what we are proposing for you to do did the girls pass out you some sign up sheets for bus transportation to LA County? Not yet? Okay.

Let me introduce you to my colleague here, Councilman Bishop Jawan Hilton. Jim Deere is here. We have to spread out because we don't want to be in violation of the Brown Act. And so I'm going to have other people speaking on our behalf. But I've asked staff to put together two buses on a first come first serve basis where we can go to the LA County Board Meeting and let your voices be heard there. Okay? We heard you. So I'm going to be asking the ladies, where's my staff? Where's the staff? Raise your hand.

What day is the meeting? Let me bring up our city attorney. He can give you all that information. Let the bishop speak because he has a leave. He has an eye condition here.

Greetings everybody. Happy, what is it, Thursday to you. Although I am cool, I'm not trying to look cool tonight. I have what they call iritis in my left eye and it's causing me not to see out of my left eye. So I'm gonna get out of the meeting, but I wanted to all let you know that I'm here with you.

I'm standing with you, and it is is so important that we would get in front of this Weingart project. So, I'm here. I'm available, but I won't be here the whole meeting, but I will be watching by stream just letting you guys know that we're here standing together. I think I told you the only voice that was missing at the table when it came to this Weingart project was you. And there's a unique opportunity for all of us to go down to the County Supervisor's Office on May 19, which is next Tuesday at 09:30AM.

The city of Carson is gonna charter a bus so you guys can go and hear about it and talk to those representatives who just dropped this in our community. And I think it's so important that you guys go and lend your voice. While this council have given our ideas, maybe they just say, oh, that's just five people. But people power, you all have the power to go ahead and turn things around. So I wanna encourage you to make sure you hop on that bus. But I wanted to just come as the mayor, caught this meeting tonight. I wanted to come and make sure that I presented myself in this town hall to let you know I'm standing with you. So thank you so much. I'm Jawan Hilton. I approve this message.

He's gonna be floating around. So let's bring up our city attorney for just a brief update. Marjorie Revella has the cards. Staff, if she's not here, our PIO department, please, if you're interested in going on this bus ride to go down and let your voice be heard before the LA County Supervisors, We're going to provide the transportation, there'll be a set time to pick up, but I need to have your names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses so we'll know how to reach you. Okay, because I think we've done all that we could do with this project.

Now it's time to hear from our residents because we were blindsided also. And I know there was some conversation about how the torrents get out of their situation, they hadn't purchased the property. So therefore, they were able to go and fight and were able to get out of the project. I'm gonna send it off to our city attorney for a few brief comments.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Hello everyone, my name is Ben Jones, I'm the assistant city attorney. We have the flyer here. The LA County Board of Supervisors meeting is Tuesday, May 19 at 09:30AM at the Hall Kenneth Hawn Hall Of Administration, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles. The city is providing a charter bus service and encourages everyone to go and make your voices heard at the county level to oppose the project or to speak your mind on the project.

The city is considering what legal options it may have related to the project, but ultimately this is a county Sorry. Ultimately this is a county driven project. So the city is considering the legal options it may have, but we encourage you to attend the County Board of Supervisors meeting, since ultimately this is a county driven project. The county is in charge and has issued a grant to the Weingard group to build this project. And so, the county is in control and the city encourages you to go to the board of supervisors meeting and make your opinions known there on Tuesday, May 19 at 09:30AM.

Thank you. 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012, the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration.

They're passing the flyers out now, right now as we speak, and what I'd like, they're passing them out now. I think there's two forty eight passenger buses. If we fill them, it'll be two, And you are welcome to drive on your own, but we are trying to fill two forty eight passenger buses to go down. Brian did not mention to you, but the City Council gave him directions to file a lawsuit. And that is where we are moving in that direction, to file a lawsuit.

We may not win, but I think it's important for everyone to know that the city is serious about what comes into the city. At the last council meeting, I made it known that the city of Carson is not a dumping ground. We are we are a very vocal community and we love each other here. And when one community is suffering, another is also. And I was concerned because I'm going to have our staff do a presentation on the battery storage facility that's also coming.

As you pick up these flyers, I want you to sign up. Will we have cards here later? Have you contacted Margie? Anyone that wants, hold your hand up if you want to sign up and go on the bus. Ladies, look around the room.

Are there sign up cards? All your hands up high. Okay, all you need to do is scan the QR code that's on the flyer. There's a QR code on the flyer that's being passed out. Let your voice be heard Tuesday, May 19, 09:30 a. M. Free bus services. First come, first serve. Do we need to make some more of these flyers, ladies? Okay.

And I wanted to, introduce you to Makena. She will give you a brief overview on the battery storage project. I've been on the phone all day long with, various people trying to find out how this is going to affect the city. And she will give you the address and she'll do a brief presentation so you'll know what's coming to your community. I was just informed also that our governor passed legislation which prevents, that allows companies to not do the sequel process.

I was concerned about why aren't these companies able, forced to go through the sequel process. The governor passed legislation laws that said they do not have to. Okay, so that was thrown out of the window. I'm gonna introduce you to Markeena. She's gonna do a brief presentation just to give you an overview of what's happening.

But I did want to let you know, and there was also a conversation I think, one of our residents here mentioned about the security and when the social workers go home at night. I did meet with the staff and they're looking at revisiting that. So, when you go to the Board of Supervisors, that's one thing you should mention is that we don't want them leaving at 04:30 because that's when all the problems start in the evening and that's where they have them assigned today to leave at 04:30. It's 90% complete. I've asked them to look at the vouchers for other people and to see because when I looked at this presentation that they gave last two weeks ago, it sounded like a Section eight program to me.

I don't know of a homeless person that makes $32,000 a year and that has a voucher. So, we want clarification on that and if it requires a voucher, then why aren't you getting these students with vouchers? Because if they are homeless, they move to the top of the line. And so, they are working with them. I just got a call today from a lady that she's being fast forwarded because she's homeless. So, why can't our students be fast forwarded? So, these are things you need to be asking our Board of Supervisors when we go down. Make a list of questions, go down, and we'll be leaving here, we'll be there before 09:30. So, the bus will leave here by 08:00, and we'll be there at 09:30. Okay?

So show of hands, who's going to ride that bus? I need more people. Scan the bar QR code. You gonna drive? Okay.

It's $25 a park down there. I got you. Okay, so let me have Makena, she's our planning manager, and she'll give a brief presentation on the battery storage facility. Makena, you want to start? We're bringing out more chairs for you that's standing around the world. Just be patient. We're bringing out a 100 more chairs. Okay?

Good evening, everyone. How are you? My

name

is Makena Alexander. I'm the planning manager for the city. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, testing. Test, test.

Test, test.

Testing testing okay

let's try it again okay so again my name is Makena Alexander I'm the planning manager within the Community and Economic Development Department. I'm here this evening to help share some information with you regarding a recent project that went through the city council on an appeal. So this this project was is located at 18800 Broadway within the northern part of the city in District 1. And they have various entitlement applications, conditional use permit, a site plan and design review, as well as a development application. And in a little bit, I'll go a little bit, give you a bit more definition or explanation of what those type of applications are.

Before I get started, I also wanted to say that I'm really personable, so if it goes a little bit longer, you can kind of wrap me up and I'll I'll wrap it up as best as I can, but it's really important that we share this information with with the community. So before I get started, I want to make sure that we all understand what a battery energy storage facility is. And basically what we're looking at is a facility that houses enclosures that have typically lithium ion batteries, which is a hazardous material. And the purpose of this facility is to store energy on-site, push it over to a substation, Edison. And when the various regional areas need power, they talk to each other, and the power is given back to the substation to energize area.

These batteries are typically housed in metal containers with sales modules and server racks. Giving a closer look, the BEST also contains cooling and control safety systems, transformers, and, again, it's typically used in combination with other materials. This is a closer look at what they look like on the inside. Going on to the project, this project went through the entitlement process, meaning that it was presented to the Planning Commission. Planning Commission made their determination and ultimately the project was appealed and presented to the City Council.

This site again is in the northern part at Griffith Street in Broadway. To give you a bit of context, it's kind of corner from the Kaiser Medical Office on the Southeast corner. What you see are when you see the rectangles, you see the rectangles of all the battery enclosures, which are about 138 of them. And there's also a substation that will be on-site that will be shared with the facility as well as the adjacent Edison facility. This is an aerial view of the site.

To the left, the one that's a little bit vacant, that's the project site. And to the right is the Edison Substation. And, basically, there's gonna be some underground lines to, energize the sites as well as an optic line that kind of allows both sites to communicate with each other. This is a higher level of an aerial to show you where it is in context to the surrounding areas. Admittedly, the project site is an industrial zone.

It's adjacent to industrial uses. But as you can see, it's also in close proximity to what we call sensitive receptors. Kaiser as well as homes, a park, Victoria Park, and a little bit further east is Town Elementary School. Not to mention just north of it is the city corporate yard. This provides an aerial in terms of the rendering of what it could look like.

So before I I dive a little bit more specifically into this project, I want to acknowledge that these projects have an option to go through the state for permitting processes. And this this process is called the opt in program, it's through the California Energy Commission. This is a state level review but it does not mean that it that is strictly singular. The the state does look into local regulations and doesn't alter city council's responsibility to evaluate it based on regulations, findings, and the administrative record. The state process, as, madam mayor mentioned earlier, is a state assembly bill two zero five that was adopted in 2022.

It basically expanded the state commission's authority to over to oversee the permitting process of energy storage systems, which is this project we're talking about. But they still would have to hold public meetings and get input and so forth. And based from the and based from the California Energy Commission's website, CEQA would be required. It would be through an environmental impact report. So in other words, once the project submitted to the state is reviewed to make sure all of the material that's needed for assessment is submitted, once that's confirmed it's called complete, a complete application.

And based from there, that's what kicks off the environmental review which could take about nine months or longer depending on the information that is provided to the state. This process still works with the cities. So for instance, this local government is required to participate in mandatory pre filing meeting. Some of the findings that the state, looks out for is making sure that the project is in compliance with the laws, ordinances, regulations, standards, public health and safety findings, making sure there's no comprehensive environmental justice impacts, Again, the sequel review and making sure the emergency response is adequate. And they and the state also reviews to see if there's impacts to surrounding sensitive receptors.

Again, what we call sensitive receptors are schools, parks, hospitals, homes, and so forth. So the project had the option to go through the state but decided to move forward with the city and the city process is entitlement process. Right now we don't have any zoning regulations that's specific to this use with the exception of hazardous materials. The city had the foresight to adopt the hazardous material ordinance some years ago. So this is one of the ways that we're able to capture this these type of projects by requiring a conditional use permit.

And then at this particular project site is located all those located in industrial zone it also has a design overlay so that also gave us some oversight in terms of how it's being designed and making sure that we have a lens of reducing impacts to the community. This project had a CEQA exemption for it. However, with the staff, we understood that, yeah, you know, we look at it through the lens of a public safety, making sure that public safety is at the foresight of our approach. So we make sure it's designed safely, protection control features are there and working with fire and LA Sheriff's Office and including being in compliance with industry codes and standards. However, you may want to ask what's the what's our staff's concerns?

A part of our review of the project is, again, leading with public health public health and safety. So we're looking at land use compatibility, making sure that wanted to see if there's any comatose impacts to the community. We're looking at the size, the location, the operational characteristics. Again, looking at the nearby receptors. In this case, we have a Kaiser Medical Office that provides nearly 30 services and then also making sure that emergency response.

One of the things about this project, it doesn't it differs from conventional fires because water doesn't put it out. You basically have to wait until it burns out. So we're there was concerns about the emergency response adequacy and any impacts to the community and making sure that the evacuation and extended incident durations. So in some areas because they're larger in the way it's designed, there were some projects that the fire department had to allow it to burn for weeks at a time. So in a nutshell, concerns were that this technology was relatively in its infancy stage.

We're concerned about the location. Again, we acknowledge that it is adjacent to industrial uses. However, we have to look at the comprehensive area. So what is in the surrounding areas? We are concerned about those sensitive receptors.

And then also the public health and safety, is there any long term effects if there was a casualty event? And then going back to what do we call the casualty event with these type of projects are, These batteries could run hot, which is the thermal runaway. It could cause fire explosions. Once it catches on fire, the gas dispersal was floating around the air any impacts to the community and projectiles that could affect the community, the community. So based on this assessment, the staff made a rep made a recommendation to the Planning Commission to deny the project.

The Planning Commission heard this on March 10 and they weighed all of the information that was presented to them and by a five-two vote, they adopted the resolution denying the project and recommended denial to the council. And again, they made the primary concerns were the location, the proximity to the sense of receptors, public health and safety, environmental impacts. Subsequently the applicant did appeal the project, submitted an appeal application to the project and the city clerk deemed it complete so they can move forward to the city council. The applicant's main concerns or statements were that the plan commission disregarded community support, climate and community benefits, contradicting evidence in the record and relied on staff report that that contained material errors. At a high level response, the PC denial was based on the full review of the material, public input, applicable findings, general plan policies making sure they complies and is consistent with the general plan and weigh the project's potential benefits against the risk and identify valid concerns regarding land use compatibility and, again, public health and safety.

This goes into a little bit more detail in terms of the findings by the Planning Commission. So for instance, community support and project benefits, the public notice was the public hearing was noticed, so it was presented to obtain the comments from the public. There was information that was provided to show whether or the project was consistent with the general plan. We acknowledge that the innovation and renewable energy is provided but there's other policies that the plant commission didn't believe that the project met. In addition, in terms of relying on staff report containing errors, the applicant pointed out that the Kaiser was not a hospital.

We acknowledge it wasn't a hospital. It is a medical office that provides really important services to the city. It didn't diminishes service to our vulnerable populations, the elderly, pregnant women, children and so forth. The adjacent uses were identified as industrial and again the planning commission asserts that a part of the review and assessment is the surrounding uses which include the other uses that were mentioned earlier. There's a concern about the toxic plume and smoke and then also regarding best facilities being located in urban areas particularly areas like Carson that has a history of environmental justice.

The appeal was presented to the city council on May 5. During the meeting, the council had several options. They could affirm it, meaning that they can agree with the planning commission. They can modify, they can request modification and request some changes to the resolution and bring it back to the city council, refer it back to the Planning Commission for further assessments, they can reverse it and if it was being reversed or modified, we have to make the findings. In this case, the City Council did vote to reverse the decision of the planning commission and requested that staff prepare a resolution ordinance to be presented next Tuesday, May 20, next Wednesday excuse me thank you.

So by three-two vote the council reversed the planning commission as I mentioned and it will be presented next Wednesday and the agenda should be posted either, should be posted today and you'll be able to review the resolution that was presented and all the related material including the ordinance and development agreement. With that, that concludes my presentation. I'm here if you have any questions. I also want to acknowledge our director of community and economic development, Nathan Freeman is here and our awesome city manager, David Roberts is here as well and of course, our assistant city excuse me, city attorney, Ben Jones. We're all here for any questions.

Thank you. Yeah.

I want to know if the project is a go or no go because if they're going to have all this toxic stuff, they should have their own fire department. They shouldn't use city resources.

Could you stand up? Anyone that wants to ask questions about this project, I need you to line up. This project will be presented to the city council and I'd like Ben before we start to talk about the, what we have done as a city because it was a three-two vote, I voted no, to come on up because and answer some questions about the project but I thought it was important for you to know what was coming to your community and so you're not saying oh I didn't know this was coming. We have a habit of responding after a project has come to the city And as my tenure as your mayor, I'm going make sure these town hall meetings such as this continues so when you do have something that's coming to the city, you'll have a voice. The developer said he did community reach out.

How many of you attended a meeting? A meeting that the developer put on and let you know that it was gonna be this project was coming to your neighborhood. You never heard of it? No. That's what this meeting is about to educate you and to inform you. They met with Town Avenue Elementary School, the students over there in that surrounding area but you did not attend the meeting. Did you get anything in the mail? It's been going on for a year and a half. Okay. That's what this meeting is to let you know and to let your voices be heard on the twentieth and make sure that we get our just dues once we start talking about a community benefits package.

The Mayor?

May I clarify one thing please? So the question was is this project a go or no go and it's a go. It was approved last on May 5.

Everybody standing up because then they can't be seen.

Okay we're going to have one at a time come to the mic they said because the cameras are rolling so take one of these seats we're going have one at a time to speak, Ben Jones.

Benefits? Want me to let them talk first?

Yeah, let the residents speak first and then you can answer their questions. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. My name is Doctor. Tatanisha Tims And first thing, I wanna know how can we get ahead and know what is happening and what developers are putting in our city, finding out at the last minute is not okay. So, two weeks ago, I found out about the project happening at the hotel and then tonight, I'm learning and finding out about this, understanding that it's already been approved by the council. So now my question is, why are we talking about these concerns when the city council has already approved the project with the three two vote?

And why it seems that, we're playing fear politics with this project. If our city council found it was okay, why are we going against the council? So what's really going on?

Okay. Thank you. It has not been approved. It's coming it back to the city council and that's why this meeting is here so your voice can be heard because this is the second reading. it's the first reading that's coming up to the city council And it's on the meeting on Tuesday.

Wednesday we changed it to Wednesday because we'll be out of town. So I didn't think this project was going to pass myself. But it did. So in answer to your question, I think these type of meetings when these projects come available and at our planning commission because they go before the planning commission first then they come to us for approval. And so we need to be more mindful of the projects that s coming into our city and that s what this is all about to make sure that I have contact information on each and every one of you so when these projects are presented because there is going to be another project similar to this one that's on the table to be presented to the Planning Commission right now and we'll let you know when that project comes forward.

I did talk to people about why Carson, why not you go into the beach areas and all these other places because their property is more expensive and their feeling is that people in Homosa Beach and your more influential areas will come out and like you did and respond and complain and kill these projects early enough. And so that's what I'm going to be saying. We're going to start looking at what projects are coming to the city, having these type of meetings so your voice can be heard. You have been coming. This is the second time this room has been filled to capacity.

So it was three-two but it will come before the city council. I'm going ask you to come to city council and let your voice be heard on Wednesday. That's what I'm asking you to do. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. My name is Curtis Carroll and I live in Carson. Moved to Carson in 1978. And I do have a concern about this project that has been initiated.

As a citizen and as a resident, I wondered if they were concerned about the value along with other concerns that we have about the value of the properties of the residents. That's something that I have a concern about by them bringing this particular factory into Carson, California. You may want to bring that to the attention of the people who instituted this concept. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker.

Hello. My name is Vivian Hatcher and I've lived in Carson for forty plus years. And so I learned about this project in terms of some details on Tuesday at the city council meeting when it was presented because of the appeal. And I have read about the BESS this past week. So my conclusion is we do not need this energy storage system in Carson. And it is a hazard, which at the city council meeting,

the

applicant denied that this would be a hazardous plant. And he was backed up by the principal of Town Avenue School and one of the teachers, because the applicant had built a solar kitchen there. And they were so impressed that they were reaching out to the students to teach them about alternative energy sources. Also, there were a slew of carpentry union workers there. They outnumbered us citizens, and we love our construction people.

We love our unions. Our mayor has spearheaded hiring union people and unions and trades. So we're not an enemy of our brothers and sisters in unions. But they were there in full force. In my opinion, they were duped into thinking that they would get jobs by building this plant. Yes. The mayor asked how many jobs? And I think the respondent said, the applicant said, a 100 some jobs, jobs. And then she asked, well, how long would the jobs last? And I think your answer was, I think his answer was eighteen months.

So we want our men and women working, but this is a short term proposition, and later we talked with the union people outside, and they said, well, we hope that we can maintain this program, and somehow get a contract to maintain it. Also, we asked the union people, well, about asking the applicant to set aside an escrow account, so if there's any, mishap, then the city would be covered. They also, the presenters, so they were backed by the unions, they were backed by town elementary staff, and, I'm trying to think who else backed them. I'm probably blocking.

About thirty seconds.

Okay, let me try to conclude. I am totally upset. I'm totally against it, but we have wonderful people who are citizen volunteers on the planning commission. They get a stipend or something, a small amount of money, I think, they've voted no, five to two. And what happened is, we're moving forward because two of our council people voted, three of them rather voted yes. So if we can convince those three individuals to vote no in all upcoming votes, then this project cannot go forward. But with the mayor and one person, just two votes against three. So find out about

the voting. Thank Thank you. Thank you. I have a union rep here, two of them. Tommy Fave and I want to ask you a couple of questions because you were there at the meeting also about these jobs.

I hope you guys can hear me because I wear the mask. I have a 93 year old mother at home. But I'm very concerned about this project. What are the impacts going to be to people's health and also to their property? And also, I wonder about this battery storage company. Are they putting up a bond with the city? And if so, how much is this bond? Is it going to be 2,000,000? That's not going to cover the cost for people's health and for their property. So I'm concerned about that and also I'm very concerned, will the next step be data centers coming into our city?

And we all know what happens with data centers. Our bills go up, our our utility bills go up for water and for power. There's impacts as far as pollution and noise pollution and, you know, regular air pollution. So I'm just very concerned about this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I want to reiterate the fact that we were not in the house. You did not know about this event, this project and that the governor's office passed legislation because they want to make sure that these type of projects are built because this is the way we can get rid of fossil fuel. That's am I correct? Yes. It came out of his office. And we it seems to me like the states and other governments are trying to take local control. Our decision making know my city. I know my residents. And that's why I said with the extended stay project, we know our homeless population. Let us take care of them.

We don't need you bringing in homeless to us. Let us decide what's best for our city. You guys elected us to be your voice and I tell everybody that I meet with, I'm the voice of the residents. And so therefore, I want to maintain local control. So when you start looking at people and who you're appointing and who you're electing, you you need to take that in consideration.

We fought the state on SB nine and we're the only people that fought it because they had passed legislation to build multi apartment buildings in our single family residential area. I said I'm going to let a judge tell me that I can't stop this. It's four cities now that that is not allowed in. We put our money in where our mouth was. We did not, like I told him, if I wanted to live next to apartment buildings, I would have bought next to apartment buildings.

And so The city of Carson and three other cities fought that and we won and you will not have any apartment building unless somebody comes in with another bright idea. But right now today that building will not building of these apartment complexes will not happen in the city of Carson. We fought, we won. Yes, ma'am.

Hi. I'm Bertie Martin, and I've been a resident of Carson since 1975. I am totally disappointed with the representatives that voted in favor of the power plant because I did not hear I did not hear any enough information that showed that the risk to the citizen had been mitigated with this power plant. We know we're gonna have extreme heats. We got the potential fires.

I mean, in a hazardous health. We already are surrounded by a lot of hazardous material. So I'm really disappointed with whoever did that vote because I don't feel like they had the concerns of the citizens at heart. And I just wanna know what's in it. What's in it for the city? Why would we have why would we allow something like that to come into our community? And the second thing, and I'm done, I mean, on the homeless, I appreciate the bus going down next week. But when do we know about Wind Guard? Did we just learn? Did we just learn when you had that first meeting that they would be getting ready to do this because if it's 98% complete?

The building. Build out.

Yeah. I mean I appreciate going down but it's already left the station. The train has already left the station. What are we going to do from there?

The train had left the station when we were notified. Yes. It came out in the newspaper. We had no say so. The councilman and I spoke with the supervisor and it was just like everyone needs a place to live and I said, but we should have known and we need it and we came up with a plan like I said at the last meeting, put our unhoused students in there, let them fill this, let us take care of our own unhoused residents. We read it in the newspaper.

But like they, just like they do with our congressional representatives, please let us know who voted in favor of this power plant. The citizens need to know.

I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you who didn't vote for it and it was Cedric Hicks and I. We did not vote in favor of it because there were some unanswered questions. So, but again, it will be presented at the council meeting on Wednesday. Just like the unions came out and packed, the council chamber come out and packed it again. Let your voice be heard.

You know, this is your city. 06:00. 06:00 City Hall. And I can assure you any other and I want to say this also. The reason why I counsel didn't know about some of these projects because there was a city ordinance in place that said our community development director had the authority to approve these projects. Yeah, and when I found out about it, I said, immediately, let's change it tomorrow. And we put an item out and said, all projects have to come before the city council. They have to be approved by our city manager, our director. He's not here. He's not it wasn't this city manager.

He's no longer with us. But That wasn't me. It was not you. And that ordinance has come into effect. So now I know every project that comes to this into the city. Our city council knows because we voted unanimously to say we wanna know what's coming to the city of Carson. Before we had no idea. We said, well, when did this get here? You guys remember when that hotel motel came in? A city manager, community development director approved it. They don't have that authority anymore. I made sure of that during my tenure, I want to know what's coming to my city.

Hi, thank you, Mayor, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to know, has the Department of Public Health been consulted about this project? Think back to the battery issue in the city of Vernon, where they had had a battery plant for years, and there's a lot of data on this, where public health had to go to each home within, I think it was like four or five mile radius, and they found like a lot of people had cancer, oral cancer, multiple miscarriages. So this is very concerning to me. I'm a public health nurse, and so this health, this to me is a public health issue.

And so just wanted to ask, has public health been consulted? When will the environmental studies be available? Etcetera, etcetera. And for the record, totally against this. Thank you.

Thank you. We're reaching out to the healthcare professionals. They couldn't be here tonight because I wanted to find out just what their concern was. It's the same thing that's in the report. Same thing the staff said in the Planning Commission. You know, we're concerned about health and safety and I'm always concerned about health and safety. So your answer is yes. I'd like to get your number also so staff can reach out to you but I know our planning commission has been reaching out to representatives from Kaiser and also Terrence. They couldn't be here tonight.

Good evening and thank you for holding the space where we can voice our concerns. I had a crash course on environmental justice during my stay in a fancy hotel in San Pedro, during six months, excuse me, six weeks, where I was denied access to my home because of the Dominguez channel situation. Previous to that, since I'm a retired educator, I was diagnosed with lots of oxygen to my brain. That's what the nurse said at Kaiser, but they couldn't write it down because somehow they're connected to these people, and they don't want to diagnose 20,000 cars in residents with that, but I know that that's what happened because I almost forgot my multiplication tables. But this is it.

What I learned is that because I am a descendant of a great great grandmother who's Afro Mexican, and now I live in a community that is Afro Mexican and is also Latino, they are going to continue to pick on us to dump all this kind of projects. During Dominguez channel reality, the governor of the state of California, he came to speak with the community of San Pedro that is more engaged in the boarding process and in Lambish because he can cash in on boats in those communities more than he does in our community. So my solution to this dilemma is that we our goal should be to one day get more than 90% of Carson residents to vote. So if they wanna cash in us in the votes, we can do that for them. We can include all the residents that could become US citizens.

That's what they're looking at. But even then, we're about 100,000 residents. They don't even look at us that way. They preferred to pay lawsuits, to, because they're not gonna be that much, this marginalized community, they don't think we're gonna complain a lot. I see a lot of my brothers here that are Afro Americans, but what happened to the Latino? Why are they not engaged? Who is representing them? Where are the Samoans? Where are the Filipinos in Carson? Why are they not here? They're marginalized? Why? Why? Who's motivating them to become actively participants in their community. It is an atrocity that they are not represented. So in the future my suggestion

You have thirty seconds.

Yes, and I said it humbly, is we need to elect people that truly represent Carson here, the state, the county, and at all the levels. I always apologize if offend anybody, but it's a can of worms that has been opened. Let's deal with it. Thank you.

Let me say that this flyer went out to everyone, everyone, too, all over Facebook. And people choose not to be in attendance. You can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink. And I want to make sure that our resident is informed and engaged. That is my number one goal. I think the young lady came up early and she was asked why was and I didn't. My brain went dead. While we're just getting this information. I explained that in my last statement. Before the community director had full authority to say what came to the city of Carson.

We'd be sitting up there talking about goals and objectives and he'd be moving left and we'd be moving right. That is no longer the case. It's called changing a ordinance to make sure that we are notified first. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Vanessa. I grew up in Carson, moved back to Carson three years ago with a small child. For more federal staffer, I would like to know why there was a CEQUA exception. This has already been approved, so why is this meeting happening now? It's not okay to fault the developer or the state. That's irresponsible, as well as the the development person that was in that seat. Residents should have been informed this is a community meeting to cover what's already been done, and it's not okay for the council mayor or staff to come to the community now. Mailers and information should have been shared with the community before saying that you're informing us now. It's just not enough. We have children and thank you.

Thank you. Be at the meeting on Wednesday.

Still not enough. Yes,

that's what I'm saying. It's not done yet.

You said it was done at the beginning of the timeline.

No, well, it's not done. I understand correctly. It is not done. That's why this meeting is taking place and it's to make sure that your voice is heard and if it is approved that we get the community benefits package that will address some of your concerns, health issues, your home value, all that.

Why was the CEQA exception here in Carson?

I beg your pardon?

The CEQA exception. The environmental study.

The former community development director allowed that. Am I correct, Ben? The former Community Development Director.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening. My name is Betty Miller. Hi. And I have been living in Carr since 1994. And I've seen a lot of growth here, but for the past six years I've seen things deteriorating. I am really disappointed in this extended stay project. I'm thinking that there are so many other things that we could put in that facility besides homeless people. You know that's gonna cause a problem in the neighborhood. They are all having mental problems. Some of them have drug problems.

We don't need that to spill out into the community. And this place is kinda like right Downtown Carson because it's close to all of the business, a lot of homes, the trailer homes, lot of private homes, and they're saying that they have security in the daytime. The people are not coming out in the daytime. They're sleeping from the nighttime. They're coming out at night, and that's gonna be the issue.

They're coming out looking for money to buy their drugs, and the mental people who have mental issues, they're just coming out tearing up things. They had some issues right here in Carson in the shopping center on Albert Tony where the sweet, Valentine bake bakery was broke into, and the lady has some mental issues. She was just sitting there when he came in the next morning, asked her why did she do that? She was looking at him like, what are you talking about? I have no clue. So these people are really needing some mental help and they're needing drug help. We don't need this to come into our community. We could put some homeless, students in there. That would be a good issue. We could put nurses in there.

We could put single mothers with one or two children in those buildings. We don't need homeless people. Take them somewhere else on the outskirts of town where there's not a lot of people. So this is gonna cause a problem, And I'm very disappointed in the councilman's because they are the ones who did not inform us of these projects. They are the councilman's for your area. They should contact their people and have town call meetings and let us know what's going on. But they keeping their top secret because it seems to me somebody's getting paid

for doing this. It's true.

It's true. Because why would they keep it a secret? Yes.

I'm not Your councilman had several town hall meetings. It's in his district. He's not getting paid.

But they don't let us know about the town meetings?

Well, you you know. He he has he's had several town hall meetings. Several in his I'm

not invited.

Okay, you will be invited. Your name is on every list and I'll make sure we have these town hall meetings. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Lauren Miles. I'm a third generation stakeholder here in Carson. Fourth generation is in the audience. We've been here since the nineteen fifties before Carson was incorporated.

I understand the city has already agreed to approve this project and tonight's discussion concerns the amendment to be voted next week. I strongly urge the city to add a full CEQUA environmental impact report requirement back into that amendment. Why? Because material new information has emerged that directly impacts the credibility, reliability of the applicant's environmental representation. Since the exemption analysis was accepted, come to light the parent company connected to this project, Ormat Technologies, has a documented history of environmental and regulatory violations and settlements, including a $5,500,000 federal settlement involving allegations tied to improper clean energy grant application, EPA enforcement actions related to hazardous gas releases and inadequate safety procedures.

A 02/2024 environmental settlement involving alleged wetland damage near the Salton Sea affecting roughly 1,200 acres, California air regulation violations involving emissions reporting failures. These issues go directly to environmental compliance, disclosure, credibility, and risk management. The very issues this city must rely upon when deciding upon whether a CEQA exemption is appropriate. Under CEQA, when substantial new information emerges that was not previously considered and could affect the environmental determination, the city has both the legal authority and the responsibility to revisit its analysis. That matters here because the city relied heavily on a consultant report prepared for the applicant itself, a report that minimized thermal runaway fire risks, toxic exposure concerns, groundwater contamination risks, and impacts to nearby residents and sensitive receptors.

Thirty seconds.

After Moss Landing, nobody can claim there is no possibility of a significant impact from a utility scale lithium ion battery facility located near homes and medical uses. An EIR is not an anti development, it's due diligence. It provides the public, protects transparency, and protects the city from legal exposure. Let's do the right thing together and keep everyone safe.

Good evening. My name is Robert Leslie. It's amazing here that the concern of the people in the community have the same common thought. The issue of what we hear this evening is because of two things here. We hear because of the impact and safety.

And the safety is that every time that you get a project come in here, as I testified before on this matter, it's not to try to keep the business people from bill billing anything, But they're in a mixed use area. It's not no light industrial. It's not no industrial area. It's a light industrial area where you have homes, medical facility, school only a quarter mile away from you, and the deal is that right now, if you use this thermal, as they call it, in order to generate and operate this facility, thermal it's blowaway. It generates heat, and you have to have water and other substances, in other words, to keep it cool, and it runs a contamination into the soil.

And the minute that a plume, as it says here, goes, it goes not only the quarter of a mile, a mile, it goes any place from four to five miles. And the concentration of the methane, the carbon dioxide, the hydrocarbon oxide, once those particular chemicals, they explode, or they sit there and mix, they become 30 times stronger in the concentration that's gonna have an impact on people who have respiratory, and the kids, or anyone have a problem with the respiratory type of format in the community. That's what's happening with this particular project. It's in the mixed use here, all well and good, as I said before, for the union people that have the jobs and whatnot, but it doesn't compensate for the fact if you have an accident. Look what happened at Thomas Vincent Bridge with the same thing with this thermal type of thing, with the lithium that caused there.

Weeks, weeks for this stuff to burn out. Only reason why it didn't impact people, because it was more into industrial area. That's what the issue is. I have another thing that I need to address, but I wanna go in more on this, but let me

We got thirty seconds.

Okay, real

quick. The home, this extended stay project, real quick, never was notified, never met CECO standard, nor did this project, didn't meet the standard upon projects two eighteen, didn't meet the standards upon CECO guidelines, we have to understand that this impact will hurt the communities so profoundly. And once again, before I go, the the job of our council people is there to protect our health and safety. And every time you have these people vote against the welfare of our health and safety, and therefore, they're working for us. And lastly, you have I have to say this, madam mayor, you gave us a brochure, that other words, gonna go to downtown, to Los Angeles County hearing.

We need to be collective in trying to get down to that LA County and let supervisor Holly Mitchell know that she came in here and proposed this project, and never have a notification to that of the council body or community. Here we are, like I say, the horse is out of the stall, and here we are right now, talking about it, we should have been talking about it a year and a half ago when we was aware of this whole thing and whatnot. So again, like I said, I'm not gonna take up too much time, three minutes go real quick.

Yeah, it's over, thank you, Robert Lester. Because I know you'll be up here all night. I need our staff to address something that was made, because

I don't

want, I need her to clarify a statement that was just made.

Okay, so I wanted to clarify that this project has safety measures in place. That's a part of our review to make sure that there's internal measures like if it does heat up, it'll set an alarm for our emergency agencies to be aware

of it.

Specifically, batteries are enclosed in the middle enclosure on a cement foundation. So again, there is a thoughtful process that's done by staff to assure the best safety measures are in place for this project. Okay, yes. Yes and it was it was included with this project is that there's additional setbacks from the property line is over 35 feet away from the property line. There's a perimeter of 10 foot 10 foot fence. Thank

you. She was just giving you some facts, and and I want you to be I want you to be just as excited on Wednesday when you come to speak. Okay? Thank you.

Hi. I'm Hans Hoeghendam. By the way, the safety, does that include earthquake proof for the building? I can only say one thing. I'm a little disappointed that we got this so late. If you guys have been working on it for a year and a half, Would be nice to inform us early, you know. It's like a baby is born, you know that nine months ahead. So that would be for us also nice to give us a little extra time.

Let me clarify it again. We had a public community development director that didn't notify us because in our city ordinance it said that the community development director had the ability to approve projects without council's consent. That has changed since we found out about this project and the extended stay.

So do you did fire him?

He's, where's my new community development director? He left. We have a

new Yeah. Community because he's probably sad.

We have a new community development I know

that mister Hilton was here earlier and he is looking at the screen. He said that he was gonna follow it. I will tell him the next election, I probably will run against him because I am very, very disappointed. He never shows up in the neighborhood. Only he calls you up if you want to sell your house. He's a councilman first in my book and a realtor second. Okay? But I will see Mr. Hilton and I will run against him. Thank you.

Thank you. I think our councilman voted for this project because he wanted to maintain local control. So I think that's his reason for voting and he mentioned that. And we don't wanna give up local control but anyway, let me hear what you have to say.

Hi. My name is Arlene Ward and my concern is the fact that they're gonna be using our local fire department should there be an incident. And I think that if they're gonna have something of this magnitude they should have their own fire department on-site to mitigate any damage. And they should be thoroughly trained with the tools that they need to put out lithium fires. Because they do sell stuff to put out lithium fires.

And that they should have a lot of that, and they should have their own people there, and not draw resources away from our communities, because we're taxpayers. Also, when I renewed my insurance, they said that I was in a low fire area. Well guess what's going to happen? My rates are going to shoot sky high with this mess here going on. And are we going to get some restitution or some assistance with our rates?

That's one of the questions that I think we have addressed.

Yeah, we need to put that down too.

I Thank did. That's all I had. Yeah, I met with an insurance agency just to ask that question and the impact on insurance and affordability of the insurance industry is already tightening underwriting standards across California due to the increased catastrophic exposures. The introduction of a high risk industrial facility adjacent to residential neighborhood could lead to a higher premium to homeowners.

Yeah, are they gonna give every homeowner a kickback to help us pay our insurance?

Yeah, so those are some of Yeah, the questions that

we need to put that on the list too because they need to give us all

Because I wanted to know from an insurance agent that's here in the city of Carson what would be some risks that we'd have to be exposed to.

That's a big risk right there. A lot of people can't even get insurance.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next.

Good evening. My name is Theresa Williamson and I live in Centerview. I am sorry I could not make the meeting two weeks ago, but I'm here to talk about the homeless hotel, to tell you what I've seen in the last two days with my own eyes. We also have pictures. In the last two days, we have seen homeless in Centerview. They are in our park. I have a daycare. I can't even take my kids to the mini park, because the homeless are in there. They are posted on Walnut with their suitcases. I wonder what the suitcases and the shopping carts are for.

They're waiting for this place to open up. I've seen them posted in front of the homeless hotel with their suitcases and their shopping carts yesterday about 12:45. I've seen them posted in front of Hemingway Park where the aqua center is with their shopping carts and their suitcases. This is ridiculous. We were not no one asked us. We should have been asked, we should have voted on this. How do we have a homeless hotel coming to our city?

Our LA County supervisors voted.

Okay, and Carson couldn't do anything? We couldn't have a meeting about it before they started tearing the place up and getting it ready. Now it's totally ready to go. I know about a year and a half ago, I heard about it and I kept hearing that we were gonna be have some kind of meeting about it, but we never did. So now our hands are tied, we're just gonna have the homeless.

Our hands were tired when the city council find out about it. Local control, we lost

But they wanted to bring it to the Torrance, they have better hands than us?

They had not purchased the property in Torrance. That's why they waived to get out of the deal.

Okay, so there's nothing that can be done about this. Like I said, our community park, they are posted in the mini park. They are posted on Walnut. How would you feel if you're driving down your street to go home and there's homeless posted? No, nobody wants that.

I agree.

So what do we do about it?

We're gonna send our host team out tomorrow and make sure that they are relocated.

Okay we're gonna relocate the homeless that are in Centerview and then they're gonna go home around the corner to their hotel?

I don't know where they're going but we do not have like in other cities the homeless encampments and things like that. We have four people that's designated to go and any time you call the city's public safety we're gonna come out and deal with it. You do and I did not know about yours until you texted me. Yeah, it's just

been two days. There is a picture. I hope you can put it up to show them what we are dealing with in Centerview.

I just got your message the other day. Our staff will be on top of that tonight if not tomorrow.

I haven't contacted you.

Someone contacted me about that issue. I got an email from someone saying that No, was

it's several of us because they're pretty hot over there.

Talking about their home, their daycare, the kids couldn't go to

the park.

There's several daycares over there. Like I said, we can't go to the park. We can't take the kids out. You know what I mean? It's ridiculous. We pay too much for these houses and too much taxes for this BS. And and you're saying there's nothing we can do about it? If we were in Palos Verdes, there'd be something they could do about it.

If we

were in Redondo Beach, they would do something about it, but we're in Carson.

So go down and there to the county, that's why I'm asking, I organize a bus, go down and let your voices be heard. When this city council found out about this project, it had already been implemented. So did

you guys just find out about it?

We just found out about it, today.

No, I know that.

Know that.

When it was posted in the newspaper, your councilman got on the phone and said, what is going on? Hilton, why are you putting this here? They originally wanted a Hampton Inn, they couldn't afford that. So they went and bought extended stay.

Okay, but that's when the city council should have contacted us. At that point.

When they tried Hampton Inn we thought it was done. You can't afford it, no one said anything to the city. Am I correct Mr. City Manager? And we said okay you can't purchase it so it's off the table. We sent letters and said we do not want this here. Heard nothing. Then all of a sudden in the newspaper it comes out we will purchase extended stay and we're gonna have a homeless, an unhoused population. I called, I talked to her and I'm thinking that at Hilton's town hall meetings that this was discussed. We're in districts now.

I couldn't make that one.

Yeah. Okay. He's had several town hall meetings where this was discussed. Okay. And so you're here tonight after we just realized there's nothing we can do and we turn it back over to the community.

Okay, so there's nothing that can be done about this?

I always say there's, I never say there's, I never say never. It's out of our hands is what I'm telling It's out of our hands. I want the community to go down and let your voice be heard. That's what I'm asking you to do.

I still think that when you guys did find out, you should have had the community meetings then.

You're probably absolutely right.

Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Thank you Ms. Williams. To the staff, let's address this homeless issue around Hemingway Park, send our host team out because they're out seven days a week. Turn around this way sir.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I ask for out of respect for civility, let's save your booze for the end. My name is Richard Anthony Cubias. I'm a veteran, proud Latino, and most of all, I'm a battery storage technician. I've worked through renewables for about six years.

Okay.

I used work on wind turbines and now I work at a battery storage site, 400 megawatts, four times bigger than this. And I just wanna be here to help dispel some of the myths that battery storage is going around here.

Excuse me. Are you a Carson resident?

I am Carson resident.

Okay. That's who I wanna hear from, my Carson residents.

I got my ID to prove it.

You don't have to. These

battery storage units are safe. I've worked on these projects way bigger than what we have here. Do not leach they do not leach poisonous water into the ground. They do not three years. Three years.

Okay, let him speak out of respect. Okay, let him speak. We got our He's a Carson resident. He's a Carson resident. Let him speak, please. He has I don't wanna eat up his three minutes. He has two minutes and thirty seconds

I wake up every day and I check on my site and I do this for twelve hours a day five to six days a week our job is to make sure that these things never overheat never go offline, and provide clean, safe energy to those who need it. I believe that this is the future. We need to turn these ugly industrial sites into competitive producing, like, lots. That's that's the end of it. And I and I hate hearing these myths that are being perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry.

These things do not produce infrasound. They do not leak lithium or mercury into your groundwater. The the Lammo Superfund site does that. The former the former dump does that. The refinery does that. That's probably the largest contributor to carcinogens across this entire city. You know? Are we really and we and we really need to think about bringing our city into the future. You know? When when we build these things, they force SCE to update the infrastructure.

We have power lines that have been updated since the fifties. You wanna talk about a fire hazard, we have power poles that are rotting away at danger of falling at like a a strong breeze. Once we build these, we force them to upgrade upgrade the infrastructure so you get no more flickering lights. You get no more leaky transformers. That's the only way they're gonna do it is if they have a monetary incentive. And I'll tell you something. I've done this for three years,

and I did

the wind turbines for another three. Six years of renewable energy. I've never had a battery fire on any of my sites ever.

Okay. Let finish. Let him finish. Let's be respectful. That's everybody has entitled to their opinion.

It We try so hard to make these things safe for your sake and I say this as a Carson resident I would not be approving of this if I knew I would not be approving this if I didn't know they were safe I work on these things every day I make damn sure they don't catch fire. And they do not leak, and they do not, you know, break. They they don't. These are misrepresenting people who are trying

to scare Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds.

They're trying to scare you. They're trying to make you think that these that these things that leach away their profits are bad for you. They're not. We drill with Cal Fire. We drill with all the local PD to ensure that if any emergency does happen, we do have the resources available to us to prevent them and to contain them.

I have a quick question. You say you monitor them yourself?

Yes.

You have sites that you monitor?

Yes. Through SCADA system.

Where?

Through my SCADA system. Secure, communications and data acquisition system.

Where is it located?

So SCADA is basically our laptop. We have a central we have a alright. Alright. So it's a compute so superior communications data acquisition, we use our laptop or compute our site computer to log in and to monitor things like temperature, power usage, power output, efficiency. All these tables are available to us.

You're not there physically.

We are there physically.

You are.

Yes, we are. So every morning, I wake up at around 5AM, make my coffee, make my way down to site. I go there and I sit in the middle box for twelve hours a day, staring at a computer scene.

This is

in the

North Palm Springs.

North Palm Springs. Mhmm. Okay. Thank you. Let's thank him for his information. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're gonna cut this because what time is it? 07:57. Oh, we're good. Hi.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Joan Givens. I've lived here since 1971, and I'm very proud to be a Carson resident. I have a few questions and comments. I was at your meeting last week I think

Go to the mic.

I'm sorry. I have a question especially to the people who voted for this battery. Why do we have a planning department if you're just gonna totally ignore a report? I don't understand. I'm I agree with you, Mary Lou. The storage is in a terrible location. I've had to take my friends to that Kaiser Permanente office. Then the

Speak into the mic.

The lady who came up from the school, I couldn't believe that she was going for this. It's location that's the problem. But I have another question. When you have a planning department that does an excellent job with a report telling you it's not good, Isn't there any accountability to our council members who vote yes for something that everything seems like it's dangerous? So I'd like to see them answer those questions. Why are they voting against the people they represent? And that's all I have. Thank you.

Well, the experts said yes, the staff said no, and that's who I follow. We hire professional staff to direct us and give us guidance. We don't have all the answers but we have a planning department and a community development director and a city attorney that's on top of this so that's the lead that I follow. They're hired to make recommendations to the city council.

Hi, I know I was at the last meeting, community meeting but Fatima Balsa Bear. I been a long time climate justice advocate. My son's gone to school in Carson and I've lived in Carson for many years. Most recently I don't, but I'm still like a senior. Uh-oh.

You don't live in Carson?

Not now.

Yeah. How many more speakers do we have? Oh.

But I'm, can I just speak as someone who works in state policy on just some of the things you're talking about? Is that okay?

Well, she's already talked about. Wanna hear from our residents if we have enough time after that then you can speak. But I want to hear from my residents. You can speak after. You don't want hear from who? Are you from Carson? I'm from Carson.

I don't want to hear from no one from Carson.

I'm from

Carson. There's a line.

Oh, you're here. I'm sorry.

There's a line. I'm sorry. I didn't know that. That's why I said I wanna hear from Carson first.

So I've been in the community for fifty nine years and I documented what happened, what I saw yesterday with my eyes. When I came home yesterday at about 02:00 maybe, there was a homeless family on Walnut posted up. There was a carcer sheriff there. He was inundated with this. He couldn't do his other job because he had to watch this homeless family.

I live in a predominantly black neighborhood. This was an entire white family with wagons and trash bags and three kids, a husband and a wife. Taking over a spot where a homeless person already lives in that park. When it rains, that homeless person leaves that park and goes to our school and sleeps in our school. Right there. So Carson is not even aware of the homeless situation in Carson and how it inundates this neighborhood. We are. And you say that the the people will take over, trust and believe we have a

picnic every year May 26

and I will show them this picture. And we are not the nicest people, we are civil war babies. We are civil rights babies. Our parents own these homes and we now own them. We come to this neighborhood, we are the best neighborhood in Carson.

We get together every year and come back together every year. We come back together from all over The States and get together about our neighborhood more than once a year. So we protect our neighborhood. And when we call people that are not residents of Carson who still invest in Centerview, they will move these people out. And then the police will be inundated again, and the paramedics will be inundated again.

So yesterday I took a picture for people who do not believe me, how this affected our neighborhood and these people were dropped in there from Long Beach because they had an autistic child who tore up the facility and they were put out of that facility. And it was sad, I mean it's the husband and the wife and their kids, they're doing the best that they can. But they were still, they didn't have the services that they needed. But we have kids and we have day cares that go to the park. The homeless people that live in there, they leave when we come. They're respectful. We don't know about these other people.

Did you send me that text? You have it.

To Juwan Hilton yesterday as soon as I took the picture.

Okay. To everyone that has or sees or have a homeless, please contact our public safety department. Don't just close your eyes, please contact them. We have a host team. That's why you don't see all this on. They go out and give them vouchers to get them off the street. This family that you're talking about, we're aware of them. They moved from city hall. So they're just kind of moving around right now. But we have, the staff has talked to them. They refused assistance so we're just putting pressure you know they're going out saying what can we do to help you? So they're moving from city hall to and a lot of them at Walnut but I did not know that you had that kind of a problem Walnut did not know. We're on that.

Hello. My name is Nicole Barnes Hingson and I've been a Carson resident for thirty three years. I'm not going to reiterate what's been said here. I firmly agree that that location is going to create some major problems for our neighborhoods and we are already hearing what that's going to look like. As a mental health professional myself, I can tell you people who don't get treatment for substance abuse for mental health and there is no real structure in that location that is gonna mandate that, that is gonna become a big problem because you're gonna have people acting out and using substances and they're gonna be out into our communities and that's gonna be a big issue.

As far as the batteries are concerned, if the insurance people are telling you that your rates are going up, I appreciate all the monitoring on laptops, etcetera, but the reality is it's it's a potential problem. We know Chernobyl happened. They closed on Ofri. All of these things happen for a reason. So why? What really got me up here right now and today is the what the gentleman said about who's represented. I think that was you, sir. And the reality of Carson is while we are a multi ethnic demographic, we tend to only support what's happening in this in an area. And the people who live in this area, take a look.

This is why a lot

of this stuff happens in Carson, in this area. And so I guess my plea to all those who are watching, listening and attending is Carson is one city and all our voices matter because believe it or not, even though property values might decrease here versus elsewhere, the name Carson is gonna affect your property even though you don't live here. So in terms of speaking up, in terms of getting involved, in terms of really making an impact, I'm gonna tell people we're all Carson and it's timely acted that way.

Absolutely. Thank you. What is this? Hello, Miss Brandy.

Hello, Madam Mayor.

I'm gonna

move this over here. I am going to use this time to pray for our city. And the reason being is because while I have much respect for you, Mayor Lula Davis Holmes and everyone on our dais, councilman Jim Deere, you know that, councilman doctor Jawan Hilton in his absence, mayor pro tem Cedric Hicks in his absence, and councilwoman Arlene Rojas. As much respect as I have for you, I have to admit that there just feels like we've been backed into a corner and there's something that we don't know and I'm gonna ask that things be revealed to us. And to keep saying that there's nothing that we can do about it, God closes doors that no man can open and God opens doors that no man can close.

So, second Chronicles seven fourteen says, if my people who were called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will heal their land. So gracious heavenly father, king of kings and lord of lords, the great I am, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Yahshua, Yahweh, the only true and living god, the everlasting father, the mighty god, the prince of peace. Lord, we call upon you in an open form. The same way Elijah called on you in an open form against the other prophets that tried to contest and say that their god was above them. When you came and Elijah came and he set the wood on fire, he called fire down from heaven and it released immediately father god.

So, that same god who produces and performs and open forms, we call upon you god. If I've done anything to hinder this prayer, I ask for your forgiveness in the name of Jesus lord. I come to you as a humble servant thanking you for your word that is true, that is sharper than any two edged sword. You said in Job twenty two and twenty eight that if you would decree and declare a thing that it will be established if we pay our vows father god. So, here I am paying my vows according to your direction for your word says, if you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land father god.

Now, I pray for this city. I believe that every person that is here cares about this city father god. Open doors for us and no man can close and close doors that should not be open. Everything that should be revealed to us, let it be revealed and everything that is trying to be concealed from us father god. We call it to be removed right now in the name of Jesus father god. We pray over every facility that is attempting to come into this city. We pray over every site that is being developed on in this city in the name of Jesus, father god, and whatever is not supposed to be here, father god, do not allow it to come in the name of Jesus, father god, and whatever you allow to come, we decree and declare, father God, that it shall be done in excellence. Be thou glorified, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and so it is. Amen. Amen.

We have the last three speakers. Thank you ma'am. Thank you Ms. Brandy. Where is she?

Hi. My name is Rosalie and I think, wow, I wasn't gonna get up at first. Thank you, miss Brandy. My name is Rosalie. I've lived in the city of Carson for fifty four years. First half on one side of Carson, the second half, I bought a home over here in the president's side. Listening to the last two speakers, one on mental health and the other one who just led a lovely prayer, I find it hard that people have a problem with the, hotel that they're talking about. Everybody needs a place to live. And you you guys all were like, yay, you know, we don't want this hotel here, but everybody needs a place to live. I mean, everybody.

I mean, I I get it. I understand you guys don't want, you know, these homeless people you know, everybody's saying they're on drugs and that may be true. But some of them have mental concerns and mental issues. I had an uncle with mental issues and if he didn't had to have didn't have a family that was constant making sure that he got the help that he needed and putting him somewhere that he needed to be, he would have been one of those people on the streets that nobody wanted to look at. And you know, he was just blessed that he had a family that was watching over him, but everybody doesn't have that. So you know, while you guys all praised her and said thank you and say amen to everything that she just said, everybody doesn't have that.

So I live on

the president's side and there are plenty of homeless people over there. I live on the border that I know that they said right over on the other side of Del Amo is not considered Carson. There are a lot of homeless people over there, and they wander over on the other side of Delamo, and they're their mayor, and we see them. And when you guys come over for a meeting, and we see, you know, mister Hixie comes over and we have our meetings, They wander over the office Santa Fe and Del Amo. They're there, they're there at Dominguez Park, with our children over there at Dominguez Elementary, at Dominguez Park, at the high school, they're there all the time. They're always there.

Thank

you. And there's no park over there. There's no So we see them all the time. So maybe there's something that needs to be done. It's

not

a cure, but there's something that needs to be done. And if the city of Carson can help, then maybe that's what we need to do.

Yeah, we take care of our little 22 acres and do, we're on the borderline of Compton. I understand. And I know I have have to explain that to the residents in the Dominguez Track all the time. We don't have jurisdiction. I have to explain that to the carousel right across the street from them there's an encampment. Yes. That's not Carson. I can't go over there and do anything with them. I can send my people into this 22 mile radius that's called Carson but it doesn't look good and we're making contact, our backs our city manager to contact and see if we can do something to help them But our jurisdiction is Carson. And I explained that all the time.

Well, we're Carson and we don't get help all the time right down that edge. We get a little forgot about a little bit over there sometimes Yeah,

we do. You too?

Yeah, we do.

Okay. Okay, but. Thank you.

We still show up.

Thank you. I want to say in response to her question, homeless do need somewhere to live. My goal is if we're gonna take care of homeless let me take care of my own. Okay? If you have a homeless population at Walnut and Hemingway let me take care of them.

The solution to this which would have been a model program and I hope someone when you get on that bus, if you had implemented the request was to make, give these beds to Cal State University, the Amigas Hills, our future, that's who can go into that hotel, okay? Because they're sleeping in their vehicles, they're trying to go to school and do the best that they can but to take those 104 beds and give them to someone that doesn't even know who Carson is, I'm appalled. You know, I have homeless right here that need to be housed. Let me take let us, not me, take care of our homeless population. Yes, they do deserve somewhere to live but I wanna take care of mine.

I don't wanna have a still 1,500 or whatever homeless and not bringing in a 100. That doesn't make sense to me. So the message that I wanna get out is if at all possible, how those students that are at Cal State University of Mingus Hills since the project is already approved let the city decide who goes into these the homes. Okay, let me take care of our own. Let us take care of our own. We're good at that. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Gary Brooks and I've been a resident since 1984 in the city of Carson. Honestly, everything has been said and some things have been said I didn't even know about concerning the homeless housing projects, so I'm gonna skip over that. But I do wanna address the BESS facility. Like I said, I'm a retired engineer, but I do have some experience, it's been a while, but with environmental impact reports. And so I think, it was stated that this, environmental impact report has not been done yet. Is that what you're saying?

It was not done.

It was not done. The reason I'm asking that is because on that list, I mean, on the environmental impact report, there's supposed to be a list of what is defined as the environment. And for each one of those checklists, you have to put down it has a negative impact, in other words, it doesn't, our project doesn't touch that, or you have a sign off that yes, it does impact, but then you can put down your mitigation on how it was supposed to be done. Okay, if that is not found to work, then that is when a full blown report is to be done for that item, okay? I do not see how you can have hazardous material, okay?

And then you address the fire, the impact of fire. I don't see how that will pass, okay, when you are within the eighth of a mile of housing. There's just no way. And I know that young man spoke about he worked at a facility and everything but in business meetings they don't talk about safety in the worst case. They talk about whether the risk is worth it and how much money they're gonna make. So I would just like to alert that I didn't know anything about this but mayor I plan on going.

Thank you, thank you. The next speaker we have two more speakers and then I wanna hear from our city attorney you can go over community benefits.

Good evening. My name is Theo Blake. I've been a citizen of Carson since 1994. First of all, I want to say Mayor Davis, I feel that you love this city and I appreciate it.

I do.

I want to say, first of all, about that battery storage initiative here. Across the country, there are initiatives, and Texas and California is leading the way for these things from a state level, and like the mayor says, coming down from Governor Newsom. So we should be angry at Mike Gibson, who sits in the seat, who should be informing his people. Then there's Holly Mitchell on the homeless side there. So we have other people to give us early information about these things because Carson sits in the county of Los Angeles in the state of California.

And we elect those people. So we wanna remember this when election time comes. Okay? Also Carson, we got to keep our ears to the street and get this information early. We need to be early adopters of anger and not be reactive. We need to be more proactive. And to be more proactive, you need to have knowledge. The reason they don't go over in Redondo Beach and Torrance because we are the least resistance. They know the pushback they're gonna get from there because they have knowledge early. They're angry early, right? Because they're getting this information. And it's not on Instagram, it's not on Facebook, you got to go look for it. Thank you.

Thank you. This is our last speaker before we turn it over to our assistant city attorney.

Thank you. I'm just coming here with love. I've my husband I bought

Just my first a second. Everyone make sure you signed in. This is gonna be my to go to page when something is going on. I need this information. Everyone needs to sign in. And I want to thank you for those that are here for coming out and I'm so say your little your speech. Oh,

it's not I'm coming out of love. My husband and I brought our first house in Carson. My son grew up there, my first kid, and I'm an organizer. I'm an environmental justice climate organizer who still organizes in Carson. I'm there almost every week. Just very recently had to move. Okay, but my day job is in state policy, and so what I was going say is kind of aligned a little bit what the gentleman said is that there's a lot of bills up there, a lot happening. One is the gutting of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, which I'm sure you all know about, And this is causing a lot of issues. It's why we have things like this built, right? It's why we have housing laws coming down, right? And a lot of these housing laws aren't following CEQA, and it's being built. So I was going to talk about the threats to CEQA. It's all coming

You from the have state three minutes. Yes. Okay.

Yep. Thank you. The state level. Battery storage plants too, there were two bills up there that didn't make it through, right? And the bills were to, like, put a buffer zone to have safety measures, so these are things I just think residents should be aware of because we can advocate for it, Right? And we can say, we don't want these kind of things in our community, but it starts at state policy. The other big threat that just getting ahead of it is data centers. AI is a really huge threat, and they want to build data centers in communities like in black and brown communities because they don't care about black and brown communities. And so just be aware of that and there is a pay to play system, right? There's a reason certain politicians approve these things.

So you go to data centres.

Exactly, yeah, yes. And so it takes up a lot of water, right? And so all that to say is, I think if you engage, you can come up with a really good housing policy and really good policy because I hear the gentleman that created jobs, hear the woman that wants housing, everyone deserves dignified housing, but there's a way to do it, and the reason I think we're feeling left out, yeah, we're feeling left

out is we need to

be more included in the policy making process like the mayor's giving us time to speak, right? We need to have that at every level where early on before bills are made, right, that you are learning that. That's all I wanted to say and I I want to make myself useful, I told anyone here, like I work in state policy as an advocate in my day job, so I'm happy to help with any of that happening up there right now. The budget just passed for example.

Thank you.

One of

the budgets. It's a huge thing that happened. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. My city manager whom I call the CEO of this operation has a few clarifying points before we speak to turn it over to our assistant, city, attorney.

City mayor. I'm sorry. Oh, okay.

Thank you. Thank you, madam mayor. Can can everybody hear me back in the back? Can you hear me okay?

Squazi, you saying not really? Let me grab a different mic.

Yeah. Use this one. You said this one.

Testing. That better? Okay. So good evening. Thank you, everyone. My name is David Roberts, the city manager. For those of you that don't know me, I'm not the Dodgers manager. He's more handsome and gets paid more than I do. But let me let me just clarify what has been kind of asked or stated in regards to the project home key. Number one, we were notified as a city about Project Homekey.

We were notified and there was notif the notification was via an email to me to state that the project home key was coming to the city not to the city of Carson. It was coming to an unincorporated area of Carson. Okay. Which means LA County. My response was, thank you for the notification.

Best of luck, LA County. If not in Carson, why should we or what what is it to us? Couple months later, we get word as madam mayor mentioned that it was going to be at the at the Hampton Inn. So immediately, when the council found out about it, they fought, sent letters, it fell through. They said, project Homekey is not coming to the city of Carson.

They could not afford it. Didn't hear another word after that. Later on, we get word that, yes, project Homekey is back on again, and it's at the extended stay. Immediately, when the council found out, doctor Hilton received a, sent a text message to the supervisor at 05:45AM and said, what is going on? We thought this project was no longer going to happen.

Her response came back. They said, this property has already been purchased. It's by right. And as the young lady just mentioned, state policy, the governor has enacted this process to state that cities cannot even deter a project like this from coming or you will have funding cut from your city. That was the response.

So immediately, was an action call that was the mayor, doctor Hilton, because it's in District 1, myself met with Weingart, met with the county. We found out and along with Cal State Dominguez Hills. Cal State Dominguez Hills said we have over 1,500 unhoused students. The council in their infinite wisdom said, how about we allow the unhoused students to go into this project? The county, Cal State Dominguez Hills, and the city all agreed.

As a matter of fact, the CEO and the attorney for Weingart was there. Ironically, those are the two individuals that were released from Weingart on paid administrative leave. We then reached out to the county and said, are we still moving forward with the project when there is all these fraud implications that are happening? Their response was, yes, we don't have an issue with the company. There's just concerns with those individuals.

So that project moved forward. We said, okay, then at least we know that this project's gonna be moving forward with a 100%, all 104 rooms to be supplied for unhoused students because we have 1,500 unhoused students in Cal State Dominguez Hills. Everyone agreed. Everyone was moving forward. That was the last we heard of it.

It wasn't until about a month ago that we got notice to say, we're ready to move in. We wanna have a meeting and let everyone know that we're going to open up the facility. Oh, and by the way, zero students from university will be entering into this project. We got on the phone immediately and said, What do you mean? We had an agreement that there was going to be 100%. They said, nope. Can't do a 100%. We were able to do maybe 75%. So then we began to say, well, what about the unhoused, veterans? What about the single mothers that have children?

How about them? They said Weingart stated we cannot allow unhoused mothers with single children because we don't provide facilities for children. So we said, okay. If it's unhoused veterans, we're open to that, but it's not a good population mix to have unhoused veterans and students. So then they came back and said, okay, we'll let you know, but we don't believe we're we're gonna be allowed to do this project because we don't think Weingart wants to do this. Well, we had no contact with Weingart because the CEO and the attorney was on paid administrative leave. We said, we at least talk to the interim CEO? The interim attorneys. Crickets. No response.

So that was immediately when Weingart put the notice out, let us know. That's when that town hall hall was met, met. What is it? Two, three weeks ago? Then you all came and was able to speak. Then you noticed that they didn't have their interim CEO. They didn't have their interim, attorney here. They had a representative who is a project manager that works on putting up wood, nails, and and and glue on the facility. They don't know much about the project, the programming, your concerns that you had. Those were the issues.

So therefore, the council said, let's have another meeting. Let's get together. Let's get the same energy that we had at the last meeting, and let's get down to the county's office and let them know that, yes, we can do something. That's why we have our city attorney here tonight to tell you about what's going to happen and what we can do. There are measures.

We're just not gonna tell them what it is that we can do as a city, but I'm telling you we can do something. It isn't we can't do nothing. We can do something. But it's going to take you all to show up and go down there and let them know what it is that you want to see in your city. It is no longer and has never been an option for the city council to make that decision.

It has always been up to the county and to the state to make that decision. That's why we gotta get down there on Tuesday and let them know. I don't care what the percentages are saying that they're ready for that facility. What does that have to do with allowing individuals into a piece of property in your city that you don't want? So I just wanted to make that clear because it isn't about the city not knowing, it's about us being misguided, not and and being and folks being disingenuous as to what is really supposed to and what was happening within this project.

This project has not been supported by anyone within the county. Not to mention there's 88 cities and it's amazing that those projects that have been approved in certain cities, there's 10 of them. And five of them are within the South Bay. The other two that they have are out in Palmdale and Lancaster. Not to mention, we are the only city outside of and I'm not gonna mention the other city but there are two level one facilities for those that are that have mental, mental health issues.

It's the hospital, the UCLA Medical Center. They bring half of the city that have if there's unhoused mental health issues, if they are arrested, they are brought to that facility. By law, after seventy two hours, they are released right outside that door, which is unincorporated right on the opposite side of the 110 Of Carson Street, and then they traverse either into Carson, into other cities. And so it's more than just we're hop trying to find out can we unhouse the unhouse. We're trying to unhouse, those that are unhoused and have mental challenges right up the street.

And they and we've talked to them on numerous occasions. What can you do to provide funding? Nothing. We said, what will you do about security? Nothing. What will you do about the money that the city is gonna be losing because it's no longer a hotel? Nothing. What are you gonna do about the fact that LA 28, we are gonna, to you know, we're the first, host city, venue city that are gonna have the Olympics around the corner, by the way, that we have eight events coming, and we got all of the gold coming to the city of Carson, your city. What are we doing to protect our residents? What are we doing to protect those that are coming to visit?

Nothing. They've got zero answers. So they may have zero answers, but I believe there's multiple solutions in this room tonight. I believe our city attorney is gonna provide one them, but the second solution is an important and it's imperative that you get on that bus, get in a vehicle, and partner up and get down Tuesday and let your voices to be heard. It's I can't stress that enough. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Are you gonna be there? Okay. That's what this meeting is about is to get you energized. I beg your pardon? She asked what time. What time the bus is going leave by the 08:00, 08:00 City Hall, 08:00 City Hall. Oh it says Carson Event Center? Okay Carson Event Center. Everybody have the flyer? No. It's Carson Event Center everyone. Take a picture with your phone. I know you guys all have phones.

And I'm gonna close out with our assistant city attorney. And put on your calendar, Wednesday, March 20, 6PM, May. May. You know I'm on the freeway. May 20, 6PM Council Meeting. 6PM Council Meeting. Council Chambers.

Thank you, madam mayor and Mr. City manager David Roberts. And as our mayor mentioned earlier, the city council has authorized our office, the city attorney's office to file a litigation, file a lawsuit against the the Homekey project. So we're currently exploring that option. And in regards to the battery energy storage project, our Madame Mayor also mentioned the issue of local control.

So the concern being that if the city were to deny the project, the developer would turn around and go to the California Energy Commission and get an approval through the state, which would leave the city out of the process. So by working with the developer through the city's process, it allows the city to potentially get more out of the project, more community benefits out of the project than they would get the city would get if the developer went through the state process. Bear with me. I have a list of about 18 different community benefits that are currently being proposed if the project is approved. There's a development agreement that currently proposes about 18 different buckets of community benefits.

I'm going to go through and list them. So the first one is development impact fees, which is to pay for things like a new fire station, new police station, that would be about $200,000 worth of that, dollars 3 and 57,000 worth of operating and maintenance expense payments, a battery fee which is tied to the purchase of batteries for the project that would go anywhere from $250,000 to almost $1,500,000 in addition to the sales tax revenue that the city would get from the purchase of batteries. Then there's a few safety related community benefits. So a requirement that the developer conduct pre operation safety meetings before the project goes operational, community meetings to talk about safety related to the proposed facility. Then they have to conduct annual safety meetings each year while the project is operating.

They also have to do an emergency evacuation plan in coordination with the fire department to make sure that if an incident ever does occur at the facility, there's a plan for evacuating the surrounding area. They have to maintain a telephone hotline that residents can call 2065 with any complaints or concerns regarding the facility. They have to maintain on-site project monitoring. They were initially proposing remote monitoring, so now there's a requirement there would be a requirement for someone to be on-site personally monitoring the facility to prevent against any incidents occurring before for early detection and prevention with someone on-site twenty fourseven monitoring the facility. There is a program for high school summer internships.

The developer would be required to pay $40,000 annually to provide funding for the city to establish and maintain potentially in partnership with relevant local private companies, a program of paid summer internships for high school students enrolled in schools located in the city of Carson, which internships shall be focused on renewable energy, battery technology, and zero emission systems. There is a there would be a requirement for annual payments in the amount of 25,000 to the city for community gardens at or in partnership with Town Avenue Elementary School. There's a would be a requirement for payment of $30,000 annually to the city for use for the community services department's youth sports programming. There would be a requirement for the developer to sponsor the Carson Experience which is the Games, LA twenty eight Olympic Games in the amount of $100,000 for Olympic Games related events that would occur in the city. There is a requirement that the cost of all emergency response incidents to the property, whether that's fire department, city public safety, or the sheriff be paid by the developer and the cost of any increased level of services that the city needs to obtain from county sheriff or county fire need to be paid by the developer.

There is a requirement for the developer to pay for a point of purchase as it's being referred to for the sale of electricity which means that for every megawatt of electricity that goes into or out of the battery energy storage system, the developer would be required to pay 1 point dollars 5 per unit of electricity. There's a requirement for perimeter wall, blast proof engineered wall, 13 feet tall around the property. There's a requirement for investment tax credit participation, which means these facilities are entitled to federal tax credit and once they get that tax credit, they can turn around and monetize that and make money by selling those tax credits and the city would be required to get at least 1.5% of those tax credit proceeds that the developer would get. There is a requirement for a bond for decommissioning of the facility. Once the runs its useful life, the developer would be required to decommission and remove the facility and post a bond with the city for the removal costs.

In the event the developer goes defunct and just doesn't satisfy their obligation to decommission and remove the facility, there would be a bond in place that the city could use to pay to remove the facility itself. And there would be a requirement for 150 union carpenter jobs to be provided, a minimum 150 jobs. And I believe that covers it.

For the emergency

response cost there's an escrow deposit that the developer needs to post in advance so that the city can draw on the cost and not have to pay anything out of pocket for emergency response to the property.

What about the home company? How will we because this LLC could go bankrupt. Included in this, is it the home company?

The home company?

Like Ormat. Yeah, not just the one that's local, one that's overseas.

Yeah, it's Ormat. That's the big publicly traded company that would be required to do all these things.

And how much does the escrow have?

500,000.

That is nothing.

That can be increased on the '20. 500,000?

Yeah.

Nothing. Anyway, that's the overview of community benefits. So that's my piece. Thank you. It yeah. If it's possible that if if denied by the city, they would go to the state and try to get approval through the California Energy Commission. They agreed publicly during the last meeting to a vague rendition of those terms.

I understand all those monetary benefits that you highlighted for this company, but as an ethical practitioner of law who is representing the Carson residents, how much do you think someone's life and health, just one person, is worth if something tragic happens? Can you put a monetary value to that? Then we shouldn't have even heard how much money they're gonna give us to risk one person's life. I grew up in the projects of Wilmington, and when the woman had babies, they were supposed to be human babies. It was something that nobody could tell what it was because of those hazards by the refineries.

So unless they can tell us how much one life is worth or somebody's health is worth, it's nonsense. Why won't they put that facility in front of the Trump's golf course and PV?

Good evening everyone. We found out about the project home key about a year and a half ago. My question is, I understand that we're going for litigation now, but why wasn't that done a year and a half ago? Can I answer that question? Okay.

I think that's covered by the history that mister Roberts gave about the deception that the city the the deception that was put upon the city by the county.

So due to the deception, but even still knowing that they're not trustworthy, I think that we should have taken some type of legal action instead of waiting until now. I mean they're moving in in June. Know, that's all, thank you.

See that's the difference in Carson and Torrance. Torrance is not going to care about all that at this point. They'll have three buses full headed down to that meeting. Where she's over here still trying to blame her, now it's on us. Because now we know. And then we can't trump the county, it's here. Right. But we what we can do is say this is who we want in there. Right. So we're gonna oh sorry. So we're gonna walk out the door and forget. Oh we're gonna fill the buses up. And tell them who we want in the hotel. And stop blaming the leadership.

Now we know.

Thank you. It's 08:10, eight make it quick. Everyone make sure you signed in. It is 08:10 everyone. We want them, is no more speakers after this one? It's 08:10. We have to be out at 08:00.

I have a question for the city attorney. In the event, God forbid, there's a disaster at the Best facility, Is Ormat Technologies parent company

Make sure they all sign up.

Be the responsible party for all liability? Is that gonna be a part of the agreement? Yes or no?

Yes, sir. Thank you. Have full indemnification.

Thank you.

I have one simple thing to say. If all of this came down from the state of California, and the governor is aware of it, If there's a 100,000 people in Carson, we need to have at least 10,000 people down there on the nineteenth. So whatever you gotta do, if you're not if you're a taxpayer, you need to be down there and you need to be represented. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you everyone. Make sure we have your name, your phone number and all that. Madam? Yes. Keyshawn, just a second. Keyshawn, make sure we're out front with all the staff getting all the information we need. Who's gonna be there at the board? I need you there. So everybody has something to do. Thank you.

May I have a moment?

Yes.

I am a resident of Carson over twenty five years. I went to Town Avenue Elementary School. I am a resident of the Victoria Park neighborhood just a couple of blocks just down the street from the battery storage facility.

Speak into the mic.

Question. My question is, there was a complaint about not having the Filipino, the Samoan, or the Latino represented here tonight. I want to know how did you reach out to our communities? Where were the Spanish, the Tagalog and the Samoan flyers out? Where were the Facebook groups, the community outreach at our churches, at our schools, in our language to talk about this issue? You can sign me up at the very top and I will be advocating for and against this project for as long as I need to. Understood?

Thank you.

Two, we have an athletic LA Galaxy just a couple of blocks away from that same storage facility. Do you really think that if there is an emergency at that battery storage facility what effect it will have on our athletes? What would LA Galaxy say about this happening just down the street from their top grade athletic performers and of course the Olympics happening just a few years from now?

Okay. Let me answer your question. This meeting is about the Councilman's District. The Councilman's District is 99% African American. There were 10,000 flyers that went out to that community and the schools and every everyone else. So, we didn't send it citywide because we sent it to the the residents that are affected in the area. 10,000 went out, flyers, mailers, tweets, Facebook and the entire, okay? But not everybody is here. 10,000 flyers and we have 300 people. And that's a good showing.

So I would encourage you to get with my field reps so that you can be on our outreach team. Because Victoria Park has a large Latino population over there. Okay. This, yes. Okay.

Thank you. So thank you everyone for coming out tonight. I hope to see you at the Board of Supervisor and I definitely want to see you. If you can't make the supervisor you need to be there at our council meeting. Otherwise, this meeting is for nothing. Oh, yes.