Regular City Council and Housing Authority* - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I now call to order the regular meeting of the City Council and Housing Authority of Tuesday, 03/03/2026. Now please join me in standing, we will sing as the video plays the national anthem and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Now the pledge of allegiance. Ready?

Begin. I pledge allegiance

to the flag of The United

Okay. Thank you very much. Now it's time for our moment of solemn expression. We don't have anybody here from the clergy, but it's a little known fact, I am a reverend in the Universal Life Church. So I'll do the honors today.

Dear Lord, we recognize the responsibility entrusted to us by the community we serve. May we approach tonight's discussion with thoughtfulness, integrity, and respect for one another. May we listen carefully, speak honestly, and remain open to the perspectives that differ from our own. Let our decisions be guided by fairness, wisdom, and a shared commitment to the well-being of all residents, businesses, and visitors of the great city of Costa Mesa, including those whose voices are not always heard. May we work together in a spirit of cooperation, mindful that our actions here have real impact on the lives of our neighbors.

With gratitude for the opportunity to serve, let us proceed with purpose and dedication. Amen. Madam Clerk, would you please do the roll call?

Mr. Mayor, the record will reflect that all counselors present except for Councilmember Pettis.

Thank you. Madam city attorney, do you have a closed session report?

Thank you, mister mayor. The, city council gave direction to staff in connection with the agendized items, but no reportable action was taken.

Thank you. Okay, we have two presentations tonight. Both of them are informational. First is a presentation by Mr. Inlos, economic development administrator on our new active development map. Mister Inlos, you have the floor.

Thank you, and good evening, mayor and council members. I'd like to briefly introduce you to a new tool, the city has recently launched. It's called the active development map. You can find it on the home page in the spotlight section here or on the economic development services page of the department. The active development map is a tool designed to make development information in Costa Mesa more transparent, easier to access, and easier to understand for everybody, including residents, business owners, property owners, real estate professionals, and anyone interested in knowing what's happening in Costa Mesa.

You can find the the map fairly easy to navigate. Once you get to this location, you can see it takes you directly to city of Costa Mesa. And then you just would type in an address that you're potentially interested in, and it'll take you to that location. You'll notice there's two panes on the left and on the right. When you click on the property that you're interested in finding out more information about, on the left hand side, it'll give you a variety of information about that parcel.

Namely, zoning information, building information, assessors information, geological information about the property. And on the right, it'll give you a list of active building, business, planning, business licenses, building permits, and planning applications, and public works public work permits. System's fairly easy to navigate. It provides you direct links to each of those applications if you want to them to directly launch into Tessa to find out the summarized information that's available to the public for each of those permits. And you scroll down on the left hand side to see the additional information about each of the individual properties.

You can navigate up here in the top right to isolate specific topics. So if you just wanna look at building permits only, you can look at the red parcels. Or if you wanna look at planning information only, you can look at the purple parcels on the map. The goal for this again is to help people be able to find out what's happening in Costa Mesa. They'll be able to navigate, find out more information, be able to investigate what's going on around their business so they can find out if it's a good opportunity to relocate or find new new businesses that are coming in next to them or what's going on in your neighborhood if you're just curious and you're a resident.

This product is in beta, so we're testing it out and receiving feedback from from the public and our colleagues. And I definitely wanna give a shout out to the information technology department. They're a big help in making sure this got launched. And then a big shout out to our subject matter experts with Tessa and all of our development services colleagues as they helped me beta test this and make sure it was to this point ready for for public to to kinda look at and start reviewing and continue improving. Our next steps are obviously to continue improving the information that's on the web page, but then also making sure it's easier to access mobile on a phone and then potentially adding code compliance information as well and that's the end of my report

thank you mister in laws counsel do you have any questions of mister in laws Yes, Councilmember Reynolds.

Yeah. A couple of questions. One, could you just describe the difference between the building overlay and the planning overlay? And then I saw public works in the corner there. So is that where someone can get Maybe you can talk a little bit about that. I'm curious if that sort of checks the box of having sort of information on our active CIP list.

Yes. So if you wanna see all of the layers, can turn on all or you can go individually. So the building layer is actually our building permits. These are active building permits that are occurring. Everything from a gate permit, fence permit, a new building, new multi family housing project that's being constructed or being reviewed to be constructed.

Our business licenses are obviously active business licenses that are in the city of Costa Mesa. The planning is planning entitlements. This is anything going through a minor conditional use permit or any kind of application that requires review before it can go into construction or or permit process. And then the public works section currently is our public encroachment permits. One of the next steps obviously is going to be looking at making sure our capital improvement projects are incorporated into this. It takes a little bit more fine tuning because we're starting to talk about public right of way space. Right now the map is focusing on private property.

Okay. And then just a quick follow-up is are planning to incorporate the capital improvement program into this map

that is the intent they are already incorporated into tessa we just have to make some modifications to the public right away space so that we can affect we can accurately reflect the location of each of those projects.

Okay thank you.

Yes.

You councilmember. Any other council members have any questions? No? Okay good thank you very much appreciate it. Okay, moving on to our next presentation, we have the Fairview Park Steering Committee annual report. And Chair Chrisilius is going to give us the report. Do you want to do it from the here. I gotta open up your podium, but do you want to do it from there, or

do you

want to sit down?

Oh, this is fine. Okay. Or wherever is easiest. It's my first time. I'm I'm a rookie in the annual report category, so See if it moves.

It doesn't seem to be moving for me. I can sit down. If that's easier, then I can just

Cool.

Yeah. I'll just tell you when you go next slide. Hello, mayor and council members. Thank you so much for allowing our committee the opportunity to come and share a little bit about what's been going on with the Fairview Park Steering Committee. I don't wanna take too much of your time today, but I'm very excited for this opportunity to talk about something near and dear to my heart, as well as to the rest of Costa Mesa.

We have this 200 plus acre open space that is a refuge to animals and residents. It's a sacred space to tribes and communities whose ancestors called that land home. And, it's an amazing attraction to visitors who wanna recreate and enjoy nature. What an incredible jewel this place is. I can't overstate that enough.

Anyone who's been in the park knows that. You can go to the next slide. Which is just a quick overview of what's we're gonna look at tonight. Who we are as a committee, what we do, some of the emerging issues that are commonly brought up and for your consideration, as well as looking forward and the role of the committee in the years to come. So, this is a little play on words.

We are residents, but we are also experts. We are resident experts. You know, it's important to to understand a few things about this committee, is it's a really diverse group of folks appointed by you that all are grateful for their appointment to the committee. They care about the space deeply, but also that have specific subject matter expertise that's really important to know. So from from marketing to actual environmental science, one person that I'll just spotlight is one of the gentlemen, mister Bo Glover, who is the president of the Environmental Nature Center.

So, has a lot of experience in not only in knowledge around, not only environmental science, but how to create an incredible place where people can come and enjoy. If you haven't had a chance to go visit the Environmental Nature Center, it's technically in Newport Beach, but just on the other side of Costa Mesa. And it's an it's a fantastic place. And I'll share quickly why I got involved in the committee. So, two things.

One was that in enjoying the park for myself, I'm an avid trail runner and I love the fact that that's a that's a resource for someone like me to be out in nature. I found in the early years of me using the park that I didn't always know how to engage and interact with the park. I didn't know where I could go and where I couldn't go. I didn't know where the trail systems were. And I knew that there was more to the park to be explored.

And I knew if that was true for myself, it'd also be true for young families. And, that was another thing that I wanted to represent on this committee was was the voice and the presence of young families. How are young kids, parents enjoying and utilizing this park. Right? So, that we have a full perspective of of how our city can maximize this incredible resource. You can go to the next slide. So, we functionally do two things. We support our incredible part our staff, mister Brian Gruner and Kelly Dalton. We're big fans of them and we get to support them on a number of projects. This is a did you know?

So, in this last year, through the efforts of the staff, we moved from two volunteer days in a month to eight volunteer days in a month, where people are actually in the park, getting their hands dirty, improving the space, and contributing back to their city in a park that they really, really love. That equated to over more than fifteen hundred hours of volunteer involvement. And another thing that was really cool and important to understand is this was a lot of individuals, but it's also corporations. People were using it as a a corporate engagement tool for their staff to be in the park to service volunteer hours. And, that's just incredible.

If you're ever out there on a restoration day to see see the dirt flying and, you know, a coordinated group getting after removing invasive species, it's pretty special. Alongside that, the city staff also is managing millions of dollars in you know, CIP projects, some of which was given by state senators. And, we also oversee some memorial bench donations and things of that nature. So, we support those guys. The other thing we're supposed to do is we're supposed to advise the city council, council.

Leveraging our knowledge of the park, as well as, you know, our closeness to the residents and elevating their voices there. I told my committee, I gave them the same present presentation at our last committee meeting and I said, you know what guys? I think we have a little bit of a PR problem. And in the sense that the lines of communication between our committee and city council, think could really be improved. And I think it would be for the benefit of everybody.

So, I really just wanna take this opportunity to say that we are a really thoughtful, intentional, well balanced group that loves recreation and and conservation of this amazing resource, and we would love, I would personally love to connect with any one of you who has questions or wants to learn more of our perspective and what's been happening. But, this is another great opportunity to do so. So, thank you again for having me here. Next slide. When it comes to emerging issues, there's a few things, you know, we don't need to read through all of those there.

You can read them on the screen in front of you. But essentially, when it comes to what we can do for the park, is to make it a safer place where people understand how to use it, and with those infrastructure investments that they would treat it the way that it's supposed to be treated, in special resource that it is. So, requests upon like the behalf of the committee that we'd love to just put forth for you, is there would be the request of a full time ranger on the park site. This is a very unique park. This isn't similar at all to any of the rest of the parks of Costa Mesa, both in size and scope, and everything that is sacred and special there.

And also, to consider increased investment towards infrastructure and maintenance. So that, and this will be our last slide which you can go to now, will really help maximize the enjoyment of the park for all residents. So, as you can see, we've sort of listed three items here that we, as a committee, are excited to focus our time, energy, and effort on. And, at the end of the day, before I share these things, I just need to say that I'm a huge proponent of people utilizing and enjoying a park. If they do that, they will care for the park.

And, if they care for the park, they will then want to protect and steward that park in the best way possible. So, there are things that we can do as a committee to better do that and there will be some ways that the city council can continue to support those efforts. So, the first thing is through better education and signage at the park to help people understand the incredible resource that it is. And, to understand how to navigate the park. One of the things that is blatantly obvious to me when I go to the park is that there is not a set trail map.

If there is not a set and well designed trail map, how am I, as a new park user, to know where I can and can't go, or really what all the benefits are of the park. Do people know that there's an amazing trail system on the East side of the park? Something to consider. So, we wanna be working on that. The other would be starting a docent program to increase public presence and support in the park.

There's been some great collaborations happening with other local organizations. There was a recent walk with the city's biologists, and it was super well attended. People loved the opportunity to go and learn about the park, and there's more opportunities that we can do that to create people who truly understand the special resource and how they can enjoy it. And then, lastly, I really want our committee to focus efforts on proactively addressing ways that children and young families can engage in the park through bike riding and other means, you know. There are increasingly ways that we've been talking around, I think, as a city, that we need to get more specific on and and utilize, you know, our efforts to to create opportunities for young families to enjoy the park.

One of them being central interpretive area. Right? Like, where I go and I know this is these are all the ways I can use this park and the different places I can go and explore. I remember early on in my committee service, I connected with Kelly Dalton and he said, hey, just meet me at the main kiosk at the park. I said, great. I'll meet you there. I'm standing at the main kiosk or what I thought was the main kiosk for about five minutes and I'm like, I don't see Kelly. And he's like, no, I'm at this main kiosk over here on the other side of the grass field. And so, there's just usability, it's almost design design principles that I think could really really help people enjoy the park. Go to the last slide.

And that's pretty much it. Just another invitation for City Council to reach out if you have any questions at all. We're really looking forward to the years to come, and what will become a Fairview Park, and how incredible of a resource it not only is, but how much more it can be. So, thank you. Any questions?

Thank you. Smattering. Yes, you get applause. Applause. Thank you very much, chairman. So, yes, questions at this time? Any questions? Questions or comments, whatever? Yeah, you have the floor.

Counselor Yeah, wanted to a quick comment as the liaison to this committee. I get the joy of sitting in and listening to the deliberations. And I think you put it really well, Cole, the really, really thoughtful conversations, different perspectives brought to the committee. And I've been sitting in this role for a while. It's been really enjoyable for me to see all of those committee members deliberate. So I don't know if any else are out there, but if you're listening, I just want to thank you all for the time that you put into thought for the park and spending time at the park. And I'm excited about where I see the committee wanting to focus their energy on really the engagement interaction and the teaching about all of these cool things we continue to learn about the park. So thank you. Great presentation. So

Cole, I've got a question for you.

Yes, please.

So

one of the things sometimes we hear from committees is they don't feel as if they have the right enough direction from the council. And I know that, obviously, in the last year or so, there's been a real focus on the Fairview Park master plan. So that kind of provided that direction, if you will. Now that that's been voted on and it's moved on to the next phase, do you feel or the feedback you're getting from the committee is that you have enough direction from the council as to what your next year's plan is? Or would you appreciate more feedback from the committee on that? Sorry, the council on that.

Yeah. I and I very much appreciate you asking. It's a great question. I I think that, you know, as you mentioned, so much of our time and effort over the last three to four years has been surrounded with this discussions around the master plan update. I feel like getting to the other side of that and and having the clarity that that plan provides gives a ton more direction to the committee.

We are of course always open to feedback and would love counsel, you know, insight. Count things that are important to counsel. We'd love to understand and consider what those are. So the again, the communication line is open, but I feel as though our direction is pretty clear in what we can do. And it is in helping bring this vision of the park to life that's set forth by the master plan.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for answering the question.

You bet.

Anybody else have any questions or comments? Okay. Thank you very much, Jerry.

All right.

Thank you. Have a good night.

Yeah. You too. Okay. That's our second and final presentation of the evening. So now we're going to move on to public comments. So with public comments, everybody gets three minutes. And you're going to hear and see, at the one minute mark, a tone. And you're going to see that you have to wrap up. So please wrap up when you get to two minutes. You have one minute left.

If you're going to speak in English to Spanish translation, you get five minutes. You could speak about anything that is not on the agenda not on the main agenda, our new business items. You can also speak about consent calendar items. So pretty much anything. The floor is yours. We're here to listen. You have the floor, sir.

Good evening, mayor and city council. It's Roberto with Resilience Orange County and Costa Mesa Unidos. I'm here to urge you to begin systematically tracking all evictions in the city of Costa Mesa. Warrantless ICE arrests and immigration raids continue to terrorize many in our community. The Big Beautiful bill has handed billions of dollars to ICE, which just this year has resulted in the deaths of Renee Goode, Alex Preti, and Keith Porter.

Costa Mesa's own Gabriel Garcia Aviles died in ICE custody last year as well. May they rest in peace. The city of Costa Mesa can't turn a blind eye to ICE, and we haven't. With the mayor's leadership, Costa Mesa became the second city in Orange County to launch a legal defense fund for families facing deportation, and I applaud you for that. Costa Mesa has been ahead on the side of justice in defending the Latino community and the immigrant community, and protecting due process rights.

We continue to set the example of leadership, with other cities following suit. The city of Buena Park has launched their own legal defense fund, Irvine launched theirs last week, and now Anaheim is eyeing this, as well. But the fight for the Latino community and the immigrant community shouldn't end there. Last year, these two items were coupled together, both a legal defense fund and eviction tracking through a rental registry. The time is now, mayor and city council, to begin to systematically track evictions, agendize a staff report.

As families face devastating family separations, breadwinners are arrested, and mothers are left scrambling to pay for the rent. Families go hungry, buy less clothing and school supplies to make ends meet. The fear of evictions linger, and failure to pay rent becomes a reality. The city doesn't track this data point, failure to pay rent. And the data it does collect is all self reported under our current tenant protection ordinance. I am here to urge you to begin systematically tracking all evictions in the city in Costa Mesa. Tenant rights are immigrant rights, and I need you to stand by that. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Juana Trejo, and I am a promotora in Orange County. And I know we're going to sound like a broken record, but I did have a conversation with Manuel before this. So, we need a registry, and we're not talking about a registry to register your property.

We're talking about a registry to know why tenants are being evicted. Because at this time, there's a lot of units that are not occupied, and we don't know why they're being evicted. We don't know if they're being wrongfully evicted or with just cause or not. And even Lauren Gamerez mentioned last time that he was shocked at the property that was being sold near where he lives, that he didn't know why it was being sold. So that's all we wanna know. We just wanna know. We wanna have a list, of evictions and why they're happening. We're not really here asking anything out of this world. We're not asking for owners to register their property. We just want to have clear data that shows what we need to continue to advocate for.

I think it's fair as residents here in Costa Mesa that we know what's going on. I think in the whole history of Costa Mesa, there's never been as many pages for things for rent. And so and even for sales, there's just been so many, many things that are selling. And so, we want to know what's happening. We live here. And we wanna make sure that we know why these properties are vacant or unoccupied. I mean, wouldn't you be wondering why all these places are not occupied? It's part of your job as well to know. And that's really all we're asking for. It's just so we can have transparent data so we know what's happening. And it's not just concerning the Latino community. There's other people here from other nationalities who are no longer here as well. Thank you.

Gracias.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Christian Lopez with Resilience OC and Costa Mesa Unidos. Today, I'm here to call on the city to support tenant protections and support a rental registry. Although the rental registry is not on the agenda today, it was approved to be brought to back to city council back in September. And city council provided direction to staff to, one, update exit the existing tenant protection ordinance to track all evictions.

Two, develop a proposal for a rental registry. And three, establishing a renter for network for renter solutions to improve outreach to both landlords and tenants. We urge you to pass support all three. We continue to see unlawful evictions here in the city of Costa Mesa, whether it's landlords unknowingly or willingly circumventing existing state protections or the city's just cause tenant tenant protection ordinance. We see community members falling through the cracks of the existing tenant protection ordinance that could have been prevented with better oversight.

The city of Costa Mesa is made up of over 60% renters. The city has a duty to be at the forefront of addressing renter issues. A rental registry will support the systematic tracking of all evictions and improve communication channels for both tenants and landlords. In its majority renter city, it must continue to move in the direction of that provides both transparency and systematically tracks important housing data that can help inform future housing policy for the city. This city council can now continue to leave these issues in the dark.

A rental registry is common sense policy for a majority rental city. We also call on the city to take proactive measures to bring renters into the community, into the discussion of the rental registry and any future policies that do directly impact tenants. Of their sphere that these type of policies may negatively impact tenants, why not bring renters into the discussion just as we like to include landlords and the apartment association in these type of discussions. We are not alone in this fight for tenant protections. Other community partners including Promotoras Des Alour, Orange County Environmental Justice, Latino Health Access, Tenants Together, CHISPA, and Food Not Bombs have signed on in support.

We call on the city to take action in addressing these lack of data and transparency. Agendaize a rental registry and support one. Now is the moment to act. Renters can't wait anymore. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Hi, good evening. My name is Yolanda Padilla, and I'm actually here for the same reason as all my other colleagues. I think that we need a registry for apartments. I've been here living here I I think it would be actually something really good for the city, as well as for us, the tenants. I've been living here for thirty seven years in Costa Mesa, so I would say I'm more from here than I actually am from Mexico. But, given everything that has been happening, given how the rent has been increasing so much, I mean, basically everything that we're earning goes straight to rent. Thank you so much.

Hi there. My name is Brooke. I'm a constituent district one and organizer with Food Not Bombs Costa Mesa. I'm just here tonight to follow-up on the motion from the 02/17 meeting to conduct an audit of the flock surveillance cameras in the city. I just wanted to follow-up on that and see when we might expect that to be completed.

On that note, I also wanted to express my gratitude to the police depart Costa Mesa Police Department for their open communication and always being willing willing to discuss their requests and what's going on. And so, I did want to say that, and that the concern is with FLOC or federal agencies, not so much with our police department, but the concern is with them accessing the stored data, using that information to track and target specific community members. And, this is happening in other cities in California and throughout the country, so did wanna follow-up on that. Also, I'm here to follow-up on the rental registry and eviction tracking and tenant protection ordinance, and we fully support that. We were here at the September 9 meeting when that motion was approved, and we'd just like to see that go into effect and help support the community.

Thank you for all that you all are doing. You're doing so many great things for the people, and the community, and the city, and we just hope to see that continue on. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Joseph Robochak, and unfortunately, my representative or council member is not here. But the reason I'm here is I have to read this to you because I have a mental fog and it comes and goes, I want to be consistent and coherent. Mayor and city council members, I wanna first say that I should attend more city council meetings. It's extremely important, especially in these times, to make sure our government officials represent us, our community ideals, and to hold them accountable in that job.

I have attended one meeting, and what I heard and saw made me proud to be a Costa Mason. I would like to commend those city council members who appear to focus on taking care of the community and the individuals who reside, work, and enjoy our city. I come before you as a thirty plus year resident of Costa Mesa, twenty eight year homeowner, twenty eight year property taxpayer who has never missed a single payment even when my world fell apart underneath me. For twenty eight years, I have provided high quality housing at below market rates to many Costa Mesa families and citizens. My below market rents have allowed my tenants a quality of life and financial stability within our great city, many of whom were able to save up and become homeowners themselves.

I believe in maximizing quality of life over maximizing profit. I treat my tenants like they are, a special community within our community. I perform my duties as a citizen and vote in every election. I have worked diligently to keep my neighborhood safe and secured by being a vigilant neighbor and community member. In my I'm the type of resident you want in your town to live in your town because I care about my fellow humans and believe that everyone can prosper if given a chance.

It's very hard for me to be here because I'm quite ill. Like many fellow Americans, the pandemic hit me hard. I almost lost everything I have built for the last forty years, not just my home and property, but most important of all, my life. I have tried as hard as I can to handle every problem life has thrown at me in the way to do it fair and considerate and compassionate manner. I have asked for meetings with my elected city representatives through calls to the constituent services and correspondence to previously elected city council members and have been stonewalled.

I have been promised calls back and have never a single one. The city prosecutor is about to make me a homeless man and forced me to lose my home that I worked forty years of my life to build. So I ask why the city that I love, the community that I chose to build my life in thirty years ago is trying to destroy everything I've built with my own hard work and determination. Why is the city prosecutor trying to take that away from me and make me homeless? I need help. I need my elected representatives to look at what is being done to me, how this despicable, unjust, and I would assert illegal acts are being perpetrated on me at my weakest and most vulnerable time. My entire thirty plus years as resident of Costa Mesa, I've never asked the city for help. I'm asking for help. I need immediate help.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm sorry. My my name is Min Park. I'm actually Joseph's caretaker. I'm sorry. Got emotional.

Without my assistance, he would have died at home. He was unable to do the most basic things, not standing for any length of time, cooking or feeding stuff, showering and using the bathroom, any basic things that human people, I'm sorry, can do. I'm here to tell you that I witnessed first an arrest removal of a man who was so sick that he could it was basically helpless at the time. I begged him not to take him, explaining how sick he was. They took him to jail over claimed court enforcement violations.

In all my years as a caretaker, I've never witnessed such a callous disregard for extremely ill individual. I witnessed them search his entire property for any co violation, claiming there were, like, a rodent infestation and a health co violation. I had been personally taking care of him and can say that that there was never any wooden or health violation. I personally watched the clean this home where he was basically, he was bedridden full time. I think the city council and the mayor need to look into the misconduct of both court enforcement officers and city prosecution.

That is just plain wrong and injust. And this man needed help, and instead he was taken to jail like a criminal. Thank you for listening. I am sorry. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Yes, you have the floor.

Good evening Mr. Mayor city council my name is rachel and I'm a Costa Mesa resident District 3. I' here tonight to follow-up on the comments about flock safety from the February meeting. Thank you for your willingness to audit the flock data, and I'm here tonight to ask for an update. Just to be absolutely clear, my concerns about flock, they're not directed at our police department.

This is about mass surveillance and the risk that flock poses to our most vulnerable residents. I personally would like flock would like Costa Mesa to cancel its contract with flock. However, there are two things you can do now that would help mitigate the risk to our community. First is to change your ALPR data retention policy from a full year to a limited period. The lower the better, but thirty days maximum, I would suggest.

This allows the police department to get their hot list alerts of stolen vehicles, amber alerts, etcetera, while not retaining the data for an extended period of time. Second, turn off access to Costa Mesa's ALPR data to any agencies except the Costa Mesa Police Department. If any other agencies would like the data, they can file a warrant or request a warrant. Thank you.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Carmen Ramirez. And actually, the twenty seventh of this past month of January, I've been here now for thirty five years here in the city of the of Costa Mesa. And I really missed coming to the council meetings. I mean, I think you all know what we've been going through, so we're happy to be back here again. I am also a part of Costa Mesa Unidos, as well as a promotora a health promotora. And just like Juana said, I guess I'm gonna sound like a broken record as well, but our people are being attacked again. And all we really want is just more data and transparency. Off of the street of college in District 2, six families were evicted.

No costs was given to them. No reasoning was given to them. They were just asked to give back their plays, and they didn't know why. They were just asked to leave. And in those same apartments, now, what we've been hearing is that people are going into those apartments, and they're doing things like drugs, and just illegal things. Now, we've had these other three families who have received some letters letting them know that their rent is going up over 10%. And all we're asking for is data and transparency for our people to be treated with dignity and respect. Thank you.

Hi.

Good evening. My name is Siti Sudia and Sudiga. And I've been a tenant here in Costa Mesa for and a resident of Costa Mesa for about twenty seven years now. I am also part of Costa Mesa Unidos, and I'm just gonna be brief. We're really just asking for the council here to support us with having in our initiative for a rental registry. I think it's imperative for all renters. You know, there's no control right now. It's just a way for us to start seeing, you know, who's being evicted and whose rights are not being respected. We do have rights. You know, all the money that work so hard for are given to the property owners.

And to suddenly have to go and rent an apartment because of this and go through a really difficult transition is hard. So, really, we're just asking for you all to support us in this initiative and have a rental registry now. Thank you. Hi.

Oh, sorry. Hi. My name is Danielle. I'm here in honor of the Washettos who were brutally attacked over the summer I mean, in recent months by ICE. I had the privilege of gaining trust with them and hearing their stories about the kidnappings.

And I witnessed kidnappings and I witnessed the raids that took place there. And I think it's really important that we continue to remember the violence that they brought to our communities. So at a car wash in Huntington Beach when ICE went in to raid it, some of the wash shuttles were working on cars. There was a man, was in a car, he was leaning over to clean it, then an ICE agent came and the car continued to roll back and hit a wall. Another person at that what at the same car wash had his an elderly man had his had his knee broken and they pushed him to the ground and he was later received care at a hunting at a hospital in Huntington Beach where protesters were met with armed guards having guns pointed at us.

Another testimony of something that happened there is when they were kidnapping somebody, they pushed him onto the belt. And he sustained a lot of bruising on his stomach when they pushed him to the ground. What happened to the man after he broke his knee, he received care and then he was dropped off in Tijuana. This is just what manage management told me, but there's no follow-up or no justice for him. I I just wanna I want everybody to remember that the guys that the men that ICE is recruiting are are vicious and violent.

In fact, I actually got a call the other day from a guy I used to date who kind of taunted me about well, hold on. Let reword that. He knew I was involved in advocacy in this line, and he told me that he was going to be joining ICE. Very upsetting. Told him I don't want any contact.

I have received calls from him, but continued, taunting me and saying, stay out of my way, open to other verbiage. And I just think that this is just really important to highlight that who ICE is recruiting are not people that we can trust, really. They are just grown kids with really expensive government weapons. And so that is why I am very concerned about the block surveillance system because these men these men and women have shown and eyes have shown us how vicious and how violent they are and how detached they are from reality. And I don't know what they are feeding them and what they are doing in training that is taking away their humanity.

That is the violence that they cause to our communities and the suffering that continues to follow these families. It's awful. And that is why we also need the rent transparency about rental assistance because the suffering lingers. And I want to continue to share their stories. I'll get better at it. There's a lot of suffering that they brought. Thank you.

Hi, everyone. I had a video to show. I'm not sure if you guys made it dirty. Would you place I'm from just gonna talk for ninety seconds and ninety seconds from minute six to seven thirty, please. Would you just fast forward to six?

We'll start it at the beginning.

No. No. No.

Could we just

Hold on one second. Yeah. Scroll up, please,

to Let me introduce myself, mister John, please.

What's that?

Let me introduce myself first. It's possible. Yeah. Yeah. My name is Tanir Bakhili. I am a social activist, especially for the peace in Middle East. I am returning student and also math tutor in Orange Coast College. I travel all the way from LAX here almost every Thursday and Tuesdays. This video that you are gonna see is on the election night on November 6, if I'm not mistaken. Could you just pass it forward to minute six, please?

Let's stop his time. We need to get the let's get the video queued up. Six. No. No. No. Minute six.

On the left.

See, if you scroll it all the way over until it shows minute six on the left, that's when he wants it, to minute seven thirty or whatever. You're getting there. Okay. Hold on. Okay. Minute six. Let's start the time. Go.

And before we go

yeah. Gonna run out of time. You want us to watch the video? Okay.

Go ahead. I want to just tell something. That's fine.

Well, maybe tell if we could have time at the end. Go.

I'm glad that we don't have a re audio on it. I will explain why.

You can talk on the audio if you want. Talk on top of it.

So there was a female officer. I'm not sure if she's here or not. I was hoping when a female officer become a chief of police, you know, the the matters in the hands of the Costa Mesa police will be different. I used to be a student in Khossemeza as a Iranian born Middle Eastern, and I was harassed by police of Irvine every single time when I was riding my bicycle to work. And I came to this country because we didn't have a voice as a minority.

If you are a minority in Iran, you cannot play soccer in elementary school. You cannot become official for the government. You have to watch if police is watching you. So if you see a police, you have to run away and make sure they are not shooting you. This is a reality of minorities in my country and Middle East, especially the countries that have a war. So my father want me to come to America so I can have a voice. But I I believe after all of these years, I still have the same problem. I already told these officers that I have a disability. I have ADHD. I cannot communicate with three people.

And each of them are bullying me with different questions that I cannot answer. Answer. So I am hoping I am hoping the chief of police are gonna change the way they train their police to make sure that, you know, we as a citizen, we don't need a gun to protect itself. Gun is not gonna resolve anything. Thank you.

Madam Kirk, do we have any do we have anybody on Zoom?

No, mister mayor.

Okay. We'll we'll close public comments. So this is the time for the committee sorry, the council member committee reports, comments, and suggestions. First up is from District 1, council member Mike Bewley.

Thank you, mayor council, members of the public. I'm gonna be brief tonight. Just comment on the presentations first. I I did actually see the, active development map, pop up on, my Instagram over the weekend, and I I was impressed. And it was great that I was looking forward to the presentation tonight. You know, I'm a big proponent of transparency and nothing better than when the neighborhood and and the neighbors are wondering what's going on over there. What's this business coming in? And and it really is, even though it's just the beta at this point, it really is very accessible. And the detail in it is pretty impressive. Just shout out, I was out at the launch or first pitch opening day of Costa Mesa Little League.

Merr was out there with me, Pettis, chief LaPoint, chief Pyle, and a whole bunch of staff. And it's just a great way to kinda kick off the spring and the summer season, and it's great community event. And and it was great to be part of that. An ask I've got, it's just a question because I don't know the answer to it. Several sessions ago, had kind of throw away a comment about is there any federal prohibition or state prohibition to imposing some sort of fee or tax similar to a TOT tax on our rehab homes or sober living businesses that we have in the city.

Is there some ADA prohibition against looking into something like that? Because there are businesses in our city. They generate rather substantial revenue. And I was just curious about that. Now you don't necessarily have to answer it from the dais tonight, but it is something I'd be curious about. And that's all I've got tonight.

Thank you, council member. Next up from District 2 is council member Lauren Gamaros.

Thank you, mister mayor. I'm gonna just keep this to one subject this evening. First of all, I wanna say I appreciate everybody coming in and speaking about how they feel regarding FLAC. I did listen at the last meeting, and I reached out to our police chief, and I expressed my concerns. And lo and behold, she had already addressed these concerns, and I was not aware.

So what I want to do is I just want to read a few excerpts from which she sent me so that we can address some of these concerns. And I took some notes and this and that when people were speaking. So There was an ask for an audit. An audit has been done, and an audit is done regularly. I'm just going to read this so I can get through this here.

There were some recent community concerns regarding the city's use of FLAC, the license plate reader system, ALPR. Staff have taken immediate steps to review both system security and data practices. The IT manager, Michael Stanky Stanky sorry about that, Mike just conducted a network audit of the city's entire network. He confirmed that we have not had any network security breaches at the time we have had flock. The IT manager's memo regarding our network security is attached.

The IT manager and his team constantly monitor the network and ensure that the data is safe. Secondly, the police department conducted an administrative audit of FLoC's platform's data sharing settings and their access logs. They confirmed five things. The first thing is that the police department FLoC system administrator conducts weekly audits as well to further ensure FLoC account users are not conducting unauthorized searches and no unauthorized organizations have access to our data. That's very important.

Second, sharing with federal agencies is not possible the way our FLoC system account is configured, and the same goes for all of the California agencies that use flock. We do not have the ability, even if we wanted to share flock information with federal agencies or out of state agencies. Third, data sharing is limited to California law enforcement agencies only, consistent with city policy and state law. We currently share flock search data with about three sixty agencies all within California. The list of agencies we share data with is attached for reference.

I looked at it. It's police departments. There has been no sharing of Costa Mesa flock data with federal agencies. The systems, permissions, and user access controls are functioning as intended. In response to what everyone said, there has been an audit that was conducted. There are regular audits that are conducted on a regular basis. If anybody has any concerns, reach out to me. I'm an open door. Anytime you'd like to speak to me, I'd be glad to speak to you. I do wanna thank our police chief for getting on this.

She did a great job giving all the information that was needed to the council. I wanted to share this with you. So thank you, Costa Mesa Police Department, and thanks, chief. That's all I have.

Thank you, councilmember. Next up from District 3 is council member Andrea Marr.

Yeah, and just to be clear, that audit was conducted at the request of all of council based on comments from last meeting. I wanted to particularly thank all the folks who came out from Costa Mesa Unidos for your comments. We will be visiting maybe Nate nodded me if this is right we will be visiting the rental protection ordinance and the rent registry in two weeks. I really want feedback on how we're doing on that, so when the agenda is published the week before, I will make myself available. Roberto, maybe I can schedule some time with you to make sure that I can get as many comments as possible in advance of that meeting so that I can be prepared to bring those concerns and comments adjustments things you think are great to the agenda that following Tuesday.

So thank you very much for being here and taking time out of your day to do that. I don't have anything else, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member. Next up from District 5 is Council Member Arliss Reynolds.

Yeah, thanks. Thank you everyone for your comments tonight. Really appreciate the input. I just want to note the person who came up with some concerns about his home and caretaker. Thank you, city attorney, for giving him your card.

I saw some staff connect with him in the back. If we can just get an update on that situation, I would appreciate that. A couple other things to staff. So, council, I think last summer, issued a resolution related to safety on Newport Boulevard, a challenging street in our City road, highway in our city under the jurisdiction of Caltrans. That resolution was in response to long engagement and concerning data on safety on that street.

Our staff organized a meeting with Caltrans staff there he is transportation manager Paul Martin. We had a really fantastic meeting last week with Caltrans staff, representatives from Cottie P. Ju Norris's office, Senator Choi's office, and three commissioners from the California Transportation Commission. I just want to thank share that with counsel, because this has been an issue that's come up for us. Really good conversation about the safety concerns, progress made in response to some of our requests, progress still to come, and avenues to get some more substantive safety improvements on that stretch of road.

So just sharing that update for counsel, and I want to express my thanks for all of the staff who are involved in putting that together. Similarly, the Neighborhoods Where We All Belong event last night got to be there. Really good conversations. I want to thank all the staff consultant team who were part of that, and encourage anyone in the public with concerns or ideas for housing. Those are really valuable places to engage.

We'll have an online meeting that will have translation services as well, and then another public in person meeting on Saturday. I'm appreciating the conversations that I'm having, and I'm liking where I see the overall efforts and goals going. Related to housing, I'm eager to see the rental registry back in front of us. So thanks for all who have shared work on that. I appreciated the development map as well that we were presented on, and I'm eager for similar transparency in terms of rental housing.

As one of the commenters shared, two thirds of our residents rent, and we've expressed on this council over the years really not having a lot of information. There's not a lot of public information about trends in terms of rental prices, who owns this rental housing, how fast prices are going up, where evictions are happening, where unlawful evictions are happening. And that affects twothree of our residents. So I'm really, really eager to have our city staff not just counsel, but our staff, And as much as possible, the broader public just more understanding and awareness of that particular housing market in our city. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you for all the comments on FLAC. Thanks to staff for very quickly conducting that audit. I appreciated getting that information. I do have a follow-up question on the ALPR data retention policy. I didn't see the information on our data retention in the audit. If we can get a follow-up on that, I thought that was a helpful recommendation. And then I've asked staff to share the information from that audit publicly too. So thank you, Councilmember Gutierrez, for reading that out loud. I think it's really helpful to make those audit results as public as possible.

And lastly, for folks who thank you to everyone who is engaging with their neighbors and supporting strangers through a very, very challenging year, in particular, for residents and community members and people working in Costa Mesa who have become victims or are vulnerable to the elevated ICE aggression. Really appreciate everything you're doing with your free time, everyone who's donated towards that work. Volunteers are organizing an event to continue to invite people into that work and train people to be sort of watch supporters, whether that's at car washes or we've got folks who are volunteering at schools. So there's an opportunity to come into some more of that training on March 11 in the evening. So that's March 11, 05:30 to 08:30.

There's a training hosted in Costa Mesa, and you can follow Costa Mesa Mutual Aid on Instagram for a way to sign up. Probably talk to several people in this room or shoot me an email and we'll get you connected to more information on that. Thank you.

Thank you councilmember. Now we're going to go to our mayor pro tem Manuel Chavez from District 4.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, everyone, who joined us and shared your comments. We look forward to voting on your item when it comes to us next council meeting. Just two quick comments I wanted to make today.

The first is I wanted to give a general thank you to the Mexican Consulate of Santa Ana and the Consulate General, Last week, she was in District 4, sharing information with the residents about what rights they have as Mexican nationals in United States Of America. It's super important that as things heat up, we all know our rights, and we do have rights, regardless of our status in this country. And checking out your local consulate general of your home country, if that applies to you, is a good place to start. But again, I do want to thank Mahayra Abatasar and the rest of the cons general team for being in my district, sharing those resource information. And finally, for the seniors in my district, I had two seniors contacting me over the past week about seeking just help with food assistance.

And I do want to promote a couple of things. As always, as we all know, we do have the Someone Cares Food Kitchen off of 19th Street that offers free food to everyone without any questions asked. So if at any point, anyone in the community needs a quick bite to eat for lunch, they can stop by there and get a free food, no questions asked. We also have Meals on Wheels through the senior center on 19th Street in Pomona. So if you or someone you know needs access to cheap, quality, good food, please go check it out.

It's really important for our seniors. I know money could be tight, but don't let that be an issue to giving you as good, healthy foods. So again, someone cares soup kitchen if you need a free food for anyone in the community. And if you're a senior and want a more balanced meal for a cheap cost point, check out the senior center. And those are my comments today. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yeah, I just have a few comments. I agree with Councilmember Bewley. The Little League opening day was terrific. It was a beautiful day. They have about six sixty players in the league, all the way up from t ball to majors. I think it's the most that they've ever had. The fields look beautiful. All the families were out there. And I was happy to be out there with a lot of police officers, including our police chief, a lot of firefighters, including our fire chief, our interim fire chief, and then council members Bewley and Pettis.

We threw out the first ball think I threw a strike on the inside corner. I can't speak for Beulie or Pettis. But it was nice to see everybody there. Unfortunately, this is my last year, so this is my last opening day. So I had a lot of years there as a coach and a board member. So it was a little bit sentimental and wistful for me to have it be my last opening day. But it was a good one. And sometimes it rains on opening day, so it's beautiful weather. So in my professional capacity, I had occasion I don't go to many council meetings in other jurisdictions, but I was out in Moreno Valley, and I saw something that I want to share with you. I think some of will be interested in.

So 61% of Moreno Valley is Latino, 61%. Moreno Valley is the second largest city in Riverside County. It's just really right adjacent to Riverside, if you guys are familiar with that. Over 200,000 people live in the city. And our chambers are much nicer, but they have a feature that I think I'd like us to look into. And when anybody's speaking, they have on the wall a screen. And the screen is cut in half. And on half of the screen runs a transcript of the meeting in English. And on the other half of the screen is a transcript of the meeting in Spanish. And so I've said this a lot with other jurisdictions.

If they can do it in Moreno Valley, we can do it in Costa Mesa. So I think look we into it. We've made a lot of strides, but we know the technology exists. So I'd like to see the staff to look into that, especially our great CMTV staff, and just add that as another feature of our meetings to make them more accessible and transparent to the public. And then presumably, you can get a transcript.

I mean, if it's rolling on the screen, it must be kept somehow. So that also is something that the public can look back on and very easily pluck statements that we make or their own statements out of the written record. With respect to Joseph, I think it was, who spoke, I think it would be appropriate to get a written attorney client apparently, there's some legal issues attorney client communication from the city attorney about those issues. I'm concerned about that gentleman, and appreciate that he came here and brought his caregiver. And so I think we should, as a counsel, be responsive to him.

And then the other thing is I want to adjourn the meeting for Shirley Foster. Now you might say, was the last time the mayor talked about Shirley Foster? Just recently, within the last, say, three or four months, I went over to the LDS church on Adams And Placentia. And I attended her one hundredth birthday party. Well, I learned this week that she died. So she made it all the way to 100. Bless her heart. And so now she's got a great award. And so let's adjourn the meeting in her honor and memory tonight. That's all I have.

Now we'll go to the city manager report with Cecilia Gallardo Dailey.

Thank you, mayor, city council. Good evening, everyone. The city is looking for new committee members. Tonight, we urge you all to practice caring, then care for your city. Take the next step: apply to serve on a city committee.

The future of Costa Mesa is shaped by neighbors like you. Bring your voice to the table and help recommend what's next. Be part of the conversations that matter. Apply today at costamesaca.gov/apply. The City of Costa Mesa is looking for members of the following committees: Animal Services, Active Transportation, Finance and Pension Advisory, Housing and Public Service Grants, and the Mobile Hope Park Advisory Committee.

The deadline is five p. M. Thursday, 03/26/2026, and the appointments are tentatively scheduled for Council meeting. So, these are the city committees that you can care for, so we urge you to apply and join us. We recently launched a legislative and government affairs page on our city website.

On this page, you can find the city's legislative platform along with the city's goals adopted. The legislative platform is based on strengthening the public safety and improving the quality of life, achieving long term fiscal sustainability, diversifying, stabilizing, and increasing the housing to reflect community needs, maintaining and enhancing the city's facilities, equipment, and technology, and advancing environmental sustainability and climate resiliency. And I know later on this evening, the council will hear more about the legislative platform and some bills that have been introduced that reflect these goals. The The page is located within the city manager section on the city website at costamesaca.gov. And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Gallardo Dailey. And now we're up to the city attorney report. Ms. Hall Barlow, do you have a report?

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I don't have any report this evening.

All right. That's good. You get brevity points. Okay. So now we're at the consent calendar. All items on the consent calendar are considered to be routine and will be ruled on in one motion unless a council member or a member of staff or a member of the public pulls an item. Madam Clerk, do we have any items that need to be pulled?

No, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. And do we have any recusals or anything else we need to put on the record? No. Okay, good. All right. Then can we get a motion, please?

Move to approve.

Motion by Councilmember sorry, Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Councilmember Marr. Let's call for the question.

Motion carries six-zero.

Excellent. Okay, so we don't have any public hearings or old business. So we do have three new business items tonight. Number one is I'll let the city clerk read item number one, new business item number one.

Thank you. This is the traffic impact the program update and the presentation by Mr. Martin, transportation services manager.

Mr. Martin, you have the floor. Good evening mayor and council. Tonight we are going to give an update on consultant selection for traffic impact fee study update. I'm going to hand it over to our our senior civil engineer for the presentation. Ramin?

Good evening mayor, mayor pro tem, and council members. Tonight we'll be sharing with you the traffic impact fee program update. So a quick background on the traffic impact fee, also known, as the TIF. The traffic impact fee is a development impact fee that funds transportation system improvements necessitated by land development projects. It was first established in 1993 through a council ordinance along with the traffic impact fee ad hoc committee to oversee annual fee updates.

The traffic impact fee legally requires a nexus study that demonstrates the relationship between new development, traffic impacts caused by that new development, and the projects funded by the fee to mitigate those impacts. The traffic impact fee is required by OCTA to maintain measure m2 eligibility. The last major update to the traffic impact fee was conducted in 2018 that added projects from the adopted active transportation plan to the TIF program. Typically the traffic impact fee is updated every year around November through council resolution. Recently, new one of the newer laws AB six zero two now requires a the majors like updates to occur every eight years.

So we're due for it this year. The traffic impact fee ad hoc committee sent a letter to city council in November 2025 supporting an update of the traffic impact fee program to bring the TIF into compliance with the newly passed state laws. And there's also a need for the new TIF program to be consistent with statewide goals for vehicle miles traveled, also known as VMT, and reduction of greenhouse gases. The city issued a request for proposals in November 2025, and we received five proposals. After evaluating the proposals, the highest ranked consultant was Kim Lee Horn and Associates.

Kim Lee Horn has demonstrated ample experience working on traffic impact fee programs, nexus studies, VMT analyses, and other mitigation fee programs across the state. The total cost of the update including a 10% contingency is a $164,714. To fund the update, we'll require council approval to appropriate funds from the measure m two fair share fund balance. If the city council awards the agreement, the project will span over the next eight months from October 2026 to from March to October. There'll be ample opportunities for public input up to four traffic impact fee ad hoc committee meetings are scoped up to two city council meetings.

Upon completion of the new nexus study and the fee program, we'll take the we'll have a new ordinance and resolution to establish the updated program that will be brought to this brought brought forward before the city council. City staff is aiming for this to occur in November which is typically when the traffic impact fees are brought to the council to be updated. In conclusion, city staff recommends that the city council approve all the recommendations outlined in the staff report. Thank you and we're available to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions from the council? No? Okay. We're good. Let's hear from the public. Anybody from the public wish to be heard on this matter? I see Mr. Martinez is May coming ask

a quick question?

Looked disappointed that I didn't have any. So this is a, as I understand it, a one time study to kind of update our methodology and sort of approach to mitigating traffic impacts. Is that right? Is and is there a like, when would you expect to do another study like this if that would even be on the horizon?

Yeah. So so this scale of update, it's supposed to occur every eight years.

Eight

years. Yeah. We can have yearly updates updating the the project costs that are in the Nexus study and and whatnot. But like this level of update happens every every eight years. And the consultant part of their scope is to look at different methodologies for the for the program. Look at best practices. What are other cities doing? What are some of the newly adopted programs? And, then provide recommendations to the city.

Yeah. Okay thank you

yes sir

thank you mr. Mayor members of the city council roughly the same comment I gave when we update when we last updated our traffic impact fee program is to make sure that this update includes consideration of the recently adopted SB three fifty eight by Senator Becker. That senate bill requires a lower traffic impact fee in developments that are close to certain kinds of uses that would be described as areas that make places more walkable. Things like more grocery stores, things of the like. So that senate bill is now law, and I didn't see it mentioned in our staff report or in the consultant's proposal.

So I wanna make sure that we include this recently adopted state law as we update our traffic impact fees. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anybody else? Anybody on zoom?

No Mr. Mayor.

Closed public comment? Councilmember Reynolds, you have a motion?

Yeah, I'll staff move recommendation on this item.

All right. I'll second.

And I saw your head nodding. Can you confirm that this scope would incorporate current Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. No, no comments other than a full confidence in our transportation team managing this project. Thank you.

Yeah, great job. Thank you. If there's no other comments, let's call for the question.

Motion carries six zero.

All right. Well done. Now we have new business item number two. Madam Clark, would you please read the title?

This is the 2026 legislative update and presentation by Mr. Barkman, government affairs manager.

Mr. Barkman, you have the floor.

Good evening, mayor and council. Jay Workman, governor affairs manager. I'm joined with, by Elisa from Townsend Public Affairs. Our lobbyists for the city that assists us with all the issues related to state budget, federal appropriation process, and lobbying on legislation that' included here and we' be discussing tonight. Back on 09/16/2025 the city council adopted the legislative platform and revised council policy number eight on legislative positions.

In those documents and in the associated staff report we committed to come to the council with regular updates beginning at the start of the year and we are here tonight to talk about the state budget federal appropriations and policies that are underway and the, Costa Mesa legislative positions that are posed proposed in the bill matrix attached tonight.

The,

governor's budget budget was released in January with a proposal that includes a 2,900,000,000.0 shortfall. This is relatively good news as compared to prior forecast that projected an $18,000,000,000 deficit. California revenues are notoriously volatile as seen in this, twenty year snapshot. 2025 has been no different. However, we have fortunately seen a growth of 6.7% in revenues, mainly due to personal income tax of about $16,400,000,000 attributed to those in the high wage tech sector, stock growth, and corporate taxes.

Going forward, the Department of Finance projects a more moderate growth of 5.3%. This is more shown here in this chart with the kind of black dotted line which represents that figure. The red line is the tax liability for the top 1% and the blue line representing liability for the rest of the population. Again, combined with projected flat job growth and continued uncertainty over federal trade policies, unfortunately, that doesn't appear to become any clearer. We continue to see some concerns in outgoing years.

The state budget picture looks as follows the unexpected increase in revenues has avoided what was projected to be a year that may have required substantial cuts or borrowing. I'm sure this is something the governor is happy to have seen in his final year. However, the budget largely is flat and includes a goal of remaining balanced over two years through the 2028 fiscal year. What this means is there is no new funding in almost any area including housing and homelessness services where it was hoped, that the governor would continue his past support. New funding opportunities, though, may exist with the rollout of proposition four, which was approved by voters in 2024 to provide $10,000,000,000 in funding for water, wildfire, coastal, and various conservation policies priorities.

Excuse me. Some of that money was appropriated by the legislature last year, and we will see state agencies announcing guidance for those grounds those grants excuse me and with that I'll let Alisa kind of elaborate more on the prop for rollout

thank you Jay so I know we have a lot of jurisdictions that are very eager to start drawing down these dollars I think state agencies are very eager to start having them roll out the door. What we're running into right now is that there was a drafting error within the climate bond. And so for whatever reason, was language left out related to an exemption for our state agencies for their regulations under this funding so we' attempting to reconcile that issue with a b 35 by assembly member alvarez that one is on a fast track through the legislature but is still being worked on it includes an urgency clause which means that as soon as it is signed by the governor it takes effect immediately we're hoping that that one is going to make it to the governor's desk q one of this year understanding that we're running out of time to hit that target, but we should start seeing some guidance come down and NOFOs come down from state agencies shortly after that is reconciled.

Continue on. Despite the, previously previously mentioned increase in revenues, concerns remain for the out year budgets with the potential for multiyear deficits, and federal policies may have ongoing impacts for California's finances. Regarding other, state issues of interest in 2026, we have a new senate leader in place with a new senate, president pro tem, Monique Limon, who was elected last summer, and she has put in place new leadership and committee chairs that were announced in December. Combined with the governor in his final year, there may be a desire to push for some new priorities, but much of this will depend on the May revise to provide clarity on whether resources are available. In addition to that, e bike safety continues to be an issue of growing interest with Cal cities, individual cities, and legislators pursuing various solutions.

Some are looking target the industry and merchants, while others are looking to increase penalties or education, for riders. There are about a dozen bills on the topic this year, and we are sharing those with our police department and public works team. And I'll actually turn it over to Lisa to provide some additional details on that topic too, along with the sales tax issue.

Thank you, Jay. So the issue of e bikes is becoming a hot topic this year following a report that was released over the interim. A lot of these bills are focused on increasing parameters for who can operate an e bike, standards for the speed at which you ought to be able to operate that e bike, and of course wanting to increase public safety standards for those who are engaging in that activity so lots more to come on that issue in particular moving on to the sales tax cap exemption we have seen a bill be introduced by assembly member Brian to address this issue for the county of Los Angeles. We are also hearing that lots of cities want to move into this space as well. So what it would do would would be to allow those localities to increase their tax revenues by exempting them from the existing tax cap.

So certainly there are local jurisdictions that are both in favor and opposed to things like this, but it is going to be a topic heating up this year and may be something that ends up being reconciled within a budget trailer bill. So I want to give you that heads up before things start moving very quickly on that topic. And then did you want to take over for the

Yeah, I'll just mention briefly on the statewide bond proposals, we'll kind of discuss this later. But, similar to Proposition four, we will see opportunities potentially for new spending proposals and programs, especially on the housing area with pending proposals in the assembly and senate that we will discuss during our, bill matrix. With that, I'll just kinda provide this snapshot of the year for the Sacramento kinda legislative timeline. We have begun the second year of the two year session. We are in the midst of policy committee hearings which have begun already.

They're kicking off and getting up to speed with the bill introduction deadline on February 20. There were a number of bills introduced at the last minute. So those committees will be getting those bills referred to them, conduct their analysis, and begin to receive amendments as a number of bills are in spot bill intent language form. So those committees will begin their work, like I said. We'll then, have the May revise, which will provide us the kinda next, check-in for the fiscal outlook for the state.

We'll get the the kind of the best, projection, the results of revenues from the tax payments, and then get a sense of where the state might be going in the short term. And then at the same time, May revise kicks off the kind of the budget discussions with leadership and the governor you know, with the goal of meeting the constitutional deadline of passing the budget by July 1. At the same time, second house hearings will begin. These are, assembly bills will be heard in the senate, and senate bills will be heard in the assembly, again, by policy committees that will also consider and analyze the bills and potentially consider additional amendments and these will be further opportunities for us to engage and others. And all that will lead to the August 31 constitutional deadline for the legislature to adjourn, and then they will be off and preparing for their elections in November.

With that, I'll just transition to some key federal items for 2026. We are continue to be in a limited government shutdown with pressure increasing to end that given recent international events and possible risks domestically I'll let Elisa kind of pick it up here on the next couple issues

thank you, Jay. So the last appropriations bill still being considered is for the Department of Homeland Security. There we saw some new language come through as of yesterday. Certainly, this this bill is highly political, And like Jay mentioned, there is a push to fund this bill with the developments in Iran over the last few days. So, lots more to come on this, in in the next several days.

But like I said, it's it's highly political, and it's likely that we will see some continued dialogue, ideally to the point of compromise, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Moving over to surface transportation reauthorization. We have been working with folks in DC to really try to change how they are perceiving these types of funds. It includes things like the infrastructure investment and jobs act, programs such as safe streets for all and the highway trust fund, as well as surface transportation block grants and congestion mitigation and air quality grants. So we're really trying to emphasize an extra focus on local control as it relates to these dollars, really allowing localities to have a voice in these conversations, ideally having more money flow directly to localities rather than through the continue or I'm sorry the local cogs and things of that nature so we're hearing at this point that there may be a potential one year extend excuse me extension that is proposed on this because these programs are set to expire September for this year, but it doesn't sound like there's a compromise reach at this moment.

So we may see a bill come through to extend these programs for just another year so that we can continue in those conversations. As it relates to housing policy changes, we're seeing kind of a package of bills be considered on the the federal government level. What this is intended to do is really update and expand some of those existing HUD programs, really trying to incorporate new incentives for production and for homeownership. The idea here is to address the significant housing shortage that we are seeing throughout the country at all income levels. So this should include things like competitive grant programs and expanded flexibility and dollars under programs like HOME and CDBG.

Thank you, Alisa. And I I think as everybody remembers last year with the passage of proposition 50, we will be going into new congressional districts that will go into effect at the beginning of next year, pending the results of the November election, which in our case, most likely, will be having representative Robert Garcia as our congressman. Just wanted to kinda also mention earlier in the year, we received the good news on our federal appropriations update, that representative Menn was able to secure funding that we had requested, of over $1,000,000 for the real time crime center and $250,000 for the senior center renovation project. Again, thank you to the congressman for his support, and we are currently working on requests for the upcoming year. With that, I'll take a maybe pause just to see if there's any questions before I launch into the bill matrix, but if I'm not seeing any odds or heads or anything like that, so I'll continue on.

On the I just want to make a quick note on the kind of legislative positions and on the process. I think as you all recall, our legislative position policy and council policy number eight last year was amended. So our process for identifying these bills was we we pulled these bills looking at bills that were introduced early in the year. The February 20, bill deadline introduction was just a couple weeks ago. So most of those bills and a great and large number of bills that several 100 of bills that came in the last kind of days towards the deadline were not covered in kind of this initial review.

What we took a look at is some early bills that got introduced early on with substantive language that we were able to share internally with our departments and get their feedback. In the coming months, I anticipate there will be more bills. We'll be hearing things from our partners. As you know, the council policy number eight allows us to also take positions when our partners have taken positions. So we will continue to come to the council with updates.

If we've taken a position, we will inform the whole council and share those with you. If there are bills that require new positions, then we will come to the council in the upcoming months with those bills. So launching into the first two here, AB seven thirty six and Senate Bill four seventeen, these two bills are the vehicles for the housing bond, the 10,000,000,000 housing bond affordable affordable sorry, proposal for affordable rental and homeownership programs. The proponents of the bond bills state that the $10,000,000,000 will create 40,000 new affordable homes for lower income households and preserve more than 5,500 existing units, creating more than 53,000 construct construction jobs and generating 1,300,000,000.0 in state and local tax revenue. The the deadline, is June for legislative negotiations and to meet the proposed twenty twenty six November ballot.

I'll let Alyssa jump in on here if she wants to provide some information on how vehicles are being negotiated and potential priorities.

Sure. Thank you, Jay. So as of now, the Senate vehicle is the one that is actively being negotiated. We do not have language to share at this time, but the kinds of things that are being included in those discussions are things like support for first time homebuyers, really trying to lower those barriers to entry for a lot of folks, really trying to increase the overall housing stock by including some incentives for developers. Obviously, the the state is starting to understand that cities do not build housing. Obviously, we we zone for it, and we try to incentivize for it. This is meant to kind of increase the incentives that we can offer to some of those developers.

Moving

on to AB seventeen-eight, this bill relates to the homeless housing assistance and prevention funding. It's a bill sponsored by Cal cities to provide a new pathway for cities under 300,000 in population to apply to the county continuum of cares which must accept applications and then a continued requirement of this program is that applicants would have to have a certified housing element. So we are recommending, support on this bill. It's a Cal City sponsored bill, it would provide future opportunities if passed, potentially for, cities like Costa Mesa to apply. The next bill, AB seventeen thirty eight, relates to remote building inspections.

This bill requires cities to offer the option of video remote inspection by 07/01/2027. This bill was reviewed, by our Costa Mesa fire department fire marshal and our, building, chief of inspections. And and they noted a number of concerns, for me when we we brought this bill to their attention. And and specifically, there are a number of challenges, with the projects that are proposed in here to be allowed for video remote inspection. So, they have recommended and opposed a lesson amendment amended.

And what we've kinda discussed is potential amendments that made this permissive or maybe a pilot program is something we can discuss with the author or Cal City. But I'm sure this is a bill that Cal City has already flagged and working on. The last three bills here, a v eighteen thirty, we are recommending a support. This bill by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie Norris is an issue that she has worked on for many years, addressing DUIs, and this bill would require ignition interlock device upon a person's first criminal conviction for a DUI. We discussed this with the Costa Mesa police department, and they agreed, with the support position on this bill.

Next, senate bill nine thirty five is a fairly, simple bill here relating to local agency design build projects. This bill simply eliminates the 01/01/2031 sunset date for local agencies to use design bill. It applies to public works projects over $1,000,000 and it basically would extend the use of design builds for the city of Costa Mesa. Now while we have not taken advantage of this in the past for any projects over $1,000,000, again, it's a tool that would continue to exist and be a benefit to the city. So we did discuss this with the public works team, and they were in support.

And lastly, senate bill nine thirty six relates to the sale of nitrous oxide and prohibits, any containers more than eight grams and forbids marketing as having as having marketing those containers, excuse me, as having the taste or smell of any food. Again, this was reviewed with the Costa Mesa police department, and they recommended support of the bill. With that, I'll I'll I'll stop on the discussion of legislation and just kind of close out with an outlook here, but happy to go back and and answer any questions on any part of the presentation. Again, looking forward to the the rest of the year. The May revise is probably the next key moment.

I think a lot of people will be watching. This will provide the best view of the economic outlook. I think legislative leaders and the governor will be anxious to see any sign of of of good news and increased revenues, which will maybe help them advance probably new priorities, new spending programs if that's something they wanna do over the summer. And again, another impact I see throughout the year is the California's kinda unique June 2 here, the top two primary system, creates an interesting dynamic in the state. You're already sitting seeing it now with the governor's race with calls of, individuals in on the Democratic side to drop out.

I think there's a a lot of people in the legislature and a lot of, party leaders on both sides looking at this and trying to see what does this mean, in terms of the results. You know, we can end up with, two Democrats potentially running. You can end up, you know, Democrat, Republican. Any mix of, potential opportunity possibilities are exist here. So there's a lot of questions, and that is creating a lot of, I think, interest to see what happens.

And and as as always, election year impacts always, affect congress, but I think more so this year, again, with the passage of prop fifth 50, we have fewer, competitive seats, but we have, I guess, a lot more at stake now. With the the few seats that are competitive here in the state, obviously, there's a lot more attention and a lot more energy will be coming into those races. And I think a lot of that will kind of spill over to what Alisa alluded to in discussions at the federal level of appropriations and legislative policies that are pursued at the federal level. So with that, I'll open to the council to take any questions. Our recommendation, again, on this item is just to receive and file.

Provide us any direction as you wish on the legislative issues.

Can I just I'm just going to ask a really quick fundamental question? On this list of legislative positions monitor, support, oppose, unless amended, and so forth does the coloring and does that represent the position that we have previously taken on this? No, no. This On the on chart? The chart.

Yeah. Oh. No. It's just something new I came up with to try. I thought it was a good way to visually show you green is for support, red is opposed, and yellow is kind of a monitor.

Right. I know. But what I'm trying to understand is, if my memory serves me, we had a presentation previously, and we made some decisions about our legislative platform. So does the color coding reflect decisions we've made in the past? Or what is the color coding?

No. The color is simply is reflected the the position that we're recommending.

In terms of platform, there's not that you're recommending.

Yes. They were recommending recommending go forward. Yes.

So and then we're not because it's a receiving file, we're not are we in a position to we'll have to have some other presentation to actually make those decisions or not?

No. Think I'm sorry. I should correct myself. We are asking you to adopt these positions and then receive and file the the information on the budget update and the preparation process.

Oh, you want us to adopt these tonight?

Correct. Sorry.

So that's more of affirmative.

Yes. Apologize.

Thank you. No, it's all good. Yeah. Yes, any other questions? Councilmember Reynolds?

Yeah. It's a similar clarifying question. So for example, if we adopt a support position tonight, is there an immediate action? Are you communicating with that legislator or the authors or whoever to say Costa Mesa is taking the position of support or are you issuing a letter right away

yeah we'll draft a letter this week it'll get out probably within a week or two where you know we'll prioritize those ones that are up for hearing I think we'll probably prioritize the oppose unless amendment. We want to reach out to an author early, let them know we have concerns, and give them time to work on amendments. I think that one will also have some Calcities input too. Okay.

That's helpful. Thank you. And then the watch or the monitor, you may you would bring back to see if something's changed. You may recommend taking a specific position, but that just means something you're we're you want us you're gonna keep an eye on. You want us to endorse you keeping an

eye on it.

We're tracking, but we're also engaging with Elisa on kind of advocating for the things that Costa Mesa we know. This goes back to the importance of the platform. Right? We we have some kind of stated goals on housing.

Yeah. Okay. Question on the policy. You mentioned in your presentation, and what I thought I'd remembered, is that we updated the policy. The policy online says it hasn't been updated since 2020. So is that need to get the policy updated online?

Yeah. I've been working about that.

I missed that meeting when we actually adopted it. Thought Yeah. Maybe we didn't

I appreciate you catching that. I had a feeling somebody would. I have been working with the clerk and then and in our office to get that updated. Okay. I think the issue is that it's embedded in a number of council policies that are being reviewed.

So Right. Type like typewriter

I know there's some old ones there. So I know Yeah. I know the one that one has been updated, and so we are in the process of getting that posted. I I Great.

I get it posted. If you can send that as well by email, I'd appreciate getting that updated version.

Know what? I'll probably just add it to the the website that we just created.

That makes sense. Yeah. Good job on the website, by the way.

You're welcome.

Thanks. Okay. We got a letter in public comment recommending a support position on two of the e bike related bills, two bills really focused on education and transparency. There's been a lot of confusion about what is actually an e bike legally, what is a e motorcycle or moped or other. Have you taken a look at those, and do you have a recommendation? Do you agree with the recommendation in public comment?

Well, I I have flagged those bills for review. And because they did come come introduced closer to the deadline, I haven't had an opportunity to really discuss thoroughly with our police department and public works team. First read, nothing raises a red flag. It's not a mandate on cities. They're the I know one bill impacts CHP. The other bill updating the vehicle code would potentially ban DMV. But there could be some trickle down impacts to, obviously, local police who have to enforce training. So I would like the opportunity to kind of discuss that internally. I'm sure the League of Cities, as Alisa mentioned, there there's a lot of bills out there. There's kind of a task force working group at the Cal Cities. Correct?

Right.

Yeah. That's that's looking at all these issues. So Yeah. It's not something I'm opposed to, but I think we just need to do a further analysis and and see maybe some of the what comes out in the committee hearing.

What comes out?

In the committee in the first committee hearing with their analysis. Oh. Perhaps. Committee. Yeah. Sorry. I mean, those committees will engage with the CHP and and the other state agencies.

Okay. Yeah. Was surprised that because you mentioned that being a hot topic. I was surprised that none of those were even on the watch list. It sounds like at minimum, you would include them in a watch list. But you want to Yeah. What I'm hearing is you want to understand it more before recommending a position.

I have a much longer watch list than I shared here today. So internally, we're we're watching a lot of bills. The housing bonds just were ones of significant note that I felt like

Okay.

We should make you aware of it. So we have a long watch list.

Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Bealy? Oh, did you have it?

Just a couple.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thanks, guys. Great presentation. First, educational. AB seven thirty six, is that what kind of authorizes the ability to issue a bond and SB four seventeen is actual bond?

So they're actually

just meant to be companion measures. It's very common when we're dealing with a significant policy issue that they introduce a vehicle on both houses. So it's likely that only one of those will move forward. It's not like one is contingent upon the other. It's more to just start negotiations in both houses. But it's sounding like the Senate bill might be the one that makes it across the finish line.

It gives a kind of a preview from both houses as to what

Priorities and things like that.

You had commented that you think the bonds are gonna attempt to incentivize builders to actually build, but you you kinda left it right there. Have you heard any of the specific incentives that they're they're batting around?

We haven't seen any specific language. What I will note is we are working with some groups that have regional housing trusts. In the last bond, they included some funding to go towards those housing trusts to offer some gap funding for local programs. We are trying to get that included in this bond as well. What we've been told in those conversations is that this bond is meant to focus more on those developer incentives, making it easy for them to go in and get projects completed.

So it is very open ended on what those projects or what those programs may look like, but we know that that is the intent behind that. So certainly more to come on specifics, and like Jay mentioned, June is what they have identified as being their ideal deadline for getting this prepared to be on the November ballot. So we should start seeing some more definitive information coming out of the Senate here very soon.

Does it look like and it sounds like you're probably wildly speculating here until they get a little more tighter, but they're gonna allow access to certain parts of this gap funding or some of these incentives. I'm assuming it's gonna be as long as they're working on the right kind of project, like affordable housing and things like that.

Sure. I imagine that there will be incentives kind of at all levels. They're really trying to build out housing stock for all income levels, but there always is an extra emphasis on that affordable housing.

That's my question. Mean, I'd always like to see incentivizing just more building in general as opposed to specified building, which seems to me to be the bugaboo that tends to slow down building in general. But that's for another time. Okay, thanks.

So I just have one question for Director Seth Rammin. The item on page 11 of the PowerPoint, SB nine thirty five, on all the other items, or a few of them, it says that the PD supports or the fire department's concerned. Do you recommend that we support this bill? Mr. May, yes.

We do recommend support. Thank you. Alright. Let's hear from the public. You have the floor.

Thank you, mister mayor, members of the city council. I just wanna echo the written public comment that was submitted by Streets For All, requesting support for two pieces of common sense ebike legislation. These two bills are regarding, just definitions and making it clear for our law enforcement what is actually an e bike versus what is an e moto, a moped, an off road electric vehicle, a pocket bike. Have no idea how many different kinds of definitions are on the vehicle code. It's been wonderful to try and sort out.

SB eleven sixty seven by senator Blake Spear tightens those definitions and will provide for mutually exclusive definitions definitions so that one thing is not another thing in state law. And a b twenty two eighty four by assembly member Dixon would require CHP to make and publish a list of non compliant electric bicycles. It's essentially a list of what are those e motos that are advertising themselves as e bikes when they shouldn't be, when they are not legally e bikes in state law. These two measures are going to really help us out when we're trying to enforce e bike usage and our current state laws regarding electric bicycles. So I'm hopeful that the city will consider a support position on SB1167 and AB2284.

Thank you.

Thank you. You can clap. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's hear it. Way to go, way to go. Good, good comment. Anybody on Zoom?

No, Mr.

RICHARD Okay, we'll close public comment. Let's see. I guess if nobody's running for it, I'm going to do a motion. So I move to adopt the suggested legislative platforms on page ten and eleven of the staff report and receive and file the report.

Second.

Okay. Yeah, I just think it's good. And as to the e bike, I tend to agree with you. But maybe we can bring it back for another meeting, we could see if after the PD has vetted it. I do think we should definitely look into that. That's a hot topic. And you called it out in your report as being something that you're watching. So I think it makes sense to do that, too. But anyway, my motion is just confined to the recommendations here. Anything? No comment. Good report. Okay. Wonderful. Anybody else?

Yeah, have one additional comment. Yeah, I agree with the motion. I want to give you the time to sort of vet the bill. I'll just say for the public, I've read it and I support it, the two e bag bills recommended. I want to also share, a couple times ago when I was in Sacramento, I had a little free time, popped in the office of one of the staff who work on transportation, and just asked, like, what's helpful to hear from cities about?

And I was surprised by the primary comment, which was we don't often hear from cities on like how bills are working out, and that would be really helpful. So one of the bills I know we supported in the past was the bill that allowed us as a city local jurisdiction to have more control on reducing speed limits something that we've taken a lot of action on and seen a lot of really positive response on. So I would encourage us to send a just an update letter even like a one page like thanks for passing this bill here's what we've done it's been very well received in our city I think that would be really positive yeah thank you

why don't we make that part of the motion and I want to amend the motion to include that direction pertaining to the e bikes. Second. We got that? The second? Okay. It's better if we all vote

on Okay. You.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Let's call for the question.

Motion carries six-zero.

All right, thank you very much for your work. So now we're up to our final item, new business item number three. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title

memorandum of understanding with the city of irvine for use of beds at the Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter and presentation by mister robins neighborhood improvement manager

mister robins you have the floor

Thank you, madam clerk, mister mayor, members of council. Exciting item before you now. It's an MOU with the city of Irvine for per diem beds at the Bridge Shelter. First, some background. As most of you know, the bridge shelter is a 100 bed shelter, so we can hold up to a 100 people.

We ran of those 100 beds, Costa Mesa has exclusive access to 80 and Newport Beach currently has exclusive access to 20. We ran some numbers between October and December and found that the average bed utilization in that period was was only 52 beds for the city of Costa Mesa. So of our eighty, fifty two on average were being used on a daily basis, which meant that 28 beds were just remaining vacant. Just to remind everybody, the city has a team of outreach workers that are out on out in the streets getting people connected to shelter so we're doing everything we can to move people into those beds we're just seeing a decrease in activity out on the street a decrease in activity at the shelter so we do have some vacancy there just summarizing the MOU of course it's many pages but the salient points are here for you the term would begin upon execution which would happen within a week or so and go through assuming it gets approved, of course, and go through 06/30/2026, so just to the end of the fiscal year. The allocation of beds for Irvine would give them access to beds that Costa Mesa has.

So, they would pull from our 80 beds and only as available. Just to get into the weeds a little bit, they would have to call the outreach supervisor, John, to ensure their beds available before they could bring somebody to the shelter. So, would be a very collaborative effort between my staff and Irvine. Referrals can only come by authorized Irvine staff. Irvine is a lot like Costa Mesa and that they don't contract out a lot of their work.

They have their own internal teams that do their outreach. They have a mental health unit within their police department. These are the folks that would be calling to see if beds are available and then transporting folks to the shelter. So again, a very limited group of people from Irvine would be the only ones making referrals. The intake guidelines for Irvine would be the exact same as we have for ourselves in Costa Mesa and that Newport Beach has, and that they can only refer residents of their city.

So here in Costa Mesa, you have to have lived here for three years, work here, have kids that go to school here. It would be the same for Irvine. In addition to that, they have to do background checks. The police department would ensure that folks coming into the shelter from Irvine would not have any arson convictions. They would not be on the sexual offense registry, and they wouldn't have any outstanding warrants.

So all that stuff would be done prior to anybody being transported to the shelter. Speaking of transportation, Irvine would transport their clients to the shelter, but once they're residents of the shelter, Costa Mesa would then take over from there. We, of course, have a shuttle that leaves the shelter multiple times a day. We have rideshare that we use, and then we're the only shelter in the county to have a bike program, which I've mentioned before. And then as far as exit procedures, were it was important for us to be extremely clear about how Irvine clients would leave the shelter.

Of course, there's nothing we can do about folks that just choose to walk out. But anybody that's gonna be exited that we know about, we would coordinate with Irvine to have Irvine residents transported back to a designated location in Irvine. That would be either done by rideshare or Irvine would come pick them up or the shuttle would be used as available. So we'd we'd ensure that any Irvine clients that were brought here would be taken back to Irvine upon exit. So just some next steps the previous report had in it the kitchen operator contract that has of course you all voted on that last meeting and gave that to Bracken's So we now know that cost, but we don't yet know the shelter operation cost.

Currently out for RFP, the responses were due back today actually. So over the next couple weeks staff will be reviewing those proposals and then bringing to you all our recommendation as to whoever the next shelter operator will be. And once we know those costs, then we'll be able to determine the annual cost per bed rate. Once we know how much it costs us to operate one single bed, then we can discuss more long term contracts with Irvine. Speaking of the agreement with Irvine, this is a very limited MOU.

Again, it only goes to the end of the fiscal year. Staff does anticipate bringing a multi year contract, so we would begin working on that immediately and bring that to you all before the per diem MOU expires. We would have another agreement for you all to potentially review and approve with Irvine for several years. And then just as a reminder the Newport Beach MOU, currently they have access to 20 beds exclusive access that ends on June 30 and then Newport Beach's access to any beds exclusive or per diem ends on 12/31/2026 and as another reminder Newport Beach pays the city about $1,300,000 a year and so when that money goes away, it'd be really good for the city to bring on another partner to fill that financial gap. So staff recommends that the City Council approve the memorandum of understanding with the city of Irvine for access to beds as available at the Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter concludes my report I can answer any questions that you have thank you

thank you mister robins any questions for mister robins of councilmember buehle

Thanks, mister Robbins, and thanks for the report. Just some educational questions. I also understand this is short term three month MOU we're talking about. Right?

Yes, sir.

One thing I was just curious. You commented that we've got this decrease in street activity right now, which is I guess the reason for our decreased use of beds. Do you have any thoughts or anything you can share with us as to what you attribute that decreased activity to? I'm just curious why we see the downtick.

Yes, sir. So two two major factors are the the the system of care that you all have approved and that the city of Costa Mesa has is the best around. So we're doing a really good job getting people well, holistically well, mind, body, and soul, and getting them moved into housing. We're approaching five hundred people housed since opening the temporary shelter at the Lighthouse Church in 2019. It's a pretty massive feat.

And then the other one is the update to California state law, which recriminalized possession of drugs that were decriminalized several years ago. So while folks were getting slaps on the hands for possession of hard drugs, That's no longer the case. So these hardcore drug users are getting state prison time. And so a lot of times they're the ones that bring many of the issues. And so they're either locked up or we're getting people housed so we're just seeing a decrease in activity on the streets.

That's good to hear. And then operationally I know I think in the last presentation or one at one point I had heard what was beneficial about our contract with Bracken's and it makes sense because they're providing food and they do a per meal count and so they kind of flex based on our occupancy rates. So they have that ability to flex their cost if you will.

That's right. Yes, And

then we have our operation side. I think we have our contract with Mercy House. That's who we have right now.

Yes, sir.

And there's less flexibility there, and that probably comes down to staffing issues. You can't have part time on call employees. You need to have people available and you negotiate that based on anticipated occupancy. I would assume that's what goes on.

Yes, sir. That's right.

In the current negotiations or the RFPs that are out, have you guys engaged in any kind of discussion along those lines? I mean, is there any way to approach that to make that a flex type of an agreement?

We're certainly looking at it modeling the shelter operator contract after the Bracken's contract that allows us to like you said, it is difficult because probably two thirds of the shelter operator budget is staffing. So like you said, it's really hard to adjust that. But we are looking for ways mechanisms to be able to potentially we can't increase because the shelter's already at its max, but decrease the cost of operations if we were to decrease the overall beds at the shelter. We're still in the RFP stages, so we haven't got to that point yet, but we'll have conversations with the city attorney about that.

And then just for my understanding on the actual operations, we've got Bracken's who handles the food side of it and then the operations side, and so they have their own paid employees or whatever, so we contract to have them. Where is the city? Does the city also have some full time, part time employees that are dedicated to the shelter?

Yes, sir. So the city took over case management. We were the only shelter, as far as I know, anywhere around that has city employed case managers that that do the work at at the city owned shelter. So we have Bracken's Kitchen operating the kitchen. We have Mercy House as the shelter operator. And then the city does the case management for the clients.

And do you find any issues or there's a lack of continuity with having multiple groups in there. And I guess where I'm going with it, does it make sense to bring it all in house or to bring it all out house, for lack of a better term, while we're going through this phase? I mean, seems where it may create issues being disjointed like that. Do you have any response to that?

I think it makes perfect sense to have separate operators for the kitchen and the shelter. There are certain aspects of shelter operation that the city does not want to engage in. Just for example, if someone calls out at 02:00 in the morning, it's good to have a vendor with a long roster of employees that they can call and tap to come in and after hours and when on holidays when people call off. Have as a city, we don't have a roster of people waiting for a phone call to go in. And so it makes sense to have a vendor do those types of things, the overnight, the logistics, the janitorial, things like that.

So I think the system that we have set up is I know I'm biased, but it's the golden standard. The way we're doing it is the way that it's done right, and as evidenced by the success stories that we're having.

And this is because I don't know, but do some other shelters, they just offload all of the management to an operations firm?

Yes, sir. That's the traditional the way things are run. Is that cities will pay vendors to just handle everything. And they'll send them monthly reports, and they'll pay their bills, and they go on like that. But what we found is that it's better to have a city presence and to have city case managers who are with wealth of experience and are paid well and supported and developed and it just makes for a better level of service for our clients.

Okay. Thanks.

Yes sir.

Just

a Are you clarifying question, if I may.

Yes, of course.

On slide two, the data you show on average usage and average vacancy. So you have average usage of 52 beds, average vacancy of 28 beds. And so I'm assuming that's for the 80 beds on the Costa Mesa side. But 15 of those are fully funded by the behavioral health program, as I understand. For the average vacancy of 28 beds, does that include vacant beds on the behavioral health side, or is that only within the non behavioral bed, Costa Costa Mesa beds?

So the short answer is it does not include the behavioral health beds. The behavioral beds are always full. We have a system where we have folks on deck for lack of a better term. So the 15 behavioral health beds are full. We have five or six folks waiting to move into a behavioral health bed. So as soon as those become vacant, someone automatically moves into those. There's reasoning behind that that we can get into later but so this this is just Costa Mesa non behavioral health beds we have 28 vacancies and by the way most of those are females we have like 30 female beds and 16 of those are vacant as we speak we seen a massive decrease in female homelessness in Costa Mesa. Which is a good thing.

Yes of course. So the 28 average vacancy is really out of 65 available Costa Mesa beds.

Correct.

Right, okay. That's helpful. Thank you. That's it.

I just had a couple quick questions. So on page two of the staff report there's a sentence that reads, operations costs for these it's about the behavioral health beds. The 15 behavioral health beds are fully reimbursed by the Orange County Health Care Agency. And then it says, and thus can only be occupied by Costa Mesa residents. When I read that, I thought that there were other non Costa Mesa residents who were able to occupy those county funded beds. But is it true that it's just Costa Mesa residents?

Yes, sir. So Newport currently our only agreement is with Newport. Newport cannot access the behavioral health bridge housing beds that are funded by the health care agency. They can however access the state funded behavioral health beds that assemblywoman Cottie Petrie Norris gave us money for.

Oh, and how many are those?

15 as well. So we have 15 state funded, 15 county funded. The state funded beds will also be available to Irvine. So we'll have additional funding for folks that are serious mental illness or substance use disorder that are come from Newport, Irvine, Costa Mesa, whoever needs it the

most. Great. The only other question I have is, so if I'm figuring this out, when Newport Beach sunsets and assuming that we enter into some type of a long term agreement with Irvine, do you think we'd have the capacity to explore a partnership with another city or not in terms of capacity? And then let's assume if the answer is no, then we'll stop there. But if your answer is yes, what are your thoughts on that?

As Newport Beach leaves the scene, we will have their the 20 beds that they currently have access to will be vacant. Unless of course something changes. The trend is that we're hovering right around 70 total, which again is fifty and twenty. 50 of ours, 20 of Newport's. Irvine is looking at potentially a 20 bed multi year contract with us, so they would essentially switch places with Newport, which would mean we would have these additional 28 beds that were average vacant. So we could potentially seek out another partner.

And do you think from a operational standpoint that's something that you would be comfortable us exploring? Yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, I don't have any further questions. I'm sorry. Oh yeah, I'm sorry, you asked me that. Go ahead, go ahead. Sorry about that, Councilman.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. So one of the things you just covered is I had a question about having another city to fill the gap when Newport leaves. Can you define looking at slide four when we're talking about Newport Beach's MOU termination? You have here that Newport Beach has exclusive access to 20 bed and then they have access to all beds what's the difference between exclusive access and access

so exclusive access means that only Newport Beach clients can go into 20 of the 100 beds at the shelter. So they even if they didn't have anybody in those beds, Costa Mesa could not put people into one of their 20 beds. So by exclusive it means they're the only ones that can utilize them now when that when Newport Beach's exclusive access ends on June 30 from July 1 until December 31 they'll be able to bring folks in like how Irvine is going to now on a per diem basis. So assuming Irvine comes in with a long term contract, they'll switch places with Newport almost identically, and that Irvine will now have exclusive access, and Newport will have to call us to see if beds are available. But that only lasts until December 31, and then they can't get anybody into the shelter again after that.

So, okay, thank you. Another question I have then. So, why is Newport's MOU terminating with us?

The termination date

How come they're not renewing it? Do they have a shelter that they're building and they're not going to need our services anymore? Or what's going on with that?

Council policy decisions, sir. Why I'm speculating. Yes, sir.

Okay. Okay. So they're not interested in renewing is what you're saying that you know of?

That I know of, that's correct.

Okay. How do we handle I'm going to use my situation. I know you're already familiar with briefly. We have a very close friend of our family that we consider family that ended up homeless. How can we go about taking in people that necessarily don't reside in Costa Mesa but need a place to stay? I know that we have some blocks in place. Can explain that, how that works?

So I think as you all know we have what we call the flex room where we have two beds that are separated from the the rest of the population. We in very exigent circumstances, so someone is very, you know, critical out on the street, either elderly, extremely sick, maybe fleeing from domestic violence, something like that, we will make exceptions to our intake rules and let somebody come in for maybe one night, again in an exigent circumstance, but then we'll immediately the next morning work to get them transitioned to a county shelter, either Kramer up in Anaheim or Yale in Santa Ana but beyond that again our goal is to get them connected to the county system of care but if they don't have the ties needed to get into our shelter, other than again maybe a one night exception, there's we just don't have the means of bringing non Costa Mesa residents into our shelter. It was part of the original approval by the council and what the community asked for. We didn't wanna be bringing in people to our shelter that weren't from Costa Mesa or we didn't have a contract with another city.

Okay. But these are just rules. This isn't a law. This is something that we enacted that we could modify if we wanted to, right?

Potentially, yeah. Okay.

Okay, thank you. That's it. Thank you for your response. That was a good presentation.

Thank you.

Okay, let's open up for the public hearing or public comment, rather. Nobody in the chambers? Anybody on Zoom?

No, Mr. Rick.

Oh, close public comment.

Almost staff recommendation.

Oh, Okay. Thanks. Do you have any comments? No. Okay. Any comments from the

second? No.

All right, let's call for the question.

Councilmember Bewley, please. Motion carries six-zero.

All right, great. Good work, everybody. We're done with our business items. I'm going to adjourn the meeting in honor and memory of Shirley Foster, who made it to 100. Shirley, good travels to you.