City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm sorry.

Thank you. . . .

Once I had a dream that made me sad. How so many people can be bad? Everybody wants all they can grab. People running don't have much to say You better get your dreams before they fade away We're all here until we know not when Love has gone and won't come back again I'm gonna take it

You know we'll be together You know we'll be together

We'll ride with the winds that bring you gladness and see if you can see the face that screams of all this madness.

where wandering thoughts do roam and ships sailing on the seas sail onward and love not where

You can make it if you find the sense

Find your way out. ? ?

? ? ?

City Council of Public Finance and Authority to order. Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please?

Councilman Gruhl?

Here.

Councilman Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney?

Here.

Mayor McKeon?

Here.

Councilman Burns?

Present.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Here. Councilman Williams?

Here.

All present.

All right, Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications?

Yes, we have one supplemental communication on item number 10. One email received regarding conference with legal counsel. Existing litigation concerning Grants Park versus City of Huntington Beach.

Okay, do we have any sign up to speak in person or on Zoom for a closed session?

We do not. All right.

So included in closed session, we have Conference of Labor Negotiators, Government Code Section 54957.6. Agency designated representatives, Travis Hopkins, City Manager, Also in attendance, Marissa Serr, Assistant City Manager, Mike Vigliotta, City Attorney and Zach Zee, Acting Chief Financial Officer, Employee Organization, the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association, the Police Management Association, Huntington Beach Firefighters Association, and Fire Management Association. And then we have conference with real property negotiators, government code section 54956.8. Property APN numbers 110-151-10. and 110-151-11. Agency negotiators, Travis Hopkins, City Manager, Marissa Serr, Assistant City Manager, Ashley Wysocki, Director of Community and Library Services, Chris Cole, Community Library Services Manager, William Curl, Real Estate Project Manager. Negotiating parties, Gary Breiman-Turman, not present. Under negotiations, price in terms of payment, Council to have a motion and a second to recess the closed session.

Motion. Yeah, Mayor, I just want to point out we don't have a closed session item for the labor on POA.

Okay. And Mayor, if I could jump into Southwest Voter Education Project, we're pulling that off the agenda as well.

Thank you.

I'll second.

All right, motion and second to recess the closed session.

Thank you. you La, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la. Bye. Bye.

Take a ride with the winds that bring you gladness And see if you can see The place that's free from all dismayness

We're wandering thoughts do roam. And ships sailing on the seas sail onward. And love not wed. Find your way, I'm a naval discoverer.

. . you Bye. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. Thank you. ¶¶

Every day. Every day.

When you smile at me I can see you're giving all the love that we share And it's all I'm living for every day Every day Every day is sunshine And I'm so glad that you're mine If the rain and the snow and the ice is cold, deep inside love is new and the sun comes shining through every day. Every day. Every day is sun.

Every day is sun. Shine.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Stay at home, sit there staring at the TV. She comes home late and tells me, honey, where have you been? Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping underneath the moon. I got up this morning too late to go to work She told me to get on and she threw me down my shirt Well I ran to the station and I got on the very next train And when I opened up my eyes I was back in bed again I don't want to get a job because work is just a waste of time. I'm going to be an independent person for the rest of my life. But if she catches me at home, she's going to beat me all about my head. And if you come in shouting, you better

I said come on Please let me stay at home girl ¶¶ Yeah. Thank you.

i'm sucking my stick

Travel down from London in the hope of reaching the Midwest. Keeping my eyes on the talk. . . . . . .

Think I'll stay a while and see

Once I had a dream that made me sad. How so many people can be bad? Everybody wants all they can grow. People running don't have much to say You better get your dreams before they fade away We're all here until we know not when Love has gone and won't come back again I'm gonna take it

You know we'll be together You know we'll be together

There's a name written on my door And it's mine, could be yours if you really want it And more, more Uh-huh, uh-huh I'm a mind for security So have you, don't you see?

them to fade away Always been there for you to come and tell your troubles too, too. Put all your cares away.

Stay at home, sitting staring at the TV. She comes home late telling me, honey, where have you been? Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping underneath the I got up this morning too late to go to work She told me to get out and she threw me down my shirt Well I ran to the station and I got on the very next train And when I opened up my eyes I was back in bed again I don't want to get a job because work is just a waste of time. I'm going to be an independent person for the rest of my life. But if she catches me at home, she's going to beat me all about the neck. And if you come in shouting, you better get yourself to bed. Come on, please let me stay. Once I had a dream that made me sad Everybody wants all they can grab No one's ever happy with their sham People running don't have much to say Dreams before they fade away We're all here until we know not when Love has gone and won't come back again I'm gonna take it

Together you know together Looking like a fisherman Dropping a line in the sea Hoping that the green sky I'm sucking my stick

Travel down from London in love Hold the future and rest Keeping my eyes on the clock I'm sucking

We'll be right back. Think I'll stay a while and see

. . . . . Thank you. Thank you. you

If there's clouds in the sky, you can dry your eyes. If there's rain up above, you can give your love every day, every day. When you smile at me I can see you're giving all the love that we share And it's all I'm living for every day, every day Every day is sunshine And I'm so glad that you're mine If the rain and the snow and the ice is cold, deep inside love is new and the sun comes shining through every day. Every day. Every day is sun.

Every day is sun. Shine.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la. We'll be right back. ? ? Thank you.

Come ride with the winds that bring you gladness And see if you can see A place that's free from all dismayness

Where wandering thoughts do roam And ships sailing on the seas sail onward And love not left Find your way every day.

you Thank you. Thank you. Oh, oh, oh. Bye. Bye. Thank you.

There's a name written on my door, and it's mine, could be yours if you really want it and more, more.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm a mind for security, so have you, don't you see, you could lay all your troubles on me. I've always been there for you To come and tell your troubles too, too Put all your cares away Leave them to fade away Let them go flying

I'm sorry. . .

There's a name written on my door And it's mine, could be yours if you really want it And more, more Uh-huh, uh-huh I'm a mind for security So have you, don't you see You could lay all your troubles on me, me I don't mind always being there for you Put all your cares away Leave them to fade away Let them go flying

Stay at home, sitting, staring at the TV. She comes home late and tells me, honey, where have you been? Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping underneath the moon. I got up this morning too late to go to work She told me to get out and she threw me down my shirt Well I ran to the station and I got on the very next train And when I opened up my eyes I was back in bed again I don't want to get a job, cause work is just a waste of time. I'm gonna be an independent person for the rest of my life. But if she catches me at home, she's gonna beat me all about the head. And if you come in shouting, you better get yourself to bed. Come on, please let me stand.

I said come on.

Take a ride with the winds that bring you gladness And see if you can see A place that's free from all dismayness

Come see how the stars can lead you far away Where wandering thoughts do roam And ships sailing on the sea sail onward Find your way everyday.

. . . ¶¶ I'm sorry. Thank you. Oh ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. you

Once I had a dream that made me sad How so many people can be bad Everybody wants all they can grab Don't have much to say You better get your dreams before they fade away We're all here until we know not when Love has gone and won't come back again I'm gonna take it

You know we'll be together

Thank you. La, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you.

I'm stuck in my stick right now

Travel down from London in the hope of reaching the Midwest. Keeping my eyes on the talk. I'm sucking

We won't stop. Then I'll stay a while and see

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council of Public Finance and Authority. Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please?

Councilman Gruhl? Here. Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney?

Here.

Mayor McKeon?

Here.

Councilman Burns?

Present.

Councilwoman Vandermeyer? Here. Councilman Williams?

Here.

All present.

Tonight's invocation will be Huntington Beach Police and Fire Chaplain Roger Wing.

Would you please join me in prayer as we begin this evening's meeting? Heavenly Father, you tell us in your word that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. So we begin tonight's meeting. We want to start by praying for that wisdom right now. We come before you this evening, Lord, recognizing the responsibility that's been entrusted to this city council. As these council members deliberate and make decisions concerning important issues facing our city, we ask for your guidance. Lord, just give them wisdom to understand the issues clearly, discernment to recognize what's right and beneficial to our community, and the courage to make difficult decisions when necessary. Father, we also pray for unity. Help this council to work together with mutual respect, even when there are differences of opinion. Remind each member that their ultimate responsibility is to serve the people of this community faithfully and honorably. And above all, we ask for peace. Let calm and thoughtful discussion prevail over division, frustration, or personal agendas. As summer winds down, we pause to thank you for your goodness and protection over our community. Thank you for a safe and blessed summer. For the many families and visitors who have enjoyed our beaches, businesses, events, and our city's hospitality. Thank you for the men and women who have worked tirelessly throughout these busy months to keep our community safe and welcoming. Lord, we recognize that every safe journey, every protected family, and every day of blessing is ultimately a gift from you. As we move toward the fall season, we ask that you continue to watch over our city. Give wisdom to our elected leaders, strength and safety to our first responders and city employees, and peace and prosperity to the people we're privileged to serve. May we never take your blessings for granted, but always remember to give you the thanks and glory that you deserve. May every decision that's made here tonight be guided by wisdom, shaped by integrity, and directed toward the well-being of our city. And it's in the name of Jesus Christ, our precious Lord and Savior, we pray these things, amen.

Thank you, Roger. Tonight the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by John Vasquez of American Legion Post 133. John enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2003 after he was inspired by the events of 9-11. He served in computer systems operations, performing cybersecurity roles during two years at Rammstein Air Force Base in Germany, a stateside tour, and an overseas deployment in support of the global war on terrorism. He was medically retired in 2011 and is the recipient of several awards, including the Air Force Commendation, the Air Force Achievement, and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals. After his service, John moved to Huntington Beach, working for Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems as a system security engineer, securing classified satellite ground stations, later consulting for a cybersecurity software company, and eventually founding his own local cybersecurity consulting business. He's an active member of the American Legion, Huntington Beach Post 133, serving as a board member, the California Boys State Chairman, and as part of the Honor Guard and Color Guard. John and his wife, Heather, are celebrating 19 years of marriage next week and have two children who attend Reno High School, go Vikings, and Mesa View Middle School. Thank you for your service, John.

Please remove your cover. All right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, John.

All right, closed session report. City Attorney, do we have anything to report from closed session?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, two things tonight. The first one is the City Council unanimously authorized City to file a petition for receivership at 19921 Carmania Lane. And the second. The second, the council unanimously authorized the city to file an appeal of the anti-slap motion and the denial of the city's cross complaint in the people of the state of California versus the city of Huntington Beach. And that's it.

Thank you. Councilmember comments, would anyone like to make a comment?

I will.

Pat.

I want to say yesterday at the Huntington Club, Well, it actually was all weekend. Dink it up for the troops. Tee it up for the troops. They had tennis. But they raised a lot of money for the troops. And Mark and Leslie Mays led the fundraiser. And they did an incredibly awesome job at it. And I just want to give them a heads up for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, sir. Andrew.

Yeah, I just want to take a quick moment. A couple weeks ago, actually it was probably over a month ago, we were having a conversation and we were talking about the homeless population. And I used the term gypsy in reference to a lot of the homeless individuals, not necessarily recognizing, and many people might not know this, that it's actually a derogatory term. in regards to the Romani people. So I had a resident reach out, very kind, very objective, and just kind of talking to me about it. We had a good conversation about the history. I didn't even know that it was an ethnic group that stretched all the way back centuries, originating in northern India, migrating throughout Europe and beyond. and they've also faced generations of discrimination, persecution, etc. So, you know, I just wanted to make a public statement about that in addition to the fact that I think it's really important that we constantly try and learn and that's the beauty of being a council member is when you talk to residents, you learn things you otherwise didn't know about. So, just wanted to publicly make note of that and also thank the resident who reached out to me and talked to me about that. Second, it's school season and you're going to start seeing e-bikers all over the place if you haven't already done so in the summertime. The Huntington Beach Police Department isn't just the premier department when it comes to safety and promotion of good safety tricks and tips, etc., when it comes to e-bikes and making sure that this city is really kind of the North Star in regards to that, but also as parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends, it's incumbent upon us to make sure that kids are wearing the right helmets. Face helmets are always important, but most importantly, if you see kids riding around with their helmets not strapped, I mean... let them know one fall that takes care of it right there i mean you know we've seen some horrible stories in the news and then also i would encourage parents and families out there to take a look at the huntington beach police department social media they're posting a lot about e-bike safety courses classes you name it and there's obviously a lot of work that we've been doing on council especially through the ad hoc committee in regards to e-bike ordinances and e-bike safety so a little public service announcement there anybody else

Yeah, just along those lines, too, with kids out there, you know, in the streets, there was a press release recently about a man that was hit while going across the street in his wheelchair, a fatal accident. And I think what really hits me there is just this realization that sometimes we forget we're all living out, you know, our dash in life. And you never know, you know, when you're going outside that door if that's the last time you go out the door. And it kind of gets you thinking about, you know, what are the things that really matter, the most important things in life? And there's definitely time and place to argue about things, but, you know, we could do it in such a way where we're not, you know, argumentative. And I was even thinking about, you know, Roger Wing's prayer there, just that prayer for unity. And so I do think that the things that you know, we unite on are far greater than the differences that we have. And I would love nothing more than to see just a lot of love really restored in the community and even up here on the council. I love all of you. And I mean, it just, it's really hitting me the things that really mattered the most. That man did not know that that was his last day. His family members didn't know that was it. And you got to kind of think sometimes, you know, if things left off the way that they are, like right now with some people, is that really the way that you would have liked to have left it? Or would you have gone back and wish you could have done things differently? And so it's a big takeaway for me. So just wanted to share that.

Thank you. Anybody else? I'll just say since the last meeting, we had an amazing week of the U.S. Open of surfing. It started off with the relocation of the International Surf Museum to the Main Street Library on that Friday, which was a really special moment. If you have not been yet to see it, it's incredible, very well curated. Thank the library for being great roommates. Some of the galleries are just really impressive. Mel Craig redid and refurbished the Silver Surfer. There's actually only three Silver Surfers in the world. That was a promotion piece for a movie, so if you walk into the right, it's really impressive how big that Silver Surfer is. to the left is a great gift shop. So it's very well done. Highly recommend visiting that. Just up the fourth block, short walk up. Then of course we had the Surfers Walk of Fame ceremony to honor some inductees, which is a great day. And then the next day was the Hall of Fame at HSS. which is just always a special moment, those two back to back and just remind us that we're Surf City USA. That's the soul of Huntington Beach and all the community gets behind it. And then just the US Open of Surfing itself was incredible. If you guys remember, the weather was really tropical. The WSL judges said it was some of the best waves they've ever seen. The weather was off the charts. It was the 50th anniversary. of the World Surfing League and also the 50th anniversary of P.T. Townend's first World Surfing League Championship. So just a fun event. And then Councilmember Kennedy and I got to go on stage for the finals and give the trophy and seeing the young surfers and actually the finals for the men's, the local HB contestant was defeated in the very last wave in dramatic fashion. So it was just a great event. Really, you know, it's one of our premier events every year. I think we did, everyone was really proud of, really appreciate public safety, police and fire, marine safety, all the staff, everybody that was down there to make it go off without a hitch. And reports are is one of the most successful as well. All the sales for every day set up, set new records. I think Saturday alone there was over $100,000 in sales just in one merch tent. So really appreciate it and just really proud to be a part of that. All right, going on to the Adoptable Pet of the Month. Tonight we have Denise Woodside from OC Animal Care with the Adoptable Pets of the Month. We're going to mix it up with some felines. So Denise, please tell us more about Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill.

Good evening. My name is Denise and I am joined by our volunteer, Michael. And we have today Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill. We wanted to shed light on the fact that we have many wonderful animals available for adoption at OC Animal Care. Usually we bring dogs, but we have brought cats with us today. These are brothers that came into us on July 1st and they went into foster care. After some time in foster care, then they became available for adoption. And they are still looking for their forever home. So they are available at OC Animal Care. We're located in Tustin. And you can start viewing our animals, whether it be this duo or our other pets online at ocpetinfo.com under adoptable animals. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Yeah, Pat, you wanna?

I know Grace is a big. I hope you find somebody who can take them both. Beautiful, beautiful brothers.

Thank you. Thank you, Denise. Four months old. Thank you. All right, now we're moving on to the business highlight portion of the meeting. And so we want to continue to celebrate the businesses that invest in Huntington Beach and strengthen our local economy. So we'll welcome these new businesses, share an update on our upcoming State of Surf City partnership with the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, and highlight three local businesses through our Minute with the Mayor series. so businesses continue to choose huntington beach as their home bring new jobs services dining shopping and entertainment options to our community this week we're featuring some of our newest businesses that are now open or coming soon throughout huntington beach so we just really want to encourage everyone to shop local and support these businesses and discover what's new in our community so now open is two bella pacific city blackbird books and coffee at 7971 talbert and The Hawaiian Kitchen at 7351 Warner Avenue, across from Motion View. Grace Craze, 6502 Bolsa. Pasta Viva, 303 3rd Street. SCV Laser at 19071 Beach Boulevard. Tacos Madre at 16821 Algonquin. Sutherland Kia of Huntington Beach on Beach Boulevard. Saul has got his new business, The Waves Market and Spirits at 18582 Beach Boulevard. So please go check them out. And this year we're going to mix it up with the state of the city. So we're excited to unveil our newly adapted and formatted state of Surf City presented in partnership with the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce. This year's event will be at Pura Plaza. I know there were some questions before about attending and being able to attend. So this year will be free at Pura Plaza and feature a built-in HB Expo. which showcases the businesses, nonprofits, and community partners that help make Huntington Beach such a great place to live, work, and visit. So from 5 to 6, we'll have the State of the Surge City program, including a year in review presentation from the Chamber. I'll give my State of the City address and an abridged fireside chat moderated by the Orange County Business Council featuring several prominent local business voices. So following the main event, the Chamber will have a ticketed reception at Sandy's Beach Shack. So please come on out. Continue the meeting with the mayor. We're highlighting three local businesses that are making an impact in Huntington Beach. So first up is Pro Beauty Center, which is a family owned business across from Marina High School that has been helping the community look and feel its best for more than 26 years. In this episode, former Mayor Burns joins me and manager Alexander Kwan to learn more about how Pro Beauty Center has become a trusted destination for professional hair care, skincare, cosmetics, K-beauty products, and unique gifts. So be sure to check them out at Edinger Avenue, like I said, across from Marina.

I'm Mayor Casey McKeon with special guest, previous Mayor Pat Burns. And today's episode of Mid-In with the Mayors takes us down across from Marina High School at Springville and Ettinger to Pro Beauty. Let's go meet Alex, the owner.

Alex, tell us about Pro Beauty. Yeah, so Pro Beauty, it's a family-owned beauty store that's been here since 1999. We currently sell professional hair care, skin care, accessories, Korean beauty products, and we also have professionals that do salon services and facials as well.

It's like if someone came in for the first time, what do you guys really specialize or focus on?

Yeah, we specialize in personal touch. So whatever you come in looking for, we try to find what your needs are and offer the right product and the right advice. That's incredible.

You guys have been here for 27 years and it looks like you guys are doing great. And how long do you plan on being here?

Well, my parents started it, and I came on board to carry the torch forward. So I hope to continue serving the community and keep the business going as long as I can. Love it. Thanks, Alex. Thank you so much.

That's another local gem right here in Hinesa Beach. Just remember to shop local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop. What's up, H-Man? I'm Mayor Casey McKeon. Next up, we went to Luxor Garage Door Service. So they're a locally owned garage door service and company. And in this episode, owner Roy Bartowell and Paul Clithero share more about Luxor's commitment to quality residential and commercial garage door installation, repair, and maintenance.

What's up, Huntington Beach? This episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us down to Luxor Garage Door Service, right up for Gothard and Ellis. Let's go meet the team.

Roy, tell us about Luxor Garage Door Service.

Yeah, Luxor Garage Door Service has been in business here in Huntington Beach for about 15 years. Nice high-end garage doors we've been installing all the way down to like a nice garage door tune-up if the garage door is just a little squeaky or noisy.

So you guys actually do like repairs, so you know, not just full like replacement, but you guys actually come out and repair your current garage door?

Yeah, we can repair the door, whatever the issue might be, or service it.

That's great. And why did you guys choose Huntington Beach to open up a business? I've lived here for 30 years, so I love the community. Yeah, it's great being here. I love to give back to the people that are my neighbors, too. That's great. What would you guys say sets you apart from other garage door service companies?

We're not like a mobile service like most would be operating out of their house. We're an actual real brick and mortar with a showroom. We've got a fleet of vehicles here on the lot, and We're trusted and reliable that way.

And then lastly, what would you guys say you just love about serving Huntington Beach?

Just the community alone is a great city to work in. The people, the homes, everything about it, right? Yeah, it's great, yeah. This is our favorite city and we're glad and we're happy and proud to be here.

We just opened the door to another local gem right here in Huntington Beach. Just remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop. Woo!

All right, and then finally, meet Champaign's Kitchen. So they took over the IHOP on Main Street. It was a family-owned Orange County restaurant, bringing more than 35 years of hospitality and scratch-made food to Huntington Beach. So in this episode of Mayor Pro Tem Twining, Councilwoman Vandermark and I joined Champaign's Kitchen owner Matt Tobey to learn more about the restaurant and its newest location on Main Street.

I'm Mayor Casey McKeon with former Mayor Gracie Vandermark and Mayor Pro Tem Butch Twining. In today's episode of Minute with the Mayors takes us down to Champaign's Kitchen right at Main and Olive. Let's go meet the owner, Matt.

Matt, tell us about Champagne's Kitchen. Thanks for coming in. Yeah, Champagne's Kitchen is a three-meal restaurant with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think everyone has known this as a breakfast spot, but we have a really great dinner program as well. We do full service at nights, and we have a full bar and a full cafe, so we kind of want to be something for everyone. You know, mom, dad, everybody can come in and grab something. And how long are you guys open until? We're open until 10 o'clock every night. What time do you go open? Open at 8 every morning. Breakfast until 2 every day. The full service starts at 4. So we take reservations, we've got servers, the full bar. Awesome cocktail program and a great happy hour.

I was just going to ask you about happy hour. What days and times is that?

So there's always something going on at Champaign's. We've got happy hour from Monday through Friday. We've got our beautiful pizzas for $15. We've got drink specials. Mondays is half off our entire wine program, so half off bottles, no corkage fee on Mondays. We've got 20% off for locals on Tuesdays. Tuesdays is such an amazing day to be on Main Street downtown with the street fair. So we want our locals to come and check it out, support it, and come get 20% off here. And then steak night on Wednesdays, and kids eat free on Thursdays. Nice.

Yeah. That's another local gem right here in Huntington Beach. Just remember to dine local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

So thank you to all the businesses that continue to invest in Huntington Beach and contribute to our local economy. Like I said, we really appreciate your partnership, your investment, and your commitment to our community. Up next, we have the community event announcements. Madam Clerk, please call for the community event announcements.

The City Council will now receive announcements for community events only. Community event announcements are accepted in person. Please queue in the designated area along the stairs and use either podium. State your name and organization for the record. Each organization is allotted two minutes for its announcement. Please use both podiums.

Okay, it is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. Serve City Decides is a debate at our HB Senior Center in Central Park on Wednesday, September 16th from 6.30 to 8.30 PM in the large Parkview room. Protect HB is sponsoring the City Council candidate debate for 130,000 plus HB voters. Time's up.

Well, in all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory or an unjust interest. So take that. I hear that ProtectHB is running this debate and that they get to pick the candidates and the questions, what?

Time's up. Your information is wrong. ProtectHB has only secured the venue and invited former HB mayors Eric Peterson and Jill Hardy to be the debate moderators as well as former HB city clerks Robin Astonislo and her predecessor Joan Flynn to keep time and prompt candidates. This former City Hall team will decide and set all rules, protocol, pace, and questions for the HB City Council candidates debate on stage.

I've heard that 300 seats at the Senior Center are already full. But for HB people to sign up for the wait list, you can go to this QR code. or you can go to protect HB social media or write to hbcitizensforgoodgovernance at gmail.org. I think there needs to be definitely more people included. HB needs to hear our candidates.

You are right, the HB debate on September 16th, 6.30 to 8.30 PM will be live streamed. All candidates that qualified with our current city clerk have been invited and invitees went over email.

Thank you. Is that it, Madam Clerk? State your name, please.

Jason Schmidt, city treasurer. Good evening, council members. I want to share a quick update regarding the three-week financial literacy and workforce development program we just completed at Golden West College. We ended up having over 30 individuals sign up for the program from across Huntington Beach, Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove. Students learned about basic financial ideas to help them manage their money better, while over 20 panelists shared their insights about their careers in technology, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit, and government. We handed out over $2,000 in financial awards and provided scholarships for additional educational opportunities focused on building career skills. Seeing the smile on participants' faces and the tears in their eyes that people were actually willing to invest in them and their futures was truly inspiring. None of this would have been remotely possible without the amazing partnership of Golden West College, Youth Investor Corps, the United Way of Orange County, Junior Achievement, Working Wardrobes, the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, and the cities of Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Westminster, and Supervisor Janet Wynne's office, as well as all the panelists who took time out of their busy schedules to share words of wisdom with their participants, including our very own Chief McCoy. Thank you all so much and I cannot wait to work together with all of them again this coming year as we build out more cross-city programming to positively influence the lives of our residents.

Thank you. Moving to public comments, before we begin public comments, I would like to announce that pursuant to new state legislation, Senate Bill 707, public comments will be accepted both in person or remotely via Zoom. The city clerk will not read profane, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate Zoom display names or identifiers. Instructions for providing comments on Zoom can be found on the agenda cover page and on the city clerk webpage. The city clerk will provide instructions for participating in public comment. Madam Clerk, how many speakers do we have?

Before we go to public speakers, let me read you the supplemental communications.

Thank you.

On the city manager's report, number 18, sports complex audit finance commission presentation and sports complex landfill gas monitoring extraction systems analysis received from Travis Hopkins, city manager pertaining to the proposed improvements of the Huntington Beach sports complex. One email received pertaining to the sports complex. On the consent calendar, item number 22, one email received regarding the execution of agreement with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office and partner law enforcement agencies to participate in the fiscal year 2025 Operation Stone Garden Grant. Administrative items, item number 26, 2025-26 Huntington Beach Financial Review, Public Safety Expenditures and MOU-Focused Presentation, received from Councilman Don Kennedy pertaining to the introduction of the proposed Memorandum of Understanding with Huntington Beach Police Officers Association. Item number 27, one email received regarding the approval of the design and language for the American 250 celebration plaque at Pierre Plaza, an updated plaque rendering received from Mayor Casey McKeon. And now we will move on to public speakers. we have 27 speakers in person and one speaker on zoom we'll begin with the zoom speaker okay pat go it is your turn to speak please unmute yourself and begin speaking now hello good evening

Mayor McCann, Pat Goodman. I want to speak about agenda item 26. In June, this council approved a budget that exposed 31 million structural deficit. About half was addressed by eliminating unfilled positions without laying off employees, and by reducing transfers to the general liability and retiree supplemental funds. The remaining approximately 15 million was covered by drawing down general fund reserve from 96 million to 80 million. And this isn't just a one-year problem. City's projections show structural deficits continuing over the next five years. We cannot continue increasing expenditures without identifying sustainable recurring revenues to pay for them. That brings me to item 26, the police officers MOU. Our police officers deserve fair and competitive compensation. So do all of our city employees. But I'm concerned that an 8% increase in base salaries is not sustainable, given our financial outlook. Where will the recurring revenue come from? Huntington Beach is facing almost no home building, declining sales tax revenue, and an aging population. I don't see those factors producing the revenue growth needed to support continually increasing personnel costs. I have to question the timing. This MOU comes just a little more than two months before an election. Police and fire unions have considerable influence in our local elections and offer highly sought after endorsements. For that reason, I recommend that the council postpone this item until after the election. Give the next council the opportunity to consider this significant long-term financial commitment without any appearance of political influence. If you approve it tonight, I urge every council member to be transparent with voters about the long-term costs and how you intend to fund it. On a positive note, I do appreciate the presentation on the sports complex. The Finance Commission staff have made the thoughtful recommendations to improve the facility and increase its revenue. I encourage voters to watch the September 16th City Council candidate debate at 6.30 p.m. moderated by former mayors Jill Hardy and Eric Peterson. I expect the budget and police MOU will be important topics. Thank you. Have a good meeting.

The City Council will now receive public comments for any topic, including items on the open session agenda. If you are here to provide in-person comments for open session, your number will be called. Once your number is called, queue in the designated area along the stairs. Use either podium and state your name if you would like it reflected in the minutes. Numbers 1 through 10, please come to the front. My apologies, number 40 through 50, please come to the front queue at the stairs and please use both podiums.

Good.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Mary Mattis, and I'm here today requesting that the city would please consider adding a pedestrian safety measure at the four-way intersection of 11th Street, Lake Street, and Memphis Avenue, such as a flashing stop sign or clock signal. This is especially important for pedestrians crossing from Memphis Street to Lake Park, and it is the city's responsibility to help ensure their safety. This crosswalk is used every day by students, families, and community members walking to school, going to the park, and traveling around the neighborhood. I personally use this crosswalk on my way to Dwyer Middle School, as well as when I turn onto Lake Street so I can ride my bike to Junior Lifeguards in the summer. Although there's already a four-way stop sign at this intersection, many drivers do not always come to a complete stop nor notice pedestrians trying to cross. This creates a seriously dangerous situation, especially in the mornings when kids are walking to school or heading to activities. A flashing feature would help get drivers' attention, remind them to stop, and make this crossing safer for everyone. A small improvement like this could prevent a serious accident and protect children, families, and all pedestrians who use this area. I am asking the City to please consider installing this very much important safety measure. Making our streets safer is something that benefits the entire Huntington Beach community. Thank you for your time and consideration on this significant matter.

What was the intersection again?

um 11th street lake street and memphis avenue okay could you guys fill out a blue card we'll follow up with you and and uh well done thank you yeah mayor mckeon city council members my name is frank lagrasso and i am the current chairman of the city of huntington beach finance commission and i'm here today in my capacity as chairman but also as a longtime resident and business owner in the city of Huntington Beach. The city council has requested the finance commission's input on numerous occasions regarding the financial matters of the city. As a matter of fact, the commission has a presentation tonight regarding our findings and recommendations regarding one of the city's largest assets, the sports complex. I think you'll find tonight's presentation professional and the recommendations beneficial. This is what the Finance Commission does, and not so modestly, I believe we do it well. But the Finance Commission cannot provide the City Council with our input unless you ask us to. That is why I am asking this City Council to request that the same fact finding by the Finance Commission in regards to the POA MOU. The Finance Commission will be able to take a sober look at the MOU and supporting information. and provide the City Council with recommendations just as beneficial as the ones you'll hear tonight and devoid of any political considerations. I'm asking for you to let us do the job for which you appointed us. I thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello.

Good evening. Mayor, members of the City Council, thank you for your time today. My name is Reed Parker and I'm currently a detective here at Huntington Beach Police Department. Making the Huntington Beach Police Department competitive in today's job market sends a clear, straightforward message that our city values its officers and is committed to supporting them. The reality of police recruiting today is more challenging than ever. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are competing for the limited pool of qualified candidates and without competitive compensation and benefits, departments simply fall behind. When I first started with HBPD, our staffing levels were over 230. Today, that number has fallen below 200. Three years ago, my partner up in the detective bureau was promoted, and he has yet not been replaced. His caseload did not disappear. We just simply absorbed it. Officers have real choices today. They can move to surrounding agencies offering better pay, superior benefit packages, or better working conditions. Others choose and have chosen to leave this profession entirely. If we fail to maintain competitive compensation, we will continue losing experienced, highly trained officers to retirement or to neighboring departments that are willing to invest in them. This successor contract addresses that problem directly. It positions HBPD to attract top-tier recruits while retaining the veteran officers we can't afford to lose. It shows that city leadership understands today's competitive landscape and is proactive about closing the pay gap. When a department is properly staffed with experienced officers, the benefits to our community are immediate and twofold. One, stronger community connections. Officers who aren't burned out from constant overtime are sharper, safer, and more effective. They have the time to build real trust with residents and practice proactive, relationship-focused policing. Two, proactive public safety. Without full staffing, a department is forced to be purely reactive, running from call to call instead of preventing crime before it happens. A fully staffed, fairly compensated police department creates safer neighborhoods, enhances the quality of life for all Huntington Beach residents, and ensures our officers can take pride in the work rather than just surviving through their shifts. This agreement positions HBPD as a top tier agency in the region and demonstrates to our officers that this council truly values their dedication, their families, and their future. I respectfully ask that you support this contract, and I thank you. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, council. My name is Nicholas. I'm a police officer here in Huntington Beach. I'm currently assigned to patrol, and I just finished two years as a school resource officer. The successor contract being discussed tonight is crucial to the future of HPPD, especially right now when police recruiting has become incredibly competitive. the landscape has shifted dramatically. Departments across the state are fighting tooth and nail for a shrinking pool of qualified candidates, and if you're not offering competitive pay and benefits, you're going to be left behind. Officers have options now. They are constantly seeing advertisements from competitor departments through social media offering better pay, a better benefits package, or they can leave policing altogether and do something else entirely. Without keeping HBPD competitive, we are at risk of long experienced officers, excuse me, we are at risk of losing experienced officers to retirement and to other agencies. This contract changes that. It makes us competitive for new recruits and keeps seasoned veterans with decades of experience from walking out of the door and retiring. It tells officers that the city gets it. We understand the challenge. We're willing to invest in being competitive for what's out there. When we do that, we hold onto the experience and leadership we need, and we start attracting quality candidates who otherwise might leave to another department. This isn't just about filling empty spots. It's about positioning HBPD to win in today's market and showing officers that their careers, their families, and their futures matter to city leadership. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, my name is Taylor and I'm also a detective with Huntington Beach Police Department. Before coming to Huntington Beach, I worked for the San Diego Police Department. I made the decision to lateral Huntington Beach because I believed in this department, in the community, and the opportunity to build my career here. One of the reasons I left San Diego was because I have experienced firsthand what chronic understaffing and being less competitive in compensation can do to a police department. When a department is understaffed, the officers who remain don't simply have less work to do, they have more. More calls, more overtime, more cases, more responsibility, and less time to recover. Eventually, that becomes a recruitment and a retention problem. Experienced officers leave, which puts even greater burden on the officers who stay. Then the department has a recruitment. They have to recruit and train replacements while continuing to operate short staffed. That cycle is difficult to break once it gets started. I see some of those same warning signs here in Huntington Beach that I saw in San Diego. Our department is already understaffed and we're competing with other agencies in Orange County for the exact same pool of applicants. This successor contract acknowledges the reality we are facing and demonstrates that our city leaders recognize public safety as a fundamental investment in the success of our community. By properly supporting our police department, we're not simply investing in our officers, we're investing in the safety, security, and prosperity that every resident of Huntington Beach deserves. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. I'm Officer Bernard Atkins. Well, good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Bernard Atkins. I led the Huntington Beach Police Department from the El Monte Police Department 18 years ago. During my time here, I've had the opportunity to see this department go through both challenging times and some very positive changes. There was periods of roughly seven years when I was concerned about the direction we were heading. Officers were frustrated, morale was affected, and some officers, including myself, entertained the idea of leaving for agencies offering better compensation and benefits. But many of us stayed. I personally told myself to see it through because I believe things will get better. And they did. We saw changes in leadership. Employees began to feel that their concerns were being heard. And eventually, the city approved a strong contract that demonstrated its commitment to its police department that made a difference not only in compensation but in morale and retention. Today, I work as the personnel background investigator for the Huntington Beach Police Department. excuse me, where I'm directly involved in recruiting and evaluating candidates. Through that assignment, I have had the opportunity to network with numerous law enforcement agencies both locally and outside the immediate area. One thing I've learned is that recruiting quality police officers has become extremely competitive. Some agencies have fewer recruitment challenges because they consistently maintain attractive salary and benefit packages. Quality candidates have options and they pay attention to compensation, benefits, organizational culture, and where they believe they can build a career. Even in the best circumstances, attracting top-quality candidates in an uphill battle, but when you throw in the fact that we're outpaced on pay and benefits compared to neighboring departments, it becomes more difficult. We're constantly posting positions and interviewing, yet we still can't seem to fill gaps fast enough. The good news is the Huntington Beach has something extremely valuable, a great reputation, and a great work environment. I've had the other agencies recommend candidates to Huntington Beach because they recognize that we have here, we recognize what we have here. We should be proud of that, but we also need to protect it. We need officers who are sharp, dedicated, and committed to serving this community, not just bodies and uniforms. That's what the competitive contract makes possible. It lets us attract the best talent, retain the experienced officers we have, and are at risk of losing to retirement. The successor contract is a step in the right direction. Good officers are in the foundation of everything. They're the ones responding to calls, protecting our schools, neighborhoods, and building the trust that keeps our community safe when we're forced to hire from a smaller pool of candidates or settle for less qualify applicants just to fill positions, we're compromising that foundation. My hope is that we continue this approach with future contracts so Huntington Beach becomes competitive with surrounding agencies. We don't want to find ourselves continuing to play catch up or losing our ability to attract the type of candidates we want representing the city and serving the members of our community. After working in recruitment... Okay.

Thank you. All right. Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Officer Jason Polis, also with Huntington Beach PD. I also lateraled here. I was a supervisor at a previous agency, but I wanted to come to work for this great city. As you heard this evening, this contract is a step in the right direction. The direction for the community, for public safety, the well-being of the Huntington Beach City employees, and the investment in the future of Huntington Beach. A competitive contract attracts and retains quality officers that we desperately need. The key is quality officers. Quality officers make for the cornerstone of a successful public safety program. Right now, police recruiting is incredibly competitive statewide, and without competitive pay and benefits, as you've heard, Huntington Beach falls behind. Officers are faced with these real life choices. Go somewhere else, leave policing altogether. Without this contract, we run the risk of losing the experienced police officers to early retirement or to other agencies. And when veteran officers walk out the door, we lose that invaluable institutional knowledge, training, and experience that took years to build. That's irreplaceable. The more we delay in this market, the gap widens. We do not dictate this labor market. It dictates us. Neighboring departments are already offering more competitive packages, and the gap's growing larger by the day. The longer we wait, the harder it becomes to attract quality candidates, the more difficult it is to retain the experience. Those officers who know the community of Huntington Beach, who are experts in the current public safety issues here in Huntington Beach, and who have developed the relationships with the businesses and residents of Huntington Beach. It isn't about catching up with one or two competitors. It's about making sure that we can compete to attract quality candidates that reduce liability for the city. With a workforce that's already stretched thin and burning out on overtime, losing institutional knowledge doesn't serve Huntington Beach very well. It can lead to slower response times, less proactive policing, weaker community relationships, and it fosters a department that is always in a reactive mode and playing catch up. You've heard we are currently understaffed. The Public Policy Institute of California has found in recent studies that the crime reducing benefits of hiring just one additional qualified officer exceeds the average budgetary cost and results in, at minimum, three fewer violent crimes and 4.2 fewer property crimes per year. That's just one additional qualified officer. Our community deserves officers who have the time, energy, and experience to build trust and prevent crime before it happens. This contract is the investment that keeps us in the market. It protects public safety and ensures Huntington Beach remains the amazing destination city where residents feel secure and businesses want to invest. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Dane Sensor, Huntington Beach. Please excuse me during my public comment while I might sound emotional and patriotic. In the last several weeks, we have heard from Fauci. We know now that this man told many lies during the shutdown and people even died from his false information. This city says it supports small businesses and candidates are even running on that campaign. However, there has been one man in business in the entire country who stood his ground on the constitutional law that he deserves and never shut down from the mask or shots. He never once closed his restaurant. That man is Tony Roman of Basilico's. Newsom, the governor, okay, has tried to destroy this business by having OSHA clean out his business account. This man has a wife and a young boy, and he depends on this business to keep that family. I suggest the city council really support small businesses. They should be a co-plaintiff in Tony Roman's federal ninth district court lawsuit against Governor Newsom, if they really support business. And other businesses should support him too and follow suit with him. Wasn't it Governor Newsom who sat in a fancy French restaurant in Napa Valley with no mask on during the height of the pandemic? with no mask, whipping it up, having fun. They never shut that restaurant down, but they did to Tony Roman's. This is a tragedy of a small business where government has extended its arm, where it's an overreach that we've never seen before. This should not happen. This city should get behind this man and this business and every other small business. They are the lifeline of this country. They deserve better. They pay taxes. And we should support them in every which way we can possibly do that. So I suggest this city council find a way to help this man in his business and join him in his lawsuit against Newsom for what he's done to so many people and businesses in this state. It's a shame. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Mr. Amory Hanson. I'm speaking tonight in support of item 27, the Mayor and Councilman Burns and Kennedy's plaque to honor America's semi-concentennial. This plaque honors a unique moment, not just in America's history, but in Huntington Beach's history. It will make permanent the remembrance of America's semi-concentennial and a reminder that freedom is not free. I urge the council to continue to celebrate America. Once again, I urge a yes vote on IM 27. Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker please.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach. Butch Twining tried to apologize for his actions on July 19th in the city's parking lot. But instead, it was an attempt to justify what he did. It certainly didn't answer the questions you all should be asking. The white wall on the Yorktown did not have any signs posting information such as no posting on private property. Second, there was nothing pro-Nazi about those signs, nothing. One sign showed a swastika struck through with a red X, the universal symbol against Nazism, not for it. Third, what Butch saw as a swastika instead was a symbolized 47, a number, not a symbol of hate. Let's be clear, 47 is not a Nazi symbol. It's an anti-Trump satire accusing his administration of fascism. President Trump once bragged on an Access Hollywood tape about grabbing women's genitals. So with that said, we can certainly protest with symbols on a wall. Fourth, Butch was driving through the city parking lot one-handed, cell phone and the other. That is illegal. A better approach, park the car, inquire who is leading the group than raise his concerns directly. However, let us remember only the property owner has jurisdiction over the wall, not Butch. Finally, my vaping comment. Butch called my remark funny. It was not. I had a flashback of our incoming mayor caught on a camera vaping in this very room. A direct violation of California health law. Laws apply to everyone, even him. This is the person who wants to run our city? Thank you.

Next group of speakers.

Speakers 60, 50 through 60. Please queue at the area along the stairs and use both podiums. Thank you.

Good evening to you. My name is Eric Richmond Massey. I live on the north side of Huntington Beach at 16191 Ballantine Lane, Huntington Beach, 92647. I'm here to thank you for the announcement you just made to the State of California County of Orange and the City of Huntington Beach that I'm a recipient by the City of Huntington Beach and a home to live in. I'm also here to ask you if you'd be willing to give me a document acknowledging that. Yes, no? You're not allowed to speak.

We're not allowed to comment, sir.

Okay, so what are you telling me? I need a lawyer to follow through with this? Is that what you're saying? I see. So you speak for the mayor, is that right Mr. Burns?

Sir, if you'd like you can fill out a blue card over there at the front and we can contact you.

Thank you Casey, I appreciate that. I also want to make an announcement to some of your city employees that were let go. Sorry for that for whatever reason. And also a member amongst you claiming that I'm a homosexual and bisexual. Now I've got an agency that looks after me 24 hours a day of everything I do and they also surf the internet. So I'd like for you to hear it from me. This is the third time I've done this in about 11 years. I am not a homosexual and I'm not bisexual. And the people that get busted by the National Security Agency, you know, they get what they deserve. And plus the state of California, they come after you for making announcements about me. I'm talking about your employees that have been let go and then one is a member of your membership here. You guys have a good evening.

Next speaker, please.

Greetings, Tim Geddes in the house. Too bad we don't get six minutes per public comments to make up for the dubiously canceled meeting of August 4th. Every council meeting before November 3rd is important, not only for the council to conduct business for the city, but for the public to be able to respond to issues under consideration. Like tonight's agenda item number 26706, approval of design and language for the America 250 plaque at Pierre Plaza. Is the only public feedback aired citywide supposed to be shared in public comments? I realize that the council is known for shooting its mouths off, but are the cannons firing at either side of the city seal logo appropriate for our city? Are they Revolutionary War cannons or just period clip art? Have mass quantities of citizens weighed in on the public design and language already? Just asking. Tonight I am starting a 60-second profile of various of the candidates for City Council in November, which I call Meritorious Minutes. My first Meritorious Minute focuses on Surf City 4 candidate Brenda Glimm. Brenda is much more than a pissed off grandma and actress. She has a long and distinguished career in corporate project management, mostly in local aerospace, and has great physical accounting and administrative skills. She knows how to read a budget and whip it into shape, a quality which seems in short supply on the current city council. But before, beyond that, Brenda Glimm is very good at listening and trying to see both sides again in, in pitifully short supply with this council she believes in treating residents with dignity and respect and in building consensus in her decision making this business owner is capable and transparent and will represent the entire community fairly honestly and effectively as i mentioned other meritorious minutes will come in successive public public comments i hope the city council The city council is battening down the hatches for the state audits we may be facing for all of the schemes this council has hatched over the past five years. While the audit results may not come in in time for the November election, I think most of us know what our incumbent leaders are facing. There are plenty of questionable decisions- Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening. The current city council incumbents ran on the slogan of running the city more like a business. So how are they doing so far? They made a 15-year agreement with the promoter of the Pacific Air Show that has cost the city almost $6 million in cash, about $420,000 in lost parking revenue every year, $500,000 for a CEQA study, and a cost of city-provided services like police, fire, marine safety, public works, and utilities every year, all for a one-day cancellation that was not the city's fault. What business would do that? Did I mention that after claiming this was a great settlement for the city, they had to be sued to actually reveal the agreement to the public, and that the show's promoter was one of their political backers? They called a special election for measures A and B at a cost to the city of about $1.2 million, when they could have simply put both measures on an upcoming election for about $200,000. What business would do that? They've engaged in repeated lawsuits against the state, constantly using the discredited theory that Huntington Beach can ignore state laws of general applicability because it's a charter city. They've repeatedly appealed those losses and lost the appeals again and again. What business would do that? They've lost lawsuits to individuals over freedom to read and fair representation at a cost of over a million dollars to the city, and they have doubled down after their losses. What business would do that? In short, they have run the city into a $15 to $20 million deficit through using city resources to promote their personal political agendas. If you want to promote your political agenda, do it with your own damn money, not ours. And now, on today's agenda, they're advancing a proposal to increase police pay by about 17% over the next three years, an incremental $15 million over those three years, and an ongoing increase of about $10 million annually. nothing against the police, but at a time when the city is turning a 15 to 20 million dollar deficit, what business would do that? One hell bent on bankruptcy. Next speaker please.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Ryan Winn, and I'm a performance coach and youth sports coach here in Huntington Beach, and I represent the sports complex and the future project of RADS Academy. I won't be upfront about that. I want to set the scene right now with just the populations that I work with on my day-to-day function and operations. Starting first with the seniors, literally this morning I had a 83-year-old, essentially PR had a great experience with a sled push exercise and I want to bring light to the recent post with the chair volleyball summer series that the Senior Center had and just really pushing for further activation of the Senior Center and the need for more health and wellness events and opportunities for our seniors. Second population would be myself, the millennials in the 20s and 30s that are looking for opportunities and community to grow with. I recently just signed up for a run club event in Newport Beach this Saturday, excited for that. But more importantly, most importantly, our youth and our kids. So I just want to put out a statistic and a report here that was published a couple years ago in 2024 that fewer than one in four American kids get 60 minutes of required and daily activity that they need to stay in shape and that you know is probably trending the wrong direction there so really setting this team there and now the next topic to provide perspective on you know what's going on with their sports complex and perspective on the turf topic. As we know, the natural grass fields need improvement, and it's an ongoing discussion that the city's wondering what's going on with. Really, we understand the workload that happens day to day, month to month, year to year, and really, a lot of people don't understand that these fields need rest. These fields need to be maintained and taken care of. With football coming up, big football coach myself, with FNL and girls like football, I was at a tournament this past weekend, and just seeing the growth of these sports in our community, I want to really have people understand that The turnaround of these events from Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday, Sunday and so forth, is just causing more damage on our field. So whether it's the rest, the rain outs, and these practices and events getting canceled, it's really losing opportunity for for us to capitalize more activations at Sports Complex. I don't want to run out of time here, but really losing the territorial battle with the Ontario Sports Empire being built in a couple months. Long Beach just announced that the Veterans Stadium is going to be demolished to create another Sports Complex, and of course we all know Irvine is doing a phenomenal job with Great Park, and we're losing a lot of opportunities there, and I hope you guys really see this thing through and understand what we're trying to build here. Thank you.

So do this.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Roz Price, one of your newly appointed community library services commissioners. I wanted to share a quick update from August 12th Community Library Service Commission meeting, along with a couple items moving forward on tonight's agenda. It was another productive commission meeting, and one of the highlights was definitely the recognition of the local Eagle Scouts and their projects. Me being an Eagle Scout mother myself, found this just amazing it was wonderful to see these young men recognize the tremendous amount of work leadership dedication and service that goes into earning the rank of eagle scout and the projects that give back to our community commissioner steve barnes and community and library services manager chris cole presented the recognition to the eagle scout it was especially meaningful because steve is an eagle scout himself so he understands firsthand the commitment the perseverance and everything that's required into having this achievement and honor we also approved the previous commission meetings which was awesome to be a part of that a quick note and reminder i just want to remind everybody in our community that we have great locations that can be rented out that the city manages that can go back into the funds of our city and we have local discounts Another important discussion involved the America 250th plaque at the Pier Memorial. We are continuing to work through the new draft, including its design language, as we move forward to something appropriately that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and how well Huntington Beach represents it. The work now connects directly with tonight's city council agenda item 27 regarding approval for the design and the language of the 250th pier plaque. As a commissioner, it has been very rewarding to be a part of the process and see it move forward in discussion, review the commission level to consideration by the city council. I believe it is important that we take time to get something of this historical significance right. The plaque will be part of the Huntington Beach long after America's 250th is gone, and the language and the design needs to represent the nation's history while creating something amazing for future generations. There is another item on tonight's agenda that connects directly to the work of the community and library service. That's item number 16. I asked the council to authorize an application for Orange County Transportation Authority to grant purchases accessible vans for the Surf City Seniors on the Go senior transportation program. Programs like this matter, maintaining mobility and independence for our older adults and residents with disabilities, help keep people connected to appointments, programs, services, and their community. I'm glad to see the City Council continuing to explore outside funding opportunities that can strengthen these services for our seniors, leveraging grant dollars instead of money from our residents. Our commission meeting also included updates on the GrowHB program, to which we met Kelly, who will be assisting Charlene with the new program, our library master plan liaison group, and ongoing work surrounding the American 250. There is much that happens behind the scenes with the commission, and I'm honored to be a part of it. And tonight, I look forward to seeing some...

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello. Let's revisit all of the ways we have seen crazy taxpayer spending and bad decisions from the people sitting right here on the dais. First of all, let's start with the big one, the great air show heist. These folks sitting in front of us thought it was gonna be a good decision to let Michael Gates sweet talk them into voting for a massive payout for Gates' old buddy Kevin Elliott. The giveaway, five million taxpayer dollars because the promoter had to cancel one day of the air show for an oil spill that the city had zero fault in. Next up, the really, really bad decision to go after the beloved public libraries in this town. We know this was Gracie's pet project. She hates books and librarians and got her church to come here and attack librarians, calling them pedophiles and other vile names. On to the brilliant idea to privatize a library with another backroom deal with former council member turned private library guy Mike Posey. All this escalated to a costly local special election to the tune of $1.43 million plus about $59,000 for signature verification. Yikes. Let's address the lawsuits. Kennedy Commission, $3.53 million lost plus another half a mil on appeal. More air show losses, 200,000 for refusing to provide the settlement details to the public. Michael Gates' age discrimination case, 2.5 million settlement plus 1.5 million legal costs. At least another 200,000 in fees from the failed housing law violations, more penalties coming. Voter ID case, another loser that the folks up here fell for from Gates. Charter city exceptions, nope. So here we are looking at losses in the $10 to $15 million range when all is said and done. Our budget is $15 million upside down. And tonight on the agenda, I mean look, we want our police to receive the pay that they deserve. We recognize how hard our police officers work to keep us safe. But maybe this council should have been better stewards of the taxpayers' money and we could afford this, but we can't afford this right now. It's also a bit suspect to suggest this 10 million pay raise right before an election. Are we looking for endorsements? The last raise for 4 million for police was just in 2020. Again, they deserve a competitive salary, but we need to be realists here. The failed lawsuits and grand giveaways take their toll on the budget. Are we headed for bankruptcy? So what is the solution? Vote these people out of office and vote for humble public servants like Taryn Palumbo, Aaron Spivey, Ben Davis, and Brenda Glimm. Let's elect people who are not rich in money, but rich in character. Good people who don't use pay-to-play schemes to enrich their buddies or vote for loser lawsuits. Please vote for sanity, not vanity. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. Hello, council members. I'm here to discuss the recent installation of new flock cameras within Huntington Beach. For those that are unaware of the function of these flock cameras, they are a new AI enabled surveillance camera that automatically takes down the plate, color, bumper sticker, and identifiable damage of any car going by, logging it into a searchable database. I've been going downtown to point out these flock cameras to people, and every single person I stop is either unaware of these cameras or perfectly aware and fearful of them. These cameras have become a divisive issue for a very clear reason. They are a new system different from traditional security cameras. They treat all citizens as criminals first, where they're being tracked and logged. Not only this, but they are some of the first AI surveillance tools being integrated within our society. This tool of convenience infringes on every citizen's right to due process. In researching this issue, I found very little clarity in the contracts the city has with Falk. I could not find any public deliberation on the install of these cameras, and there's also no public usage policy for these cameras. I request that this council releases all contracts that have been signed with Flock in a single package, releases all planned future contracts with Flock, as we want to know how many of these things will be installed. And during the next city council meeting, I want an agenda item deliberating the cancellation of future Flock contracts, along with other AI-enabled surveillance tools. I urge you to talk to your constituents about Flock, realize how unpopular it is, and consider this item for deliberation. Also, California law SP 34 requires that a usage policy for these cameras be publicly available. There is currently no such policy released. You guys must post this in order to remain in compliance with California law. It should include how this data is used, under what circumstances it is used, and how long it is stored. This must be shared and made publicly available on the Huntington Beach government website. I know I'm talking to a council that is cautious in regards to government overreach. Well, these cameras are ripe for abuse. The goal of these cameras is to get a searchable database of people's moment-by-moment location. The FBI attempted to do this with cell phone data, and it was ruled in 2018 in the case of Carpenter v. The United States that require a warrant to do this. There are no such protections regarding these new AI surveillance tools. Until there are, we cannot justify using them.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Parker Bosworth, and I'm a resident of Huntington Beach. HB has installed automated license plate cameras that log every vehicle that passes whether or not the driver has done anything wrong. They create a profile in each of us and are constantly misused in ways that harm everyone, even yourself. I know this isn't an agendized item tonight. I'm not asking for a vote. I'm asking for the council to direct staff to agendize a full review of the flock contract at an upcoming meeting, including whether there's a renewal date or termination clause we can act on, and to release the department's usage policy and audit logs in the meantime. Councilman, earlier you mentioned that you want Huntington Beach to be the premier city of safety. Removing and banning flock cameras and all ALPRs from Huntington Beach is crucial to achieve that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. I've lived in Huntington Beach for 30 years, and I've always supported public safety. I have friends in our police and fire departments, and I believe the people who serve This community deserve good wages. I really do. But I am asking you tonight to hit pause on this police contract until the public understands what it means for our city over the next five years. Five to ten years. This is not about being against police officers or against the firefighters. It's about not making promises today that we cannot keep tomorrow. We've already been told that we're facing a deficit of over $15 million this year. And what we owe for pensions keeps climbing. Now we're looking at another $10 million a year plus another agreement that you are talking with our firefighters. That could be $30 million a year in the red out of a general fund of only $150 million. Do that math for five years and we are broke. When cities get in financial trouble, regular people pay the price. City employees lose their jobs. Families pay higher taxes. Streets and sewers wait. And eventually, police and fire positions get cut too. And we're all less safe. Let's not put our community our community or our employees in that spot. So before you vote, please ask the finance department or the finance commission to show us publicly what the next five to 10 years looks like with all of these agreements included. I don't understand the rush We are less than three months from an election where a majority of these seats are on the ballot. And this agreement will affect our finances long after this council is gone. What's wrong with giving residents more information and more time? Let's put the numbers in front of us and then we can decide out in the open.

Next speaker, please. All right, good evening. My name's Russell Neil. I live in Huntington Beach. Concerning item 26, the police MOU, I would just say that we all love and appreciate our police, our firefighters, and all of our city employees, and want to see them fairly compensated. At the same time, we expect our council to represent the interest of all our citizens, and we expect hard-fought but fair negotiations conducted without fear or favor. And we are watching this closely. Concerning the upcoming elections, I remember how bad it was under the prior city council. Homeless encampments and crime were high and increasing. Business faced a hostile city government. HB residents were vilified from the dais, and woke politics was the order of the day. Sacramento was supported in its plans to bulldoze our homes and neighborhoods and replace them with subsidized high-rise apartments. The citizens of HB weren't having it. They filled all four seats with candidates promising to save Surf City and later added three more. And save it, you have. Crime and homelessness are down dramatically. Red tape has been cut and business formation is booming. And someone finally stood up to Sacramento's neighborhood destruction in a battle that is far from over. You even got the library fountains working again, something we were told could not be done. Why would anybody want to go back to the failed past? Why would anyone want to see the return of high crime and homelessness? Why would anyone elect a foursome promising to take orders from Sacramento and to ignore the wishes of the people of Huntington Beach? This November, I urge the election of Casey McKeon, Pat Burns, Andrew Grohl, and Brian Thenis. Stay with proven success and reject guaranteed failure. Thank you, and God bless Huntington Beach.

Next speaker, please. Hello friends, my name is Sean. I'm a longtime resident and a former city council candidate way back in 2010. I am here to speak out against the proposed 17.9% pay increase for police officers over a three-year period. While a deal like this certainly highlights the benefits and the importance of every employee to have union representation, a sweetheart deal 90 days before an election seems a bit irresponsible. Huntington Beach has a budget deficit of at least $15.6 million, which was deepened by your actions. An entire unnecessary special election that cost the city well over a million dollars. And a special election that, by the way, you guys still lost. Your deal with the air show, the frivolous lawsuits, and now a sweetheart deal with the police. And are we supposed to believe that the fire department won't also want a deal this good? Didn't we just recently have all the department heads give us presentations under the premise that we are looking to save money? Isn't this the same council that tried to shake down a center for homeless seniors for pocket change? Perhaps if our homeless community had such an important endorsement to give out, a simple TEFRA vote wouldn't have you wailing about socialism. In short, this is reckless, financially responsible, but you already know that and you know what you're doing. Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, I'm Ellen Riley and I wanna make a proposal, maybe you've already made it. No oil drilling off of our coast, off of our beach. We had 25,000 gallons of oil spill about six years ago from oil extraction, oil drilling offshore. So I hope you consider that and make that a proposal or a decision. of this council. Otherwise, the city, there's been discussion about the deficit in the city, and I am going to recommend selling the helicopters that we have. We have about three helicopters, and that's not modern technology, that's last century, just like the aircraft carriers which the country is going to be getting rid of and replacing, and I recommend selling the helicopters and replacing them with drones. That will also pump more money, maybe, into the police department since there's been a discussion that the police department needs more money, and I do know that they've been talking about wanting to recruit more staff, but they have not done it or have not been able to do it because the money is not there. I think that's... That's my presentation for the day.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speakers please.

Speakers number 60 through 70, please approach the podium. Use both podiums. Please line up along the wall.

Go ahead, please.

Good evening. My name is Mia, and I'm a resident of Huntington Beach. HBPD has installed automated license plate cameras that log every vehicle that passes whether or not the driver has done anything wrong. I know this isn't an agendized item tonight, so I'm not asking for a vote right now. I'm asking the council to direct staff to agendize a full review of the FLOC contract at an upcoming meeting, including whether there's a renewal date or termination clause we can act on, and to release the department's usage policy and audit logs in the meantime. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, Bethany Webb, long time Huntington Beach resident, anti-fascist. I want to start with actually the police agenda item. As somebody I've mentioned before whose family was devastated by gun violence, my respect and the understanding of how much we need the police So I would suggest a deeper dive into how we're gonna pay for it. Well, I'm not gonna give an opinion on whether we should or should not move forward. I do wanna say that the mismanagement by the city council is what got us here. Why I cannot just endorse it because the city council has destroyed our finances. I want to say for the people that are up for election right now that we need to remember who got us in this mess with their crony giveaway. Casey and Pat were on the original two. Griselda, who is running for state assembly. Tony Bologna, who is running for senate. And Michael Gates, who is running for city attorney. Those are the people. that did this giveaway of millions of dollars that you still will not allow us to see. No one trusts you here because the remaining people are so untrustworthy that they stabbed our number one vote getter in Chad, who should rightfully be the mayor, but they don't even have honor to their own side. Beat Cities brought people in here to vote him the number one getter, but you guys don't care about that. You don't have honor. Honor is everything. We don't trust you. You know why? Because we know you're pay for play. The police are now going to be suspect if they endorse any of you because we're going to believe that this is just another grift that you paid for in advance. So do us a favor to the police, who I totally support, withhold your endorsements until after or I don't know how you could do it, but I certainly would not endorse any of the people that have shown themselves to be dishonorable and grifters. Finally, Pat, look at how everybody else is dressed. I mean, could you show some decorum with your stupid thongs and ugly feet and faded t-shirts? Could you put on a certain tie and show that you have any respect? I mean, you know, our vaping buddy and our thong buddy are both an insult to this community.

Next speaker.

Okay. Since we are interrupted, which we would never do at our debate, we hope all candidates will reply by tomorrow, Wednesday the 19th. We set up this debate to provide all 130,000 plus HB voters to hear all points of view. Speaking of revenue, seems to be the theme tonight, KC, same old, same old, denying $825,000 from the Friends of the Library is detrimental to our budget deficit. What other city denies money from its Friends of the Library? It's insane. It's revenge for winning measures A and B, which you all campaigned against, and Gracie Vandermark's book-banding attempt. It will be your legacy as Mayor Casey, denying $825,000 from a nonprofit established four decades ago. $825,000 that could help turn a fair pay raise into a reality for our servants. I also urge the City Council to look again at the pay raises for all city servants, a fair and a fiduciary intelligent raise in this and in future deficit years. Please table the MOU and salary and structures. Thank you.

Next speaker. Is that it?

Looks like that concludes our speakers. Okay.

Hi, Kanan Durham. First of all, I want to say thank you to Andrew Gruhl. I heard you apologize for mistakenly making a derogatory statement towards the community at the last city council meeting, and I respect that you made a statement about that and apologized publicly. I think that's great. I did want to speak about the proposed raise for the police. Somebody else already mentioned that we are in a $15 million deficit per latest article from the Voice of OC. According to the Huntington Beach Police Officer Earning Potential Calculator, which is on the city website, the lowest base pay that the city is advertising you can receive is $100,000, or $100,027 per month. dollars per year, which is considerably lower than what the majority of the highest paying officers are receiving. So Chief Eric Parra, according to public salary information, last year made $404,000. Number 13 in that list, Lieutenant Toby Archer, who's one of the officers who arrested Chris Cluey last year, made $344,000. And Lieutenant Brian Smith, who's number 17, and someone I'm quite friendly with, made $334,000. Now, of course, this does include benefits packages and the like. The median household income in Huntington Beach is $122,000 a year. The individual salary average in Huntington Beach is $55,000 a year. In the last city council meeting, on agenda item number 25 on the consent calendar was the annual military equipment use. And I pulled that up. Some of the things that were included in that were unmanned, remotely piloted, powered aerial or ground vehicles, noise flash diversionary techniques, munitions containing tear gas, aerial denial electroshock devices all of these things cost the city a great amount of money and are not things that are consistently being used but we are proving that in the budget there's a lot more here that i could talk about i've got a whole list of um of data but i think here the issue is We have a discrepancy in the way that these funds are being used. So if there's an argument about paying our police officers more, we should be careful about how we are putting that money together. When we have 50 officers that are making above $180,000 a year, which is far more than the average in this city, it makes it hard for people who are looking at this budget discrepancy to see that and feel okay about that increase. Thank you so much.

All right. Moving to council committee appointment announcements. Council members, do you have any council committee appointment announcements? Seeing none. AB 123 reporting, does anyone have anything to report? Seeing none. Openness and negotiation disclosures, does anyone have anything to disclose?

I spoke to the POA.

Okay. Spoke to police. Okay. Likewise. Okay. All right. Ditto. Okay. All right, moving on to the public hearing. So public hearing to adopt resolution number 2026-34, authorizing an application for funds under the Orange County Transportation Authority for an Orange County enhanced mobility for seniors and disabled grant program. Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this item?

None received.

All right. Staff, please introduce the report.

Mayor McKeon and members of the City Council, tonight staff is requesting authorization to apply to the Orange County Transportation Authority for an Orange County Enhanced Mobility for Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities grant. This grant would provide funding to purchase accessible vehicles to transport older adults and people with disabilities through our Surf City Seniors On-the-Go Senior Transportation Program. TO MOVE FORWARD, WE ARE ASKING THE COUNCIL TO ADOPT RESOLUTION NUMBER 2026-34, AUTHORIZING STAFF TO SUBMIT A GRANT APPLICATION TO OCTA UNDER THE EMSD PROGRAM. APPROVAL OF THIS RESOLUTION WOULD ENABLE THE CITY TO PURSUE CRITICAL FUNDING THAT SUPPORTS ACCESSIBLE, RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES FOR THE OLDER ADULTS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES WHO RELY ON THE SURF CITY SENIORS ON THE GO PROGRAM. The total project cost is $435,600 and the funding breakdown would be the grant request of $392,040 with the city's 10% match requirement of $43,560. If awarded, sufficient funds are available in the Equipment Replacement Fund 325 to cover the 10% match requirement. The EMSD grant program is administered through the OCTA. The EMSD program is intended to support the needs of seniors and people with disabilities when transportation services are unavailable, insufficient, or inappropriate to meet these needs. funding from this grant would be used to support the Surf City Seniors on the Go program that operates at the Senior Center in Central Park. The Surf City Seniors on the Go program is a donation-based program providing curb-to-curb transportation for Huntington Beach residents aged 60 and over from their homes to a variety of locations such as nutrition services, medical appointments, shopping centers, social services, and the Senior Center in Central Park. The proposed grant application is to purchase three accessible vehicles to transport older adults and people with disabilities. City staff proposed purchasing two accessible vans, each able to seat seven passengers or a combination of seated passengers and wheelchair users, and one small accessible bus designed to accommodate up to nine passengers, including both seated and wheelchair passengers. Acquiring these three new vehicles would allow the city to retire one older bus currently kept on standby, shift another aging bus into standby status, and maintain reliable transportation services for the older adults of Huntington Beach. In the fiscal year 25-26, the Surf City Seniors on the Go program provided more than 23,000 free trips to over 500 unduplicated passengers, demonstrating just how vital this service is to our community. As part of the grant process, OCTA requires the city to complete a public notice for the intent to apply for the grant, directly notify private nonprofit transportation providers via registered mail, conduct a public hearing, and adopt a resolution. Staff has completed or is preparing to complete all of these steps this evening. Staff's recommended action tonight is to adopt resolution number 2026-34, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach authorizing city staff to apply to the Orange County Transportation Authority for an Orange County Enhanced Mobility for Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities grant program to purchase accessible vans to transport older adults and people with disabilities for the Surf City Seniors On-the-Go Senior Transportation Program and authorize the appropriation of $43,560 from the Equipment Replacement Fund 325 fund balance to fulfill the 10% grant match requirement. And at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Councilmembers, does anyone have any questions on the report itself? No? Okay. I'm going to open the public hearing. Madam Clerk, do we have any people signed up to speak?

The City Council will now receive public comments for the public hearing item only. If you are here to provide in-person comments, queue in the designated area along the stairs, use either podium, and state your name. If you would like it reflected in the minutes. If you'd like to provide comments for closed session on Zoom, You raise your hand in the zoom feature and you will be called by your zoom name. Once called, be prepared to unmute your microphone to speak. Please approach the podium.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Tim Geddes, and I want to be able to support this. For citizens, seniors over 60, I'm over 60, I'm over 65, I'm over 70, I'm over 75. And I visit the senior center at least once a week. But if the funding is already available, then I think that we should go for this because Huntington Beach has an aging population. We need to be able to provide not only for the present, but for years in the future. And I look forward to you supporting this. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other speakers? All right. No. Now I'm going to close the public hearing. Any discussion from the colleagues? I think it's obviously a great program and I would like to make a motion to move the recommended action so we can apply for this grant. Second. Seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Twanning. Any other debate or discussion? Okay. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilman Groh.

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney.

Yes.

Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes. Councilman Williams.

Yes.

Item passes 6-0-1.

Thank you. All right, up next is the City Manager's Report Study Session for Landify. City Manager, please introduce the study session item.

Yes, this item was brought to city council earlier in this year and staff has been working with Landify and I believe Ashley Wysocki will introduce the item.

Thank you. This evening, providing the presentation is our facilities and development manager, Chris Cole and president of Landify, Jonathan Bryden.

Good evening honorable mayor and city council members. I'm Chris Cole, community and services manager for the community and library services department. I have with us tonight Jonathan Braden from a company called Landify. And basically what we have to talk about tonight is that we might have an opportunity to turn that old defunct property in Huntington Central Park East which was formerly the outdoor gun range and actual turn it into usable open park space. And so Jonathan's here tonight to go over once again on how he might be able to help us accomplish that goal.

Good evening, Mayor, good evening, Council Members. So, Jonathan Biden, I'm working for Landify. Landify is the U.S. subsidiary of Group ECT. Group ECT has been working and operating for 50 years. We completed more than 100 projects historically in Europe. We are, thank you very much. We are experienced with disturbed, degraded sites such as brownfield, quarries, illegal dump sites, and sensitive areas. What we do is that we repurpose those pieces of land using soil coming from construction sites. We completed, we're working on close to 12 projects in California. We're working in the north near San Francisco. We are working on projects here in Orange County with the city of Orange with the city of Chula Vista in San Diego County. The way the model works is fairly simple. When you have construction happening somewhere, there are materials, dirt and pieces of concrete that are generated by those construction works and usually those materials go into landfills to that are used for daily cover to cover the landfills. So not very productive use. What we do is that we intercept those flows and we use those flows in order to reshape pieces of land. This is what we've been doing for 50 years. It allows us to deliver open spaces projects at no cost for municipalities. The way the model is funded is through what we call the tipping fees. Those are the fees that are paid by the construction companies that come and bring us soil. They would pay the same tipping fees if they were going to a landfill. So we are just intercepting the flows. sourcing sites that are closer to construction sites, allowing them to save in transportation costs, so they are incentivized in coming to us. And that provides those tipping fees, provides a funding source that allows us to develop the projects that we work on. So it's a new, innovative way of funding projects and redeveloping pieces of land by using flows that are already existent in terms of construction. In terms of the projects that we're developing, I mentioned we were developing 12 projects in California. One of them that you have here on the screen is a bike park project that we started a year ago in the city of Vacaville, north of San Francisco. You can see the idea of the project is it's a public park. It was a public park owned by the city of Vacaville, and they wanted to develop a bike park the city needed funding for this bike park and so we came with this concept and signed a contract with the city allowing us to import dirt coming from neighboring construction sites, create the landform and then generate funding to develop amenities on top of the landform to deliver a bike park for the city of Vacaville.

All right, so once again, the proposed area of focus is the old defunct gun range, Huntington Central Park East. It's right behind the sports complex. It's roughly about eight acres. It's currently unusable, just sitting out there doing nothing for us. The soil's contaminated, and it is already designated as park open space. That's part of the Central Park Master Plan already. so next steps uh next steps what we'd like to do is to uh evaluate this proposal uh we'd have to enter into an mou with landify that would give them the ability to go on the property site and conduct the feasibility studies uh the landify will assume all the upfront costs and risks associated with these studies there's no project approval or project commitment at this time in this part of the process and if this city elects to move forward with a external fill disposal fee funding model it would do so with landify and if it's found feasible we would have to go into a separate agreement landify to actually conduct the work um let me see here So next steps after the studies would be to collect the community input and ask the residents, what would you like to see in this new park space? What kind of amenities would you like there? And that's how we like to develop our parks. It's really a community process. Then also we would consult with the city attorney's office about measure C and measure L. We'd bring in contract back to council that would authorize LandaPy to do the actual work. And then we'd also need to secure the balance of the project funding if necessary. And with that, do you have any questions? Any questions, Don?

Cool, sir. I remember when you came in before and appreciate you coming back. So the tipping fees, you received the free soil, right, from people that would rather dump here as opposed to going to the landfills. So you receive that, you create the proposed land form. Does that mean you have an idea or you just create a level platform to build on?

The beauty with dirt is that we have the capability of shaping it to the form that's required. So that's really gonna be dependent on the end use and what can be a plateau. can be hills, it's really dependent on what is useful at the end, but obviously this is something that we can work on. That will be part of the feasibility study that we're trying to assess is looking at a conceptual landform to see, because obviously directly the form, the landform, the form of the landform will drive the volume of dirt that will be required to deliver that, and obviously as we link to the volume, this will be very important. So this is something that we need We need to discuss within this feasibility study to have some kind of a concept. Is it a plateau? Is it more hills? In order for us to have an idea of the volume and thus assess the feasibility of the project.

So the timeline would be MOU feasibility. While that's happening, we should simultaneously come up with ideas because the feasibility, what's the timeline? How long would it take you to determine feasibility for that?

Couple of months, three to six months.

Couple of months, yeah. So what would happen if you've put that time and effort in and we're still trying to figure out, things move slowly with the public. And rightfully so, you know, it takes time to determine what you want to put on eight acres. So I can't imagine that we're going to have, you know, a finished idea by the time you're done importing soil. So what happens then? or do you try and time it, you wait till we have something before you proceed with the beginning? We can do several things.

We can do something that's neutral like a plateau which allows you to develop afterwards and have the granularity. We can also do what we're doing in Chula Vista where they have a huge university project that they're in the planning stages of and we're doing a stockpiling, so we're stockpiling dirt which will be reused afterwards to re- to reshape and to shape some of the green areas. So that also allows a lot of flexibility so we can either do it in advance or stockpile and then come back when the project is finalized.

So up to that point, the costs are one-sided. You're incurring all the costs, right? Correct. So we know it's contaminated, as Mr. Cole said. It's clear it's going to be contaminated. So in your feasibility, do you look at the level of contamination and what it's going to take to remediate it? That's part of your assessment. It's probably the sole reason for the assessment.

Exactly. It's a central part. It's talking to the agencies to determine what's required in terms of remediation for the site. Can it be, you know, what would be required and what would be the cost of this remediation? Seeing that if some of the solutions that we're bringing with new dirt coming in, can we encapsulate part of the pollution? Is that feasible or not? And so that's the discussion that we want to have during this feasibility with the agencies to see, or do we need to remove all of the materials? That's the whole purpose.

So you determine it needs to be remediated, which is a given. That's another cost that you're willing to incur, is that correct? If it's, exactly, yes.

Yes, because if it requires digging or if it requires covering, that's obviously more volumes for us in terms of importing dirt, so more generation, you know, tipping fee generation for the project.

So at that point, the expense is all borne by you, so is your inevitable goal then to be the developer of the project once it's been identified and it's ready to be built? Is that how you

No, we really, again, our business is really to import dirt and to create the landform. What's developed on top of the landform is something we go through third parties. For the bike park that we're doing and we're developing in Vacaville, we're going to go through a third party. So really, our business model is really importing dirt and creating landforms and shapes. What's developed on top is really, you know, we work with whomever the city or the people we work with want us to work with. What we provide is funding for those developments.

Oh, you also provide the funding? So you're a lender, you take a spread on the dollars? Is that how you make money?

No, no, again, the funding comes from the tipping fees. So part of the tipping fees is put as a budget to fund for the bike park, for instance, the bike park amenities. Okay.

We get a percentage of it.

okay don't we get a percentage you give us a percentage of your tipping fees to pay for that final project at the end of the day it's a percentage exactly you can understand that yeah exactly okay one last question is um if we talk to all your customers here in the united states has there been any failures i mean i guess you really don't have a failable model because if you assess you're going to that it makes sense then you move forward and at that point the cost is completely your burden, right? But you've assessed it.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We size our projects to make sure that we know that we're going to deliver them. So yes.

So once you deliver the land form, are you out of it or do you have oversight on the development or are you done at that point?

It really depends on the project. We can do both. It depends if we're required to stay or if the city wants to take ownership back. It really depends on the agreement that we have.

And if you stay, do you act as a contract management? firm and you take a fee?

We don't get paid on the project so if we stay it's really on our dime to make sure that the project is state-of-the-art because again this is our only credential for the company is making sure that you know the projects and the benchmark and the track record is good.

My last question then I'll be done, my colleagues can ask. Do you have competitors? I know you called us which My background is business generation with outreach, so we didn't do any outbound. I believe you called us. Do you have any competitors in the United States?

In the world, doing exactly the same model, offering the services that we're offering, no. Nobody in the United States? No.

Okay.

You got the monopoly.

Thank you. Butch.

Do you take care of the geotechnical engineering fees, too, when you're bringing in imported soil for compaction and all that? Yes, obviously.

It depends on where it's required, but yes. Some of the projects, it's open space, so not a lot of geotechnical, but we're working, for instance, on a project where there's going to be commercial development on top, so yes, geotech will be involved.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? Yes, sir.

all right so uh i understand that the next step is the mou so i want to be very careful in terms of you know what we are agreeing upon and one of the things that you had shared and i paid attention to is it depends on what the agreement is with the city and so when it comes to like the bacaville have the tipping fees, have they completely covered the cost of the development in Vacaville so that the city doesn't have to put any money into that development?

We haven't started yet, so I'll call you in five years when we're done with the landform, but that's the idea. Okay.

And I understand there is some upfront, you know, risks that you are taking on, and that's why you want exclusivity, that we wouldn't go with somebody else once you've done that feasibility analysis.

Go ahead. If it's to develop something using dirt. If you don't use dirt, we have no exclusivity. So the exclusivity is just on the business model, which is importing dirt to create something on top.

So let us suppose you import that dirt, you get the dumping fees out of that, you just give us maybe just a flat foundation to work with, and then we can say, all right, let's go separate ways, and we're going to bring in our own developer if we want to expand the sports complex or put a jungle gym. We're not on the hook with you in any exclusive agreement with this MOU to develop anything from that point forward. Correct. Okay. And then when it comes to the CEQA analysis, who's covering the cost? Yes. Who? Sorry, we are covering the costs, sorry. Okay, you guys are covering the costs. Yeah, yeah. And then, Chris, I've noticed, just kind of towards the end there, you talked about, you know, a difference. Like, if the tipping fees didn't add up, that the city could be on the hook in some way to cover some type of difference?

Yeah, it would all be really about what we want as the end use. So if we wanted to build some elaborate water park, aqua pool facility that's very expensive, then of course the identified dollars would only go so far to get us to the goal. But say if we wanted to have just more open park space and it's within reach of their budget, then there's no cost to the city. So it's really what we decide to do in the end is what's going to be the final cost of the overall project.

okay so at this stage the feasibility study and the MOU agreement that we're entering into is just an exclusive agreement that you can go do the research you're covering the upfront costs if it looks good you guys will proceed forward and you are the only ones that could use that model then of using tipping fees right the dirt that's it that has nothing to do with development from that point forward we're not married to you guys are on the hook in any way to utilize you move or with this MOU, is that correct?

Correct, and as the council member mentioned, this is not our business model. Developing things on top is not our business model. Our business model is really the landform.

Is there any scenario where we're exposed to any kind of funds that we need to be putting in, Chris, apart from wanting to develop a swimming pool?

Yeah, not at this point. And really, it's about collecting the community's input about what we want as the end use of that that will really determine on what the overall cost will be in the end.

Which could possibly just give us a flat foundation. Yep. Okay. That's it for me.

Andrew. So quick question. Just walk me through a perfect scenario for you from a business owner's perspective. Is it you do a feasibility analysis that determines that there needs to be enough cleanup that you're able to bring in enough dirt to cover the cost of doing so and then that's it? Like what's kind of the pitch deck perfect scenario for you?

That's exactly what you mentioned. It's having a volume of soil required to remediate the site and deliver what wants to be delivered, what needs to be delivered, that works for us from an economic standpoint.

But you are incentivized to move dirt, effectively.

We are, to maximize the volume of dirt.

Okay, so then is there a scenario in which you do a feasibility analysis and hypothetically you say well the level of contamination is so low that the amount of dirt we're ultimately going to have to move is minimal and therefore it's kind of project ready right now or would you be incentivized to make sure there's dirt moving around to at least cover the cost of having to do the feasibility analysis?

I'm not sure I understand the question. The dirt is imported from outside of the site. Yep, correct. So the more dirt we import from outside of the site, the better it is.

Yeah. So in theory, the incentive for you is to bring in as much dirt as possible. So I guess my question then would also be is in this scenario that it's deeply, deeply contaminated and the contamination is of such complicated nature that you... it's almost outside of the scope of what you can do. Would you then just kind of do a report, lay that out for us so that then we as a city could ultimately make the determination as to what we would want to do? And then you would end up eating the cost. I guess that's the risk of kind of doing it for free at that point.

Yeah, you'll have the report available. Okay. But again, if it's digging to get rid of the dirt, then it's more volume for us because then you need to fill in the hole. So that's why the feasibility is going to be interesting because it's not a, It's not going to be, you know, zero or one. It really is going to depend on different parameters.

Have you ever run into a scenario where the contamination is so complicated that it's almost to the degree of we shouldn't even move this, we're out?

Yes, we're working on a project where it's complicated, where actually even remediation is not clear to what is required.

So at that point, you kind of cut bait and go, but at least the client got the overall analysis.

And then they used it.

OK, got it. Thank you.

You're not talking about filling Sully-Miller in though, right? The lake? Behind, no. The reservoir, and?

No, we're focusing on the...

Okay, that's what I thought. And what you said before, because we've talked a couple times, it's going to take about 18 months to complete the, if it works out, for the dirt to come in. Once the analysis is done, once you start accepting dirt, it would be about 18 months.

It really depends on the volume again. It's really going to be linked if it's 1 million cubic yards. It's not the same as 10,000 cubic yards. It's really going to depend on, but yes, you know.

That's what your estimate though was. Yeah, at this stage, but yeah. All right, cool.

I think Butch was, yeah.

Does your process include export and then import? Do you export out the contaminated soil and then bring in clean soil?

Our business is just importing clean soil, so we would need to work with a third party to export. If digging was required, we would need to work with a third party.

Okay. All right. That's it for now. I guess on that, can I jump in? Sorry. I mean, how do you make money if you're dumping contaminated soil somewhere, the cost of that, versus dumping clean soil somewhere else and making money off of that? It would seem like it would almost cost you more to go tip contaminated soil somewhere else than it would to tip clean dirt here.

It really depends on the volumes. If we're talking about getting rid of 10,000 cubic yards versus importing 200,000 or 300,000 cubic yards, then you can see that the volume makes the whole business work. You're not getting a lot per cubic yard, but you're putting more volume than what you're getting out. So that's how the economics work.

Hypothetically, where would you be taking contaminated soil from here and dumping it?

To proper landfills or even organized dump sites. That's why we would work with third parties that are specialized in that to make sure that the dirt is put in the right areas. Gracie?

So once you start the project, you said it would be, what, about 18 months or 16 months? So you're not, or you don't have a timeframe from beginning to?

It's really linked to the volume, so it can, again, it varies a lot. If it's a project that's 50,000 imports, it's very different from a project that's 150,000. So it very, very varies on the volume that's required to be imported.

So if you start the project, I guess my question is how long into the project before you can tell whether it's feasible for you to continue. So how long?

That would be done before. That would be done with the feasibility. If we know that, you know... So three to six months. Yeah, in the feasibility, we know if it's going to be feasible or not. The other big important aspect is the number of trucks that we're bringing per day. If for some reasons in some of the cities we're working for, we have limitations on the number of trucks that we bring, then obviously that lengthens the process, given, you know, compared to if you can bring 100 trucks per day compared to 50 trucks per day, obviously that that has an impact on the timing of the project.

Okay. Yeah, I remember we talked about this sort of about a year ago, so we sat down at the office, so thanks for coming back.

No worries. Thanks. Don. Thanks for touching on the trucks. That just made me think of one question, then I have one other question. If there's road damage with that much trucks moving in and out, heavy loaded, who owns the road damage? If there is any. If all of a sudden, like you said, you have 100 trucks coming in and out, that's way more than we're getting right now in Golden West in a concentrated time period. pavement damage that's real noticeable? Is that something that we just absorb?

We work with cities on that. We do traffic studies to make sure that we assess that properly and that we have the right share of costs that are allocated. So that will be also part of the feasibility study to see what the impact is.

So in a perfect world, if we said And what's your first name? Jonathan. Jonathan. Our goal, once you've just, you know, simultaneously, while you're trying to determine feasibility and you're coming to the conclusion that yes, and if we at that point said, hey, we want this giant, I'm just going to use this, skate park, bike park, and we have an architect that's already laid out the hill structures and everything else, would you lay the dirt kind of in rough form, following an architectural plan to build the hills and all those different things? Kind of like what you said you're doing, is that what you guys do? That's exactly what we're doing there. And then we would bring in another developer to finish the concrete and all the amenities, things like that. Would you pack the dirt or would you just lay hillsides based on an architectural plan?

we can do whatever makes more sense for the project. Again, we have people, we have blue-collar people that are capable of shaping.

But at that point, that becomes a cost for the city. laying out dirt based on a scheme you know a schematic yeah that's something that's what that's what you do and at that point there's still no cost to us yeah because we've given you a plan and you've based the import the tipping fees on how we want to lay it out in the cubic yards right so we could inevitably end up with an eight acre hill sided you know land formed uh dirt field, if you will, and we say, thanks, Jonathan, and we've already priced out what it's going to take to pour the concrete and finish out the park skate park, bike park, combination, whatever the case may be, just using that as a scenario. And you go on your way and we go on our way and we start paying the cost to finish it, but you've laid it out in rough form, correct?

Correct, plus hopefully depending on the volume you have as a budget, that's the percentage of the tipping fees that you can use to do the final grading.

Have we drafted the MOU yet?

No.

Okay.

Good. Yeah, no, like that last year, I like it today, like it tomorrow. Great business model, I'm in this business myself, makes a lot of sense. So obviously it's gonna, at bare minimum, you guys do an environmental report to show what the current condition of the soil is. And then best case, you just touched on it, clean fill activates all eight acres, potentially is the spread we make on the cubic volume you guys bring in for a future project. We're looking to enhance the, the sports center. So this is just another way to add potentially eight more acres to that whole facility. So to me it makes a lot of sense and I say let's just, you know, I'll make the motion and move forward and draft the MOU.

I'll second.

All right. Yeah, but it's just for council direction to just begin drafting the MOU. Yep, please call the vote.

Yes. Mayor, because this is a study session item, it's probably not proper to vote on it. We have the direction we can come back with.

Sounds good. Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, next up is the study session for the sports complex.

Mayor, real quick point of order. Finance Commissioner here to give a presentation in that Council item, but if we could just bring him in during this time, we could eliminate the need for him later. Just thought we could do it all together.

I'm fine with that, but for proper protocol, I'd like the staff to do their presentation first.

Yeah, yeah, we'll have them at the end. I just had it as a Council member item just in case as a fail-safe, so if he's able to present at the end, then we can, you know, cross that off. I'm okay with it. Cool.

All right. So this item is the follow-up from our council meeting in July on the sports complex, and Zach Zee will provide the staff report.

ALL RIGHT. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. TONIGHT'S ITEMS RETURNING FROM THE JULY 7TH CITY COUNCIL MEETING WHERE HUNTINGTON BEACH SPORTS COMPLEX OR HBSC PARTNERS PRESENTED PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE SPORTS COMPLEX. COUNCIL THEN VOTED TO REFER THE PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR REVIEW BY FINANCE COMMISSION AND COME BACK WITH RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE 18TH WHICH IS TONIGHT. The Finance Commission also has a subcommittee that is comprised of Commissioner Boomgarden, Commissioner Schnull, and Commissioner Geary. Staff met with the subcommittee to provide requested information for the sports complex each week. We had various information exchanges over the course of that time. And along with our regular Monday meetings, we've also had discussion with the whole commission on a regularly held meeting and a special meeting to vote on recommendations before you tonight. THE SUBCOMMITTEE PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE FINANCE COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING AND VOTED ON A TOTAL OF EIGHT SEPARATE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COUNCIL BEFORE YOU FOR CONSIDERATION. AND I'LL GO THROUGH EACH ONE OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS RIGHT NOW. RECOMMENDATION NUMBER ONE, AND I'LL JUST READ THROUGH THE RECOMMENDATIONS AS WAS ADOPTED OR AS WAS APPROVED THROUGH THE FINANCE COMMISSION. RECOMMENDATION NUMBER ONE, CEQA FIRST, NO AGREEMENTS UNTIL COMPLETE. DO NOT EXECUTE ANY AGREEMENT, CONTRACTS OR MOU'S UNTIL CEQA IS FULLY COMPLETED AND THE CITY UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS PERMISSIBLE AND AT WHAT COST. HPSC PARTNERS SHOULD PAY FOR ALL CEQA RELATED COSTS, SCOPE, STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, NOT THE CITY. Recommendation number two, issue an RFI to maximize value and resident benefit. Issue an RFI immediately to ensure the city receives the best possible suggested upgrades, alternative usage option, APPROVE, IMPROVE OPERATIONAL AND REVENUE PERFORMANCE AND ENHANCE THE VALUE THAT IMPROVES REVENUE TO THE CITY AND USAGE BY AND VALUE TO RESIDENTS. REQUIRE FORMAL RESPONSE BY HBC PARTNERS SO CITY HAS A FORMAL PROPOSAL TO REVIEW AND RESPONSE SHOULD BE EVALUATED BY VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS AND FINANCE COMMISSION TO DETERMINE WHETHER CONTINUING WITH HBC PARTNERS BEYOND THE TERM OF THE CONTRACT IS IN THE CITY'S BEST INTEREST. RECOMMENDATION NUMBER THREE, ALL UPGRADES MUST FOLLOW CITY PROCUREMENT RULES. ALL UPGRADES AND CHANGES MUST FOLLOW CITY PROCUREMENT PROCESSES, ENSURING TRANSPARENCY, COMPETITIVE BIDDING AND COMPLIANCE WITH CITY CODE AND CHARTER AND STATE AND FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS. RECOMMENDATION NUMBER FOUR, ESTABLISH MINIMUM BASE RENT PLUS REVENUE SHARE. Recommendation is to create new agreement requiring a guaranteed minimum base rent to ensure positive cash flow at a revenue sharing structure above the base rent to reward strong operator performance. Recommendation number five, modernize parking and field use rates. Consider removing rate restrictions and direct staff and finance commission to develop new market aligned rates for parking and field use. Determine equitable revenue splits between the city and operator and finance commission work to work with staff to create an agreement framework that is enforceable and in the city's and residents' best interests. RECOMMENDATION NUMBER 6 IS INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF HPSC PARTNERS THREE AGREEMENTS. CONDUCT AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF FINANCIAL REPORTING AND OPERATING COMPLIANCE ACROSS ALL THREE AGREEMENTS. AUDIT SHOULD BE DIRECTED BY FINANCE COMMISSION WITH ASSISTANCE FROM CITY STAFF. REFER ANY BREACHES OF LEGAL FOR REMEDIATION, TERMINATION AND RECOVERY OF FUNDS AS APPROPRIATE. Recommendation number seven, move agreements, oversights to treasury slash legal engagement. Move management of HBSC agreements to Bill Krill's team and legal. Also move oversight of Equestrian Center, Meadowlark, and Yacht Club agreements under the same structure. Place Bill Krill's team under treasury leadership for stronger financial oversight. And last but not least, recommendation number eight is public engagement before any facility changes. The recommendation is to engage an independent facilitator to conduct public meetings on all proposed changes. No changes to facilities or operations should be proceed until public feedback is collected. And findings should be reported to City Council, Finance Commission, CLS staff and CLS Commission. That concludes the presentation. And I'll open up for questions.

Any questions? Thank you, Zach. No? Mr. Chennault, you want to come down?

If you could pull up that PowerPoint slide that's attached, slide deck. This one. So I just want to give you guys a little more context on how we got here and why we made the recommendations. So let's just get started. I think it's important to understand the, if you guys can hear me okay, the history and the financials. Just keep on going. Sure, thank you. And I'll go through these quickly. So next slide. So a little history so you understand why some of these recommendations were created. This used to be a dump in the 40s, 50s, 60s. It was a 30-acre site. It was an unlined municipal solid waste landfill, and it was millions of cubic yards of commercial and household waste up to 35 feet deep with no lining. The dump closed. There was a soil layer put on top from 4 to 25 feet. And right now, the primary concerns are around methane, It's not a poisonous gas, but it's combustible, and there are VOCs that are coming off of the waste. It's matured, and it's saying here... This is from Jim Merritt over at Environmental Team. It's around 40 standard cubic feet per minute, and they have a venting system, which we'll talk about in a minute. It was also, interestingly, a mushroom farm. It was the Ocean View Mushroom Farm. You guys might remember that. Next slide. So in 96 we had this land gifted to us. I think it was a county measure that did that. And on the measure in 96 we had Measure L approved. It barely passed by a few hundred votes. And there was a motion for 1.5 million to construct the lighted soccer fields. In 2001, the city issued a $31 million bond for several projects. 18,400,000 was earmarked for the sports complex construction after voters approved. 1.5 million to build it. Additional spend after the contractor who did phase two, which was the batting cages and the offices went bankrupt. Next. So they use bonds to pay for this. The city is still paying off the last bond. Net present value calculations on the interest and the principal is around 36 million to date, and we still have a few million to go, so it'll end around 40 million. We have about 640,000 a year that we need to pay up till 2030, and in 2030, we have a payment of 144,000 that's attributable directly to the cost of the sports complex. The bonds are bigger. The bonds have a lot of things rolled into them, but the part that can be directly attributed to the sports complex is about $640,000 a year, roughly, for the next three years, and then $144,000, we're finally done. Since 2001, we finally finished in 2030. Next. So the cost it took to build this was 38 to 40 million, but that does not include the annual maintenance, the annual capital, like parking lot repairs, methane collection, et cetera. Next one. So we do have ongoing capital, we have lights, electrical, parking lot, three to four million a year in the next few years, over the next three or four years.

Next.

So there's extensive gas extraction and monitoring going on throughout the complex. There's PVC piping that has wells that were dug to extract out the methane gas and the VOCs, they're vented. Next slide. The basic description is here. I'm not gonna go through the details and keep moving, but you can read this later. And this is actually a layout of all the piping. You can see it's only about half the complex, but you can see there's a lot under the parking lot. There's a lot under the fields.

Next.

So there's the layout again if you go next. So it's an aging system that we're gonna have to replace. It's not sure exactly when, but Jim Merritt's aware of this. It's 20 years old. It's coming time for us to go do it again, and it's gonna be 350 to 800,000. Butch was there at the meeting. He was very helpful. I really appreciated your input. No, you were, because he knows what he's talking about. It was very helpful. Yeah. Next. So financial highlights. We currently lose around a million a year running this operation. The annual rent brings around 900 to 950 a year. 725 is in parking, roughly. And that really went up quite a bit when we raised from $1 to 10. The city gets about $200,000 in rent revenue share. The annual costs are around $2 million a year, roughly. I'll show you in a minute. $650,000 on the bond, $625,000 operating, and about $5,000 to $750,000 average on capital. And 40% of the parking revenue is allocated for capital improvements at the sports complex by design. This slide has a lot of very small numbers on it, but if you want to look later, it explains how much we pay in bond payments, how much we bring in in revenue, and the next slide's really the punchline. About 80% of the money that we bring in is from parking. 20% is from the revenue share of the actual operations. So looking at the usage trends, this is surprising what happened. We looked at a software package, it's called Placer AI, that they talked about before, and I got the data from the city and the actual usage is declining quite a bit. From 22-23, the total visits were 830, and it's down to 676. If you look at the total unique visitors, it's 438 down to 383, non-resident, and then percent of resident is also dropping. Next. So total visits is down 18.6 during the period of HBSC partners managing it. Unique visitors is down 12.4%. Resident visitors is down about 18%. Non-residents only down about two because they do a lot of travel ball. The resident share of total visitors is gone from about 36% when they took it over to 32% now. Next. So how does place for AI, this was a question, I just wanna get this covered. They use the phones, anonymous locations at night to figure out where people sleep, and then based on that sleep pattern, they decide where someone lives, and that's where the zip codes come from that determine where people live. And the other question was around teens, and I went out to peer research study, and it's saying that around 95% of teens aged 13 to 17 have cell phones, which aligns with my common sense. So let's go to the next real quick. So update from the HBSC proposal. We got a verbal description. It didn't match the PowerPoint exactly. We have some more details to share with you guys. It is a 20-year agreement they're looking for. They're looking for the SOAR Academy, which would be an enclosed cross-training, 23 acres of sports turf. This was new. They're talking about, let me see if I can make this work here. This, it's not very bright, but this item here, they want to completely enclose the sports complex to create gates where admission is required for entry. They also want to double the parking rates and keep the parking revenue. No outside food would be allowed in the sports complex, and complete control of all aspects, including maintenance. Expense that would be covered by HBSC is unclear. We've heard different versions of the proposal. The challenges we've had as a finance commission is we don't have any written proposal other than the PowerPoint. Ashley was trying to help me get access to the financial projections. She's been trying to get me an appointment. They won't release them to us because they say they're proprietary. So we wanted to go in and take a look. at what the projections are saying. They told us two million a month, and we wanted to see how they would get to that level in revenue, but we have not been able to see their projections, even though we've been asking for about four weeks. There's significant legal environmental challenges around CEQA. We're not sure what's required, if there's EIR, et cetera. We haven't really had any formal resident input. We've just had anecdotal. People have said, yeah, we'd like this. And then there's ongoing issues with the current partner agreements, especially concessions and batting cages, as you guys know. So you saw the recommendations, and I'd be happy to answer any questions, but these are what drove our recommendations. We were looking for operational performance. It's heavily used but under-optimized for revenue generation for both the city and the operators. Facility upgrades, we're looking at modernized fields, amenities and alternatives may expand revenue opportunities and potentially reduce long-term maintenance costs. Resident benefit, we were looking at better ways that residents could benefit from this and revenue generation for the city. 80% of the revenue that flows the city is coming from parking and it's costing the city around a million a year. So that drove our recommendations which you saw. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have on any of them. Are there any questions on any that we made?

Yeah. First off, That report's excellent. I really, really like it. It gave me pause, and I'm thinking a lot deeper about this, you know, as a result of your report.

And I just want to say it was the Finance Commission. Paul Geary, your guy, he and I are friends and we know each other for many years. And he and I are able to bounce ideas, a very wholesome discussion. He wanted to suggest, before I forget, two things, two amendments. One is the audit, maybe we could do that rather than spend money. Paul and I might be able to take a look at it. And the other was on the CEQA, just to say maybe there's a different way to do it. You guys make the decision. Right.

Go ahead. I know that you use Placer AI to come up with your figures. I know just a little bit, just enough about Placer AI to be dangerous. It's not always accurate. You have to have a smartphone for it to work. Anybody that uses their cell phones at Huntington Beach knows that we're signal challenged around here. And the signal can skew the results. But more than that, your graph was on a downward trend. The HBSC partners, their trend, it's on an upward trend. So I'm trying to make sense of that.

I'm glad you asked this. We can go back to that. little tiny, if we go back to the dollar slide, if you guys could just scroll back to that. So here's sort of backup to that Placer AI data that kind of makes sense. Keep on going back to this, but there, that spreadsheet. So if you look at the parking revenue in 22 and 23, I know it's kind of hard to see, but it's 130, then it goes to 203. And if you can see that top line, I know it's hard to see, but maybe you guys can see it on your monitor. I'll try and highlight it if I can. It's the very top line. So it says parking 130 in 2022, 23, 203 and 23. Then it jumps to 729, 713. That's when we raised the rates 10 times. So we raised it from a dollar to $10 on the weekends, right? A dollar to two. So we raised up the revenue that we would expect to see by 10X. But we only saw a revenue jump of, arguably 300%, 3x to 4x. So that parking revenue kind of makes sense with the Placer AI data. Kind of lines up, we should have seen 10x on parking, or roughly. So we should have been seeing a million, million two, million four, but we're not seeing that. We're seeing seven. So kind of anecdotally, it lines up. My gut says it's probably pretty close. And it makes sense too because we're getting a lot of travel ball in on the weekends. And so those travel ball players are concentrated, not dispersed. So we're getting a concentration of people that stay there all day rather than a flow. So that also kind of backs it up to me. That's my anecdotal thought.

Again, not attacking any of this. I just look for, you know, maybe some inconsistencies from what HBSC says, and of course, you know, they're going to paint a rosy picture, and I'm happy to listen to them. But I've also checked with our people in parks and libraries, and each year, We do more and there's more and more. There's a steady increase in recreational men's and women's softball leagues there. And every year it goes up. And, I mean, the number's huge. I mean, I might be wrong here, but I think we had about 700, 800 teams last year, 900. Does that sound right, Ashley?

I'd have to go back and double-check the numbers. I can do that.

So I'm so glad you brought that up. Okay. I know you would be. A couple of things about that. So HBSC Partners runs our adult leagues. They take all the money in, they keep 84%, and we get 16%, they run them. 30% of the games are played at the sports complex, 70% are played in our parks still. So there aren't, there are a lot of teams playing, but it's not like they're all in the sports complex. They're still distributed, Greer, Murdy, they're still playing the majority of games outside the sports complex.

Excellent.

That's all I got. Thank you.

Any other questions?

I'm happy to... Hello, Mr. Chennault. Thanks for the report. Good stuff. Thorough. The one slide that I think we're both in agreement is the deficiencies in the usage I think will be overcome by the vision of the sports complex operators, and that's the premise behind them wanting to improve it. to bring in better fields, better caliber travel teams, more utilization with the soccer, flag football. None of that's going on right now to any level of measure. So I think we're all in agreement there that we want to build, when I say we, the city wants a world-class environment. And to date, based on the plans I've seen, I think you have a team that's willing to work with you guys and listen and work with us. Did they, in their most recent plan, I know when they presented, I thought they, and they agreed they did a fairly poor job. We talked to them after the fact. The original vision was they were gonna put in about 12 to 13 to 14 million dollars in the turf, build the Rise Academy. I don't know if they changed the name to SOAR, but it was Rise, whatever. They're gonna build that, which would also include the batting cages inside. They were going to... They were willing to take on the cost of the lighting. And a lot of things, maybe it's talk, but I think if we can get them to the table, you know, along with the finance commission, the city, and a team that can kind of move these conversations along. I think everybody has the same goal in mind, more revenue for the city, a better complex for the people using it, and something we can all be proud of. without the city having to put a bunch of money into it. And I know when I spoke to Commissioner Cicerone, there is some benefit as well to whoever inevitably does, for example, put in the turf. I think we have about $5 million capex that would go by the wayside. I don't have my notes here that I took. There would be a net positive there. We would have the water savings that's not even up for argument. It's clearly a savings there. So there's a lot of other things that would factor into the improvements. And I'm not here lobbying for them or for anybody for that matter. I am lobbying for a solution. And I think everybody wants to work on it, and I think we just need some good transparent conversations where three parties are there, finance, operators, and the city, and I think if we can sit down and have those conversations mutually open, I think we can get to a resolution where we can bring something back to the city, to the residents, that with input from all three parties, I think we can come up with a winning proposal.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. So we went to Chino Hills and visited them to see how Chino Hills did this agreement. They have a 20 year agreement with Field of Dreams, or Big League Dreams, my apologies. That company pays everything. and guarantees 500,000 this year, it's going to 600,000 next year. They literally pay all expenses, all capital, all infrastructure, everything. They pay one, but they have the restaurants, they have gates, they don't charge for parking. So they have an agreement where the city literally pays nothing And they get a minimum of $600,000 plus a 9% revenue on top. And my attitude is, we can do better.

Yeah. Two things. One, when I talked to the sports complex operators, they said, we'd love that deal. Give us that deal. So keep that in mind. We can hold them to it. Secondly, how much did the city put into the complex to improve it?

Chino?

Yeah. None. None. okay so there is a difference there i mean i i can guarantee those guys i won't speak for him but if you said um well no this they didn't put anybody in the city didn't so and they're getting the night so if these guys put in 15 million of their own dollars they would probably say let's trim it back a little bit but when we talked about the chino hills because they they held that out as you guys were saying this is the the gold standard they said Give us that deal. Give us 100% control. We'll do that deal. So I think we have a starting point.

Yeah, I would just like to see competition. I think that I'm a free market advocate. And free market always says that competition is going to make a better deal for us, the residents, in the end. And my recommendations, in my opinion, with the rest of the Finance Commission, are out of order. I actually think the very first thing should be input from the residents. go out and ask them what they want.

Because no one's done that. Well, the problem with that is we're still looking for the answer to the Edison Park. It's taken over five years to come out with a plan that everybody can agree on and vote on. I mean, when you... We're not saying don't involve the public, but there's only so much utilization. I don't think anybody's going to propose changing the ball fields. You know, that's the core thing. So there's not a lot of input on, hey, do you want to... change all the baseball fields and turn them into, you know, so I think that's already kind of settled. I don't know why anybody would want to go through that.

You would get pushback on the turf, talking to the residents, and I think they're going to say, this is my guess. You're going to get a lot of feedback where they don't want that. And I talked to a company called Turf Fresh that manages turf. That's what they do. They go out and they like, every year they were doing San Juan Capistrano's fields. So I asked them, what would this take to take care of these fields every year? And they said 150 to 200 roughly, 23 acres. And one of the things they have to do is take a magnet every year and get all the metal out of it. Because during the year, kids play on it, and it's like carpet, right? And so they have to do special things. And I asked Ryan Gale, who's one of the partners, how do you guys plan on doing this? And he said, well, we'll just do it with our staff. So the thing that I'm worried about is that if some occurrence happened out there, which has already happened, where we're involved in a lawsuit in the past, and a kid gets injured and that turf wasn't taken care of properly, we're liable.

Well that can happen right now in the outfield which they're not reliable, they're not liable for. That already happened. Yeah, so there you go. And they're not even liable for the outfield. Somebody turns his ankle and wants to sue the city. With that said, the beautiful thing about where we're at right now is we have a much more business savvy council up here so all these things that are nuanced can all be defined in a lease by definition or operating agreement.

It starts with a proposal.

Yeah, I get it. But I don't think we need to worry about the minutiae right now. Like, are they going to use a magnet? We'll dictate what we want as a city, and we'll define it in the terms of the agreement.

But all we have right now is a PowerPoint that's loose at best. No financial projections.

Well, they have financial projections. Maybe they didn't want to show them to you. I've seen them. They look pretty strong. So, like I said, let's organize. Well, I don't know what we're doing here. Nice report. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any other questions?

Yeah, Dave, I've got one. Yeah. And I'll... I'm sorry. Right now you're showing about a 6.4 over five, six years loss. Yeah. And that's just from

So if you look at each year, you can see how much we have the revenue less expenses. So the revenues right there at the red arrow, top red arrow. So like 22, 23, we got 257 in total revenue between the parking and the revenue share rent. That's what we got as checks.

Yeah, every year it looks like it's gotten a little better.

Yeah, it would, right? Because they're managing it, they're starting to bring it up, right? But then we gotta pay these bonds off, and those bonds are not cheap, right? Look at those numbers, 717, 694, 681, these are big numbers we're paying every year, right? And then you've got capital, and the LED has to be done, because you can't buy the light bulbs. That's how they do it. The state, oh, can't get the light bulbs. So they have to do this. And they're not cheap. You can see the numbers. The turf that we had to do, the pumps, the driveway, it adds up.

yeah all right well i just i'll tell you i you guys are an amazing resource and i you guys i value the hell out of you the work you guys do i've seen other things and i greatly appreciate everything you guys do you guys are volunteers and i think you had a parking pass every year and that's about it but i i think you guys are great and i appreciate the work you guys do well we thank you guys for letting us do it

Couple quick questions here, just I'll try and be brief and quick. So I'm trying to hone in on patterns with your numbers. So when you said 300%, theoretically, when they 10x'd on the cost of the parking, but it was only 300%, theoretically, it should have been 1,000%. I mean, is that causation or correlation, in your opinion? Do you feel as if perhaps the increase in the price drove people away, or was it kind of random?

So if, again, this is pure speculation on my part. If I had to guess, I think it's a combination of people parking in other places and coming in, taking bigger vehicles in to save. They don't want to bring individual cars, they'll bring a van. And then it might just be a decreased usage because that place where AI kind of showed that it was coming down a little bit. It's not like crazy down, but they're concentrating. These are travel ball teams that are, they're there all day instead of you might get more people if you had more flow. Like if someone sat at your, and camped at your table all day, in a restaurant, you're not gonna get as much flow through. It's the same idea. They have this set group of people that come in the morning at eight and leave at eight o'clock at night. They're not flowing through, you're not getting the flow through, open field situation. That's what I think's doing it.

Lower turnaround. And then you mentioned when you and Councilman Kennedy were chatting about the Field of Dreams, big league dreams, was that, you said that the vendor did put up the cost or the city put up the cost in the project over there?

The city built a sports complex similar to what we did. I think theirs was 16 million. They had it. And it was not doing well. And then they were very unhappy with it. They went out and got this vendor who said, it needs to have some upgrades. I think they put a couple million into it. They did the upgrades. And they said, we're going to cover all costs. and we will guarantee a minimum rent and then a 9% kicker on top. They pay everything. Electricity, water, capital, infrastructure.

Okay, so the vendor invested.

The vendor covered that cost.

Okay, got it.

If you want to talk to them, we can invite them and they can tell you what they did.

And then another question, you know, it's interesting. We talk about talking to the public and then you know, to the point that there's going to be a million different opinions. I think the one opinion that we have taken away is the batting cages, which kind of triggered this to begin with, right? The batting cages were the universally accepted activity over there. So did you notice in any of the numbers that when the batting cages stopped that there was a significant decrease or no?

So yeah, I mean, the batting cages we're bringing about, for us, it doesn't make that big a difference because we only get 16%, 14%. And actually, before I forget, it's gonna go to 18% next September, the revenue share on the next tier. So when they keep saying 15, it's going to 18. But on the batting cages, we just get 16%, so over 100,000, it's only 16,000. They were doing about 120 a year. Now here's an interesting thing I wanna share. At Chino Hills, they have batting cages. But they closed them because they charge admission. Nobody would use them.

Interesting. You said it's going 15% to 18% next year. That's on the step up in the lease.

We're at 16 today. It's going to go to 18 next September by the current contract. And the recommendation that they gave us was drop it to 15. That's what they were offering the city.

OK. And that current contract ends at 2030?

So the way it works is there's three tiers. There's three three-year terms. We're in the fifth year of the middle. We're right in the middle of it. Next year on 9-7-27. we have the option to renew for three more years and it goes up to 18% or we can walk.

Got it.

That's all my questions, thank you.

Do you think because of the price of parking that a lot of people, you had mentioned it and Councilman Gruhl mentioned it too and then one of my astute commissioners sitting up there in the audience texted me so I can't take total credit for this question. Do you think that the price is driving people that drive there on weekends with their kids for Little League, that they go park at the library where it's free?

1,000%.

Thank you. I see it. We have to figure that one out. Thank you.

Any other questions?

I'D LIKE TO JUST KIND OF MAYBE ROLL THROUGH WITH THE COUNCIL UP HERE IN TERMS OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WERE PRESENTED TO US ON THE OFFICIAL CITY POWERPOINT SLIDES.

YEAH, AND I ACTUALLY HAD AN ASK, AND THAT WAS YOU GUYS TO ADOPT THESE.

YEAH.

IT'S KIND OF THE ASK.

AND SO JUST KIND OF GOING ONE BY ONE OUT OF THE EIGHT OF THEM, WHEN IT COMES TO THE FIRST ONE, I GUESS CITY ATTORNEY looking at the type of development that is being envisioned. Can you put them on the screen? Yeah, it would be good if we could pull those up.

You're looking for the recommendations, so if you just scroll down, you'll get to them.

And before we go on, keep in mind, again, we're in a study session, so we're not voting on anything tonight to adopt recommendations or anything else. We're on its H item. Oh, we're on its H item?

No, no, no, we're not. We just kind of married the two.

Either way, we're not voting on it tonight. Yeah, so he may, I think he knows. But I mean, if you guys could look at these and if you say, yeah, let's do it, then I agendize it and let's.

Yeah, we can do that at a later date. I mean, basically, you know, appreciate the report.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so they don't need any direction from us tonight? You can get direction, but not vote.

It's the same as the study session item. How do we give direction without a vote as a council, as a body?

You just discuss amongst yourselves and staff will listen to you and come back with an item.

Okay. I guess I'm trying to figure out if we have like five people that, you know, or three people that are in disagreement. I don't know. How do we give direction if we're not taking some type of vote?

Yeah, staff will listen to the dialogue and come back.

Great. All right. So my first question, I guess, to City Attorney on point number one on the recommendations. when it comes to a development of the scope with the artificial turf and possibly building this indoor facility do you think that would require some type of CEQA analysis before we start that type of development?

I believe we would need CEQA analysis on if it's considered a project which this would be we would need to do CEQA

Okay, so I guess, you know, along the lines of what the Finance Commission has recommended, I would be in agreement with that recommendation. I don't know if anyone would be opposed on the dais.

But that's a legal requirement. It's not something that the council would direct.

Sure, okay.

There is one thing that Jennifer and I talked about today a little bit and about this is one thing to ask. So we were saying that HBSC should pay those CEQA costs. And I wasn't sure if that's normal, so I asked her, Jennifer, do you wanna comment on... How does it normally work on projects? This is public property, right? So it's a little wonky. But when people have to do these CEQA studies, how does that typically work?

Private development projects pay for their own CEQA documents, usually through a reimbursement agreement to the city, since the city's the lead agency for CEQA. On a public project, it's a city council decision.

Yeah, so you guys would just decide, are they going to pick it up or is the city going to do that for the studies that are required for this?

On recommendation number two, issuing an RFI, was anyone opposed to that request for information and putting that out there? Just kind of getting a sense from maybe the public in terms of what they would like to envision here. There's obviously a lot of ways that we could skin the cat.

So just to clarify, RFI goes to vendors. Correct. And RFI stands for request for information. So we just throw a wide net out to people to say, hey, if you had the opportunity to work on this area in this sports complex, what would you do? And just see where they come back. But this would be also, you know, get one from HBSC partners, obviously, as well. It's not a commitment. It's more of an information gathering tool.

And then speaking to number three, how did you guys come up with all upgrades must follow city procurement rules?

Yeah, that's a good question. So if you scroll down just a little bit. Thanks for your patience on this. The idea was that the concern was the following. If we're gonna do millions of dollars worth of capital asset intensive upgrades out there, which it sounds like we wanna do, the worry was that that money would go through non-transparent pathway let's just say into a public asset and the thought was it would be better if we were to have whoever does this work work through our typical procurement process so there's competitive bidding transparency because it's ours right we own the sports complex so if we're going to build a new soar academy or whatever that that should go through the normal processes we have for bidding and all the things that we have to do as a city because it's it's not like it's a piece of private land it's like we own this it's ours so if we just say hey go go crazy how do we know that they're getting the best deals now if they were going to pay for everything that would be a moot point so it is an interesting idea they have of transferring the money that is coming in and putting that into this. So I understand your point. It's a point well taken. I think it's a point to think about. Would we be okay as a city to say, go for it, whatever you do? Or would you rather see the city have oversight into how they're procuring possibly 15, $20 million worth of improvements? It's a point for discussion. Your point's well taken. And then Commissioner Schultz.

If I could jump in, I think at this point it's a deal point that we could look at, but it may also be a legal requirement depending on how the deal is structured that they have to go through, especially if it's determined to be a public works, a typical charter public works contract.

Yeah, so I think there's so many nuances. I think rather than do this, we should have breakout groups with city manager, legal, community development, community libraries, whatever, in groups of three, kind of like what we do for council briefings, so that all the questions can be addressed, notated, no Brown Act violation, but rather than, we're not gonna be able to sort anything out right now because there's nuances to everything and we need elaborative answers, so it's kind of a futile exercise. I think we should meet in groups, get detailed answers, meet then with the finance commissioners, share that, bring in the sports complex, You know, all this stuff could be happening simultaneously. We could be reaching out to the sports complex and say, we need a more finite proposal. We need to see real projections. While you guys are meeting with different groups and we're getting our questions answered on this very thorough report, addressing them bullet by bullet, We have Jennifer here. So the sports complex guys are putting finite information that can be digested and discussed, shared with the finance commission. So they're formulating additional follow-up positioning and questions. Rather than trying to figure it out right now, because like you said, everything you said, it's a little nuance. That could be this. It seems like we're way ahead of it right now. Yeah, it's complex.

But just to put a scope on it, they told us $2 million a month is their goal. So if you do two million a month times 12 months, that's 24 million a year in revenue times 20 years. We're talking real money, half a billion is what they're talking about. So this is major and we need to be careful is my guidance as a finance commissioner. Be very careful because they're talking real money here. Understood.

But nothing's going to happen without binding documents that are well-defined.

I'm just saying the scope, this is a big deal. Understood. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so Mayor and City Council, so maybe, so on some of these items, we are looking into it from the CEQA standpoint for what it would be required from the scope of work we're talking about, and some of these others, so we could as staff, and not, we can continue to go through these and kind of discuss them, But from this discussion, staff can prepare, update those, prepare that, bring it back to council members, council briefings, talk with the Finance Commission, their subcommittee, and then come back as we refine each of these. Talk to Sports Complex. Works for me. Sports Complex.

Okay, I think I can simplify it then. Maybe just any objections to these recommendations? Does anyone want to torpedo any of them? Are we okay with staff pursuing them? And then we'll discuss them, like you said, in these sort of, these breakouts. Are we okay with all eight?

This seems reasonable for, certainly for discussionary reasons. We have time.

We have until next September. So we have some runway to work through this. It's not like we have to do it tomorrow. So we're good.

All right. Well, thank you so much, Commissioner Chennault, for presenting that. Well done, hard work.

Thank you. All right, moving to a consent calendar. Does anyone want to pull an item?

Motion to move.

Second.

All right, motion and second to move consent calendar items 19 through 25.

Items 19 through 25, Councilman Grohl?

Yes.

Councilman Kennedy? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Twine? Yes. Mayor McKeon? Yes. Councilman Burns? Aye. Councilwoman Vandermark? Yes. Councilman Williams?

Yes.

Consent items pass 7-0. All right.

Moving on to item 26, introduction of the proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association. Staff, please introduce the report.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Our Assistant City Manager, Marissa Sir, will provide the staff report.

All right. Good evening, Mayor McKeon and members of the City Council. The administrative item before you this evening is the introduction of the proposed memorandum of understanding between the City of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association. Pursuant to the Myers-Millius Brown Act, which governs employer-employee relations for California local governments, the City and POA began negotiating the terms of successor MOU in anticipation of the expiration of the previous MOU, which expired June 30th. The tentative agreement was reached in July and is presented for council consideration for formal review and consideration at this time. Note that pursuant to City Ordinance 4154, the item tonight is an introduction. The proposed MOU will tentatively be placed on the September 1 City Council agenda for formal vote. So getting into the key terms of the TA, they include a three-year agreement with base salary increases July 1 of each year of the agreement as follows, 2026, 8%, 2027 4%, 2028 5%. City medical contribution increases in January one of years two and three of the MOU would be an increase of $75 per month for employee only, $150 per month for employee plus one, and $200 per month for family coverage. The total projected cost pursuant to the terms of the TA is roughly $9.8 million. Since this is the introduction of the TA and proposed MOU, the recommended action for this evening is simply to receive and consider the proposed MOU. And with that, we're available for any questions.

Thank you, Marissa. Any questions? Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. So, as in life, you know, there's a couple of things that are true. Many things are true, but Two things can be true at the same time. Number one, I fully support our public safety unequivocally. I believe we have incredible law enforcement, incredible fire, marine safety. But I also believe that my job, my fiduciary responsibility is to our taxpayers. I want to just go through these 10 slides. I'll do it quickly like Mr. Chenault did, just touch on some different things. I just get a little summary. One thing I want to address, they make recommendations. This came to me from a finance commissioner, this deck, not just to me, it came to a couple other council members, it came to our city manager, it came to our treasurer, and because I guess maybe you can only send it to three people, I don't know, but we're going to go through it right now.

Quick point of order, just a point of order question, just for clarification. So this is not staff produced generated data up here? Correct. This is, okay, someone in their individual capacity that passed this along.

Right, but I did verify the numbers are factual. They were vetted by our treasurer's department. Um, so that's, that's a given with that said there was, you know, they make recommendations and I wanted to make this one statement. One of the recommendations was to close three fire departments. Just from a personal standpoint, because I'm the one that introduced this deck, I just want to go on the record and say I would never support closing the fire stations. So I just wanted to make sure, because I think there's a little bit of a shock wave from those who read that. So as the one that brought it forward, I want to let you know that me, I won't speak for anybody here, would never support that. OK. So let's just go through these slides real quick. I want to say something real quick, because in the end, I believe our finance commission is incredible. Every time they produce reports, it's thorough. And when Commissioner, the chairman, Mr. LaGrasso, made the recommendation that he believes that finance has the opportunity to take a look at this, I 100% unequivocally agree with the chairman, Mr. LaGrasso. So that's kind of the reason I wanted to share this information. So we'll go through these slides quickly. No big operation. You can just get the first slide right there. This just basically shows a pie chart. Anybody can dig into these later. I think it was attached to the agenda. This is a pie chart showing where the monies are spent. So if you go to the next slide, let me see what you got. You know, this is from Transparent California. This is just showing somebody once said, hey, we want to show respect to our law enforcement. And I said, respect doesn't have to be paid for. I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, fire, marine safety. But that doesn't mean if I'm not in a position to want to allocate a big chunk of public dollars that I don't respect our our public safety. so this is just the top 50 people this is this this represents 20 million dollars a year in the top 50 people so if respect was determined by wages i would say we respect our law our public safety because 50 people equate to 20 million dollars annually in payroll next slide this just shows The top 50, just a reiteration, base wage, overtime. So I believe, personally, we have a problem with the overtime. I would love to see our public safety figure out a way to, I understand some of it has to be accrued, but we have an enormous amount of OT. I also want to touch on one thing. So the one gentleman from the police department since something was so valuable, he said one law enforcement officer equates to, um, a lot of good public safety metrics. Now we have 196, uh, sworn right now based on a report that came from the P. O. A. But we funded 214 or 211. We have 15 open seats that are fully funded. Now the public said, hey, we were cutting our police. No, what we did was we took some unfunded wrecks and took them off the budget because they were a placeholder and they were costing our budget an allocation. But we have 211 fully funded positions of which we have either 196 or 198. We have anywhere from 14... 12 to 14 fully funded positions that they haven't filled. So, you know, and they're going to say it's hard to fill. I don't think money's the issue on why we're not filling. We're clearly paying our law enforcement very well. So if you can go to slide four.

A lot of these are just... Can I get a point of order real quick? Is that all right, Mayor? Yeah. So you said that you had verified these numbers. Did you bother to sit down with the fire chief or police chief to verify these numbers or get any context on them?

Well, I sat down with- Chief Park? With the treasurer.

Did he go over these slides with you? No, I didn't. Are there any inaccuracies that you see in these slides, sir?

I haven't had a chance to look at these in depth, so I can't. Talk about significant inaccuracies, but I haven't had the opportunity to discuss this with anybody.

67% of our general funds spent on public safety, that's factual, it's from the budget book, is that correct, Mr. Treasurer?

That would seem correct from a budget book.

Okay. Transparent California, 50 of the top earners from Transparent California equate to $20 million. That doesn't need to be fact-checked. You can do the math. Right here, the overtime, the wages, basically the top 50 people, the average, it says here in slide two, 401,000 total average compensation. That's mathematical. That didn't need to be verified. So on the next slide, slide three up here, So our projected deficit, we've heard about it. It's $15 million. I think that's been verified. They're talking about the overtime spending, fire, police, and other, roughly $18 million. I think we've all talked about that, and we've seen those numbers have been justified. Their assertion was if you could cut that in half, you could cut the budget deficit in half. Some OT can be avoided. Some is necessary. I get it. So, so far, let's go to slide four. And this, again, just shows that the majority of our OT is actually coming from our top earners, the people that are really in command and not on the streets. I believe that's their job. So there's a huge surge in OT. So that's slide four. Slide five is basically just showing that we basically, in 2023, The previous council awarded a contract that was known as a legacy contract, one that was going to bring everybody up to par and put them in a position to get laterals, attract new talent. And we received a document from the POA that said it really wasn't quite working that well. MY BELIEF IS WHEN YOU RAISE YOUR WAGE, SO DOES EVERYBODY ELSE. EVEN CITIES THAT ARE FACING REAL FINANCIAL PROBLEMS AREN'T AFRAID TO CONTINUE TO SPEND UNTIL THEY'RE GOING TO BE LOOKING AT POTENTIAL BANKRUPTCY. SO WE GAVE A LEGACY CONTRACT. NOW THAT LEGACY CONTRACT IS THE EXPECTATION. IT'S NOW THE NORM. SO MUCH FOR WHAT I WOULD CALL THE LEGACY CONTRACT. SO ON SLIDE SIX. This basically was just showing, I tried to do a little bit of cursory investigation. It says standard municipal model, Huntington Beach model. Some AIs said we're a little over the top, but I didn't get enough information to really go elaborative on this slide. I believe it's fairly on point. We do have a lot of OT that I think, based on what I did in my research, we're really ahead of the standard municipal model. Slide seven basically is just a reiteration of the top earners. You know, our top earners are basically, we're number three behind Anaheim and Irvine. 50% of the OT is an outlier. 30 to 40% is more on the regional norm. So my takeaway on this slide was, you know, in any contract, we need to figure out a way to try and reel in some of the OT because it is expensive. The next slide, eight, it's more about OT, but it's referencing fire, and tonight we're talking about police. Slide number nine is talking about restoring economic solvency, infrastructure sacrifice. It says we're basically outpacing our peers. So it is, you know, you'll see in a minute the projected budget deficit over the next five years is absolutely enormous. I think it's going to add up to about $170 million. So it's no longer, hey, we're forecasting an $8 million deficit. We ended up with a $1 million surplus. When you see these numbers that are undisputed, they came from the finance. It also came from the city. they're about $170 million. So if we go to slide number 10, the costing survey on the new contract, you know, year one, basically what this summarizes is this is going to cost us $20 million a year by the time we get to year three, because if you had $100 million budget and the next year you were at 104, the next year you were at 106, so for two years you're at 210, and then you add another 10. So in the year three, you're basically $320 million, so it's $20 million per year that carries forward because it's incremental in regards to the cost increase. In slide 11, it's just a reiteration, basically saying the new MOU could cost us $20 million a year over the next 30 years, and that amount increases substantially. If FHIR asks for a similar contract, it could take substantially higher. um so the five-year uh basically forecast on the the budget deficit is this supported by our treasury department fiscal year 26 27 let's just round it up to 19 million 27 28 we can round that up to 27 million 28 29 we can round it down to 34 million 29 30 we can round it to 44.5 um fiscal year 30 31 47 6. so you add up those five years you're talking about over the next five years $172 million budget deficit. And the only way we cure budget deficits, we're going to try and drive additional revenue. But the city put together some forecasts over the next four years of a 10% growth rate. And talking to the treasurer and the CFO, even if we did grow at 10%, which incidentally, we've been essentially flat over the last five to six years in growth. It's been, you know, maybe 100 basis points, 105 basis points, nowhere near 10%. There's no possible way we will ever be able to cover this deficit with new revenue. We're going to do things to try and drive new revenue. but we have to be serious about this budget deficit. It's massive. It's for real, and it's not going to go away, and we're not going to be... Basically, if we have to go into the reserve funds every year like we did last year, or maybe we didn't, and we thought we did, and we came up with a million-dollar surplus, but when you're trying to make $18 million, $30 million, $35 million, $44 million go away, if you're going into those reserve funds You will be spent out. You will be depleted in five years. And that's not just chicken little, hey, the sky is falling. These are real things we need to address. Again, two things can be true at the same time. I can love public safety and think we have an incredible job. Crime is down. Homeless is down. People love Huntington Beach. Fire department, best of the class. I tell them all the time, there's nobody better than our fire department. but I still have to be a fiduciary with our public tax dollars. And when you're looking at $170 million budget deficit that everybody's in support of in regards to accuracy of the forecasted deficit, we better be taking a real look at what we're going to do, starting with these contracts. So the five-year forecast, same thing. That's the last slide. So I'm going to make a motion I'd like to make a motion to table agenda item 26, ask the incredible finance commission to create a subcommittee to take a look at the financial impact of this MOU contract to the general fund and provide options to avoid bankruptcy. Not chicken little, sky is falling. It's real if we don't address it. I'd also like to direct the city manager and the CFO in conjunction with the city treasurer to prepare a five to 10 year financial analysis of the city's finances and bankruptcy risks in light of the police MOU and other upcoming labor contracts, unfunded pension liabilities and reserve levels, then prepare a series of financial options available for the city council to avoid bankruptcy in the next five to 10 years as it pertains to a financial timeline. So that is my motion.

I was kind of surprised because I definitely, I couldn't believe the numbers on the overtime and I was pretty stoked to see the officers from the POA and some of the other officers come and mention how much the overtime they've been working because I know as a manager I always like I think Long Beach had a policy that the guys had to take some vacation every year they had to take time off because it leads to fatigue mistakes injury and all kinds of other things that overwork can do to you so I was kind of stoked to see you guys recognize that and I don't mind everybody making overtime. I mean, I want to pay as much as we can, but that's the key. I want to pay all our employees as much as we can if we have it. But right now, what's being paying it to us what's being explained to us is we don't have it and rather than give it and hope I'd rather have it prepared and planned that we can pay it I don't want to do it on a a borrow or like I say hope I just man it scares the hell out of me because treasure I'm sorry Isn't there a mandated amount of, we can't piss through all of our reserves. We have to maintain a certain amount, right?

I mean, so I think you have to separate your general fund reserves from your total reserves. So our total reserve pool is, call it roughly $500 million. Our general reserves, I'm going to look at my CFO as well. I think it's 160 right now, give or take. About 100. Okay, so my number was higher from the actual?

No actual reserve requirements. There's recommendations for the GFOA to typically have about two months' worth of the general fund.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought it was a mandate. Okay. But it's not a mandate, but it's smart to have that. uh this man uh the reserves in hand just to be a safe financially sounder city and of course the more reserves we have the stronger we are to PREPARE FOR MAYBE MISTAKES OR DISASTERS.

WE HAVE TO ALSO SEPARATE SO THE AGGREGATE RESERVES CAN INCLUDE OBVIOUSLY AS ALL OF YOU KNOW THE ENTERPRISE FUNDS AND EVERYTHING ELSE. THOSE ARE ALMOST ALL AND I'M GOING TO LOOK AT THE CITY MANAGER HERE BECAUSE WE TALKED ABOUT THIS BEFORE. THOSE ARE ALMOST ALL BOUND BY STATE LAW OR BY CHARTER VOTE OR OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE IT VERY LIMITED IN WHAT WE CAN DO. SO THE GENERAL FUND IS THE PIECE THAT WE TOUCH FOR THINGS LIKE OPERATING EXPENSES.

and the other kind of elephant in the room that i don't i don't know i think we've missed a little bit in referring to is we're talking about huge amounts of money increases in salaries and our our biggest liability just about is our pension liability debt right our pension liability isn't that one of our largest uh we have tons of pension liability and Any kind of increases such as this adds to that, doesn't it?

Yes. Any increases to labor costs would increase in CalPERS liability costs.

See, and that also worries me. So right now, I think there's still so much more we have to look into, like the prep. And especially now, after seeing that report those guys do and seeing others, our finance committee, they do an incredible job It's an amazing job in explaining things and coming up with the facts. I'm going to second Don's motion and just say again, I want to be able to pay all our employees. Public service, I love them. I love our fire. I love our police. But man, I don't like not being prepared to pay appropriately or going to debt doing it. So I want a little more study to see how

maybe we can shift maybe we can form some revenue more revenue and just get a little organized in dot before we dive into such a scary adventure if i may for um for this motion and second the municipal code does require that we bring back in the council vote on the proposed mou within 30 days of the introduction so we were tentatively looking at september first meeting just to keep in mind we would need to bring it back by the 15th the second meeting in september

in terms of time to table it or we could potentially vote on it tonight no no it's not agendized to be voted on tonight okay so you're saying if if if this motion passes we have to come back prepared to vote yes or no by the 15th of september correct is that what you said correct i mean if that's if that's what's required by the charter then that's what's required yep

So, okay, so I just want to put, there's a lot of numbers being thrown out here. I want to throw some of these numbers into perspective because I think we're conflating financial issues all over the city and putting it on the backs of the police officers right now. So $170 million deficit, those are projected numbers, correct?

Correct.

And those are based on assumptions in which we are fully funding each year in the budget the unfilled positions, correct?

Correct.

How many is that right now?

I BELIEVE AROUND 90 TO 95 INDIVIDUALS. I HAVEN'T DONE THE MOST.

90 TO 95. AND HOW MUCH ON AVERAGE IS EACH POSITION?

ABOUT PROBABLY 150.

So 150, so we're talking about roughly 12 to 15 million dollars then easily. So 12 to, so that's how every single year we go in with a budget deficit and then we end up with a surplus is because what we have to do is we have to fund the unfilled positions knowing that the positions aren't going to get filled and then we add that money back to the budget which is in addition to other money that comes in and under expenses but that's probably the lion's share of how in many cases we end up with a surplus, correct?

It's a combination of managed hiring, so you have vacant positions that go unfilled, just like you mentioned, but you also have various other factors, too, where you have adopted projects that may not be going.

Yeah, that's right, I mean, there's multiple mechanisms. So when we're looking out and we're saying $170 million on a projected deficit, we're not taking into consideration the fact that we're going to then ultimately reconcile the budget each year. But the other piece that I want to bring up here is as we're looking at this, we're talking about an agreement at $9 million a year, right? Because a lot of that is health insurance, so it's not 100% . So that's $3 million each year over the next three years. That's $3 million. Now, we budget automatically 3%, correct?

That's what we included in the 26-27 budget.

Okay, so we're budgeting basically $1.5 million a year, because it's about $500,000 per percentage point.

Of the 3%, yes.

So we're budgeting $1.5 million. The ask is $3 million, so the net difference is $1.5 million a year over the next three years. Now granted, I understand there's some compounded increases year on year, correct?

CORRECT. I BELIEVE THE FIRST YEAR WE WOULD ASK FOR AN ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION OF 2.7.

2.7. BEYOND BUDGET.

YES, BECAUSE I THINK THE TENTATIVE AGREEMENT FOR THE FIRST YEAR IS 8% AND WE BUDGET THREE. SO YOU HAVE AN ADDITIONAL 5% THAT YOU GOT TO ACCOUNT FOR AND SO WHICH IS THE 2.7.

SO 2.7 MILLION THE FIRST YEAR AND THE SECOND YEAR AND THE DELTA WOULD BE 1.5, 2 MILLION?

I DID NOT DO THE ANALYSIS FOR THE SECOND YEAR AS FAR AS WHAT APPROPRIATION WE WOULD ASK FOR BUT THAT WOULD BE BUILT INTO THE BUDGET IF THAT'S APPROVED.

SO 2.7 THE FIRST YEAR IS THE LARGEST YEAR SO JUST BASIC MATH WE CAN ASSUME IT'S CUT IN HALF BECAUSE WE GO 8, 4, 5. YES. SO 2.7 CUT IN HALF THEN. LET'S JUST GO DOWN TO 1.5 AND 1.5. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT $2.7 MILLION INCREASE IN THE FIRST YEAR, 1.5 IN THE NEXT YEAR, 1.5 IN THE NEXT YEAR. TO PUT $170 MILLION DEFICIT ON A $2.5 MILLION INCREASE ACROSS OFFICERS of which there's 240 officers. Technically, well, allotted number of officers is 224. That amortizes, you know, somewhat lightly across the entire pool of officers. So, you know, for me, I mean, we all obviously agree that public safety is the most fundamental responsibility we have every single day, but we're competing with police departments throughout Orange County for qualified officers. One of the things that we've talked about extensively throughout this entire meeting is overtime. in the absence of the bodies to fill the positions, we end up with this increase in overtime. I know just from running businesses is that ultimately when you have an excess amount of overtime and you split those positions, you bring in another body, you decrease the overtime. So I would imagine that if we fill these positions, there's also gonna be a decrease in the overtime overall. One other thing I wanna make mention of because it was brought up on multiple occasions about the timing of this agreement and how suspect it is. This agreement, we started this negotiation in November of 2025. I mean, this is legally how the process has to occur and we're actually beyond the point at which this agreement should have been made. So this agreement should have been made, was it July 1st?

It expired June 30th, yeah.

It expired June 30th, so we agreed to rush this and try and retroactively obviously make this agreement come to fruition. So, you know, the timing is the timing. I don't think the election, you know, we can't control that. Legally, the only way in which the labor union can make their agreements is as a group, as a pact, and they're stuck to this specific timeline. But I also want to bring up the fact that if you look at all the other cities right now which I've done right so in Huntington Beach specifically looking at the salaries of police officers police currently account for roughly 30 cents on every dollar or 30 percent of Huntington Beach's general fund right and give or take a percentage point on that based on the way in which people interpret this so to put that in perspective Fountain Valley is around 31 percent Santa Ana is around 38 percent Anaheim is around 39 percent Garden Grove is at 47 percent and Fullerton is 47 percent as well. So the idea that Huntington Beach is devoting some extraordinary share of its resources to policing simply isn't supported by the numbers. And for me, it's all about, okay, this is obviously, look, for us to get into the top five, we did a comparable from the very beginning, and this is important information for the public. The Huntington Beach Police Officers Association was 12 out of 12 in a city-agreed-upon survey survey in base base pay right for the entire county and the survey showed that we were nine out of twelve in total compensation so this agreement would put us just barely maybe on the outside of the top five so the question we have to ask ourselves is we obviously in a perfect world we would want to get the first place because I think Huntington Beach is a law and order city unfortunately we can't get there so it's a tough decision and it's a balancing act that we have to take so keep point of order mayor yeah

On those two facts, Zach, we were never 12 and we were never nine in any discussions and the tables we were shown, that's not where we were placed.

Are you talking about total comp surveys?

in the total comp surveys that we agreed upon to look at in comparing to other cities.

The RLS, bottom of the barrel, 12 out of 12 on base pay and 9 out of 12 on total comp.

I don't have the documents with me to confirm the numbers exactly yet, but I mean, it was the bottom of it with it when it was just base pay and then maybe seventh when we were... Total comp.

9 out of 12 on the RLS. 9 out of 12, yeah.

Well, that's not 12. Like I said, I don't have it with me, but...

It was two different ones. Bottom of the barrel, 12 out of 12 on base pay and 9 out of 12 on total comp.

Well what that shows you is we gave a legacy contract three years ago and everybody else just raised their ways too. It's what I call in the business world a race to the bottom. Can we call the question? There's been a motion and a second.

The thing is, if we're not allowed to talk, you're allowed to do financial bloating.

No, I mean, Chad does it all the time. He interrupts the conversation. He says, point of order, call the question. And then somebody says, time to vote. No need for personal insults, Councilman Kennedy.

I would like my opportunity to deliberate as well, just like everybody else. When I say call the question, don't we

You got to vote on it, but I mean, let's just.

You got to vote on the call to question too.

Let them keep talking. It's fine.

Yeah, we should all be able to say something.

So Councilman Gruhl was talking. I think it just kind of got hijacked there a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, generally speaking, the point I'm making is that it's important to put this in context. So I look at it as if we're budgeting, if we were budgeting 3% year on year, right, the delta that we're making up to try and get our police officers into a market in which we can bring in more officers, ideally cut overtime, in addition to the great work that they already do, but I mean, we're lean on officers right now. So we've got to be able to bring people in. It's the free market. I know you say it's a race to the bottom, but it's also the free market working. If we're training officers and then losing laterals to other cities, you know, we're the ones who are actually funding the training for other cities to then pick up the rest of all of their expertise. So for us, it's important about keeping officers, making sure that we can bring in new officers, fill some of these positions, you know, Do I think that it's a phenomenal deal? No. Do I think that it's difficult for the city? Yes. But when we look at it from the perspective of just the money, we can't keep putting all of the onus on the backs of the police officers when there's an entire financial situation that we need to consider. So the $170 million number on the backs of this $1.5 million a year deal I just think that's disingenuous.

It's not on the backs of just police. I talked about the Me Too, the fire is going to come on, all the other unions that are coming on board. This sets a precedent. It tables a baseline. Police and fire, they kind of work in symmetry. So I'm not just saying this is all because of an MOU for the police department. This is all part of a collective process period of time here where we have to make some decisions. Are we able to do this? Are we able to overcome these kinds of deficits? And we've got 15 funded positions that they have not filled and that's been that way for a long period of time.

All right, just kind of going back to the information, the suspect information, I'll say on those slides, I'd like to ask Chief Parra if Councilman Kennedy ever bothered to sit down with you to go over the numbers.

I answered no.

I'm asking Chief Parra. Can I? I'm just trying to get a line of reasoning on the record here, if I could, Councilman Kennedy. And so my question, Chief Parra, did he ever sit down with you to go verify any of the numbers on these slides or get context on them?

I haven't reviewed this with anyone.

Okay.

And then same question to you, Chief McCoy. Did Councilman Kennedy ever sit down to go over these numbers to verify them or get any context from you?

I have the same answer. I haven't reviewed this with anyone.

And so it would seem to be the case that you went to the city treasurer to get justification or validation of these numbers. I guess my question to the city manager, is it not wildly inappropriate to be going to the city treasurer to do the costing on this? Would this not fall into the finance department and the heads of the department with the fire and police?

We do definitely have staff that could provide information.