City Council - Regular Meeting

The meeting please come to order. This is the 04/28/2026 meeting of the Irvine City Council. This is a special joint meeting with the Great Park Board as well. At this time, let me ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Carroll. Here. Councilmember Goh. Here. Councilmember Liu. Here. Councilmember Martinez Franco. Here. Councilmember Cecider. Here. Vice Mayor Mai. Here. And Mayor Agram.

Here.

At this time, I'll turn to city clerk to please advise people both who are gathered here and those who are participating remotely how they might take part in tonight's meeting. Thank you, mayor.

Members of our audience who wish to speak may submit their name into one of the speaker kiosks next to the city clerk or in the main lobby. We also offer the ability to provide live comments via Zoom and submit written comments through our e comment system. For those who wish to participate virtually, visit zoom.us using any web browser or the Zoom app on smartphones or tablets and enter meeting ID 1600434844. The passcode is 272906. You may also dial in by calling (669) 254-5252 or (669) 216-1590 and entering the same meeting ID and passcode.

Those who wish to provide comments via Zoom are asked to enter the speaker queue by raising their hand electronically. The city clerk will call your name and allow you to unmute your microphone at the appropriate time. Those dialing by telephone will be identified by the last three digits of their telephone number. We ask that you please state your name for the record. The time limits for speaker are noted in the posted agenda and are established based on the number of requests submitted.

All requests submitted after the first speaker is called shall receive ninety seconds. Those who wish to provide written comments may do so by clicking e comment on the City Council meeting agenda webpage at cityofrivine.org/ictv. All comments will be provided to the city council as part of the meeting record and will be uploaded to the city's website. For technical assistance with Zoom before or during the meeting, please call (949) 724-6078. For any other questions or assistance, please contact the city clerk's office at (949) 724-6205 or via email at clerkcityofvervine dot org. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you Mr. Carl Peterson our city clerk. At this time we will in a moment rise for the pledge of allegiance. I'd ask you to remain standing after the pledge. We'll then turn to our invocation and I will announce that at the appropriate time. I will turn now to our vice mayor vice mayor James my to please lead us in the pledge those who are able please rise.

Thank you, mayor. Ready? Begin.

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. Please remain standing. Our invocation tonight comes to us in the form of a musical presentation. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce and call forward officer Steven Winslow officer Winslow, thank you from the Irvine Police Department. Officer Winslow was born and raised in Irvine and graduated from California State University at Fullerton.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in radio, TV, and film. He has ten years of law enforcement experience and has served with the Irvine Police Department for almost two years. In recognition of National Police Week, officer Winslow is here now to perform our national anthem. Thank you, officer Winslow for joining us this evening.

Why don't you just stand where you were? And while we're standing, we'll take a nice picture here,

and you'll be able to put it in your album as a keepsake forever. All right? There we go. Thank you again. Please be seated.

All right. We we next move on to presentations. I believe I should come down to the podium here for no, I think we need to take a vote first. Thank you. Let's turn to presentations tonight, items one point one and one point two. Will the clerk please identify item 1.1.

Thank you, mayor. Item 1.1 is a proclamation recognizing May 2026, as National Police Week.

And now I think I should come down. Right? Once we have a vote.

After the vote. That'd be great. Thank Do you,

we have any requests from citizens to be heard?

We do not.

That being the case, I'll move adoption of item 1.1 regarding National Police Week. Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded. Will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Carroll. Yes. Councilmember Go. Yes. Councilmember Liu. Yes. Councilmember Martinez Franco.

Yes.

Councilmember Trusieder.

Yes.

Vice Mayor May. Yes. And Mayor Agram. Yes. Carries seven-zero.

All right. Let me step down for a moment. This proclamation concerns national police week proclaiming May '16 of this year as National Police Week. And our first presentation this evening is this proclamation. At this time, it's my pleasure to call forward Irvine's police chief, Michael Kent.

Please come forward, police chief Kent. And members of the police honor guard, that's your responsibility. Go to it.

What?

Just you? What happened to them? No overtime tonight? Alright. Okay.

Well, thank you for being here. Let me just say a further word or two. Each year during the month of May, memorials for the police officers killed in the line of duty are held in state capitals across our nation and in Washington DC. For many years the Irvine police department has sent representatives to the California Peace Officer Memorial in Sacramento and the National Peace Officer Memorial in Washington DC. The city of Irvine recognizes those officers throughout the nation who have sacrificed their lives in service to their communities.

On behalf of the Irvine City Council and a grateful Irvine community we thank all of our public safety officers for the vital service they provide by protecting our residents businesses and visitors and keeping Irvine one of the safest cities in America. So it's now my pleasure to read and present this then have you say a few words if you wish. Incidentally this the solemnity associated with this officers killed in in duty. How I think how we've done his historically as I recall, we've had no officers killed in more than fifty years. That's quite a record.

Let's keep it that way. Alright. Whereas the president and congress of the United States have designated May 2026 as national police week which coincides with peace officers memorial day on May 15 and whereas the members of the Irvine Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of those living and working in the city of Irvine and whereas it is important that all citizens know and understand the duties, hazards, and sacrifices of their law enforcement agency and that members of our law enforcement agency recognize their duty to serve and protect the people. And whereas the men and women of the irvine police department in partnership with the community worked tirelessly to maintain the City Of Irvine as the safest city in the nation with a population of over 250,000 people. Now therefore the city council of the city of Irvine does hereby proclaim May 2026 as national police week and urges all citizens to commemorate law enforcement officers past and present who have dedicated their professional lives to uphold the law and ensure public safety.

The city council of the city of irvine further calls upon residents and employees of Irvine to observe 05/15/2026 as pope peace officers memorial day in honor of those law enforcement officers who, through their courageous actions, have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community. So chief, let me present this to you, ask you if you wish to say a few words and then we'll invite the whole council down and take a picture, all right?

Good evening. My name is Michael Kent. I'm humbled and honored to serve as the chief of police for the finest police department in our country. And national police week is very significant to law enforcement, to American law enforcement. And a lot of us that are in the profession or have been in the profession for many years and decades have had a lot of experiences that live with you for forever even after your career is done in retirement.

One of the more memorable moments for me is going to Washington DC in years past or even a Sacramento memorial and standing with family members and loved ones of those that have lost their loved ones in the line of duty. And there's really no experience that could ever top that for me at least professionally. And for us to be able to go stand side by side with some of the other police departments, whether it's in the state of California or in Washington, D. C. Representing the other 50 states, it's truly an honor.

And on behalf of the men and women of the Irvine police department, just want to take a moment and thank mayor a grin and the rest of city council for your continued support, not just of the men and women of the police department but the law enforcement profession as well. It is our absolute honor and I'm humbled to accept this proclamation on behalf of all of us. Thank you so much.

All right we'll move now to item 1.2. Will the clerk please identify this item by subject?

Thank you, Mayor. Item 1.2 is a quarterly Great Park update.

All right. At this time, we might want to remind also those who are watching from home, this would be the appropriate time if you wish to comment to raise your hand electronically to enter the speaker queue. Do we have any requests on this item?

No Mr. Mayor.

None so far. We'll keep the queue open for the time being. Please, Mr. Torelli, introduce yourself and your colleague and we are looking forward to your report.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Great Park Board and City Council. Steve Trilli, director of Great Park. And with me today is Brian Plivka, manager of Great Park. I just have a brief Great Park update.

We try to do these about quarterly, so we were due and did not want to miss this one or push it. So I'll try to keep it under five today for you. So as everybody is familiar, this is the overall Great Park framework plan and we've had a really busy first quarter and appreciate the council's leadership and direction on helping us move forward so many of the important projects that have been awarded during the first quarter. We did a budget recap to the Great Park Board here in February and we'll be back in June with the updated Great Park twenty six-twenty seven fiscal year budget. We also awarded projects for the operations and maintenance facility, Loop Road infrastructure, cultural terrace site utilities in about a month ago for the Northern Sector demo, which is really exciting because we're going to start to see activity really all the way from Cadence to Marine Way here over the coming weeks.

The second quarter look ahead on tonight's agenda, we have two items for CIP award on the calendar. One of them is Lot Sixseven Connection, is going to vastly improve the connectivity between the parking lots right off of Marine Way and create a traffic situation where we have people making a lot of U turns and making a lot of roundabout ways to get into lots when they're full. We also have the Perimeter Park rough grade, which dovetails really nicely onto the Northern Sector demolition contract that was awarded last month. That work is going to be underway here on Thursday for the demolition. And we want to have the grading contract ready to go so they can start that grading work just as soon as the demolition contractor is out of the way.

June, again, is going to be a very busy month for us, coming back with the Great Park budget along with Boss Bridge CIP. That's that bridge that crosses Great Park Boulevard right by the Bossk. That's going be a game changer as far as getting people north to south without having to do any great crossings. Hanger 10 project, that's the reconstruction of the historic Hanger 10 in the Great Park. Building 369, that's a project that Stewie and Tim Callahan presented last month, which is the base era warehouse building that we're retrofitting and rehabilitating into that event and community use.

And also bring back some Portent City financial documents to the Board and Council also anticipated in June. So it will be a very busy and lengthy Board meeting that month. As to the framework plan progress, as I said, contractors are mobilizing from Cadence to Marine Way. Going north to south, the work on northern sector, the Arda site demolition will be starting this Thursday. Loop Road will be starting a little bit later.

They're mobilizing, but construction on that phase will start in about a month or so. The Cultural Terrace Utilities is slated to kick off May 11, and the operations and maintenance facility is under construction as we speak. Also, our partners, Flam, is taking material delivery starting next week and they anticipate starting construction on June 1. And Protensity is readying for construction as soon as all the financial documents have been finalized and have been approved by the City Council, which we anticipate hopefully will happen in June. Looking out a little bit further into the calendar, we have a lot of work ahead of us over the next few years.

A lot of those projects that were ordered in February are long throw projects, twelve, fourteen, eighteen months. So we have a couple more large ones coming forward and then it's really going to be an effort to complete those projects, finalize the design of that final landscape package to start doing the second phase or final phase of many of those projects. So in the third and fourth quarters, we will be coming back with the lake project. They'll probably be coming back in September, I would imagine. That's to start the infrastructure that's needed to support the lake.

The Perimeter Park landscape, that's the next phase of the Perimeter Park grading, as I say, will start as soon as that demolition is done. It's estimated to take two to three months and we want to make sure we're ready to go with landscape right after that so we can beautify that edge right now that is kind of that ugly edge off a cadence that directly interfaces with the neighbors to the north. It's the last remaining edge to the community that's unfinished. And also Western Sector Streets, if you've been out there, there's a lot of mulch. It looks very unfinished.

It's been that way at as long as I've been with the great park in the City Manager's Office, so about ten years. And so we'd like to get that kicked off and underway. And I think we're going to have that ready to recommend award coming in probably July. With that is my presentation. Certainly happy to take any questions that the Board and Council have.

Let me invite my colleagues here to pose any questions to Mr. Torelli if you wish. I see no requests. Let me just say that I and I think others are very, very impressed with all the progress that's being made in connection with the great park. Could you just take a moment to review again since we were out there during arbor day and had some tree plantings and so forth the magnitude of the tree planting program that is underway now?

So total in phase one we have several thousand. In the immediate, like the next year, about 600 to 800 in the BOSS and another probably 100 to 100 in the sorry, 100

to 150

in the BOSS and about 600 to 800 in the Perimeter Park. And then after that, we've done the council awarded a growing contract with Southwinds Nursery a few months ago. So they're doing the contract growing for several thousand trees to populate the Loop Road area, the Cultural Terrace and some of the other areas within the park that will be landscaped a little bit beyond that twelve month period.

And I think out there I heard the number that right now or in the immediate future there are about 4,000 trees in the ground?

That's correct.

And ultimately we're talking about something approaching 20,000.

I don't have that number off hand but that sounds about right.

All right. Well, again, I just think the progress has been remarkable and we're looking forward to an exciting springtime and summer at the Great Park. Without further ado, thank you. And this is a receive and file item. No request to be heard right? No mayor. With that I don't think a motion is necessary. Thank you gentlemen. Much appreciated. All right.

At this time, we'll turn to the city clerk for public comments on non agendized items. This is listed on our council published agenda as public comments for non agendized items. Estimated start time 05:30 we're a few minutes ahead of schedule this is the opportunity for citizens to speak to issues not on the published agenda but nevertheless within our subject matter jurisdiction allowing people to offer comments not only to those of us who are gathered here but those who may be watching at home or at their offices as well. With that I'll turn to the city clerk and ask whether we have a request to be heard under public comments for nonagendized items.

Thank you mayor we have 11 requests to speak.

11 requests. Don't we leave the queue open but I'd ask speakers to limit their remarks to two minutes if possible. And if you need a few extra seconds, you can let me know. We'll leave the queue open for just a little bit and see whether others come in. With that, would you call the first speaker, please?

Thank you, Mayor. If I could call forward Gil Nelson, Susan Sayer, Alan Meyerson, Sanand Baran Bayar, Jason Garfield, Joanne Slabodian, and Lisa Wood. And we'll start with Mr. Nelson.

My name is Gil Nelson. Welcome, My name is Gil Nelson and I've been a Woodbridge resident and homeowner for almost fifty years. During the last couple of weeks I become aware of the fact to my utter surprise and astonishment that my councilwoman miss Franco has not been truthful to the residents of my district to this city council to all Irvine residents by disclosing that her daughter has worked for the Irvine company for twelve years while she is voting 11 times in the last twenty minutes twenty minutes 20 meetings that she has served on the city council. I think that is outrageous. It may not be a violation with the federal or with the fair political practices commission of section eighty seven one hundred and I realize our city attorney has talked to the FPPC and I'm not sure what they've told him and our city manager on that.

But as a citizen who is filing a complaint, was encouraged by the FPPC yesterday to file a complaint. I intend to do that. I intend to contact the ethics commission for the county of Orange. I just can't understand how you miss Franco would not tell us why you're voting on these projects that my daughter works for the Irvine company but it's not importance. That in itself you ran on transparency you told us you're going to be a great person etcetera.

It is beyond an inconceivable. I would hope that all of us now know but mean I personally think you should resign right now. I think you should suspend your campaign and not run-in my district in our district. I'm sure there's other persons here in our district who feel the same way.

Thank you. Time is up.

Thank you.

Susan Sayer. Welcome.

Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Susan Sayer and I'm a forty five plus year Irvine resident. I' been very proud of how well our city Council has represented the interest of Irvine residents for decades but have come to have serious doubts about council members actions being in compliance with their oaths to represent the interests of Irvine residents. I'm concerned that our elected city council members have failed and are continuing to fail to support and uphold the provisions of initiatives passed by Irvine voters including the initiative creating the Great Park the Veterans Cemetery and the open space initiative which is now of great public concern.

It is interesting to note this is election season and at least three or four of you are running for election or reelection you need voters who can trust you with prioritizing their interests over those of special interests. Question is can everyone trust any of their council members and by default the commissioners that they appoint? Sadly after forty five years of being an irvine voter I can't. Thank you.

You for your comments. Alan mierson. Welcome sir.

Good evening councilmembers alan mierson. Tonight I just want to speak briefly about behavior on the dais. At the last council meeting, Councilmember Treseder stated something like, now that we've heard from the mayor's people, because citizens were making comments in support of the mayor. I felt and I was one of them and I felt disrespected. There have been times, Councilmember Tresidder, where you've packed this auditorium with climate action campaign people who made comments supporting you.

Nobody disrespected them. Nobody said they shouldn't be heard. So I understand that you guys aren't always going to agree with each other, but I would just ask you to do it in a non hostile, non divisive way. Act professionally. Don't act nasty towards each other. There's no reason to do that and it actually accomplishes nothing but division. So show respect to each other. Disagree with each other, fine. But do it in a manner that's professional and nondivisive so that you can at least get things done and maybe compromise with each other to do things better for the city.

Thank you for your comment.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Member. Sinan from University. Today I would like to speak about autism. April was World Autism Awareness Month and because of that I want to share a few thoughts about what our city can do in this area. Autism is not a small issue anymore.

In Orange County, it is estimated that around forty thousand people live with autism. In Irvine alone, the number of estimated to be around four thousand individuals. That means thousands of families in our community are directly affected. The good news is that Irvine is already strong in many areas. We have excellent research and health care institution.

We have therapy center and autism treatment programs. But there is something interesting. Even these strengths, Irvine is not an autism friendly city yet. Other cities are beginning to move in direction, for example Anaheim. Anaheim has developed programs where hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, and parks and museums receive autism awareness training.

They work towards becoming a certified autism destination where visitors and residents with autism can feel more comfortable and supported. But Irvine is not yet on the least autism certificate destination in California. So Irvine deserve that leadership because we are already one of cleanest, most sustainable, most organized, most livable, modern and people friendly city and we should be a leader in this area as well. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Jason Gershfield.

Welcome, sir. Thank you. So I'd like to start by celebrating something positive, which is the fact that the Irvine Company has finally removed the dangerous sign at Cross Creek Apartments, which I've been talking for a while after years of delay. I'm grateful to Councilmember Martinez Franco and her team for putting me in contact with the right people. And I'm grateful to the Irvine Company for acting to potentially save a life, although it shouldn't have taken little old me to push them into doing it.

Unfortunately, it is too late for the city which has become a post apocalyptic wasteland since you voted to approve the zoning, the rezoning last meeting and the few remaining survivors of the massive increase in traffic are roaming the landscape looking for green space. You'll forgive me I had to throw that one in. On a more somber note, I'd also like to draw some attention to the attention of the council and the general public to the increasingly unhinged QAnon adjacent rants of our former mayor, thankfully former mayor Farrah Khan, about elite pedophiles, cannibals, you name it. It is not just concerning but disturbing that someone so mentally unstable could have become the top elected official of this city. At a time of rising polarization and political violence, it is incumbent on public figures to be judicious with their rhetoric and avoid wild hyperbole that unnecessarily raise the temperature.

I disagree with every one of you with the dais on a number of issues, but I believe that you've all demonstrated a base level of professionalism, which our former mayor sadly lacks. I can't imagine any of you going on such unhinged conspiratorial rants. And I hope that every one of you will join me and every sane person in condemning this bizarre rhetoric and conduct.

Thank you for your comments. Joann Slobodian?

Welcome.

Thank you so much. This speech I'm about to give gives me absolutely no joy. I just want you to know. Councilmember Martinez Franco, three serious concerns. If you want to look at me, that would be great. You compared voting on 80 eight-one to voting on segregation and said times change. That was inappropriate and showed extremely poor judgment. You blame traffic on golfers. There are about 200 cars there a day. So guess what? That's not the problem. I've been trying to meet with you since last summer. Still no meeting. When I asked you to review your comments, you called it disrespectful and refused to meet with me. And on transparency, there have been reports your daughter works for the Irvine Company.

If that's accurate, that should have been disclosed. Any votes involving the Irvine Company should be reviewed. For these ethics violations and your failure to represent your constituents, I believe you should step down from office. Councilmember Carroll, you missed the most important meeting in decades for your residents. You should have been there. Then at Quail Hill, you talked about protecting open space in North And South Irvine, and you left us out in Central Irvine. That says it all. You're not showing up for us. You're not speaking for us. If you're running for mayor, Central Irvine will remember, and so will anybody that values open space.

To the full council, last time over 600 emails were sent and more than 100 people showed up. You had the opportunity to hear from engaged residents who showed up for you and you ignored them. It didn't matter. Your minds were made up clearly. So we're changing direction. That's why you're not seeing the turnout tonight. We didn't ask people to show up and send emails because you weren't listening. If you're not going to listen, we're going to find people who will and we're going to endorse them.

Doug Elliot? Thank you for your comments. And now Mr. Elliot. Welcome.

Thank you mayor and good evening council members. I'm Doug Elliott a member of the community and library services commission speaking only for myself. 20 ago a movie called an inconvenient truth warned of the dangers of climate change and the need to take urgent action to mitigate the risk. Irvine has been very fortunate to have on its sustainability commission a world class scientist, Doctor. Kev Abhazadian.

Last week Kev wrote of some inconvenient truths about sustainability in an outstanding Irvine watchdog article. And another great scientist, Doctor. Tresidar, has basically vouched for everything he said. But anyway, as of yesterday, Kev is a former commissioner and I think that's a tragic loss for Irvine. I stand in solidarity with my friend Kev and hope he will be returning to the sustainability commission soon.

But these events point to a larger issue addressed by Randall Lynn in an excellent watchdog article published yesterday. There is a need for commission reform. The public interest is best served when commissioners can exercise their independent judgment on matters within their jurisdiction. The government requires that commissioners feel free to exercise their first amendment rights without fear of retaliation. We definitely need to put an end to the game of election year musical chairs.

It's been disruptive and a costly game we can no longer afford. So I endorse brand suggestions for commission reform, particularly fixed terms and removal for just cause. And I hope that you will seriously consider enacting those reforms. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Mr. Mayor, we have two individuals in person who have a view materials so if I may take the zoom speakers and then we'll come back to them.

Why don't we do that? Go right ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Our next speaker is telephone number 347. 347, you may unmute your mic.

Yes, this is Steve Bond. I'm speaking tonight about the wall of recognition program and a request for investigation by city staff of Anne Hu. Anne Hu was nominated on 03/24/2026 to be on Irvine's wall of recognition by council member Melinda Lu. Melinda Lu must know the backstory associated with this individual as she is a friend of his greatest former City Councilmember Tammy Kim. Melinda Lu states that Ann Hughes sits on various association boards in Irvine and the surrounding cities.

Also mentioned was her teaching for a specific class of people and that's it. However, nowhere does it mention her employment as a public relations officer for No No Do is the company that Tammy Kim lied about to rush through the EV charging deal where the city took a huge loss of approximately $2,000,000 a year in revenue. Ann Hu introduced Tammy Kim to this deal and together they lied about the company and their promises. Melinda Liu also neglected to mention that Ann Hu owns the Peachwood Motel in Oceanside where there is a class action lawsuit against her motel for civil rights violations. Ann Hu is far from an outstanding citizen.

In following the wall of recognition procedures, I finally wrote to the city manager and requested Ms. Yu be investigated by the city staff and brought back to the

council for review and a vote.

I am still waiting for a response to my request. The wall of recognition is intended to honor individuals whose contributions to the city are clear, widely respected and reflective of Irvine's core values, particularly transparency, integrity and service to the public. Based on publicly available information, Ms. Hughes' involvement in matters connected to the city does not meet that standard, in fact, just the opposite. In addition, Ms. Hughes' participation in political fundraising activity connected to then city council member Tammy Kim followed

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Eric Nashanian. Mr. Nashanian, you may unmute your mic.

Thank you very much, mayor and council members. I agree with all the speakers so far except Doug Elliot and Mr. Garfield. What happened last week, two weeks ago with Betty Franco and her comments regarding the Great Park Plan, the Park Plan the Oak Creek Plan. Did you guys listen to that? She makes no sense. The Democrats of Greater Irvine led by Kev Abouzajian and George Drez being the candidate that should fight back fight against Naga. Fight against Naga, she can't even fight against the Irvine Company. In fact, based on what Mr. Garfield says, she appears to be an agent of the Irvine Company and knows who to contact to get things done.

She may be a renter of the Irvine Company. And it's been disclosed that now her daughter's working been there for the last twelve years. This woman does not represent the 5th District. And I'm ashamed of all of you that you would allow the Irvine Company to come into the chambers and help this plan without getting any endorsement or any support from any of the homeowners associations, especially Woodbridge and those are budding the alleged project. You guys are turning your back on the voters. And in addition, miss Franco takes money from a homeland Department of Homeland Security, a a supervisory immigration officer named mister Ficarola. So, you know, I

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Vicki Johnson. Vicki, you may unmute your mic.

Good evening. I'm Vicki Johnson. I'm commenting on a questionable document titled The Climate Crisis Action Report, 04/22/2026, by Professor Kubork Abhajazia, and out of Governor Page Attribution Commissioner, City of Irvine Sustainability Commission, Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCI. This document raises so many questions. The title page attributions could be taken to imply that this document was approved by the Irvine Sustainability Commission and the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Who in these two groups participated in writing this paper and edited? Was the ECI or the Sustainability Committee or the author compensated in any way for this biased document? The document talks about the climate crisis and electricity, but completely omits the California Renewable Portfolio Standard. Every year, the SCE must comply with the California Renewable Portfolio Standards. 60% renewables by 2030, 90% clean energy by the California Renewable Board boiling standards, just like we pay higher gas prices, the cleaner air than the gas.

Ignoring the RPS leads to the strangest arguments in this document, including, quote, trees are not the net. With respect to electricity, this document's numbers appear way, way off. The other big omission is the costs of the solutions proposed in this document. There's no reason whatsoever that SCE has far cheaper rates than the alternative he recommends,

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is telephone number 348. 348, you may unmute your mic. You have ninety seconds.

348, can you hear us? Our next speaker is Irvine resident. You may unmute your mic. You have ninety seconds.

Yeah, good

evening. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Yes. Mayor Egren, there is a pattern here and people are starting to see it. You own Irvine community news and views and over and over that publication is used to blur opinion with fact, shape the narrative, and shift responsibility. You use it to influence public opinion. But the difference now is that the public comes here to City Hall and we hear directly what is opinion. The latest publisher's perspective in your paper follows the same playbook: Attack other council members, control the story, avoid accountability. Meanwhile, we are facing a projected $6,000,000 budget overage.

You're the mayor. That deficit is on your watch. But instead of owning that, your publication is pointing fingers at council members Mai, Tristador, and William Goh. It reads less like news and more like political advocacy. And this is why there is an active FPBC complaint raising concerns about whether this publication is actually news or a political slate.

And now we're seeing that same pattern inside city process. The Chair of the Finance Commission, your appointee, spoke at City Hall on April 14 and stated he represents the Commission, but there was no vote and no official position. Even the City Manager confirmed this. That's not how the commissions work. And when statements like that align

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Jeremy Ficarola. Jeremy, you may unmute your mic. You have ninety seconds.

Yeah. Hello. Jeremy Ficarola. I'm just following in support of Doug Elliman's statements with regard to the shameful removal of Kev Pazovajian from sustainability commission. I think this does follow, as the previous speaker said, a pattern of the mayor losing step with what Irvine residents want and being completely out of touch.

I think in particular, his removal, it was in direct relation to Irvine watchdog, which I'm a volunteer for, and an article I kept posted. I think at this point, there's been so many disappointments from this mayor, a mayor that I've actually volunteered mainly my hours helping him get reelected in previous elections. I'm no longer in support of this mayor, and I'm asking this mayor to step down. Not only not run for mayor again, but I think this is it. This is the last straw. I think he should step down. Thank you.

We'll try three forty eight again. 348, you may unmute your mic. You have ninety seconds.

Yes. Raise your hand if the Irvine company does not support your election. I think they gave most of you money directly or through a secondary source. You're all gonna have a very difficult reelection. You do not seem to represent electorate, but rather represent your own personal opinion. Ms. Lou, what about the support of the Irvine Marketplace apartments? Isn't this the area you represent? No logical person would want that development on top of the existing apartment, 5,000 apartments next to Beckman High School. How much is these running for, miss Lou?

About $4,000 and 600 square feet? How is it to represent your bond? You don't even listen to council meetings. Do you know what active listening means? It looks like you're doing your personal work on the diet. You have great PowerPoints but nothing else in blue. Miss Franco Martinez, you're not qualified to hold office. You only seem to care about your people, not the constituents you are supposedly representing. Eight out of 10 Woodbridge residents do not wanna change it on free. How did you vote?

I am shocked that you did not construe yourself from voting. Then you walked away. Then you commented on segregation. You should

Thank you. Your time is up. If I could call forward Max, followed by Michelle Johnson.

Welcome. Good evening. McCarroll, we missed you two weeks ago and good to see you today. Mr. Mai, I like you and I admire you. And when you vote on this council, your vote almost always reflects my way of thinking. Thank you. But I'd like to play the short video, please.

Hi there. My name is James Mai. I'm a husband, father, business owner, and longtime resident of Irvine. I'm running for Irvine City Council District number three. My campaign is focused on the issues that truly matter to all of us, keeping our streets safe, holding our leaders accountable, fiscal responsibility, supporting our seniors and veterans, maintaining the great schools Irvine is known for, and preserving our parks and open spaces.

Preserving open spaces. So I can't understand how come reduction of open space in the center of our city from 176 acres to 50 helps us to preserve our open space. I can get that. Thank you. I will save that.

Amen. Michelle

Johnson.

Welcome.

Thank you, mayor and council members. Michelle Johnson. I just wanted to share with the council that St. Thomas More, a Catholic church in North Irvine, we broke ground on our on last Saturday on our long awaited new parish. Our pastor, Father Eugene, and our community were thrilled to have Bishop Kevin Vann in attendance along with auxiliary Bishop Nguyen.

Our parish has grown over the past thirty years to now over 3,000 families and we are grateful to have raised almost $30,000,000 to finally build a church to complement our existing hall which is located across from the Irvine Marketplace and adjacent to the Katie Wheeler Library on Irvine Boulevard. Construction is scheduled to take place over the next eighteen months, and I brought a few renderings to show you what will be coming. This first picture is of the front of the new church. Next slide, please. This is an aerial view of the new church, which is on the left.

It's in a traditional shape of a cross. It will be 20,400 square feet, and we need the space. Next slide please. This is a glimpse into what the interior will look like with a beautiful blue dome. And I hope that when we finally open it, you'll all come and visit.

Our parish has worked for over twenty five years to get to this day. I would like to thank the city, everyone who came from the staff, including the mayor's office, IPD who brought out the DARE Cybertruck, and IPD has been a great partner for our parish over the years. And a special thanks to Stephanie Frady and the planning department. The parish was highly complementary of working with the city and the department on the approval of their plans. So thank you to everybody.

Thank you for your comments.

And our last speaker is Mona.

Welcome. Good evening. Some of the things that I wanted to say are echo I mean, I echo other people. There's been a lot of disappointment on how oh, God. Bye, Kathleen.

She's She's

there. She

had. It has been and I don't want to use the actual word crap show to watch all of this. It's disappointing. I'm disappointed in the majority of you. Betty, the one thing I said to you when you first came here is to keep your beliefs and not get sucked into things.

And you have gotten yourself sucked into the wrong people, the people that attacked you that would throw you under the bus in an instant. James, two things. That video, it's kind of funny because I had seen it. You have talked about fiscal responsibility and you were the first one to be wanting spending a million dollars on one day, July 4. You aren't running for mayor.

This is what mayor stuff is. We know what's happening. It's not about where you show up and what pictures you take. It's about what you do on the dice. You have lost your temper more than once. You do not have the proper temper to be a mayor. You are going to be criticized. When it comes to your partnership with Kathleen, it's the wrong partnership. Kathleen will throw anybody under the bus, including Oliver Chi, who I'm not very fond of, but she threw him under the bus. You should all take

a lesson. And

thank you, Mr. Mayor. I knew that that article was going to go somebody's going to say something about it. We were all here. We saw what happened.

Thank you for your comments. And that

is all, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

I've spoken to the city attorney in the past about this. If any council members wish to offer brief comments since we've now concluded the public comments, a very brief response. If you wish, this would be the time to do so I'll call on councilmember Betty Martinez Franco.

Thank you mayor I just want to call mr. Mercen just to clarify the claims that I'm committing that I should have recused myself because my daughter works for Durbin Company. Can you clarify those claims?

Yes. Councilmember Martinez Franco. After those claims came out, you reached out to me and asked me what I thought about them. I did a little research. It turns out that if you have an adult independent child, their income is not attributed to you. So it doesn't figure into a conflict of interest analysis under Political Reform Act rules. And to be doubly safe, I reached out to the FPPC and asked them for their opinion on this issue and their opinion was the same as mine. It's not a conflict of interest.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Alright. We'll move on then to

Does that mean it's not immoral or unethical? Does that mean it's not unethical?

We'll move on now to city manager's report.

Yes.

Mr. Crombie.

Thank you mayor. Just three quick items tonight. The first two are going to be presented by our public works team and those two items are related to Tree City and a paving update that will be presented by our public works director Luis Estevez and city engineer Lincoln Lowe.

Welcome. Please introduce yourselves if you would.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Luis Sessevez, Director of Public Works and Sustainability. With me today again is Lincoln Lowe, our Deputy Director of Public Works, City Engineer as well. We got a couple of very quick presentations to provide you with this evening. It's my pleasure to talk to you about our twenty twenty six Arbor Day celebration.

This year's Arbor Day event was held at Valencia Park with over sixty fourth and fifth graders from Myford Elementary who helped plant new trees at the park as well as learn about how trees are cared for and how important they are to our communities and our ecosystems. Mayor Agron, Vice Mayor May Mai and councilmember Liu were also in attendance to help us celebrate and plant these new trees. A total of 14 trees were planted at the park, nine western sycamores which can grow up to 80 feet in height, excuse me, and five Tipu trees that can grow up to 50 feet and which provide really nice flowers in the spring and the summer. For the thirty sixth consecutive year, the city has been awarded the Tree City USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation. This designation is awarded only to those cities that meet national standards for urban forestry management as well as commit to long term care and expansion of their urban forests.

In addition, for the first time ever, the city was achieved the Tree City USA Growth Award in recognition of the city's adoption of an urban forest master plan as well as our extensive engagement with the community on expanding the city's tree canopy. The team has also revamped our tree sponsorship program which has been rebranded the plant it forward program. Residents and members of the community have the ability to sponsor a tree to be planted in the city park to commemorate loved ones or special events. The cost of the sponsorship we past. We We the future.

A

Lastly, the team is launching a residential tree giveaway as part of this year's Arbor Day celebrations. In partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, a total of 500 free trees will be made available to Irvine residents for planting on their private properties. The trees have arrived by mail as small saplings with planting and care instructions. Today, 40 Irvine residents have taken advantage of this opportunity and received saplings to plant at their homes. And that concludes our presentation and be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? Well, we thank you for your day to day activities day in and day out you're improving and beautifying our city and people notice. We much appreciate the great work you do. Thank you. Mr. Crumby, want to keep going?

Just one more quick item from our city engineer Lincoln Low.

Good

evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and the City Council. My name again is Lincoln Low, Deputy Director of Public Works and Sustainability. So I'm here tonight to provide a high level overview of the city's pavement management program and highlight some of the upcoming projects that we're working on. The city has four eighty total centerline miles in our roadway network and 150 miles are of arterial streets and three thirty miles of residential roads. To qualify for measure M funding programs administered by OCTA, the city is mandated to assess our pavement condition once every two years.

The most recent assessment is completed and filed in 2025. I'm happy to report that our pavement condition has an average index of 84 out of 100, and it is categorized as good. And in comparison to other Orange County cities with similar sized railway network, we are among the top cities with the best pavement conditions. For further context, the average pavement condition index for all of the cities in Orange County is 79 and the average for California is 65. So in order to maintain our pavement in good condition, we must be diligent in keeping up with our preservation program.

To maintain our local residential streets, we have an annual slurry and pavement rehabilitation program that divides the city into eight zones with the target to complete pavement maintenance and rehab in one zone a year. The type of preservation treatment on each street segment would depend on the condition of the roadway and pavement improvements will either be by slurry or with the top layers we move and we pave. Also, to comply with Title II of the Americans with Disability Act, we must replace noncompliance curb ramps and roadways adjacent to the streets on which we are doing our rehab work. Lastly, as part of the pavement maintenance program, we would also consider the addition of Class four separated bikeway on collective streets if the conditions are appropriate. So for neighborhood and local streets that are owned and maintained by the city, We have just completed the neighborhood covered in light blue on the map shown above.

That includes Woodbridge North Of Barrancas, West Irvine, North Park, College Park, The Colony, Walnut, and we'll be moving towards construction on Orchard Hills Drive north Of Portola in June, so in a couple of months. Next, we'll be working in the areas highlighted in magenta, which covers Woodbury, Turtle Rock, Turtle Ridge, public streets within the UCI area, Quail Hill, Rancho San Joaquin. And then following up in '27, '28, and '28, '29, we'll be working on Woodbridge South Of Barrancas, University Park, The Great Park, Portola Springs, Northwood Point, and North Point. So for arterial streets citywide, we prioritize pavement rehabilitation work mostly in accordance to their conditions as reported and recommended in the biannual pavement condition assessment previously noted. However, we would also consider factors such as funding, adjacency to other pavement work, and coordination of work performed by developers and other agency in the proximity of the projects.

During this fiscal year, we have completed pavement rehab on Walnut from Myford to Culver and will soon be working on McArthur from Red Hill to Campus, Orchard Hill, as I mentioned, North Of Portola Parkway will start in June, and Yale Avenue from 405 to University. Next year, we'll follow-up on the heels of the Caltrans work of four zero five at Jamboree and start with pavement rehab on Jamboree between Maine and York, stopping just before the Jamboree Michelson Bridge project that is currently in construction. Then in 2028, we'll be finishing up the remaining limits of Jamboree between Barrancab Parkway to the North and Campus Drive to the South. And in 2028 and 2029, we're planning to do Sand Canyon Avenue between Elton and Quail Hill and Irvine Boulevard between Jamboree and Culver. I would like to note that the funding for both residential and arterial street pavement rehab projects are typically covered by special funds such as the state's SB1 grant funding under the RMRA and gas tax system development charge and slurry fees collected from developers and OCTA's Measure M funding.

No general funds is being spent in the pavement maintenance program at this time. And lastly, in addition to these pavement projects that I mentioned, the public works public surfaces section has been most diligent in taking care of our potholes and any other immediate pavement repair work as the need arise. And with that, that concludes my presentation on our pavement program. If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them for you.

Any questions or comments? Let me just comment a little bit. I think most people who drive in Irvine and then outside of Irvine appreciate the fact that our roads are kept in extraordinarily good condition. That's not easy. Couple of things.

It was brought to my attention that the prescribed specifications for asphalt has changed from the state mandating a certain elasticity or crumb rubber as part of the asphalt. Am I right on that? That frankly that's environmentally that's better, but it's not as durable. Is that correct?

I think the durability is really kind of up for questions, right? And the type of material that we will use to do these pavement project will depend on the project specific needs. So we typically go by the state standard specification and that's our baseline. But through our engineering efforts, we will target specific areas where if the state specified specification is not appropriate for the type of rehab work that we're doing, we would specify something else.

I've noticed on Jamboree particularly, which is a very, very heavily used commuter boulevard. It does seem to me the pavement there is almost always in need of some repair. Do you have a special program for that kind of very heavily used roadway that just doesn't hold up to the weather and all the commuter traffic as well?

Right. Sometimes it's not so much to the material but the thickness of the pavement section, right. So now that we are redoing January right at that 04/2005 juncture that I feel like everybody have been talking about, we are making sure that we are designing a section that can handle the type of traffic that's going on it. And as to why we haven't worked on it just yet, it's like I mentioned in the presentation, Caltrans have been working on that four or five project for a little bit and we wanted to make sure that we are coming right after them. As their construction activities are not right on our new pavement right after we invested it.

All right. And finally, one further thing. If somebody spots a pothole, you really want the help of the public, right? Course. You want them to phone it in?

Yes. So there is an app the city has to report on potholes and our team at the operation and maintenance team is very diligent in addressing those.

Good. I tell folks call it in and I'll bet within forty eight hours it will be taken care of. Am I telling them the truth?

I believe that is the truth.

We shoot for twenty four hours.

Twenty four. All right. That's twice as good. Thank you very much. I'll turn now to councilmember Liu.

Thank you. So mayor kind of took that question out of my mouth. But I just want to let everybody know that we actually have a dedicated team filling out the potholes. Thank you for doing that. Real quick, just to let where can we find information on where all these projects are going to be starting so we can let the residents

know? Sure. We actually have a CIP interactive map with right out of our public works website. So if anybody is interested in not just the street work but any of our CIP project that we're currently working on, it would be on that website.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thanks for the presentation. Anything further?

Apologize for the length of the report. Just one last item. A brief update on immigration enforcement from our esteemed police

chief. Thank you.

Thank you, city manager crumby. Good evening mayor and city council. We have had no immigration operations involving ICE for border patrol since I last reported at our April 14 council meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes your report Mr. Crumby? Yes. We'll turn now to announcements committee reports city council member reports. I'll turn first to councilmember lu followed by councilmember martinez franco and then councilmember go. Councilmember lu.

Thank you mayor and good evening, everyone. I have a few updates and announcements to share. Next, please. OCCEN is conducting a comprehensive rate study to set the next five years' rate schedule. Please look for the earlier Proposition two eighteen notice due to service area changes and new customers through Irvine Ranch Water District.

Next slide, please. OC Mosquito and Vector Control District conducted a spray treatment at the UCI Marsh on April 22 and another one at the UCI Wetlands this morning. The product use is a naturally occurring soil bacterium that targets mosquito larvae. So, you can follow our official social media for future treatments near you. Next one, please.

This past weekend, I joined our community at the Irvine Junior Games and volunteered as Cook Treasurer for the third year in a row, I'm happy to report that we raised $43,616.11 from tickets, concessions, and silent auctions alone. Next one, please. And last week, our office presented a certificate of recognition to Rodent Stop for their pro bono cleanup of a rodent infestation affecting an Irvine family. I want to thank Diana Villas, my Health and Wellness Advisory Committee appointee, for alerting our office and helping their neighbors. Next one, please.

My office also hosted a solar and power town hall at Totola Springs Community Center. We appreciate the presenters for sharing home solar options, rebates, and how to lower utilities costs. Next one, please. Last weekend, I presented the certificate on behalf of the city in recognition of the contributions of our Taiwanese American community at the opening ceremony of twenty twenty six Taiwanese American Heritage Week in Orange County. I'm proud to be one of the Taiwanese American elected invited alongside our community leaders.

Next, please.

April 24 was Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. The Armenian National Committee of America OC chapter unveiled the final design by sculptor Brittany Ryan for Orange County American I mean Armenian Genocide Memorial at the Great Park. We look forward to its completion in 2028 to remember the 1,500,000 lives lost. Next one, please. Last but not least, this Thursday is Black April, the fifty first anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

We honor the Vietnamese community and those who came to America in search of freedom and recognize our veterans for their services and sacrifices. Last one next one. And thank you. Please follow our social media for any other information in the community. That concludes it.

Thank you, Councilmember Lu. Councilmember Martinez Franco.

Thank you. Good evening everyone. I have a couple of updates to share from my office tonight. Next slide. My office will distribute free food to those in need in our communities by partnering with Tree of New America on Saturday, May 23 from three to five p. M. At My Guard Community Park. Food will be served on a first come, first served basis, and we encourage attendees to bring their own reusable bags. Next slide. The Orange County Fire Authority Board of Directors met on April 23 and reviewed their the 2025 long term liability study and accelerated pension payment plan.

With the pension funding and retiree medical plan set for full funding by June 2026, the board moved to call a special meetings for the capital improvement program committee and budget and finance committee to create a recommendation for future fund allocations. The motion passed with four members voting against. Next slide. Lastly, I invite you to stay connected by following me on social media. Next slide. You can also stay up to date by subscribing to our monthly newsletter where I'm sharing updates from District 5 and the city of Irvine. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns thank you thank

you councilmember martinez franco councilmember william go

Thank you, mayor. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. I have two invitations for upcoming events and board updates for OCTA and Metrolink. Next slide, please. I invite you to join us at Irvine Tech Day on May 8, nine a. M. We are hosting the main event here at City Hall, which will include a pop up market, interactive booths, and panel featuring prominent speakers in the tech field. Next slide, please. Join me at the Irvine Dream Run on May 9 at 08:30 a.

M. For a five ks run with the community promoting health wellness and an active Irvine. Next slide. At OCTA, we authorized Measured M2 ten year action plan to evaluate the creation of a payment subprogram. Additionally, OCTA will transfer cost savings from the METROLINK gateways program to the high frequency METROLINK service and the fare stabilization program, ensuring the continuation of train services.

At Metrolink, we received an update on plans for the FIFA twenty twenty six World Cup. Metrolink will offer extended train and shuttle services from Anaheim Station. Metrolink estimates that 25,000 riders will be using public transportation for the FIFA World Cup. We also approved $4,800,000 in specialized maintenance of equipment to replace outdated machinery and maintain reliable rail service. Next slide. Finally, please scan the QR codes to stay up to date with our newsletter and Instagram. That concludes my council update. Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember Gao. Seeing no other requests, let me offer a few announcements. Ciclo Irvine, everyone is invited to join us this Saturday, May 2 from eleven a. M. To four p.

M. For our third annual open streets event called cyclohrvine. Cyclohrvine highlights the city's commitment to community engagement sustainability and environmentally conscious means of travel and encourages participants to experience Irvine's public spaces in a new and reimagined way with live music, art, and engaging activities for all. Stroll, bike, and roll along a 1.3 mile car free stretch of Irvine Boulevard between Culver and Parkwood. There will be live music on two stages, dance performances, several BMX freestyle demonstrations, a scavenger hunt, and more family friendly fun.

To learn more about sick low Irvine including car access and parking, the event schedule and more, please visit cityofirvine.orgsicklowirvine. Next, public works and sustainability community meetings. Community meetings are planned for two upcoming projects aimed at enhancing safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. The first meeting is this Thursday, April 30 at six p. M.

Join city staff at university community center in the southern part of our city for an update on the South Yale Corridor improvements project. The project will reconfigure the roadway to accommodate class four separated bikeways on Yale Avenue between the I-four 05 Freeway and University Drive. It will enhance safety and connectivity for people who walk, bike, drive, and take transit and it will improve connections among City Of Irvine bike trails. The second meeting is on Wednesday May 13 from six to eight p. M.

And it is also at university community center. This meeting will provide information on the Campus Drive complete streets safety study which will explore ways to improve safety and mobility along Campus Drive between University Drive and Turtle Rock Drive. It will develop and analyze potential enhancements to this busy roadway. To learn more about these projects and other transportation studies, visit cityofirvine.org/transportationstudies. And next, splash into safety.

I'm very pleased and excited to invite the community to splash into safety Saturday May 9 at William Mullet junior aquatic center. Beginning at 05:30 p. M, families are invited to enjoy an evening of open swim, inflatable obstacle courses, and more followed by a poolside screening of a family friendly film. In recognition of water safety awareness month this event also highlights the importance of safe practices in and around the water. Guests are encouraged to visit the on-site water safety booth for practical tips and resources.

This is important. Families are also encouraged to bring non US Coast Guard approved flotation devices so called floaties which are very dangerous and exchange them at no cost for properly fitted coast guard approved life jackets. Admission is $5 for adults and $250 for children with payment collected at the pool. Learn more at irvineaquatics.org. And I think that does it.

There are no further requests for announcements? Hearing none, we'll move on to the next item which is additions and deletions to the agenda. Mr. City Manager, Mr. Crumby, do we have any additions or deletions at this time?

No.

Right.

Mayor, if I may.

Yes. Councilmember Terzieder.

Yeah. I'd like to make a motion. I move that we table item 5.5, which is electrical utility plan options for city municipal accounts.

I don't think a motion to table is in order. Think that you might make a motion relative to additions and deletions. You're not tabling the matter of additions and deletions, are you?

Mayor, I think that's correct. I think the item before the council right now is additions and deletions. And I suppose you could table additions and deletions. But I think without taking liberty that councilmember Cecilia is asking to continue or remove 5.5 from the agenda under this agenda additions and deletions item.

That's right. I am taking the opportunity during additions and deletions to do the tabling.

All right. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Seconded by councilmember Goh. Councilmember Tristeider, would you like to speak to the motion?

No, thank you.

Well, I'll speak to it.

Oh, sorry. Point of order. Are these not discussable, the requested table?

This is not a request. I'm sorry. Mr. Melchin would you like to explain again that a motion to table which is not debatable also is not in order with respect to this item.

That's correct, Mayor. This is a motion to under additions and deletions, delete an item from the agenda.

Oh, yes. Okay.

But you could try and table all additions and deletions, but I don't think that would achieve what you intend to achieve, which would be to remove additions and deletions from consideration tonight.

Okay. So what is being considered for discussion right now on whether we can vote on the tabling?

I think a motion to delete item 5.5 is in order

perfect yes I move that we delete item 5.5

all right we'll do it again is there a second to the motion second Councilmember Goh offers a second. Councilmember Tercedor, I turn to you as the maker of the motion. You have an opportunity to speak to the motion.

No. Thank you.

I will take an opportunity to speak to the motion. Item 5.5 was put on the agenda by me. It regards a very, very important matter which is the city's participation as a customer of OCPA and my suggestion that the city of Irvine switch all its accounts from OCPA to s c e thereby reducing our carbon footprint tremendously and at the same time reducing our electricity bill by an estimated $750,000 a year. This is an important item. I put it on the agenda.

I gave notice three weeks ago. I supplemented the request with information that was prepared over a period of a few hours by our staff and this is a critically important matter. I find it frankly inappropriate to say the least that you would make a motion to delete this from the agenda tonight. I regard it as a hostile motion and want to respond accordingly. I'll turn to councilmember Carroll.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't really want to talk about the merits of the item. I'd like to talk about process and the procedure, and we have about 100 people in the room, so I think it could be somewhat educational. First, I'd ask my colleague to consult Robert's rules of order so we can get things done, you know, in an earlier hour, but since we're doing this, a motion to delete something is debatable, and we're going to debate this, and I'm going to debate it as long as the Mayor is going to allow me to debate it. This is, to me, because the Pew Charitable Trust for decades have done the trust the Americans Trust in Government summary and survey, and for many, many years the Pew Charitable Trust have said that the people's trust in government at the national level is completely gone. The people's trust at the state level is completely gone, but the people's trust in government at the local level still resides, and I know some of us may disagree with that in the room, but the facts are the facts.

The Pew Charitable Trust shows that the Americans people as a whole trust in local government still exists. One of the reasons that it exists is because we are the closest to the people. People do things like what Councilmember Martinez Franco is doing in the park in a few weeks to serve food to people, like Councilmember Goh is doing, which I find it very surprising and disappointing to me that he would second something like this, and not have a regular vote by the regular process, you know, his the marathon and the run that he's running. The Citizens Academy that I graduated 16 men and women, what I would call regular people who don't attend meetings like this and call in to speak at meetings like this on things like the Animal Care Center and Great Park and learning how from Dale how important an auto center is for the tax base of the City Of Irvine. And that's the kind of reason for the things why the people like the local level of government.

So Rich Allen that lives on Bluff View, my street, can come down to my to me and speak to me about issues that he has about this or that or the fact that OCFA hasn't cleared the brush behind my house. I could go on for sixteen hours, But to delete some person's opportunity that puts on the agenda is going to set the same precedent that they are literally and I know that my colleagues love to nationalize a local city council with national issues, And this is an example of that because apparently some of my colleagues don't want to have a regular debate, up or down vote, we have seven of us, whether or not Councilmember Mayor Aghren's item should go or not. Just know that they're doing this at the United States Senate. It's called the cloture rule. It's the rule that cuts off debate.

And the Republicans are concerned that if they change that vote to be lower, well, after the election, the Democrats are going to use that against the Republicans. I want to urge the person that made this motion, I want to urge my other colleague that seconded it, that this cuts both ways, and I promise you this will have a boomerang effect and unintended consequences that you never possibly thought about. If you think that I'm going to sit here for the next two and a half years that I'm duly elected and allow this to go, that I am not going to retaliate, that I am not going to use my intelligence and my skills to go take your items, that I have spent scores and scores of hours listening to. You think I'm not going to start deleting those items upfront? You think I'm not going to be using my expertise because I do happen to know Robert's Rules of Order and I will use them.

And we'll see how those votes come one way or another. This is absolutely outrageous, and make no mistake, there was an effort to actually motion to table, which means no debate. And the person making this motion has said, I am not going to speak on it. I just want to shut down another duly elected person on this dais' rights to put something in the agenda. Well, get ready, the rest of you, because if there's four votes to do this, you're going to have a real enemy in me.

And I fear that you're not going to it's not just going to be me because people need to have their issues heard whether they like it or not. And this will have a boomerang effect Councilmember Go and Councilmember Tristeater. This is outrageous. This item needs to be heard and you will have a duly held vote and you will take that vote because you clearly and the reasons for which you don't want this item for whatever reasons and whatever it is, that's its own issue. And I find it incredible that you won't even speak to it.

So colleagues, you vote yes on this, understand it may not come from me, it may not come from Councilmember Lued on my right or Mayor Agram on my left, but we're seven. And one, at some point, the rest of this dais is going to recognize that it's going to have to work with each other and get four votes to do things. Thank you. Thank you.

You,

councilmember Carroll. Let me Let's

take the vote. I'd like I don't want let's just do it. I call the question.

Don't do that because that requires a two thirds vote and a reference to Robert's rules. Just one moment. Do we have to open this to public comment as an item?

It is an item on the agenda additions and deletions is an item on the agenda and so public comment is allowed on on I don't know whether anybody registered to speak on that

we have no request now right

I have three in person and I have two people on zoom that just raise their hand

on this item All right. And there's more. I'd like you hold on, hold on, hold on. I'd like you to close the queue.

No, no, you can't do that. I was going to

be on Zoom because it was five point five.

All right. Right. Let's leave the how many do we have? How many requests?

So again, in person there, have three and now I have five on Zoom.

All right. Let's leave the queue open for another sixty seconds, but then call on those individuals who wish to be heard in the order they submitted their requests. Then we'll move to a vote expeditiously right after that. All right?

Okay. And the

only other thing there, if I may ask, how much time are you allowing to speak?

How many speakers do we have?

There's now six on Zoom, three in person, and I don't know who's signing up now.

Let's just make it two minutes each.

Thank you, Mayor. Hold on one second. We'll start with Alan Meyerson, Doug Elliot, and Mona.

Welcome. Good evening, councilmember Carroll. That was a beautiful speech you gave and it made total sense. This is what I'm talking about, Kathleen, hostile behavior on your part. Attempting to remove something without even discussing it when I've signed up for it as the last item on this agenda. So you don't care about the people that are against what you want to do. You just care about the people that are for what you want to do. Your behavior is really, I'm trying not to be hostile myself. You make it real difficult. You don't want to hear about this.

Concerned you want to do a forensic audit because there's a deficit, but you don't mind spending $750,000 a year more because it's the OCPA. In fact, I remember you making a comment once that you'll support OCPA no matter what. What does that mean? No matter how corrupt they might be, you'll support them. No matter how much overcharge they may do, you'll support them.

It's funny how the people that support OCPA, I never hear them talking about the business side of it ever. Not one word about the business side of it. Only about clean air, which is questionable by itself. But I'd like to hear supporters of OCPA defend the business side, defend charging Irvine residents more money. Defend that.

Councilmember Mai, you're supposed to be fiscally responsible. Defend spending more money on electricity through OCPA than SCE. I don't hear a word.

Doug Elliot, welcome.

Evening once again. I'm Doug Elliot, member of the city commission and also for these purposes I'm on the community advisory committee of OCPA. Happy Groundhog Day. It seems like we have to go through this ritual of hate OCPA

two or

three times a year and it gets old. We don't accomplish anything. We just spin our wheels. I have to kind of laugh at my friend Mr. Meyerson talking about hostility.

He comes up here dripping with hostility every time he mentions councilmember Tresidder. It's a double standard. As for OCPA, look, it's community choice. People have the right to choose. Right now, their rates are a little bit higher than Edison and that's all because of the fact that Edison has this special adjustment approved by the PUC and the fact that they change their rates several times a year.

OCPA does not. They chose for rate stability. So the reason the rates are higher this year than last is entirely because of Edison and not OCPA. Kev Abhazadjian said it very well in his watchdog piece. We're not going to get to sustainability without OCPA. And to get back to Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's lesson in that was to break out of the vicious circle you need to stop acting like a jerk. And maybe that would be a good idea to try. Thank you.

Mona?

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. That needed to be said. We talk about OCPA. There is about $800,000 in savings. We talked about fiscal responsibility two weeks ago. You guys, especially Mr. Cedar, Mr. Mai, attacked Mr. Crombie and the mayor. You have access to the budget. You can see what's going on. This is not like something you can't find. It's public.

So for all of the things that happen, all of the pushes that you do, all we find is there's no, you don't want to take accountability for your spending. You are the one spending. Mr. Goh and Mr. Cedar, before the money came back from started to come back from OCPA, you jumped and said, we want it all for green energy stuff. And we told you at the time, what? This is not the lottery. You're spending money before you even get it. Over $7,000,000 they owe us. They owe the city of Irvine.

And yet you're defending them and you want to give them more money. Enough. If we're talking about fiscal responsibility, let's be responsible. Not cut jobs. Not make a freeze on hiring, not use these words, catchphrases because you want to be elected. Let's be real. We need to get out of it because it's a savings to us. Thank you.

Let me make an observation here which is the comments really should be directed to the question of the motion to delete an item from the agenda. If the motion fails, the substantive issues regarding OCPA can be discussed. I try to be as liberal as I can in allowing people to say their piece here. But we're really kind of at a procedural juncture. And if we can kind of address that and move to it and move past it, that would be fine.

Just a suggestion. Mr. Peterson, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Our next speaker is Kev Abizajian.

Welcome. Thank you. Good evening mayor and council members. My name is Doctor. Kev Abhazian.

I'm a professor of physics at UC Irvine, fifteen year Irvine resident, and until yesterday a member of the sustainability commission. After five years of service on the green ribbon environmental committee and the commission, I urge you to go ahead and delete this item because it is a personal vendetta by the mayor against Doctor. Tresidder. And that's what I've learned from working for nine years with the mayor is that he just has personal vendettas that he then took out on me on Saturday on the day of my son's birthday and he knew I had a party that afternoon and he told me he was removing me because he disagreed with the item, with my position on OCPA, that it is a climate solution. And so this personal vendetta that he has with a lot of people is why he's doing this.

And I urge you to delete it and set him straight. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, we have one more in person speaker who signed up to speak on item 5.5 that has AV materials. However, to your point about what individuals should be speaking to, I'll defer to you as to whether or not we take her now or we wait until we take the Zoom speakers.

Why don't we take the Zoom speakers first? How many Zoom speakers do we have?

Six.

And again, if they could endeavor to focus their remarks on whether or not this item 5.5 should be deleted from the agenda, That's really the question before us.

Thank you, mayor. Our next speaker is Eric Nashanian. Mr. Nashanian, you may unmute your mic.

Thank you, mayor and council members. This item should not be deleted, especially since our representatives, OCPA and other diets, do not give us regular updates. And we need to have discussions about these things, especially in light of the other economic pressures on energy like the Strait Of Hormuz and what that could mean for the city of Irvine going forward. This is a savings to the city of $750,000 and apparently, Mr. Cressida and DGI head, Tim Abbasazji, wanna make this a political issue and usurp control of the dais from other council members, including the mayor, and shut them down.

It's ironic that Mr. Seeder that complains about her speed free speech being imposed upon doesn't protect the free speech rights of people like me and then tries to announce and and squash the speech of the mayor. Miss Johnson, Michelle Johnson's prepared a presentation, and if 5.5 does not go forward, it should go forward now so that the citizenry can be informed about the OCPA because our representatives are not giving us information about it. And if you're like Doug Elliot to be spending this information about the OCPA. The OCPA raised rates after my negotiated the $707,000,000 return that didn't all come back to us.

They raised their rates to recoup the money that they're going to pay us back you know, in phase. It should not be deleted. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mason Buck. Mason, you may unmute your

mic. Hello, counsel. Honestly, I feel like I'm stuck in a time loop. Like the speaker said before, it's a Groundhog Day. Again and again, the mayor continues to put this item on the agenda. And I understand the financial situation of the city has changed, but I don't believe the opinion of this council has and the opinion of Irvine as a whole has. OCPA is an important discussion, yes, and it's an important discussion we've already had. We've already had it so many times. I fail to see a reason why we need to keep going in loops and further delay the implementation of the city's climate action plan. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Craig Preston. Craig, you may unmute your mic.

Hello, Mayor Carroll and counsel. Craig Preston. I'm a Costa Mesa resident but following OCPA for many, many years and hoping that it'll thrive and expand its wonderful service to the community. My city of Costa Mesa is in debate of of hope hoping to join. I just wanna speak to this agenda item that about deleting.

I think the mayor has put it on the agenda to serve the public, and yet the mayor isn't supposed to do things just because he wants it on the agenda, but he would get, at least four members of the council to want to discuss such an item. I'm in support of deleting this item as I believe we've talked about this many times. And then regarding the money involved, for me, it's just very clear that if we widen our view, we understand that the money of billions of dollars spent on fires, on destruction of the planet, destruction of our children's future, it's all very, very, very expensive. Insurance companies leaving the state in in droves, that here's a chance for OCP to allow people like me and residents to lower their carbon footprint and be a good example to cities and counties around the world. I encourage you to delete this item because I think we can just move on to more important items.

And and so this is a way to have free speech. I do appreciate member Carroll's perspective on that, but I think if we widen our view, we can see that there's four members of the council that don't want to talk about this. And I agree as the public. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ankur. Ankur, you may unmute your mic.

Good evening, city council members and Mayor Agerd. My name is Ankur Parekh. I'm senior a at Oroch High School where I'm the ASU president. And to me, I've heard a lot of my peers at my school and a lot of other young people across the city. Just this last weekend, I was a delegate to the Irvine Conference of International Transnational Youth,

which focused

on climate and and the efforts of local governments on climate. And I've heard time and time again that young people are really worried about climate. And we know that for 99% of scientists, there's a huge scientific consensus that climate change is real and it's human cause. And greenhouse gases are the driving factor behind climate change. Orange County Power Authority, we've had this discussion before.

It's crucial to our sustainability goals. There's no way that the city can reach any sort of our goals with with our delayed cap that has not yet been implemented. But even without that, even our sustainability goals, they cannot be reached unless we stay with Orange County Power Authority. There is no amount of trees that can plant it or solar that can grow in roofs without Orange County Power Authority. That is such an important part.

And so this discussion we've had before, we know that Orange County power authority is a more sustainable option. They have a 100% renewable option that Southern California Edison no longer is open. Even the base rate is more renewable. And so we need to have this availability. Like, us young people in the city are so strongly believe that we really need Orange County power there Orange County power authority. And I think it's really disappointing that we keep talking about this when it's such a crucial part of our sustainability goals. Thank you.

Our next speaker is telephone number 347. 347, you may unmute your mic.

Yes, this is Deepak. Their base rate has more renewables. Is that true? Really? Boy, where are you guys getting your information from? It's unbelievable. Why don't you show us the numbers? Why don't you show us how well we're doing? And especially with our climate action plan, how about that? Can we see some numbers?

You guys are talking, talking, But you don't show us any numbers and you prove us anything because there is none. Okay? That says it all right there in a nutshell. Kathleen, will you please sit there with a level of analysis? Because that's what I'd like to see.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Harvey Lewis. Harvey, you may unmute your mic.

I'm Doctor. Harvey Liss, a former assistant professor of engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology and a resident of Irvine since 1976. I observed, first of all, that Mayor Nagrin has only had a vendetta against those against the public interest and also stupidity. If the item five dot five is deleted, then I won't have the opportunity to say the following. The city can both help the environment greatly and save millions millions of dollars by immediately opting out of OCPA and move to SCE.

Just look at OCPA's power content label, which is a public document. It shows that OCPA's greenhouse gas emissions are over 80% higher than SCE's at basic choice and at a higher cost. Why are bright people supporting our further destruction of the environment at a much higher cost? This must be a nonsensical cult that defies logic or arithmetic. Twenty years ago, renewably generated electric energy was more expensive than fossil fuel generated energy.

So utilities like SCE purchased the much cheaper fossil fuel power rather than renewable generated power. Then the only way for environmentally concerned ratepayers to reduce carbon emissions was to subscribe to a community trust aggregator like OCPA that purchased the more saturating the grid with renewable generated energy during the day. OCPA cannot compete with SCE in the purchase of renewable generated energy contracts with their outside consultants and energy traders with absolutely no motivation to minimize costs and fight back. In fact, SE does not now enroll Lucian.

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Michelle Johnson. Ms. Johnson, mayor, is the one who had some AV materials today.

Please have her come forward. Is she our final speaker? One more after Ms. Johnson. All right.

Welcome.

Before I begin, I just want to

know, are we speaking on additions and deletions or

You've what's

obviously observed that while the issue before us is additions and deletions and the motion to delete item 5.5 people have slid into a substantive discussion because of their eagerness to state their opinion on OCPA and related matters. I can't control what people say. It's not my desire to do so. If you want to make a more substantive presentation as opposed to speaking to the procedural question, I'm not going to cut you off. Let me also say if let me just ask the city attorney if this motion were to be adopted then item 5.5 would no longer be on the agenda?

That's correct.

And could I then reopen public discussion as to nonagendized items?

I think the council has I'm hesitating mayor because I'm trying to think through the city council policies. You have the power to reorder the agenda unilaterally, subject to an appeal of your council colleagues. I don't recall anywhere in the council policies that allows you to reopen an item once it has passed. Alright.

I don't want us to just degenerate into procedural game plan here. So we'll take the balance of this testimony but I'll have something to say about free speech and decorum and all the rest in a moment. Go right ahead. And you may speak to the substance of 5.5, notwithstanding the fact this is additions and deletions.

I think I'm going to stick to the additions and deletions. I did have a presentation, but given the discussion ahead of this, I just want to say that I heard what Councilmember Carroll had to say. And I'm very concerned that we're going down a path that is a very slippery slope. If we're going to have people muzzle council members because they don't like what they're saying or they don't like disagree with an item, we went down this path with the rule of two, and it didn't end well. I don't always agree with everybody all the time, but I'm happy to sit here and listen to what you have to say.

And I'll always do that. Free speech in this country is very important. I would just really appeal to Councilmember Tercedo to reconsider to not delete this item. It's been on the agenda. There are people like myself that have prepared remarks that I'd like to make and be heard. And I'd hope that the rest of the council will consider that as well. Thank you.

Heidi, you have ninety seconds.

Thank you members of the council and thank you for allowing me to speak as well. I respect you very much so councilwoman cedar but I do not believe this item should be deleted. I have a concern as well about free speech as the founder of Save Oak Creek, Save Irvine. We're very concerned about our item being put in the consent calendar and pretty much undergoing a batch approval. And I feel that this is a free speech issue.

So please do not delete this item. Council member Mike Carroll, thank you for your concern and I'll be discussing that, addressing that later on. Thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor, Heidi was our last speaker. However, there is one on Zoom and I'll defer to you.

Did that come in after the queue was closed?

It did.

All right. One last speaker, but no more. I don't care if any more come in. They're not to be allowed on the list. Okay?

Thank you, Mayor. Our last speaker is Don Geller. Don, you may unmute your mic.

Thank you, Carl. Don Geller, just speaking for myself right now. I was planning on speaking on this item, 5.5, and I have to say I'm very, very surprised of Councilmember's procedure's attempt to thwart me and the rest of the public from speaking. I absolutely agree with Councilmember Mike Carroll, the downhill spiral of what can occur because of keeping the public from speaking, from deleting items that you may not agree with. This is a horrible precedent.

I do plan on speaking on five point five later today. You may or may not agree with me, but it is my right to speak on this item. By all means, I encourage the counsel to reject Ms. The Councilwoman Trusieder's motion and let the people speak. Thank you very much.

And that is all, mayor.

Thank you. Before turning to my colleagues, I'm going to say something. A number of us at this dais and in the audience as well lived through the infamous rule of two which was an attempt to muzzle me and perhaps other council members as well. And this was so unpopular with the public as well as with those of us in elected leadership who wish to have our voices heard, our representative voices, wish to speak to issues to be shut out at the dais by a maneuver of that sort was absolutely outrageous and rejected by the public. When I became mayor, I committed myself and made it clear to each and every council member that it was my job to facilitate the business of this city including putting on the agenda items that council members wanted on the agenda.

It's the job of the city manager and me to oversee the preparation of the agenda. And in my case, it is always with a view toward enabling council members to present their point of view on any particular issue. I think my record is pretty clear as well with allowing the public to be heard. I tend to be more liberal in that regard than previous mayors. If democracy, if representative democracy can't work with those aspects of a town hall meeting, if that can't work in the cities and towns of The United States Of America then we really are doomed.

So I would ask for rejection of this motion. Better yet, I would ask that the maker of the motion withdraw it. Councilmember Treseder.

Thank you. I appreciate everybody's point of view. I'll explain why I am wanting to delete this. I think I've been on the so I've been on the council for almost four years. In that time, I think this is the tenth time that the mayor has agendized attacking OCPA. It happens pretty regularly. Each time the council has voted it down. Each time. The mayor definitely takes the opportunity to to hit OCPA as much as he can during these discussions. It doesn't make our city look good, in my opinion.

In terms of the public comments, I I do wanna mention that the mayor, as mister Azerbaijan said, the mayor does have tight control over his supporters and what they say. And most of the people who have been here speaking against this item are the mayor's people. And you can tell who they are. They tend to be the ones who rely more on on bullying than on speaking to the facts. Now I think it it's almost become, I feel, like a theater of the absurd where we all know up here who Larry's people are.

I mean, sorry, the mayor's people are. The mayor knows who the mayor's people are. The staff know the people who watch these meetings regularly. We all know who the mayor's people are. And we're being kind of required to ignore that up here and pretend like these are all independent commenters.

And and we have seen, you know, we'll have the mayor's commissioners come in and speak and always support the mayor. But this time this latest time with mister Azabajian, he did not, and so he was removed. And from what I understand, he was told during this meeting that he needed to be removed before this meeting because he wouldn't the mayor wouldn't want a commissioner of his to speak against his item. So I just wanna say I I do really take with a grain of salt what the mayor's supporters say. Occasionally, I I do appreciate they have a good point, but I'm always considering that this is what what the mayor wants them to say.

Now in terms of councilmember Carroll's comments, I think perhaps he's forgotten when he moved to table the climate action adaptation plan last year. I don't see how this is much different. Always happy to. Tabling is an element of Robert's rules of order. It is an order.

It's allowed up here. You can imagine one of the reasons that tabling is a possibility is because if the majority of the council is not going to vote for the item, might as well vote to table it ahead of time. Now I don't I don't mind at all having the public speak, of course. I have no objection to that. What I object to is having the mayor continually use this platform to just try to beat up OCPA.

And I do also wanna say that it's been a bit of a mystery to me why the mayor continues to attack OCPA. Initially, I thought, well, you know, maybe he doesn't have all the evidence, and so he would say, you know, certain things about OCPA. I even got an arrangement where he could look at the unredacted power purchasing agreement so that he could actually see what was being purchased. And that took a lot of work and the mayor insisted that that needed to happen. We got it happen.

You know, we can keep track of who logs in to look at those and the mayor and none of the mayor's staff ever looked at it. And so it does make me wonder what's what's the underlying reason for this hostility towards OCPA. It is a good it's a good agency. And I was thinking about this the other meeting when we had a discussion about giving OCFA an office or an office in City Hall. And the things that the mayor was saying about withdrawing from OC Fire Authority sounded very, very similar to the arguments for withdrawing from OCPA, just really emotional and more of an attack on the agency and the people in it than less necessarily the policy merits.

Same thing happened with the library. We there was a big push by the mayor to withdraw from the library. Same thing happened with a number of other agencies that the city is involved in. For some reason, the mayor wants us to keep withdrawing from all these other agencies. I'm not quite sure why.

I mean, have my theories. But but, basically, at the end of the day, I the mayor says that it's irresponsible to do a motion on deletion, which we are allowed to do with Robertson rules or order. And I say that it's it's disrespectful to the mayor to repeatedly agendize these attacks on OCPA when they're repeatedly voting down, and it takes a lot of our time each time. And it is, at the end of the day, I think, largely theater. Thanks.

Councilmember Liu.

I can't believe we're here, but well, let me just talk about this. I first of all, this is not a partisan issue, so I don't want to talk about democrats or republicans. This is a nonpartisan position, so we're all here to make Irvine a better place for our residents regardless of what party designation. I' never asked when a resident comes to ask for help. Let' not go there.

I do believe that we should debate issues and but I also agree that this is this is really whiplash. We have OCPA coming over and over and over, and it is quite frankly tiring and exhausting. We have to sit here and prepare for every meeting and it's a lot of time. And if we keep debating the same matter over and over again, quite frankly, I feel like this is a disservice to the residents because real matters are not being debated and we are not taking the time to actually improve residents' life. We're making this a political theater.

Although I don't think this is the right time to table this item, I do understand the sentiment of it. And I'm sorry that, you know, people feel like their free speech is being muzzled. And I will be ready to debate the merit of any issues. And I'm not, you know, about to say let's not talk about it. But if most of my colleagues agree that this they don't want to talk about it today, then that so be it.

But the timing, I feel like, you know, we can table this item when the item comes up. But right now, this is really not the right time. And I would really urge my counsel colleagues to maybe stop this. I mean, we keep talking about the same things over and over. OCPA I mean, I've been on counsel for, what, a year and a half. This item had come out of I don't know how many times already. So let's have the data. I mean, let's debate it. And, you know, let's let the facts speak, but all the time. I'm sorry.

I'm talking.

Wait. Hold on.

Hold on.

I'm not going Just a moment,

Councilman.

Councilman Wood, just a moment. Thank you mayor please no speaking out no shouting out

listen don't listen to the facts don't eve o c p

a mr. Nelson you keep at it. I'm going to have you removed. Please allow the councilmember to finish. Others wish to speak at the dais as well. And please listen.

Thank you mayor for keeping the quorum. And I am always ready for civic civil discussion based on facts and data. And we are not here to waste everybody's time. Not just ours, the residents as well. We have important things to decide and things to do to make other residents' lives better. We're not sitting here debating things that are made up or whether someone is hating on somebody else. We're not doing that. This is not a middle school. So for that reason I'm staying out of this one.

Councilmember martinez franco.

Yes. Thank you. I don't have too much history about what has been done in the past or all the history of the deletions and just avoiding hearing people. But for me, it does feel wrong not to hear people. I have heard so many things about me.

I even got MAGA people coming, and I have to hear them. And I'm here I'm here to serve everyone regardless of even if I don't like your opinion or I know that could be with you. So I wanna hear everyone. They all in the other hand, even if we got all the way to hear the item, I'm gonna support OCPA. I wasn't gonna vote to exit OCPA.

I do question OCPA leadership for not being here, for never being here, and advocate for themselves. But the only issue that I have right now is that I don't get to hear my audience, and it doesn't sit right with me. So I will still support OCPA to be here. I don't want OCPA to I don't want the city to exit OCPA, but I don't agree on not hearing everyone's opinion. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member and Vice Mayor James Mai.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the comments from and also comments from my colleagues here. First off, I want to say that I've been tabled before here. The dynamics of this council, sometimes it's 2.5, sometimes it's 1.6. But I've been tabled and I've been muzzled myself. So I mean people reserve the right to do that up here if they don't want to hear what you're saying. If the consensus says we don't want to hear you, they don't hear you. I wasn't I was going to talk to this as well, so I might as well talk to this since everyone was talking about OCPA. And I want to remind people that in December 2024, the very first thing I did on council was withdraw from OCPA. That was the very first thing I did here.

I didn't like us being higher unless they changed their ways. I forced them to go down to the lowest tier and it cost that agency $20,000,000 and it hurt them. It hurt them. But I took that risk because at the time, even though the contracts were worth approximately $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 I don't know what they're worth now. They might be worth a fraction of that. But we took that risk. We took that risk because we demanded to have better rates. And this is still the reason that we're still in here is because we had better rates. Now the rates are a little higher. And that's SCE, it could be higher, it could be lower, it fluctuates.

The rates fluctuate. At this very moment it's higher, it could be lower. SCE has a rate adjustment scheduled for June. It also has a rate adjustment scheduled for October. To take action now, I think is a little premature. I think we should just wait and see what the rates are. If they're lower, if they're higher within six months. And the reason I say that is not because it's fiscally irresponsible. If we initiate leaving as municipal clients, it doesn't happen until six months anyways. My view on OCPA is I'm not talking about the merit of the business.

Personally, I think China and India pollute us more than anyone and we should be looking at them if we're talking about pollution. But I was tasked to make sense of it all. When I was tasked to do that, I said I didn't want to touch OCPA with a 10 foot pole. But I'm here to make it transparent and find out their clear intent with the city. The facts are people talking about business, if we're talking about the business of it also, they still owe us $6,500,000 and they're still repaying that.

We forced them to repay it as well. If we make any drastic changes right now, if you think that they're going to continue to pay that, that's probably not going to happen. I'm not saying that they won't, but that's a possibility. Again, SCE has two rate adjustments coming up in June. It may be higher, may be lower also October or November. We should wait until then before we make any changes at all. And we should wait until we get our money back before we make any changes as well. Thank you.

Councilmember Carroll.

Thank you, Mayor. Just briefly, I agree. I think we should have all those conversations in about two or three hours. I just want to clarify, at least from my perspective and go back and look at it, two different things are happening, colleagues, tabling an item which is not required which debate is not even permitted. I think when we've done it, we actually had the item called by the clerk.

The title was read. I think we had public speakers and public testimony, people that have taken time out of their schedule and their lives to come and either call in or come in person, and then it was tabled, okay? So what's happening here is, in my perspective, substantially different because it's at the front and is not being tabled. There was an attempt to table it, but it was incorrectly made. It's a deletion of the item.

I do want to speak to my working colleague and friend, Kev, the President of the Democrats at Greater Irvine. Personally, I guess I'm allowed to do that. Kev, I would speak to you offline, but I want you to hear this. I didn't think this was personal, and I apologize that we may disagree on that, and I'd love to talk with you. I didn't get back to your text about the Armenian Genocide Memorial.

We're working together. I don't know what happened between you and the Mayor and obviously that needs some kind of resolution, but you need to I don't know if you left. You need to know for me that I just wanted to hear this item. Yes, I was just and for what it's worth, don't really know the personal thing as between you guys. I consider you for sustainability.

I already have someone in the slot and we'd have to work some things out. But it's not my election year, so I would consider it. But anyway, that being aside, I didn't see it as being a personal thing. And I would just request that this item just be heard in the normal course of things and because people are prepared to go. And just finally, I would say to my colleagues, maybe this is really, and I appreciate Councilmember Lu big time outlined a lot of it, And the thought came up as she was giving her position.

It has been heard numerous times, indeed it has. But the element of surprise does have an undercurrent of unfairness to it. And maybe at the last time, one of us that felt this strongly about it would say, if this comes again, we're not going to hear this again and we're going to so there's a I think there's a piece of surprise in here. Certainly, I'm very surprised. I didn't think we were going to get a motion to delete an item.

And for the record, I have not discussed one ounce of the substantive nature of it. I think this is just this thing that could boomerang unnecessarily into unintended consequences. So, therefore, I will be voting a very strong no, as I would if it was an item. I mean, look, I have every right to make the next motion after this item's over to delete ranked choice voting, Cause I feel a certain way about ranked choice voting, a very strong way. But right here in my file folder, I spent about forty minutes, I wrote some remarks, I'm trying to try to persuade my colleagues, I'd ask the Vice Mayor, I'd ask someone else, could you please second my motion to delete ranked choice vote.

Do you see where this goes? So I'm going try to be consistent with my view that this is just wrong. And yeah, we're going to have to hear a bunch of stuff we don't want to hear. And if it is repetitious, which is a great point, we should at least advise the other members, hey, you know, we're not going to we're not going to stand for this going forward because we are a body and a deliberative one. But to do it with this element of surprise just for me respectfully doesn't sit right. So I'll be voting no. Thank you.

All right. Councilmember Tristeider, you and I will be the last two speakers. Do you want to speak now and I'll be last? Or do you want me to speak and you can be last?

It doesn't matter to me, but I guess I could speak now.

Go right ahead.

All right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate councilmember Carroll's comments. Indeed, when he moved to table the cap, that did mean that the rest of us were not able to make our remarks as he said that he doesn't appreciate himself. So there's that. In terms of the public commenters, yeah, I, again, have no objection to the public commenters speaking. I do keep them in mind where they're coming from. One of the things that's unfortunate about this is that the public comments on nonagendized items right now comes before additions and deletions.

So that does mean that if people were waiting to talk on agendized item, they wouldn't talk during the nonagendized items. And it is possible if there's a deletion, they won't be able to talk later. The city the council policies and procedures subcommittee has met, and we have decided as part of this issue to rectify it by reordering the public comments so that it will come after the deletions because I agree. I don't want that to happen either. That will be brought forward I think in the next meeting or two.

But yeah, I agree that that is an issue. Again, I think it's disrespectful to the council for the mayor to keep agendizing this when it is clear time and time again that we do not support it. And I would rather just spend the time the staff and all of us and the public working on other things that are important to the city. Thank you.

All right. Councilmember Goh, and then I'll recognize myself.

I'll be brief. Know, I'm just doing the best I can to work with everybody here. You heard everybody they speak quite a bit. Everyone just speaks for themselves. They just shine the light to what's in favor for them at the moment. That's how I feel. And I tend to not speak up because I'm really not that type of person. I just want to find a way for us to all work together and move things forward efficiently.

Thank you, councilmember Goh. Let me just say couple of things yes I put ocpa on the agenda multiple times over the years we're five years into ocpa I issued some warnings very early on, things that we needed to consider. And in point of fact, things have gotten worse and worse and worse and more costly to the ratepayers of the City Of Irvine and the taxpayers who through the general fund have the city keep the lights on and so forth. I brought the issue back time and again because there have been stages at which this has gotten worse. And recently it's become obvious, obvious to anybody who will simply look at the data.

The power content label required of utilities, electricity providers, the power content label, which indicates what they are purchasing by way of electricity to deliver to us and how much of it is renewable and so forth. The power content label required by state law and regulation for 2024 came out a couple of months ago. And it revealed that OCPA is purchasing on our behalf dirtier electricity than SCE and not by a little by a lot nine forty two pounds per megawatt hour of co2 equivalent and greenhouse gas emissions nine forty two pounds per megawatt hour SCE its power content label five fifteen pounds of pollutants five fifteen pounds versus nine forty two. That's data, councilmember Lou. New data.

And the average household cost, the average household cost per month for those, the majority of people in Irvine who are getting their electricity from OCPA, that average household cost per month is $184 Those who have opted out and 30% of the residents in Irvine have opted out, they've been smart enough to find their way how to get out, the average cost for their electricity per month is $164 That's a $20 differential. Check the website of OCPA. That's data. That's $250 a year. Dollars $2.40 to be precise.

Dollars $2.40 a year. That's new data. That's important data. Those who say they want to protect low income households from ever rising utility rates. Look at the new data. That's why I put it on the agenda. That's why I put it on the agenda. And councilmember Carroll is right to seek to delete it up front. It's like a prior restraint on speech. It's one thing to move to table something after there's been considerable debate, discussion, exhaustion.

Somebody moves to table something. But to do it up front, to keep from putting it up here, I think the reason that some people don't want to see it debated is because it's so blatantly obvious that OCPA is failing. It's failing us. And yes we ought to change course as a matter of policy. Will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Carroll? No. Councilmember Goh?

Yes.

Councilmember lu I'm

going to abstain and I encourage everyone to check the latest data.

Councilmember martinez Franco

I abstain.

Hold on here. An abstention is recorded as a yes vote is it not?

Yes mayor that's correct.

Trying to weasel out of it isn't going to get you where you want to be. You got to vote yes or no.

Point of order.

You told

councilmember martinez franco that she shouldn't try to weasel out of it. We're in the middle of a vote. Just do have to appeal to our rules of decorum.

This doesn't have anything to do with decorum. It has to do with how an abstention is recorded. And people sometimes think they can just abstain and don't have to indicate where they are. An abstention is recorded as a yes vote on a motion. Am I correct, Mr. Melchi?

Yes. Our municipal code says that unless a member of council has been permitted to abstain from voting or is otherwise prohibited by law from voting pursuant to Subdivision G, which is a different provision, such members' silence shall be recorded as an affirmative vote.

I don't have any problem with that. What I have a problem with is talking to councilmember Martinez Franco like that. That's what I have the problem with.

Well, I'm sorry you have a problem. Can just make a point of So

what does this mean for purposes to the attorney of the minutes? How will Carl's minutes be drafted?

The minutes will be recorded to show that the votes were abstentions and then to note that the abstentions count as affirmative yes votes.

Okay. I get all that, but you see I've read a lot of the minutes, Jeff. So it's a table. It'll say Carol and it says yes, like so what will it read exactly? Maybe Carl knows.

Carl knows. We've done it.

Does it say yes next to what does it say?

It would have an asterisk with the notation that there was an abstention, but with that disclaimer that says that extensions are recorded in the affirmative for the municipal code.

So again, staff, what does it say with the asterisk? The word what? Yes or no?

Councilmember Carroll, there are three lines, yes, no and abstain. The names that abstain will be on the line that says abstain and then there'll be an asterisk and a note that indicates that the abstentions count as yeses.

So just for a point of clarification, if a vote to abstain is held at this dais, it is the equivalent of voting to delete the item off the agenda? Permanently deleted, it's gone?

Correct. If there are four votes that count as a yes, the item will be deleted from the agenda. Thank you.

Okay. Can I well, since we're at this, can I can I add something? Okay. The point of and then I really don't like the that it was explained as weaseling my way out of it. It was a principal vote. I had already expressed my opinion on whether the timing is I agree with the timing or not, which I disagree with the timing. That's why I abstain out of this. But with the merit, I agree that we should debate it and I would support that. I did plan on supporting staying in OCPA. And that is why I'm abstaining from this vote.

But that has nothing to do with whistling out of this. And I do not appreciate the fact that my vote was explained after the fact.

All right. Will you continue with the roll call vote?

Mayor, we have a request to speak actually from myself and Councilmember Martinez Franco.

All right. We'll suspend the roll call vote for now. And Councilmember Mai followed by Councilmember Martinez Franco.

Thank you. I just wanted clarification from our lawyer over there. So we currently have a no vote, a yes, yes, yes.

Does that count currently? You have a no, a yes, an abstain and an abstain. The two abstains count as yes.

Okay. Okay. Thanks. That's it.

Okay. So

Council Member Martinez Franco.

Mr. Melchin, do I have the right to vote abstain?

The municipal code discusses what happens if you vote abstain.

But I have the right to vote whatever I want.

There's another provision of the municipal code that says except as otherwise provided by law, no member of the City Council shall be permitted to abstain from voting unless such disqualification shall have been approved by the City Attorney or by unanimous vote of the remainder of the Council present. Unapproved disqualifications and abstentions shall be recorded by the city clerk as an affirmative vote. So those two sentences are a little bit in tension with each other. The sentence says that you're not permitted to abstain unless you have a conflict of interest. But the second sentence says what happens if you do it anyway.

So if you ask me, are you permitted to abstain? I can't tell you that the municipal code permits you to abstain. I can only tell you that if you do abstain, it's recorded as a yes vote.

Okay. And I'm going to second what council member Lu said. I am echoing her thoughts and I explained why I am voting abstain abstention. I am I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to keep on talking, but I was gonna still supporting keeping the city of Irvine in OCPA. Thank you.

Councilmember Carroll.

Yes. Thank you. Just back to the city attorney. So that was pretty I bet you're pretty unhappy about the language of the that's our charter or is that what is that?

No. That's in Municipal Code? It's in Section 123.11 Subdivision G of the Municipal Code.

So if I abstain, did I violate the Municipal Code? Yes. Okay. So anyone voting up here abstain has violated municipal code because that's what it is. So I want you to make sure you let everybody know what that vote does.

I'm not

saying it. I'm just, hey, I want to clarify for my colleagues. They probably should just vote yes. But that means they violated the municipal code, correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Can I I mean, I don't understand why people keep explaining I already made it very clear I'm abstaining because I disagree with the entire argument? So can we just stop explaining what my

Counselmember, I've been doing this for a long time. I was a planning commissioner for years No, before I was in the no, no, I could tell you that I, this gentleman's law firm prohibited people on the planning commission from taking the vote that you're about to vote. With all due respect to the planning commission, this doesn't seem right to me from a process perspective because this whole thing is unwinding into just absurdity as a theory of absurdity as Councilwoman Richard Cedar said indeed because I'm finding it hard personally, just so you know personally, to understand why I would be part of a Planning Commission where counsel, Rattann and Tucker, Jeff Melchin's law firm told it wasn't even me. The Chairman, Anthony Quo said you cannot vote to abstain and that planning commission was prohibited from voting that way. They had to commit, and you say yes or no.

That so I just want you to know I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to slice and dice here. I'm just giving you the exact facts of what occurred when I sat as a planning commissioner, which is why I'm confused.

So I don't know what happened at the planning commission and what item you were voting on, but in this case, I have every right to stay out of this by choosing to abstain. And in that case, I had already made it very clear that I agreed that this is absurd. So I'm staying out of it. I'm choosing to abstain. Or I can get up and leave, which happens on this diet.

So again, I would prefer that nobody explains why I abstain because I already made it very clear. And after the fact, when I don't have a chance to explain it again, just in case nobody anybody is still confused about why I chose to abstain, I chose to abstain because I feel like this is an observed discussion, which we already spent how much time on, and we have real business to get to. So please move on.

Just observe. Yes, we could have had a very substantive discussion of 5.5 instead of squabbling over this procedure and trying to squelch the matter. Councilmember Treseda, we're going to kind of give you the last word. I think we've got a suspended roll call vote and we'll want to resume that vote. But I want to give you a chance to be heard if you wish.

Yeah. Thank you. I'm just saying I think we should go forward with the vote. I appreciate councilmembers Martinez Franco and Lou for sticking with their vote. It's clear they know what they're doing. Appreciate them not being bullied into changing their votes. Thank you.

Where are we in the roll call vote, please?

We ended with councilmember Martinez Franco. So we have three more votes.

Could you review the votes so far?

Sure. Councilmember Carroll voted no. Councilmember Goh voted yes. Councilmembers Liu and Martinez Franco abstained with the understanding that those will be recorded in the affirmative.

All right. Resume the vote, please.

Councilmember Traceter.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mai.

Let's get paid back. I'm going to go I'm going to abstain too.

Go ahead. Just record it as an abstention.

Mayor Egren. I'll vote no. So the vote is two-two with three abstentions. Councilmember Carroll voted no. You mayor voted no. Councilmembers go and Traceter voted yes. The three abstentions are from Councilmembers Lou and Martinez Franco and Vice Mayor May.

I apologize to those who came to testify regarding item 5.5. We will simply have to find another way. And mindful of that, we'll go back to our agenda.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, I just learned of a potential technical difficulty we're having with the broadcast. If I could respectfully ask for maybe a 10 recess just to check into it, we'd really appreciate it. All right.

I'll tell you what, let's take a recess and we will begin at 8PM sharp. The meeting comes to order once again. The council having been in recess. All members have returned to the dais. The time is 08:02 p. M. All right. Well, that was easy. Let's go on now to Thank you, mayor.

I'd like to move to reconsider the last item.

I'm sorry. What's that?

I'd like to move to reconsider the last item.

All right. Let me just check with the city attorney on this. Is a motion to reconsider appropriate at this time?

It is.

I second.

There's a motion by councilmember go. Seconded by councilmember to reconsider the item. Do you wish to speak to your motion? No. Just vote. The vote then is to reconsider basically reopen the whole matter. Is that correct?

Correct. It's two phase, mayor. The first phase is just to decide whether to reopen it. A yes vote is to reopen it. Second phase will be to revote on it.

All right. There's a motion and a second to reconsider. That's all we're doing whether or not to actually reconsider it. Correct. All right with that all the maker of the motion the second you do not wish to speak we'll turn to councilmember martinez frankl

Mr. Malchin, are there opportunities for public comments right now?

No. Public comments on the item have already been taken and it has been closed. Thank you.

All right. I'd like to just ask the maker of the motion is to reconsider it's not just to revote. It's isn't it a declaration that you're changing your vote?

Not necessarily.

It's just reopen the discussion. Correct.

I have a question from the last discussion. I guess it would be a violation of the municipal code if we abstained from this?

Yes.

And what is the remedy for this violation?

The remedy appears to be in the very same section. It says unapproved disqualifications and abstentions shall be recorded by the city clerk as an affirmative vote.

So we're not talking about, say, a sanction or fine or anything like that?

No.

When you say violation, is that like a violation in the common sense or a violation of as in is abnormality, so to speak?

I would I'm not sure. I would say that the code specifically says no member of the city council shall be permitted to abstain from voting unless such disqualification shall have been approved by the city attorney or by unanimous vote of the remainder of the council present. So it's violation. It is inconsistent with what the code requires.

So violation as in it's inconsistent, but not like violation in the common sense that it's a violation like we break the law?

Councilmember Liu, I regard the code as the law. It does break the law. Question then flips to the question whether there's a remedy and what the remedy is. And the next sentence in the code says what the remedy is. Unapproved disqualifications and abstentions shall be recorded by the city clerk as an affirmative vote.

So the consequence of that is actually that your abstention is recorded as a yes?

Correct.

Against your will, so to speak.

Correct. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Thank you.

All right. There's a motion and a second to reconsider the previous matter. This is a procedural vote. Would the clerk please call the

roll? Councilmember Carroll? Yes. Councilmember Goh? Yes. Councilmember Lu? I'm sorry. No. Councilmember Martinez Franco.

Abstain.

Councilmember Tracieter.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mai? Yes. Mayor Agram? Yes. So with the understanding there's one abstention, which will be recorded in the affirmative, councilmembers Carroll, go. Councilmember Cecilia, vice mayor Mayor Agram voted yes. Councilmember Lou voted no with the one abstention from councilmember Martinez Franco. So carries.

All right. Motion carries.

Now what?

You asked it to be reconsidered.

Now what? We would

call the roll call vote again to delete the item I believe.

So the purpose for this is just to be able to change your vote not to discuss the matter again. I'm just trying to get straight here what folks want to do. I get reconsideration. It's reopened. What do you want to do now? Right. Just revote. Revote. Alright. Is there do we need a motion? We need a motion for a new recall vote a renewed roll call vote? Mean, typically when somebody reopens it, they reopen the debate on the matter.

That's correct, mayor. You need a new motion now. You have reconsidered you're reconsidering the item. The item, which is additions and deletions on the agenda is now being reconsidered.

So you would like to have your vote recorded differently. Is that what you're asking?

No. It was just to call the vote again so people can reconsider their abstention.

Oh, okay. All right.

Mayor? Yes. Somebody needs to make a motion. Yes. And then you need a second.

Alright. What's the motion?

Mayor may I make the motion?

Yes you may. Councilmember Cecilia.

I move that we delete item 5.5 from the agenda that's electrical utility plan options for city municipal accounts.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to delete it. Didn't we do that already? Didn't we do that already?

Correct. Would we just call through a roll call vote please unless there's people that want

to Hold on. There are three people who wish to be heard councilmember Lu, Councilmember Mai, and then Councilmember Martinez Franco. Councilmember Mai took his name off the list, so it's Councilmember Lou and then Councilmember Martinez Franco.

Okay. Thank you. Again, I hate to keep eating the same point, and I feel like this is a mockery of this. But anyway, in the sense that this is a violation of municipal code, then abstention is recorded as a yes against the maker of that abstention vote's will. Is that what we're getting to?

Sort of. It depends what the will is.

It I'm assuming if you abstain from a vote, you're essentially saying, do not want to partake in this vote. Okay. Is that

it forces a yes vote. It forces a

yes vote. Meaning that what even though you don't want to vote yes or no, you're still deemed to have voted yes.

Correct.

Okay.

I just want to make it very, very, very clear. Like I said, I do not feel like partaking in this. And if that is going to be taken as a violation of the municipal code, as in I don't know, I'm their election of duty or whatever it is, I you know, I hope people don't take it that way. Think I've made myself very, very clear. But I wanted to make sure that that's the case. Okay. Well, thank you.

Councilmember Martinez Franco.