City Council - Regular Meeting

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Would the meeting please come to order? This is the City Council adjourned regular meeting and special joint meeting with the Great Park Board, with the facilities, Irvine Facilities Financing Authority as well. All of that together here on June 23rd. The time is 5.05 p.m. The council was in a closed session earlier today. We had a special council meeting, a closed session, and we handled some more or less routine business. as well, leaving plenty of business to be taken care of tonight at this meeting as well. So we thank everybody for their cooperation and forbearance. At this time, I'd like to turn to the city clerk so that he might inform the general public, those who might wish to participate from remote locations, as well as those who are gathered here in person as to how they can participate 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 160-043-4844. The passcode is 272-906. 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 in 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 per 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 90 seconds. Those who wish to provide written comments may do so by clicking e-comment on our City Council meeting agenda webpage at cityofirvine.gov slash agendas. 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 clerk at cityofirvine.org. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Peterson. At this time, For the official record, I'd like you to please call the roll.

Council Member Carroll.

Here.

Council Member Goh. Here. Council Member Liu.

Here.

Council Member Martinez-Franco.

Here.

Council Member Treseder.

Here.

Vice Mayor Mai. Here. And Mayor Akron.

Here. With that, we'd like to move on to our traditional Pledge of Allegiance and then an invocation. So at this time, I would like to ask those who are present here in the chamber to rise if you're able for the pledge and remain standing after the pledge for the invocation. Tonight, I've asked Councilmember Mike Carroll to lead us in the pledge.

Thank you, Mayor. Please place your hand over your heart. 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. It is my pleasure to welcome Deacon Tim O'Donoghue from St. Thomas More Catholic Church. here in Irvine for tonight's invocation. Welcome and thank you for coming. Good afternoon, everyone.

Please bow your heads. Good and gracious God, we thank you that we can gather together this afternoon to help make the great city of Irvine an even better place to live. As we celebrate our country's 250th birthday next week, let us take a moment to reflect on all the blessings that we experience both as a nation and as a city, especially the opportunity to be part of a democratic system that allows us to share our opinions and our point of view. However, we need to remember, freedom is not free. We thank all of the veterans, both living and deceased, who put their life on the line so that we may have a better way of life. Tonight, we ask that you send your special blessing down on our Mayor, Ergon, our Councilmember Lou, Councilmember Goh, Councilmember Mai, Councilmember Carroll, Councilmember Martinez-Franco, and Councilmember Tresider, that they be given the knowledge, the wisdom, and courage to be servant leaders as they represent the people of Irvine. Also, we ask that you bless the City of Irvine staff gathered here tonight, that they too are servant leaders who make wise decisions on behalf of others, especially those most in need. And we ask all of this in your name.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you for that very uplifting and very appropriate invocation. We appreciate it. Thank you. You bet. Please be seated. At this time, our agenda calls for public comments for non-agendized items. Non-agendized items that are nevertheless within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. Typically, we set aside a half hour for non-agendized public comments. Mr. Peterson, how many requests do we have for non-agendized public comments?

We have 20 requests to speak, 18 in person and two on Zoom.

18 in person, two on Zoom. If we were to limit each to 90 seconds, we can fit everything within the half hour, I believe. So let's do that, beginning with those who are present.

Thank you, Mayor. If I could call forward Anthony Nguyen, Zahra Sy, Justin Huang, Rodolfo Sandoval, and Katie Reyes. And we'll start with Anthony.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Council. My name is Anthony Nguyen. When I'm not at work, you can find me watching movies. From black and white films to horror flicks, watching movies is one of my most favorite pastimes. I especially love watching movies in art theaters, which are independent theaters, both for-profit and non-profit, that show films in order to honor the history and artistry of cinema. Art theaters appeal to me because I can watch older or more unique films with the movie theater experience, an experience that digital recreations cannot recreate. But most importantly, it's a place where people can come together and be part of a loving community that appreciates films together. But there are no art theaters in Irvine and very few in Orange County. While mainstream movie theaters such as Regal, AMC, or Cinemark show new movies, they neglect over thousands of movies because they are unconventional or too old. For those who love the art theater scene, they have to go either to Los Angeles or to two movie theaters in Orange County, the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana or the Lido Theater in Newport Beach. As such, even the variety of movies that are shown do not appeal to some patrons who want to go to see these movies. So Irvine should have their own movie theater, and what better place to have it than the cultural terrace of the Great Park? Not only would the addition of this theater make the city of Irvine a trailblazer, but it will bring great appreciation to the cinematic arts in Irvine. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comment. Would you please leave... Your name and how you're reachable with the city clerk, I think some people may wish to be in touch with you. Thank you.

Zahra.

Good evening. My name is Zahra Castrillon, and I have realized that reckless e-bike usage in Irvine has become a disruptive safety issue. While the efforts of local authorities and the implementation of new rules have brought some improvements, more must be done to protect pedestrians and riders to ensure the safety of the city. Currently, local municipalities remain legally restricted by the California Vehicle Code from implementing uniform age restrictions and vehicle classification standards. Irvine has already maximized its legal authority. regarding speed limits and infrastructure segmentations. The issue has gone far enough for the city to advocate at a higher level. The city of Irvine should write to the state legislature to demand action, framing this issue as a balance between support of active transportation and protecting public safety, specifically advocating for the need to increase regulations for out-of-class electric motorcycles and creating a statewide licensing system. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for your comments. Just so you know, we are actually in communication with the legislature on precisely that matter. Thank you.

Thank you. Justin?

Good evening, Mayor, council members. My name is Justin Huang, and I've been a resident in Irvine for 19 years now. I bounce all around Irvine, but my family has settled in Portola Springs for about nine years now. I love to call this place my home, but it has become very difficult to do so with the Bowerman landfill. According to South Coast AQMD, there have already been more than 130 complaints about rotten, sour, and garbage type odors, which were all traced back to Bowerman operations. Furthermore, Bowerman Landfill has already received three notices of violations. But instead of listening to these violations and ensuring no further issues, the Bowerman Landfill has now decided to ramp up its operations after the closure of the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea. If you haven't already known, this means increased garbage and landfill trucks on roads, which I already deal with, and louder noise in residential areas, worse air quality, and a risk to road safety in our community. We deserve transparency, accountability, and a clear plan to protect our communities. I urge the city to keep pushing to create dedicated truck access roads to keep them off local roads, provide regular public reports on odor complaints and enforcement, make measurable standards for odor mitigation, and create a long-term regional plan for waste management to mitigate the harms to Irvine residents. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comment. Rodolfo? Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and fellow council members. My name is Rodolfo Sandoval. I'm here today to speak about Irvine Connect and its role in improving mobility and access across the city. As we head into a busy summer with massive community events, I think there is real merit to expanding both awareness and use of this service. Right now, Irvine Connect feels underutilized, not necessarily because it is not useful, but because many residents simply do not know enough about it or how it can fit into their daily travel routines. Increasing visibility of this service through stronger outreach, especially in high traffic areas like Irvine Spectrum, could significantly improve ridership. Expanding the use of Irvine Connect also has broader benefits. Every additional rider helps reduce traffic congestion on already busy streets and lowers vehicle emissions. Small, gradual changes steer Irvine away from its heavy reliance on cars and toward a more connected, transit-friendly city where a personal vehicle is not always required. I would also encourage the city to evaluate whether current routes fully reflect where Irvine residents are traveling, particularly during peak summer activity. With stronger publicity and thoughtful route adjustments, Irvine Connect can better serve as a practical, accessible transportation option for the Irvine community. And on a personal note, it might save me from a few too many lawn walks in the California heat. Thank you for your time, thank you for all you do, and take care.

And thank you for your comments. By the way, we do have staff here on the Bowerman matter and also on the Irvine Connect matter. I hope maybe they'll jump up and chat with you and see how you might connect a little bit with our staff, all right? Go right ahead.

Katie, if I could, Katie, before you start, if I could also call forward Susan Sayer, Laura T., Avram Grossman, Private Chavez, and Wendy Williams. Welcome.

Evening, Council. My name is Katie Reyes, and I'm lucky enough to call Irvine home. It's no secret that Irvine has this almost indescribable quality that sets it apart from other cities. A large part of this greatness comes from all of our open spaces, but these preserved areas also present a risk for wildfire. In the past, Irvine has successfully utilized goat grazing as a natural fire prevention method. The last few summers in Bomber Canyon, for example, goats have helped reduce the risk of wildfire by eating dry vegetation and brush and have also helped restore the canyon's natural habitat. I'm aware that Council has already helped bring back these prevention methods in the past, but it's essential that we continue these efforts now, especially that the hottest and driest months are approaching. Thank you for your time and your commitment to Irvine. Thank you.

And thank you for your comments. My goodness, we're getting so many thoughtful, constructive comments tonight. Welcome, Ms. Sayre.

Yes, good afternoon. My name is Susan Sayre. I've lived in Irvine over 45 years now. and I'm working to improve our democratic process is one of my passions. I am thrilled about placing ranked voting on the ballot. It will serve to further enhance our democratic process by making our elections the most accurate representation of the will of our Irvine voters. Irvine can take yet another step towards improving our democratic process by supporting public financing of political campaigns as it will reduce campaign costs and reduce candidates' dependence upon special interest financing. Public financing of political campaigns would thus allow more people to afford run for public office and would serve to reduce special interest influence in city government business. Currently, there is a statutory ban on public financing of political campaigns, which one of November's ballot initiatives is proposing to eliminate. However, the current ban exempts charter cities. Irvine is a charter city and thus is free to create a public financing of political campaign program. There are a number of California charter cities that have created public financing of campaign programs such as Berkeley, Long Beach, Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We all have been watching our national...

Pardon me? If you would just finish your sentence, please. Go ahead.

Okay. Well, I'm hoping that Irvine can accomplish this goal by placing both ranked choice voting and public financing on our November ballot. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Laura?

Welcome. Thank you, Mayor, City Council, and members of the community. My name is Laura Thieme, and Irvine has been my home since 2015 with my daughter. Since 22, I lost parents, full-time salary, and I became subject to a dependency court case unexpectedly that has caused an extended displacement crisis for my family. And most importantly, I've been unable to verify independently the well-being of my daughter for over one year. That's substantial. Today, I respectfully request an emergency stabilization grant through eye care and other organizations, nonprofits, through the HMIS system for an immediate stabilization grant of $25,000. That would cover 90-day hotel voucher system, which does not exist as of today. I've already negotiated a 25% discount rate with a hotel that I won't mention publicly, but I have a contract and it's already been presented to ICARE. Second, I request $250 a month in gas, tolls, and other assistance. And third, I request immediate collaboration with the city, law enforcement, and the Orange County Sheriff's digital forensics groups to work with multiple police departments because there are multiple crimes involved. I ask for that assistance. Thank you.

Thank you. Perhaps somebody from our staff can be in touch with you this evening, all right?

I'll say one last thing. Grief is not a mental illness. Just remember that.

Thank you for your comments.

Mr. Grossman?

Welcome.

Hello. Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, Chief Kent, and staff. Many of you have seen me before on this podium. Several years ago, I stood to advocate for responsible backyard beekeeping. Working with City Council, we adopted, or you adopted, a sensible beekeeping ordinance. Tonight, I'm here to discuss another animal-related issue, the City's leash and nuisance animal ordinance and how they are being enforced. Let me be clear, dangerous dogs, aggressive behavior, and animals running loose in our neighborhood should absolutely be addressed. Public safety must always come first. However, The current ordinance appears to leave little room for common sense or officer discretion. A dog could be considered off-leash even when they're standing quietly by the side of its owner under full voice control, posing no threat to anybody even at four in the morning in a park near your house or in front of your house. A person may receive a citation for briefly releasing the leash to untangle it from the dog's leg or to avoid a hazardous situation. I have been cited for six such occurrences. The ordinance makes little distinction between a well-trained dog sitting next to its owner or a dog running uncontrolled through a park or neighborhood. There's also an issue about complaints and enforcement.

Just finish your thought briefly, if you would.

I'll just come to the chase. Irvine has earned a reputation as a thoughtful, progressive, and compassionate city. I respectfully ask the City Council to review these ordinances and consider whether they are appropriately where they appropriately distinguish between a responsible dog ownership and conduct that truly threatens public safety.

Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments.

Young Marine Private Chavez. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Grant and Irvine City Council staff. My name is Young Marine Private Chavez, and I'd like to talk to you about the MCAS Testing Young Marines. We are more than just a youth group. We are a leadership program for boys and girls ages 8 through high school, where you will learn leadership, physical fitness, and how to live a drug-free, healthy lifestyle. Our program focuses on three pillars, leadership, teamwork, and discipline. Through rigorous recruit training and ongoing training, participants learn the young Marine obligation, which emphasizes leading by example and living with integrity in a world full of distractions. The MCAS testing unit instills the Marine Corps' fundamental values, honor, courage, and commitment. By embracing these values along with the core principles of our program, participants can achieve success in anything. As the official youth drug prevention program of the United States Marine Corps, the MCAS testing young Marines also promote a healthy drug-free lifestyle among their peers. They are not just youths, they are the responsible American citizens that our future requires. The City of Irvine serves as an ideal training ground of these young leaders. Some places our unit has gone to visit is the Great Park, where we have gone out of 22 parks in Irvine for practicing teamwork, physical fitness, and endurance. There is a direct link between this program and the City of Irvine's commitment to the health youth become the leaders of tomorrow. The accountability and discipline learned... Thank you.

Your time is up. Just finish your thought, if you would.

The accountability and discipline learned at the MCAS Tustin are the same traits that drive local businesses to thrive, whether it's small startup or a global headquarters. The city of Irvine succeeds youth initiatives. It is one of the best cities in Orange County for pursuing initiative and enjoying a fulfilling lifestyle, thanks to its investment in people. By supporting the MCAS Tustin young Marines, you ensure that the future leaders of the community are spreading and are ready to lead. Thank you for being part of a city that values the same thing we do. Young Marines is a 500iC3 nonprofit. Please visit youngmarines.org. Semper Fidelis.

Thank you. If you would leave information about the group and its solicitations and so forth with our city clerk or our staff, we'd appreciate that. Thank you for the good work you do.

Wendy Williams, and if I could also call forward Mark Lowry, Shaylee C., Joanne Slobodian, Jeff Williams, and Heidi. Welcome.

Hi, I'm Wendy Williams, and tonight I'm here to respectfully ask the board to consider including the sport of archery as part of the athletic and recreational opportunities offered at the Great Park. Archery is a unique and highly inclusive sport that can be enjoyed by people of many ages, backgrounds, and physical abilities. It teaches focus, discipline, patience, responsibility, safety, and confidence. Unlike many sports that depend heavily on speed, size, or physical contact, archery allows participants to develop at their own pace while still being a part of a supportive and competitive athletic environment. It is also a sport that can serve youth, adults, families, adaptive athletes, beginners, and elite competitors. As a parent of an Olympic archer, I have seen firsthand how archery can positively shape a young person's life. My son, Jack Williams, who is an archery Olympian and world champion, is a former Irvine student who attended Stone Creek, Lakeside, and Woodbridge High School and excelled not only in athletics but in academics. The Great Park is already known for a place for innovation, athletics, education, and community engagement. Adding archery would create another meaningful space for the Olympic sport to grow along other sports already supported in Irvine and the surrounding region, such as swimming, hockey, ice hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and tennis. Archery would complement... Thank you. Your time is up. Oh, sorry. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments. Appreciate it.

Mark Lowry.

Welcome.

Thank you. I'm Mark Lowry representing the Orange County Food Bank and here to publicly thank the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County for their support during the recent hazmat instance in Garden Grove. Our food bank was located within the evacuation area. So all of our food and assets were trapped where we couldn't access them. Second Harvest was generous enough to invite us in to operate out of their food bank until we could access our building again. So we spent that holiday weekend directing all of our deliveries to be delivered to Second Harvest, borrowed food from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and San Diego Food Bank, and the state of California provided emergency resources as well. That Tuesday morning, Second Harvest welcomed us into their conference room, set up computers for us, and even provided us lunch. So it was an absolute model of collaboration. It's exactly how a disaster response should work. We wanted to publicly thank them and remind the council as well. What a gem you have in the city of Irvine and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County and Claudia Keller.

Thank you, Mr. Honore, and thanks for all the great work. You do.

Ms. Shaley?

Welcome.

Good evening, Respecter, Mayor, Agron, and City Council members. My name is Shaylee Chudasima. I'm a student at Portola High School, and for the past three years, I've owned and operated my own small business called Lottery Macarons right here in our community. Through running my business, I've learned skills that go far beyond selling a product, like customer relations, budgeting, and resilience. These are valuable life skills, yet many students don't have the opportunity to learn them until much later. Middle school is a critical time in a young person's development. It is when students begin exploring their interests, developing confidence, and imagining their future careers. Yet many students have little exposure to the practical skills needed to succeed in today's economy, such as financial literacy, leadership, and innovation. That realization inspired me to create Startup Stars, an entrepreneurship program designed specifically for middle school students. This year, I piloted the inspiring program at Beacon Park Middle School, where students learned how to identify opportunities and create budgets and present their ideas and their businesses. I concluded the program with the student marketplace, and the response from students, families, and the community was remarkable. I provided the city council with my Startup Stars workbook, which has served as a classroom resource and practical guide that supports students as they transform their ideas into real projects and concepts. This effort is also aligned with California's recent push to strengthen financial literacy education. I respectfully ask the City Council to explore partnerships with schools, local businesses, and community organizations to support programs like Startup Stars. I would like to collaborate with you to expand my program through workshops, after-school programs, mentorship opportunities, and youth business competitions across our county. Thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to supporting the success of our youth.

And thank you very much for your comments. Thank you.

Joanne Slobodian. Welcome.

Thank you. Good to see you all. Ellie Weisel said, silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The letter before you was sent on June 10th and again on June 11th to the city council, city staff, the planning department, and the city clerk's office. As of tonight, I have not received a response. In January, residents were told the Oak Creek easement could not be accepted because the Irvine Company's position was the 75% compensatory development threshold under 88-1 had not been met. Sorry, I thought you guys got it already. Then on June 4th, Ashley Europe's response to Public Records Act request 450-689-8 stated there were no responsive records showing how the 75% threshold is defined, calculated, or applied, what constitutes 100% compensatory development, whether the threshold has been met, or why the Oak Creek easement has not been accepted. So how is the threshold being tracked? How is it being verified? And how does the city know the easement should be or should not be accepted? Those are the questions the city should answer correctly. Now, residents should not have to rely on Irvine Company to explain when a voter-approved easement becomes enforceable. The city should know. Yet now we are told an easement provided by the city recently. Is it the same easement offered in January or has it been modified, revised or replaced? Silence encourages the developer's narrative and torments the residents seeking answers. Please answer my question. Thank you.

Your time is up. Thank you for your comments. Jeff Williams. Welcome.

Thank you, council members. Just a little bit about myself. I've been part of the Irvine community for over 50 years when my parents first bought their first home in Irvine over 50 years ago. My son grew up here. As my wife said, he became an Olympian. And with that, we are hopeful that the Great Park Board and the City Council consider adding archery. What I provided for you is just a quick sketch of where I see great potential for an archery range, right next to that parking lot that currently has all the RVs. At the present moment, The US men's recurve team, which my son is a part of, is currently ranked number two in the world. So assuming they continue at that pace, they will be favorites for a medal at the Olympics. So having an Irvine resident, or former Irvine resident, he moved to Chula Vista, but a former Irvine resident on the medal stand would be a great thing for Irvine. And having an archery range for him to come home to would be even better. So with that, I... ask with sincerity to help make Archery part of the Great Park.

Thank you for your comments. Let me just, Mr. Crumby, if we have somebody from the Great Park here, we have the chairman here at the dais, but if we have somebody on staff to maybe talk about the... the matter of archery and its possibilities at the Great Park. We do.

I'm happy to connect them right now.

Please do. All right. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome.

Heidi, and if I could also call forward Jason Garshfield, Cynthia, Kate Zhu, and Dan Gabay.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Councils. I want to bring up some issues that I've been seeing in my neighborhood. There are several things, safety issues. We have an unsecured construction site that is very dangerous and has wide open gaps. and little cracks that any child can walk into. The second floor has been built, and so now a child can just fall off that second floor. So I'm really concerned about that. I've brought that to the attention of the vice mayor, and he has addressed it, and he's followed up, but I'm just concerned that this is taking so long. I've also reached out to HOA leadership and with how progressive our city is, that this could even be an issue is shocking. And I'll send you pictures of it, but it looks like a haunted house. Actually, it looks like it's been ravaged. And then I also wanted to bring up some crumbling trails with the resurfaced streets that we've been discussing that's been on the agenda recently. We have these trailways that are completely crumbled. There's a gentleman with a walker. He's elderly, and I see him trudging through it. I've reached out to several officials and no one has responded, including Public Works, and they were just praised and I don't see why, is there any oversight with these groups? I mean, you'll spend all this time praising them, but why isn't there any oversight? There's several other things that we can get to.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your comments. Let me put you in touch with somebody from our staff tonight and see if your concerns can be pursued. All right? Okay. Thank you.

Jason Garshfield.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you. So I wanted to take a minute with what little of a public platform this gives me to ask everyone to think for a moment about the people of Iran who have once again been used as a political pawn and then cast away by self-indulgent world leaders. And I did watch the UFC spectacle at the White House and this performative masculinity, this macho sort of tough guy posturing. And the next day, I read an article in The Atlantic about Sam Afshari, a 17-year-old boy who went out in the protests on January 8th and was shot, wounded, taken to the hospital, and then finished off. And so that 17-year-old boy has more masculine virtue in his little finger than every single person involved with that UFC spectacle. With what little time I have left, I'd like to suggest building a statue of James Irvine. I know there's something at the Great Park. I think maybe we should put something outside of City Hall because Irvine doesn't have a whole lot of heritage, a whole lot of... history behind it, but James Irvine was an admirable figure, and I think that putting a statue of him there could provide a good example to Irvine residents.

Thank you for your comments. Is Cynthia here? Cynthia? Okay, Kate? Welcome.

Hi, I'm actually with Cynthia. My name is Kate. I'm an entrepreneur who choose to come to Irvine because of its reputation as one of the safest, most transparent, and business-friendly cities in America. I'm here today to raise concerns regarding alleged visa fraud unauthorized immigration consulting activities, and potential financial misconduct associated with Motor Road Consulting LLC, located at Suites 340, 2020 Main Street, Irvine. Based on information and documentation available to me, these allegations may involve millions of dollars in transactions and raised serious concerns regarding consumer fraud, fraudulent documentation, potential tax-related violations, financial deception, and other potential financial crimes. This should not be viewed merely as a civil dispute. If substantiated, such conduct could affect not only individual victims but also community safety, public trust, and Irvine's reputation as a lawful and trusted place to live and do business. Many immigrants and families invest their life savings and place their trust in individuals claiming professional expertise. If that trust is abused, the financial and personal consequences may be devastating. I respectfully request that the Irvine Police Department and the appropriate federal and state authorities review any credible allegations and determine whether a formal investigation is warranted. Protecting consumers, preventing financial crime, and preserving Irvine's reputation should remain a priority of our community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. If you have any materials you wish to leave with the clerk and with the city, feel free to do so.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Dan? Welcome.

Hello, Mr. Mayor. Hello, everyone. Last session I was here. I told you my name is Dan Gabay. I live at, or I bought the condo at number 4 Lake Knoll. I was very fortunate to get this condo. It is right on the North Lake path, you know the path that goes around. I look out at the lake. However, I am rarely outside because my neighbor smokes cigars on his balcony. The smoke comes straight over. Thank you. I was so grateful for the people you put me in touch with, including Sean Cumbry and Mike Carroll. I'm tremendously grateful for the amount of people and the support that I received. However, I learned that because of how the city's municipal code was crafted, written, and interpreted, the term multi-unit housing is somewhat ambiguous. And for people like me that have an attached unit next to a smoker, effectively, that municipal code says, sorry. Sorry. We support the right of that smoker to smoke all they want. We do not support your right to just have fresh air come in your window. I ask that the city considers re-looking at that definition of multi-unit housing to include everyone. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is telephone number 348. 348, you may unmute your mic. 348, can you hear us? Our next speaker is Don Geller. Mr. Geller, you may unmute your mic.

Hello, good evening, Mayor, Council members, Vice Mayor, Don Geller, Chair of the Finance Commission, but speaking only for myself. When the Great Park is included, the Council makes decisions involving hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Some of these actions, including past decisions, will be discussed later this evening. As I have done numerous times in the past, I would like to remind the Council that the Finance Commission is ready, willing, and able to provide guidance and recommendations on these matters. As you know, many financial items are not routinely brought to the Commission for discussion, but the Council does have the authority to place matters on the Finance Commission's agenda, including those that pertain to the Great Park, but Council simply has to ask. Let me also remind the Council that the Commission bylaws state that the primary purpose of all advisory bodies is to provide judicious advice to the City Council. Unfortunately, the Finance Commission has only met five times this year, with more meetings canceled than held due to a lack of agenda items. That's difficult to understand given the number and scale of financial matters that come before the council. Please consider using all of your commissions when making decisions, especially the finance commission for matters pertaining to revenue and expenses. We are currently being underutilized and we can provide the advice and judicious guidance that is part of our charter.

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

Another two weeks have gone by, and we still have not heard anything about accepting the easement offer. As I understand, the offer has been with the city since December 2025, and it still has not been signed. For those who may not be aware, this offer has an expiration date, and if the city continues to stay silent on this issue, Irvine could lose its leverage and miss this opportunity. But I also found interesting that Rank choice voting has suddenly become the city's top priority, even though all of you previously voted to let the people of Fairbairn decide the future of Oak Creek through a ballot measure. Just to remind you again, you voted on August 12, 2025, to bring this issue back in early 2026. We are in June right now. The question is when. I also find interesting that even inflated city staff could not answer a simple question about easement threshold. So two simple questions. Sign the easement offer. And second, deliver the ballot measure, as you promised, to the voters of Fairbank. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, we have two late requests via Zoom. I'll defer to you as to whether or not to take those speakers.

Yes, why don't you go ahead. The queue is closed, though. These will be the final two speakers, correct?

Yes, correct.

Thank you, Mayor.

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

Thank you, Mayor Agrin, Council Members, Eric Nashanian. I wanted to let the record reflect that last meeting, June 9th, Council had ordered on May 12th for a report about the Great Park budget And Larry specifically wanted to know with regard to the feasibility of the Armenian Genocide Memorial, that being put in place as scheduled in 2028. I didn't hear anything about whether or not that was going to happen last council meeting as requested by Larry. I also want to give a DE update. The commission meeting for June has been canceled. That is now three of six for the year 2026. That's 50% of the meetings that have been canceled. And then I want to go back to Juneteenth. That was Amilcar Aaron and Jamika Green, who are part of, they lead BIPOC Equity OC. Amilcar Aaron and Jamika Green are contributors or donors to the campaign of Ms. Martinez. And then they turned around and gave an award to Foreign Mayor Kahn, who was also a contributor to Betty Martinez Franco. Are these the only two black people in Orange County and Irvine? Because they seem to be recycled over and over again. It's either them, or it's the head of the NAACP OC, or it's Bobby McDonald, who also got an award. It just seems like you guys don't know any black people, so you just use the same people over and over again. I mean, she didn't even bring up Larry Napers, who's part of the DEI committee. Oh, yeah.

Thank you. Your time is up. Our next speaker is telephone number 971. 971, you may unmute your mic.

Good evening again, mayor and council members. My name is Jess, and I have lived in Irvine for 34 years. I just wanted to speak for one minute about the importance of scouting in America. Scouting matters because it gives young people something steady. It teaches service, responsibility, teamwork, and respect. in a way that's not just talked about, but actually practiced. And that matters in a community like ours. We need young people who understand what it means to help, to lead, to listen, and to show up when something needs to be done. Scouting also connects families, neighborhoods, schools, and civic life. It gives kids a place to build confidence, learn practical skills, and see that being part of something larger than yourself is a good thing. So my closing thought is simple. Communities should recognize and support scouting because it helps build the kind of citizens every city needs. Thank you, Council. Don't stay too late tonight. Thank you.

And that is all, Mayor.

Thank you, and thank you to all those citizens who offered their thoughts and comments this afternoon. With that, we move on to the City Manager's Report. I'd like to call on Mr. Crumby at this time to give us a city manager's report.

Thank you, Mayor. Two very brief and quick items tonight. The first one, I'm really excited for a quick announcement. And that is that to emphasize that yesterday it was announced that Daisy Chain Fields, a new music festival founded by Olivia Rodrigo, produced by C3 Music, presents will debut at the Great Park on August 29th. This is really a significant moment for our city of Irvine. The festival is expected to welcome 45,000 guests, up to 45,000 guests, and feature an extraordinary lineup of women-led artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, Stevie Nicks, Sarah McLaughlin, and many more. Daisy Chain Fields Festival comes during what has already been really an incredible season or a lot of momentum for the Great Park, with our U.S. Men's National Team selecting it as the home for training during the FIFA World Cup. Daisy Chain Fields is another example of a world-class sports entertainment, cultural, and community experience in the Great Park. The city is working closely with C3 Public Safety, Traffic, and Operations to minimize impacts to all of the surrounding neighborhoods and ensure residents receive clear information in advance of the event. Second announcement is just a brief update from our esteemed police chief on immigration enforcement.

Thank you, City Manager Crumby. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. There is no reportable action. There have been no ICE or Border Patrol enforcement since I last reported on this same item at the last council meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Mr. Crumby. I trust we're really staffing up for parking control and guidance as we create this venue for what will be a very major event.

I think we've really learned a lot from some of the previous events and our entire staff from multiple departments is partnering with C3 and we're going to do everything we can to ensure that this event is successfully executed. Thank you very much.

At this time, we move on to announcements, committee reports, council reports. This is an opportunity for members of the city council to very briefly describe activities that they've been engaged in, assignments and tasks that have been undertaken, and share those with their colleagues and the larger Irvine community. I have two requests here, one from Council Member Liu, followed by Council Member Martinez-Franco. Council Member Liu, would you like to go first? Thank you.

Good evening. I'd like to share some updates and upcoming events from our office.

Next one, please.

On Thursday and Friday of this coming week, Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District will be performing a drone applied treatment of the UCI March. This application is a preventative measure to reduce mosquito populations and help lower the risk of mosquito-borne diseases.

Next slide, please.

Last week, we hosted our District 1 Project and Development Town Hall at Portola Springs Community Park. Residents heard directly from city staff on city projects and had a chance to ask questions. Next one, please. On June 12th, our office hosted our second annual Flag Day ceremony on the City Hall lawn, where we presented American flags to local veterans who have also contributed to our community. Next, please. Last week, our office hosted two watch parties at Great Park Life. Ten more family-friendly watch parties have been added to the Great Park Life calendar. Next, please. Last Saturday, I joined our team at, I'm sorry, what is it? No, this is not it. I'm sorry, Balmain Canyon. I joined Assemblymember Kati Petrie-Norris at Balmain Canyon to learn about the native plant restoration effort. Thank you to Assemblymember Petrie-Norris for bringing $1 million of state funding.

Next one, please.

Last Saturday, I joined our team at Heritage Park to read at their story time. It was fun to connect with young families and be part of fostering early literacy.

And the next one, please.

This Saturday, June 27, from 10 AM to 1 PM, our office is hosting the Older Adults Resource Fair, a free event that includes workshops, resource tables, and activities to promote well-being and community engagement. Next, please. On July 1st, we are partnering with the American Red Cross for a blood drive from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Quail Hill Community Center. Every unit saves up to three lives. Please consider donating and you get a Looney Tunes t-shirt. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Liu. Council Member Martinez-Franco.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I have a few quick updates to share from my office tonight. Next slide. Thank you to BIPOC OC Orange County for bringing the OC Juneteenth Freedom Celebration back to the Great Park for its fifth year. This special community gathering centered on freedom, history, and culture with music, dance, food, and cultural exhibits. I enjoyed spending the day with the residents, community leaders, and partners who helped make this celebration so meaningful. Next slide. My office is partnering with Tree of New America to distribute free groceries to community members in need. Bring a reusable bag and join us this Saturday, June 27, from 3 to 5 PM in the parking lot of Rancho Senior Center. Food will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Next slide. Next month, my office will be hosting a free e-bike safety training for middle school students and their parents. This event will take place Saturday, July 25th here at City Hall and will include training led by the Irvine Police Department, hands-on e-bike track practice, a safety panel for parents, and helpful safety resources. I will be sharing more details soon about how you can register and take advantage of this free opportunity. And on that hand, I didn't put it here, but if you haven't checked out, we just launched our e-bike Pilot program here in district 5 and the e-bikes are available now for rent outside City Hall So take advantage of them. I wrote them to UCI and they're fantastic Just be careful out there and Nexus you get you can stay connected to all things district 5 by following me on social media next slide and You can also stay up to date by subscribing to my monthly newsletter. My office is always available to assist, so please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next, we'll turn to Councilmember Carroll.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to just add to what our city manager was saying about this amazing music festival that's just been announced. Irvine is really coming to its being from such a small village with a few people that was a community that grew up around the amazing University of California Irvine institution that was placed here in the 1960s to the thriving, amazing mega city that it is with 318,000 residents. You know, as planners and leaders, we notice these things that kind of rise up the status and really the image of Irvine is an amazing place. And, you know, we've talked a lot about the awards that we win, like Council Member Liu talked this morning at our Gateway Village opening about the fact that we're the second best park system only because The first best park system is Washington, D.C. We're never, and Council Member Liu is right, we're never going to win that one, so we'll take number two. If you drive the freeways, you know that we have, there's this massive sign in Los Alamitos as you approach, as you leave Long Beach, and it doesn't say, it says a city slash San Diego, and that city is Irvine, is a massive sign. When you watch the weather with the Los Angeles-based news stations, the weather person has a graphic behind them, and when they go to Orange County, It's not Santa Ana. It's not Anaheim. It's Irvine's weather. Well, we're going to roll to today's show because this is what happened. And listen very closely to the end of this clip of who doesn't know about Irvine and who does. Tom, roll it.

Next up, guys, we're going to move on to Olivia Rodrigo. His cousin is Lenny. Oh, I know. He's connected. Six degrees of Al. Yesterday, Olivia mentioning her new album is making history. Grammy winner is not slowing down anytime soon. Olivia announcing that she's putting on her very own music festival. It's going to be called Daisy Chain Fields. And it's got a stacked all-female lineup that includes her friends, Chapel Roan, Cat's Eye, and Dochi. Other guests are going to be Sarah McLachlan, Karen Ove, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Stevie Nicks.

Wow, that is a mix right there.

Where is this? Olivia also noted in the announcement that all the net proceeds from the festival will go towards charities dedicated to advocating for women. You can mark your calendars. It is all happening August 29th in Irvine, California. Should we take a road trip?

Where's Irvine?

Should we take a road trip?

It's Orange County, just south of LAX. Got it.

Maybe we road trip it.

There you go, ladies and gentlemen. We're sort of on the map. Some of us get Irvine, some of us don't, but today's show was sort of the preview of what we're going to see in about 60 days. So we're really excited. Thank you, City Manager. Thank you, staff team. And thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Carroll, for your announcements. With that, we'll turn to Vice Mayor James Amai.

Thank you, Mayor. I see a member of the audience who spoke earlier. I'd like to recognize him. Mark Lowry, if you can come down here real fast. Or you can just stand up. You don't have to come all the way down here. But I know that you came here and you wanted to recognize Claudia and the Second Harvest Food Bank. One of the things that I think a lot of us and a lot of the community doesn't realize that your food bank and OC Food Bank is actually the provider for the city of Irvine and somehow food bank in garden grove is servicing the residents of irvine and the needs of irvine nonprofits as well people don't know that it's just something happened in the 70s and 80s and it got gerrymandered somehow and you guys are taking care of us not a lot of people know that so you know i really want to recognize your efforts in taking care of the non-profits the seniors the homebound seniors and those that are in need in the city of irvine so thank you very much I know that you came here recognizing somebody else, but I'd like to personally recognize you for your efforts in taking care of our city as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Mai. With that, I have a few announcements to make regarding citywide matters. In recognition of Independence Day and the historic America 250 commemoration, the city's annual Field of Valor will be on display for the entire month of July, from July 1st through July 31st, on the Irvine Civic Center lawn right out in front here, extending this meaningful tribute for the community to experience throughout the entire month. This powerful tribute features American flags sponsored by community members in honor or in memory of veterans, active duty service members, and fallen heroes. Sponsorship submissions are being accepted through Wednesday, June 24th. The field of valor is one of several ways our community can come together to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We look forward to commemorating this milestone in our nation's history with patriotic scavenger hunts and crafts, our Park and Recreation Month challenge, a special Wilderness Access Day in Palmer Canyon, and much more. For a list of America 250 activities, visit cityofirvine.gov slash america250. Next, with summer in full swing, I'd like to remind our community about some simple but important water safety tips. Use a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket to help support safer water play for non-swimmers. Always supervise children near water by designating a responsible adult as a water watcher. Use barriers like pool fences, covers, and alarms to prevent unsupervised access. Take swimming classes and learn CPR to ensure safety and a fast response in emergencies. I want to also invite you to join us on Friday July 10th at William Willett Jr. Aquatic Center for the city's largest group swim lesson, a special event that focuses on drowning prevention and awareness. Check-in begins at 5.30 p.m. Lessons start at 6 p.m. Stay for free recreation swimming that includes a water slide, giant inflatables, and diving boards. At dusk, Shark Tale plays on the big screen. Now, I haven't seen that, but it doesn't sound to me like it'll attract people to jump in the water. Nevertheless, Shark Tale will be playing on the big screen. Families attending the Super Swim lesson will also have the opportunity to participate in our Floaty Exchange program, swapping inflatable and dangerous water devices for U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets for non-swimmers. And finally, let me just also say this event is for ages three and older. For recreation swim, children six and younger must be accompanied by an adult one-on-one in the water. Lifeguards will be on duty. Registration is required at Your Irvine, Y-O-U-R Irvine.org. And finally, The community is invited to the Irvine Fine Arts Center's premier juried exhibition entitled Irvine Annual, opening Saturday, July 11th with a free opening reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The exhibition features more than 70 participating regional and national artists whose work spans a range of mediums, including painting, photography, fiber, and mixed media. This year's jury includes artist and curator Steven Anderson, painter and arts organizer Virginia Burzma, and curator Cecilia Carle of Angels Gate Cultural Center. I want to, on behalf of all of us, offer congratulations to each of the artists selected for this year's exhibition. And we, of course, hope you'll join us in viewing their work. To learn more, visit artsinervine.org slash Irvine Annual. And I believe that concludes our announcements. allowing us to move on to additions and deletions. Mr. Crumby, do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda tonight? None that I know of. There being none, we'll move on to the balance of our agenda. Now, at this time, we do some procedural fancy dancing here that is simply a way of conducting business at the Great Park. At the same time, we conduct council business. So we create a joint meeting that requires certain procedural steps. So at this time, I'd like us to convene to the special joint meeting with the Great Park board and ask our city clerk to please call the roll.

Council Member Vice Chairman Carroll. Here. Council Member Chairman Goh. Here. Council Member Director Liu.

Here.

Council Member Director Martinez-Franco. Here. Council Member Director Trecedar. Here. Vice Mayor Director Mai.

Here.

And Mayor Director Agran.

Here. With that, I think we now move directly to the consent calendar. The consent calendar tonight which is the City Council and Great Park Board. I want to get this straight, Mr. Peterson. Would you introduce the consent calendar tonight of item 1.1 for our consideration?

Absolutely, Mayor. And what you can do, you actually have two consent calendars before you. The first consists of one item, which is item 1.1 for the City Council. And then you have a second consent calendar that's a combined City Council and Great Park Board, which consists of item numbers 2.1 through 2.5. All right. Why don't we...

take those together. Incidentally, do we have any requests from citizens to be heard on the consent calendar?

We do not, Mr. Mayor.

Well, we'll take those consent calendar items together. And at this time, because they're consent calendar items, we can entertain a motion to adopt tonight's joint meeting consent calendars. Also move. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember and Vice Mayor James Mai and Board Member as well. With that and with no public comment, I think unless there's comment from the dais, there being none, at this time we'll ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Council Member, Vice Chairman Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member, Chairman Goh.

Yes.

Council Member, Director Liu.

Yes.

Council Member, Director Martinez-Franco. Yes. Council Member, Director Cheseder.

Yes.

Vice Mayor, Director Mai.

Yes.

And Mayor, Director Agran.

Yes.

Carry 7-0.

Thank you. That takes us now to public hearings. Item 3, would the clerk please identify this item for council consideration, at which time I'll open the public hearing. Go right ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. This is item 3.1, which is a joint public hearing with the Great Park Board. It's Great Park Parking System Award of Contract and Policy Direction.

Thank you. This being a public hearing, I will now declare the public hearing open. And we will turn to our city staff and Great Park staff and ask them to introduce themselves if they would.

Good evening, Great Park Board and City Council. My name is Stephanie Takigawa, and I'm a senior management analyst in the city manager's office. With me today is our director of Great Park, Steve Torelli, and staff is presenting the recommended contract award for the implementation of a parking management system at the Great Park, as well as a proposed parking policy related fees for consideration. By way of background, in 2024, staff engaged Walker consultants to provide a comprehensive parking study and evaluate opportunities to improve parking operations, visitor experience, and long-term parking management at the Great Park. The study identified several strategies to better manage parking demands and support future growth. Based on these findings, on August 12, 2025, the Great Park Board directed staff to proceed with developing a parking program and release a request for proposals. Staff subsequently developed and released a comprehensive RFP in February 2026, seeking a qualified vendor to design, install, operate, and maintain an integrated parking access and revenue control system. The proposed parking program is intended to support both current operations and long-term development at the Great Park. The key objectives include improving parking utilization, increasing parking availability and turnover, enhancing visitor experience by making parking more convenient, predictable, and efficient. And generated revenue through the program will support ongoing operations and maintenance. The program establishes a scalable framework that can accommodate future growth as additional amenities and attractions are developed through the park. Following the competitive procurement process, Parking Concepts, Inc. was identified as the highest rated proposer. The evaluation team considered qualifications, technical capabilities, experience, operational approach, and overall value to the city. Parking Concepts proposes a fully integrated parking access and revenue control system, along with on-site maintenance service and remote customer service support. For the initial term, the proposed contract to implement the system within the existing parking lots is $1,083,377. The proposed system includes several technologies designed to improve convenience and operational efficiencies. These features include gateless parking lot entrance and exits with license plate recognition that will automate vehicle entry and exit functions while reducing reliance on physical permits. Visitors will have access to multiple mobile payment options, allowing them to pay for parking quickly and conveniently from their phones. Payment kiosks will also be made available for those who do not wish to pay using their phones. The system also supports advanced reservation and permit capabilities, providing flexibility for special events, tournaments, and recurring users. Real-time parking management tools will also allow staff to monitor occupancy levels and manage parking resources more effectively. Lastly, customer service support will be available to assist visitors with parking related questions and issues through a phone number posted on the payment kiosk, as well as signage throughout the parking lots. This map identifies the parking lots included in the proposed parking program. In this initial phase, the contract award includes only the parking lots highlighted in the dark blue, which consists of 4,419 parking spaces. The pink and the light blue lots are for future developments. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Steve for the parking policy and related fees portion.

Thank you, Stephanie. The purpose of the policy, as Stephanie was stating, is to meet those objectives of streamlining parking, facilitate distribution, and provide real-time parking. As you may remember from last August, I went over that we do have enough capacity within the existing park but they're not always in the right places and so we're in some ways trying to manipulate that to get people to where they need to go and drive a little bit of parking behavior also to reduce dependency on future parking so this this in total is is trying to do that it's also going to provide real-time parking occupancy so part of this is putting up those parking lot counters like you'd see at some of our larger shopping centers in town so that when people come into the park They know if lot two has spots available or if lot six or seven, which will help guide them to the correct place a little bit faster and hopefully reduce some delays getting to their places. The parking policy really has three kind of key policy pieces to it. First is standard parking or what we'd call the table rate. And those are your standard rates that would be charged based on which parking lot, what day of the week, times of days, and whether or not it's a special event or not. Those are pretty straightforward. I'll get to that table in just a moment. The second is a resident parking. So we spent a lot of time doing outreach both with our consultants, with the community. Obviously, when I was back to you in February with the Great Park budget, the Great Park residents pay about 52% of the current operating costs of the Great Park. So it is only right we felt that they should have the benefit of a resident parking discount of at least the four hours per day. And City of Irvine residents would also get a deal slightly lesser with four hours at half that price with a permit. And the reason for the permit is we do need to verify utility bill and vehicle registration to make sure we don't have people trying to abuse this to kind of game the system. The third piece of the policy is special events and tournaments. So we have concerts out there with Great Park Live. We have our friends and neighbors with OC Soccer who have been great partners over the years. We may need to negotiate some special parking deals with them for their game days. They have season ticket holders. They do advance sales. And in order to accommodate those, and not have them kind of grouped into the other parking rates. It might be simpler. There also might be some cost efficiencies with enforcement, some other things to do those. So we would ask for permission to do those special policies as they come up for special events and group parking. So on the resident, there's two permit programs, as I was discussing. One is for Great Park residents. Those are those people really within Planning Area 52, that's the old Marine base. They're the folks in the Great Park CFD, the Melrose District. Their special tax dollars have paid to build the park. their special tax dollars are being paid to maintain the park on an annual basis going forward. The thought there is that they should not pay any more to get those four hours of free parking. And so there would be no charge for their annual permit costs. They would have to update that again so that we don't have people trying to beat the system. But we would get them those four hours a day. And just as a little side notice to how we kind of landed on the four hours and talking with our consultants and the parking management company, if you do unlimited your parking lots can end up turning into a parking garage for folks that just want to store vehicles there, and we certainly wouldn't want to encourage that at the park. Secondly, for Irvine residents, we recognize a very important part of our community. Though the general fund does not now and has never supported the Great Park, we wanted to make sure they are certainly great users of the Great Park, and therefore we wanted to make some recommendation that made them a little more whole in this process and allowed them a little bit easier access The staff has also looked at a few alternatives if council should desire that we can discuss at the appropriate time. There is an annual permit cost for that. Again, there's a cost for the parking management company to actually evaluate this data, get them registered in the system. The plan would be this is kind of the estimate of the cost. As we know what the true costs are, it's likely going to lower that estimated cost, and we would pass that on to the consumer once those costs are fully known. This is that baseline table rate. And again, really trying to meet those metrics that we talked about at the beginning of the presentation. Monday through Thursday daytime, park is not heavily used. We don't want to discourage people from being out there walking their dog, taking a jog, picnicking. And we don't really have a lot of demands on those lots at those times. And so to try putting in a parking fee plus enforcement on it didn't make a lot of sense based on the current usage we're seeing. So the thought was to start that usage as the park starts to pick up at about 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday with the in-demand lots, which are the smaller lots with a little bit of a higher rate, and the larger lots with a little bit of a lower rate. And the logic there is to... to kind of incentivize people to go to those lots where we have a lot more inventory and try to reduce that traffic. That logic, by the way, passes through the entire table. So Friday through Sunday, it's the same idea. You pay a dollar more to park in some of the closer lots, a dollar less to park in some that are further away but considerably larger. Special events, the two fees that you see there are for if you purchase pre-sale or if you purchase on-site. Obviously, there's some efficiency if we can get people to reserve on-site. It helps us gauge how many people we're going to have coming. It also helps us expedite them into the park. And then tournament fees, because those tournaments are those high-demand things. I would also highlight that that third piece of the policy, we may be working with those tournament organizers that might want to do some special rates for those or put those as part of the tournament costs. One other piece on this that I've become aware of is there's a little bit of a misconception about the four-hour maximum. And a lot of people seem to think that that means that four hours they have to move their car, get out of the lot. That's four hours we stop charging them. So if you're there for eight hours, we're not going to continue charging you $3 an hour for eight hours and get you to $24. You're going to be at the $12 position, if I'm doing my math correctly. And then there's also some transaction types and associated fees. Just for transparency, we're showing these. These are not charged to the consumers. The consumers are paying either the table rate, the special event rate, or the negotiated rate. These are the pass-through fees that end up coming off of that gross revenue that go to our parking contractor, and these are pretty comparable within the market. And again, if you fail to pay the parking fees or misuse permits, our Irvine Police Department would be doing the enforcement in those lots after the grace period. So the next steps, if approved this evening, we would finalize and execute that contract with Parking Concepts. That would probably be done in the next week or two. It takes a little bit of time to get all the insurance and documentation. That would start the clock to getting ready to implement all of the hardware that needs to be done, get the software ready to go. We'd also work with them and our communications and engagement team to begin the public outreach and education, get those resident registration programs up and running, and complete that system installation with a program launch for later this year. The anticipated revenue that we put here is about $3 to $5 million. The range is because it's really hard to identify what the delta may be based on resident permits and Great Park user permits. So that may fluctuate a little bit. We think it's closer to the five mark, but for full clarity and transparency, we wanted to provide that range to the council and to the public. AND WITH THAT THE RECOMMENDED ACTIONS ARE BEFORE YOU STAFF HERE TO TAKE ANY QUESTIONS THE COUNCIL AND BOARD MAY HAVE AS WELL AS REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE VENDOR PCI.

WELL THANK YOU FOR THAT PRESENTATION. THIS IS A VERY VERY IMPORTANT MATTER AS WE VENTURE INTO the world of parking and parking charges and revenue streams they're from. It's a whole new phase for the Great Park. Has any consideration been given to whether the usage, overall usage of the park will suffer a significant decline initially as a result of the introduction of parking fees?

Based on the studies, it is unlikely that the utilization will decrease. The car trips are likely to decrease, but the utilization would probably not decrease.

All right. People will economize. They'll get four or five people in a car instead of coming in two or three cars.

That's the understanding that we have from the analogy sports fields that we've looked at.

I see. All right. Let me turn to my colleagues here. Council Member Mike Carroll.

Great. Council Member, Board Member Mike Carroll. Thank you. Thank you very much, staff and Mr. Trelley, for this presentation about parking. It's been a long time in the making and I know a lot of, it really shows that a lot of work went into this, a lot of due diligence and I know it was talked about a little bit, but can you maybe talk a little bit about the survey or really the breadth of where you all looked at in terms of other similar locations and similar places where parking was being charged and kind of what you found out there, just briefly? Sure.

Yeah, the consultants, Walker consultants, that was initially engaged on this looked at analogous facilities pretty much from the Mexican border up until about San Luis Obispo, so encompassing the Southern California region, and found that most metropolitan parks and most sports parks were charging. There was a variance in how they did it, which is why you see kind of a hybridized version here. Many of them charge a flat fee. For instance, Silver Lakes, which is a major... facility on the Inland Empire charges a flat fee of $15 or $20 a day to come in and park. Some of the parks in north San Diego County are the same way. Huntington Central Park I think charges flat fee for some of their weekends and hourly for other periods of time so we looked at all of them there's very few sports parks especially of this magnitude that don't charge in fact we're the only large one that doesn't obviously some of the smaller community ones in neighboring communities don't but what we did is we tried to be under market as much as possible for those fees and when you look at the special event fees we also try to be comparable with what other event facilities are charging when you look at whether they're concert venues, whether they're places that are holding large-scale festivals, so that we were hitting the mark but not going over it because we don't want to decrease the usage in our facility. We don't want to turn away business. And so that's kind of how we landed on a little bit probably the lower end of the market.

Great. So it just feels like, and you would say that the, It's a market rate survey, and we're at or maybe even a little bit below market for the use of parking at facilities like this.

Correct.

Okay. And then the other question I had to you was with regard to really the residents. One of, I think, the really important things that we've looked at, that I've looked at while I've been on the city council, is the fact that it is a municipal park. It's a city-owned park. It's funded by the taxpayers of the city of Irvine. Where I grew up in New York, we had a bunch of barrier beaches on the south shore of Long Island. And particularly, I grew up in a township with a bunch of unincorporated villages. It's a very large township called Hempstead, and it was about over a million people. And we had a town beach, a large barrier beach. So there'd be like access parking. You would show your driver's license. And if your driver's license had one of the unincorporated villages in the township, you got in for free. And that was obviously very manual, and there are human beings at the booth, and I know we're doing this in a very Irvine innovative way. I guess my question is, practically speaking, can we open up the parking, the free parking for all Irvine residents?

We certainly could at the council's direction. It would maybe change the pro forma of what we're looking at, but we certainly could.

Okay, because I mean, I think, and I just let my colleagues know, I think after we hear public comment that I would propose that we make this, you know, right, the initial period of parking be free parking for Irvine residents. And maybe the Great Park area neighborhood, we can obviously have a little more of a preference there, and we probably should. But I think that because it's a municipal park, as I said previously, you know, just like people, you know, we have a fee structure where if you're involved in classes or courses and sports, Club sports that have a majority of Irvine boys and girls get better rates than the club sports that have a minority of Irvine residents. We have a whole structure system. So I appreciate all the work that's been done. We really do. And I hope that my colleagues would support that we would make this free for all the Irvine residents. given that it's a municipal park, and have the funding, which I think is wonderful, to kind of keep the park in the amazing, pristine position that it is in. So thanks for considering. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Carroll. Before calling on Council Member Martinez-Franco, and board member, council member, and board member Martinez-Franco. I wanted to ask the city clerk if we have any citizens in the queue yet.

We do, Mayor. We have three requests to speak.

All right. Well, we'll keep the queue open. We'll finish this round and then take public comments. Council member and board member Martinez-Franco.

Thank you, Mayor, and I wanted to thank Council Member Carroll for that suggestion. I think he stole my thoughts. No, your suggestions are actually better than mine. I was just going to suggest to do a low-income waiver, but I really like Council Member Carroll. I think the park should be accessible for all. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll turn now to Council Member and Board Member James Amai.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Steve, for the presentation. I had a question. When you consulted with the various groups, did you consult with the sports teams, the visiting teams, or the children's teams that train at the Great Park?

I have to defer to community services as to the composition of those. We held a number of Zoom meetings with, you know, kind of the user groups that are our primary users out there, and we did discuss with those groups that were present, but I would defer to either Mr. Hildebrand or Mr. Steven Stewart as to the composition of those, but they were the primary kind of facility users that would be affected by this. Great.

Yeah, I would like to, I mean, I have a concern with visiting teams or children's teams that are visiting here. I don't want to deter anyone from training at the Great Park where they can just go to the Santa Ana, especially a lot of these children's teams that may be impacted by them already, fiscally impacted. So I want to just make that statement. I KNOW THAT WE'RE OVERALL AS A CITY WE'RE WAITING ON A COUPLE MORE ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF BUDGETING, REVENUES, AND EXPENDITURES. SO IN GENERAL, I'M VERY SUPPORTIVE OF THIS ITEM HERE. I BELIEVE PRIORITIZING THE NEEDS OF OUR CITIZENS, OF THE RESIDENTS OF GREAT PARK AND OF THE CITY. I WOULD JUST LIKE A LITTLE MORE TIME IN TERMS OF WHERE WE ARE, WHERE WE'RE GOING AS A CITY. THANK YOU.

Thank you, Council Member and Board Member Mai. Having finished the first round, let's turn to the public and take public comment at this time.

Thank you, Mayor. If I could call forward Jay Bruce and Maba Ahmad, and we'll start with Jay.

Welcome.

Hey, council members. My name is Jay Bruce. I'm a city council summer intern, but speaking only on behalf of myself. I just want to make a few suggestions on the policy. I think, first of all, I didn't see it in the staff report, but I think just considering the Irvine staff that work at the Great Park, I think their parking should be free, like the visitor center and the athletic staff. If they have a staff parking lot or something, that should, of course, that solves the problem. But I've heard that they share the parking lot with the public. So they could have consideration, like a free parking pass for them. Overall, I think it's a good... IDEA AS A STABLE REVENUE SOURCE GIVEN THE BUDGET DEFICIT WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT BUT I THINK COUNCILMEMBER CAROL HAS A GOOD IDEA OF COURSE IN MY OPINION I THINK IT'S REASONABLE ESPECIALLY FOR SPECIAL EVENTS AND EVEN TOURNAMENTS I THINK GIVEN THAT THE GREAT PARK IS CURRENTLY MORE OF A SPORTS PARK I THINK IT'S PRETTY REASONABLE TO CHARGE FIRST YOU KNOW ESPECIALLY SPORTS RELATED SEARCHES OF CHARGING But I think maybe as the Great Park gets built out into less of a sports park and more of like a general use park, we could consider maybe lowering or getting rid of the hourly and daily rates. I think right now, given that it's mainly just the sports sector of the park that's been built at, it's pretty reasonable, especially if we give consideration for the Great Park residents and Irvine residents. But for those general park visits, I think that it is essential, this kind of underscores the need for a bus connection to Great Park to provide an alternative to the automobile. If you just want to visit the Great Park, and sports, it's kind of necessary, I think, transporting equipment to have an automobile. But I think if you just want to visit the park, visit the balloon or carousel, then currently you still kind of have to use a car to get to the park. And I think especially if we're going to start penalizing using a car to get to the park, it's important for us to provide that alternative through a bus connection. It's kind of unfair if you force people to use a car to get to the Great Park if you need to use a car and also charge them for using a car. I THINK IF WE, THESE PARKING FEES WILL OBVIOUSLY INCENTIVIZE USING A BUS CONNECTION TO THE GREAT PARK. YOU JUST NEED TO BUILD IT OUT. AND I THINK IT'S KIND OF LIKE THE CARROT AND STICK APPROACH WHERE WE HAVE THE STICK OF THE PARKING FEES BUT WE DON'T HAVE A CARROT WHICH IS ACTUALLY GIVING THEM THE ALTERNATIVE. SO I WOULD JUST SUGGEST THAT IN TANDEM WE COULD GET THAT AS A PRIORITY IF WE'RE CONSIDERING INTERVENT CONNECT EXPANSION. THANK YOU.

Thank you. Maba?

Welcome. Hello. Hi, members of the board. Hi, everyone. Good evening. My name is Maba Ahmad, and I am speaking as a resident community college student and public health student. I understand the city's responsibility to maintain and operate the Great Park, and I recognize that these costs must be addressed. However, I'm concerned about the impact that paid parking may have on equitable access to one of Irvine's most significant public health spaces. From a public health perspective, parks are more than recreational amenities. They are places that support physical activity, mental well-being, social connection, youth development, and community engagement. Public spaces like Great Park provide benefits that extend far beyond recreation. My concern is that parking fees may disproportionately affect those who are already facing financial barriers, including low-income families, single parents, students, seniors, and other vulnerable residents. While a parking fee may seem relatively small to some, recurring costs can add up and influence whether families are able to regularly access community spaces and programs. If paid parking moves forward, I urge the city to consider equity-focused solutions to ensure that cost does not become a barrier to access. This could include fee waivers for qualifying residents, partnerships with nonprofit organizations and community agencies, discounted or free parking for youth sport participants and their family, resident assistance programs, or other measures that help maintain access for those who are most affected. The Great Park was envisioned as a space for the entire community. As the city considers this policy, I hope equal consideration will be given to the residents and families who rely on public spaces the most. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Dave Brown. Dave, you may unmute your mic.

Good evening, Madam Council Members and the Great Park Board members. Yeah, Dave Brown here. As a youth sports organisation, we're already paying significant fees for field rentals and permits and tournament use, and the new parking rates are going to create an additional cost for the families that these facilities are actually intended to serve. So my concerns are simple. Because we're already paying to use these facilities, parking fees effectively create a second charge for our Irvine residents to participate in the sports that they're putting their kids into. Many of these families are actually using the Great Park, some of them four, five, six days a week for practices, games and training. So it's not just a one-time parking use, it's these recurring fees that could become a significant burden to our airline families. Not only that, but the proposal doesn't look like it's clearly exempt from seeing coaches and staff who could be there maybe four nights a week for three, four, five hours a night. So they could be there 16 to 20 hours per week, and that's a significant cost on coaches. potential referees who could be there four or five hours on Saturday and Sunday, volunteers and staff. And the proposal, to me, it just doesn't address drop-offs and pick-ups. So is it going to be an automatic charge as you enter, or are you going to only charge if you physically park versus dropping off your kids for practices or things like that? So I respectfully ask that the council delay approval until there's been more outreach with, in particular in our case, youth sports organisations. through the Sports Council and to consider exemptions and validations or discounts for youth sports participants, staff members, volunteers, our Irvine members who paid to participate in sport on these facilities. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Our next speaker is telephone number 343. 343, you may unmute your mic. You have 90 seconds.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm speaking in support of parking fees at the Great Park. Honestly, it's about time. People pay parking fees at public parking lots all over the country. That's normal. And the Great Park is not some small neighbourhood pocket park. It's a major regional facility that people from outside Irvine use and enjoy all the time. And look, they are welcome. People from outside Irvine should be able to come enjoy our parks, our fields, and our facilities, even the young ones, Council Member James. But look, it's not unreasonable to ask them to help pay for the maintenance of those facilities when they use them. especially these club sports teams coming in from outside Irvine. At sports fields all over the state, families pay $30, $40, sometimes more. But here, for a long time, they've been paying nothing to use some of the best public sports facilities around. That doesn't make sense. So this is not anti-park. It's pro-maintenance. It's pro-fairness. It's making sure the people using the great parks help support the great parks. Thank you for supporting this council. Thank you for supporting me. I live in Irvine. Thank you.

Our next speaker is telephone number 971. 971, you may unmute your mic. You have 90 seconds.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. Jess, a 34-year resident here again. I'm speaking in support of parking fees at the Great Park. Honestly, it's about time. People pay parking fees at public parking lots all over the country. That's normal. And the Great Park is not some small neighborhood pocket park. It's a major regional facility that people from outside Irvine use and enjoy all the time. And look, they are welcome. People from outside Irvine should be able to come enjoy our parks, our fields, and our facilities. But it's not unreasonable to ask them to help pay for the maintenance of those facilities when they use them, especially these club sports teams coming in from outside Irvine. At sports fields all over the state, families pay $30, $40, sometimes more. But here, for a long time, they've been paying nothing to use some of the best public sports facilities around. That doesn't make sense. So this is not Andy Park. It's pro-maintenance. It's pro-fairness. It's making sure the people using the Great Park help support the Great Park. Thank you for supporting this. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Eric Nishanian. Mr. Nishanian, you may unmute your mic. You have 90 seconds.

Thank you, council members, Mayor Abram. I agree with the last two speakers. I also think that by charging parking to people that are coming from outside the city, you may be promoting more public transportation and use of trains, which may help businesses in Irvine and other entities in Irvine, like the mobility you know, the bike mobility thing that we're opening up there and the like. But I agree with the last two speakers. It's about time. Thank you.

And that is all, Mayor. Thank you.

Why don't we take another round of comments from council members, board members. And then any questions that we might have of staff as well, after which time we'll close the public hearing and move on to a vote. So I'll call on the first council member and board member who's requested to be heard on this round, Council Member Carroll.

Thank you, Mayor. Actually, I was remiss in asking staff, can you talk a little bit about our home soccer team, Orange County Soccer Club? I know it was touched on. You did have some dialogue with them. And how are things sort of worked out? I mean, obviously, you have people there. You have a very incredible fan base. They do a lot of parking. We heard from the ownership earlier by email a couple hours ago.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the question, Vice Chair Carroll. So this is one of those special groups that's kind of in that third tier of the policy where we would work with these folks and Riptide, who's a baseball user out at the park. Obviously, they're bringing a lot of people to the park. They bring a lot of revenue in some other ways to the park. And so we would look to... do kind of a bulk deal with them for the parking that they need. For instance, I believe OC Soccer takes over the whole of Lot 3 as part of their existing deal. We wouldn't be looking to upset that deal. That's a pre-existing agreement, and they're going to need some spaces for their people also within Lot 2. So we'd look to work a deal that makes sense for kind of everybody, not to penalize, obviously, those users that have been... uh they're otherwise contributing the bulk of the revenue to the park you know those some of these um tournaments also they're they're contributing the most amount of revenue in in user fees and permit fees which is why we want to have the ability to work with them in order to get their people within that you know tournament get those people covered within the tournament or within those use licenses and hopefully encourage just a little bit more economical driving

So you feel like we're comfortable as a council, you know, maybe not. I mean, I haven't spent time talking to them, but OCSC will be okay, a soccer club. Yes, sir. Supportive of the overall arching thing. It's not going to affect them in a way that will hurt their residency at our park.

Correct. Okay.

Just wanted to just make sure. Okay. Well, with that, Mayor, if it's in order, I'd like just to make the motion. I think technically we're just asking, I would ask to delete second, to move the item. staff recommendation, but just delete second sentence of 5.2 of the policy so that Great Park, and the Great Park residents, you shouldn't have to pay for registration or anything like that, but that the Irvine residents are given the free hours. I would make that motion with that change.

I would just ask you if you would, Council Member, Board Member Carroll, to hold that motion. until we can take a couple more comments from the dais here, close the public hearing. That's fine. And then the motion would be in order.

Thank you.

Yes. Councilmember and, of course, Chair of the Great Park Board, William Goh.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a note and quick question. As far as the interaction between the Canopy retail site, I know PCI is here. Could they perhaps move into administrating that lot as well, so they choose? My concern is just people will abuse the retail and park there longer than necessary to avoid the fees to park elsewhere.

Yeah, so under the lease and license agreements with AlmQuest Group for the canopy, they have control over those lots. So there is the ability to bring those into the overall paid parking framework if they should desire. There's language in the lease to allow that. I believe, and we may have a representative from canopy here because there's actually an item related to them a little bit later on the agenda, but I believe their intention is to kind of handle that with time-barred parking so they would have a lot limit. But if there's a representative here, I don't know if Tom Carpenter's here yet, he may be able to speak on that.

And the second question, too, in terms of enforcement, has it already been budgeted as far as are we going to have the Great Park Roving, you know, non-sworn-in officers police that area to enforce, or is it PCI that's going to be providing some services as well?

So for the time it would be done by Irvine Police Department. So that's captured in that net revenue is basically the revenue net of what we've estimated the gross revenue minus all the system costs minus the enforcement costs.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll turn now to Council Member and Board Member Melinda Liu.

So, thank you. I mean, I was going to ask if it's possible to have a flat rate for Irvine residents outside of Great Park, but I guess most of my council colleagues would rather have free parking for Irvine residents. Well, I think what I was concerned about or a little confused about is whether this estimate is based on the the whole year, or is it just starting from July 1st?

So the $5 million number, which is kind of the expected total revenue with a little bit of wiggle room in there based on how the Irvine permits end up kind of flushing out, is an annual. It's likely, if awarded tonight, the system could be up by the late fall, early winter. So that number would be calibrated. So we would lose part of this busy season, this fiscal year. The winter is technically... Typically a little bit slower at the park, but it is calibrated the number of the staff course calibrated for an annual and so in our budget estimations for this coming year we have Kind of calibrated it to what we think would be the actual that we would hit this year, which is about half the year And I kind of want to address one of the colors questions I mean people dropping their kids off and we're not charging them for coming into the parking lights for parking in a spot, right and no and and so to clarify that um this system like with almost every other paid parking system there's like grace period um typically set at 15 minutes so if people go into a lot they can't find a spot or people are going into a lot and dropping off and leaving um they're not they're not having any enforcement done they're not being charged to park there uh to address the other question about the you know the staff members typically we would handle that as part of our permitting process. So if you have, you know, a baseball team is getting a permit for a baseball field, there's going to be a certain amount of parking permits that would be issued with that permit to that team for their staff. That would be part of that. That wouldn't be getting double charged for the actual team staff.

Okay, well, thank you.

Thank you. Without any more comments... Why don't we at this time have a motion to close the public hearing and move on to a vote on the matter. Just before we do that, I assume you don't get it 100% right the first time you implement a parking scheme, a plan, Would you anticipate once it's introduced and in place, operating it for a couple of months and then coming back to us to ask for adjustments, report on the experience and so forth?

Yeah, I can see for definitely the first year we'll be making some fine tuning to it, you know, as we understand how it works in practicality with our particular park users. And certainly the policy, in fact, anticipates coming back on kind of an annual basis as we do our annual budget updates to kind of tweak things as they're necessary.

Well, let me be responsive to Chair Geller earlier. chair of the Finance Commission, and suggest this is such a big deal, frankly, financially and otherwise, but certainly in a financial way. I would hope that as this program develops, evolves, that at every step of the way, you would consult with and be encouraged to consult with the Finance Commission and make sure they're in on its development and evolution as well. And any recommendations that they might have that would be helpful for our purposes, I would certainly welcome them.

Thank you, sir.

All right, good. With that, I'll move that the public hearing be closed. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Liu. Board member, I should say, I guess. Councilmember and board member, would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Vice Chairman Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member, Chairman Goh. Yes. Council Member, Director Liu.

Yes.

Council Member, Director Martinez-Franco.

Yes.

Council Member, Director Trecedar.

Yes.

Vice Mayor, Director Mai. Yes. And Mayor, Director Agran.

Yes.

Carry 7-0.

Thank you. And now that the public hearing is closed, would you like to move staff recommendations and otherwise offer your motion? Council member and board member Carol.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I would just move to, I think it's actually, I'm looking, it's the third sentence of 5-2, that we go ahead and just, I guess the city attorney, we would delete it, but effectively it will be so that all Irvine residents will be given the free parking. That would be my motion.

So you're... Moving staff recommendations two, three, and four with that one change. Correct. All right, is there a second? Council member Martinez-Franco seconded the motion. I SEE STAFF CONFERRING. IS THIS OKAY?

I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THE RECORD IS COMPLETELY CLEAR. IN THE SECOND SENTENCE WHERE IT SAYS, I'M SORRY, THE FIRST SENTENCE WHERE IT MAKES A REFERENCE TO GREAT PARK RESIDENCE, IT WOULD INSTEAD SAY IRVINE RESIDENCE. This is in Section 5.2. And then the following sentence, which Councilmember Carroll referred to, would be deleted in its entirety.

All right, Councilmember Carroll? Yes. All right. And the second to the motion was Councilmember Martinez-Franco. Understood, all right, approved. Let me just ask one question. Any idea how much lost revenue we'll have as a result of making this free for all Irvine residents?

There's not really a way to well estimate that. I can tell you that the studies basically show that most of our revenue comes through special events tournaments. So I don't think the loss is going to be significant, but that is why, again, leaving some leeway for council to make some changes. I did that three to five estimate. I don't think it's going to be significant, but it's hard to tell. But once we get it up and running, we'll certainly report back what the change is from what we had anticipated to what we are actually seeing.

Please, and again, include the Finance Commission and all that.

Absolutely.

All right. Great. There's a motion properly before us. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember, Vice Chairman Carroll.

Yes.

Councilmember, Chairman Goh. Yes. Councilmember, Director Liu.

Yes.

Councilmember, Director Martinez-Franco.

Yes.

Councilmember, Director Treseder.

Yes.

Vice Mayor, Director Mai. No. Mayor, Director Agron. Yes. Carry six to one with Vice Mayor and Director Mai voting no.

All right. Thank you very much to our staff. It's going to be a whole new world out there now with a new parking regime. All right. With that, we'll turn to City Council and Board of Business, item four. Would the clerk please identify item 4.1?

fiscal year 2025 to 27 mid-cycle.

I think it might have something to do with the mayor's issue with OCPA. I think that if we do want to revisit this, it would be appropriate to agendize this as a separate item and not try to fold it into this mid-cycle budget review where we haven't really had a chance to discuss this or analyze it. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Cheseder, Council Member and Vice Mayor Mai, and then we'll take public comment.

Thank you, Mayor, and this question again is for Dale. Am I hearing this correctly, and IUSD is not matching or contributing to?

That's correct.

Okay, yeah, I have some concerns with that. I have children both at IUSD and You know, and I also know that IUSD has unrestricted general fund of $50 million to $75 million. I think that they should be contributing to a bus system for IUSD students. I'll just go on the record as saying If they're not able to provide it, I guess the city will provide it because it's a desperate need for these children. But I just wanted to note that there is money at IUSC to help us with this, and it should be in consideration. I hope they do consider, and I hope the conversations continue if we do move forward in any other bus projects throughout the city as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's turn to the public. Mr. Peterson, how many requests are there from citizens to be heard?

Thank you, Mayor. We have five requests to speak.

All right. Why don't we take those, giving them each three minutes.

Thank you, Mayor. If I could call forward Wendy B.

Welcome.

Hi, good evening. I understand that by speaking tonight, I may make myself a target. As a volunteer serving on a city committee, I fully anticipate that some speakers may come forward to criticize me. That is their right. However, I believe it is necessary to help clear the record because claims that are simply not accurate have now been repeated multiple times on social media and in a letter written by former Mayor Farrakhan and signed by former Mayor Suki Kang and others regarding the city budget. Their claim is that the council is cutting DEI funds and DEI initiatives. I want to be clear that I'm speaking only on my own behalf, but I am serving as vice chair of the DEI committee. After speaking with City staff and reviewing the facts, I can confirm that there have been no efforts by any City Council members or the City to eliminate any DEI initiatives or cut any DEI funds. In fact, DEI initiatives continue throughout our city, and the city has received many recognitions and awards for its work in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as it stands now with no additional office and no additional funding. The issue that has been raised by some council members and the public is not whether DEI should exist. Rather, it is whether the council should be informed when new offices are created what the purpose of those offices is, and what public funds are being allocated to them. Those are reasonable governance and oversight questions. As has been stated before, asking questions about the creation of an office, its budget, or its purpose is not the same thing as attacking DEI. They are two very different things. Healthy government requires transparency, accountability, and open discussion. We can support DEI while also expecting clear communication regarding staffing, offices, and expenditures. I believe this communication was pure political propaganda, and I hope you see that too. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Don Geller. Mr. Geller, you may unmute your mic.

Thank you, Carl. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Don Geller, Chair of Finance Commission, speaking only for myself. I am here to express my support for the City's recommendation to balance the fiscal year 26-27 budget, as did the Finance Commission unanimously at our June 1st meeting. In my view, the recommended approach is reasonable and responsible. The City is not proposing any drastic cuts to core services. The staff is recommending a balanced combination of expenditure reductions and revenue adjustments to produce a balanced budget. That includes holding vacant positions, except for critical emergency personnel, such as police officers, and reevaluating non-emergency vehicle replacement schedules. These are practical steps that help preserve service levels while recognizing the financial realities facing the city. But this does not preclude city council members from always looking for additional ways to generate revenue, such as the parking fees that we discussed tonight. as well as looking at ways to cut expenses by making tough choices such as council staff reductions or cutting out some underutilized programs. This is an ongoing endeavor and the Finance Commission as well as our great administrative staff would always be willing to look at ways to make our city run more efficiently. It doesn't have to happen only once a year or every two years. Adjustments and updated financial statements are made quarterly. So this budget does not solve every long-term issue. The council will still need to make difficult decisions going forward. But for fiscal year 26-27, I believe the proposed recommendations represent a reasonable path to a balanced budget. For these reasons, I support the staff recommendation. Let's get this budget passed today and keep any reasonable financial options open throughout the year. One other item, and maybe we can ask Mr. Davis. The Finance Commission thought it was very reasonable to split the cost of the busing program. I understand that IUSD isn't being cooperative, but I was just wondering if Mr. Davis has ever reached out to the Shady Canyon community to allow for buses to actually travel through Shady Canyon to eliminate the freeway route. Has that ever been done? Wouldn't Shady Canyon be amenable to having children pass through on a very, very limited basis? So that would solve a tremendous problem on that basis. So that's my only comment. Thank you very much, and good evening.

Our next speaker is Eric Nishanian. Mr. Nishanian, you may unmute your mic.

Thank you very much, council members, Mayor Abram. Good evening. Really briefly, I'm surprised about one of Bocota's comments. About propaganda, Betty Martinez Franco's re-election campaign propaganda includes that she is responsible for the opening of a DEI office. I was unaware that there was a DEI office, although I've heard rumors that a million dollars has been allotted to the Office of Inclusive Excellence, although no community engagement occurred. So I'm kind of confused about what's going on. and why Betty Martinez-Franco is claiming to be responsible for the opening of Irvine's DEI office. Going to this budget review, this is not twice that city staff has provided a budget review regarding Great Park, and since the May 12th meeting when Mayor Agron ordered it, with a charge to discuss the framework, the heart of the park and the opening on schedule in 2028 and the installation of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in that park in 2028. So what's going on? That's why these reviews of the Great Park budget were ordered on May 12th, at least one of the charges. Mary Egren from the dais said it after I brought up the fact that there wasn't money in the budget to install the Armenian Genocide Memorial in 2028 because you guys couldn't open the heart of the park by then as originally scheduled. Where's the transparency? Where's the staff answering the call and the charge that Mary Egren gave from the dais on May 12th when this was brought up by me. Thank you.

Our next speaker is telephone number 258. 258, you may unmute your mic.

Good evening. This is Manish here. So I want to speak about the budget issue with this supposed Office of Inclusive Excellence. Is it true that the city council has approved almost $1 million of taxpayer dollars for this? And is it also true that each one of you council members have over $600,000 in personal budgets. 600. What is wrong with you all? Thank you.

Our next speaker is Chris Wong. Chris, you may unmute your mic.

Hi, Council. I just want to remind the Council that the school bus program was piloted back in 2023 by then Mayor Farrakhan and Council Member Agrin at the time, and it was due to a need. They had a private bus line, and it was included in the 2025-2026 budget under a council vote. If you do not choose to do this, it would be a blow to the university parents, and you would be adding additional cars and traffic to the roads. You know, one thing that really makes Irvine stand out is the quality of schools, and this bus program that Irvine does provide does have a small part in it. However, given budget strength, I would urge you to look at that as well as other items. I will talk. And another time about your individual budgets, I would just remind you that your individual budgets were created due to a previous mail-in. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Em. Em, you may unmute your mic. You have 90 seconds.

Oh, good evening. I missed you guys. I still miss you. I'm still on the East Coast while talking about budget. Yeah, you guys, the whole system is where it shouldn't be. If you do have $600,000 each, which I believe you used to function on $300,000, right? At this point, each one of you is not serving the same amount of residents as before. So, Instead of serving all of the residents of Irvine, you all have a district. I think your own budgets and your staffing should be reduced. And for sure, your staff should not be creating social media posts that are offensive and attack other city council members or the mayor, and should not be proud of it. That's to you, Mr. Cedar. You should know better. It does get found out. So that's one of the things that has to do. The other thing that I want to say quickly before you cut me off is when we start giving offices to OCFA in Irvine and not charging them, when we give in, what, $150 million? Thank you.

Your time is up. And that is all, Mayor. Thank you.

All right, having taken the public comment, a motion would be in order at this time. Is there a motion? All right, I'll take it upon myself. I move adoption of staff recommendations and would add a provision that any funds returned to us from OCPA and interest be returned to the general fund and in turn put in the asset management fund and not expend it for other purposes for at least one year. That's the motion.

Mayor, staff recommendation number two is just to provide direction. So when you moved number two, did you intend to move the funding to the university high busing program at $218,000?

Well, that's in the budget now, is it not?

Yeah.

Yeah, the direction is to continue in that regard, to continue to pursue the program. It's a good program, an essential service in my mind. My disappointment is with the school board, not with us. And so we shall continue that. That is the direction. Thank you. Is there a second to my motion?

Yeah, just to clarify, I'm happy to say, just to clarify that it does include the bus will continue? Is that what we're saying? Yes.

So if I might clarify, the current budget that is being proposed for this upcoming fiscal year does include the $218,000. What we don't have is authorization to continue the pilot for an additional year.

Okay, and that would be included in the mayor's motion?

Yes.

Okay, I'll second that. Thank you.

All right, there's a motion and a second before us. Council Member Treseder, then Council Member Liu.

Thank you. I would like to make a substitute motion that we follow the staff's recommendation to adopt a resolution of the City Council of Irvine, California, adopting and approving the appropriations budget for the City of Irvine for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. and to provide direction for a one-year extension of funding for the expanded Irvine Unified School District pilot bus program for University High of $218,552 in one-time funding from the Asset Management Plan Fund. Thank you. Do I have a second? This is essentially what the staff is asking for, omitting the OPA acts.

I'll second.

Thank you.

So there's a substitute motion, which is basically just intended to, if I understand it correctly, keep the OCPA money kind of free-floating as it comes back. Is that the intent of the substitute motion?

The intent of the substitute motion, sir, is to follow staff's direction. Since it is silent on OCPA, that would mean that we maintain the council's unanimous decision from last year to have the OCPA funds that are returned go into a separate fund earmarked for sustainability programs.

All right, so the substitute motion would... reinforce the idea of a segregated fund?

Sir, it's silent on that. It is not saying that this must go into a separate fund. It's silent on it. And the previous decision, unanimous from the council, was that the OCPA funds go into a separate fund.

All right. Well, I think the original motion is clear. Your substitute motion is clear. There are three requests here to be heard. Council Member Liu, followed by Council Member Mai, followed by Council Member Carroll.

I have a question about the source of the bus funds. I mean, in general, yes, I agree that we're BREEDING THAT GAP TO GIVE STUDENT ACCESS OR SAFE ACCESS TO SCHOOL. AND I REMEMBER, IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY, THIS WAS ORIGINALLY OUT OF A SPEND DOWN ON THE RESERVE IN 2024, RIGHT? ARE WE GETTING THAT MONEY OUT OF THE GENERAL FUNDS THAT'S BEING BUDGETED NOW? IS THAT WHERE IT IS?

Thank you for the question. So the $219,000 is actually within the adopted budget for 26-27 in the AMP fund already. So this is authorization to continue, just to continue the pilot program.

In the AMP fund? Okay. Well, and the other thing is I, well, I agree that we should probably have a more responsible fund way to deal with repayment of any loan money. I don't know whether it's productive to single out OCPA loan repayment. I mean, if that is what we intend to do, I think it is sound policy to put the money back where it came from. But I'm not sure if only talking about the OCPA repayment plan is wise moving forward. In theory, I really agree with what Mayor was suggesting, but right now, since we had already earmarked that loan money, I think it will be consistent not to go back on what we had already planned on. So I don't know what the suggestion is. I don't know if Mayor's open to the idea of maybe amending what you had suggested. If you would like to put in another criteria on how we deal with loan repayment, I would agree in theory, but not have a specific source, if that makes sense.

Let me turn to others and then perhaps I'll respond to your question. Council Member and Vice Mayor Mai.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to speak to why I seconded this substitute motion as well. I think it goes back to the staff recommended motion of 1 and 2. The discussion of OCPA is, at this time, I just don't feel like we should be commingling OCPA into this discussion. Maybe it's later on this evening. Maybe it's at another time. Maybe it's after August when we do have a full picture of the fiscal situation that we're in. But mixing it into this and then mixing anything other than the staff recommended action is not right at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mai. Council Member Carroll.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I think I have a... I just want to try to unpack this. I have a little bit of a different view than my colleagues on some of this. I guess if we did vote... Just with particularly the repayment of these funds, if we did vote previously unanimously to have them sort of segregated or put in sort of a... a lockbox or sort of an area or let's just say sort of an account dedicated toward a public goal, sustainability, what we voted on. I think that was prior to the budget crisis that the city council has put the city of Irvine into or the staff has put it into, depending on who you talk to or who you read or whatever. But we're in a budget crisis, right? So if we're in a budget crisis, and how much does OCPA still owe us? Do we have? It could be approximate, Dale. I know it's millions.

I believe about a million and a half came in, so I would say still about six million and change.

Yeah, and most of the people that follow this, not that there's many, but know that as the founder of OCPA, being myself, I have a little bit of heartache with that six million, given the fact that the other cities that formed the Orange County Power Authority deposited exactly zero dollars and zero cents to be part of it. And we funded the endeavor. And many, many, many of those dollars go to Fullerton baseball and other community events and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of sponsorships in places like Buena Park. I don't even know where that is. Well, I do know. I go to Knott's Berry Farm. It's an awesome community. But anyway, the point is we funded this thing to the tune of, I guess, seven plus million. We have that six million due. Yes, we did vote together, all of us, to go ahead and segregate those funds. And then subsequent to that, we had this budget crisis. So I think we, you know, I'm not sure if the way the mayor phrased it out is the most optimal. And I think I'd like to hear from my colleagues. But And no one's saying that it shouldn't all go to sustainability, but shouldn't we pause the suspension of that money toward one particular goal and see where we are on road improvements and capital maintenance over at Northwood Community Park and Castle Park and just see where we are when we finally get to the big opening of the budget in August that we've all asked for? I think that may be the most prudent thing. to think about. And admittedly, I know, I mean, I have my obvious thoughts about the way that the Orange County Power Authority played out. But we do have $7 million or $6 million of our taxpayer funds that are being repaid to us. And we have a golden opportunity to maybe put that aside. Or not aside, but essentially into our general fund as we see all of this stuff unravel. We have these council budgets we've got to deal with. We could go back through a lot of this stuff. I think it's a good stab. It's a good opportunity to think about. And I hope that, I mean, I just look forward to listening to more of what everybody thinks on this. And we could look at other things as well. We have the opportunity to do that. I just feel like I'm not sure my decision then is best made kept now with those parameters, particularly if we haven't allocated it yet. If it's the case that we unanimously said, let's push all this $6 million to asphalt, I'd probably be saying the same thing. And I recognize that that's an issue. Sustainability, that's really important to all of us and near and dear to a lot of us. But if it was really anything that was being dedicated, it's an opportunity to take this and sort of unsuspend it and let's see how we need to use it. I have a list a mile long of council events. It totals 10 plus million dollars. We have this DEI thing. Who knows what happened with that? It's a million dollars. It's 700,000 something. Assistant Manager Grettenberg told me earlier tonight. I don't know what it was. I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to dig into that one in August. as well as the six full-time people that we have working on the climate action plan, which we all agreed would be recommendations and amazing goals that we were going to seek. But why we have, I don't know, six full-time employees working on that. I mean, some of us up here do want to look at, you know, some of these things because we do have a structural problem that's going to begin on July 1st, 2027. So, you know, with that, I look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say. It was just my thoughts. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Carroll. Council Member Treseder, followed by Council Member Martinez-Franco.

Thank you. Yeah, I think I agree with Council Member Carroll in that we should address this in depth in August. Any changes to the budget, that is the time that we have allocated to look at that. That gives us a chance to compile the data. It's easy enough to rattle off right now a bunch of statements that may or may not be supported by the facts. I think that it would be inappropriate right now as part of the mid-cycle budget review to add essentially poison pills to this vote. I think we all want to, for instance, from what I can tell from the discussion, We all want to support the bus fund. We all want to make sure that we move forward with approving the appropriations budget. And to try to attach, like, basically, attacking OCPA or any sort of potential sustainability projects to this vote I think is not appropriate to do. The appropriate time is to talk about this in August and certainly if the mayor wants to reconsider whether we allocate these funds to OCPA funds to a different fund then absolutely let's talk about it back at that point But right now, it just seems like this is a way to try to get this through without a lot of public input or knowledge from the council members. So that is why I made the substitute motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Martinez-Franco.

Thank you. And this question is for Mr. Melchin. Sorry. So since we voted already for these funds to be appropriated, OCPA funds, don't we need to put it as a separate item as a memo? Like, is it appropriate to be bringing it and just changing it, like, right here without a memo? I feel like I have been... flag or doing things like that in the past. So just to bring it up without a memo as a separate item, I don't think it's appropriate.

I can only give you a legal answer to your question. There is a Is it wise? Is it good policy? And you all are having that discussion. My legal answer to the question is the budgets on the agenda and how you're going to handle funds is fairly within the scope of the item that is before you.

All right.

Are you done, Council Member Martinez-Frankel?

All right. I see no further requests. There is a substitute motion that would be considered first. And I'd like Mr. Melching to be clear as to what that substitute motion is and, of course, what the main motion was as well.

Thank you, Mayor. The substitute motion made by Councilmember Treseder, seconded by Vice Mayor Mai, is Recommended Action Item 1. And it's providing the direction embedded in Recommended Action Number 2, which is to extend the pilot bus program for University High School by one year. The cost of that extension, $218,552, is already built into the budget. That's the entirety of the motion.

All right. And the main motion was?

The main motion is the same as the substitute motion with an additional proviso that all of the funds returned from OCPA to the city will be returned to the asset management plan and held there and used for no other purpose for a period of one year.

All right, let me speak to the substitute motion, and then we'll take any further comment or move to a vote. I understand Councilmember Treseder's motion, her substitute motion. and would simply like to make clear the fundamental point that I was trying to make, which was, as Councilmember Carroll said, before everybody's hair was on fire, about a budget deficit of 2% And everybody was acting as though the sky was falling, rather than dealing with it in a mature fashion, in my view. Before all that happened, I had expressed concerns about OCPA. By the way, I voted against the $5 million of the $7 million or so that was loaned to OCPA. And I was pleased to see that it was coming back to the city, particularly at a time when we would like it back because we have other needs in the city. And I just think it's a matter of appropriate conduct that money that is lent, essentially from our general fund, our asset management fund, should come back to the original source. And that's why I voted against the mobility hub, not because it was an unworthy project, but because the idea was the money that council member Mai, as an appointee to the OCPA, had clawed back for us on an earlier schedule, in my judgment, should have gone back into the general fund. That I think is just a good practice. Or back to the asset management fund from where it came. And instead it was intercepted and we created this new account, which I may have voted for. But creating that new account and then incurring what everybody thinks is some kind of budget crisis and then allowing future projects to kind of be funded through this back door rather than through the regular course of conduct. It's just, in my mind, bad governance. And so as we adopt a budget, I think that it's appropriate that we go back to best practices, regular order. And that's what my motion was intended to do. By the way, let me just take this opportunity to thank our staff for the outstanding work leading up to tonight's presentation, which was very clear, and I think we're very close to adopting a budget. But I wanted to, I think, in this way, answer the concern that Councilmember Liu had, or the motivation, and yes, the money that we loaned to OCPA should come back to us, and it should come back, in my judgment, to the original source of that money. And that would be, in this case, to the Asset Management Fund. With that, I'll call on my colleagues who wish to be heard. And that begins with Councilmember Treseder, followed by Councilmember Martinez-Franco, followed by Councilmember Mai, and then Councilmember Carroll.

Thank you. Yeah, I just want to emphasize again that by voting to follow the staff's recommendations, this does not preclude us discussing the fate of the OCPA loan returns in August when we have the full budget picture. I think at this point, I mean, there are a number of things that I championed in past years before this budget crisis came to light. that I'm more than happy to pull back on. And I feel that the appropriate time is August. Now, if the mayor did have in mind that he wanted to redirect the OCPA loan return funds as a part of today's discussion, He was certainly welcome to agendize a memo for the agenda that discussed that and where we would have proper notice and each of us up here would have a chance to look into the particulars. Again, I feel like he is trying to slip this issue in to a much larger vote that he knows probably most of us will want to make. It does remind me of what happened back in 2024. We had a similar vote on the budget, just like this, where we had the whole large budget that was presented to us. And at the time, the mayor, when we were ready to vote on it, said that we had $6 million too much in the reserves and we should spend that out right then and gave a list of projects that he wanted us to fund. And that was just right there, right at that moment when we were trying to decide on the budget. And I feel very strongly that we shouldn't be trying to make policies policy through this budget vote right now. If these policies are truly important and something that the city needs to do, it should receive proper notice. We should all have a chance to look into it, and we should be able to have a separate discussion where we're not under a lot of pressure to pass this particular thing. I just think that that is proper policy and the best governance. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Martinez-Franco.

Thank you. I have a couple of questions. Let me see if I understood well about the OCPA budget. So we have how much they owe us? Seven million?

Thank you for the question. So the total amount they owe us, including accrued interest, is $8.4 million. The principal amount is $7.5 million, with about $1 million additional in accrued interest.

But we already voted to spend $3 million on the mobility from there, or that's separate?

For the mobility, could you clarify?

For the mobility.

Originally, I believe there was an amount. I don't remember exactly the amount. Point of clarification.

It was $1.5 million from the OCPA loan repayment.

So that is a spend so that we have to take away that million and a half from what the numbers that you just gave me, right?

Correct.

OK. I think that we just have to be clear with the numbers that how much if we vote to go back to the general fund, how much money we are going back, or are we stopping the mobility hub and we are retaking everything? Is that what is happening? Because it sounds like we want to take even the mobility hub, which we already voted to approve, back to the general fund. Is that what is happening here?

I would defer to the mayor. I think what I understand it to be is that the entire amount of the OCPA loan that's not committed would be freed up and deposited into AMP and for a later discussion for a period of year if it's going to be allocated for any other projects is my understanding.

OK. Thank you. And one last thing, I just want to make sure that also included in that motion was to help low-income families with sustainability projects, which can be transportation and et cetera, et cetera. So it's not just sustainability per se, but it's also for low-income families. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Martinez-Franco, Council Member and Vice Mayor Mai. Followed by Council Member Carroll.

Thank you, Mayor. And I'd like to reiterate again that we should leave the buses out of this. Somehow we got into the talk of OCPA funds that were getting paid back. And as mentioned, I was the one who really pushed for those funds to come back from OCPA early. And to address the mayor's comments is that I voted also for them originally to go back to the general fund. I was against having a special fund. And the reason being at the time was we should not be spending what we don't have. back yet. It was a little premature when we just finally got early payback and everyone was wanting to spend on everything. I was very against that. But we were defeated on that vote. We were defeated on that vote and we have to deal with that now. And I think that we just have to move on and we have to address what's in front of us now and not talk about what to do with the funds anymore. It was already decided by the city council majority that it should go into this fund. And we already spent, I believe, some of it, some of the interest in terms of a mobility hub. And everyone else is now talking about spending on other areas. And I think that's a separate discussion entirely from this. So I'm very supportive of the original staff recommended motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mai. Council Member Carroll.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I think maybe we can kind of close this out and keep going. We've got a long agenda. Sounds like we're all maybe kind of more or less in the same place, but I'm really looking forward to August. You know, we've got people up here that have been, you know, crying that we have a major budget crisis and an imbalance, and, you know, we're trying to bring something that, You know, as Vice Mayor Mai said, we have a pool of millions of dollars that have been, again, we voted to put it, I guess maybe I voted, no, I don't know, Council Member Tristater, unanimous, regardless, maybe if I voted for it then, right, that went to this amorphous sustainability thing with no real allocation to any actual account for any actual specific need whatsoever. If there is one, someone please put their light on and tell me what it was. But to Vice Mayor Mai's point, we have millions of dollars And it's all gonna, I mean, everyone bring your pencil to August. I'm gonna bring a big one. I have slides that Tom has ready to show. I'm happy to burn through three more hours if you want. I think that makes no sense as well. I think that we need to do the right thing by our staff and our incredible finance department and city manager office to move this budget. Again, something that received unanimous votes for the three past years and probably more if I asked for additional years. We just kind of close this piece out from an accounting perspective. And we bring our pencils in August. I know I'll be bringing mine. And we'll see if we had a budget crisis or we had a bunch of people that just made a lot of noise for nothing. So I think it's important. There's no question about it. We have major, major, major headwinds coming with respect to June 1, excuse me, July 1, 2027. And that really is what appears to be on a macro level. COVID money that city spent to create a, you know, kind of a large overhead structure that we need to kind of, we need to adjust and ratchet down and we're going to do that and we'll be as responsible if we can about it. Make no mistake, I will never be for cutting a single police officer or I will be against any efforts to try to cut or try to freeze any police, public safety hiring of any type, sworn and non-sworn. So I'll be forewarned that I will be a hawk on that. And everything else is fair game, including our unbelievably bloated budgets of over $600,000 each. So let's do it. Let's do it in August. Mayor, I would suggest maybe we can just take Councilmember Trasita's motion or your motion. Let's just collapse it. Let's get a 7-0 vote. If that's amenable to you guys, I'm happy to withdraw my second or whatever. Dale, I have a question for you. At the last meeting, some of us voted against fee increases. There were some significant fee adjustments and fee increases. If we vote yes now, are we now approving those fee increases? Yes.

It's just the technical increases that reflect what's in the agreements to increase the revenues. You need the revenues to appropriate the budget, right? But the agreements itself, they're all already done.

The fees are already approved.

Yeah, the fees are already approved. Oh, it's in the budget. Well, it's not part of the budget yet. This is just the...

More of the technical. They just haven't been recognized for the budget yet.

Well, let me ask you this. Does that mean, is that a good, you know, in accounting we call it, you know, good guy bag. Is that a good guy? Wait, is that revenue that we haven't seen in this budget? That's good news.

It's more technical than anything. As part of the resolution, you have to increase the, you have the revenues and the expenditures have to be aligned with each other, right? But the actual fees itself. When you look at the fees, there's a separate resolution that says, this is how much we charge for fees. These are the agreements for the wise agreement. Those are approved.

Right, but what we approved with regard, what the council approved with regard to the fees that projected revenue, is that baked into this budget? Yes.

Yes.

So we would be approving a document that has fees embedded, and some of us didn't vote for that, some of us did vote for that. But that fee revenue is in this budget?

Correct.

Okay, so it's not additional, it's just it's in the budget?

Correct.

Okay, thanks. Thanks for clarifying. Thank you, Mayor.

Well, thank you, Council Member Treseder. Thank you. Actually, maybe I could claim... my opportunity to say something at this time that might inform what you have to say as well. Let me just say, I hear what my colleagues are saying. I do think the fact that we're going to, at the first meeting in August, be considering all these matters and can make adjustments at that time I do think that suggests that it might be wise to accept the substitute motion and to move ahead adopting the budget while, of course, reserving the opportunity to raise all these issues in connection with the so-called deep dive in August. Is that what you were driving at, Councilmember Carroll?

Yeah, it appears like we can get consensus, which is fantastic, and move this thing ahead.

Okay, okay. Council Member Treseder, I'm willing to withdraw my main motion, and then you can have your motion be, in effect, the main motion. Is that procedurally acceptable to you, Mr. Melchi?

I think we'll end up in the same place, so yes.

Right. All right, well, having withdrawn the main motion, oh, by the way, who seconded that? Council Member Carroll. Well, Council Member Carroll agrees, all right. So with that, your substitute motion is in effect the main motion at this point. And if you have something further to add, Council Member Trecedo, go ahead, go ahead.

Thank you very much. So I appreciate that. I appreciate the withdrawal. Absolutely. I agree again with Council Member Carroll. We need to bring our pencils in August to think about what we can remove from the budget. And again, I am thinking about what I can remove among things that I really liked, that I wanted to do, that I championed when I thought we have more money. I'm willing to do that. I'm hoping that each of us up here is willing to think about that. It was hard for me to tell from Council Member Carroll's tone, but if we all start forming a circular firing squad with the budget, I think it's going to get pretty chaotic. But I think if we are trying to be very responsible and pull back from our own things that we maybe have second thoughts about. I think that's hopefully the best way to go. And again, I'm going to bring a list of things that I really like, but I am willing to reconsider now. So thank you.

All right. Council Member Trecedar, thank you. There is a motion and a second properly before us. With that, would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Vice Chairman Carroll.

Yes, and this includes the bus?

Oh, yes. Let's just make it clear, because I know there are a lot of people out there that are concerned. The bus money is there. It's part of the budget that is about to be passed.

All right? Go ahead. Thank you. Council Member Chairman Goh? Yes. Council Member Director Liu?

Yes.

Council Member Director Martinez-Franco?

Yes.

Council Member Director Trecedar?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Director Mai?

Yes.

Mayor Director Akron?

Yes.

Carry 7-0.

Thank you. It's been a long and a kind of a bumpy road here, but I'm glad we have a balanced budget that has been adopted. and we will be taking up this matter at our first meeting in August. What is the date of that first meeting?

August 3rd, it's a special meeting.

August 3rd, okay. Was it a special meeting?

Correct. Yes, the motion approved by council was to hold a special meeting. All right, excellent.

We'll be returning to these matters from a little different perspective on August 3rd. With that, we can move on with, I would suggest we quickly handle two items, item five, and item 6.1, which are public hearings.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, if we could just first adjourn the special meeting with the Great Park.

Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Let me just move that we adjourn what has been the special joint meeting with the Great Park Board at this time. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Liu. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Vice Chairman Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member Chairman Goh. Yes. Council Member Director Liu.

Yes.

Council Member Director Martinez-Franco.

Yes.

Council Member Director Trecedar.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Director Mai. Yes. And Mayor Director Agran.

Yes.

Carry 7-0.

And now the sitting City Council is convening to the special joint meeting with the Irvine Facilities Financing Authority, which is us as well. So having dealt with that technicality, at this point, would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Board Member Carroll.

Here. Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Goh. Here. Council Member, Board Member Liu.

Here.

Council Member, Board Member Martinez-Franco. Here. Council Member, Board Member Treseder.

Here.

Vice Mayor and Vice Chairman Mai. Here. And Mayor Chairman Aitken.

Here. All right. We have a public hearing. Item 5.1. Would the clerk please identify this item by title and subject?

Irvine Facilities Financing Authority Food and Beverage Project Taxable Leased Revenue Bonds Series 2026A. Thank you.

At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open, and we'll turn to staff to further present this item.

Good evening, council members. I'm Josh Brooks, deputy director of administrative services. I'll be presenting the item for what we're calling the food and beverage bond item. I'll go through these slides in the interest of time. I'll go through rather quickly, but the background is the Great Park was established in 2003, the first phase in 2007, and we're seeing this project culminate in another milestone for the Great Park project. The project itself will consist of a mix of restaurants, beverage, and specialty retail. 14,000 square feet of retail buildings will be constructed. There will also be a reconstruction of Hangar 10, which will house retail, fitness, and restaurant uses. The pop-ups in the park will be recreated as an indoor-outdoor bar with food, gathering areas, and areas for live entertainment will be built, as well as parking. This project is unique. It's a public-private partnership between the city and the Almquist, which is a California corporation. It's designated as Canopy 2, and it's located right next to another Almquist project called Canopy 1. The lease, the Elmquist lease is a long-term ground lease that will allow them to develop and operate the site. And the lease is contingent upon the issuance of the bonds. The annual bond service payments that the city has to pay will be covered by the rental payments that the city receives from the lessee. The estimated interest rate on these bonds is 5.79%. AND SO THE PLAN IS THAT THE RENTAL PAYMENTS RECEIVED WILL BE SUFFICIENT TO COVER THE CITY'S DEBT SERVICE PAYMENT. HERE'S AN AREAL JUST TO GIVE THE COUNCIL CONTEXT OF WHAT THIS PROJECT IS. THE DIRT LOT ON THE LEFT IS CANOPY 2, AND THEN THE BUILDINGS ON THE RIGHT ARE CANOPY 1. THIS IS A SEPARATE PROJECT. Here's another aerial. In the background, you can see the skate rink to kind of give an idea of where this is going to be in the Great Park. And then with that, I'll turn it over to our underwriter, Sarah Brown. She's going to give us a market update.

Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. I'll be quick as well just to orient ourselves here a bit relative to other bond issues that the Council has approved recently. These Charts show on the left the rise and fall of U.S. treasuries, the orange line being the 10-year treasury, the dark blue line being the 30-year treasury since the beginning of March. On the right-hand side, we see the treasury yield curve. This is a little different than most of the bond issues the city has sold because these bonds... the interest on these bonds will be taxable to the investors from the federal income taxes. And so because of that, they're more similar to U.S. Treasuries and use the U.S. Treasury rates as the benchmark for setting these bond interest rates. So we show here a significant amount of volatility in interest rates. We've been able to navigate through that and have seen improvement over the last month or so while the market gains confidence and sometimes loses confidence in the ceasefire. The Fed met last week and left rates unchanged. The next meeting is not until the end of July, and so our anticipated pricing fits nicely between that, so we don't expect a movement due to Fed making a rate change. The last thing I'll mention is just a little bit of a different investor audience than your typical tax-exempt bond. Here we expect to see more insurance company interest, potentially other municipalities that see an opportunity to invest in these bonds, and certainly banks owning for their own account. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Are there any questions? No questions? All right. Anything further?

Just a couple more slides to run through. Yes, go ahead. This slide illustrates the size of the team that brings together a bond financing deal like this. I should mention that Anna Sarabian is also here tonight. She's our financial advisor from Fieldman, has been instrumental in this deal. And here's our financing timeline. This bond issuance was recommended by the Finance Commission at the May 4th meeting. Tonight we're at the City Council meeting asking for Council to approve moving forward with this bond deal. We also did receive our rating just this afternoon. I wanted to brag a little bit about that. It was reiterated that the City is a AAA credit, the highest credit that there is. And this particular rating issuance will be AA+, and that's because lease revenue bonds always have to be a step below whatever the issuing agency is. So it's just a thing the city should be very proud of. On the 25th, we're planning to post our preliminary official statement, pricing on July 8th, and hopefully closing the bonds on July 23rd. So tonight's staff is recommending that council take the action to approve the Irvine Facilities Financing Authority Taxable Lease Revenue Bonds Series 2026A in a par amount not to exceed $22 million. And we're available for any questions.

Thank you. Any questions of staff? All right. Do we have any requests for public comment?

We do not, Mayor.

There being none... Is there a motion to close the public hearing? I'll move it. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Martinez-Franco. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Board Member Carroll.

Oh, Council Member Liu, are you trying to get my attention? All right, let's hold off on the motion for a moment.

Oh, I mean, we can close the hearing first.

Okay.

GO AHEAD. THANK YOU, MAYOR. COUNCILMEMBER, BOARD MEMBER CAROL. YES. COUNCILMEMBER, BOARD MEMBER GO. YES. COUNCILMEMBER, BOARD MEMBER LOU.

YES.

COUNCILMEMBER, BOARD MEMBER MARTINEZ-FRANCO. YES. COUNCILMEMBER, BOARD MEMBER TRUZETER.

YES.

AND MAYOR CHAIRMAN AGRON.

YES.

CARRY 6-0 OF THE MEMBERS PRESENT.

ALL RIGHT. THE PUBLIC HEARING IS CLOSED. IS THERE A MOTION BY COUNCILMEMBERS OR OTHERWISE? Council Member Liu.

Just some questions because I'm not familiar with what the financing part of it. So can you explain what changed between the April 25 pre-development agreement and today's number? What's the reason for the increase in the number that we're looking at right now from 14 to 17 million to 22?

I want to say that the plan is to borrow, and maybe Steve Torelli could help me with this, but the plan is to borrow around $16 million. But typically when you go to borrow money like this, we want to set a ceiling that gives us some flexibility. Hopefully...

Yeah, happy to take that question. Steve Trilley, director of Great Park. And I also have Tom Carpenter here as representative of OmQuest. Because the financing documents needed to be done before the final cost estimates were due, the value of the bonds was set higher than probably needed in order to get the authorization from council when they actually get priced and sold In a few weeks, we'll have those cost estimates. I think the end of next week or the following week. But these data points were needed about a month ago for all of the work to get through with the bond ratings. And so that's why they were done a little bit higher than originally anticipated. But to make sure we had enough coverage when going to council, we had that authorization level. But they won't exceed that level. And obviously, as part of the lease with OmQuest, they would be responsible to pay whatever the cost of the bonds are, whatever the debt service is on, regardless of what the sizing is.

I believe our financial advisor has an answer.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. Just to add to what Steve said, absolutely we always set the not to exceed part amount higher to provide for some cushion because the final debt service is locked in at the timely price. But in addition to sizing the bonds for the project fund, there is going to be capitalized interest that will be funding the first few years of that service while the project is being built in and completed. And so that adds to the size of the bonds. So there is the project fund, the capitalized interest, and cost of issuance. that entire amount adds up to the par amount, which we expect will be lower than the $22 million. But again, I'd like to be conservative and include some cushion.

Thank you. Another question, and I'm completely ignorant about this kind of thing. I know that normally municipal bonds are probably not taxable or a lot of times they're not taxable and you're saying these are more like treasury bonds that the interest income will be taxable. Does that affect how, whether we'll be able to get a premium on issuing these bonds?

So as our underwriter mentioned earlier, typically the city has issued tax-exempt bonds, and because the use of the proceeds is for public use, and so they benefit from the tax exemption, and those projects were typically operated by the city. Here we have a private party, and so there is private use. It will still benefit the public, but because of the private use, that's why the bonds are taxable. And as Sarah mentioned, taxable bonds have different investor audience, but are still sold in the marketplace and just another municipal debt instrument.

Great, thank you.

Thank you. All right. I guess at this point, we'll now proceed to the recommended staff actions. as noted by staff. So before I call for a motion, however, I want to ask our city clerk to explain the process, the procedure for handling the balance of this item.

For this item, it's just a motion to recommend, I'm sorry, it's just action to adopt the two resolutions before you. I think you might be thinking of the next item, which is the special election.

All right.

And if I may clarify too, Mayor, there's one resolution for the city council to approve and one resolution for the financing authority to approve. And those can be done in one vote, one motion.

All right. And the motion would be to adopt?

To adopt the two resolutions. The two resolutions.

Correct. I'll also move. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Councilmember Liu. Absent any further discussion, would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Board Member Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Goh. Yes. Council Member, Board Member Liu.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Martinez-Franco.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Treseder.

Yes.

And Mayor Chairman Agran. Yes. Carry six to zero of the members present.

That takes care of item five. I guess at this point, I'll move that we adjourn the special joint meeting with the Irvine Facilities Financing Authority. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Liu. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member, Board Member Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Goh.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Liu.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Martinez-Franco.

Yes.

Council Member, Board Member Trecedar.

Yes.

And Mayor Chairman Agran. Yes. Carries six to zero of the members present.

Thank you. With that... We move, well, at this point we reconvene just so we can keep this all straight for everybody. We're reconvening to the city council meeting and take up item number six, public hearings. I'm gonna suggest that when we're finished with item six, that we take a brief recess. but that's just a suggestion at this time that my colleagues might consider. With that, would the clerk please identify this item by title and subject?

Designation of the City of Irvine Community Facilities District Number 2013-3B, Great Park, Improvement Area Number 19, and Special Election Regarding Levy of a Special Tax.

All right. With that, I declare the public hearing now to be open. And I think we turn now to our staff one more time for further elucidation of this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council Members. I'm Josh Brooks, Deputy Director of Administrative Services. The item for you is to consider formation of the Improvement Area 19. Just to run through the background slide, in the interest of time, there's been numerous improvement areas formed, and all of these are in support of the Great Park build-out. In this particular instance, Heritage Fields has conveyed all the property in this future Improvement Area 19 to the Great Park Retail LLC. The Great Park Retail LLC, as landowner, is petitioning to form Improvement Area 19. It's 11.1 acres, planned for approximately 90,000 square feet of retail. Again, this is the canopy project. Include a supermarket, dining, and shopping. This is located at the intersection of Great Park Boulevard and Beacon, adjacent to the Great Park Sports Park. Again, here's an aerial. The red circle at the middle left of the map is the improvement area that is asking to be formed tonight. The formation process started on May 12th with the approval of intention and the call for the public hearing, which is today, and that would be step two to hold the public hearing, designate improvement area 19, and determine it needs to incur bonded indebtedness not to exceed $5 million. Like most improvement areas, special taxes will be used to fund authorized facilities and services within the area. This is not to approve any bond monies tonight. Staff would return to the council upon the landowner's request to issue bonds. There's numerous steps to this, so I think I'll just let the clerk help us through those steps.

Thank you. With that, I'll... turn to our city clerk at this time, and perhaps you can guide us through the technical procedures here.

Absolutely, Mayor. So the first part, there are no requests to speak, so I think the first part of this process would be to close the public hearing.

All right, I'll so move that we close the public hearing. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Liu. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Carroll?

Yes.

Councilmember Goh? Yes. Councilmember Liu? Councilmember Martinez-Franco?

Yes.

Councilmember Treseder? Yes. Vice Mayor Mai? Yes. And Mayor Agron? Yes. Carry 7-0. So then with that Mayor, the first part of this process would be the City Council's consideration of recommended action item numbers 2 through 4, which are resolutions authorizing the levy of a special tax within improvement area 19, determining the necessity to incur bonded indebtedness and submitting a proposition to the qualified electors thereof, and then calling a special election for the purpose of approving a special tax in improvement area 19.

And would a motion to that effect be appropriate at this time?

Correct. For action items two, three, and four.

I'll so move. Is there a second? Nodding doesn't count. You've got an action. Second. I'll second. All right. Seconded by, I think it was Vice Mayor Mai. Motion and a second. Would the... Was there any discussion? There being none, it's time for the clerk to call the roll.

Council Member Carroll. Council Member Goh? Yes. Council Member Liu?

Yes.

Council Member Martinez-Franco?

Yes.

Council Member Treseder?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mai? Yes. And Mayor Agron? Yes. Carry 7-0. So then at this time, I'll open the ballot.

This is right up there with the Academy Awards.

I just can't make it as fun as the Academy Awards. Mayor, with a total number of 12 votes, all those are in the affirmative. Excellent.

12-0. With that... Next step.

So then the next step, Mayor, would be for you to call for a motion to adopt the resolution declaring the results of the election, which is listed as recommended action number six.

I'll so move. I'll second. Seconded by Councilmember Liu. Absent discussion, would the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Carroll.

Yes.

Council Member Goh. Yes. Council Member Liu.

Yes.

Council Member Martinez-Franco. Yes. Council Member Treseder.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mai. Yes. And Mayor Agron.

Yes.

Carry 7-0.