City Council - Regular Meeting

like this. I don't have it. How are you?

Come on. I'll add you into it.

I'd like to call the January 6, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. Let the record record reflect that all council members except for council member Voits are present tonight. Votes tonight will be recorded using the city's electronic voting system. At this time, the city council will convene to consider public matters. If you wish to speak, fill out a blue speaker card and provide it to the city clerk. If you wish to submit a written materials, please provide those to the city clerk. They will be distributed to the city council. As required by state law, when speaking on an item listed on the agenda, limit your comments to the subject of the item. If you wish to speak on a subject not listed on the agenda, you may speak under public comment portion of the meeting. Finally, please address your comments to the city council. Staff only responds to questions from the city council, not from public speakers. We will now move to the invocation. And the invocation tonight is from Vanessa Howard from South County Outreach.

Thank you, Mayor Elect Peno. It's always an honor to be here. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts for the city of Lake Forest, for its people, for its neighborhoods, and the shared commitment to serve the common good. Lord, we thank you for the men and women who serve this community, including our city council and city staff, and all of those who work each day to protect and support this city. God, grant them wisdom, discernment, patience, and courage as they carry out the responsibilities that are entrusted to them. And tonight, Lord, we offer special thanks for Mayor Elect Robert Peo as he prepares to step into the role of mayor of Lake Forest. We're grateful for his life of service as a Marine veteran and for his many years with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, including his work as homeless liaison, where he helped build understanding, connection, and solutions for some of the most vulnerable neighbors. Lord, thank you for his deep love for this city, his strong work ethic, and his collaborative spirit. And we lift up Robert's family, especially his wife, Angela. God bless her, who has supported and sacrificed alongside him. Lord, surround them with your peace, strength, and joy as he takes on this new responsibility. God, we pray for the residents of Lake Forest that this city would continue to be a place where people are seen, valued, and cared for. And may our differences be met with respect, our challenges with cooperation, and our future with hope. Above all else, Lord, we pray for a spirit of unity and collaboration within this council and throughout our community. May all that is said be said and done here tonight be guided by wisdom, humility, and a heart to serve.

In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you. The pledge of allegiance tonight will be done led by scout troop 4321. Please rise. Please raise your right hand over your heart. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Ready to begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all.

Please be seated. Thank you, scouts. Next, we're going to get a report from our student liaison, Ethan Barrow, the student liaison for El Toro High School. December marked the end of the first semester as students remained focused on academic achievements to get their grades up right before winter break. Our ASB organized special treats in the mornings to help the students before finals. One morning we passed out donuts and the next was hot chocolate because it was a rainy day. This promoted a positive morale before the end of our semester. Our performing arts students held their winter concerts celebrating the holiday season and they put on a great show. Our front office has become stricter on tutorial policies, which is our period after first period to make sure students are able to get help from their teachers where needed. There is our annual end of the semester choir concert where students from the

choir classes performed over the span of three nights. They sang many Christmas themed songs and put on a great show as well. The boys soccer team won their tournament over winter break, winning five games in a row to clinch the championship. They have been phenomenal this year with a 12 win and one loss record as well as four ties. They're making a strong case to win CIF this year and hopefully make it to the state playoffs. December at El Toro High School was marked by strong academic focus, active student participation, and meaningful community engagement. The school continues to serve as a positive environment that supports student growth in the new year. Thank you and go Chargers.

Thank you. Next, we're moving to presentations. And for my colleagues, I'd like to I'm going to be combining items one and two together. And between the installation and the incoming comments, we're going to take a short reception so I could uh meet all my supporters in the back and then send you on your merry way. So, uh with that, Madame City Manager, I'm sorry, madam city clerk, please read the uh title of item one and two. Mayor, would you like to um uh call for a uh first and second motion for these presentations? We got first and second. Very good.

And that motion passes 4 with council member Voites absent.

Thank you. Madame city manager, please introduce this item. Thank you. Um, mayor elect, if you would like to come down in onto the stage, we will have an official swearing in so that you will be our mayor for 2026. Yes, sir. Okay, we'll get started. I do solemnly swear

I do solemnly swear I will support and defend I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance. and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely That I take this obligation freely

without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion. and that I will and that I will well and faithfully discharge well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter the duties about of which I'm about to enter. That is it. I'm glad you read slow. Congratulations. Let me get rid of these. Thanks, sir.

Hey, hey, watch your back. One more thing.

All right. Yeah, very nice. How's that? Okay.

So now the second half of this is my comments. I think I wrote some down shortorthhand. All right. Well, happy new year everyone. First, I want to thank my wife Angela, my son Robbie, his fiance Cynthia, my academy classmate Joseph Wlewa, your Belinda city council woman Janice Lim, and the crew of the Bors Nest, and all my other friends that came to to support me. It's my honor to serve as the mayor for 2026 for the city of Lake Forest. This year we'll be celebrating the 35th anniversary of the birth of the city as well as the 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation. I'm sure our outstanding city staff will put together some great events to celebrate both of our anniversaries. I look forward to working with my council colleagues and the city staff and keeping the city debt-free and safe. It takes all five of us and the entire city staff led by city manager Rose and assistant city manager Neeves and of course all the directors um Doug Erdman and yeah I knew I was going to forget her name. Gail Ari. I knew it. And of course the city clerk uh what's your name again? T Merritt. I would thank I would like to thank all of my predecessors on the city that were on the city council and all the outstanding staff. Recently, the California Policy Center newly launched a local fiscal health dashboard which tracks the local financial health of California cities, counties, and school districts. And it identifies potential red flags. Lake Forest earned one of the highest fiscal health scores with an grade of an A of 95, which is eighth out of 482 cities.

And that doesn't happen by accident. The city is moving forward with the final design and construction of major renovations to Kavanaaugh Park, adding amenities shaped directly by community input. We are advancing preliminary studies and a concept design for a new trail connecting uh connection linking the nature park and the meadows. Uh a a trail system that will improve access for residents. We will begin phased improvements to Etnne skate parks which include facility upgrades, enhanced lighting, shade structures, and skate area repairs. expanded community program for the performing arts center will introduce new events such as comedy shows, dueling, I was gonna say banjo, piano events, and more uh and more, helping activate the venue and attract future future rentals. We're taking steps to strengthen park security, including reinstating daily security services at the Lakes Forest Sports Park and advancing additional night and weekend patrols to improve safety and park access across the city. We're looking at building more affordable housing. Right now, Aspen Court project is getting close to breaking ground and we are doing some public outreach for another senior affordable housing project hopefully later this year or next year. I fully support our public safety. This year, we will be adding another patrol deputy. Fire and police services are instrumental in maintaining Lake Forest's quality of life and ensuring we remain one of the safest cities in California. I'm going to continue to participate and support clean Lake Forest and Love Lake Forest programs. They both beautify and improve our community. Thank you.

Madame City Clerk, do we have any requests to speak on this item?

We do. We have a public comment for presentation number one, and that is Andy O' Conor. Is this what I'm using? Good evening, Mayor. Well, what a coincidence. There's your speech from last time. You basically said the same things all over again. But I I like to keep a scorec card to see, you know, how you did. So, let's start with um you know, when you became a city councilman, everyone thought a retired marine and a deputy would would see a big improvement. When I run for office, my platform will be public safety, homeless, and traffic and parking. Town hall meetings. Mayor, how many did you have? You said you're going to have them. I counted two. That's all you had. Two. Two town hall meetings. Public safety. D5 takes up the majority of the $26 million police service budget. You just talked tonight about having park security. We had park security with Panther. And for some reason, our other guys, you pulled it out. And I'm the one that brought up and says, "How come we pulled out park Panther security? They're supposed to be monitoring the vendors. So you pulled it out. Now you said, "Oh, we're going to enhance park security." But you pulled it out. That's another, you know, it's a typical pecano. Crime is up in D5. D labors have increased. Home Depot and El Toro Rockfield has a security camera in their plot for over a year recording retail theft. They even have to back up their vans to the front doors. So people would go in there and burglarize and steal at night. Isn't that terrific? And that's walking distance from your house. Mayor,

the day labor population on Toronto in Orange was out of control. Finally, DHS stopped in to clear the area. 62% of code enforcement tickets are still open in your district. Homeless. The moment in time data shows Lake Force is the highest homelessness in South County. In 2025, can you believe it? We had three deaths in Lake Forest. Never recorded. And you're supposed to be this guy for homelessness. Boy, doesn't add up. Mayor, you say one thing, three deaths, says another. Parking is an ongoing issue. Graffiti is an ongoing issue. Our contractor, 80% is down in D5 cleaning up graffiti. Aspen affordable housing. You kept that a secret. And what's going to happen at the next store? the Los Alisos reclamation plant when they put ammonia in that on Sunday morning tedimemer and it smells like hell and those people are going to claim you're in lawsuits. Was that the right location to put this place? I don't think so. You're going to have a big problem. And talk about lawsuits, you got us in a big lawsuit with the uh retail store there in Lake Forest Marketplace where we spend $100,000 because of you. You created that situation. Cavanaaugh Park. Whoa, capital. Six years, dude.

Thank you for your comment. Six years it took you to get that thing done. Mr. Okconor does have comment on presentation item number two as well.

Thank you. So, as you go into your next term, and tonight you just elevated the city manager to like this highest level because of financial success. She's not the reason for financial success. It's our chief financial officer sits in the back, Kevin. He makes things happen. Okay? You had no accountability for ebikes. You you treat the city manager like she's your sister. You never push back on her and never ask any kind of questions. There's some serious things happening, but no, she's fine, but you treat her like you're her your sister. You know, accountable for ebikes, fire mitigation along Parkway at the Metropolitan Pump Station. She didn't even know who even owned that land until a resident came up and talked about it. You never question the county supervisor's 25% salary increase. You never count question the county on the OC street car budget going over that I have to pay more taxes for four miles will not impact me in Lake Forest. I'm paying for never push back on it. The airport fire right here. Nobody push back on that. But we're going to end up paying for it. Would you write a letter on behalf of Lake Forest residents demand we don't pay for the county's mistake? You're not objective. If you're always signing with the county over Lake Forest residents, you see your position ceremonial when it's actually le legislative position. You need to look at the organization chart right here. Mayor and city council above the city manager lead, would you? And let's not forget the $500 you took in campaign contribution from him, the disgraced councilman who was arrested

for two domestic violence cases. Did you ever return the $500 councilman to him? It's disgraceful. You took $500 from a convicted domestic violence person.

Thank you for your comments. I was pretty sure you were going to blame me for the airport fire. Next we go for the public comment. If you would like to make a PO uh comment, please fill out a blue speaker card and give it to the city clerk and your name will be called. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. The council and staff will not respond to questions or comments during the public comments period. If you leave your contact information, staff may contact you to address your issues raised during your comment. When you are called to speak, come to the podium. Your three minutes will begin and when the green light is on, the green light will remain on for two minutes. When the light changes from green to yellow, speakers have one minute to left to conclude their comments. When the light changes from yellow to red, your time is concluded and please return to your seat. A timer is not displayed on the screen. Madame clerk, have we received any requests the speakers?

We have, mayor, we have received several public commenters. The first public commenter is Sean Fletcher. Good evening, city council members and those present. My name is Sean Fletcher and I'm a 23-y year resident. Beyond the fact that all this signage in front of you is from these scammy Christmas light installers that plague our city starting October, the other thing related to all these signs is that they were placed illegally in my HOA common areas. Placing signs on private property without the owner's explicit consent is illegal and a violation of the city's municipal code. Treated as a public nuisance with enforcement handled by code enforcement. The problem is is that when I did file a complaint, I was informed by code enforcement that there's nothing they can do since it was placed on private property. Despite the fact municipal code says otherwise. Now, I can pull these out myself and I bet if the city goes around the business parks, strip malls, and shopping centers around the city, you will find plenty of these still on their planters and hung high on light post. And unfortunately, what I've seen in the past, these will stay there for months. Why? because the majority of the owners of these properties really do not care. As I stated in a recent council meeting, my group, Clean Like Forest, constantly finds that most of our business areas do not keep their properties clean. And beyond the reflection against the city, most of this trash does not stay on that property, but instead winds its way into our city sidewalks, gutters, and streets. I bring this last issue up because of a business property owner who has been a fixture at these meetings recently. and for as a resident and outsider these issues with the city what who has been making some ridiculous and outlandish comparison of what constitutes a massage parlor. I have to go back to a prior meeting because some time ago when I recognized this guy he was complaining to the city

because it appears he had an illegal massage parlor on his property. So obviously it seems he does he does need a lesson and guidance on what constitutes a massage parlor, specifically a legal one. I saw in another council agenda that this guy's actually suing the city in federal court, claiming that they're not doing enough about prostitution in the city, which seems ironic considering the history with him. At the last meetings, he appeared to demand that the city needs to leave businesses alone. I will ask the city for the exact opposite. These property owners need to be shown time and again that they have they have shown time and again that they don't care about who they vet their properties to and don't consider the impact they have on our community. This has led to problems with illegal and illicit massage parlors, marijuana dispensaries, and tobacco and vape shops right next to child care centers. The city of Lake Forest constantly states it is an ideal place for businesses to prosper, but also for people to live, work, and play. These two things are not exclusive, but symbiotic, and they fail when one party is not being responsible. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next public commenter is Mike Davidson. usually see me up here complaining about one thing or another, but today I'm just uh just going to uh um say things that we don't normally get to say within the three minute period. and that's that I'm proud as a lot of these people are of living here in Lake Forest and I've been here since 1980 so before it was actually Lake Forest. So the um there's a lot that I mean we complain about stuff but there's a lot of things that are you get right and Lake Forest had carries no debt. Um it's it's managed well there. We have great parks. Know a lot of that's due to the uh the city managers in the various departments and uh but we also have um uh a great uh transparency, great communication. It's pretty easy to stand up here and talk about these things, send letters to to the city council, to the um to the city clerk um and and get responses. Um so we get that stuff right, the budgets is and is is right. And just wanted to thank the uh city council and the uh city managers and the various departments for that. Uh, I also want to to point out that um appreciate that when votes come up almost invariably the city councilmen will ask the ex their experts from their various departments and and managers

um for their opinions on these sort of things. So we've get they get good advice from from very good uh um departments and it works. Um even if there's disagreement, it it works. So yeah, I just wanted to say I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next public commenter is Mark Hermanson. Uh, first off, congratulations, Mr. Mayor. I honestly hope that you do better than your predecessor. My first question for you today is, did you guys enjoy the rain? Because those of us who walk a half mile to our cars do not enjoy it. I've been coming here for about eight months to ask three simple questions, and not one of you by email, mail, or here will even show the respect of answering. Number one, the attorney general has stated if you offer permit parking, condos and apartments adjacent to it should be offered permits. Lake Forest doesn't do it. You have a high-priced attorney who I think makes more than minimum wage. Why can't he answer that? Number two, if you have unequal enforcement such as the uh street sweeping ticketing signs, guess where they are? where the people in the condos park in multiple areas in Lake Forest and they magically disappear in front of the single family homes. Come on up and walk Malibar with me. I'll show it to you there. We'll go around the corner. I'll show it to you there. Two or three other places. That is an FEA violation for unequal enforcement. Now, I get that there's a lot of loopholes in the laws that you can get around. If you are doing the right thing and you are open and honest, you're a former law enforcement officer. People that are doing the right thing never have to worry about it pushing back on them again. City attorney, why can't we get an answer on that? Or my favorite one, how come we just had the sheriffs in Bellow Polarmo coming to homes to let us know that those nimbies up on Malibar and Pertha Hills are complaining every time our cars are parked for a weekend.

Yet for two and a half weeks, they've had an RV sitting out there being used as a hotel while they have relatives. And we're talking one of those like 50 60 foot RVs like size of a school bus. and not one ticket put on that thing from parking enforcement. I understand that they have discretion, but they don't seem to know how to, you know, pronounce discrimination properly. So, I'm going to ask again just one of those questions. Could we get an answer? Why? Other than thank you for your comments. No, I didn't think so. I didn't think we would, but thank you. Thank you for your comments. Excuse me, mayor. Yes.

Thank you. I'd like to have uh our city attorney uh address the first point that Mr. Hermanson was addressing, talking about the law since he's been coming to these meetings for a long time. I know we've had interactions our staff with him to kind of communicate. Seems to be still a gap in terms of what that's all about in terms of permit parking relations from condos and single family homes. Can you please elaborate on what the state law is on that, please?

Yes, thank you, mayor and council. So, state law does allow for permit parking. It's a um an activity that is utilized by most cities in California. Um it's a difficult one and results in issues like we've been uh been encountering the past few months here, our council meetings. The AG opinion that was referenced um does uh state that if if uh permits are granted for parking, they have to be granted to any kind of residence that fronts the actual parking. So whether it's a single family home or multifamily if it actually fronts the parking that's that's that's uh that's permitted. You can't discriminate between single family or multifamily. However, it does not permit granting permits to homes, whether single or multifamily, that aren't immediately adjacent to the permitted area. So, in some um this is an allowed practice pursuant to state law. There is an a there is an AG opinion on point. Doesn't say exactly what was stated earlier. And this is um an activity that is that is performed statewide by most cities. Okay. Thank you. And I know our city manager has been involved with the situation in Portoola Hills for a number of years and working with the HOAs and also the city requirements and what's allowed and what can be done here in this situation. Um, city manager Rose, would would you comment on on the history of of this situation and what communication we've had from our our staff and where things lie now, please?

Certainly. This situation started back in 2003 along um two areas Malibar and another street Fernle I believe in Portola Hills and there were significant overflow parking from the multif family um areas and the expectation um for many years was that multif family properties their parking would be completely handled on site. Now that often doesn't happen and normally it is not an issue but in some cases it did become an issue and so in this case um we did many counts many counts of parked vehicles and so forth and back in 2003 there was a system developed where there would be permit parkings for the single family homes that fronted those streets. There's also an area that is owned by the HOA that is the entrance to that housing tract and that area was determined to be not offered parking at all. It would just be an entryway into that um residential area. So it has been that way for over 20 years. Um, we have had over the years several traffic engineers work with the multif family residents to try to identify parking within their properties that could offer more visitor parking and more opportunities for the residents to park. So, this has been an ongoing issue. We try to work with our all of our residents, but ultimately um it's been controversial. I'll say that.

Thank you. you. I know it's frustrating and parking is one of our biggest elements of issue we have in in the city and dealing with that. And in terms of parking enforcement, we've actually allocated more resources with uh trucks and with personnel to do that. I would suggest for people who are witnessing RVs or illegally parked items to use our Ask Lake Forest app. I've used that in my own area, Portola Hills, and I get immediate responses from parking enforcement. Now, I'm not saying that's because I'm a council member. I have other residents who've also reported RVs and we've actually had 18 wheelers up in our neighborhood and cars that you know have been abandoned for a long time and they use that Ask Lake Forest app again to report that and that gives it right to our staff right to code enforcement to be able to take action. So, uh I I understand your your frustration Mr. Hermanson and the one with the communication doing here tonight. I know this has been an ongoing issue and so I I think you know from my perspective the staff and the history of this have have done some things to try and mitigate this but it it may be an ongoing issue unless there's other solutions that state law doesn't conflict with us and homeowners association u bylaws have put into place and the fact that you know multifamily units have usually probably more cars these days than the allocation has been in terms of design. So all those factors coming into there, I'm I'm not sure the frustration will will ever go away unless there's some kind of a magical solution, but I wanted to at least address that tonight. So thank you for bringing that to our attention once again. Thanks, Mayor.

Our next public commenter is Reed Buck. Good evening, Mayor Peno, uh, Mayor Prom Serbo, city council members and staff. Um, I'm here tonight just to state my opposition to a request made by outgoing Mayor Voitz and seconded by Mayor Prom Serbo during the December 2025 meeting. Uh, more specifically, I'm referring to council member Voit's suggestion that there be an agendaized item to be placed during 2026 to consider expanding city council member term limits. With the strength of the incumbent advantage in local politics, an expansion of term limits almost guarantees reelection of an incumbent official. And while I could place blame for that on the voting public for choosing political inertia over careful research and choosing a candidate that represents their own needs, I'm not going to deny the reality of the situation. Extending term limits will all but ensure that public officials will remain in office longer. Meanwhile, when terms are limited, it forces the local voter to choose from a brand new slate of candidates. It puts pressure on them to actually make an informed decision rather than being governed by inertia. I think that can't be anything but positive for our city. If voters are less frequently given the option to tune out of local politics, I would have to imagine or um sorry um if they were able to not tune out local politics, then I imagine that they would have to do their research. And I would have to imagine you would feel the same. I can recognize the desire or need for continuity of governance where elected officials are given more time in office to pursue their agenda and represent their electorate. I can even understand the convenience of it. That being said, I'd like you to imagine your personal political antithesis. A person who has the opposite opinions of you in every form, yet who got elected to the Lake Forest City Council because of some combination of luck, charisma, maybe outofstate pack funding. Would you be

content to watch that person misgovern your city for the next 12 years, knowing that the incumbent advantage would all but guarantee that their continued position in local government? We may not see eye to eye on every issue. And I know I've been up here enough times to give you all an earful for policies I've disagreed with, which I it's something I contend it's a vital part of the political process, but I hope that we can all agree that having the same person in local office for over a decade is a dangerous shift and anti-democratic. The crucial turnover between outgoing and incoming staff, the constant influx of new personalities and philosophies and ideas into government, that to me is the essence of the American republic. It is as dynamic and evolving as our nation itself. So I ask you, do you want to grind that natural flow to a halt? Do you want to give the people of Lake Forest an easy way out of the voting process? Or will you challenge us to pay attention to our representation in government? If you do actually believe in the principles of our republic and you're not merely securing another term for yourselves, I think there's only one answer. So thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment. And our last general public commenter is Andrew O' Conor. I'd like to recognize Mr. Sean Fletcher in his pursuit to keep the community clean. I do the same thing. Um 250 ALF tickets last year. The problem we're having, Mr. Fletcher, is we have a weak code enforcement. Ever since Daryl Hill left, for whatever reason, nobody knows. Code enforcement's gone downhill. Just go up here at the 7-Eleven on your way home tonight, Mr. Serbo, Mr. for you. And look at the 7-Eleven sign there at the corner of Regency Lake Forest. It looks like some kind of creepy animal is growing inside of it. And I reported this in October and I talked to Winston about this morning. He goes, "Yeah, we talked to him in October, but landlord doesn't want to do anything." To me, it sounds our car code enforcement doesn't doesn't have any power with these with these landlords. So, I understand your frustration, Mr. Fletcher. I have the same same feeling. You know, mayor, you really showed your uh immaturity again with with your little comment, but you know, like I said, I thought maybe second term you'd grow up, but you're still immature. You say you love like Forest, but remember the Andy sucks campaign this summer with the decals and your posi and the t-shirts and your guys threw an egg at the back of my house. Remember that? Remember that pecano? You're part of that, weren't you? But you love like Forest. You're Mr. Deputy. You're Mr. Marine, but I come up here and I make presentations and you round up your posi

and you make t-shirts and decals and you throw eggs at my house. He called me Andy sucks. That's just terrific. So, no wonder you had the reception in the back and shoot everybody out because you knew Okconor was going to come here loaded with facts and you sure as hell ain't gonna let that happen. But you are a disappointment. fire mitigation district one 2025 we will we establish a reactive benchmark for evacuation insurance good Mr. S appreciate it but as we go forward I would like to see a proactive approach with water cannons sprinklers etc win Irvine Ranch water district build a pumping station like forest and visit terrace Mr. Tedimemer for recycling water for the sports park. I think there's a a chance here, Mr. Tedimemer, that you can be as great as the Mr. Maul Holland was of Los Angeles. And what is Maul Holland known for in Los Angeles? Building a water pipeline to get water to Los Angeles. Sir, this is a opportunity for you to build a tedrar fire mitigation for Whiting Ranch. With your experience and your connections, I challenge you to put together a comprehensive fire mitigation plan. On the behalf of the 2,000 homeowners in Foothill Ranch and the 2,000 homeowners in Port,

thank you for your comments. And just like that, at three minutes, I just whack you down. That's it. Mayor, thank you. We're going to move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent or under the city council consent calendars are considered routine and will be enacted by one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the city council or staff request specific items be removed from the consent calendars for separate action. Have there been any requests to remove an item from the consent calendars? There has been a request to speak on consent calendar item number four which is the minutes.

Okay. Number four. All right. I'll move the balance. Second that. And the motion passes 40 with council member Voits absent. Okay, we'll take the uh comment.

Yes. And our public commenter for item number four is Andrew Oconor. So at the last meeting, the time stamp 22 minutes 11 seconds. Three public speakers were speaking regarding fire haz hazards at Toronto Park. This is my fourth time addressing the council. Not fair. Not getting answers. Empty meetings. Email manager. Nothing to follow up on. Next resident presented 63 signatures from our neighborhood. handed in and spoke to Scott Voice and Don Wagner for Pollola Park. At the 1 hour, five minute resident Michael Davidson made a well summarized overview of flammable property that nobody seems to know is responsible. Michael site the 20 to 30 acres near Metropolitan Pump Station on Bake Parkway. Can you believe the city manager, Deborah Rose, with over 20 plus years in Lake Forest, didn't even realize there's a fire hazard. didn't even know who owns the property. Doesn't know how to take take action. But just earlier, the new mayor just elevated. She's probably the best thing we've ever had, but she doesn't know about fire mitigation that could just burn up a whole neighborhood. You know, I talk about the city having blinders, new councilman having blinders. This is an example right here. How can you go up and down Lake Parkway and see that fire hazard off to the right city manager and not and say something like, "Man, we need to take care of that." And as simple as simple as a new signage we're all proud of, and they look good. The magnetic signs look good. Good job. But how can it be? Tedimer and Voit, do you go up and down Lake Forest Drive every day? You didn't notice the sign at the Lake Forest Town

Center. The arrows pointing towards the apartments and not into the town center until I took a picture and sent it to you. This is the problem I have. I call you guys, you got blinders on. You go through the city, you don't see anything. It's like the 7-Eleven sign, Mr. Serbo, Mr. You. You don't see that sign's bad. You don't have to report it. I have to do it. Can you in 2026, could you take the blinders off and see what the hell's going on? You know, young adult talked about the graffiti at Pittsburgh Park. We took Panther Security off. Nobody told us. Nobody told us. And now we don't even know what you're going to do. You going to put another one in? What's the budget? Why did you pull Panther Security off that duty? It was already budgeted. Everything's there. It's not there anymore. Why? Remember when the residents report about ebikes at the sports park and Mayor Voit says, "I didn't know we had a problem. The same residents came back three months later, same problem. Is this going to be the same council in 2026 we had in 2025 that you guys are clueless about ebikes, Sorrano Park, code enforcement? We can just sit up there and just go through the motions."

Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your comments. That's what I was waiting for. Right. I'll entertain a a motion for the remainder. Move approval. That was for item number four. And that motion passes 40 with council member Voits absent.

All right. We'll now move on to public hearing item number six. I would like to open the public hearing. Madam city clerk, please read the title for item number six. Certainly, mayor. The title of item number six is the ordinance amending Lake Forest Municipal Code section 9.146.050 relating to accessory dwelling units. Thank you, madam city manager. Please introduce this item.

Thank you, mayor. Tonight, we will have a presentation by senior planner Ron Santos. Good evening, Mayor Peno and members of the city council. So, this item tonight is a draft ordinance amending the city's accessory dwelling unit regulations. The ordinance is designed to ensure the city is fully compliant with recent changes in California ADU law that took effect on January 1st uh 2026. So in late 2025, foreign use state bills were enacted affecting ADUs and JADUs. The draft ordinance amends the city's ADU laws as necessary. Little background. On December 2nd, 2025, the city council adopted an urgency ordinance to bring the municipal code into compliance with state law before the January 1st um changeover of the new code. Um and also to ensure that the uninterrupted enforcement of the city's supplemental ADU standards uh could occur. on tonight's agenda would ordinance maintain consistency with law and provide for continued enforcement of the city's ADU standards. AB 1154 makes two significant changes to junior ADUs. First, it narrows the owner occupancy requirement so that an owner must live on the property only when the JADU shares bathroom facilities with the main dwelling. If the JADU has its own bathroom, the owner is no longer required to live on site.

Second, the new law expressly prohibits short-term rentals of JADUs for fewer than 30 days. Our ordinance already contains this restriction, but it is now mandated by state law. Under existing law, cities must submit their ADU ordinance to the California Department of Housing and Community Development within 60 days of adoption. SB9 and SB543 adopted new consequences for failing to meet that requirement. Any ordinance that is not submitted within 60 days becomes void. SB543 includes several substantive amendments to ADU law. It clarifies the ADU and JADU size limits refer to interior livable space which affects how the 500 foot JADU limit and the 800 square foot minimum ADU allowance are calculated. It also confirms that impact fees may not be charged uh for ADUs with 750 square feet or less interior space and may not be charged for any JADU. In addition, ADUs and JADUs under 500 square ft are exempt from school impact fees. The bill also codified the state's interpretation that local agencies must allow combinations of ADU types per under government code sections 323. Finally, SB543 established specific timelines for determining application completeness, reviewing submittals, resubmitts I should say, and processing.

AB 462 contains mostly coastal zone reforms, but one portion applies citywide. Historically, an ADU could not receive a certificate of occupancy before the primary AB462 created a narrow exception for detached ADUs when three criteria are met. The first is that a state emergency has been declared for the county. The second is that the primary dwelling unit was substantially damaged or destroyed during the emergency event. And third, that the ADU was issued a building permit and passed all required inspections. If all conditions are satisfied, the ADU may obtain a CFO before the primary dwelling unit. In all other cases, the prior rule applying commission considered the draft ordinance at its December 4th meeting. The commissioner recommend that the city council adopt the ordinance. No public comments were received at the planning commission hearing. The proposed ordinance is statutoily exempt from SQA under the under a section of the public resources code which applies to ordinances implementing state ADU law. No additional environmental review is required for adoption of this ordinance. Staff recommends that the city council find the ordinance exempt from SQR and introduce it for first. Adoption of the ordinance at the next city council meeting will ensure that the city remains in full compliance with evolving state ADU law and maintains our local standards. Concludes staff's presentation. Happy to answer any question.

Thank you. So we will now close this hearing and do any members of the council have any comments, questions? Thank you, mayor. Just want to clarify the first bullet find that the draft ordinance is exempt from SQA. Is that because the state has provided that? So, we're just merely echoing what the state has provided. We're not making that determination. The state's made it for us. Question. The the council is making that determination, but is pursuant to a state law. Okay. So, the state has allowed us this opportunity to claim this exemption, but the state is providing that. Is that I just want to make sure I remember. That's correct. the state established an exemption provision for this type of ordinance amending ADU law

just because if somebody wanted to challenge us then they would be challenging essentially the state if the state has already provided that opportunity for us so correct thank you thank you I'll move the item we have any comments we do not mayor okay first and a second thank you Ron And that motion passes 40 with council member Voites absent. All right. Thank you. That'll take us to discussion items. Madam sir, city clerk, please read the title for item number seven.

The title of item number seven is the annual review of city council policies. Madam city manager, please introduce this item. Thank you, mayor. to give you an overview of the policies and the work of our policy subcommittee. Our city clerk team Merritt will give you a short presentation.

Yes. Thank you, mayor and council members. The item before you is the annual annual review of the city council policies. And as city Rose, city manager Rose mentioned, um the policy ad hoc did meet with then mayor Prom Peno and council member Yu on that committee and we looked at all of the council policies and identified that about 15 of them we there were no recommended changes to them. So I'll give you a second to look those over. Um so no recommended changes to those policies and we will now move on to the next two slides where we will discuss policies that um we did have some changes to that. First policy that we had a small change to was the audit committee pol policy. We added designign language to it. So, um there are sentences in there that say the city manager and the or the designate will um you know A, B and C. Uh so there were some sections of that policy that did not have the phrase and or designate. So that was added into that policy. Um the next policy that had some proposed changes to it was the recognitions policy. Uh we added language for uh to clarify memorial adjournments. Um so essentially if a council member would like to uh ask for a memorial adjournment uh they would ask they would go through this process of asking whether verbally or written in written requests to the mayor for 4 48 hours prior to the production of an agenda and agendas are produced on Thursdays. So uh you know technically uh a council member would have until that Tuesday to make um an ask of the mayor. Um, and if the ask is made during uh

council comments, the memorial adjournment would then be agendaized for the next scheduled uh city council meeting. And the next policy with proposed changes was the travel and reimbursement policy. We added the language for the lodging section where essentially if a uh if a council member travels outside of 40 miles, they will be reimbursed for lodging. And um apparently I can't use Google Maps, so I had to do a yellow memo for all of you. There is a an amendment to uh that policy where um I identified that the Long Beach Convention Center was outside of the 40 miles when in fact it is within the 40 miles. So if a council member travels there, they would not be um they would not be reimbursed for the lodging there. Okay. Now, the ad hoc committee did identify two uh new policies that they would like for the council to consider. The first one is uh the AB1234 reporting. Uh this is a new policy, but it's not necessarily a new concept. Uh AB 1234 was passed in October of 2005, and council has been complying with uh the provisions in that legislation since. uh we're just now making it uh um official through through this uh through this policy. Um and apparently along with not knowing how to use Google Maps, I also don't know how to count. So there are some amendments to that policy as well. Um just uh um editing some formatting and also striking some language and that is also in the yellow memo that is in front of you. Um and the last new policy, the the la last new

policy to uh discuss here is the city council meeting management policy. Uh that policy combines the order of the agenda and public comment policy that we already have in place and it also adds language to comply with SB77. Um, now SP77 is um is requiring that legislative bodies uh address uh uh adopt a policy that addresses recessing and reconvening an open session of a public meeting um should there be uh internet or um telephonic interruption to the services and thereby the uh public is unable to participate. Um, so that city council meeting management uh policy again is combining the two existing policies and then adds language to comply with uh SB77. And we just recommend the city council uh exercise discretion and that is the end of my presentation and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, before we do that, do we have any um any requests to speak on this item?

We do. We have one public commenter and that is Andrew O' Conor. So be this will be my last time speaking tonight. I won't need all three minutes because this is pretty straightforward. But but let me preface mayor that um oh you're going to run the council. This here is pretty uh pretty interesting when that three minutes goes off but you just cut them. Other mayors like hey let let you roll kind of reminds you Mr. Resident Mrs. Resident. Your three minutes are up. Can you wrap it up tonight? You demonstrated to me three times you've just cut it off. That's it. Wow. That's really funny. But you came out with all this thing. I'm a great Mary. All this people in the back, but I come up here. Whack.

Does this have anything to do with this item?

Yeah, it does. So, annual review of city council policies, recognition, proclamation, certific. I've been asking this for years. The council often gives certificates for various reasons. Why not residents who submit ALF tickets? My three year year three three-year history is here. Wednesday, December 16th at Bagels and Brew with Bob Hul Holtzclaw on the tenant. Scott says, "I will get this certificate made." Well, where is he? Where's Mr. Voit tonight? And there's a picture. I sent you a picture. Me, Voits, his friend Bob, the whole thing. Said he's going to do it. I guess it's that's the way we roll in like Forest. We uh we lie to the residents as far as attachment AB1234 council reporting polic I've been asking this for a long time. It's about time that this thing gets enacted. It's about time we know where you guys are going these trips. Actually I call them junkets. I mean Voites must have gone to I know Voit has gone to DC three times and to me he's networking out there for his next position. Okay. did nothing to do with Lake Forest and the city manager Deborah Rose just went to Tampa Bay and I looked at her expense report. There's a line item there on your Hilton expense account for $395 that you can explain what it's for. There's an expense with no explanation to it. So, I put a request in and it's overdue. So, I'd like to know where the city manager, which you elevate very highly, why she put on there a line item $395 with no explanation. You have an explanation, city manager. Of course not. So, those are the two. I hope you act on them.

Hope you act on them. And I hope, mayor, you're a little more civil to the residents next this year. Thank you for your comments. That's it, mayor. Okay, we'll move on to item number eight, the strategic. Well, Madam City, I'm sorry, we got a vote on this.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I just want to clarify that um any changes that we may bring tonight, we'll have this item brought back for a complete revisitation. I'm seeing a shaking of the head. No. Uh, your changes tonight can be voted on tonight. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, I I guess the thing is I'm not sure that the packet I have here maybe reflects some of the things that I've brought forward. So, I don't I don't know what all has been enacted. That's my concern. So, unless there's a sensitivity to it, then maybe we could bring it back and see the full redline strike out of all of it, plus whatever else comes up tonight.

Yeah, it's council's discretion. So, I'll rephrase. You may vote tonight on your changes. Okay? You may also choose to punt until a future meeting to have more time to review the changes. Either way is fine.

Okay. Well, let me bring my items up and we'll see we'll see where it goes. Um I I want to touch on item 19. Um the I think the spirit is that we are to disclose where we go places that otherwise the public wouldn't have opportunity. I'll give an example. If you want to go see OCFA, you can go see that. You can get their agendas. You can see their minutes. You can see the video recordings of the entire meetings. So, that's publicly available today. Uh same with OCTA, I presume Vector, and maybe others. But what what isn't available to the public, and I think what I would argue is the thrust here is to cover things where we go on behalf of the city, but they're not publicly available. for instance, a Cal City's meeting or an ACCOC meeting because they're not video recorded. They're not televised. You can't find them on YouTube. And those are the ones where we would um in both cases we would announce we went, but maybe there's a a more more discussion as it relates to uh attending those things. That's that's my takeaway. But people want to see the discussion for OCFA, that's all publicly available, agendas, minutes, the whole thing. Um so that's that's kind of my view is that one of the thrusts that we have to report when we go at city's expense but I think that when we go somewhere where there isn't available information that maybe more needs to be shared um in the policy as I understand it in the purpose there is a a notion in the very beginning that says that provide a brief report on meetings attended at the expense of the city and I believe that needs to be incorporated into the procedure itself that we make sure we say that member attend a meeting or conference at the expense of the city. So it's captured in the actual procedure number one. It's brought up in the purpose but if somebody just reads the procedure I just think it needs to be um

brought into that as well. um a small thing but in the beginning under purpose it says Assembly Bill 1234 and I know this is inside baseball for some but there is Assembly Bill 1 1234 and there's been many iterations over the years there's always new AB1234s. This is a specific reference to a bill that I believe was 2005. So my recommendation that we would amend that to say Assembly Bill 1234 PN 2005 sometimes the bill author is included. So people if they want to go do their own research, they can know what AB1234 is specifically that we're referencing here. Um I think that was it for 19. I can go on to 20 if you like. Um this has to do with um public comment. Um it it doesn't happen often but I've seen it happen where somebody will come up and say I want to speak for three minutes actually I want to speak for 12 minutes so I brought my three friends and I'm asking to have their time so I can acrewue it all and speak for 12 minutes that's not something that I think is consistent with the spirit of the threeminut provision and so I want to put it out for my colleagues consideration that 3 minutes is per person. Um, if you want to play an elaborate game of write the script and hand it off to your friend, you can do that too, I guess. Uh, but the intent is not to see if somebody can bring nine friends when and then have the floor for 30 minutes. That's not the intent of the public comment period. So, I put that out there that maybe that's something we would want to incorporate in here to make it clear that that's the city policy is that it's three minutes per person to try and make it clear it's a city policy. So, I put that out there for discussion. Okay.

I mean, how would you like how would you want that uh the wording to say every speaker has three minutes? Well, well, I guess that's what I was exploring with the city attorney is that maybe they could take this direction and go back, do the word smithing and just bring it back at the next meeting or whenever they get it all done. It can show in a redline strikeout capturing my comments and others if you guys agree and then we can all look at it the full context. But sure. So we'll just table this for another agenda or another meeting. Yeah. There may be other comments. Those are those that those are Yep. Yep. All right. So we'll just table this one for another meeting. All right. So we'll Any comments on this one? No.

No comments on this one. Yep. I breezed through that earlier. So madame city clerk, please read the title for item number eight. The title of number eight is the strategic plan quarterly update. Okay. Madame city manager, could you please introduce this item? Thank you, mayor. Tonight, we have an update on the strategic plan by our assistant to the city manager, Nidia Rules Castellino.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. This is a quarterly update on the progress completed so far on the city strategic plan. So the current strategic plan was adopted June 3rd of 2025. This is our second update and it covers the quarter starting October 1st, 2025. And here we highlight major project completions or milestones that were completed on this quarterly basis. We track the strategic plan from two perspectives. First, we track initiatives based on overall progress. Out of the 60 initiatives in the implementation matrix of the plan, three or 5% of the initiatives have been completed. 22 or 37% of initiatives have reached substantial progress. 21 more have been started and 14 initiatives have yet to be started. We also track the progress of the plan from a goal perspective. In the first three months, in the first six months of the plan, we've been able to start reach substantial progress or complete 33 projects for goal A so far. For goal B, it's seven projects. And for goal C, six projects. As we progress, these bars will begin to show a higher percentage of green to indicate completion of initiatives and will show the progress for each goal. So, as a reminder, goal A is our livable city is well planned, attractive, and safe. And in this quarterly update, we are highlighting two strategic initiatives, the citywide street sign refresh and park enhancements that have been completed. A reminder of what goal B is. Our connected city is engaged, informed, and technologically current. And goal C is our healthy city government is sustainable and well-run with committed people. And we are

highlighting one initiative for this goal which is the employee newsletter. So strategic plan initiative 23 was the is the um completion of the citywide street sign refresh. And as you can see we've installed created and installed new street name signs throughout the city and with a brand new blue look. We've also completed park park enhancements at various city park facilities. These include the park gazebo repair and replacement project as well as the replacement of the synthetic fields at the lake sports lake forest sports park. Finally, the city also created and launched a monthly electronic lake forest employee newsletter to strengthen employee connection. This shares organizational news, opportunities, and light-hearted personal updates that are distributed to employees via email. The newsletter is also named the the branch to align with the city's new brand, forest theme, and natural imagery central to its identity. This concludes my update tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions at this time. Okay.

Do we have any requests to speak on this? We don't have any public comment for this, Colleagues. I do I do want to say something about the uh the logo. So when uh my academy classmate Jose Wlewa came up and he saw my uh my lapel collar or my pen, he fell in love with it. He said that it was the his words were elegant. So good job to the the people that put this together and I told them I know it looks really good right here. So, um, do I have a this just receiving file? Yes. Okay, that'll just take us to the city manager report. I have nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you. Now, we'll go to council comments. Council member Tedmer.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, in furtherance of the policies we discussed earlier, I will report out that I did attend the quarterly division meeting for the California League of Cities or Cal Cities as they're now known. Uh this was held at the Arctic train station on uh December 18th. Uh there was um the division president uh made some comments. He is the council member David Penalooa from Santa Ana. got some comments from the council member from Anaheim which was the host city and Cal city's president uh Gabe Quinto who's the mayor of Elserto was there and one of the things that there was also a ledge update and one of the things I thought I'd share with my colleagues is they provided the 2026 Cal's priorities for the coming year uh number one protect and enhance local revenues and expand economic development tools to strengthen partnerships with the state to improve public safety. Three, secure investments to prevent and reduce homelessness and increase the supply of affordable housing. And four, strengthen climate change resiliency and disaster preparedness.

Thank you very much. Thank you, council member. You I want to say happy new year to all reds of Lake Forest. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim Zerbo. Thank you. First of all, congratulations on your mayor appointment and the leadership that you're going to show us again here in the city of Lake Forest. I'm encouraged, you know, by that and looking forward to a great year here in 2026, especially banner years for us as a city and also for our nation. So, again, thank you for stepping up and wanting to, you know, serve our uh community in this way. Thank you.

You know, every council meeting pretty much we have the Boy Scouts that come and and do our our pledge and we all have an honor every once in a while to attend what they call an Eagle Court of Honor. So, I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. There's one here in Lake Forest that'll be attending and way for us to maybe encourage our our young people that are scouts and that are doing uh tremendous things within our community. And I want to just make sure that we all encourage our youngsters that are involved in scouts and others who haven't done that to get involved. It's a wonderful program. It provides benefit to the community. It helps mature these young people in a very powerful way. And so reaching the level of eagle is certain. We all know how powerful that is for these young people and as well as we're very proud of them too. So we have an opportunity to to honor them tomorrow night. So I just wanted to mention that. Also just reminder we have a nice community event we call Snowfest this coming Saturday at Pittsford Park. And that's always a really fun time for us to slide down the mountain and there's snowballs that are able to be thrown. And you I know this is really a family event and sometimes you know people actually you know bring their dogs and I was reminded that you know for people who are have have snowmen in their life that a snowman's a dog is actually called the slush puppy. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knew about that. And then secondly if you see any snowmen and you have a bag of carrots you want to make sure you protect that bag because if you have that snowman rustling through that bag of carrots you got to be careful because you'll know that he's picking his nose. All right. Thank you, mayor. I'm a loss for words. All right. So, yeah, I have to follow that. So, back on the 21st of December, I was the keynote speaker at the Longest Night uh candle light visual, which um they me they they uh honor or honor,

they memorialize all the uh homeless people that have died on the streets of Orange County. And there was over 383 uh homeless people that passed away and they asked me to come um and speak or give a a keynote speech and actually Jonathan Bolski because it was in uh San Juan Capistrano he came there and also I'd like to see we have the love lake forest or um um yeah it's the love lake forest thing that we're doing if Anybody has any any person that's uh on a fixed income or that's a little little u up in age that can't do work around their house. Contact the uh