City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the February 3rd, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. Let the record reflect that all council members are present tonight. Votes this evening will be recorded using the city's electronic voting system. Move on to public session. At this time, the city council will convene to consider public matters. If you wish to speak, please fill out a blue speaker card and provide it to the city clerk. If you wish to submit any written materials, please provide those to the city clerk and they will be distributed to the city council. As required by state law, when speaking on an item listed on the agenda tonight, limit your comments to the subject of that 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 respond to questions from the city council, not from public speakers. We will move on to the invocation. Tonight's invocation will be provided by Pastor Aaron Hail from Calvary Chapel Foothill Ranch. Thank you for having me, mayor, council members. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing on tonight's meeting. God, I pray for our city council members that you would give them wisdom, God, that you would equip them in your grace to lead well, God, that you would guide them in their decisions as they weigh the the different matters of our city. And Lord, we do thank you for our city. And we pray God that your hand would be on our our city staff. That you would bless them as they serve Lord. Uh we pray God for our schools, our teachers, the administration, God, that you would bless Lord those places and our

students, God, for our first responders, Lord, police and fire, emergency services that God, you would bless them as they look out for the needs of the citizens of Lake Forest. We pray for your covering again over tonight's meeting, your blessing on this place and again on this city in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

We'll move on to the pledge of allegiance. The pledge of allegiance to the flag of our country we will be led by Daisy Scouts troop 4462. We are Daisy Troop. We're Daisy Troop 4462 and we have kindergarteners. All right, are you guys ready? What do you say? Remember,

begin. I pledge alce 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. All right,

parents. You're welcome to come down and take a photo as well. That takes us to our student liaison report provided by Ethan Barrow, the student liaison from El Toro High The month of January was packed with events as we got back on track with the new year. The school events this month consisted of many sporting events, a pep rally, and a showcase at our school. Our showcase was held in early January right after we got back from winter break and it went very well. Parents were able to see everything that was going on throughout the year so far and the exciting things that were to come as we began the second semester. Our morning news teacher, Mr. Thomas also won the SVUSD teacher of the year for Al Toro, which was an awesome accomplishment and he is more than deserving of this award. As for our pep rally, it was held last Friday for our winter formal, which is themed based on the movie Alice in Wonderland. Everything went really well and it was highlighted by congratulating our cheer team who finished second in CIF and also our winter formal court was announced there as well. As for sports, our boys soccer teams secured the league

championship last night with a six to zero win over San Clemeni High School. They will now go on to CIF and hopefully go far in the playoffs, finishing their season with only two losses. Girls soccer also has a big game tonight as they play Capistrono Valley in hopes of gaining a CIF appearance. Boys basketball finished their season last night with a loss to Lisa Niguel. Finally, girls basketball ended their season with an 18-8 record and a short spot in the CIF playoffs as well. January at El Toro High felt like a real reset, bringing students together through events that were both meaningful and fun. The energy from these activities carried into the rest of the month and reminded everybody how connected the school community really is. Thank you and go Chargers.

Thank you. We'll move on to presentations. Do I have a motion to consider presentation number one? Presentations. Second. All right. We have a motion in a second. Let's vote. Thank you, council members. I think we're having some trouble with our voting system, but that vote does that motion does passes unanimously, 5-0. Okay, madame city clerk, please read the title to item number one. The title to item number one is the 2025 holiday lights competition. Okay, madame city manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, mayor. I'd like to invite our communications and marketing manager, Aaron Rodriguez, up to the podium to introduce this item. Give us a couple minutes. We're having some technical difficulties. Okay. Thank you. All right. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. I'm here tonight to share an overview of the city's annual holiday lights competition and to formally recognize our winner. There we go. Okay, perfect. So, each year the communications and marketing team invites residents to celebrate the holiday season by showcasing their festive home decor. The contest is hosted on the digital platform poll unit, which allows residents to upload photos of their own decorated homes or nominate neighbors who have gone above and beyond with their Christmas displays. In late 2025, the submission period ran from November 24th through December 19th, followed by a public voting period from December 20th through December 28th. To encourage residents to experience the displays in person, we also published a Google map so families could easily visit participating homes throughout the community. To maximize awareness and participation of this program, the contest was promoted across

all of the city's social media platforms. Collectively, these platforms reached more than 74,000 followers and neighbors, helping spread holiday cheer uh citywide and drive engagement with the contest. We were excited to have nine homes participate each year or this year, excuse me. Each offering its own unique style and creativity. Over the next few slides, you'll see a selection of photos highlighting the effort and enthusiasm of our participants. This slide features homes on PO Nagal number one, 19 Court number two, and Johnston Drive number three. each showcasing a different approach to holiday decor. From classic lighting to colorful and playful displays. Here you'll see the displays on Dundy Drive number four, Barton Street number five, and Autumnwood number six, highlighting a mix of bold lighting, traditional elements, and vibrant designs that stood out within their respective neighborhoods. This slide rounds out our entries with homes on Parkwood, number seven, and Cranbrook Drive, number eight. Both offering cohesive and polished holiday presentations that added to the festive feel around the community here in Lake Forest. We also want to give a shout out to number seven's next door neighbor who had a pretty hilarious ditto sign pointing to this house as their own Christmas decor. It was pretty funny. Now, our final slide tonight highlights this year's holiday lights decorating contest winner, Linda McFersonson on Summer Creek. Linda's display stood out for its scale, attention to detail, and overall presentation, creating a festive, and memorable holiday experience for neighbors and visitors alike. With an impressive 148 votes on poll unit, Linda earned the highest vote total in this year's contest and was selected by the people as the community's choice for Lakes Forest 2025 Holiday Lights Champion. Her winning

display was featured across the city's social media platforms, helping share her work with residents throughout the city. Tonight, we are proud to present Lindia with a championship yard sign in recognition of this achievement. At this time, we'd like to invite Linda forward to accept her sign and join the city council for a photo as we celebrate this well-deserved recognition. Thank you, Linda, and to all of our participants for helping make the holiday season in Lake Forest magical. I don't know if it was me or not. New York just for her signs. I want to thank you all for being here and also I want to dedicate uh the North Pole which is right behind us to all the kids and there's a family in the back back there. There's Cooper and Cassidy. They're my quality control. They look and make sure all my lights are on and he's pretty good at that. But thank you again. And I do it all for the kids and they just love it. It's all interactive so it doesn't work unless they turn it on. So that's why they have fun. They stay there like for a half an hour right before they go to bed.

Thank you very much. Madame city clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item? We do have one public commenter and that is Andrew O' Conor. Just a second.

So Aaron stepped in for Jonathan Bol who's been here probably 10 plus years and she's doing it and she is doing a great job. Mr. Okconor. Nice to meet you. Your time is going to start right now.

See how this works, guys. I hate you. Well, what a great award and uh thanks for the spirit. Um, you know, the purpose of getting a certificate is right here in the city's policy. It's right here, black and white, to establish guidelines for the city council's consideration for recognition of indiv individuals. And that happened tonight. Very good. And congratulations. And just coincidentally, guess what we got in the mail this week? The leaflet. The spring 2026. You probably all got it. Open it up and there's our city manager right here, Deborah Rose. Third paragraph and listen what she talks about. Ask Lake Forest. One way residents actively partner with the city is through ask lake forest, our service request and inquiry system. Whether you have a question, knows something that needs attention, or want to report an issue around town, ask like force helps ensure concerns are routed quickly to the appropriate staff member. Residents could submit requests or through the city's free mobile app, which I do quite often, available by searching on the Apple Store and things like that. This simple stool plays an important role in helping us care for our community and keep Lake Forest naturally exceptional. I get it. City, does this have anything to do with the lights?

Yeah, it has to do with presentations. This is a This is about the holiday lights. Yeah, it does. Connect the dots, Mr. Mayor. I will. Okay. So, connect them. This is about holiday lights, not about tickets. Yes, it is. It's got nothing to do with health. Don't deflect. Mayor, give me my three minutes. You're going to get your three minutes, but you got to talk about the item at hand. It is at hand. Nope. Yep. It has to do with this document right here. If you want to deflect it, go ahead. I've already filed a complaint with the uh state attorney against the city attorney today. I'll file one against you. Okay. Now, give me my time back. Look at that. Talk about the holiday lights. That's what this item is. No, it's not. It's about policy.

It's about the holiday lights. That's The title is the 2025 holiday lights competition. It's about policy and you don't want to talk about it because you know you're wrong. And Voit said he was going to give me a certificate in front of Bob Voits and I still haven't gotten it. So what am I going to get? Councilman Voits. Is that another one of your lies we can stack up against you? As you sit there, you want to have a starown. That's okay with me. You said in front of four people you're giving me certificate. Mr. Okconor, that's not the holiday lights. That's not You're not talking about the holiday about policy in this city, mayor. No, this is not about policy. Yes, it is. No, it's not. That was last month. Well, we'll talk about it later. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. But before we go any further, colleagues, we do have a resident that has come to a few council me uh meetings asking to be recognized for the ALF submission. Over the last three years, that resident has submitted 872 ALF tickets. roughly 70% or 610 of them have absolutely no nexus to the city of Lake Forest. It's either both bigoted remarks towards myself or council member Yu or hateful, insulting remarks directed at council members, staff, and consultants. He even talks about council members family members. He has wasted about he has wasted thousands of pay taxpayers dollars due to staff having to read and answer his hateful bigoted ALF submissions. Last month he he posted 17 of them. Two of them were remotely relevant to the city. Although one of the two was a repeat ALF ticket. So I'll give you some examples of the ALF tickets. After the January 6th council meeting when I swore in, he submitted an ALF ticket requesting the names of the people that were on stage when I swore in. There was a nine-year-old little boy on that stage. Why he would want that person's name, I don't know. And what was he going to do with that information? He submitted an ALF ticket last Friday, last Thursday that we saw that was insulting one of the council members that's up here now. And then he brought his wife into the conversation. So those are not h that have nothing to do with the city of Lake Forest. Mr. Deputy City Manager, can you tell me what the ALF system is for? Thank you, mayor. The ALF system is the city's service request system. We get a lot of service uh we get a lot of complaints on this system, potholes, dogs off leash, parking tickets, issues with parking, and then we route that

through uh our departments here at the city and try to respond to those residents if they leave their contact info and follow up on those service requests. Thank you. So, he submitted 17 this this year. 15 of 15 of them or 87% were basically insulting council or stating opinion opinions that could be given at a city council public comment period. Thank you.

We'll move on to public comment. If you would like to make a public comment, 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 comment period. If you leave your contact information, staff may contact you to address issues raised during your comment. When you are called to speak, come to the podium. Your three minutes will begin when the green light is on. The green light will remain for two minutes. When the light changes from green to yellow, speakers will have one minute left to conclude their comments. When the light changes from yellow to red, your time is concluded. Please return to your seat. A timer is not displayed on the screen. Madame clerk, have we received any requests to speak?

Yes, mayor. We have received about 15 general public commenters. Okay. Our first public commenter is Jay Cost.

Welcome. Thank you. Greetings and thank you for letting me speak tonight. Councilman, just FYI, I will be starting this talk, but it will be continued by my friend Mike. I'm here to talk about safety for myself and others in Lake Forest. And since you have heard me speak on this topic before, this time I will be reiterating the comments of your peer group, council members from King County, Washington. Their quotes are taking taken from mynorthwest.com dated January 27th which I have provided for each of you along with the resolution they have passed unanimously to place restrictions and regulations upon DHS and ICE. Here I will quote several of the council members by their initials and may their words resonate more with you than even mine. First council person TM said, "Here in Martin Luther King County, we believe in welcoming our neighbors and keeping families together. We believe in the strength that comes from the deep interconnectedness of our communities. And we know that immigrants make this county stronger. Together, we will continue to uphold the values of MLK County by investing in communities and ensuring that our communities, especially our most vulnerable, can thrive and that they can be safe. The raids are designed to stoke fear. They are designed to ensure that they prey upon the most vulnerable. They are trying to divide communities by scapegoating immigrants. This will not work. And actions like this that I hope will take place across jurisdictions in this country can show that we are pushing back on this abuse of power.

Their second council person RM said, "I co co-sponsor this amendment because a great injustice is being done by our federal government to the American people and our constitutionally guaranteed civil rights. ISIS's presence on American streets is making America less safe. People of color and historically underserved people are overtly and consistently the target of this violent, lethal lawlessness. What's happening in our cities and the streets of our cities is bad for our mental health, is bad for our students, is bad for our communities. Residents of King County should feel safe here. Kids should feel safe going to school and their families should feel safe sending them there. No one should fear their government. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you. Our next public commenter is Mike Davidson.

Hi, I'm continuing the talk uh where Jay left off. The third council person, CB, said, "We're seeing people in some version of uniform going into communities, terrorizing those communities, escalating and creating violent situations where their job should be to do the exact opposite." The fourth council person, JB, said, "Even if that bill doesn't pass, they already have almost twice the amount of money that they had under the standard budget. We're not saying defund ICE completely. We're saying you need to have accountability mechanisms. and their chief legal advisor said, "As King County Chief Legal Adviser, I'm proud that King County is joining governments across the country in challenging the unconstitutional deployment of ICE agents in Minnesota. By using the legal tools available to us to thwart these illegal actions, King County is taking steps to not only protect the people of Minnesota, but also safeguard our own community. If someone commits a crime and a case can be proven beyond reasonable doubt, they should expect to see a courtroom. Our laws apply whether you are civilian or if you're part of the local, state, or federal law enforcement. and ICE agents are no exception. I ask you, do you feel you are or we are above and beyond the reach of DHS and ICE and should and should ignore what is currently happening all around us? Or do you feel we are not only owe it to our neighbors

and cities but are also obligated to our country to pass similar resolutions as I provided to you from King County. Adjust it as you may. We look forward to hearing your response and we pray similar action. In closing, we'd like to give a moment of silence in memory of Renee Good and since our last meeting to Alex Pretty Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Amy Stevens. Mayor Council, um I will be, excuse me, I will be starting the reading of the aforementioned um resolution and me along with my community member supporters hope that you consider similar language for a future meeting. I'll start with the title and then um start with the whereases a motion related to current federal immigration enforcement practices and directing the clerk of the council to send a copy of this motion to the members of Washington's congressional delegation representing King County. Whereas the Trump administration's assault on communities in the name of immigration enforcement is eroding our constitutional rights and endangering residents. And whereas immigration authorities are using increasingly dangerous tactics such as engaging in unprovoked violence, pointing guns at civilians and deploying chemical weapons. And whereas in multiple cities, agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, and US Customs and Border Protection, have been violently arresting civilians, including US citizens, and deployed chemical weapons without warning in residential areas, harming school children, and even local law enforcement. And whereas from September 2025 through January 2026, immigration agents have shot 12 individuals, including three who died as a result. Sario Viegas Gonzalez, a father of two in Chicago. Renee Good, a US citizen and mother of three in Minneapolis, and Alex Prey, a US citizen and federal employee who served as an intensive care nurse for the US Department of Veteran Affairs, also in Minneapolis.

And whereas conditions in immigration detention facilities are rapidly deteriorating with facilities dangerously overcrowded and detained individuals and advocates reporting medical neglect, substandard food, inadequate access to clean water, and overuse of solitary confinement. Excuse me. And whereas about 90% of people being detained are in for-profit facilities which have a long record of cutting corners on essential services to reap profits. And whereas since President Trump took office on January 20th, 2025, an unprecedented 37 people have died in the custody of ICE, including several deaths that may have been preventable. And whereas the federal immigration system is a civil system, not a criminal system, and immigration detention is intended to be non-punitive, as stated on ISIS's own website. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Cooper M.

I will be continuing the motion um started by Amy. Now therefore be it moved by the council of King County A. The council calls on the United States Congress to ensure any funding bill for the US Department of Homeland Security includes meaningful and significant guard rails to reign in the agency and how it operates in communities. B. The council expresses support for the following guard rails to be included in a funding bill for DHS. One, end border patrol deployment to cities across the country. Two, ensure independent investigations into lawlessness and violence perpetrated by immigration agents and meaningful consequences for agents engaging in unprovoked violence and violations of individuals constitutional rights. Three, require DHS to obtain a warrant from an immigration judge to arrest individuals. DHS should not arrest individuals unless such individuals are entering or attempting to enter the United States in violation of immigration laws or if officers or employees have probable cause to believe the individual is in violation of US immigration laws and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for such individuals arrest. Four, banan enforcement actions at sensitive locations such as schools, medical or mental health care facilities, child care facilities, places of worship, courouses, shelters, and food banks. Five, prohibit immigration enforcement operations involving mass immigration agents. Six, pro um six, prohibit immigration agents from racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling. Seven, no funding to arrest or detain US citizens when conducting immigration enforcement. Eight, require individuals engaging in immigration enforcement operations to wear and turn on bodywn cameras.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Janet Segner. In continuation, prohibit DHS from entering into new 287G agreements or any agreements that require them to hold immigrants in corrections facilities for DHS. Terminate contracts for private for-profit immigration detention prisons. No funding for detention facilities found by an independent body to have conditions that threaten the health, safety, or due process rights of detained people. guaranteed access to counsel, legal orientation programs, and bond hearings for detained individuals. Restore full staffing and funding of oversight bodies including the office of civil rights and civil liberties, the office of the immigration detention ombbudsman, the office of the citizenship and immigration services ombbudzman and the office of detention oversight to provide robust oversight over all DHS facilities used to detain individuals, including to conduct death reviews, annual facility inspections, and additional facility inspections as necessary. Restore transparency in the immigration detention system, including public reporting on youth detention facilities, statistics on vulnerable populations in detention, and monthly bond statistics, meaningful cooperation and communication on immigration and detention casework requests from congressional offices, including ensuring con constituent access to law libraries and forms, facilitation of waiverss for detained people, and timely responses to inquiries and compliance with congressional oversight, including ensuring access and inspection of any DHS location used for detention, promptly responding to oversight

letters, timely reporting, and meeting with members of Congress on agency matters. The clerk of the council is directed to send a copy of this motion to each member of Washington's congressional delegation. Kings County Council, King County, Washington. End of motion. Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Olivia Bane.

Thank you, council members, for allowing this opportunity to voice our views on this issue. I'm speaking in support of the previous speakers. I could tell you about how as a teacher I've seen some of my students just stop showing up or how their parents are afraid to come to meetings. Or I could tell you about how my neighbor was nervous when her lawful permanent resident husband traveled abroad that he might have issues coming back into the country, issues he never had before, but that we keep hearing about in the news. Or we could focus on the economics of the issue. A recent UCI working paper led by Professor William Lester, associate professor of urban planning and public policy found that Orange County businesses lost nearly 59 million dollars in economic output over the eight weeks following intensified federal immigration enforcement in Orange County. The survey, which was the basis for the study, gathered responses from over 375 Orange County business owners uh between September and October of 2025, which paint a stark picture of our economy under strain. The survey included responses from all cities in Orange County, including Lake Forest, with representation across diverse industries, including retail, professional services, banking, hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing. The respondent pool included 81% small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, which closely matches the business demographics that we see here in Orange County. According to Professor Lester, we are finding a clear negative impact on econ uh neighborhood economics. From our preliminary results, Orange County has lost 58.9 million over just an 8-week period following the May 2025 ICE rates. That translates to 4.5 million less in sales tax revenues for our local governments. When you combine that with the uncertainty created by tariff policies, many businesses are facing an economic crisis that they say is worse than what they experienced during the CO9 pandemic. Indeed, one retail business owner in Orange County echoed the sentiment in the survey, "I had to close. This is worse than CO when at least there were some stimulus

programs. These decisions are going to be the end of small businesses like mine that source ethically and pay labor fairly." Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Frank Denny.

My name is Frank Denny and I'm the president of the Normanddale Homeowners Association. Like to thank the city council for the opportunity to to address the conditions of our neighborhood streets. The condition of Regency between Normandale and Lake Forest has has deteriorated as a result of shortcuts since the inception of that uh particular roadway. The volume of traffic has increased significantly since our tracks were established. Regency needs a complete resurface. I grew up in Michigan and Regency compares to many of the streets after a hard winter there. I have sent photos under ask lake forest which I think is a great venue. Thank you very much for that and I ask that the public works thoroughly examine the condition of Regency. In addition, city fiber has totally changed the look of our neighborhood streets. Only covering the trenches with a layer of asphalt has left our streets looking extremely bad. This will negatively impact the appearance of our neighborhoods and potentially impact the value of our homes. The repair process is totally unacceptable. I also request that public works department review the future schedule for street surfacing in the Normandale residential street area. I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Andrew O' Conor. Thanks, Reed.

So, I just like to uh remind our mayor this is the organization chart. It's kind of hard to see, but the residents are at the top. And thank you very much for the data and um all those things. And I won't spend a lot of time on it, but let me preface it this way. Mayor, city council, city manager, city attorney, all you guys, all of those were directed to you. And guess what? Not one of you ever answered to me by email, phone, at a meeting here. Not one of you. None of you've had the courage to do it. Chickens, chickens, chickens. Why not? So, at the last meeting, Councilman Voit said, "I never sued the city." I never sued the city. Really, Miss Councilman Voice? It's right here electronically filed on January 29th, 2019. Ste Scott Voits individually Stephan Stephanie Voits individually plant versus city of Lake Forest a government does one through 100 inclusion inclusive defendants right here folks there's a lawsuit for 550,000. He said he never filed and then he filed up again later with a second one. Do you remember these now? Councilman Voits, do you want to come back on that and say you never filed a lawsuit? How about that? Or you just going to sit there and deny it? As far as safety in the city, January 24th, 2026, city news service,

two men sentenced to life in prison for attack tied to MS13 gang that killed a man and wounded in his girlfriend Lake Forest in a jacuzzi at Forestland Apartments at the corner of El Toro in Toronto. Right there, folks, that's what's going on. You want you want these kind of people in our community? MS13. Well, they're here. Never killed the guy. They probably decapitated him with a sword. And then you know what? That's District Five. Our retired deputy, Mr. Pano, taking care of things. Good job there, deputy. Mr. Mr. Pano. So, we got a lying councilman who sued us and and he su he ran unopposed last time. Mr. Serbo, Mr. Pano ran unopposed. They collected zero dollar. Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Brian McMillan. Hi. Hate to break the mood here. Uh my name is Brian McMillan. I'm a small business advocate in Orange County. I'm I'm here to help tonight. Uh I'm I'm going to show how the city of Lake Forest is encouraging illegal businesses. Let me explain. Because the city is not following its own procedures in reading the city of illegal businesses. The owners of these businesses realize they don't need to leave. I have two of them in my in in one of my properties. They just stay there, pay their rent, and nobody is going to do anything about it. By the way, y'all can ignore me if you want, but you can't unhear me and unsee me. So, I'm here to give notice, okay? The city can ask the police to remove them. The city can uh to try to bully landlords, but again, there's nothing anyone landlord can do to rid the city of this scourge. The responsibility of removing illegal businesses lies on one person and one person alone in the city of Lake Forest. This is the first six titles of the Lake Forest Code. I'm happy to give you a copy of it if you like. Um, and I've actually read much of this. I don't think the city attorney has read much of it. And I I I can tell you why. Let's step through it. Anyone violating municipal code is guilty of a misdemeanor and any violation of municipal code is

also designated as a public nuisance. Whenever the director of community development reasonably believes a public nuisance exists, he or she may commence abatement proceedings. The director shall have responsibility for abating such nuisances on any property. Right out of the book here, title 6403 and and 010. The person solely responsible for closing down illegal businesses is anyone. Your director of community development, Miss Gail Ari. I'll bet if you ask her, she won't even know that that's part of her job. I think all I think you all should tell the city the city manager to tell Miss Arian to do her job. She's paid enough to do it. I think she ought to be doing it. She's the person who is responsible for abading public nuisances which are illegal businesses. Why are you guys spending so much time and money uh trying to fix a problem that doesn't that shouldn't exist? I know you all have reasons, many of them noble. I'll cover those reasons on my next visit to this podium. Each one of you have your own businesses uh your own uh

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Mark Hermanson.

Good morning, council. Um, actually tonight I wanted to make a comment about a person who's usually here and this is the first meeting he missed that I've seen and that would be Commissioner Patel. He's on our parking commission. That man is at every single thing whether it's a skate park, city council or anything. And people out here that have not introduced themselves to him, I believe he lives in Councilman Tettoire's district. and when you turn out, if that man decides to run for council, I'll have a sign on the side of my truck supporting him. So, if anybody meets him, you should uh recognize him. Next thing I'd like to say is I asked uh spoke up about decorum at the last meeting and I think most of the residents of Lake Forest did themselves proud and even though they had a lot of passion I think they spoke in a respectful manner and Councilman Tedmire gave a master class on how to speak and have people pay attention. It is great to have watchd dogs in the community watching everything. But I will say a lot of times we need a Labrador. We don't need a pitbull for everything. And when you have Chihuahua yapping and making a lot of noise, no one is listening and the people at home are getting nothing out of it. And I brought that up because it was brought to my attention that our previous mayor, I spoke in a less respectful tone a few times. Doesn't mean I was wrong, but I did not hold to my own standard. And the way I addressed our city manager was less than respectful. Tonight, we have a student sitting out here, and I wasn't going to say this, but I am. Mr. O' Conor's actions and his behavior at this podium disgusted me. That that whole chicken thing was disgusting. Not sticking to the topic at hand is disgusting. I don't agree with a lot of the people

that are making comments here tonight. I am an immigrant. I came here. I served this country. But when there is a moment of silence, you sit down and you keep your mouth shut and you show respect. You don't need to be smartmouthed about it. You need to respect other people's first amendment rights and you need to respect the people in front of you. And as a reminder, it is not Peno. It is Mayor Peno. It is Councilman Tadimire, Councilman Voit, Councilman Sro, and Councilman U. And again, please stop this behavior at the council. It does no one any good. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commentary is Sean Fletcher.

Good day, city council members, those present, as well as those watching from home. I'm Sean Fletcher, a 23-y year resident. Looking back at the last meeting, I have to admit I have not seen a turnout opposing city count city council businesses like that for some time, pretty much since the height of the Jim Gardner and Adam Nick debacle. We've had a diverse gathering, including bringing in Lissa Clark out of retirement, although she still presents herself as leading the Hamilton recall despite evidence, including email records and direct testimony, that she was merely a figurehead. The only person that was noticeably absent from that group was Andy Oconor's forger video buddy. So now we have four council members who will be termed out during the next district elections. We have three council members who spoke out in favor of wasting city dollars to go against the will of the voters and extending term limits to three terms. We had one council member who can only provide anal evidence of whatever service he's provided on council and that had to do with something with a deer. We had one council member who dished out a hefty slice of humble pie and reminded all of us that while some of your contributions to the city have been commendable, you were not indispensable for the running and well-being of our city. Interesting enough, we had one member who remained silent during this whole process who most likely read the room and did not want to add to his already negative resume for his re-election campaign. Civic letters who are civic leaders who are turned out typically go in two different directions. One, they pour themselves into their city leadership and do all they can with the time they have left to create a legacy of positive contributions to the community. Two, they can take what I call the Eric Hartman approach, yelling out, "Scare you guys, I'm going home," and do either nothing or try to burn the place down. I encourage you to do the former and discourage your fellow council members from doing the latter unless you want them to tarnish your legacy. Now, if you're not familiar with John Maxwell, he is a famous author and orator who has written over a hundred books primarily focused on leadership, personal growth,

and mentorship. He reminds leaders that before you are a leader, success is all about growth yourself, growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. You are not indispensable to our city's ability to function well. By all means, I encourage you to figure out a way that you can still be an asset to our community after your term expires and mentor others to serve in our city's leadership. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Reed Buck.

Good evening, Mayor Peno, Mayor Prom Serbo, city council members, staff. I'm going a little bit off book here. don't have too much besides notes written down and also wanted to take a little bit of a refreshing tactic I hope for y'all which is um mentioning things I'm grateful for and I'm proud of especially after last meeting I feel it's important to make sure that you understand that I am not your enemy much as you might think I am um so here are some things I'm grateful for grateful for all five of you voting down term extensions for yourselves it shows a lot of necessary restraint even if you were the ones who brought it up in the first place I am grateful of not living in Rancho San Margarita where the mayor in a previous city council meeting gave his full throat of support of ICE and then cancelled the following city council meeting so that way he wouldn't have to face the backlash which will be coming for him anyways. I'm proud of Lake Forest schools where students have joined with schools across Orange County and walked out in protest of ICE occupation across our cities. And I'm proud of my fellow citizens here who have stood in requesting that you make a statement and adopt resolutions in the same lines as King County City Council. I'd like to ask that you please do the same and with haste. The most recent time human beings were kidnapped from Lake Forest was in December in case you didn't know. I'd also like to finish just by stating that uh something that I I feel is is obvious but I think maybe needs to be restated especially in the context of decorum and respect in this area. The good things you've done for this city do not eclipse the bad and vice versa. Sometimes when we speak to you, your responses are adequate and good. Providing data, context, arguments, like I might say what what Councilman Serbo did last time, given the opportunity to share your perspective. I think that's powerful and good to hear, even if I personally disagree with those arguments. But sometimes it seems like your reactions range everywhere from defensiveness to entitled a grandisement, as though we're doing some

disservice by speaking our minds to you. And I find that bizarre. I know it cannot be pleasant getting talked down to by a bunch of people every month, people who may not know what you're doing behind closed doors to help the keep the city running, but like it is not our job to coddle you or to hedge our emotions when we feel passionate about a decision you've made. I will come up here and share when I think you've done something well, as I'm doing right now. But it's not my job to make you feel good about yourselves. It's actually reverse. So do more things that make us feel good and excited to come up here and thank you for things. Otherwise, don't expect us to hedge our emotions. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Mara Greenwald.

Good evening. Um I've never done this before, but here it goes. Um, I'd like to give a shout out and appreciation to the students at El Turo High School who joined the planned walk out last Friday, June 30th to peace peacefully protest against the brutality of ICE and it was a peaceful protest. I'm a little surprised our leaison didn't mention this in his uh report. I'm so proud to have witnessed the courage of these students exercising the right to free speech against this current administration policies and therefore standing up for the rule of law in the constitution. They were speaking out against the racial profiling of their family or friends or themselves or all of the above. These are our future voters who see with their own eyes what is really happening not what this administration's want want all of us to believe. Come November some of these students will be voting for the first time. This gives me hope for our future and holding on to um our de democracy. Thank you.

Thanks for your comments. And our last public commenter is Bob Holtzclaw.

Bob Holskco, resident of the Lake Forest. Uh uh on a different little topic. Uh I was at Verizon, the uh computer company, right? uh next to Ralph on El Toro Road and a bus stop. Uh I heard a loud yelling and screaming and whatever out there by the bus stop and I said, "Well, I just left the Verizon." So I walked up to the corner and there's a guy there wrapped up in blankets uh yelling at some guy waiting for the bus. And I thought, you know, what's going on? The guy, you know, didn't say anything to him. he just kind of moved away and you know and left the area. But the guy I I don't know what he wasn't speaking in any language. He was just yelling and something about you know I hate you and whatever. And uh so the last next time I went down there, he's still there and I think he's he's found a home, you know, at our Lake Forest built uh bus stop. And I hope that someone uh from the city or our our uh police can nudge this person out. I know sometimes you feel like, you know, they're honored guest or something, but uh let's treat him like a resident. Tell him to get up, get out of there. Uh, I mean, you know, these are taxpayers waiting for a bus and this guy is telling everybody to to yell and screaming like I they're worried about him getting up out of the darn blankets. So, maybe we can do something about that. Uh, I sure hope so. It's in, you know, district five. That's our mayor's district. Uh, and he's been there ever since. So, anyhow, another subject, uh, this new fouryear, threeyear term thing. Uh,

let's think it over really good. I'm getting so many emails from the public. This time, you know, let's let's stop this uh go back to where we were before because you putting this forward is like people are hating this whole thing. I mean, they voted 82%. Don't do it again. That right now the logo is 85 and no. So, let's think about it. Plus, for those people that were uh attacked in that church in Minnesota, uh let's have a little uh quiet session for them. They broke into that church and interrupted a church service. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

All right. So, our actual last commenter is Ethan Burrow. I didn't plan on coming up here again tonight, but I did want to address what the comment was just made about me about the mentioning of the protests last week. I'm not up here to support or defend ICE, and I'm not going to condemn them either. I have zero opinion because I'm not able to vote and I don't feel it is right for me to go make an opinion to people who are able to vote. But I did not mention this protest because there's two sides to every story. One side of the story is people out there protesting and expressing their first amendment right to protest. The other side of the story is people who did not go out there. I myself did not attend that protest because I had to test the next period which I was not going to miss because it was a class that is a very difficult class for me to do. I was then met with racist comments, hate comments, and even death threats. Other people were also met with those death threats and were not allowed to attend a school on Monday or Tuesday today. This protest and all of his good for people to go out there and show their support for something they truly believe in also has repercussions and this was one of them. I'm not going to stand up here either and say that I'm not going to mention anything political or anything that will affect people in other way. I'm sorry. I don't have I don't have a um a script, but basically my whole point of this was I didn't feel it was right to mention something like that because I feel getting death threats from either side of any party is not right at all, especially for um high school students. And I just feel like this is something that is totally irrelevant to my topic and what I was assigned to when I decided to join ASB to do this, which was to present the events happening at our school, which

related to our school and was fully supported by our school. I'm not saying our school doesn't support this, but it wasn't our school affiliated. So, it wasn't something I decided to include. And it's not an attack on the person who mentioned this either. I am I'm happy that she came up here and spoke, but I'm also going to address this topic because I feel like it was something that needed to be addressed and people needed to realize cuz I'm by far the youngest speaker in here. And obviously sometimes people can feel disconnected when they're much older and don't really know what's happening at this high school. My family immigrated here from Italy and to be met with comments such as being called a white supremacist and a racist and people telling my friends to stop being friends with me just because I didn't attend a protest because I had a test the next period. It's very difficult. So, I'm sorry that I had to come up here, but I really needed to say this.

Thank you for your comments. That's it, Mayor. Okay, before we move on, Mr. city attorney. I've been hearing some rumblings that and the speaker before Ethan brought up something about term limits. At the last meeting, we squashed any conversation of this going any further. Am I right? Uh yes. Thank you, mayor. That is correct. Okay. I because I've I've heard it a couple of times in the last week and a half that we're moving forward somehow behind the scenes that we're doing something What we did at the last meeting stopped all conversation.

That's correct. Unless my voice is a little bit Well, let me let me make it easy. Unless unless the council takes affirmative action on the dis. It cannot move forward with anything like was agendaized last Tuesday and that was quashed last Tuesday. Okay. So, nothing's happening in June. That's correct.

Okay. just making sure because like I said, I I've I've I've heard it just now. I I don't know what he was talking about. Uh kind of like I know we didn't talk about going any further and most of the people in the room were here last time or last two weeks ago when we said no. So, somebody is still running that that. But my thing is if if you're listening to that person and you believe them, what did you learn? So, next we'll move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendars are considered routine and will be re will be enacted by one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the council or staff request specific items to be removed from the consent calendars for separate action. Have there been any requests to remove any item from the consent calendar?

We do have requests to speak on item number three and five. Three and five. Okay. Okay. And I'll I'll uh entertain. I'll rem I'll I'll make a motion we um move forward with all the remaining. I will second that. Okay. Let's vote. We do need one more vote. Thank you very much. And that motion passes unanimously. And the title of item number three that we have public comment on, I forgot.

It's okay. Um, the title of item number three that we have public comment on is the minutes of the regular meeting of the city council held on January 20, 2026. And that public commenter is Andrew O' Conor. I can't wait to go home tonight and review the mayor's data on how many numbers he talked about that I submitted. And I'll preface to say once again, none of you guys have ever returned an email or call me about it. But now I'm talking about at the last council meeting where Councilman Serbo Aspen Plaza is ready for groundbreaking. Well, mayor, I hate to tell you, no, it's not. But you have a lot of experience compared to what what Councilman Serbo said, and you should know. Let me bring you up to date. It ain't going to be started till 2027, okay? And that's per national core. So, it ain't ready for groundbreaking. So, Councilman Services says, "What's a track record for this? What's the motivation for this?" Truth is, tenure and vitality are important. Next, he introduced Councilman Tener, who is a board member for OCFA and OCTA. And I've come to this podium many times and I've talked about what's the status to the I5 and he could never give an answer. And he still hasn't give us an answer. But his his boss Daryl Johnson, chief executive officer on October 6, 2025, put this memo out and Council Tenbury never told us about it, but OCTA's

thrown up their hands. They're no longer the lead agency. They've passed it over to CALR, but Mr. Tedmer, who's our councilman and gets a stipen to be on the board. He never said that to us about it. Why is that, Councilman? Why don't you tell us about that? You going to leave us in the dark? Okay. He's a big board member on the OCFA and uh the ex chief is saying we need helicopters. Where's Councilman's on that? You've been on a councilman community when we had the fire in Santiago 2007. What have you done since you've been on the council,

Mr. Tatrimer? Have you done anything any fire might have? You think it's funny, Peno? No, I think it's funny you're not talking about the the consent item from last last meeting.

Well, it does because he was talking about how great everybody is. He's saying, "Oh, Tedimemer is this and we need Tedimemer to be on the OCTA board. We need Tedimemer to be on the OCFA board because he's so great." Really? We had a fire 18 years ago and you haven't done anything. You haven't done anything for fire mitigation up in Whiting Ranch. Nothing. But you said last month, "Yeah, I'm going to work on it with 11 months left." See, can you don't get the big picture? You didn't see what I said in the beginning that Councilman Services says we need to extend li.

Thank you for your comments. Mayor, would you like to vote on this item or would you like to move on to the uh Well, he's got a second one. He does. Yeah. All right. So, the next item that we have a comment on is item number five, which is the Lake Forest Sports Park and Neighborhood Park Unarmed Security Guard Services. And that is Andrew Oconor.

Mr. Okconor. Excuse me. Would you like to make your public comment?

Yeah. Second. I got lung fibrosis, so I need a little extra help. I have you should respect me because I follow under Americans with Disabilities Act. You try to pressure me to go up time in violation of ADA. We start.

Even with lung fibrosis, I keep challenging you guys. Think it's funny. Okay, so this whole thing of security guard services. Try to follow along here, man. I mean, I'm going to go over numbers. It might be hard. and numbers seem to go right over your head. But if I go back to um March 2025, almost 10 months ago, we had a contract with C with California Panther Securities for $213,000. Okay. Now, same scope of work. You've opened up with line security for double double $500,000. Okay, mayor. It went from 213 to$500,000. And by the way, folks, when they entered into this agreement with Panther Security, they told us, "Hey, we're going to have this security around the city." Guess what? They never worked. We never had security. They were never there. How do I know? I checked the uh payments going out. We never paid these guys. So they lied to us. They lied and said we're going to have the security service. We never had it. So for over a year, over 15 months, we haven't had the security. Now they want to they want lions and they doubled it to 500,000. Read this scope of work. Read this scope of work. It's the same. Actually, I think it's got it's reduced and they only concentrate in one section of the town, District Five. They don't come up to Norththeast East part of the community, Mr. Serbo. I don't see them coming up to Concourse Park. I don't see them coming up to

Upper Burggo Park that's been vandalized three times at probably $15,000 a pop. They're either at Heroes or at the sports park. We're paying $500,000 for that. That's the best we can do. It's ridiculous. Mr. Tener look like falling asleep over there. But this is what we get, folks. You know, you put this out. You want to have more explanation than three minutes. But they don't have courage to continue the conversation. They don't have courage to meet you in this beautiful council office up here to continue it. They want three minutes. Thank you for your comments and sit down. They don't have courage to go over this and say, "Hey, I think there's a problem here because you guys think you know it all, but the problem is you overspend the money." I just can't believe how one scope of work was 213 and now it's 500,000. Okay, we can't do it in three minutes. Let's meet in the council.

Thank you for your comments. Thank you. So, Mr. Deputy City Manager, I know that uh all of a sudden I guess the sports park is in district five, which is in I think it's in district your district. District. District two. District three. Oh, well, yeah, it's not my district, but anyway, one of the parks is Mountain View Park, right? That that's there. Is there a way that we can add Veterans Park to their uh their route? We have a mechanism in place to adjust the scope of work in the event there's issues with vandalism or vagrancy at other parks in the city.

Okay. Um All right. Well, that's all I have. I'll take a I'll take a motion move. All right. And the motion to move those two items passes unanimously. Thank you. So now we'll move on to discussion items. Madame city clerk, can you please read the title to item number seven? Yes. Title of item number seven is the approval of Kavanaaugh park concept plan. Madam City Manager, can you please introduce the item?

Thank you, mayor. We will have our deputy city manager, Shawn McGovern, give an overview of the Kavanaaugh park concept plan.

Good evening, mayor and members of the council. I'm here to provide an intro to the Kavanaaugh park concept plan. We had some questions from council over the last few weeks about grading the hill and some of the project cost. So, I will respond to those questions here in these slides. After that, Brian Avalos of David Fos, who's our who was the developer of this concept plan, will walk us through the specifics of the plan. First, I'd like to do a quick tour of the layout of this park site. It's a 7 and a half acre site situated between the I5 freeway and Gaudy Avenue. It's about a half mile long, mostly open space grass. There's a playground and a basketball court on the southern portion of this park site. And then up on the north side, there's this bulb section. That's the only open space flat land at this site and unfortunately we've been dealing with a lot of security issues at this site that are relative to the physical layout of this park property. So I want to walk through that tonight. Next slide, Keith. Okay. So if you're standing at the south end of the parkside and looking north, here's what you would see. uh you would see the halfcourt basketball court and the small playground behind the tree there. There's also a burm to the left of the basketball court that is situated between the basketball court and the freeway wall. Next, if you were to continue to walk north at this site, you would see uh just kind of vast open grass land for about a quarter mile. And this stretch of land is about 90 ft wide. Next, eventually you would come upon the hill that's on the northern section of this park that has a retaining wall going through the middle of it. Next, this hill is about 20 to 25 ft tall in some spots. And it creates a big hiding spot behind where that hill is and the start of the freeway wall. And we'll talk a little bit more about how that contributes to the security issues at this site next.

And this is if you were standing at the north end of this parkside and looking south, here is what you would see. Uh again, the bulb area is over there on the left and you can see the hill is to the left of the freeway wall in this picture. Next, please. So, little bit of history about this park site. We did outreach back in 2006 and residents at that time told us that they preferred the undeveloped uh feel of of this park. They wanted the park to remain open space and just a large grass field. So back in 2008 when we did upgrades to this park, we only left a a small playground, which you see in this photo here, and a halfcourt basketball court next. But as time went on, over the next few decades, security issues started to emerge at this site. lots of vandalism, graffiti, vagrancy, uh some of the externalities that we often associate with homelessness, open alcohol, containers, drug paraphernalia, lots of that kind of stuff going on at all the hiding spots at this park. Next, please. Here is again, here's that burm that's situated between the the halfcourt basketball court and the south end of the park site property. Now, this burm is only about three three and a half ft tall, but it but it provides just enough space for somebody to be able to kneel down and hide and and tag that wall there. So, next, it gets worse as you approach the north end of this park site where the hill is larger. Again, it's about 20 to 25 ft tall and there's a lot of graffiti constantly. Um, what what is there now is basically a quilt of coverup paint. Next, please. And the paint is so thick in some areas that it's not even sticking to itself anymore. It's uh it's um not a not a pretty sight. Next slide. So in 2023, we conducted an outreach project with the neighborhood improvement task force and found that

sentiment has shifted dramatically since 2006. Residents want to eliminate hiding spots in this park that seem to perpetuate the security issues on site and they want amenities that create positive foot traffic in this area again to make it less accommodative for somebody to hide and commit vandalism. And if you had a chance to read through the written staff report for this item, it did touch on septed. That's crime prevention through environmental a design which emphasizes eliminating hide hiding spots uh and creating a clear a clear sight line so that uh we're a able to see all of the activity that happens at this site and it's and it's less accommodative of somebody that would want to go there and do something illegal like tag a wall uh or vandalize the playground. Next slide please. So, in response to what we heard with the outreach in 2023, we were able to do a handful of site improvements to again try to eliminate some of these hiding spots. Back in 2023, there were some thick hedges that were in front of the basketball court and in front of the playground. And we were able to take those down and kind of open up this area. We're also able to trim some of the plantings on the burm that's in front of the freeway wall. And as a result of that, we have less vandalism in this area of the park. So we have a good experience with this sept approach and this is emblematic of that. Next slide please Keith. We also had a private property owner at the dead end on Bridger Road. So this is the culde-sac that sits adjacent to the halfcourt basketball court. Back in 2023 at the picture on the top of this slide, they had these just kind of loose trash cans there. And we had vandals that would come in and dig everything out of these trash cans looking for cans and trash would just be left there. It would blow throughout this park. There was lots of graffiti and tagging at this

site. And code enforcement actually worked with this property owner to make improvements to this property. And the property owner built a locking dumpster enclosure. Now has trash cans with locking lids. There's a security camera. It's hard to see in this photo. They have a flood light there. Um really did a lot um small things that put up a big defense for this part of the property and we have less vandalism there as a result. Next slide please, Keith. So what else is happening with this project? So in 2030 to 2032, we think that's when the I5 El Toro interchange project is going to start. As a result of that project, the I-5 on-ramp is going to intrude north a bit, and that's going to take out the existing basketball court, the existing playground, and um a small sliver of land on the southern section of the park site. Next slide, Keith. You can see here the orange section kind of in the bottom right there is a zoomed in aspect of the the orange section is where the freeway on-ramp is going to be post 2032 and that's going right through the middle of the basketball court and the playground area. So that's going to have to come out and the yellow section is where the temporary construction easement is going to be and that's all going to have to move to uh as they as they commence with the construction project uh for the I5. Next slide please. So in light of these in so in light of the security situation at this site and the loss of amenities due to the I5 project, we hired David Volos back in May of 2025 and had and had great turnout with the outreach process because we wanted to see what residents preferred. Now we conducted a extensive on online survey and had two in-person outreach meetings that were pretty well attended. There's a photo

there of the second outreach meeting. Next slide. So, what what are the takeaways from that is that virtually all those residents surveyed said that they think the park is undeveloped and lacks of and lacks amenities that are attractive for them to go there. They would like a bigger playground and they're interested in lighting. And even the adults are interested in using this park via a exercise trail. About half of the residents said that the reason they don't come to this park is because of the security issues. So we presented this plan to the community services commission in December of last year and it was received favorably. Next slide, please. We also looked at playground access citywide. So these green blobs represent parks with a quarter mile radius around them that have a 5 to 12y old playground. Access is pretty good in the foothill area and center of town. As you can see, there's a lot of green there, but things start to get more sparse in the kind of southwest area, and I have it highlighted in red on this slide. So, we think adding a 5 to 12 year old playground, adding a larger playground as opposed to what's there now would help kind of uh shore up or uh plug that gap that we have in the city now. And with that, I'm going to invite Brian Avalos of David Volos to come up and then he's going to walk us through some of the some of the specifics of the concept plan.

And thank you for having me tonight, uh, council members. And so I'd like to walk you like, uh, our our deputy city manager gave us a good walkthrough, so I'll try not to repeat as much information as he gave. Uh, but we did start with the community outreach results. Uh that's um you know our our our most our most important um part of of this design process is listening to the community and having their opinions, their insights and uh what they feel and and where they live. uh we started on September 6th uh 2025 and uh we had an in-person outreach and then we also had a digital outreach and both gave us a a result that was very similar in how they felt and so we summarized that at the bottom with the community's top priorities uh a playground relocation to maximize visibility and safety. They did express size in the the type of play. Uh they expressed a lot of intergenerational a uh activities as well as uh multi-uses for for a playground, not just post and play. Uh an enhanced playground with various place features like I just mentioned, an upgraded basketball court. Uh consistent and bright lighting for safety. Uh like our deputy city manager uh mentioned, safety was the number one priority and safety was the number one uh reason these people were showing up to express their opinions. uh we needed to prioritize safety by removing the burm. The burm is the main culprit uh behind the safety issues at this park. Um and it contributes a lot to um the misuse of this park as well as the crime that is going on. Uh and so we needed to tackle that as the main culprit for a design that would really enhance uh what is already existing. uh multipuse path around the park and areas for fitness equipment throughout the park as well as additional seen around the park. This was our first concept uh that we established. We we wanted to make sure

that the residents felt heard with a large established playground that would focus on a 5 to 12 area as well as a 2 to five. Um, we wanted to make sure we had uh ample seating for parents to be able to watch multiple children of different age ranges from a central location. Uh, when we're splitting the uses for safety of each age group, uh, we wanted to also preserve a lot of the green space um that, uh, residents expressed that they like. They wanted to keep some of the the grass and the open space. We just wanted to make sure that it was usable. Um, further along in the slides, we'll prove how a lot of the green space that was already existing was actually uh nonfunctional turf. And of course, we wanted to have the uh different types of paths for uh exercise activities throughout a linear park. We really wanted to enhance what we were given. Uh the footprint is a linear park, so we wanted to make sure and uh captivate and capitalize on what were uh given in the design already. And that's by using multiple paths and having it uh traverse through the entire length of the park. So this is what we presented to the sec second community outreach. It was very wellreceived. We got a lot of compliments, a lot of feedback of uh how they felt heard. Uh there were post-it notes uh emphasizing uh how they had been heard and the features that they loved about the park. And so we just want to focus on a couple of the things that they highlighted. This was done October 29th, 2025. And I think this is important to know as our design um develops, it really is through the community input and the residents that live there. Uh the participants expressed that they would like a half uh half basketball court added to the site. we had originally taken out because um of issues and we wanted to prioritize exercise paths, but they did express that there were a lot of people, especially families that showed up at

that uh second community outreach that expressed uh um a real fondness to the to that basketball court. So, we wanted to make sure we added it back in. Uh they shared that fitness area should be smaller in scale and distributed along the trail even farther. So, we listened to that. And then participants indicated that the playground should include monkey bar swings, rope climbs, and slides, which we already had and they liked that. They emphasized the need for improved wheelchair and stroller access throughout the spy uh the site the space. Um and uh we did that as well as participants approved a playground layout and the different paths were well received by the community. This is the existing park conditions and like our deputy city manager already mentioned it contributes and we do have a quilt of of paint and graffiti that overlays the entire wall and this is the existing burm. So as of right now it's 600 uh 68,000 square ft of total area that this burm is taking up. It's the biggest contributor to nonfunctional turf in our in this park and the community expressed the burm to feel unsafe. uh it contributes to hygiene spaces and it's approximately about 1 million that we estimate for removal and export of this. This is the in existing conditions as of right now in terms of usable area before improvements. The park has a total nonfunctional area of 194,000 square ft which accounts for 80% of the park per AB572. Uh the total functional area is only 41,000 square feet uh square feet representing uh 20% of the park. With these impos proposed improvements, our usable area would grow significantly. The planting and bio retention areas that we would need for water mitigation uh and overall aesthetic would uh would

be totaled for 98,000 square ft accounting about 25% of non-functional area for the for the park. After the improvements, the total functional area of the park would grow to 243,000 square ft, representing 75% of the park. So these improvements would really flip the numbers of what's existing right now. So again, 80% unusable area and 20% is usable as of right now. 25 with these proposed improvements would be unusable and 75% uh so we would gain over 200,000 square feet of park space and the removal of the existing burm adds over 4.6 6 usable acres within the existing footprint right now for around $2 million. Um I believe we can't find 4.6 usable acres anywhere else. And so we have this right now existing. Um it's just that the burm is a contributor to not being usable as of right now. This is our uh after the feedback and after our second community outreach, our proposed layout. Uh again, we added back a half basketball court. We pushed all of the improvements off of the I-5 freeway where we would only have grass and just concrete paths that we could easily uh reestablish. Uh but our main amenities like the fitness, the basketball court, the playground would all be safe uh including the trees as well. So here are some key elements and this is first the playground right a large centralized playground area separated zones for 2 to 5 and 5 to 12 resilient rubber play surfacing multiple climbing structures with a variety of play and intergenerational activities a picnic shel shelter and table surrounding the playground uh and of course shade over

the playground and these were the community's top priorities in in the playground Uh these are the fitness areas and these fitness areas are spread all throughout the linear park. So small fit smaller fitness areas spread throughout the park. They provide play sports fitness opportunities for all ages. We have a fitness rig, a track fit equipment, climbing elements that are all accessible, monkey bars and climbers, and of course the basketball half court that the community was very happy to see back. Uh, open lawn areas are kept throughout the park. Uh they're distributed throughout the park designed to encourage flexible multi-purpose use, less formal activities, obviously open space for visibility and safety, which was a child priority in designing the space and picnic tables with open lawn. Uh we will have to do water mitigation and we work closely with uh the city staff and city engineerings. Uh so we will need bio swailes for water detention features throughout the park and capture we're uh to capture storm water to reduce flooding and improve water quality. Uh we do have accessible parking provided throughout the park and improved access into the park along the entirety of the park which was important. A lot of this especially because of the burm was not walkable so you couldn't really get from one end to the other unless you were really close to the curb and street. uh stabilized, decomposed, graned and paved exercise paths. Again, this was a key priority for for the for the residents and so path run throughout the entire park that encourage fitness paths located adjacent to path walkways and fitness areas. This is our probable uh estimate of probable construction costs. As you see, we have a breakdown for uh each of the amenities, but at at the bottom, you'll

see a construction budget estimate of around $10.8 million. Of course, before I go back to the concept, I do want to say that though that is taken in consideration for installation and and commercial rated pro uh equipment that is meant for parks and uh usage uh approved by uh our cityorns. And then this is our our final layout which we incorporated all the features that we had just talked about.

Okay. Thanks. And I could um uh I'm going to move on and talk a little bit about the budget for this for this project. And uh the original budget for this project was $250,000 for final design and $1 million for construction. Now, that was based on 2006 area or 2006 era neighborhood sentiment who wanted to keep the park as open space. A million dollars is basically just a playground upgrade and some maintenance upgrades to this park. So, again, sentiment has changed from 2006 to 2026. Next slide, please. staff is proposing a phased approach to this project and this ensures that we don't build anything that could be impacted by the I-5 on-ramp expansion and these are just rough numbers here but phase one which would happen prior to the I-5 on-ramp uh project starting is we would grade the big hill, we'd install the new playground and we'd install the new basketball court. Again, those are just things that we're going to lose anyways as a result of the I-5 project. And that accounts for about $7 million. Again, these are rough numbers. And phase two, so we would come back to the project after 2032, 2033 when the I-5 project is done. And that's when we would revisit the idea of the multi-use trail with lighting and the exercise stations. So, next step or slide. So, so staff is asking for city council approval on the concept plan tonight. Now, the concept plan will be used to provide direction to the final design consultant that will be procured by public works. And when public works brings that contract back to the council later this spring, that's when the council will need to commit funds for this project. So, there's no financial commitment tonight. That'll be at the subsequent city council meeting when the final documents come back uh or the um the the final contract for the

final design consultant. Next slide, please. And this is just staff's recommendation pull from the staff report. So the receive and file this approve the proposed plan for Kavanaaugh Park and direct staff to proceed with a phased approach to this park to again kind of spread those costs out over time and make sure we're not building anything that's going to be impacted by the freeway ramp expansion. I'm available for questions and so is Brian Avo from DVD. Okay, before we do that, before I bring it to my colleagues, uh madam city clerk, do we have any comments? Uh we do speakers.

We do have two speakers. Uh, our first public commenter is Andrew Okconor. I'll try and talk slow, Mayor, but can you because I guess when I talk fast, it goes over your head and it you don't understand what I'm saying. But I mean, how can you go ahead with this project with the I5 project looming over you? You don't even know what I what they've decided. Okay. So, until that's decided, I don't think you can go forward. Um, so you got a slope and to call Cavanaaugh Park is kind of misleading because it's just a wide band that goes along parallels the freeway and the street and it's a slope. So, I mean, if you go out there and you want to kick a soccer ball with your friend, Mr. Servo, I know you're a big soccer fan. How do you do that when it slopes down and then when it slopes down, it slopes onto the street? Okay. So, all this park you're talking about and removing the burm, have you addressed on how where it ends there at the sidewalk and you got a street there with cars. I mean, I've never seen a park in our community that close to a busy street that's not even being addressed. Okay. So, you're going to have I guess you feel you're going to have more children there, more adults, but look at the proximity to the street. I don't see any safety features for that. Okay, that hasn't been well thought out. And what are the demographics of the neighborhood? You know, this is one of the older neighborhoods in the community. Do you guys know what the demographics are? I see that slideshow and for that part of the community, I didn't see a whole lot of people on the meeting there. Mr. are govern you know to to be making a thing. So have you

collected any data sir as far as how many homes are there how many children things like that has that been collected while you're shaking your head but certainly hasn't been shared to me a taxpayer I would certainly like to see that and existing B you know I don't know then I look at the price $15.8 8 million for this project. I I'm sorry. 10.8 almost 11 million. What What are we paying for the intersection at Bay Irvine Tribco? Less than three million. You're telling me we're paying 11 million to move dirt? And I as a simple question for the park bench. A steel park bench costs $3,000. I think these costs are out of line. And I think they got to be looked at a lot closer. And I want you to stop this and look at it more detailed. And just to approve and go forward is ridiculous. But you know, you're the city council. It's your decision. I've tried to stop you before. I stopped you from spending $60,000 on here putting in a carpet. I hope you slow this down. You haven't thought this through. And until you know what the I5 is going to be, you can't go forward.

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commenter is Mark Hermanson.

Council, when I first immigrated here, I lived mostly in the south. Uh when I finally in high school went to my first public high school, the track that we had to run on was gravel. I'm talking actual crushed up rock. As a sophomore, I ran a 2 minute and 22nd half mile. And then we went over to where the other kids lived and they had one of those tracks that was that rubbery asphalt stuff and I ran a 154 as a sophomore. To give you an idea, the world records around 136 to 140. You would have think I would have had my choice of schools for scholarships, but when you added up all my times at my school, there was nothing coming my way. The reason being, we were the white trash redneck Missouri hooers who lived on the wrong sides of the track. Now I live in Councilman Sebro's district. We got pickle ball courts. I mean, God, do we have pickle ball courts? We have b We have everything up there. We got ladies walking around in $150 yoga pants with little dogs and sweaters and lattes. Before that, I lived in Councilman Teter's district. One of the reasons we moved there was the park that was close by because we had young kids at the time. Now, I think those ladies only had $90 yoga pants, but you know, same kind of thing. We're still a little bougie. Recently, I went down and I looked at Kavanaaugh Park and I will agree with Mr. Okconor. How do we call that a park? What we have given those kids is disgusting. We're telling these kids, "This is all you are worth." I don't know what the cost should be. I don't know if those are good costs, bad costs. That is not in my area. What I will say is we need to do better. When you have good parks, people take care of their homes. When they take care of their homes, families move in. When families move in, businesses clean up, they look better. It benefits us all. Now, I have no skin in the game for that park. I live six miles away. I don't

have a dog with a sweater to walk, and I'll tell you, I don't look good in yoga pants, so you won't be seeing that. But I do care that our kids have something that encourages them. So, I'm asking you, Councilman Sbro, as you represent me, please help get this park done. Councilman Tedmire, Councilman Voitz, I believe you guys are terming out, but again, this is our city. These kids deserve better than a blue light special playground from uh Kmart. Council mean you I always get the districts mixed up, but again, I hope you support this park. Um, I'm not as liberal as some of the people here, but I do care that our kids have something to go and do and not be on computers and sitting in the house all day. So, whatever you need to do, please get it done. Of course, look at the costs. Look at what we're doing. That's just a smart move. But let's get these kids something that encourages them that they should be happy to be proud residents of Lake For.

Thank you for your comments. Our next public commentary is Sean Fletcher.

I would first just like to reiterate what the uh prior speaker said. Yes, our student our I'm a teacher. I'm very very much involved with my students and kids need some place to play and the uh I'm also for the last two plus years I've been a a volunteer at volunteer in the park program where what we do is go out and we look at our city parks and re uh report on it. Also for the last almost 5 years I've been working with Clean Lake Forest and we actually switched from major intersections to focusing on our city parks and making sure they get clean. Um, I believe this is the pretty much the only major park in our city that has received almost no love in the years that we've been a me uh we've been a city. Uh, unfortunately, I know for me and a lot of the members of our city, we do see that district 5 does not get the love that let's say the eastern side of the city past Tribuko does. And it's about time that we get something there for them. Uh I would actually ask also that if we're going to uh spend this kind of money on that park, I think we need to start looking at redevelopment of that little uh shopping center over there by uh where the Comic Quest used to be and all because that is an eyesore. I mean keep keep the nursery because that is the legacy of our city, but that whole shopping center needs to be renovated, especially if it's so close to the kind of project that we're going to be putting here. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. That's it, mayor. Okay, colleagues.

Thank you, mayor. I want to thank um the concept. Great job. Um and I agree with the speakers. Um this park has been overlooked for years. Um this area um does need um a place for the kids to get out and play. And when you look at the area map of where the circles in the green were um this this specific area um did need some um areas for kids to get out and play. I I like um I like the concept that you know it's a long narrow park. So the fact is that you know you're not going to have your soccer fields like me or council or mayor prom servo would like. But the fact is you can have a place where kids can get out and play. The fact is there was room enough to where kids can go out and pass the ball around, play some football. Um, my question was in the Red Robin um culde-sac, is there access to the park on that from that street

there? There's a there's a gate. Would that be Go ahead. Yes, there would be an access from Red Red Robin. So, there's a gate presently now, the mayor just told me. Would that be just an open? Would the gate not be there present any longer? We we would renovate it and add design to that, too. Um there's some grade in there that we'd have to fix, but yeah, we would want to uh make sure that it's an entrance into the park. And do due to my wheelchair is not four-wheel drive, I couldn't get over the hump or the hill uh the the brim. Is there access to the other side of the freeway somewhere through there? To the other side of the Is there is there a wash that goes under the freeway? Currently, yes. Yes, there is.

Yes. Uh I believe is it was in one of the slides there were uh there was an image of it with the red graffiti. Uh that's an access for water that they're um that people are using for for access uh under the freeway. And I I like the way that we're looking at possibly the twophase system because the south end towards the um the dumpsters that we're looking at by the the the landmark that we have in Green Thumb Nursery. Um it is um that's the south and that's where the entrance for the five freeway may be coming into. So the fact is but there's plenty of other areas to where I think we should start as soon as possible to try to get this up and going because it actually does bring um the the youth out. It brings families in. I think it would be great. I love I love what it's doing. Um thank you so much for putting the time in it. I'm glad that the the neighbors participated and and getting out and letting you know some things, but um it's an area that's well overdue for an upgrade. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. I really appreciate the two presentations here tonight. and long before I was ever elected to council serving in the AYSLO role is that this legacy of how the city does things. I want to give that positive perspective in terms of how capital improvement projects evolve. We get great community involvement. I can remember sitting at the city and we put out the little pieces where the baseball field and the soccer places were going to go at the sports field and how that evolved into something that the citizens and the residents really want. So, I'm really happy to see that legacy, that tradition, that protocol continue because that's really important. Our citizens get what they are asking for, not what we're putting on them. So, I want to make sure everybody understands that that's the way that the city operates and that's something that should be applauded and appreciated. Thank you,

council member. You Thank you, mayor. uh having the privilege to representing district 2 with many good parks. I was shocked we have this park being overlooking for years and thanks so much for the staff diligent works and uh I would like to make motion to move forward. Okay. Um I'll I'll hold that motion till uh council member Tedmer says something.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I think we're going to get updated information, updated costs and whatnot. And I know one thing that I shared with the U city staff, but the 10.9 is what's sometimes referred to as hard dollars. What we don't see are the soft dollars. So there's design, there's construction management, there's some other contingency. There's some other things that number is going to go up just so we all are prepared when we see it later on. It's going to be going up. Um and um I also do like the the phasing approach. I would say that the current basketball court I I don't I would say that would be one of the last things I would do in terms of removal to keep that there while they build all the other stuff. It's going to be addressed in the phasing piece, but I think it just makes sense to keep that part that there's no point in taking out that basketball court until we have something else up and and running at the other end. Um the discussion about the usable and unusable 25% I is that the non-turfed area is the 25% now.

It's the AB572 uh uh stating uh nonfunctional turf. So there's turf now. It's just because of the slope um because of the unevenness. It's it's nonfunctional. Uh there can't be any accessibility to it. And uh there's no way to for simple terms to play with the ball, right? But if it's technically nonfunctional turf, then it needs to go. Correct. I mean, that's that's what this that's what the push was to say. If it's nonfunctional, whoever is the arbiter of that, it needs to go away. So, it needs to be replaced with something else, drought tolerant landscaping or whatever it might be. Correct.

So, that's what I was trying to say. are the areas where I see trees that don't have grass. Is that's the 25% that's oh of the park right right now. Uh it would yes it would account for some of that and then some of the flatter areas in the middle where um before the burn starts there's a few areas that are open lawn um that can be considered functional turf as right now. Okay. And then I noticed in the um input we received from the community they were wanting lighting. Correct. I know there's lighting that's ballard lighting which is more knee high probably along the trail. Was that what they were wanting or they wanting something that's higher that casts light more broadly?

I think they wanted a a mix. Um I I think it's part of our role as the designers to kind of in the next phase be able to implement with a phototric study. Um but I I know that it wasn't just highlighting and it wasn't just baller lighting. uh residents did express a uh for a mix of both. Okay. Yeah, I I I'm in support of of the project. I do like the phasing to um to reflect certainly the anticipation of the I-5 project. Um I don't think this project needs to wait for the I5 to be resolved. We understand where that impact is. Oh, I'm sorry.

Um yes, I just wanted to interject on the I-5 project. So currently there are two alternatives being um evaluated and so the project will either be alternative A or alternative B. The difference between the two alternatives all happens on the other side of the freeway and outside of this area. The area to be impacted at this park is the same for both alternatives. So that picture that Sean showed, that is where the park will be impacted, the permanent impact and then the temporary construction easement. It's not different. So we do have a good idea of what's going to happen on this side of the freeway at this portion of the park.

So Jim, if I may, that the the Bridger Circle is where the the on-ramp will be impacting. So that's currently where the playground equipment is. Correct. And it's the same in both scenarios. that you got anything else? So, I I just want to say so I'm I'm I'm glad that we're going to recognize that the I-5 project is going to have an impact, but it should not we should not wait for the I-5 to resolve itself. Thank you for the clarification just to say that this is the impact under any alternative. Um and so therefore, the the vast majority of this project happens outside of that area and can proceed. So, those was my comments. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

I'll second it.

Well, I I've got some some some comments. And so, back in 2022 when I was the mayor, I asked assemblywoman Diane Dixon to meet me there with one of her staffers. She got to the park. She saw the slide and her jaw hit the ground and she said, "I would love to give you money, but as my colleagues know, when you ask senators, Congress members, state senators or state assembly members, they ask you one important question. Is this shovel ready?" So, in 2022, it was not shovel ready, so no money came our way. Um, but I do want to say that back in in December, myself, council member Tedimemer, the city manager, and Nidia went to Washington DC to get some appropriations requests and um I went to a ribbon cutting on Friday and I spoke to one of the state senators people and they indicated that they had an appropriation request given by one of our lobbyist. So if you can expound on what uh the conversation with lobbyists both here and in DC that were that that's doing really good work for us.

Yes. So our federal lobbyists um which is um through BBK they are currently talking following up to some of the meetings we had in Washington DC and so far it appears that um two one senator office and then our congressperson Kim is very interested in this project. So, we're talking to them further and then we have submitted this through our state lobbyists Gonzalez and Suns um with um state senator Chow and our state and our assembly person Dixon to get into the queue to be competing for these. And so the lobbyists are the ones that know the system for who needs to see your application when they need to see it and so forth. And so that's moving forward. So the closer we are to having plans in place, the better we're able to compete.

Thank you. So we've got a motion and a second. I'll entertain the vote. Thank you, council members. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. So, um, we'll move on to item number eight. Madame city clerk, please read the title of item number eight.

The title of item number eight is an ordinance making various updates to the Lake Forest Municipal Code. Madam City Manager, please introduce this item. Thank you, mayor. Um, tonight we will have our assistant to the city manager, Nidia Castellino, provide a report on our municipal code updates.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. Tonight, I'll have a brief presentation on the proposed municipal code updates before you tonight. City staff periodically brings um proposed updates to the municipal code with a purpose of ensuring consistency with any changes in state law and to improve clarity and administration of city regulations. The first proposed change to the municipal code before you tonight is the adoption of the new logo while preserving the classic no logo for official use. And this would be the clarification in the code would distinguish between the city logo and the existing classic logo as well as the city seal that the city clerk uses to attest to documents in an official fashion. So you can see the three representations here on this slide. The second change before you tonight is a change to or an update to sidewalk bending regulations to ensure compliance with Senate Bill 635. And this would remove uh primarily provisions that are not compliant with this new state law um which call for eliminating background checks as requirements or and uh criminal history review as requirements for sidewalk vending permits and also call for limiting the display of vendor personal information. These changes would also maintain the city's ability to regulate sidewalk vending through generally applicable public health and safety standards. While SB 635 calls for changes in sidewalk vending permits, commercial vending permits may still have uh may still require background checks. The changes proposed in the in this update would just clarify these the requirements and make sure

that the language is still consistent with recent municipal code updates. Okay. Next we have changes to uh property maintenance um regulations. These are technical and clarifying updates. There are no new regulations and the purpose of the these updates are to enhance the organization readability and clarity of these regulations and the these would also ensure uh that this section of the municipal code is consistent with any other sections of the municipal code. Next, we have the first change to entitle 8, which is a clerical correction to a previous ordinance that adopted the 2025 California Building Standards Code. And this just corrects an error in which a section was duplicated under an incorrect heading. The second change in title 8 is also a clerical correction to a previous ordinance that adopted the local responsibility area fire hazard severity zone map. Um and this corrects an error in which um a reserve chapter in the municipal code was overwritten and adds the chapter ensuring the adopted map is reinstated and and consistent with previous city council action. The last change before you tonight um is an update to fire fireworks regulations. The current municipal code effectively prohibits fireworks but does not explicitly state that prohibition. So the proposed changes would establish a a clear citywide prohibition and this would include safe and sane fireworks. The only exceptions would be as permitted in the municipal code.

This concludes my presentation tonight. Before you is an ordinance um that you may introduce for first reading as recommended by staff. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Before we do that, uh madam city clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item? We do have one public comment and that is Andrew O' Conor.

Okay. Stop the world. I want to get off. So, we're going to spend $500,000 with a security um company to patrol at night. But right here, SB635. The genius is up in Sacramento saying, "No, you can't do any background checks on those people. They're probably pedophiles or felons. Sure, he can set up a car right there. We're not going to do anything with that. Seriously, we're going to back down to that crap. What's our lobbyist doing up there? City manager Joe Gonzalez. Did he do anything on this? I mean, read this. This is ridiculous. Expressly prohibits cities from requiring background checks is a condition of use issuing a sidewalk vending permit and maintains that all background checks associated with the side be destroyed by Mars to noise. Mayor P, you're a sworn deputy. How do you feel about that? This is ridiculous that they're saying that these criminals can go out there on our street and do things. Are you are you satisfied with that? You're gonna pass this tonight. You're okay with this. You're not gonna pull this out and say this is ridiculous. The other thing regarding the fire hazard and talking about fireworks, you know, last year, July 4th, the El Toro Post Office was a was a was a launching pad was a launching pad for fireworks. and resident RJ reached out to you and says, "What the hell's going on here?" from 9:00 p.m. to 2 am

and no response from OCSD. You have the, you know, you're so proud of the V Mountain View building across the street. That thing almost went up in flames as well as all the, you know, shady apartments along there in Packer Street and you didn't do anything about it. So, what's the plans this year? you're gonna let the post office be a launching pan again? And as far as you know, you threw a dig at me tonight about all these things I said and all that. And I said, "Well, you know what, guys? Yeah, I did all that, but you never answered back to you." And that resident from D5, Mr. R.J. sent you a pretty nice email recently. And shame on you, mayor. You never answered him. You didn't answer the email. You didn't pick up the phone. You didn't do anything. Shame on you. He congratulated you. You know, there's been times you and him didn't agree. But I tell you what, mayor, you can say what you want about me tonight. You can give all the data and all that, but shame on you. The resident RJ and D5 sent you a glowing report, email thanking you. And what did you do? Nothing. So folks, when I say and he says I sent a lot of them, you're right because none of them will answer back to him.

Thank you for your comments. So st colleagues, so I do have a couple of questions um for the Mr. City Attorney for the fireworks. When I was reading through this, it didn't give me a a crime classification. Was it infraction, misdemeanor, felony? I know it's not a felony, but what crime classification? It's a misdemeanor.

It's a misdemeanor. And uh I did have a quick conversation with the chief before the meeting and I asked him that uh if he could a couple of days before the 4th of July and a couple of days after um if he could increase patrols in problem areas and uh he said well I don't I can see to that but I know uh my co my vice uh my vice president my mayor prom and I are on the ad hoc uh public safety ad hoc. And so when we do meet, we're going to make that request uh that they do that and that we seek prosecution on those. And hopefully what we'll also do as a city is put the warning out. Hey, we're we're done with this. So, um yeah, that's all I have. Go ahead.

Thank you. also want to ask our city attorney and I know we've had a discussion outside of of this meeting, but could you just elaborate a little bit since there's not a specific dollar amount penalty associated with this violation, can you tell us how that works in terms of the municipal code in terms of fines?

Sure. A u a violation of the code can be um effectuated in one of two ways. It can be prosecuted criminally or uh via code enforcement. it's criminal, it's a misdemeanor that goes through the DA or through prosecution. Otherwise, it's a a code violation with the citation of a graduated fine. It starts at 100, it ends at $500. Um, and so there's a um a process with citation uh with fines associated. Again, maxing out at $500 for any code violation.

Okay. Thank you. So, we've already got something on the books to address some kind of punitive measure to hopefully uh not have people participate in that. And then the difficulty with fireworks also come to learn is that you have to catch people with the fireworks in hand. So, it it makes it somewhat difficult. And to Mayor I mean Mayor Penaniel's point, you know, having law enforcement to maybe target some some of the hotter areas, the ones we know this happens on a regular basis, then hopefully that will dissuade people from doing something. So dangerous. Thank you. Right. So I'll entertain a uh motion. Move approval. Second.

All right. Let's vote. And that motion passes. V zero with council member Voits absent. Thank you. We'll move on to the city manager report. I have nothing further this evening. Thank you. We'll move to council comments. Council member Tedmer. Oh,

thank you very much. Uh, so I attended the city's new business reception, which it seemed like was well attended and always nice to roll out the red carpet for new businesses. I also wanted to give for my colleagues in the community uh a portion of a statement issued by the interim fire chief at OCFA. He said the Orange County Fire Authority added two new thousandgalon dropping Firehawks in 2024, giving the agency a four aircraft fleet that can be bolstered by additional aircraft upon request. These assets combined with the operational excellence of our air operations section, firefighters and hand crews provide a high quality response that keeps our communities well protected during wildfires. To expand on the notion of the additional aircraft upon request, there has been some press uh about uh a contract that OCFA had lapsed. They could not convene a board meeting to resolve that issue. That said, that aircraft is still in the area. It is not gone. It's still available to be requested. So, those helicopters are still around. Um, in furtherance of this conversation, at the last board meeting, I asked to agendaize a conversation to work with um the board and staff to put together what I'll call for tonight an air operations master plan. What do we need to be doing? What do we need to have? And I say that in the context of two of the other other helicopters I mentioned, the Firehawks. The other two called Bell 412s. They're getting toward the end of their life. They're thought to be maybe two, three, four years out. And so now is the time to lean into saying we've had a shift and now is the opportunity to see what our air operation program should look like and now is the time to lean into doing master plan to

understand what that is. So, um, that'll be part of a conversation in an upcoming board meeting, but I want to share with the community and my colleagues that, um, uh, the chief believes we are in a good place and, uh, we will look to improve it through our master plan. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council member. You I have nothing further. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Serbo,

thank you. Uh, confirming we have a career fair on Thursday. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you. So for those peaks people may be looking for a new employment or changing a job, we uh offer that opportunity for people to come here on campus. So information on our website to be able to take care of that and offer that to you as well. I want to also just offer really quickly that this is a business meeting. We set it up in a in a protocol and a and a procedural way that has information that we're sharing with the public. We're also receiving information from the public. And I got to say tonight that I really appreciate the comments, the people that are here still after making their comments earlier tonight. And this is an opportunity for us to understand what the concerns are of our residents and whether we agree or not with those kind of situations. We appreciate having the dialogue in a civil manner that's respectable with decorum. And that's something that we don't always see from people who come to the, you know, the podium, the the ones that are exaggerating things or misinformation or being disrespectful or rude or insinuating things that are just flatout not true. So I would caution people if you're listening to somebody and say, "Yeah, why aren't they responding to that? Why aren't they, you know, taking, you know, aside on that and arguing and having a conversation?" That is not what this forum is. It's a business meeting. And that's why we ask people to fill out the blue card so we can respond to items that warrant a response. If people are going to be negative and rude and insinuate and disrespectful, in my mind, that doesn't doesn't respect what we're doing up here and it doesn't warrant a response. So for those people are saying we're not responding, that's not true. The people who do things in a civil manner, we are responding to them. We are taking care of those issues with them either in calls or in email. So, I just wanted to make sure people kind of understand that. And then on the consent calendar, for example, there's been some

comments about how come you guys aren't talking about those things. Well, these are kind of typical things as a course of business, our audience members, our staff, our council members, all of us can pull those items just like they did tonight. So, we can have a discussion and talk about what uh on on that we need to look at again in more depth. Okay. I want to give a nice shout out to Aaron in in our marketing department. If you haven't seen the Flash videos that they're producing that gives great information about updates the coming month in a very creative, humorous, entertaining way, you got to go to our website and making sure you get on that distribution list because it is very good, well done uh information for residents to get a quick look in a way that's really fun to enjoy. So, the Flash, look at that. Okay. And then let's see. last uh you know I was at the Barrett Jackson auto auction last week and it was for business and for those of you that are car nuts and really have an appreciation for cars they had all sorts of theirs and they had actually a couple of Deloreans and of course we remember in Back to the Future you know the Delorean was there and I was thinking you know what if I bought one of those problem I'd only be able to use it from time to time. Thank you, mayor. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Prom. So, I attended the new business reception. Uh, it was it was a well well um well attended. Um, I also went to the skate park renovation skate park renovation meeting where I filmed uh the my mayor's minute for tomorrow. And when you do watch it, just know no mayors were hurt in the making of that film. Uh I went to the coffee chat for the chamber at the uh El Poo Loco on El Toro Road. Um I

attended the one-year anniversary for floor Amore and last night our C class started up. They had 46 people sign up which is Yeah, it's amazing. It's awesome. And um I actually worked a point in time count last week. showed up for a three o'clock um meeting and we should get the results sometime in the early summer. And I I was going to make this a um today a little bit of a cl or education on how this how the council meeting works. My colleague did a good job. But if you want to know how the council meeting work or how the city works, in August we'll have a citizens academy. I highly encourage you to go to that so you can understand when we say something or we do something when somebody says, "Well, you don't answer us." Well, there's a reason like my my colleague was saying that that and it's it's eight weeks long. It's one Wednesday for eight straight weeks. I I I I really really really think you should um attend that, especially if you plan on being a commissioner or a council member one day. that information will come help you when you're sitting up here. Uh other than that, that's all I have and uh meeting is ajourned.