City Council - Special Meeting

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I'd like to call the May 21st, 2026 special city council meeting to order. Let the record reflect that all council members are present with the exception of council member of whites tonight. Votes this evening will be recorded using the city's electronic voting system. We'll move on to closed session public comment. Madam clerk, have we received any requests to speak during closed comment?

We have not mayor.

Thank you. We will now recess to closed session.

Thank you.

Hey, how come in some city council meetings, the council will report on what they did at a conference? Is there a 1234 requirement? The city pays for your transportation.

Do they always do it or not?

They're supposed to.

They can just during council comments be like, I went to this conference and it was good.

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. They will be distributed to the city council. As required by state law, when speaking on an item listed on the agenda, limit your comments to the subject of 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 will not respond to any questions from the city council, not from speakers. We will now move on to the invocation. The invocation tonight will be provided by Michael Hong of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints.

Our dear, kind, gracious Heavenly Father, we come before Thee with gratitude in our hearts. We're grateful for this wonderful city, and we're grateful for all those who serve and dedicate their lives to improving this wonderful city that we live in. Lord, we ask, we're thankful for for the police officers and the firefighters who dedicate their lives to making this city better. Lord, we ask thee to bless the leaders here that they may have wisdom, patience, and clarity as they make decisions during this meeting today. Lord, We ask Thee to bless us that we may have a spirit of unity and collaboration as residents. Lord, we ask Thee that our hearts may be opened as we listen to each other, and that we may speak respectfully as we talk to each other. Lord, we ask thee to look over us all, that we may always be safe, and please bless us that we may always be looking for opportunities to help each other. Lord, we love thee and we ask for these things. In the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you. The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country will be led by Mayor Pro Tem Serbo.

Thank you, Mayor. As we prepare for celebrating our nation's 250th birthday, it's my honor as a patriot who loves this country to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. If you're able, please stand and place your right hand over your heart and repeat after me.

Thank you Thank you Now we'll move on to the closed session report. Mr. City attorney. Are there any reportable items from closed session?

Yes. Thank you mayor There is no action report this evening

Thank you. And are there any public comments, Madam City Clerk?

There are none for closed session.

Okay, thank you.

Mayor, if I could please, I'd like to open tonight with some comments on my own. Over the last few months, People across the United States and our local communities have been dealing with the issue of e-bikes. We've had passionate people come and share their experiences. A lot of us have had this same type of experience with kids that are out of control. And we know that there are good kids riding e-bikes and following the laws. And we have others that are just simply defiant. And we've had in our own community a tragic death with Ed Ashman. uh... because of people violating the laws We've been looking at this for a while, and myself and the mayor, we serve on the ad hoc committee for public safety. It's one of the landmarks of this city that we pride ourselves. This is something that's very concerning. It's the most important thing on my agenda right now, so I wanna let everybody know that we are going to be taking steps. We're gonna be looking at this harder. The situation is, you look at, here's the problem. What's the solution that's appropriate? Some people would say, well, we should just go ahead and ban e-bikes for kids under 16 altogether. Others say, well, this will all work itself out. These are just kids being kids. Neither one of those is right. So we need to figure out, if we've got different things already in place, what kinds of actions can the city do to help mitigate this issue? Enforcement is a difficult aspect when it comes to e-bike safety. And I'd like to start, first of all, by asking our Madam City Manager, can you and maybe our city attorney just, again, summarize what do we have on the books for ordinances that are in place for public states related to e-bikes, please?

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Just very briefly, on the books, the regulations are found in Chapter 12, or 12.24 of our code. It governs vehicles and safety, and there are extensive regulations regarding the riding of bicycles and e-bikes on streets, sidewalks, also in parks. These include speed limits, but they also include kind of broad discretion given to the police in terms of enforcement. I think the two most important aspects of the ordinance give the police discretion in that they say that you cannot operate an e-bike unsafely or in any way that endangers the safety of anybody else. So with that kind of discretion, it basically eliminates speed limits and gives the officer the discretion to see the operation of the e-bike, whether it's one mile per hour or 10. And if it's being operated recklessly, they can ticket or even go further. So we do have those regulations in place. They were adopted maybe a year and a half ago via an ordinance update.

Okay, I'm also going to ask Captain Pulse if you wouldn't come to the podium please. I wanted to also let people know from the Orange County Sheriff Department in terms of the latest couple of weeks we've had some incidences that have resulted in violence at the sports park. associated with some different things there are some things that happening but I want the public to be aware of that we are addressing this we're not turning a blind eye until we're not sticking our head in the sand this is something that's a serious matter and if you could please maybe just summarize some of the the recent actions that we're taking from your perspective yes good evening mayor members of City Council we have specific e-bike enforcement scheduled out for the next couple weeks

specifically to address one of the main calls for service and meeting areas we have for youth on e-bikes, and that's the sports park in Pittsburgh Park. This is outside of our normal police services staffing, so we're doing this through overtime, through extra effort, so it takes extra bodies, which provides limitations, but we are accomplishing that at least through the next month. In addition to that, THE SOUTHEAST OPERATIONS DIVISION, WHICH INCLUDES MISSION VIEJO, RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, UNINCORPORATED, WHICH IS AREAS LIKE LADERA RANCH AND LAKE FOREST. WE'RE PULLING OUR RESOURCES TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY SO WE HAVE MORE STAFFING TO GO TO NOT ONLY THE AREAS WHERE THEY CONGREGATE WITHIN OUR OWN CITY, BUT ONCE WE HAVE ENGAGEMENT WITH THEM AND DISPERSE, WE CAN ACTUALLY continue that enforcement into the other cities since we're all connected by trails and roads and shopping centers that they frequent.

Okay, thank you. I think the message we also want to make sure we emphasize here is that the parents are the key to this. They need to know where their youngsters are going, what they're doing, making sure that they're purchasing bicycles or e-bikes that are appropriate for the use that they're intended and we're just seeing a lot of defiance in this and unfortunately the consequences are going to have to start being applied as best we can. So enforcement again is the big challenge for Captain Pulse and the Sheriff Department but by the same token we're imploring our parents to take an active role in making sure that your youngsters are known where they're going, what they're doing and making sure that we're advocating for BEING WITHIN THE ORDINANCES AND THE LAWS THAT WE HAVE HERE IN THE CITY FOR EVERYONE'S SAFETY SO WE DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER ISSUES. SO THANK YOU, CAPTAIN PULSE. I'LL RETURN THE FLOOR BACK TO THE MAYOR. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, CAPTAIN. IT'S A GOOD THING BRIAN'S HERE TO SEE YOU DO GOOD WORK. SO WE'LL MOVE ON TO PRESENTATIONS. DO I HAVE A MOTION TO CONSIDER APPROVING THE PRESENTATIONS THREE AND FOUR? SECOND. ALL RIGHT. LET'S VOTE.

And that motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Voigt absent.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, please read the title to item number one.

The title of item number three is the recognition of Lake Forest businesses that completed the SBDC Main Street Digital Training and Grant Program round two.

Thank you. Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to have our management assistant, Ian McKeever, come up to the podium to provide a presentation on those businesses who completed the program.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council. Tonight, city staff would like to recognize the grant awardees for the second round of the Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center, or SBDC's, Main Street Digital Program. In 2024, the City Council approved setting aside $50,000 from the Strategic Economic Investment Program, or SEEP, to fund an SBDC program aimed at helping Lake Forest businesses grow their online presence. Grant dollars from the program were derived out of SEEP, and the City pursued a partnership program with the SBDC as a result. The Main Street Digital Program was offered to assist local brick and mortar retail businesses with creating a digital presence. The first round was held in August of 2025 and consisted of 20 Lake Forest businesses, many of whom shared positive feedback with staff. Six Lake Forest businesses were deemed eligible and participated in the second round. This included a four week long training program and a one-on-one session with an SBDC consultant to learn how to market their business online. All six businesses were issued $1,000 grants to support digital advertising campaigns. The following businesses participated and successfully completed the program's requirements and will be recognized tonight with a certificate and photo with city council. For those who are not in attendance, their certificates will be delivered by city staff following the conclusion of the meeting. Program participants, when your name is called, please come up to the front where you will be handed a certificate for your business and then step to the side. Once all names have been called, you may join City Council on stage for a photo. So those are Boba B, Homewell Care Services, Ink Rabbit Printworks, Kathy Mordazavi, DDS, Inc., the Kuban Math and Reading Center of Foothill Ranch, and the Kuban Math and Reading Center of Lake Forest. Is there anyone from there in attendance? Seeing none, we will be hand delivering those certificates following the conclusion of the meeting. Thank you so much, and this concludes my presentation.

Good job, Ian. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, were there any requests to speak on this item?

There were none, Mayor.

Thank you. And please, Madam City Clerk, could you please read the title to item number four?

The title of item number four is Taste of Lake Forest Returns.

Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. And again, I'd like to invite our management assistant, Ian McKeever, up to provide a preview of Taste of Lake Forest.

Thank you so much. Good evening once again, Mayor and members of council. Tonight, I am pleased to announce the return of this year's Taste of Lake Forest. Featured here are photos from last year's Taste of Lake Forest, held at Heritage Hill Historical Park. This event welcomed nearly 700 attendees in addition to over 100 staff and volunteers and featured samples from 25 Lake Forest restaurants, live music by the trip, and beer and wine gardens. The taste serves as a fantastic opportunity for residents and visitors to experience the diverse flavors of Lake Forest dining scene and to shop and dine locally. Finally, the event culminates in an awards ceremony where attendees can vote for their favorite taste. last year's first place winner boredom brew second place winner, a little something sweet and third place winner urban grill and wine bar will be all returning for this year's event. The 2026 taste is co-hosted by the lake forest chamber of commerce and sponsored by orange County, third district supervisor, Donald P Wagner and OC parks. Further sponsorship opportunities are available and the application can be found on the events webpage. This year's Taste will once again return to Heritage Hill Historical Park on Saturday, June 13th from 4 to 8 p.m. This year's event will feature a variety of local restaurants, numerous beer and wine gardens, live music by the trip, and opportunity drawings. Current restaurants include A Little Something Sweet, last year's second place winner, Amici Pizza Kitchen, Aroma Pizza and Pasta, Board and Brew, Boba Bee, Bravo Avo, Cafe Rio, California Fish Grill, Crimson Coward, Cromwell, Inca Mamas, La Casita Olvera, Latia Tacos, Lupe's Mexican Eatery, Mamone Hillside Eatery, Mitossi Cafe, Paris Baguette, Ubabchi Polish Kitchen, Uma's Korean Barbecue, and Urban Grill and Wine Bar, last year's third place winner. Tickets are priced at $50 per person and can be purchased at tasteoflf.com by clicking the ticket portal button or by scanning the QR code on the screen. However, please note that the event is restricted to individuals 21 and older and that tickets are limited. Staff are also excited to preview some upcoming Taste of Lake Forest marketing, including social media reels of some featured restaurants. Thank you. That concludes my presentation, and I hope to see everyone there.

Thank you, Ian. Madam Senate Clerk, have there been any requests to speak on this item?

There have been none, Mayor.

Colleagues, do we have any questions? Okay. We'll move on to public comment. If you would like to make a comment, please fill out a blue speaker card and give it to the city clerk and your name will be called. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. The council and staff will not respond to questions or comments during the public comment period. If you leave your contact information, staff may contact you to address your issues raised during your comment. When you're called to speak, come to the podium. Your three minutes will begin when the green light is on. The green light will remain on 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. Madam Clerk, have we received any requests to speak?

We have Mayor, and our first speaker is Rima Nashashibi.

Good evening, Mayor Peccanio, Mayor Pro Tem, CERBO, Council Members Yu and Tatemir. My name is Rima Nashashibi, and I'm founder and president of Global Hope 365. It's a 501 nonprofit to end harmful practices towards women and girls, such as child marriage, human trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence here in the US. In January alone, which is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we received six awards. including from the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and the City of Irvine, City of Yorba Linda, and Senator Catherine Blakespeare, but I'm here as a commissioner on the Orange County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. We issued an inaugural report with statistics about the status of women and girls in Orange County, and each one of you would have received a copy by now, And included in it, there's also a highlight sheet. So I'll just go over a few of the highlights. So we're comparing Orange County women to women in the state as a whole. So Orange County women make $3,492 more than in average over California women. 4% of OC women are unemployed compared to 5.5%. of California women and women in Orange County make 87 cents on the dollar a man makes, while in California as a whole they make 88 cents on the dollar that a man makes. 44% of OC women have at least a bachelor's degree and 82% of OC girls enroll in colleges. In addition, 18.6 of OC women reported ever seriously thought of committing suicide, which is less than 2023. Chronic sadness and suicide ideations, it appears that girls have that more than boys in Orange County. Also, the percentage of minors is 50% compared to the total number of victims of human trafficking in Orange County. It went up from 36 in 2023 to 50% in 2025. And so we just need to make sure that we raise more awareness in schools, colleges, universities, and it's mostly that increases due to sextortion, which means somebody sent a nude picture of themselves and then they were extorted financially or put in sex trafficking or both, and now we have crime syndicates that are targeting boys as far as sextortion. So thank you for your time. And if you have any questions, my.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Brian McMillan.

Hello, my name is Brian McMillan. I'm a property owner in Lake Forest. I'm here to tell you that all landlords are obligated to protect their tenants from immediate and significant threats. This obligation applies to owners of single family rental homes, multifamily rental homes, as well as commercial and industrial properties. According to the urgency moratorium of August 19th, 2025, this council enacted legislation that classified most businesses that offer personal services in private as immediate and significant threats to the health, safety, and welfare of the community, thus creating, by definition, hundreds of public nuisances. The city is obligated to enforce its laws equally and uniformly with due process to mitigate these nuisances, and the city is the only people that are able to mitigate these nuisances. This city council and city manager have instantly created hundreds of public nuisances by classifying personal services performed in public as threats to public health, safety, and welfare. I demand here that all businesses offering personal services performed in private within 2,000 feet of my tenants to be shut down immediately, including those in my own center. Guys, all this city has to do to make this go away, this perceived problem, You get on the phone and you call the owners of centers or of locations where you think there might be a problem. All you do is you call them up and you say, we think you have a problem at your center on these premises and we have fairly restrictive policies and laws on these kinds of businesses. here's what you're doing wrong and here's how you fix it. And let's work together and fix this problem. I had already started to do it with the city attorney and then they decided to go ballistic zero to 100 scorched earth to punish me for some reason while I was cooperating with the city attorney. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next public commenter is Bob Holtzclaw.

Hello, Bob Holesclaw, resident of Lake Forest. I want to thank Doug Erdmann here of the Public Works for cutting down the vines off of the bus stop on Lake Forest Drive. You couldn't even hardly see the bus stop, which is one of the reasons why I emailed our mayor about, but I never got a return email from him. I don't know what kind of animosity you have against me, but I have never bad-mouthed you or asked someone else to do the same thing. One thing I wanted to talk about was the illegal alien is back at the bus stop on El Toro Road, and this time he has a mattress. And I got an email from one of your residents and I went down there and I checked him. Yep, he's there. It doesn't look very good for the neighborhood. As a matter of fact, Scott Voice always mentioned that El Toro Road is the gateway to Lake Forest. And if you drive in that way and you look at both sides of the street, it doesn't look good. The only thing I disagree with the consul is a proposition to change term limits. I volunteered $1,000 to defeat it and make flyers and wire for signs. I hope to get 85% vote against your proposition. which, hey, strong a possibility. I had hundreds of emails, and there was 72% that voted for it to start off with. It was a nothing problem. One other thing, Councilman Servo, e-bikes. Make them have a sound to their e-bikes. When I was walking up Lake Forest Drive on the sidewalk, One came by me, never said anything. You can't hear him behind you. And he brushed my arm. He fell into the bike lane. If there wasn't a bike lane there, he would have been on traffic. So if you can devise some sort of noise that you can hear him coming back behind you, and then you can move or something back and forth. But they don't say anything to you. They just keep on going and they think they can get around you really quick. So that's one suggestion. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

And our last public commenter is Mark Hermanson.

Good evening, council. I love this country. I came here as an immigrant, and I understand social media and the media. Saying something like that out loud is not what the cool people do anymore. Don't really care. This weekend, we're going to have Memorial Day. And I hear a lot of people talking about their parties and beer and barbecue. But there's some things we should remember about it. Growing up, I had two personal heroes that were in the military. My father, who was with the 3rd Marine Division, he was in Vietnam, and a gentleman named Desmond Doss. And he was probably the reason I wanted to go in the Army and become a medic. There are a lot of things that people who never wore the uniform don't understand. When you're sitting at home watching a movie like Hacksaw Ridge, he looks like a great hero. They don't show the part where he got hit with shrapnel and his legs were torn apart, and he was hit by a sniper bullet being pulled out of there. Many of you will watch a movie like Black Hawk Down. I can tell you personally, most of those men did not think they were coming home that night. They were more surprised they lived than anything. So when you take a few moments this weekend and you think about those people, or you go to the cemetery and you look around, those were real lives. To give people some perspective, about 416,000 people died during World War II. Only 291,000 were combat related. That means we lost a lot of people afterwards from disease, wounds, and even veteran suicide. It is just something that does happen. If you choose to go to a cemetery to pay your respects this weekend or even on Monday, you might see some headstones with coins on them. For the civilians that don't know what that means, people put a penny on a headstone just to show the family respect that the grave site was visited. They put a nickel on the headstone to show you went to basic training with that veteran. A dime means you served with them, and a quarter means you were there when they died. Now we have three veterans sitting up here on the council, and my guess is that some of you have had to put a few quarters and a few dimes down. So when you go to these ceremonies or you go to these services, please take a moment just to understand the somberness and the people who lost people during those wars. Remember, war just does not prove who is right. It's only going to tell you who was left. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. So that move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the City Council consent calendars are considered routine and will be enacted by one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless members of the City Council or staff request specific items to be removed from the consent calendars for separate action. Has there been any request to remove an item from the consent calendars?

I've received none, Mayor.

Okay. Okay. Madam City Clerk, have we requested anybody to speak on the calendar?

I've received none, Mayor.

Okay. Do I have a motion to consider?

Move item 5 to 12. Second.

Okay, let's vote.

And that motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Voigt absent.

Thank you. We'll move on to public hearings. On item number 13, I would like to open the public hearing. Madam City Clerk, please read the title to item number 13.

Certainly, Mayor. The title of item number 13 is the City Workforce Vacancies Recruitment and Retention Presentation, and that is for AB2561.

Thank you. Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to invite our Human Resources Manager, Shelly Cisneros, up to the podium to provide a presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm here to speak about AB2561, a workforce update, which is a law that was passed in 2024 and requires public agencies to report on vacancies, and recruitment and retention. So the key provisions of AB2561 is status of, I'm required to report on the status of the vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts of the city, identify changes to policies, procedures, or recruitment activities that impact vacancies, and then conduct a public hearing and annual presentation to city council before the formal budget adoption. So all this information that I'm presenting is for the year 2025. So as of December 31st, 2025, we had 11 position vacancies, 15 job postings, and successfully filled 11 vacancies. Full-time budgeted positions in December 31st was 73, and the median days to fill vacancies after removing having to remove several recruitments that we had to go out to, the median is 56 days to fill the recruitment. So the 2025 vacancy data, the voluntary separations, there was five vacancies, four internal promotions caused, I mean, I'm sorry, four vacancies were caused by internal promotions, one newly budgeted position, and then we had one retirement. So a total of 11 vacancies for 2025. Throughout 2025, the city's average vacancy rate was 5.9%. So some of the recruitment and retention strategies that I'm here to discuss is there's no significant barriers impacting recruitment and retention. We continue to focus on employee engagement and retention, and we have competitive recruitment and retention strategies in place. So we do salary scale. SURVEYS EVERY TWO YEARS WITH COMPARABLE AGENCIES. WE ALSO REVIEW OUR JOB SPECS CONTINUOUSLY WHEN THOSE POSITIONS BECOME VACANT AND WE HAVE COMPETITIVE BENEFITS ALSO. THE CITY'S RETENTION RATE WAS 93% REFLECTING A STRONG ABILITY TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES. Staff's recommendation is to conduct a public hearing and receive and file the City of Lake Forest Workforce Vacancies Recruitment and Retention Trends presentation.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, were there any requests to speak on this item?

There were none, Mayor.

Colleagues, any comments? Okay. We will now close this item, number 13. Thank you. Okay, do I have a motion?

I'll move it. Second.

Okay, let's vote.

And that motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Voigt absent.

Thank you, we'll move on to discussion items. Madam City Clerk, please read the title of item number 14.

The title of item number 14 is the Law Enforcement Contract with the County of Orange for Fiscal Year 2026 to 2027. Thank you.

Madam City Manager, please introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Tonight we'll have our Deputy City Manager, Sean McGovern, provide this report to you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. Just waiting on the PowerPoint to load here. All right, just gonna go over a quick summary of the contract that's before you tonight. This is for fiscal year 2026-27 of the proposed Law Enforcement Services Agreement with the County of Orange. kind of a brief history here we've had a contractual relationship with the county for police services since cities incorporation back in nineteen ninety one orange county sheriff's department services twelve orange county cities in a similar fashion that they service us as well as the unincorporated areas of the county since cities incorporation the contract model or this contract model has proved a efficient and cost-effective way uh... to address crime in the community and it has the positive results of lower crime stats, which I'm gonna go through later in this presentation. And we have renewed this contract annually since the city's incorporation. So I'm gonna go through some quick highlights here of the 2025 calendar year. Over 4,700 STARS volunteer hours were donated this year. That's the sheriff's team of active and retired seniors. They provide citizens patrol help with citywide events and administrative support over at the front desk here at the police services attache to this building. In terms of parking citations, issuance is up by 115%. Now those parking issues were a big deal during the kind of first two years of COVID. Got a lot of ALF complaints on that. The street sweeper was unable to get through many streets in this town as a result. of cars that were parked in violation of the restrictions on that street. And now we're seeing this type of behavior kind of clear up and we're seeing a kind of leveling off of those parking citations, at least for the first quarter in 2026. So we can see through the data that what we've done is starting to work. Happy to announce that Deputy Zellers was awarded the Medal of Valor for response to an incident involving a stabbing victim, and that incident took place in 2025, and the award came in 2026. We were at that ceremony about a month and a half ago. Deputy Ramirez was awarded Deputy of the Year. He's a valued member of our major accident investigation team, And again, the survey results show from our biannual survey that lowering crime and police services is one of the most important services from the point of view of both residents and businesses. Probably one of our more critical services here. So here's a look at crime stats. We get these with a one-year delay, so one year in the rears here. Lake Forest is in the middle of the pack in terms of our comparable Orange County contract cities. We have a lower overall crime overall part one crime rate than the county overall and a slight decrease in part one crimes from 2023 to 2024. So city of Lake Forest is doing well in terms of crime stats and we're still significantly safer than the county as a whole and Orange County relative to other counties throughout this state is one of the safer counties. So we're in a safe place, we're in a safe city within a very safe county. These are just some quick stats, trend lines relative to some of our closest neighbors. And Lake Forest, the colors aren't kind of working on this slide here, but Lake Forest is the blue line that's behind the red line in San Clemente. Again, from 2023 to 2024, we're seeing a modest decrease in our part one crime incidents. So that's good. In terms of traffic and parking statistics, fatal and injury accident numbers are very similar to 2024, but a key difference here is we are issuing more citations though. So hopefully that leads to less accidents over time. And again, I explained this in one of the previous slides, but a significant increase in parking citations that's largely in response to the request from residents to do more about parking enforcement. and the need to kind of clear these streets up for the street sweepers. So things are going well in terms of parking citations. Okay, so here's some quick metrics on the calls for service and response times to those calls. The good news is that all these metrics here are relatively unchanged this year when compared to last year. We have a slight increase in total calls for service, and we've seen this over the last few years. We're getting more mental health related calls, which turn out to not be crimes, but nonetheless occupy the time of sheriff's deputies. But our response times to part one crimes are still relatively unchanged. So 2024, five minutes and 11 seconds, 2025, five minutes and 12 seconds. Our goal is five minutes and we've kind of hovered between four and a half and a little bit above five for the past five to six years here. So in terms of our part one response time, still trending pretty good. Again, here's another look at a trend line of how the calls for service is going over time. We saw a little blip downward during those COVID years, and now we're kind of building back up to what was normal from 2016 to 2019. Again, a lot of the calls that are coming in aren't even calls about crimes or people that are unsure if it's a crime and just kind of have nowhere else to call. Again, that is consuming sheriff's deputies time, but not in a way that's negatively impacting our response times. Another quick look at our response times. Again, we're between four and five minutes since 2016, so response times are good. The good news is that crime is trending down in terms of part one crime, so those are the more serious crimes, aggravated battery, assault, rape, those kind of things. Overall, they're trending downward, and we're trending downward faster than the county overall, so another good statistic that we're looking at. Since the completion, so I want to talk about the addition of another sheriff's deputy, which is a major change for this contract year. Since the completion of those kind of OSA era neighborhoods over the last decade, so that's like your Foothill Ranch, excuse me, Baker Ranch, Portola Hills, etc., the city's population has increased. Years ago, the city discussed adding deputies as a response to this population increase. So as there's more people to police and more property to protect, it would be rational to add more deputies as a result of that. And these plans were affirmed by the Public Safety Ad Hoc at the beginning of 2025. And the plan was to add two, two deputies, one deputy each contract year, kind of spread that out. And we added that deputy this year, so in this current contract year, and we're coming back tonight for the addition of that second deputy in the second year. Obviously adding another deputy would make us better able to respond.

would have required also license plate on these e-bikes and enforced fines for any violations of this law should have passed. And the goal was to increase oversight and accountability for high-powered e-bikes. The last e-bike regulation bill, second to last, I'm sorry, is Assembly Bill 2346 regarding consumer safety requirements. Staff's recommendation is to support this bill. It would require disclosure of California e-bike laws at the time of sale and would also require speedometers and front and rear lighting equipment on all e-bikes with the goal of enhancing rider safety and consumer awareness. The final bill for e-bike regulations is Senate Bill 1167 regarding prohibited e-bike sales. And staff's recommendation is to support this bill. It would prohibit misleading advertisement or sale of non-compliant e-bikes and establish enforcement and civil liability for those that do. And the goal is to reduce unsafe or improperly classified e-bike sales. Next we have bills relating to insurance and wildfire recovery. These primarily include wildfire recovery efforts, consumer protections, fair plan accountability, so that's the state's insurer of last resort, and insurance market stability. And these bills came from an outreach effort from the California Department of Insurance, which are sponsoring and co-authored these bills. First, we have Assembly Bill 1680, which would be a Fair Plan reform. Staff's recommendation is to support this bill. It would strengthen oversight of the California Fair Plan, expand the insurance commissioner's authority to enforce those regulations, and implement corrective action. And the goal is to improve transparency, governance, and consumer protections for the Fair Plan. Next, we have Assembly Bill 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act. Staff's recommendation is to support this bill. It would establish statewide smoke remediation standards and require insurer compliance and create enforcement penalties with the goal of ensuring homes are properly restored after a wildfire or smoke damage. Last, we have Senate Bill 876, residential insurance protections. Staff's recommendation is to support this bill. It would require updated replacement cost estimates, expand coverage options, and establish timelines for claim payments in order to reduce underinsurance and support faster disaster recovery for victims of any wildfire loss. In summary, we have a step updated staff recommendations to support four e-bike safety and enforcement bills and three insurance wildfire recovery reform bills. This concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Nydia. Before we go to my colleagues, Madam City Clerk, are there any requests to speak on this item?

We do have one public commenter, and that is Amy Stevens.

I really thought more people would be speaking. GOOD EVENING AGAIN. I JUST WANT TO EXPRESS APPRECIATION FOR THE STAFF AND COUNCIL WORK THAT WENT INTO DEVELOPING THIS LEGISLATIVE PLATFORM. THERE ARE SO MANY AREAS I SUPPORT, SPECIFICALLY AROUND THE WILDFIRE INSURANCE PROTECTIONS, LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT, AND THE CITY'S SUPPORT FOR STRONGER E-BIKE SAFETY REGULATIONS. SORRY, LEGISLATIONS. I ESPECIALLY WANT TO THANK THE CITY FOR TAKING THESE E-BIKE ISSUES SERIOUSLY. AS SOMEONE WHO HAS SPOKEN PUBLICLY HERE AND AT SADDLEBACK VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, about the growing safety concerns around reckless riding, illegal e-motorcycles, and safety near schools, I'm very encouraged to see your support for legislation focused on enforcement, education, registration, and consumer protections. I think that reflects the concerns of many families in our community right now. One area I would encourage the council to reconsider or refine is the language broadly opposing gas to electric transition efforts. I agree that affordability matters and that we should be thoughtful about costs placed on residents, businesses, and property owners. At the same time, I think the current wording is so broad that it is difficult to understand what policies or projects the city would ultimately oppose. California, along with many other states and countries, is moving toward electrification in many areas, and I think cities should be careful about positioning themselves in blanket opposition to broader infrastructure and energy trends, especially when they can create costly legal or political conflicts that taxpayers ultimately bear. We are currently seeing cities like Huntington Beach spend significant time and millions in taxpayer money fighting the state on issue after issue. usually with unsuccessful legal outcomes and little to no practical benefit for residents. I believe there is a more balanced approach available. We should look for opportunities to incorporate electrification where it makes practical and financial sense, such as during infrastructure upgrades, equipment replacement cycles, or when electric options are simply the better long-term investment. I think Lake Forest can support affordability and local control while still remaining thoughtful, adaptable, and forward-looking in how we plan for the future. I appreciate the opportunity to share my perspective tonight. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. That's it, Mayor. Okay. Colleagues?

Thank you, Mayor. Can we go back? I think it was slide maybe 12. It's AB 1795. So certainly some press recently about the fare insurance and what's happening to it in terms of escalation of rates, I think it was 30% or something like that, or projected, so it's very, it's expensive and getting more so. What is the effect of 1795 on that? And I understand the objective is trying to have a safe environment, I understand all that, I just want to make sure I understand the implications of that bill and what it means for insurance, et cetera?

Yes. So my understanding is that with this bill, what it seeks to establish is the standards themselves based on, because currently there aren't any standards or they're very unclear. And so what's been happening, especially with wildfire recovery efforts, is that a lot of residents, when they submit a claim, it they kind of get this run around. So it's meant to just clarify those standards so that there is a way for them to receive the insurance payouts that they need in a timely fashion and that there's some kind of standard that you could point to that's statewide and not just based on a specific region or without that standardization.

it would seem like that this may cause an escalate, greater pressure, upward pressure, if there's now gonna be a standard. And again, I totally understand the objective. I'm just concerned that for a cost becoming prohibitive more so, and what we just saw in the press the other day about rates, this is gonna potentially make that even more so. We're gonna find more people getting priced out just because it becomes... more problematic. I'm not sure I know the answer to the question in terms of where I sit with it. I'm concerned that could be interpreted that way. Am I missing something from your perspective?

So I haven't seen any specific information about cost, but that's something that we could look more into to see if there's any estimates as to how that would impact costs specifically. Most of the information provided is just based on some of the experiences following the wildfires last year.

OK. I don't know how time sensitive this is. I would love to see if we can reach out to the author and see if they have any information, or unless maybe the city manager. Do you have any particular take on this? I want to make sure I understand if we're going to support the potential repercussions. And it doesn't mean we still wouldn't support it. I'd just like to make sure we know going in the potential consequences.

Yeah, in terms of time sensitivity, We can go back. Right now, these are the bills that are getting to the point where they're passing their first house, and then they would go to the second house. So we still have time where we could advocate whichever way the council would like to support or oppose any of these bills. Right there.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Lydia, for the presentation. Just for our audience also to make sure that they understand that even though we are supportive and part of our responsibility is to balance between government overreach and regulations to curb activities that are negative to society in an appropriate way. So with respect to the e-bike, bills that you said that are dead. I'm really kind of surprised, given the legislature and the liberal nature that they have currently, that they wouldn't go with some of these. Do you have any kind of a summary of why those two particular e-bike bills were turned down?

So my understanding is that they were both held at the fiscal committee, the assembly's fiscal committee. And so because it's the second year of the two-year session, it means essentially that that's why they died, right? There's no additional year in this session. So my understanding is that they were held because they were determined to have a high fiscal impact. And so due to that, that's one of the reasons why they were held back.

I see, okay, thank you. And again, there's a number of organizations that our audience may or may not be aware of in terms of helping do this advocacy. So we have our own advocacy, but there's other organizations, ACCOC, California League of Cities, our City Selection Committee. There's a number of different agencies where there's advocacy for certain things going on here. So we're putting our stamp of approval or questioning on these as well as they come to see how they impact our particular community. So thank you for the recent update. Thank you, Mayor.

That two bills are the most common sense bills. Unfortunately, Sacramento is not doing their job. That's my words here.

Thank you. So actually, Mayor Pro Tem hit... what I was going to bring up. So I saw in your staff report that it had the city's position, it had Cal City's position, and ACCOC had no position. This is the second year that we bring these legislative matters up, and they have no position. Is there a reason why they're not taking a position on any of these bills?

So I can't answer that for them, but they do take positions on different bills, just these particular bills when we looked at the positions that they had published, they weren't on that list.

So if ACCOC is advocating for us because we pay into being a member there, I think they should be taking positions on some of these. And maybe we should reach out to them and say, hey, what's your position on these? Because this is, like I said, the second year in a row that this is happening. And maybe we should have ACCOC come and explain why they don't take positions on these. I mean, Cal City took positions, and they've got a whole bunch of people that they service. So if we're paying people to take positions and to maybe give us a different look from the ACCOC lens, we need to hear from it.

So I'll take a... Mayor, if I could add on to that, it might be helpful to find out how... THE BILLS THEY DO TAKE POSITIONS ON ARE BROUGHT FORWARD. SACRAMENTO WHAT PRODUCES 2500, 3000 BILLS A YEAR. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF THOSE DIRECTLY RELATE TO CITIES. DO YOU HAVE A BALLPARK IDEA OF HOW MANY RELATE TO CITIES?

IT DEPENDS BUT USUALLY AT THE BEGINNING WE DO HAVE QUITE A BIT AND THEN IT NARROWS DOWN BY THIS POINT IN TIME.

Yeah, so not in defense of anything other than I don't know how they get on the radar. It might be a good question to ask them is how do they get engaged on certain things and not others, to your point. And so that might be helpful intel for us to understand.

So, okay, then I'll ask this question. Did ACCOC reach out to us at all this year about positions on anything? Not to my knowledge. Okay. So, yeah, I would really love for them to be a little bit more engaged because otherwise I'm not too sure what they do for us. So I'll take a recommendation.

Mayor, if I could make a motion, I would approve all of them with the exception of AB 1795 and ask that we continue that to either the next meeting or the following meeting and bring it back. And I would like to hear more. about the issue on anybody's thoughts around the potential for cost implications for insurance in general. But having said that, I would move the remainder for approval.

I second that.

Let's vote.

And that motion passes 4-0 with Council Member Voigt absent.

All right, thank you. That takes us to the City Manager's report. Madam City Manager.

I HAVE NOTHING FURTHER THIS EVENING, THANK YOU.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. WE'LL GO TO CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS. COUNCIL MEMBER TETTERMER.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I WANT TO SHARE THAT I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF GOING TO THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS This is a first for the city of Lake Forest. This was a conference that was held Tuesday and Wednesday in Las Vegas. I went with Ms. Rose and Mr. Neves and Adrian and Hope and I was supported by a lot of other staff and we had a chance to go there and actually host a booth and participate in a number of meetings this is really an opportunity to there were 25 000 people at this las vegas convention center so it's quite large but an opportunity to really start to have meaningful engagement with not only a number of businesses probably just about anything you can think of is represented there in one form or another along with development interests who look to build shopping centers and and whatnot. So it was a great opportunity to start what maybe a new venture going forward. This is the first time the city had done it. And I saw on a report out that I did go because I have to for AB 1234, but also want to say thank you to staff for all the good work and putting that event together long days. And I think I got 22,000 steps in on the first day. I don't know about the second day, but walked quite a bit and met a lot of people, had some great meetings and some great, great kickoff. So thank you to staff. That's it. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member, you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have nothing more.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. On Saturday, we had a wonderful event called Love Lake Forest. And a gentleman by the name of Omar, who is really leading the charge on this in our audience there tonight, I think, right? Thank you very much. What an excellent event this was. Nearly 100 people that came out to serve our community in tangible ways. And this is something that really makes an impact on our community. It was well organized. We all had an opportunity. to be there and support it and so just kudos and congratulations on a very successful event and thank you for the work that you're doing in our local community for that. I want to echo Mark Hermanson's comments about Memorial Day coming up. every year we have this poignant opportunity to recognize the sacrifices that our military members over the years have paid that ultimate price and many of us are going to be participating in festivities celebrations remembrances on monday so my encouragement is that if you know someone who has served in the military even though this is for those people who actually gave their lives for it is to recognize those people who were spouses and family members and those people that served in the military that keeps the freedoms that we enjoy in America. And then finally, we talked about the taste of Lake Forest. I heard a rumor we may have some special guests that might be there, so I just want to make sure that all of the restaurants are going to be prepared. Lady Gaga, for example, is rumored to be there, and we all know how she likes her steak. Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. And then those of you who are Star Wars fans, a new movie coming out this weekend about that. We all know how Darth Vader likes his toast. That's the dark side, of course, that he likes that one. And then finally, if there's any Italians, they're going to be at States of Lake Forest. And there was... Oh, very good. Thank you, Andrea. So, yeah, there was actually a tragic event where an Italian chef that passed away last week. So he passed away. passed away. We can only do so much. His life is a legacy. It'll be a pizza history. And he had his favorite spice. He just ran out of time. Thank you, Mayor. Sorry.

Sorry. Had to get all the food ones in. Yes, you did. All right, how do I top that? So, I attended a prayer breakfast in Mission Viejo, and it was a keynote speaker of Rod Carew was there and told some stories. And I also went back to, back in time, again, to, I went to MCRD to watch a graduation. My son's fiance's nephew graduated from boot camp. And... IT WAS AMAZING TO SEE. I ACTUALLY TOOK A VIDEO AND SENT IT TO THE MAYOR PRO TEM OF THE BAND, WHICH DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB. AND I ALSO LAST WEEK WAS A SPEAKER AT A NAVY RECRUIT FUNCTION FOR THE FUTURE SAILORS, AND I WAS HONORED AND ACTUALLY GAVE ME A CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION. went to the Love Lake Forest event and it was Omar, he knocked it out of the park, great job. And I do wanna bring up something. Our point in time count numbers came out. And I gotta tell you, in 2019, we had 76 homeless. 2022, we had 65. 2024, we had 104. AND THIS YEAR THEY COUNTED 50. SO THE NUMBERS WENT DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY. BUT THAT WAS, WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THE POINT IN TIME COUNT, IT'S A SNAPSHOT IN TIME. AND THE WAY I EXPLAIN IT TO PEOPLE IS, SAY FOR INSTANCE, WE GO OUT TO A LAKE AND THROW A NET OUT AND WE CATCH THE FISH THAT ARE IN THAT LITTLE AREA, WE COUNT THOSE FISH. If we go back to that same area two weeks from now, we may throw a net out and catch either more or less. So it's a snapshot in time, so it goes up and down. But a 54% decrease is significant, and I believe it's because this contract that we just approved as sheriff's department and Lydia Nationalista from our homeless outreach are doing great jobs. But I actually called somebody today that does that job. And they said on any given day, our census is right around 14 to 15. So we have to remember a lot of these homeless that we see when you see that number 50, Those are people sleeping in the cars. And for those of you that have seen me walking around during the day, I can't tell you how many times people try to give me money because I look homeless. So I think I'm the only homeless expert in here. I can't even tell you if a person's homeless unless I have a conversation with them. So other than that, we're gonna go on to this date in history. So as we continue counting down to America's 250th birthday this 4th of July, we're looking back at the moments that helped shape our nation's path to independence. Two weeks ago, we talked about how the colonies were beginning to move toward separation from Great Britain. By May 21st, 1776, that momentum had only grown stronger. Across the colonies, conversations were shifting. Leaders were no longer only asking whether change was needed. Oops. Oh, that's on the back. They were beginning to ask an even bigger question. What would an independent America actually look like? In Virginia, the Fifth Virginia Convention was still meeting in Williamsburg. Delegates continued debating the future of the colonies and what role Virginia would play in shaping it. The idea of independence was no longer distanced. It was becoming increasingly real. Mayor Pro Tem. What else was happening to the colonies as we move closer to independence?

Thank you, Mayor. I also want to promote a wonderful website. It's called USA250-OC.com. If you really want to dig into what was happening in our history, it's a very well-done website with information and videos to help highlight our 250th anniversary. So while these important conversations were taking place, the Continental Congress was also beginning to act more like a unified government. Even before independence was officially declared, colonial leaders were coordinating the military efforts, responding to British actions, and working together in ways that would have been difficult to imagine just a few years earlier. At the same time, preparations for conflict continued. Colonists, they understood that the decisions being made could come at a great cost. And communities across America were preparing for an uncertain future. But really, what makes this period in history so remarkable is that independence did not happen all at once. It was built step by step through difficult conversations, brave decisions, and a shared belief that something better was possible. Mayor, I'll turn it back over to you to close us out.

Thank you. As we continue this journey towards the 4th, we're reminded that the freedoms that we celebrate today were shaped by ordinary people willing to take extraordinary steps. History is not only the moments we remember, but the choices that made those moments possible. Thank you, and we look forward to continuing this journey through history with you in the weeks ahead. And with that, we'll adjourn.