City Council - Regular Meeting

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'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. I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

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 TO 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 in 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. 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. 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 and associated with some different things. There are some things that are happening that I want the public to be aware of. that we are addressing this. We're not turning a blind eye to it. 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 recent actions that we're taking from your perspective.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and 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 and Pittsburgh Park. This is outside of our normal police services staffing.