City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good afternoon or good evening. The November 24, 2025 regular meeting of the Malibu City Council is now called to order. In-person participants, if you would like to speak, please submit your request to speak form to the clerk. Remote participants, if you would like to speak, please join the Zoom webinar meeting printed on the agenda and raise your hand in Zoom when the item you wish to speak on is called. May we please have a roll call. Council member Stewart here. Council member Yurin here. Mayor Prom Silverstein present. You have a quorum with council member Conrad and Mayor Reagan's absent. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, do we have any remote speakers on the closed session item?

No, we don't have any raised hands or participants on Zoom. Okay, an K, you're up for three minutes. You have to come to this microphone. You're passing. Okay, thank you. Um, there being no further comments from the public, we will now recess to close session to discuss the items listed on the close session agenda. We will reconvene at 5:30 p.m. or there or as soon thereafter as we can to begin the regular session and hear the closed session report. And we do expect the other council members to join us during at some point during the closed session. But if not, we will report on that when we get back. Thank you. We're adjourned. We're recessed. Thank you.

I know people. The November 24th, 2025 regular meeting in the Malibu City Council is now called to order. The in-person participants you would like to speak, please submit your request to speak form to the clerk. Make sure you submit your request to speak form before the item is called. Um, we won't be taking any late slips. Uh remote participants, if you would like to speak, please join the Zoom webinar meeting printed on the agenda and raise your hand in Zoom when the item you wish to speak on is called. May we please have a roll call.

Council member Conrad here. Council member Stewart here. Council member Yuring here. Mayor Prom Silverstein, present. Mayor Riggins here. You have a quorum. May we please have a close session report? Oops. Yes. At 5:00 p.m., the city council met an in open session and recessed to close session for the items listed on the posted agenda. All five council members were present uh at the close session and no reportable action was taken. Thank you. Uh we'll do the pledge of allegiance.

Hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. May we please have a report on the posting of the agenda?

Yes. The original agenda for this meeting was properly posted on November 14th, 2025 with the first amended agenda posted on November 20th, 2025. The second amended agenda for the meeting was properly posted at city hall on November 24th at 4:30 p.m. But due to a technical issue, the website agenda posting did still link to the first amended agenda. The supporting materials for the new items 1B8, 1B9, and 7D were available on the website at the time of posting. Once staff noticed the error, we corrected the link to the second amended agenda and sent a notification to all email and text subscribers at 6:14 p.m. on November 24th. In addition to the agenda posting, a supplemental report was posted for item 5B on November 21st at 4:53 p.m. and a second supplemental report for that item was posted at 6:14 p.m.

Thank you. May we please have an approval of the agenda. staff request to pull and correct item 1B7. I'll move to approve the agenda with the a correction for 1B7.

I have I have a proposed friendly amendment. I was going to make the motion. I'd like to mo move if Steve will accept it as a second that we move the appeal item 5B to be the first thing that we do after 6:30 after whatever we're in the middle of doing when we get to 6:30. And secondly, I'd like to continue items 7 C and 8 C because I doubt we're going to get to them and it's not fair to the people that are here to address them to have to wait through the the um PCH appeal which may take up the whole evening or at least a substantial portion of it and then sit here all night and never get to hear the never get to address the thing that they're here for. So item 5A is for the labor exchange

and I think that should be that's Mayor item 5. You're right. I apologize. So, the motion is 5B at at the earliest time we can following 6:30 and take off 7C and 8C and continue them to the next meeting or or a special meeting because they're going to be very both of them are going to be controversial. I second that. Uh, could I just make a comment? I think we've got to do 7B tonight. Is that correct? 7 and 8 C.

You're talking about 7 and 8 C. As I understand, as I understand the proposal, and Mayor Prom, you can correct me if I'm wrong about your friendly amendment. You would like item 5B to be heard as soon after 6:30 as possible without interrupting any other items that are being heard at the time. And you would like to continue items 7 C and 8 C to a future meeting. Correct. 7 C is in Charlie and 8 C is in Charlie. 7 C. Correct. Makes sense to me. 7 C is just so Steve, will you accept that?

7 C is the beach front. It's zerasis. Um, it was the exploration to discuss the TDSF. And then the 8C was Bruce and I's agenda item about memorializing some of the policies that we've been talking about. 7C. We're not going to make a decision on what we're going to do. All this says is this is just a motion to reorder the agenda. Let's not discuss the substance of what the items are. Please. I'd like to do 7 C and get that out of the way if we could. I agree. We could do that. So, could you restate your amendment?

Well, my friendly amendment is going to stand the way it is. If it's rejected, then we can have a vote on the agenda as it is. I'll vote against it. I don't know where others will come out and we'll see where it goes. I'll take the amendment that says let's move 5C up. That was a good one. And if you want to move 8 C to the end to the next meeting, I can live with that also. Let's start with that. I worry that I do not want to talk about 7C late at night. It is too important to people for me to do at 11 p.m. Can I suggest that we first vote on what Steve will accept the friendly amendment

to move up 5B and and to continue 8 C. Let's see if we can get a vote on that and then I'm going to make another motion to further change the agenda and we'll see where that goes. Mary, can you take a vote on that? Okay. So,

well, I just want to make sure I'm clear on it. So, we're going to do consent and if it's after 6:30, then we'll do 5B, then four, and then the remainder of the agenda, except for 8 C. Effectively, if the timing works out, I think this would be putting item 5B before item 4 A. um since that's the beginning of the items that cannot be heard until 6:30. So if the city manager's report was not heard before 6:30, again 5B would move before that, but effectively this puts 5B after item three and before item 4 A and would continue item 8 C to the next regular meeting

if the amendment is accepted by the maker. Could I just have a clarification uh from staff? Does 7B have a timing question because I think we've got it. I saw something about December the 9th on there. Correct. Um 7B is time sensitive um and is not currently proposed to be continued or moved in the current motion, but we do have to get it tonight. Okay. Correct. What's 7B? When we get to when we get near the end, if we got to adjust it, we Yeah. I just want to be clear. Let's, you know, be optimistic. Okay. Well, you keep asking about that because you want Mayor Pretend your microphone.

Do you keep asking about that because perhaps you want to suggest moving that to before the appeal? So, move that up for also. No, I think I think we're fine. I I agree with Steve. We'll just make sure as the night goes along. You just got to make sure we cover that item somewhere in the bot. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, was the friendly amendment as proposed by commissioner council member Yuring accepted? That was to council member Yurin. Are you accepting the friendly amendment for Mayor Prom Silverstein to hear item 5B immediately after 6:30 and to continue item 8 C to the next regular meeting? Yes, I can live with that. Who is the other? Is there a second?

And that would be Mayor Prom Silverstein second with the acceptance of that friendly amendment. Okay, we got a motion. All in favor? I Okay, I'd like to opposed. I'd now like to move that we further reorder the agenda to continue item 7 C to the next meeting so that all of the people that are here to address 7C who are unlikely to ever get to address it because we're not going to likely get to it before 10:30 can go home. Do I have a second for that? I second that. Okay. All in favor? I. All opposed? I don't. No. Let's keep it on until we get to the end. I mean, I'm right now trying to

That means that people have to stay here for that. It's okay. If they understood what's going on, they wouldn't be here. So, the motion failed um 23. Okay. All right. So, we are on to just want to make sure I do it right. Hen calendar. Does anybody want to pull anything? We're already pulling 1 B7 to address the change. Okay. Any other items? Do we have any speaker slips for consent? No, we don't have any speaker slips, but we do have one raised hand on Zoom.

Okay, let's just keep it to that one raised hand and let's hear from that one raised hand. Justin, and this is for public comment on the consent calendar. Justin. Justin, are you there?

Is Justin unmuted? No. We He's been asked to unmute. Justin, you've been asked to unmute. Justin going once, twice. Okay, let's go on with consent. So, um, do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar except for 1B7? So moved. Any second? I'll second. All in favor? I.

None opposed. Okay. Uh, would you like a staff report? I I can handle this if it's okay. The mo the motion for I would like to move that we approve um 1B7 1B7 but that we change the words to match the last resolution that we adopted on the fly at the prior meeting which are not incorporated in the um draft that is there today in our booklet. So basically the the report the the proposed resolution in our booklet is an error. It doesn't include the language that we adopted last time. That's on the screen above us. Yes. And that matches what you want included. Yes, it does. Okay. That's the motion to approve that. All right. Do we have a second? A second. All in favor?

I. None opposed. Okay. So then, seeing that we got through that so quickly, um, do we have no ceremonial presentations? Do we have any commissioners or? No, we don't have any commissioner committee updates, but we will have a city manager update. Great, Miss city manager.

All right. Good evening, council. Good evening, Malibu. Um, I'd first like to wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving coming up. Um, as we gather with loved ones and express our gratitude, I want to express my gratitude for the resilience, strength, and spirit of our Malibu community. And in these challenging times, many of you have shown extraordinary strength and compassion. And I want to express uh thanks to our incredible city staff um who've worked tirelessly to uplift our community. And may your Thanksgiving be filled with warmth, joy, and cherished moments with all of your family and all your friends. Um, because we have such a packed agenda tonight, I'll be quick and tick off the things that are happening in city hall that we're grateful for.

Don't don't listen, don't try me. The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District and the city of Malibu are advancing a major milestone in the effort to create two independent school districts. The school district will hold a special board of education meeting on December 1st to consider three foundational agreements that establish the financial, operational, and governance frameworks needed for separation. Um secondly that we're thankful for we've been working with seniorce executives been working closely with Rob Dau um to continue their efforts of undergrounding the existing electrical circuits within the Palisades fire area along with the expedited undergrounding efforts. is committed to additional benefits to the city including expediting the electrical undergrounding on Lato Canyon Road Cuth's electrical circuit. Um they have agreed to supply temporary generators for the PCH signal uh synchronization project needed to perform final testing and system operations for that. They've agreed to partner with the city and Santa Monica School District to install automatic transfer switches and generators at Maloo High and all the elementary schools. Um they have agreed to work with the city to promotece's backup battery rebate program to our community. In addition, they are looking to not only maintain the community resource center at the Michael Landon Community um center on Bless Park, but also to collaborate with the city to find an additional community resource center within Malibu. So, we'll have two instead of just one. Also they are have agreed to deploy a community crew vehicle in Malibu during extended outages and also partner with the city and CALR to develop technical solutions um for the PCH traffic signal uh battery

backup systems. Um so we continue our talks with them um and they continue to be cordial and we're trying to secure as many benefits for our city and residents as possible. But we are excited that they have agreed to indeed expedite undergrounding. Um, additionally, last week on November the 18th, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, uh, based on a motion by Supervisor Horvath, voted to pursue action at the CPU to require telecommunications companies to underground their facilities in coordination withce undergrounding projects. So this county initiative could create a regional regulatory framework that supports the city's goal of undergrounding the telecommunication lines and we are working with supervisor Horvass office to ensure the smooth coordination of this effort between both utilities. Um, lastly, regarding undergrounding efforts, the city has submitted a FEMA hazard mitigation grant program, an application to fund the undergrounding of existing telecommunications facilities and the removal of remaining poles within the Palisades fire area. And if it is awarded, it would give the city both the funding and leverage needed to achieve the goal of undergrounding both electrical and telecommunications lines. So, we can also be grateful today for the executive order issued by the governor's office. The order ensures that homeowners with available insurance proceeds can use them to cover the costs of optional rooftop solar and other code upgrades. The order also um suspends state statutes to support faster and lowerc cost development of municipal sewer systems and it expands the governor's previous order prioritizing displaced survivors on weight list for affordable housing placement. Um we can also agree that we're all thankful for Malibu's ambassador of joy

and optimism and our national treasure Dick Van Djk. Uh we're thankful for him and he will be turning 100red years young on December 13th. Wow.

So Vandy Days will be a communitywide celebration honoring Mr. Van Djk and will take place from November 28th through December the 14th. Here at city hall we're celebrating with two special movie screenings in partnership with the Malibu Film Society. On Friday, December the 5th at 6:30 we will show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And on Sunday, December 7th at 2, watch the world premiere of Dick Van Dyke 100th celebration. Uh there's no admission fee for Malibu residents and you can get tickets at the Malibu Filmsocciety.org. We have a few department updates from public safety. The public safety department is updating the city's evacuation plan and needs your input. We invite everyone to please take a short survey which can be found on the public safety website at malibity.org/publicsafety. Your input will be anonymous and is very important to this process. From our environmental programs division, the West Basin Rainarrel event had a very successful community turnout this weekend. This past Saturday, we hosted our rain barrel event at city hall. And I'm pleased to report that this was the largest distribution Malibu has seen in more than a decade. We provided 150 rain barrels to over 89 households committed to water conservation. We want to also extend our appreciation to our partners at West Basin Municipal Water District and to the volunteers from the Malibu Optimus Club for their support and participation in making this event a success. We also hosted the LA County household hazardous waste and e-waste event. Um the city's December event has been cancelled. However, Los Angeles County will be hosting a free waste drive-thru collection event on Saturday, December the 13th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Malibu Civic

Center rear parking lot. Residents may visit lacd.orghw org/hw or call 8002380173 for more information. The city will also offer free Christmas tree recycling from December 26th through January 11th from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 23575 Civic Center Way, the Chile Cookoff Lot. All collected trees will be recycled into mulch. And please note, the site will be closed December 31st and January 1st in observance of the New Year holiday. Residents are asked to remove all water containers, metal stands, ornaments, tencil, and lights before dropping off the trees for curbside recycling, and they should fit inside the green waste bin uh with all decorations removed. Finally, a few reminders for everyone. Malibu businesses, please take the city of Malibu business recovery and resilience survey in the city manager newsletter to help us better understand your challenges and opportunities and how the city can better support and strengthen our local economy. The Malibu Education Foundation will host their annual uh holiday tree lot at the lot. I think you could see the candy cane uh tents on the lot. Um from Friday, November 28th through September uh through Sunday, December the 14th. And the hours are Monday through Thursday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday from 3 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. All purchases support our Malibu public schools. City Hall Thanksgiving holiday hours will be Mal well Malibu City Hall, the senior center, the rebuild center, and the community swimming pool at Malibu High School will be closed

Thursday, November 27th and Friday, November 28th for the holiday. City parks will be open for regular hours from 8:00 a.m. to sunset. Um, and now I'm happy to introduce Director Bundy, who will give us a rebuild update.

Good evening, council. Good evening, uh, city manager. Wanted to provide the council where we are with our policy in Franklin Fire rebuilds. Great news. We have 186 applications that have made it through the planning phase. uh 70 of them are being reviewed and 116 are approved already. This constitute 32% of the single family residents. So there is a good outcome as we move forward. As far as the applications that we're seeing under the building and safety process, which is the construction phase, we have seen 47 of them have approval and 27 are in plan check right now. We're working on with another five families to hopefully on the week of December 1st, we will have another five permits issue. With that, I wanted to spend a little bit of time on the new executive order on what that really means for our homeowners. Uh kind of just giving you uh a brief update on that. What are the practical benefits specifically for our city of Malibu? And um so with that um the first one uh this order suspends mandatory solar and battery installation requires for rebuilds. This actually a lower c construction cuts cuts and removes significant barriers for our homeowners. So this is a great um a great uh thing that we got uh through the governor's office. Uh it also it's also important also to mention that under this executive order if there's homeowners that would like to move forward and put their solar photo voltake or their battery backup uh systems uh there is a provision in which uh the governor has made it that any um any upgrades

uh they will need to be uh covered by the insurance. So it gives also the benefits to those homeowners and families that would like to still have their solar that the insurance are going to cover for that. Next slice. And then the next one is uh we've been talking about this on um the use of the 2022 building code for all of our FA fire rebuild families. This avoids uh costly redesign requirements. As you know, uh the city uh the city will be amending the building code at the end of this year and it will be come into effect the beginning of the year. So instead of asking our homeowners now, you need to comply with the 2025 code. This is very good for all of our families and I have shared this with all of the design professionals. uh the 2022 codes is still the ones that they need to adhere by. Um and regarding to FEMA, and this is something new that I really want to um emphasize because the our city council uh decided to uh for the design of the homes on beachfront properties, they only needed to comply with the minimum federal mandates uh which is a FEMA elevation plus one. this uh executive or order actually um now is ad is basically say stating that yes all of uh this properties need to comply with the minimum federal mandates which is the base floor elevations plus one which is the minimum elevation standard that is required. There is a statement in in which it says that uh it could uh any other provisions in the 2025 code could could be applied. Uh so far so far I can tell you there's no additional

elevations that need to be added under the 2025 code. So makes it simple, makes it clear for our our homeowners. Uh so no sea level rise for this. And again, um the governor wanted to be um cognizant that some families uh would like to continue or have an upgrade under the new building codes so they are not limited to comply with the 2025 code and the for insurancees purposes this will allow them the being ellegible for those building code upgrades. Next slides. Um, another grade also and I think this was what's basically tailored for Malibu and and a great think because this now uh any uh squa and coastal act uh permit suspensions for any proposed sewer line systems uh that the city will provide uh is now exempt suspended. Uh so basically there will be no CDP required if the city decides to move forward with the sewer line system. Uh and this will again cost the time that uh sometimes uh property owners are asking how long is it going to take? Uh so this will cut a lot of the time on that and also um time and money. Next slides. This also accelerating the access to HCD rental units. Um uh the homeowners that are renting properties uh to qualify, they must hold a displacement due to the emergency. Uh they need to be um show that they're currently homeless or immediately at risk to be at that uh homeless and they're ellegible under the HCDP uh HCD uh program requirements.

Again, another I think it's just as Malibu, we need to be grateful for all of this. This I feel that this new executive order was tailored for our city and for our residents. So very grateful to the governor uh to our city mayor and to our city manager that uh went to um to visit our governor. And next slides um upcoming closures and dates. I for me it's important to mention to especially for our families on the rebuild center we're going to be closed just for the holidays Thursdays and and Friday um but we will reopen on December 1st. I also want to mention that some of our consultants are going to continue working on your uh rebuild uh projects that are coming in. So kind of letting them know that we are continue to focus on on them. December holiday closures that city hall will be have limited services. So your inspections will be uh um if you call for inspections we will be providing inspections for our rebuild uh families. Our rebuild center will be open during December uh December 22nd, December 23rd, the 29th and 30th. Um, and then city hall will reopen and uh to full hours on January 2nd of 2026. I want to remind the community of some of the community sessions are coming up. Uh December 3rd, we will be hosting on this room the design professionals meetings. Uh we also have a specific uh workshop for geotechnical uh issues. Um, this will be also a great opportunity for the community to know our new consultants that are hopefully council approves this tonight uh to move forward

with that. Um, we also have a December 11 a community uh gathering for all of our rebuild families and then uh January 14 another community gathering. I want to wish everybody a happy and blessed Thanksgiving and especially to all of our families. We you are in our hearts and we don't we you are present in everything that we're doing right now. God bless. Thank you. Yes.

Uh Yolanda, just a quick point. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but you were talking about the uh uh building codes. I believe in the February 13th the executive order the building code was uh your house was built under the 2019 building code you were uh able to reuse those. Yes, it was the first executive order regarding building um the executive order talk about hey uh cities if you have any uh home that was destroyed during the fire that you was recently uh issue and permitted that was designed under the 2019 co code the full house then you will be able to allow those families to move forward without any any process. is right.

Unfortunately, the city did not have a complete home. Uh, and so that's where we are with that item. It was such a good idea. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Bruce. Bruce. Well, I just want to comment. I I I applaud everyone who had anything to do with the sewer decision because that that is a major give. I didn't appreciate that when I read the executive order. I thought it was talking about the septic systems. But basically, this means we are the masters of our decision on the sewer. We don't have to get permission from the state. Is that accurate? Yes, that is part of this executive order.

Okay, great. That that makes the decision a little easier when we get to it. Well, we won't need a coastal development permit. We won't need Yeah. So, the same thing as the rebuilds, right? So it's exempt from the coastal act and exempt from squa but you still need to get you know we need to go through our you know process here at the city council level in terms of your decision-m that's what I meant by don't need the state anyone else just want to say thank you you're right that sewer decision is going to save people a lot of time and a lot of money so thank you for everybody who helped us get that done thank you

madam city manager is there Anything else? Thank you, Yolanda and Tyler and Rob back there. I know you help with the sewer, too. Um, Sergeant Sodelin, do you have an update for us?

Good evening, city council. Um, I'll just jump right into it. So, um, we're approaching the end of the year, so I kind of want to give you a year in review. Um, for crime statistics, traffic collision statistics, injury collisions, citations issued, pretty much everything's been cut in half, which makes sense because of the Palisades fire. The eastern half of the city was shut down for 6 months. So, uh, we're looking at about a 50% reduction in crime statistics, traffic collisions, injuries collisions, and traffic citations issued. Um this year, uh we repurposed a special assignment deputy, uh who became the school resource deputy, uh for the city of Malibu. So that started this school year. So things have been going great on that and it's very promising and we hope it continues, which I'm pretty sure it will. though. Um we are still using our drones and they've been so successful that the county is looking at uh changing the policy for when they can be deployed to be more expansive and um we'll be able to use them um in more situations other than what they've been in right now. So um they see the uh value of drones and things are looking good. So, um, that's in the works. PCH safety, the city continues to, uh, fund extra, uh, traffic enforcement along PCH. So, um, that is good. We're still out there. We're still issuing citations and we're trying to make PCH safer. Um, with that, we did a DUI checkpoint this year through an OTS grant from the city, and we're looking at doing another one uh, sometime soon, hopefully. uh syn signal synchronization project uh is complete that will uh help slow down traffic along PCH. If you're driving the speed limit, you should hit green

lights. If you're going too fast, you're going to hit a red light. So, uh another thing to add to safety speed cameras are also uh about to be installed. So, that's good. Um so, you'll see those coming up. I think there's five cameras going to be installed or five locations. And also we're still partnering with CALR uh to try and make PCH safer. Um our real-time watch center is up and running and we have it staffed almost 24/7 now. So that goes handinhand with the uh license plate reader cameras that the city bought and installed. And so now we have people monitoring uh the license plate reader system as well as all of the public facing cameras which were integrated into our real-time watch center. So that's been integral um in investigations through our detective bureau to solve crimes after the fact and as well as uh real time when people call in we can pull up cameras in real time and see what's going on. So it's been a real asset for us. Um ICS training which is the incident command system that's a federal standard uh for disaster management. All our supervisors are mandated to be trained in it now. So um they are currently going through the uh incident command system training which is the gold standard for uh disaster management. Uh our disaster communication systems uh so it's basically ham operators and um we have a a large contingent of volunteers that do disaster communications. They got a new van full of the state-of-the-art equipment. Their last one was about 30 years old, so it was time for a new one. Uh we're working with the city to do the mass evacuation update. So that's ongoing. Um we're looking at getting a new command post trailer for the station. Uh our the one we have is probably 20 years old now. So we're looking at the latest and

greatest coming out. uh the VOP for the VOP cars for the city, the bailment's been approved and they're currently at fleet getting in uh equipment installed, lighting and radios and um all the good stuff in that. So, uh hopefully those will be on the road soon. We have four new trainees uh at the station. Uh some people promoted and went on specialized assignment, so you'll see some new faces out there, but uh staffing continues to be a problem. We're at about 70% staffing. So, here's my shameless recruiting pitch. It's a great job. Send your friends and family ld.org. Thank you. I take questions if you have any. Does anybody have any questions?

I I have just one. There have been a couple articles I read last week about they I guess the federal government is getting access to some of these license plate readers and they're feeding it over to ICE and they're using we're fairly comfortable that we got this stuff protected. So it's not being spread around to people without spread around. We are the only ones that have access to it and we do not share it with uh the federal government. Okay. So they No, they can't they're not breaking. Okay. Okay. Make sure Hay. Thank you. Um thank you Sergeant. I I just wanted to repeat that you're 70 how how what is your shortage?

We're at about 70% staffing right now. So that means that we can't add magic like cops on the PCH to give out citations or tickets or slow people down because we are where we are with our amount of police officers. Is that right? Correct. Okay. Um I appreciate that. Did I just hear that there was a accident on Malibu Canyon? Yeah, there is. There was a overturned vehicle and both north and southbound lanes are blocked right now.

It's tragic. I'm sorry to hear that. Um, do you have an update of the man who was walking on PCH a few months ago who was struck by a juvenile? I am very worried about that. Um, it was dark and he was walking on PCH and the boy who hit him wasn't speeding or texting or driving drunk. He was also driving the speed limit. Just didn't happen to see him. So, I was wondering if maybe you had an update on that. Uh, same information as last time. We're still trying to identify that pedestrian. Yes. I hope he's okay. Um, thank you so much. You're welcome.

Okay. I'm going to hit you with a bunch of stuff. Sorry. Um, so drones, um, is there any special marking on them so people can tell the difference between a a LD drone and just a private? We have there is a large sheriff star on it, but you're I mean you're not going to be able to see it up in the sky. So, um but what we do, we have to issue it's called a notm. It's a notice to airmen when we launch them that that drone is in the sky. So, the people who are in the air or flying around, they'll know that we have a drone up. So, it's not like we just launch it willy-nilly. People we we send an alert that the drone is in the air. So,

Okay, great. Um could you repeat and we have a lot of beachfront property owners here and um could you uh remind about the letter of agency? So if they're experiencing any graffiti issues on their properties or their neighbors properties, how um you guys can help if they have a letter of agency. Um

Sure. So, uh, our letter letter of agency, it allows a deputy to respond to your property and, uh, if they locate an individual on there, um, we have your contact information and we're able to reach out, say, "Hey, is this person supposed to be or are they not supposed to be here?" And if they're not supposed to be there, you basically grant us authority, you don't have to be there to arrest them for trespassing. So, uh, you can go on the city website under the law enforcement tab. There's a, uh, PDF version of it that you can fill out and submit. and we'll have it on file. So when your address is typed into our computer AED dispatch system, um it will show up that there's a letter of agency on file and we'll have all your contact information. Yep.

Thank you. Um the you talked about the the cameras um being aligned since most of the areas within the the burn area, are those being um and I don't know if Rob's the right person, maybe um are they being set to 25 miles an hour? Um or do you know? Yeah, I don't have that information. Okay. Since that's what the the speed limit's supposed to be in that area, just to make sure. And then the same if they get the speed cameras up on board, making sure that we've got them set for the proper correct um limits there. And then um a last thing to put you on the spot about virtual deputy. I've heard a lot about this ver virtual deputy program. Can you just give us a little info on it?

Sure. So, a virtual deputy is uh it's basically a Zoom call with a deputy so they can take a report for you. So, um it's good for lost property reports. It's good for um if you just want to talk to a deputy, have questions, you can set up and that's actually going to go through our real-time crime center that the deputies that are there will be doing the virtual deputy program. So, you can set up an appointment uh get on a Zoom call with the deputy and he can answer your questions or take a report for you if need be. So the person doesn't have to take off time from work, drive to the station, they can do it from their home or their office during the daytime and correct handle deputy things like that. Great. Thank you, Sergeant. Anybody else?

Yeah, actually I have a follow-up question from that. So u it's interesting that Maryann's focus was on inconvenience to the resident. I did a ride along with you guys and I was really surprised how much time you all waste driving to different places to take reports and then taking them. Can is it mandatory? Like can you require people to do it virtually as opposed to having to drive around and take reports like that? It depends on the type.

If it's not an urgent if it's not an if it's a crime, we kind of want to look for evidence and um you know things that we can gather to help the investigation. So that's why we want to be there on scene. But for more mundane reports such as like lost property, things like that, it's we can do that on a Zoom. So you can you can designate which it'll be or do you have to go to the they're live unless the person is willing to do it by Zoom? I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? Yeah. Can you can they can the sheriff's department designate what gets done by Zoom or do you have to go out to the location if the person wants you to?

Uh yeah, we have criteria. Um it's like a matrix that depending on what's needed whether it qualifies to take a report over the over the Zoom call. So okay. I I was really disappointed at how much time seemed to be wasted taking pretty routine reports that weren't going anywhere. Well, as soon as we get that substation in Malibu opened up, that'll help, won't it? There you go. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Have a great holiday. All right. You too. Thank you. Best of luck to all the deputies. Do we have anything else? not for four more minutes, but this is the reminder for anyone who'd like to speak on item 5B to submit your speaker slip now. That item will be heard at 6:30.

Okay? So, please get your speaker slips in for item 5B. That's the CALR item. We won't be taking any late slips, so you need to get them in advance of the item um starting. And then we're going to take a break for three minutes and we'll be back at 6:30.

Are you serious? Does everyone have their speaker slip in? Going once, going twice. Are we back? Okay, we are now back and we will be moving forward with item 5B.

May we have a staff report, please? Oh, wait, wait. Sorry. With disclosures?

Yeah, we have disclosures. I have a disclosure. Um, hello everyone. I've been advised that I need to recuse myself tonight, not because of any financial benefit, but simply because I have a strong opinion about this issue. I am deeply disappointed to be stepping back from what may be one of the most important decisions I will face in my time on council. I ran my campaign on this. I believe in this work. This refusal risk recusal feels like a loss to the city and a loss for the purpose I came here with. Once again, the process we are loyal to outweighs the outcomes we desperately need. I have never been so ashamed or so disappointed in some of the people I know in this town as I have in the past few weeks. I have watched and this is not who we say we are. This has been small. There's been small, inaccurate, and completely disconnected from the urgency of protecting lives on our highway. Our job as government is to protect. I have poured everything I have into this role and moments like this make me step back and ask why I'm giving so much of my time and energy to a city that keeps working against its own best interests. I have watched in real disappointment as planning commissioners and residents have spoken to visiting engineers with a tone and an attitude in my view is unacceptable. We invite these people here to help fix PCH and then we talk to them as if we know more about road safely safety simply because we live here. It is embarrassing. It is harmful and it's not leadership. And in my year on council, I've spoken to more than a dozen agencies and we do not have a good reputation to work with. We are seen as difficult. We're seen as unserious and as humiliating. We want attention and support and then act as as if we are above it when it arrives. To the Calran engineers who have tried

to work with us in good faith, I want to say that I'm sorry for the way that some of you were treated. You deserved and respect. You deserved respect and you did not receive it. I dedicate this vote to the many lives lost and the countless injuries that have happened on this highway. That's it. I gotta leave now, but I'll be watching. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's enough clapping. Thank you. Do any other council members have any other um disclosures or recusals or are we here?

I just have a procedural question for Trevor. It seems like we have got no rhyme or reason to when we do disclosures on land use appeals. I mean we hear reports a lot of times and then we do them. We even sometimes wait till after questions have been asked and then we do them. Today we did it before we hear a word. What's the rule? Sure. Disclosures of um exarty communications or information must be done before the public hearing starts. So it can be done immediately when the item is called or it could be done anytime before the public hearing starts. If there's a recusal then it needs to be done right away because there can be no participation in the matter. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay.

Are we doing those disclosures now or only of recusals? It's just us doing it all together.

I get to start. All right. Um my public disclosures obviously I've uh been involved in this uh all this year. If you look at um the CALR presentation, I brought the one in from uh one of the sessions I went to, been involved at the public hearings. I've been to all those uh in recently on the appeal. I've talked to Pat Healey. Uh I've talked to uh Nicole Taylor and Phil Phillips from Pepperdine. And I've also uh tried to keep an open mind about all this. We're in a semi-judicial role on an appeal basis. And while I've talked to a number of people about this or people have tried to talk to me, uh, I've said I can't give you an opinion. I have an open mind. I want to hear all the facts and that's our requirement to do. I have nothing else to disclose.

Steve, I spoke to Nicole Taylor. I spoke to Pat Healey. I spoke to Lee Haber. uh just talking about some of the issues in the uh CALR project that didn't change anything or change their opinion or change mine.

Bruce, anything else? the I haven't spoken with anyone who's involved in this appeal or anyone who has a position on this appeal other than to um one exception, Michelle, who had a very brief conversation, but I made clear to him that I had to keep an open mind and would do so. And I did speak with Halen about her recusal. I wanted to try to talk her out of recusing herself because I didn't believe that legally she was required to. I thought she had a strong view, but that she was able to continue to keep an open mind on what would be presented at the hearing, but we didn't otherwise discuss the substance of the issues in the appeal. So, those are the only conversations I've had with anybody. I do need to uh do a followup. I didn't make the magic statement that uh I learned nothing in my conversations that is not now part of the public record.

Okay. And I spoke with Nicole Nicole Taylor also. I met with Pat Healey. Um, I talked to Lee Haber. Um, heard from various residents. Um, saw a few things on social media and stuff, but um, again, nothing new that wasn't in. Um, I did watch part of the planning commission meeting, the first meeting, and um, have attended some CALR meetings with regards to this project through um, the time that they've been moving it through the system. So, was there any information that you gained or any council member gained that was not part of the records before us today? No. Okay. So, that's concluded and we'll have a staff report now, please.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, counselors. The appeal before you tonight is appeal number 25-007, appealing coastal development permit number 25-009. So for background on the project, CALR submitted the CDP application on March 13, 2025. Calrans representatives presented the project to the city council on June 23rd, 2025. The project was then presented to the public works council on July 23rd, 2025. The project was presented to the planning commission on October 20th and continued to the November 3rd meeting. The project was then approved by the planning commission with conditions at the November 3rd hearing. And the project was appealed by Malibu Township Council on November 12th. Just to get into the project, uh give some background on it as well. This is a look at the vicinity map. Uh the PCH improvement stretch from the Ventura County line to Sarah Road. And just going to quickly go through the project components. uh new guardrails, curb ramps, sidewalks, retaining walls, realigned intersections, new light poles, bike lanes, a new law enforcement pullout lane, median reconstruction, and associated roadway improvements, which there's a long list here. So, repaving, crosswalk striping, pedestrian signals, uh traffic channelization, ballards, uh radar feedback signs, adjustments to traffic signal timing, among others. So the appeal uh presented by the appellant uh states the planning commission's decision was based on the findings or conditions not supported by the evidence or the decision is not supported by the findings and the decision was contrary to law. The planning commission's decision was not was not the least environmentally damaging alternative and violates the public access provisions of the LCP. Also within the appeal, uh the appellant offered a number of conditions for the

council to consider. I'll just run through them very quickly here. Uh reduce PCH speed limits by 5 mph. Remove the proposed sidewalk along Pepperdine University from the scope of work. Remove the proposed sidewalk along Corral Canyon State Beach from the scope of work. Remove proposed lighting in front of Malibu Seafood and lighting between Zuma View Place and Zumeiro's Drive. require bike lanes to be pro painted green and install reflectors along lane lines and require consultation with first responders. The applicant CALR then provided a response letter uh dated 1117 and uh taking note of each of those potential conditions uh CALR responded by saying CALR can work with the city to reduce the speed limit but it will take more time to evaluate than this project allows. Uh the proposed sidewalks in front of Pepperdine University and along Corral Canyon State Beach will remain in their scope of work. Uh Calrans will consider adding markers along bike lanes as appropriate. And CALR states that the project does not negatively affect first responders as the project maintains the same number of lanes and the lanes can be open during construction in the event of an emergency. In terms of correspondence, uh, so far the city has received approximately 136 letters, uh, the vast majority in support of the project. And then if the council wishes to approve the project as proposed, there's just a a few updates to the resolution that I just want to mention up front. Uh just in terms of numbers, in terms of the bike lane mileage and the number of street lights, um Calrans has since reduced the number of street lights or proposed to reduce the number of street lights to 18. Um and in terms of the bike lane mileage, just a typo in the action item that needs to be updated to their proposed amount of 9.7 mi. And then for the number of street lights, that would need to be updated in the

action item description section four and condition of approval number two. That ends the presentation and we're available for questions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so the appellant team, they will go first and that is uh Malibu Townro Council, Bill Samson and Joe Drummond. You have 15 minutes, correct? And please let us know if you want to reserve any of your time for rebuttal. We will reserve No, we'll reserve what's left over.

Okay. for rebuttal. It's probably going to be I don't know five or six minutes. Okay. My name is Bill Samson. I'm president of the Malibu Township Council. We've been here since 1947, January 10th. We're finishing our 79th year. We are not a political entity. We are a social welfare organization under Internal Revenue Code section 501c4. You may look it up. You can find our determination letter. We are as interested in public safety as anyone is around here. We were confronted on November 12th with having to protect the stuff we wanted to get. There's Sometimes you have to file an appeal or a complaint to preserve your rights and your time. That's what we did. So, I'll go through it. The lighting reductions. I just saw the number 18. I believe the numbers 22, but 18 are in the city limits and four are outside the city. If I'm incorrect on that, I'm sure somebody will bring it up. Perhaps the people from Calrance with whom I have met precisely once. It was a cordial meeting. It was by Zoom. They've agreed only three lights between Zuma View Place and Zumeri's Drive. We're that's acceptable to us. We basically have worked this out. That was the purpose for filing the appeal with one item left. We had to reserve our time. If we let it go, it was going to go in as planned and that was not acceptable to us. We've come up with something better and they have cooperated. We appreciate it. The safety procedures on the bike lanes, we would like them green. We'd like protective dots. Uh, at least one of our members thinks that the pavement markings would be superior to bots dots. Um, I've hit them both on a bicycle. I've probably fallen on both of them on a bicycle. Um, fortunately, I've never wind wound up in a sewer grade, but whatever works better and it may be the

pavement markers, but they're agreeable on the bike lane requests. Speed limit reduction. I understand the problem. Um, we got several different state agencies here and one can't do what the other one wants to. I suspect CALR might like to reduce the speed limits around here. I'm sure the sheriff would and we would. the Corral Beach sidewalk. We had originally uh been very concerned about it and that creating another problem. We've agreed on that sidewalk can go in as they proposed. The lighting at that area near Malibu Seafood that was uh Calrans agreed to reduce a lot of it. Uh there's lighting out between Zuma View Place and Zumearez. I believe that's down to zero or one. Whatever it is, it's acceptable. Today I've learned we still disagree about the separate excuse me about the sidewalk in front of the Pepperdine lawn. I just remarked to Nicole whom I just met. I saw her testify at the u um planning commission meeting and remarked it's interesting that the interests of the Malibu Township Council and Pepperdine are exactly aligned on the sidewalk. We disagree with Calrance. I will say I appreciate meeting with the Calrans people. I will tell you this during that meeting I asked them there was u Miss Pay by Miss I think I said her name correctly Mr. Haver Mr. Molina, I said, "What consideration did you give to the Malibu vision and mission statements?" They did not know what those were. One of them, one of the males said, and I can't remember which one, said, "Oh, that's just some kind of aspiration thing." It's not. It's part of our code. It's part of our general plan. It is the law. You all took an oath to follow. I will turn it over to Miss Drummond. May I ask a question? Trevor, can I ask a question?

Quick question. I think we we going to have a time to ask questions of them. Help me understand what they're saying going forward. If I can get an answer, it's up to the discretion of the mayor if you want to allow it. Yes. Okay. Um either Bill or Joe, I want to be Could could you just for sum up very succinctly what is in dispute as opposed to all the things that are worked out partially or entirely? It's just the Pepperdine sidewalk. Okay. Thank you.

So, good evening, council members. I'm Joe Drummond and I'm speaking on behalf of Malibu Township Council, not to my personal feelings or beliefs. MTC's preference from the beginning was to work collaboratively, not adversarially with Calrans and the city to achieve practical evidence-based safety improvements. And that is exactly what happened. Like many in this community, our members, including my family, have experienced profound loss of homes, of friends, of family, and of neighbors because of the dangers on PCH. The purpose of MTC's appeal is to increase safety. MTC has consistently advanced meaningful data-driven safety reforms. from working with CALR to ensure that NOU had their July 4th permit revoked, an event that should have been shut down but tragically was not to establishing the state legislation banning three axle big rig trucks on PCH, a measure that has unquestionably saved countless lives. Our commitment to public safety is long-standing, evidence-based, and unwavering. With that said, once the appeal was filed, as an MTC representative, I focused entirely on keeping the process constructive and productive. Over the past several weeks, I helped arrange multiple meetings, conversations, and exchanges with Calrans that directly produce the written com commitments before you tonight. The same commitments referenced in the staff's prep presentation. Commitments that significantly strengthen the project. Because of this cooperation, the lighting plan was carefully re-evaluated based on accident data data, reducing poles from 27 to 22, including eliminating the Malibu seafood lights, and removing the excessive lighting previously proposed between Zumeres and Zuma View Place. Bike lanes will be safer with CALR agreeing to provide reflective markers and clear signage where the bike lanes and end and merge into traffic. This can be added as a condition tonight. Calrans also confirmed that a speed limit reduction can go into effect during construction as soon as AB1014 protocols are finalized, hopefully in the spring. And the concerns at Corell Beach were fully resolved with CALR

offering a safe and workable solution. These improvements happened not through conflict or delay, but through dialogue from residents with our community. The only remaining issue is the proposed Pepperdine sidewalk. The planning commission's intent was for Pepperdine and Calrans to reach a mutually acceptable solution. They have not and no safety justification has been provided to Pepperdine or the city for the placing of a sidewalk on alumni on the alumni park side of PCH. MTC has been in direct communication with Pepperdine throughout this process and they have been clear. They fully support removing the sidewalk and thus fully support the remaining matter of this MTC appeal. Their letter to you stated on Friday that they were never provided the safety rationale they requested and none of the three reviewing agencies, the sheriff's department, the fire department or city staff identified any safety need or pedestrian demand. These slides show exactly why the pepperdine side is unsafe and impractical. A fulllength drainage ditch um let's see how does this work there obstructs the pepperdine frontage. Two fire hydrants require costly relocation. An existing crosswalk and signals already serve the opposite side. And a bus stop, a bench, and a pedestrian zone are already on the bluff side. That side has ample open space for path without obstructions. And importantly, people walking to or from Bluffs Park would not have to cross the highway to reach the bus stop if the sidewalk is on that side, which alone makes it much safer. There's also several mature trees that block the Pepperdine right of way. No one walks along Pepperdine's frontage today. The proposed sidewalk would not connect to any destinations. Alumni Park is Malibu's scenic rural gateway. A sidewalk with a 50 footx 3 ft retaining wall would permanently alter that character, urbanizing open space and inviting graffiti and loitering. No

visible retaining wall would be needed on the bluff side. The Federal Highway Administration is clear. Sidewalks should connect to real destinations, not exist in isolated segments. Along this stretch of PCH, there are no other sidewalks. The Pepperdine sidewalk would literally be a sidewalk to nowhere. The highway administration also says sidewalks should be placed near transit stops where there is actual pedestrian activity and all of that activity the bus stop the bench and the pedestrians is on the bluffs park side not on the Pepperdine side. There is zero pedestrian activity on the Pepperdine frontage today and no realistic potential for it. This makes the bluff side the only logical and federally supported location. Earlier today, Raphael Molina from Calrans texted me that they view the sidewalk as a key safety feature. And they did evaluate the bluff's park side, but found it not feasible due to terrain and anticipated impacts. But based on the evidence you have, the flat shoulder, the existing pedestrian zone, and the fact that it avoids a highway crossing, the bluff side appears clearly safer. I even said if if it's state land, and Calrans is a state safety agency, why should there be any barriers to using the safer side? He replied that he knows we are advocating for a safe outcome as well, but not with a direct answer, which is what I hope we can get tonight. Not feasible without a transparent and rigorous review cannot be the end of the conversation, especially when the alternative is safer, easier to construct on state land, and is fully supported by federal guidance. To honor the city's condition requiring Pepperdine satisfaction, the only responsible action is to remove the Pepperdine sidewalk from the CDP tonight. If Calrans confirms this change and includes the lighting, bike lane, and speed limit conditions, MTC will fully support moving the project forward by the December 1st deadline. We all want the same thing, a safer PCH grounded in data, collaboration, and respect for Malibu's rural character. Thank you for your time and your commitment to genuine safety improvements for the community. And I'll

reserve the rest of the time. Thanks. Have 528 left over. So, now we will hear from the applicant, Lee Haber. Oh, Nancy, are you both? Good evening, council member and mayor.

Um, to address the the question that brought up right now, which is the sidewalk is the only issue that's available. um and of concern. We did look at the plus sidewalk and it's not feasible because we will need additional rightway from the county and from the city of Malibu. Placing the sidewalk on the Pepperdine side that's within our existing rightway right now, the state rightway. We do not need additional rightway from anybody. the sidewall will be placed within the state right away on that side. So we will be able to proceed forward on that. No permanent take will be uh required. So that's where we add to address that item of the outstanding item that's still in question is the sidewalk.

Okay. Any other comments? Do you want to reserve the rest of your time or go ahead and Thank you. So the sidewalk there on the Pepperdine side connects two existing two existing sidewalks. So it does provide a connection through of the other existing sidewalks on Malibu Canyon Road and John Tyler. You currently have a break in terms of the retaining wall. My understanding is the retaining wall is necessary on the inland side not to be visible from PCH where the small drainage inlet that you could see earlier was shown with the chain link fence grading laid over the top of it in that vicinity. That is where the retaining wall would be according to my understanding.

Is that correct? That's correct. The only retaining wall we need is about 50 ft where the great um Miss Drummond was shown on the picture. because of that drainage we want to protect and we don't want to impact that we have to put a retaining wall there. Um any other places there's no retaining wall.

So that drainage inlet is there in the state rightway area. It would be the retaining wall would be facing that drainage area. So it would not be visible from Pacific Coast Highway. The additional part is there is not a drainage ditch that I'm aware of along the entire side as may have been outlined earlier. I think the intent was to communicate about that one area where the drainage inlet is and the plan would automatically include maintaining the fire hydrants in that area. We would just relocate as appropriate. We'd maintain fire the fire hydrants in that area. We also complied with the planning commission item, their condition. We had a meeting with Malibu staff present with LA County Sheriff, LA Fire and Pepperdine. We've conferred on this matter. We've taken their input into consideration. It was outlined as asked that LA Fire and LA County Sheriff both indicated there would not be an impact on their operations in that meeting that we had last Thursday. Thank you.

Okay. So, you have 12 minutes and 3 seconds reserved. One quick question. Yes. The the retaining wall is going to be how large? How how long? It's about 3 feet high where the drainage area is just to retain the dirty there so we don't um impact. How long? 50 ft. 50 ft. Yes. Any others before we start public comment?

Okay. Um I see a number of um students here or those under the age of 18. They may have school tomorrow. I'm going to take a little procedure. If you're 18 or younger and have school tomorrow, raise your hand. Did you put in speaker slips? What are your names? Okay. Two, those two come forward, please. And then I'll go back to the regular order. Okay. Yeah. Anybody who has a speaker slip that has school tomorrow. I will find your slips. Darcy, go ahead.

Hi, my name is Darcy Hurley. I'm a brand new licensed driver. And as a kid who's now going to be growing up for the rest of my high school career, I'm currently a sophomore, I think there's no hurting in just a sidewalk. As a kid myself who's been trying to go from maybe Bluff Park to my friend's house in John Tyler, it's not safe. If I'm trying to go after a soccer game or soccer practice to my friend's house, I don't have the guaranteed protection of walking safely. I can maybe walk on the side or maybe walk on the grass, but honestly, there's nothing wrong with a sidewalk that's just going to benefit everyone. for kids who are just trying to get places. It's also really hard to get from Cross Creek there. So, if you're going from Bluffs to John Tyler, it makes no sense to not put on a sidewalk when there could be one. So, thank you.

Thank you. And your name? Parker Kaplan. Parker Kaplan. Okay. Go ahead, Parker.

Good evening, city council. My name is Parker Kaplan and I'm the sophomore class president at Malu High School and a newly licensed driver. I'm here tonight not just as a student, but as someone who has grown up along Pacific Coast Highway. Growing up on Malber Road, I wasn't allowed to cross PCH for years. Walking or biking to a friend's house, just crossing a street wasn't safe. For teenagers like me, PCH has become more than just a road. It's a barrier. Parents worry constantly for our safety, and it affects everyone's everyday lives. In my 16 years in Malibu, PCH has been the number one concern. I've witnessed accidents as a new driver, had friends in crashes, and have heard countless amounts of tragic stories. Since 2010, 61 people have died on this highway. That number should shock us. Yet it has somehow become a norm normality. We've had opportunities to make this road safer, but little has been done. Now with CALR offering improvements, we have a real chance to act. Memorials and signs aren't enough. We need better lighting, protected bike lanes, and crosswalks that feel safe. We need a road that prioritizes people lives, people's lives over speed. This isn't just about today. It's about tomorrow. The next generation of Malibu kids deserve to grow up without a fear of a road that defines our community. We need to make PCH a symbol of safety and not tragedy. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Your name before you start, please.

Oh, hi. My name is L and I'm Halen's daughter. For the past nine months, I've watched my mom work tirelessly for this city. She truly loves it and I couldn't be more proud of her. I'm about to get my driver's license. And the last time I spoke at a city council meeting, it was about the four girls who tragically lost their lives. Since then, in these nine months, little to nothing has changed to make PCH safer. My mom has been working hard to improve safety on PCH. And now it finally looks like there's a plan to make a real difference. But I'm disappointed to hear that my future and the safety of so many others is being weighed against the cost of construction or new lights. I don't want to live in a city where I don't feel safe to live in. It is your job to better Malibu and keep us safe. How can you run for a position and you don't do all that you can to keep your community safe. That's the very reason my mom chose to run for city council to fight for safety and change. The responsibility now lies in your hands. You have the power to make this plan happen. You get to decide the future of my safety and my friend's safety. Thank you.

Okay. Um sorry everybody. We have a rule that we don't clap. We want to make sure that everybody feels they have safe. So, jazz hands, silent um approvals. Thank you. And your name before you start? Nahha Matthews. Thank you.

Um hi, I live in Pacific Palisades and go to Pali High, but I come to Malibu or drive on PCH every day. My experience has unfortunately been that the roads are so unsafe in so many ways. I have my permit and whenever I drive to my parents, it's super scary and the speeding is out of control. I understand many of you are concerned about the construction that will continue. And while I believe this is a valid con valid frustration, I 100% believe the 60 permanent deaths caused by PCH are far more important than temporary construction. I also ride horses and when I'm in the truck with my trainer while she's driving the trailer, people are so reckless and have no consideration of space awareness. Speaking of live animals, I have seen on multiple occasions people's pets loose on PCH. The many issues on PCH need to be resolved immediately for the sake of everyone's safety.

Thank you. Any other students? Okay, now we'll go back to our regular order. Um, Arthur Brock Lablan, followed by Bert Ross, followed by David Rollstone. Thank you, council members. It's Arthur Brocklbank. Sorry about that.

You know, let's make PCH safe. We don't want to see any more deaths. I mean, our law enforcement officers see a lot of that every every time they go out. But there's one word I always say, change is the price of survival and we don't want to see any more deaths on this road. And um I drive it PCH every Sunday. Um, but the other week I was the other day I was driving in the rain on a Thursday night from coming back from the senior center. It's dangerous and I know we're all trying to do our best. So, as I say, change is the price of survival. And thank you for letting me speak. It's a great country and it's a great place, Malibu. Thanks again. Thank you. Bert Ross, followed by David Brolston, followed by Chris Weisner.

You look good without the king.

Madame Mayor, members of the council, my name is Bert Ross, and I'm here to support Calrron's long overdue safety improvements to the PCH. When we were infants, most of us learned to say the word no before we learned to say the word yes. Unfortunately, here in Malibu, there are some of our neighbors who struggle to ever get to yes. They oppose almost all construction in the name of our mission statement, which says, amongst other things, quote, "Malibu will maintain its rural character." Close quote. The traditional definition of rural normally refers to communities with fewer than 2500 residents, often with a reliance on agriculture. With almost 15 million visitors annually and a Nou restaurant, Malibu stretches the traditional definition of a rural community. When I hear from some of my neighbors who bought their homes here 40 years ago, I can certainly understand why they feel nostalgia for the time when people rode their horses around town. But those days are unfortunately in the past. The sad fact is that the proverbial horse is long out of the barn. In order to stop development, we have created such a web of rules and regulations that it has become an arduous undertaking simply to build or even renovate a home. People need to pay an expediter just to move through the bureaucratic morass. In the past seven years, we in Malibu have lost almost one in four of our homes because of fire. Virtually half the homes lost in the Woosey fire are still not fully rebuilt. And only a tiny fraction of the people who lost their homes in the Palisades fire have building permits. I was glad to hear what Yolanda said and hopefully that will be uh a change in what's happening regarding the issuance of permits. This poority of the issuance of permits seems to be at least partially the result of Malibu's long-standing no development culture which has turned out to hurt the very people it was meant to protect. And now some of these same no

development neighbors are opposing some of the improvements to the safety of the PCH where over 60 innocent human beings have lost their lives mostly in the short time that my wife and I have lived in town. The opposition again comes in the name of preserving our rural character but certainly sidewalks are not a serious threat to our way of life. Yes, credit should be given to those neighbors who afford uncontrolled development and help Malibu continue to be the beautiful and magical place it is. And yes, the appellant deserves credit apparently for making some progress in their discourse with CALR. But when the safety our people when the safety of our people is at stake and if this project is delayed, safety will be at stake, then it is time to say yes. I want to wish everybody up there and to my left uh thank you for your service regardless of how you vote on any issues and may you all and your families have a holiday including everybody here uh with lots of blessings to be thankful for.

I never normally speak and then leave but I have an 9-month-old grandson whom I'm going to put to bed so forgive me for leaving. Happy holiday. Okay, David Rollston and is Tracy here. Thank you. You have four minutes followed by Chris, followed by Michelle Shane. Okay, thank you. Uh, good evening. Good evening.

My name is David Rston. I have spoken to most of you at uh, one point or another in the last two years since our daughter uh, Ne Rston was killed here on PCH. with her Pepperdine sority sisters Payton Stewart, Ashawa Weir, and Deselyn Williams. And as so happens, today would have been her 23rd birthday.

Uh, in her short life, Neve brought a lot of joy and light into the lives of people she knew. She lived her entire life in Los Angeles. She spent a significant amount of time in Malibu growing up, was a graduate of Oaks Christian High School, and for four years lived in Malibu as a Pepperdine student. She embraced and cherished Malibu and its citizens and she was a resident. I remember the city council meetings that were held in the aftermath of her death. I remember the voices of the many community members who wanted to know why Pacific Host Coast Highway is so dangerous. They wanted to know why it seemed so many drivers speed and why there are so many accidents that occur in their community. And I remember hearing the uh I I recalled the hearing uh of those people that uh recalled collisions and coming out of their homes to witness horrific scenes of gravely injured victims on multiple occasions. Events few people experience in a lifetime, let alone more than once outside their home. Others spoke of the sound of cars racing along PCH at night. There were many ideas brought up by the city council members at those meetings and many of them were sensible and in line with what I know as a resident of Laurel Canyon for over 20 years. PCH is not the only heavily traffked roadway running through a residential community. Local to our home are roads like Mullholland Drive and Sunset Drive uh Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard was the location of Dead Man's Curve in Jan and Dean Song from 1964. Those roads have been changed long ago and made much safer. What I took away from the discussions of this city council was that the city of Malibu could not change PCH without the cooperation and support of other entities and in particular CALR. This is one of those moments where the city council at long last has the opportunity to see PCH re-engineered in the interest of making it better equipped to support vehicles, parking, pedestrians, and cyclists that rely upon it at various locations.

I am not a traffic safety expert. As all the works of man, it is likely to be imperfect and will never please everyone. I've seen arguments being made that PCH is just fine and doesn't need to be changed because more people haven't died on it recently with no acknowledgement of the months it was shut down nor the ongoing construction, reduced speed limits, and lane closures. I don't think those are good faith arguments. Are a handful of street lights on PCH worth debating? I know there are many who have a vision of PCH through Malibu that is far more ambitious and with a design that is more suited to a residential community. This is a step in that direction. Your planning committee approved this. Thank you,

Chris. Followed by Michelle, followed by Marielle.

Hi. Before I read my speech, I'm going to just address this Pepperdine sidewalk thing because this irks me. There's nearly 10,000 students and staff on one side of that road that could use this every day. If we do it on the other side, everyone has to use the intersections more and more. Think of the math and the statistics there and how many more accidents that creates. But I'll start my speech. Dear city council and Malibu community, my name is Chris Weiser and I have lived in Malibu for 24 years. I only swore I would never leave this city. This place shaped me. It's where I dreamed of raising my daughter and growing old with my family. But in October 2024, I was forced to leave because the NOU Fourth of July PCH tragedy nearly killed my entire family just one minute apart in traffic on my daughter's first birthday, which happens to be 4th of July. Instead of celebrating her beautiful first year of life, I watched another life slip away. I saw Martin Oiki in his final moments on the P on the sidewalk at PCH fighting for his life and losing it in five short minutes. That image hit me like a hurricane. And in that moment, I realized my family safety mattered more than the dream of living in Malibu. And I told my family, we're moving. But this isn't just about me. How many more amazing Malibuites do we have to lose? How many more preventable deaths on PCH must occur before we choose action over delay? Tonight, we have a chance to finally move forward with the most significant safety upgrades PCH has seen in decades. Even if this permanent isn't perfect, and nothing this big ever is, it represents more progress than we have ever made on this daily on this deadly highway. As Mark Cuban says, perfectionists are the enemy of progress. Right now, we are standing on a collapsing bridge. We can keep arguing about the color of the new guard rails, or we can build the bridge that saves lives. Progress isn't a luxury anymore. It's a necessity. This appeal stands in

the way of real tangible improvements. Safer intersections, sidewalks, guardrails, lighting, bike rag upgrades that will prevent the next tragedy instead of reacting to it. So, I'm asking you from the depths of someone who lost his home, his sense of safety, and a piece of his heart on PCH that day when Martin passed, please discard this appeal. Move forward with a permit. Choose progress. Choose life. Do for Martin. Do for every Malibuite. We still have a chance to protect. Do it so no more families have to make the impossible choice mine did. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Michelle Shane, followed by Mariel Hadid and then an K.

Good evening, council. I had this fabulous speech all prepared and then sat down and found out that all we're talking about is the sidewalk. So, I will ask a couple questions. Um, my big question is who decided to remove some of the safety lights and why? Some local businesses. Sorry. So, we decided to remove the safety lighting that local businesses supported. Are we negotiating a very improve the very improvement people asked for? Did the planning commission make a wrong move here? How was this decided? Are we so enamored with dark skies that we forgot to look down at the ground? And on top of that, the lights were dark sky compliant. I spoke with Calamigos and Malibu Seafood. They tell me they actually wanted the lights and that no one spoke to them about removing the lights in their areas. 61 deaths since 2010 with the first one being my daughter Emily. This is the first real chance for PCH implementation and safety improvements in 30 years. You all ran on on safety. You all ran about keeping our communities safe. You're elected to represent the people who want to get home safely. So do your job, vote yes, stop endless back and forth, and start saving lives. The next empty chair might be in your house. Uh, Mariel Hadid, followed by Anne K, followed by Bridget Thompson. Good evening, council members.

Uh, thank you for your time and your continued commitment to this community. My name is Marielle Hadid. I serve as chair of the Malibu PTSA Safe on PCH committee. I'm a board member of the PTSA and the PTA and I'm a mother of two. I'm h I'm here tonight as a very concerned parent joined by members of the Malibu Middle and High PTSA and the Malibu Elementary PTA. We're here to represent concerned by shared by families across our K12 community. The PTSA leads be safe on PCH, a student and family safety initiative. We've already brought CHP officer Sturgis to the campus to speak with the ninth and tth graders and we're doing AAA events. We're doing what we can to educate our children so that they can drive safely on this road. As shared with the families yesterday, agenda 5B represents over 50 million in state funded PCH safety improvements. Funding the city of Malibu does not have to pay for. If this appeal is approved, that funding will likely be withdrawn and improvements will probably be delayed for years. This highway is dangerous. Between 2010 and 2023, about 170 people were killed or seriously injured. a disproportionately high rate of fatal and severe injuries. We have tragically lost too many people here. Improvements like dark skies, compliance, lighting, safer crossings, updating pavement, and clearer bike lanes will help protect our community. Construction impacts matter and should be addressed. I don't want to be inconvenienced by traffic construction,

but I do want safer roads for our children. There's never a good time for construction, but it can't be placed on the same scale as human life. We have the funding available now. Please look, take this opportunity to make PCH safer. I urge you to support item 5B and help prevent future loss of life. Thank you. Thank you. An K followed by Bridget Thompson followed by Sophia DeLees. Sorry if I got that incorrect. Hello. Uh my name's Anastasia Comaras. Uh and um I hear everything everyone's saying. Uh I don't want to be in the same predicament as Halen Conrad find herself herself in right now. that is conflicted out. So, um, since I'm running for governor of California and Calrans is involved and the city's involved, any decision I make here or say here can be used to prevent what you're looking to do. So, I hear what everyone's saying. So, it's best for me to listen and keep my mouth shut. That way, I don't get conflicted out and get put out in the hallway like Conrad Halen is right now. Thank you. Bridget Thompson followed by Sophia followed by Tina Seagull. Good evening council members. My name is Bridget Thompson. I'm an Pepperdine University alum and a dedicated advocate for PCH safety. Two years ago, my four best friends, Neve Rollston, Payton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslin Williams were killed on Pacific Coast Highway. They weren't just names in a headline.

They were my roommates, my family, the people I lived with, laughed with, planned my future with. Losing them shattered my life in a way I will never fully be able to put into words. And today is especially painful because today would have been Ne's 23rd birthday. I should be singing her happy birthday. I should be celebrating with her. Instead, I'm standing here fighting for her life and all of their lives to mean something. I'm not asking you for perfection. I'm aware this project isn't absolutely perfect, but is a but it is a start, and it's the only start we've had in years. We cannot wait for perfect. We can't hope for a better option someday while people are continuing to die now. This is the one moment where safety can be added while the road is already being torn up. If we miss it, we re we rebuild the same deadly road and nothing changes. I've heard people say they're worried it will mess up the rural feel of Malibu and that they won't be able to see the stars. And I need you to understand something deeply. I would trade every single star in the sky for one more day with any of those girls. Just one more day with any of them. To hear their voices, to see them walk through the door again. And I know their parents would say the same. Losing a child is a pain I cannot imagine. It's extremely disheartening to hear that preserving the stars is being weighed against preserving human lives. Beauty and safety can coexist. But the lives, they cannot be replaced. And I know this in my heart. If it were your daughter, your best friend, your loved one taken on this road, you would not hesitate. You wouldn't take any more time. You'd be fighting just like I am. I would

never wish this pain on anyone. And that's why I'm pleading with you to act before any other family has to feel this. I carry all four of my best friends with me every day. In everything that I do, I'm begging you. Please don't let this chance slip away. Do it for Neve. Do it for Payton, for Asha, for Desyn, and for every person who deserves to make it home. You have the power to save lives tonight. Please don't miss this chance. There's simply no time to waste. Thank you.

Thank you, um, Sophia. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Sophia Deellis, and I'm here to speak to you about the safety of PCH and how this bill is essential in saving people's lives. Two years ago, I lost my childhood best friend, Neverson. I lost my biggest supporter and I lost someone who impacted my life tremendously. Our friendship actually began in preschool um where I would save the seat every morning um next to me for her. And over the years, she became my family and someone that I loved deeply. I actually spend most of my time now missing the life that she was a part of. And as it was mentioned, today is her birthday. I should be celebrating with her. I should be celebrating her happiness and her health and everything that she wanted to experience out of this life. But instead, I am standing here before you heartbroken and filled overwhelmed with grief. There is not a single time that I drive along PCH where I don't think of her or I'm reminded of how she was killed. And I'm here because her death should not be repeated. Her death was not an accident because we all know that PCH is unsafe. We know it's unpredictable and overdue for meaningful change. Investing in PCH is not optional, but it's urgent. And it's critical to make this road safer for everyone who depends on it because it is not just a highway, but it's an essential part of Malibu. It is the only way in and out for thousands of residents. the roads for the students behind me who mentioned drive to school, people who commute to their jobs, families visiting the local businesses, and the tourists who come here to

experience the coastline and everything that Malibu has to offer. Every single person who steps foot in this community relies on that road to be safe. They rely on it to be predictable and responsibly managed. But instead, it is one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in California. Tonight, this bill and the decisions that you make have the power to save lives. You have the power to spare another family from the pain that Ne's parents feel behind me. The pain that I feel and everyone who is grieving Ne Rollston, Payton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslin Williams. Improving PCH means slowing down the speeding. It means adding lighting. It means stronger traffic enforcement enforcement, safer crossings, and changes that will protect the people who live here and the people who visit this place we all love so much. As I said, today would be Ne's 23rd birthday. And she doesn't get here to c she doesn't get to be here to celebrate her life. So, I'm asking you to make sure that no one else loses someone they love on this road, too. Thank you.

Thank you, Tina. followed by Nicole Taylor, followed by Josh Spee. Good evening. I can't imagine anything I'm going to say is going to be any more powerful than what we've just heard. I'm Tina Seagull. Two years ago, I witnessed the tragic death of four beautiful Pepperdine students outside of my front door. Our family has been Malibu homeowners for over 50 years. We have witnessed countless horrific deaths on PCH, none as horrific as these beautiful girls. I was honored to work with an amazing team of people for the PCH task force to make PCH safe. We handp painted over 61 tires representing 60 61 families who have lost loved ones. We were thrilled when the planning commission approved the bill to begin efforts to make PCH safe. I'm urging you tonight to support this effort and begin to make our highway safe for residents, visitors, and all who use this iconic road. Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Nicole. And is Sharon Beard here? Nicole Taylor. Oh, I'm sorry. Is Sharon here? Thank you. You have four minutes.

Thank you. Yes, Sharon seated her time to me. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and honorable council members. My name is Nicole Taylor, and I serve as Pepperdine University's senior vice president and chief operating officer and also the vice chair of our emergency operations committee. Thank you for your work tonight to enhance PCH safety. Pepperdine fully shares this commitment and appreciates the broader project before you and the ongoing coordination among CALR, the city, and our public safety partners. I want to be clear that we support the city's continued efforts to further PCH safety and support the city council's approval of the broader project tonight. Like the city, the university takes its responsibility to foster a safe environment for its community very seriously. Given this responsibility, we remain concerned that fundamental issues we have cons consistently raised with CALR in meetings over the past several months and as recently as last Thursday regarding the proposed sidewalk segment between Malibu Canyon and John Tyler Drive fronting Pepperdine's Alumni Park have not been substantly addressed. as more fully detailed in our letter to the council based on the information and input we've received today from CALR, the sheriff's department, the fire department, the city's public works department, a third party traffic consultant, and others. We have public safety and emergency response concerns with the sidewalk segment. Our concerns include, among others, introducing pedestrians into an area without current or proposed sidewalk connectivity along PCH, which can operate to induce act in induce pedestrians into the highway environment once the sidewalk terminates, and the potential impact on emergency response and clearance operations. to confirm. Pepperdine's sole focus is whether the sidewalk segment will increase and not degrade

safety and whether it will adversely impact emergency operations at our campus serving the greater Malibu community. For several months, we have been meeting with Calrans in an effort to share these concerns and understand the basis for this particular segment, how it will enhance safety, and how it proposes to mitigate the risks it may create for pedestrian safety or emergency response efforts, our responsibility to our community demands this. And while at those meetings, CALR has provided certain helpful information. We raised a number of questions which were not addressed. And unfortunately, CALR has not been able to provide us sightspecific data demonstrating that this segment is needed and will improve and not degrade safety outcomes. For example, for multiple months, we have requested the road safety audit referenced at the planning commission hearing. To date, CALR has still not provided that document to us. Given where we are, we want to focus on the best approach forward that will allow the project to receive approval tonight without compromising safety or emergency operations. We see three ways for this to happen. Calrans agrees tonight to remove this segment from the project. The city council approves the project with the segment re removed from the project scope or if not feasible to remove the council imposes the condition included in our letter requiring prior to construction a report from CALR with concurrence from the sheriff's department the fire department and Pepperdine demonstrating the segment is necessary and advances not degrades PCH safety without interfering with emergency operations. Any of these actions would ensure the sidewalk segment is not constructed until the identified concerns have been appropriately assessed and addressed. In conclusion, we stand with our students, the Malibu community, all who have spoken in favor of PCH. Again, Pepperdine is not seeking to jeopardize

the larger project or its funding. We're grateful for your leadership and partnership, and we stand ready to keep working with the city and Calrans on solutions that enhance PCH safety. Thank you. Thank you. Procedural question. Will we have an opportunity to ask questions of people who speak when the uh hearing is otherwise concluded before we come back to council before the rebuttal? Yeah. Okay. Members of the public as well. Yes. Thank you. Josh Spiegel followed by Kevin Keegan followed by Lloyd Ahert.

Hello council. Um for those who don't know me, my name is Josh Spiegel. I'm uh from here. I'm raised by Malibu and I'm currently the chair of the public safety commission. Um, I take PCH safety very seriously. I take it personally and I'm accountable. Um, when you have childhood friends die on the highway and you carry their casket to their grave, you become those things. Um, for decades, we've been asking Calrans who's here tonight to come to the table and help us. We have them here and we have a lot more work to do. If we don't work with them, make it easy to work with them, make them want to work with us, who's to say that they're going to come back. It happened with District 29 when certain MTC members voted against water infrastructure upgrades. You know, it happened with uh regional water control board when MTC spit in their face. They're not coming back. We have a lot of work to do and we need to make friends. You know, I have a lot of things to say and it's just It it really pisses me off that I'm even here tonight. It pisses me off that these kids are here tonight fighting for their lives. And it pisses me off that the MTC and Bill and all these people are sitting here saying that they're pro-safety when they're clearly not. And their votes say that they're not. When you vote against water infrastructure, which helps fight fires, and you vote against trafficcoming lights, and then two months later a drunk lady from Nou kills an Uber driver, and then you appeal public safety items like this, you cannot sit here and say that you're pro public safety. You're just not. It's an astounding overreach. And I don't know what we're trying to do here. When we appeal, it just gives them a bite at the apple. Another one to to renegotiate a decision that's already made. And it's frankly just it's a disgusting use of the appeal process. And I hope that

you'll all sit up there as leaders and admonish them for doing it. I don't know, Bill, if you've lost people or anybody in the MTC has physically carried a casket. It's heavy and it really sucks to bury your friends. Kevin Keegan and you have uh four minutes Lloyd Ahern and Damian Damian go ahead Kevin

thank you mayor prom mayor council members good evening I am Kevin Keegan I'm an appointed public works commissioner for the city of Malibu I speak tonight as a resident to share my opinion on agenda item 5B I have five points for your consideration. First, on July 23, when the public works commission discussed the CALR pavement rehabilitation project, we also discussed the proposed PCH roundabouts and the PCH speed camera projects. Our public works department staff have done an outstanding work advancing all those PCH projects for one simple reason, PCH safety. Please note that unlike the speed camera project, this project appealed by the MTC will not require funding from the city of Malibu. Second, I have seen firsthand the responsiveness of the CALR team to Malibu Malibu's values. For example, CALR reduced the number of proposed light poles by at least 36%, I think a whopping 48% at this point, and has offered to remove more lights. Please keep in mind that CALR is focused on following the law and Senate Bill 960 known as the complete streets policy to meet required targets to receive the project funding. Third, the city of Malibu needs partners. Supporting this appeal tonight could significantly damage our county and state partners trust in our city to advance common sense, well-funded projects, especially after Calrans made approximately a dozen project changes in good faith. Fourth, in my opinion, we must consider the public works department staff. This appeal could have a negative impact on our public works department. For any council member who claims to champion city staff, voting in support of of this appeal will betray that claim. Lastly, in September 2024, when the parents of

the four Pepperdine University students who were killed on PCH filed lawsuits at LA Superior Court, they claimed that the defendant public entities had long been aware of the dangers posed on PCH, but failed to make repairs. Significantly, the Pepperdine plaintiffs claimed that the design of the highway was quote a substantial factor close quote in that high-profile and tragic collision. For example, the plaintiffs highlight that much of PCH's design does not include sidewalks and crosswalks for pedestrians. What does include crosswalks and sidewalks for pedestrians on PCH is the well-funded CALR pavement rehabilitation project. the council has a chance to support tonight. The project also includes controversial bike lanes, and if it moves forward, perhaps we can use the new bike lanes to strengthen our request that Pacific Coast Highway be reclassified as a boulevard. A note in the Pepperdine family's lawsuits reminds us of a constant refrain shouted for decades, which is quote, "Somebody should do something close quote to fix the perilous PCH in Malibu. Enough is enough. Please approve the CALR project and deny the MTC appeal." Thank you.

Thank you, Lloyd Ahern, followed by Damian, followed by Scott Dietrich. Uh, good evening, city council. My name is Lloyd Ahern, and I'm uh totally in favor of you voting for this. Um, there was a one thing that I they took out in the planning commission was they didn't want to have lights in front of the Malibu Seafood. And I have a very interesting story about what happened at that area because there are no lights. Friend of mine had a probably 32year-old son at the time of 15 years ago and they were all coming back from Santa Barbara about 11:00 at night. Thank God none of them were drinking. had their my friend's son was in the baby seat, his wife and a bunch of other folks from Los Lost Flores Beach, and everybody's driving along. You know how dark it is. Doug knows how dark it is. Maryanne knows how dark it is. And all of a sudden, two kids just popped up right in front of him and he hit him and he killed him instantly. Instantly. They want to take and not and not put lights there. It's unbelievable. That is the darkest part of our highway. Every time I go by there now, it's been many years. So, what I'm asking is somehow gentleman was there before. Tyler, that gentleman, he he can um he knows what lights go in and out, right? That on the on the project. Let's try to get those lights back or not back because there's nothing there. It's pitch black and kids can get killed. The kids were playing chicken

and they were they think, "Oh, and the other thing too, this is fun. My friend's son is standing there and he's looking down at the two young men that are dead and there's a policeman standing right here like a ghost and he goes, "What are you doing here?" He says, 'Well, everybody's been calling 911 telling us these kids are doing this and we just got here because somebody just called just before you and we got here just a little late. So, let's not have any more of that. Let's get some lights down there. It's a It's just a short area. Kids come off that beach drunk and play these games. So, please think about it.

Thank you, Lloyd. Damian, followed by Scott teacher.

Hello, mayor, honorable council members. Uh you all know me, uh but for everyone else's sake, I am the executive director of Streets are for everyone. I'm also a survivor of a traffic of traffic violence. In February of 2013, I was hit while riding my bicycle in Griffith Park, pinned underneath the car, dragged nearly a quarter of a mile from the streets onto and down the five freeway freeway speeds. Now, this might seem like an odd way to start this particular uh statement here, but I want to congratulate all of you because we remember the shock and the horror and the upset when we first found out about the Pepperdine girls being hit and killed on PCH. And we all stood here demanding change. Seems like hundreds were here all speaking for change immediately for a safer PCH. I remember personally talking very harshly at Calrans, Mr. Haber and Mr. Molina about how disappointed I was at the lack of effective actions on the part of Calrans. Uh I remember standing with each of you at the Ghost Tire memorial as we dedicated the 58 Ghost Tires which are now 61. I was with you when we celebrated the first significant step forward, the addition of additional CHP officers for traffic enforcement. And I was with some of you up in Sacramento when we nearly lost Senate Bill 1297 and ultimately came through with a win. safe produced with Malibu and the Emily Shane Foundation the first and second anniversary events for the four Pepperdine girls and I am congratulating here today because normally Calran moves at glacial speeds on doing anything but because of the demands and the advocacy of you and many in this room and also rightly so thanks to Mr. Paber and Nancy and a few others at Calchans District 7. Calrans is moving at relative light

speed to try and implement significant changes that will make PCH safer. Streets are for Everyone is in support of the Calrans plan as proposed, including more lights, please, and the sidewalk connecting the two incomplete sidewalks on John Tyler and Malibu Canyon. I am heartened by the conversations between CALR and MTC and I am supportive of the MTC proposal to request that bike lanes be painted green and additional reflective markers to increase safety. That said, if this is a vote between approving the 4 to1 decision by the planning commissioners or upholding the appeal and potentially losing the $55 million project, I say please, please uphold that decision and let's make PCH safer for everyone. Thank you.

Thanks, De Scott. Um, Arno, you here? Thank you. Uh SA SA's still here. She is not. She left. Uh John's here. And Darren. Thank you. Um so you have one, two, three, you have six minutes.

Thank you, Mayor Rigggins and Council. We're hearing a lot of stuff because we all want safety, but what you're hearing is a lot that does not contribute to safety. The four Pepperdine girls were killed. Why? Because a young driver decided to drive 95 miles an hour and lost control. None of the measures proposed by Calrans would have changed that. If a driver 15 years ago killed Emily intentionally, how does that relate to what CALR is proposing? It doesn't. Those tragic accidents and more to follow. I can guarantee there will be more to follow. Why? Because people are going 100 miles an hour in Western Malibu. Calran's proposal does not stop that. I will tell you what led to this. In 1991, when Malibu became a city, we lost the highway patrol. We've hired a limited number, but we don't see the enforcement. And unfortunately, as Sergeant Sutherland said, they don't have the staff. We're kind of between a rock and a hard place. No one, including MTC, is suggesting that we don't move forward with the project. What we want to see is changes They seem to have an agreement with

lighting. Great. But now think about what's happening and why people are being killed. They rush across the highway to get to the beach. Matador Le Pedro. And they're doing it in the daytime to go to the beach. And stupidly they run across and they get hit. At night, especially in Eastern Malibu, you get the homeless. I don't know if they're intentionally getting hit or not, but think about at night. A car comes over a hill, his headlights are bright. Anybody not wanting to get hit should be able to avoid the car. As Lloyd said, there's kids playing chicken on the highway. None of Calrans proposals will address that. As I've stated in many meetings that I've attended with Calrans here for eastern Malibu, I always supported bike lanes for western Malibu where we have the real estate. I worry that just by narrowing the highway, we're creating a more dangerous situation. I just don't know the answer to that other than stop doing patchwork. We just need a little bit more right away so that cars have the ability to park so people aren't carrying their strollers on a summer day in the number two lane. We can have it wide enough to protect the cyclist. That all makes sense. I'm speaking as a citizen, not as vice chair of the public works commission.

When Calrans came and made this proposal, we immediately flagged several things. First of all was the Pepperdine sidewalk to nowhere. It doesn't make any sense. No one uses that to walk. They're not going to use the sidewalk. So that's an item that I ask you to set aside. Secondly, and no one's mentioned this tonight, nor do they mention it at the planning commission meeting, we have two intersections that are merged only. They're not dead stopped. One on uh Civic Center Way, the other in front of the colony on Malibu Road. That makes no sense. The merges work great. I don't know that there's any data suggesting otherwise. If you do a hard stop and a guy's got to pull out from a dead stop, that makes it more dangerous. So those two issues, given that the lighting's been uh dealt with, I think I ask you to address tonight and exclude from the proposal while you support the $55 million for repaving that CALR wants to do. We all support that. No one has suggested otherwise. I'm not concerned about delays in construction at all. That has never been an objection that I've heard anyone make. So, yes, approve the master plan without the stupid tea intersections, without the Pepperdine sidewalk. Thank you.

Thank you, Scott. Uh Gina McClowski, Pamela Connley Ulik, Heather Michaels, and Justin Ornstein is our final speaker in person. And we have online. There's seven. Raise hands. You can hold those seven, please.

Hi, good evening. My name is Gina Mertz McCloski. This Friday, I'll have been a Malibu resident for 68 years. to be exact. I have seen way too many accidents on PCH over the years. But about 10 years ago, my friend, also a longtime resident, we were involved in a head-on collision at Paradise Cove, with probably an inexperienced 17-year-old driver going westbound, not wanting to hit a car that was stopped in the slow lane, number two lane, trying to park. He swerved around, lost control, fishtailed across the all four lanes, and hit us head on as we were going eastbound. If we had been in my friend's Toyota Yarus, I wouldn't be here today. Thank God we took my Mercedes wagon. We're both alive. So, please consider um upholding the planning commission. Um, thank you so much.

Thank you, Pamela, followed by Heather, followed by Justin. Mayor, Council, City Manager, Ambassador Bond, my neighbors, it's such an honor and privilege, and it's actually kind of sad we're here today. It's Monday before Thanksgiving and the past months and years, our community has been so impacted by so much trauma. Tonight, Lloyd, I'm so grateful you're alive. He almost died in the fire. God bless. Uh all my neighbors, Arie's here who lost his home and everything. All these these wonderful high school kids that are here. I'm so sorry for Eve, Eve's friends and her birthday. I mean, there's and and m you know what happened to you carrying those caskets. Michelle, I was on the city council when Emily was tragically killed. There's so much so many beautiful people and souls in this room and the trauma that we have been experiencing. Calrans, where's the Calrans people? Can you stand up? I just want you. Can you I just want you to know we have been traumatized and we appreciate what you're doing to help our community. On behalf of all of these people, I think you can sense it tonight. We need your help. I apologize about this appeal. We need you to help us. We're we're asking you to keep going with this project. I'm confident the city council will will hopefully uphold uh or deny the appeal, but we need you. And please, when you work on this project in years to come, look at these people around that you've met tonight

and you've seen and know that we thank you on this Thanksgiving week and thank you for being here and taking this time. And I look forward, I don't look forward, but our, you know, this appeal costed more than $750, which is what they paid to appeal this. It's costing us our time and our energy, and that's precious. Nobody knows how much more time we have on this planet. So, I want you to know I appreciate you. This appeal will hopefully go the way of the dark skies one day. It's time for there to be light. I want light on PCH and maybe light for the football team to pay every Friday night. And maybe it's time the city of Malibu, look at this dark sky and maybe we flip it. Maybe we do an agenda an a put it to a vote to the people. Are you ready for light? Because I am. I thank you. I think it we are going to make meaningful change and you guys showing up I'm confident it's going to happen tonight and thank you from the bottom of my heart and have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you.

Thank you Heather followed by Justin.

Good evening council members. I'm Heather Michaels. Here we are again and I just need to ask how is it even possible there that there is so much discord dis discord and hesitation when lives are at stake I am saddened I am horrified and honestly it's shameful to refuse to act urgently when the solutions are right in front of you right in front of us it's it's more than negligence it's it's truly narcissism It is its complete disregard for the families, the children, the elderly, and the everyday people who depend on PCH for their safety and survival. Every delay, every argument, every political tugof-war, puts another life at risk. If you choose not to take this opportunity, this amazing opportunity that's right in front of us to save lives and do what is right, it will leave a black eye on Malibu, on your leadership, on your legacy in the city. I truly hope that you find your consciousness and you center humanity over ego. And I'm sorry to say that. just like hearing the stories, hearing the children, hearing the the girls from the um from Pepperdine, their families. It's it's absolutely horrifying and heartbreaking. So, I'm saying this as just bluntly as possible. I hope you finally do right by this community that we all love. Thank you.

Thank you, Justin. Thank you, madame mayor and members of the city council. My name is Justin Ornstein and I'm the transportation policy deputy for LA County Supervisor Lindseay Horvath. The supervisor asked me to be here this evening as she did for the Malibu Planning Commission meetings on November 3rd and October 20th to add her voice to the chorus of stakeholders who have shown up in support of this project in its entirety. I would once again like to start by extending a big thank you to Director Roberts, Lee Haber, Nancy Pay, and all the CALR staff who have been working day in and day out to make PCH a safer experience for Malibu residents. The last two times I was here, I spoke about the number of serious injuries and fatalities on PCH that the city of Malibu has seen in the last decade. I also spoke about the data in multiple studies that have taken place that indicate a very real need for safety improvements. But this isn't new information. The dangers to pedestrians on PCH have been widely reported and are well known to the city of Malibu. And there are people here this evening whose experiences with loss on PCH will do that point much more justice than I can. Much like the meetings at the planning commission, you've heard concerns about sidewalks to nowhere and connectivity. You've heard concerns about emergency vehicle access and you've heard concerns about street lights. But I would encourage you to dig in, question what you hear, and ask tough questions in response because it's easy to poke holes in a project with a goal of ending up at no. The hard work comes with saying yes and making changes that create a safer, more accessible PCH.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't include a personal anecdote. A picnic in baseball at Malibu Bluffs Park or a visit to Malibu Seafood after a day at the beach are musthaves for my six-year-old son. But we've had to pass up both on many occasions because the 75 spaces at the park and the much fewer number of spaces at Malibu Seafood are occupied. And I shudder at the idea of having to park off site and walk my six-year-old son along PCH to get there. But we're a pretty resourceful family. When making this decision, please think about those who are without similar means, those who may be transit dependent and what the proposed project connects to and the level of safety that it provides. This is a conversation about safety, but it's also a conversation about equity. And telling people who use the bus to get into Malibu every day that their safety or level of access isn't as important as someone who drives is certainly not the intent of this council. So, please listen to Malibu residents and visitors who have already weighed in. These improvements will save lives and I respectfully urge the council to grant the coastal development per permit for this project in its entirety. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, that'll conclude our in-person speakers. We'll go to our online speakers. Travis Gibson. Travis, are you there? Uh, yes. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you. Uh, good evening. I'm speaking tonight because what's happening in this city is not just wrong, it is morally indefensible. For years, a small circle of people, Bill Samson, John Maza, Joe Drummond, Pat Healey, and Steve Yuring have used the Malibu Township Council as their personal vehicle to wage a non-stop war against public safety. and their choices, their actions, and their appeals have created a very real consequence. More people are being put in danger and more families will be forced to suffer preventable loss. I heard John Maza on that hot mic. He said the project would be appealed. He practically smirked when he said it. And of course, the appeal came from his group and Bill Samson signed it. These are not coincidences. They are deliberate decisions to block lifesaving improvements. Bill's a shucks who me demeanor. It's a mask. The MTC wraps itself in the language of quote unquote preservation. But every action they take pushes Malibu toward outcomes where people get hurt, where tragedies repeat, and where families are left to bury loved ones. And I want to ask every member of this group, how do you stand in front of someone like Michelle Shane and defend what you are doing? How do you point to the white tires on PCH's symbols of loss, then turn around and fight the very projects meant to prevent more of them? How do you justify appealing safety measures that could save lives and then pretend you are acting for the good of this community? You oppose everything. Lights, sidewalks,

crosswalks, visibility, safe routes for children, basic protections for families. Every time Malibu tries to improve safety, you try to stop it. Every time we inch closer to preventing tragedy, you drag us backwards. That is not leadership. It is moral failure. Tonight, the choice is clear. Either you move forward with safety or you align yourselves with a group whose actions consistently put this community at risk. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker,

Thomas Spencer. Thomas, are you there? Thomas, you're unmuted. Thomas, Thomas, you're unmuted on Zoom. You just muted yourself again. If you can test your microphone.

Let's circle back to Thomas. Next speaker. Ryan. Ryan. Ryan, are you there? Can you hear? Yes.

Okay. Uh, I got two different unmute buttons this time. So, thank you. Um, the issue really here throughout Malibu is speeding. that was identified in many reports including the 2013 report which I submitted to you which hit the nail on the head. You cannot substitute some lane narrowing or some other metric that will ever take the place of a black and white vehicle that pulls over some reckless driver or a drunk driver and takes them off the road. And that's why we're here. Second reason we're here is Scott Weiner, the uh author of uh SB960, which started off as a uh transit bus program bill and was amended so many times by the bicycle lobby that it turned into a mandatory examination of bike lanes where feasible on every road. And the legislature didn't have PCH in mind. I guarantee you when they passed it they meant city streets and this is the time which this project is a repaving project and there's plenty of budget available. You all know this to widen the highway to provide the correct amount of space to pull off a proper and safe bicycle length. But don't do anything that makes the highway less safe because of Scott Weiner and his bill. Because we know this highway, this is not an all or nothing, thumbs up or thumbs down vote. What we have to realize is in the professional studies they show the lane narrowing did not

work, does not work. And I measured the lanes with Carol Randall, resident of PCH since 1968. We measured it with a super long tape. Found the lanes were substandard in 1998 and they were widened so that the minimum was 11 ft in the eastern part where everyone has come to testify. That is not the road segment on the agenda tonight. So, we have to realize that narrowing lanes isn't the answer. And this program before you does not address the known deficiencies established at Paradise Cove where we don't even have a right turn lane, deceleration lane going downhill into that signalized intersection or at Broad Beach Road at the western end approach. Totally skipped it. They spent all their time designing bike lanes and first of all they're wasting their time prioritizing western Malibu with this project before you and not addressing the serious problems in eastern Malibu which is really why everybody came tonight amidst all the vitriol and ad homum the back.

Thank you Ryan. Our next speaker Thomas Spencer Thomas Thomas, are you there? He is unmuted in Zoom. Thomas. Let's go on to our next speaker. John Stockwell. John. Oh, yeah. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. So, I live on Point Doom. Um, thankfully not close to the noise and dangers of PCH, but obviously I drive it multiple times a day, and my wife and I own and operate Malibu Farm in the Pier, so we get to see on a daily basis the chaos of PCH. Look, would it be great to reduce speed by 5 miles per hour, of course, but that's not in the scope of this item. And no reason to put um the improvements in this item in jeopardy by fixing an unrelated measure onto it. And look, I I'm sure MTC knew this would never happen. Um, there's no need to eliminate the sidewalk in front of Pepperdine. This was debated extensively at the planning commission. Is MTC really going to appeal this to Coastal because of the sidewalk? I mean, honestly, I'm a I'm I'm a fan of MTC in general, but I think they're jeopardizing all their goodwill and reputation um in Malibu by trying to stop a measure which is not prodevelopment, it's pro-safety. Their legacy I I I doubt they want their legacy to be defined by a death on PCH. Um, and and you know, you don't jeopardize a life so that you can get a lane painted green or a sidewalk removed. This is this is not the wine drop hotel. This is not the Cross Creek Hotel. This is a safety issue. Um, and I even heard a member of the planning commission talking about how he thought darker roadways were safer because people would drive more slowly. I mean, to me, that's insane because we all know that these people driving 100 miles per hour, was mentioned earlier, will just not see the stranded motorist or or pedestrian in time. Um uh and you know, I I also think it's honestly absurd that Trevor forced Halen to to uh recuse herself um because she has opinions on this critical legislation. I just don't I mean I know the Brown Act is designed to to sort of prevent backroom deals that are not within the view of the public. And and

speaking of backroom deals, how did the street lamps at Malibu Seafood get removed without any public discussion? To me, that sounds like a backroom deal, but thank you for hearing it. Thanks, John. Howard Ritzky. Howard, are you there? I am here. Go ahead, please.

So, the people that we trust to keep us safe and that I think we all respect, Commander C2 and Sergeant Sodderland have told you guys multiple times, the highway is not safe. The overwhelming majority of people that spoke have told you what they think. And if we don't make it easy for CALR and work with them and show them that we can be a good partner, this could be the first of many projects. If we make it harder for them, like we did with Water District 29 and others, we'll get nothing. And don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let's take a first step and make the place safer. Thank you.

Thank you, Howard. Merryill May. Merryill, are you there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes.

Good. Council members, hello. Meil May, president, someone who's worked on PCH safety for over 20 years. My first appeal, not having to do with the appeal, is that we all drive the speed limit or slower. We need to be the example first of all because speed is a problem. You've heard a lot of compelling presentations for supporting the CALR safety reworking and utilization of the approximately 50 million this evening where earlier plans perfect and agreed to by all 100% yet still going forward here should increase beach safety on many levels. From previous comments, it seems there has been some adjustments toward safety progress here. I have to thank Lee Habber here for all your efforts. ly. I've known you for years. Uh your responsibilities are vast beyond Malibu and I recognize you dedicate a great amount of your time to Malibu residents, visitors, and commuters. Uh CALR, I do have a request that during the construction that through the zones uh that we need to continually maintain safety measures. Um, Corral, I have to request multiple times a month that those center dividers get replaced. I mean, I've lost track. Uh, I had to do the same thing with the Tranus bridge. They would get knocked out in the turns. And obviously, if you don't have any dividers in the turns, you can have a head-on collision. So, Lee, whatever it takes. I don't know. You need a a ZAR for construction zone safety. Um, thank you for keeping the Gernzy light. A little sidebar there. That's a great safety feature. One of the things you've done, um, as previously recognized, and this is not have to do with 5B, but it should be a continuing goal where and how Calrans can help reduce speed through our city should be a future objective, and any precedent in the state of California where speeds have been reduced might be research and use.

Measures to reduce speed and make it less beneficial to bypass the 101 and speed through our town should be utilized. There's been a lot of things that have gone on um since the poor fatalities of the students been a lot of things good that has gone on since then on the highway. Many measures combined to increase safety and enforcement as Ryan said is number one. We have to continually plead and beg and get more funding for enforcement. Um thank you very much for all your efforts on this everybody and who's involved. Thank you. And we just left with Thomas. Uh there's one more hand here. Okay, go ahead.

Andy Lion. Hey, Andy. Hi. Are you there? Yes.

Hi, Andy Lion. Uh PCH. Yeah, I learned to drive on PCH with my learner's permit 48 years ago. So, I've been driving it a lot. Long time. And uh yeah, it's dangerous. The thing is is that um you know this enforcement thing what Ryan was talking about the worry was getting getting caught and it just seems like we are now all this stuff that we're going to do. I'm it's great. Yeah. I I don't oppose trying to make it better. Um, I I don't know all the details of all that stuff, but I do know is that these guys that come and race around Malibu are emboldened by the fact that there is zero enforcement at night, most of the day, the weekends, you know, but all of us residents are, you got to watch out when you go down the hill at Ralph's on Monday morning because if you go like five miles over the speed limit, the guy on the motorcycle is going to pop you. And that's the extent of it. A few weeks ago on a Sunday night, there was probably an hour and a half long, hundreds of cars racing. I called Lost Hills multiple times and they said, "We're aware of this situation. We only have two cars out there right now. Two cars in Malibu on a Sunday night." People just do whatever they want right now. So, you could you you could do whatever you want. That's the problem. And the and the fact is we need that. That's seeing people pulled over is going to slow people down. Um, you know, the these people racing like at Malibu, like at Surf Rider all the time. You see people doing the the illegal U-turns, slow lane to slow lane U-turns, like all these crazy things that used to be like people would get popped for. Nobody's getting in trouble for any of these things anymore. So, they just do it. People race from Nouvo back to Cross Creek multiple times a day. You hear

people in the middle of the day, they're going like 90 miles an hour. like they they don't care if they get a ticket, whatever. Like it doesn't matter then, but they're not getting tickets. So, that's really what this city needs to focus on. We can go, you know, uh like the speeding cameras, but when these guys have spray on their license plates and you can't see what it is, what what's it going to matter? We're going to get nailed for going 50 and they're going to get off the hook going 100. So, that's the real problem with PCH and that's the I mean I you know and people with their kids I mean I see a lot of people with sharks uh stickers on the back of their cars driving like real jerks through town too and their kids and you know and Pepperdine students also you know I mean it's it's going to be you know we all got to be in on this and and drive safe. I mean, I'm I'm a terrified I'm like in the, you know, driving the speed limit and every time I go out on the highway, I'm taking my life in my hands with my kid in the car and it's just it's like because there's no sheriffs here and there's no CHP, the CHP are giving tickets down in the burn zone for 5 miles over. Uh, circle back to Thomas Spencer.

Thomas, last try. They're here. They're here. Public comment. Thomas Spencer.

Are you signed up online to speak? Are you Thomas Spencer signed up online? Okay, that's it. We'll close public plate comment. We're back to the representatives. Mayor, before rebuttal, would you like to ask questions of both the applicant representatives and members of the public? Yes, we would. Just to be clear, this is for factual inquiries, not to give anyone more time to speak, but factual questions for anyone. So, um, who wants to ask questions? I have one question for Miss Taylor from Pepperdine, please.

Uh, I think I know the answer, but I'd like to hear. Is Pepperdine prepared to indemnify the city against any injury to anybody that might occur in front of Pepperdine if this sidewalk is not installed? That's not been a question that we've been asked to consider. But and I guess I I would say that the same would be the the same kind of analysis is where we find ourselves as well. If we put the sidewalk in and we have not assessed the safety considerations and we put something in that is unsafe, is there, you know, what are the the ramifications for if we have something happen in that sort of situation?

But you're not putting but you're not putting offering you're not putting the sidewalk in. You're not being asked to put a sidewalk in. My question is you're opposed to the sidewalk. If the sidewalk were taken out of the project at your request and somebody were to be injured as in that area, is Pepperdine prepared to indemnify the city against any liability for the harm to that person that might arise? No, we're not asking for or offering that. That's what I assumed. Thank you. Okay, Doug. Um Nicole, can you stay just a second? Sure. Um, you and I have had conversations about what you need or what you want in this uh

um satisfaction of the appeal. Can and you mentioned that you're not getting the information you need from CALR. Can you tell me what information you need and what is the criteria that you're going to use to evaluate that information?

A couple things I think would address the question that you're asking. If you look to the condition that we proposed in our letter, it specifically speaks to information that will help assess and address the safety considerations. So things like what the decision was based on that could include the road safety audit. We understand, but we have not been provided that information yet. It also related to an understanding of how not only public safety would be impacted but also emergency operations would include an analysis of the number of pedestrians that are there and a discussion and understanding about when there have been number numerous times where continuous sidewalks to logical termini have been suggested as the things that would be safe. how this discontinuous segment of sidewalk then doesn't degrade PCH safety as to all the specific points. I don't know that I know all of those, but I think that's the question we're asking. Can someone tell us how it was assessed and then what is the assessment related to public or excuse me, pedestrian safety and then also um non-inferring with emergency operations.

Okay, thank you. Uh, two more questions real quick. Um, for me, it's been mentioned several times, I think, especially by your your comments, that these are side, this would be a sidewalk to nowhere.

But yet, on the other hand, uh, Calrans says that it's to link Malibu Canyon and John Tyler sidewalks. Which one is correct? Uh I think it's accurate to say that the sidewalk is between Malibu Canyon and John Tidler Drive and those there are sidewalks on those two streets. That was never discussed in any of the conversations that we had from Calrans until it was brought up at the planning commission. I think what we have understood is that continuous sidewalks connecting desired pedestrian locations along PCH would be the thing that would create safety. The reason why we're bringing up the question about safety with a discontinuous sidewalk is that there are really no folks using that portion of campus right now. For example, if I'm speaking about our student community, if you introduce a sidewalk along PCH, the natural inclination is for pedestrians to believe that they have somewhere to go beyond that. Especially on the west side of that segment of sidewalk, there is nowhere for someone to go with an improved sidewalk beyond John Tyler Drive. And so if the inclination was for a pedestrian to want to continue along PCH, they have nowhere to go except to be in an unimproved area of the highway.

And then my followup question, it's been mentioned several times that uh fire equipment and uh so forth needs to go from PCH up to Alumni Park where there's a water pond and so forth and there's a helellipad up there. But yet in my travels around Pepperdine, which are very limited, there's a street uh that comes from John Tyler and also one that comes from Malibu Canyon uh that goes to that location. Why is it necessary that a fire truck or somebody climb a grassy slope when they've got two roads?

Yes, thank you for raising that. And it's actually for when we don't have access for those two roads. And an example of that would be during the Broadfire that we recently had where both John Tyler Drive and Malibu Canyon were not accessible or might might not have been accessible once they were closed. The alternative that's the alternative entrance to Alumni Park should we not be able to use those other entrances. And I will just say we have appreciated the continued work with Calrans as we discussed with them last Thursday in conjunction with the city, LA County Fire and LD. The design of the curve is being constructed such that emergency vehicles we believe will be able to mount that sidewalk and then continue up Alumni Park. The remaining questions that we still have open related to those conversations are whether the introduction of pedestrians there and the design of the sidewalk will will impede emergency operations, not just vehicle access. And so we continue to hope for further conversations with CALR to mitigate that concern.

Thank you very much. Those my questions. Thank you. Go away, Steve. Can I go? Okay. Yeah. Uh, I appreciate the fact that you've been looking for information from CALR. Sorry. I appreciate the fact you've been looking for information from CALR and haven't gotten that. And I I don't think that's right. But as I sit here and you know, I've had conversation with Lee Haber. They seem dug in that they don't want to remove the sidewalk. Would you be happy if we propose something that says, "Look, don't remove the sidewalk. Just delay it. Put it on. I mean, keep it available."

All right, Calrans, go out and do the work you have to do in the inter room. Let them sit down and talk to you and come make let make I don't want them jamming this thing down Pepperdine's throat. Have a conversation. Make sure everybody knows what the hell is going on. You get the information you need. They get the information they need. If they want to come back later on and they've got this thing solved, they can bring it back either as a change order to this project or the next project they want to do. But we give everybody a chance to make sure they got the right information and we do the right thing. Would you be acceptable if we do that?

Yes, we would. If you if that meant either removal from the project to offer the delay or if not removal from the project then offering something like the condition with the concurrences from the public safety entities to make sure that what CALR is providing to us makes sense from their perspective and has assessed and addressed those particular so they can delay it as long information. Yes. To the concurrence of the public safety entities. I think it would be inconsistent to say that Pepperdine would be fine with any information that Calrans provided, but rather if Calrans provided information that was to the satisfaction of the parties um we listed the

I want them to give you whatever information you want. That's their job. I think that's what we're trying to be do here in the city. So, as long as they're willing to do that and we can delay this until they get that accomplished, you can live with that. Yes, I think that's what we say in our condition with the concurrence. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Wait a minute. That that condition with the concurrence includes Pepperdine's concurrence, does it not? It does include Pepperdine's concurrence. So, you can just withhold your concurrence as long as you wish. We spoke specifically to that in a footnote in our letter to say that we wouldn't do that. However, if that's not something that you're comfortable with doing, we would be glad to amend that condition to add our input and to have the concurrence of the other agencies that we specifically listed there.

Okay. One of the question you you say that a a sidewalk that has no that has it terminates into no other sidewalk is a dangerous thing, right? So, how is the sidewalk that you have going up to John Tile down John Tile or that ends at the PCH safe? Yeah, I I'm sorry. Did someone say something else? You have a sidewalk that runs alongside Pepperdine on John Tyler just dumps into PCH, right? We do. Okay. How's that safe? I think there's a question about what you know putting our students out onto PCH in that same way and so we have intracampus walkways that we prefer our students to walk with or to walk to use rather to traverse

but that sidewalk to to Pepperdine students yeah I think it's fair that I agree with you Bruce I think the sidewalk that ends at PCH ends in a choice for folks as well they either have to cross PCH where there's a crosswalk but nothing on the other side and so it's not dissimilar from that same situation that you have. But this would exacerbate the situation because it would put people newly onto PCH who haven't been that been in that area with an implied understanding that they then have somewhere to go either to the east or west. Or another way to look at it is they could come down the sidewalk on John Tyler and now they'd have a place to walk to get to um Boss Park on the sidewalk.

They do. Particularly for our community, we would recommend that they don't go on to PCH. We we prefer them to use our intracampus walkways so that they're not even close to that PCH highway. Okay. What about the people from country states? You inviting them to walk across the campus? No. And I would invite them to speak for themselves. They were also um asked about this particular sidewalk and um at least the HOA, which I know doesn't speak for everyone, had indicated comments that they don't use uh the particular um area from their homes to Bluff Park as a walking area, but mainly use their cars. Mainly use what?

Mainly use their cars to get to Bluffs Park. And again, I'm not representing their commission, their uh position, only to say what what they have they've indicated. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Well, I got one more for Nicole. No, no, I got one for the young lady, the lady from Kel train. I Oh, yeah. Well, she's we're just I can ask a question before they're they speak on their Yes, the council can ask questions of anyone in the audience before rebuttal is heard. Okay. Uh you mentioned that there the side if putting the sidewalk on the other side of PCH. Okay. You you can't do that because you don't have the easements or the rightway or whatever.

If it was there, would it be safer? Would it be safe? Be safer. Would it be safer for the people walking from Gloss Park to get to the bus stop if they if the sidewalk was on that the ocean side versus on the Pepperdine side? It's it's not safer. I mean, we just need to have a connected path. So as you heard you so it would not be safer a sidewalk and that's like I walk out of Bluffs Park I walk down the street and get to the this the uh who you the bus stop John Tyler John Tyler it' be safer for me to come go across PCH go down the other side and then go back across PCH again.

So Mr. viewing um just to clarify some information group showed earlier the proven safety countermeasure sheet about walkways which includes sidewalks data. So to address your question about placing it on the western side or the ocean side I should say when we were here in November of 2023 and the community was asking really demanding action uh over studies. We took action and moved out to address things. Our road safety audit was conducted by experts in our staff. We looked at things. We went through the area. We were tasked on this project that was extended by 19 months to do things within the environmental clearance period that we could do. We've endeavored to identify mechanisms we could do that. Placing the sidewalk on the Pepperdine area within state rideway was the most feasible and most readily available option. Placing it on the ocean side presents a number of issues. There's an environmentally sensitive habitat area. It would trigger additional items beyond the categorical exemption exclusion. Would require extensive retaining walls, potential mitigation, as well as a concrete barrier of a certain height to prevent people from falling over the retaining wall. Might even necessitate cable railing or cable barrier on top of that retaining wall, which would probably trigger more complaints from the community about putting up a retaining wall and cable barrier in that area. Would it be good to have a sidewalk along there? Absolutely. I believe the city of Malibu had additional sidewalk work in that area as part of their one of their projects, but they removed it due to some conflicts and issues. So, I hear the question, yet at the same time, we would be better off having a sidewalk along Pacific Coast Highway. The the counter measure from the Federal Highway Administration states sidewalks have a 65 to 89% reduction in crashes involving pedestrians walking along roadways. It also contains language that was not

highlighted. Transportation agencies should work towards incorporating pedestrian facilities into all roadway projects unless exceptional circumstances exist. That's Is that a Weiner's bill? That's language from Weiner's bill. This is language from Federal Highway Administration proven safety countermeasure fact sheet one pager that was provided to Pepperdine last week. Okay. So, I mean, as a long answer to the question, is it safer on the Yeah, it is. It's safer to have a sidewalk than to have no sidewalk. The most feasible and easily recommended place to place it is along the inland side. Simple answer. I'm I'm addressing your question. I mean,

I'm looking at feasibility and opportunity to get it in place. If we delay, people say, "Well, postpone to whenever." I don't know whenever is going to happen. I mean, you it sounded to me like the concern of putting the sidewalk on that side is you may have to put up a retaining wall. You got retaining walls all over the place. We will have to put up We didn't do that studying.

I'm just Look, I mean, I'm not I'm not sec I'm not an expert. Okay. All I all I can think of I'm saying if I were on in Bluffs Park and I wanted to get to the bus stop across the from John Tyler and I walk down that side of the street I'd feel safer than if I have to go across and then cross again. Just one man's opinion could be wrong could be right but that's what I think right but as Mr. have explained we got a 19-month time extension on the funding for this project and we have certain timeline to get in as much and as many

I I look I understand the timelines I understand the money I think when no look as far as I can tell right now I could be wrong and we haven't voted yet I don't think anybody's going to stand in the way of the the the core things you're trying to do with this project right I mean as far as I can tell we're down to two things we're down to the sidewalk walk right but let's we shouldn't talk about deliberations we're just in question okay and I'll come back on the other thing but just you gave me an answer and I understand that it's not a good answer but that's okay thank you I have a couple questions if I can ask yes

okay so um first is it correct that you don't need any um permission or consent from Pepperdine to build the sidewalk you've got the legal right to proceed the permanent where the sidewalk goes We we don't need any right from Pepperdine but we did seek a a 13 ft temporary construction ement to regrade that so we don't have to a steep slope but we have other option that we could consider in putting the sidewalk on that side. Yes. So if they if they don't grant you that easement you can still proceed in some other way. Yes. We'll have we'll have to look at that. It's probably that's a separate issue. complexity, right?

Well, it it introduces additional complexity in an area where we're on a time constraint with the funding. So, do do you have the legal right to take that easement or do you have to get it voluntarily from them? We are going through uh CTC for Iran and right now we're working through that with Pepperdine on that process. So, that would be Iran as a resolution. Yeah. Resolution of necessity. I'm sorry. Would that be a condemnation process? Yes. So that would be a condemnation like it's like an eminent domain thing. Yes.

Okay. Um are you com there's been some um statements made about the changes you've agreed to being perhaps contrary to safety. Are you comfortable with the changes that you've agreed to make regarding the sidewalk or other changes in the project? The various changes that were made since the planning commission approval that you that were discussed. Are you comfortable that they do not um impair safety from the pro the program that you've proposed originally?

So lighting was removed by Malibu Seafood as it did not meet warrants. You've had community speak differently at this point. I would leave it with you. It did not meet warrants necessitating safety lighting at Malibu Seafood based on a minimum number of crashes. So we made adjustments based on the crash requirements for warrants. down by Malibu Seafood. I'm just asking you, are you comfortable for going the things that you comfortable within the bounds of what we've got? Yes.

Okay. Um, now you've, this is the big issue for me. Um, and this is not a negative issue for the project, but you've said, and I agree, it makes sense to me that lights are better than not lights when it comes to safety. Sidewalks are better than not sidewalks when it comes to safety. There's all kinds of counterveailing issues, but those are general statements that seem to ring true. So, why a small sidewalk in a couple lo couple locations and why a couple lights? Why are we not making the highway safer completely with um lights and sidewalks? How and better yet, how did and how did you select these specific locations versus any other locations? We love to put continuous bike lane, continuous sidewalk along PCH, but we just don't have the time. It will take a lot of time and effort to engage the community beyond the time that we have for this project. So, we choose element and location that we h can be done within the timeline that we have given for this project through the time extension that we are given the 19 months for the fundings. It it just it seems to me when I look at this that the locations were all but arbitrarily selected as opposed to selected based on any kind of study that this is a particularly dangerous area more than another. Is there a study that supports why these specific locations were more dangerous than others?

So some of the locations that are in there were contained from the 2015 PCH safety study. There's a list of 130 items. We went through that as part of the efforts that were underway. We did a road safety audit that included city of Malibu public works staff, Sheriff Sergeant Jim Erenss, LA County Sheriff. He was assigned by Gen C2 to be a participant, and our engineers. We reviewed the corridor. We looked for opportunities. As I said, we had constraints on this project in terms of time and what we could get done based on the environmental process. And we've done our utmost to get safety features in where we could. With that in mind, as Nancy said, would we like to do more sidewalks? Yes. Was a matter of time, opportunity to do that.

Okay. But but I'm asking specifically why these specific locations versus other locations were.

So the specific location for Pepperdine, the the team was out there um one afternoon. Sergeant Arens was there with them. They saw they evaluated the area. My understanding is they saw people in that area was recommended by the sergeant to provide the sidewalk based on his experience in the area. Our team looked at it as well based on the complete street features that we needed to make. Our understanding from the highway design manual, we do not need to have specific count of pedestrians or forecasted usage by pedestrians. It is based on connecting communities with items they wish to get to and provided that opportunity to do so by by foot. So, the team went through and reviewed segment by segment over several days for this area. We also have sidewalks in other areas that have not been brought to you at all. They seem to be non-controversial within this area. So, we went through and looked at those uh throughout the area to identify them.

Okay, last question for you. C can I add something to that? Absolutely. So on the November 20th when we meet with the fire department and the sheriff department at Pepperdine, we did confirm that the sidewalk been put in as stated earlier has no issue for the equipment and the fire truck. It does it also confirmed that there's no degression as we heard tonight that this claim that degression to responding emergency respond. That's not the case.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I'm I'm I'm really not concerned about whether that sidewalk makes sense so much as why other places weren't selected over that one. Um last question is one of the findings we need to make repeatedly is that the project is proposed as the least environmentally damaging alternative. I'd asked you previously whether you could consider using DG for that area. Um would that be something that you would be willing to consider tonight as one little tweak if we were to do it?

The decompos. So decomposed granite has issues and requires additional maintenance. So we're trying to get the least um resource demanding option. We've selected porest concrete colored in consultation with the city public works department and in accordance with the other guidance. Uh there's other areas that we looked at within this segment not well the highway segment of 16 miles that had DG. We proposed replacing that. When we were out there it had rain previously. The area that people were supposed to walk on DG was muddy, had mud puddles and other things. It was practically impassible at times. So, I would say we stick with the porest concrete. It's going to be the most consistent and feasible alternative for that area. We've done our best with the porest concrete that's colored to get it to fit within the context.

Fair enough. Thank you. Yeah. One other thing the DG um we have to the sidewalk also have to be wheelchair accessible and DG DG is not really friendly to wheelchair. Thank you for that. Anything else? No more questions.

No. Okay. Okay. Um so the appellent rebuttal time 5 minutes and 28 seconds. I will give most of it to Joe. Uh I will tell you that I'm not in favor of killing people. I've been accused of that a lot the last week. That that isn't what's going on. Uh we are in favor. We did a lot of work. It's unfortunate that the city's appellet process doesn't give us what I would call a line item veto. We didn't have that. We got some concessions that we wanted. The only thing really left is the Pepperdine sidewalk, which you've spent a lot of time with there. Uh, thank you. That's it. Joe has something.

I just I want to honor the four pepper on girls and Mr. Rost's comments and Bridget Thomas Thompson's comments and I just want to address the comments about our organization. Chris Weisner. MTC was the only entity who tried to get the NOU July 4th party shut down and it should have been shut down, but it wasn't despite Calrans and the city revoking their permit after MTC pushed them to do this. Martin O'Kee should have never died on the highway. No one should ever die on PCH. That's why we are all here. Several of our members personally worked on the city's surf. So, educational campaign to stop drivers from speeding on PCH. MTC fully supports the construction and paving permit by Calrans and we have worked very successfully with CALR to make their plan even safer for pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists and we appreciate CALR in all their efforts to help p make PCH safer and working with us the last couple of weeks. Um also MTC never opposed any update to water infrastructure except for the sewer project that our city was born from to stop us from becoming a metropolis. So to address the only issue with this CDP, our question is where is the pedestrian activity on the pepperonine sign? Where is this data? Where is the safety data? Calrans provided the last slide by the highway administration. I don't know if we can put that up. Um the last slide of our presentation that states that non-ontinuous sidewalks are not actually safe. It is important to provide and maintain accessible walkways along both sides of roads in urban areas, particularly near school zone zones and transit locations and where there is a large amount of pedestrian activities. Walkable shoulders should also be considered along both sides of rural highways when routinely used by pedestrians. Students and residents walk through Pepperdine as Nicole indicated and that's what everyone does if they go to the civic center or they cross at John Tyler and PCH on the other side of PCH not along the grass to go to Bluffs Park. Busgoers would travel on the Bluff

side. Calrans obviously didn't investigate the Bluff side at all because they just said that they have to go through the city of Malibu as an extra entity. I doubt any of you or the city staff would cause any delays or issues putting a sidewalk on that safer side. If you cannot make the finding that is the least environmentally damaging, you must remove the Calrans sidewalk and confirm the changes agreed upon by Calrans and remove the Pepperdine sidewalk. The greater safety project can and will proceed with these conditions added. That way, it's a win-win for residents Pepperdine and Calrans. I'd also like to know exactly where the retaining wall proposed near that drainage ditch if it if we can put the first slide also up. Sorry, Parker. Um, if we get an answer on where it will be, we believe it will be a huge graffiti target. Malibu Civ has a tunnel to safely cross under PCH. You can put lights in there if needed. A crosswalk was considered and deemed too dangerous by the city there. So adding lights would encourage illegal crossing across one of the most dangerous highways, not stop it. There are also multiple lights between and at Zumearez and Zuma View Place. So Calrans re-evaluated the lights there and removed five of the eight lights proposed and as they were redundant and the lighting will be safe and more than adequate there. This was extensively discussed at the planning commission hearing. This was Calrans that made this decision on their own valition. This is very easy. Pass the resolution and add the conditions brought forth by Calrans and simply pause or remove the Pepperdine sidewalk. This will not delay the project nor jeopardize the funding. We would have happily withdraw withdrawn the appeal if Pepperdine sidewalk alternative sighting was fully investigated with the city of Malibu, etc. So, please do what you can to make this project safer and not impede emergency operations for Pepperdine. Thank you.

Do you have anything else you want to add?

Okay, that'll conclude your time. Um, Calrance, you have 12 minutes. Would you like to use any of it? Just want to say that as we have mentioned before this is an interim safety improvement project. We got 19 month time extension on the funding that to to evaluate all the safety element and we did the best we can to implement as many and as much safety enhancement that we could fit into this timeline for this project and this is what we proposed for the project. We understand there's many more thing that we could have done if we have the time and the money but we don't. So this is not like the project and we're going to go away. We had a master plan which is a long-term a role a road map to the future on how to improve safety for PCH as we move forward. But this is an interim safety improvement. As far as uh Pepperdine, I think we have met several time in the last three months with Pepperdine. We understand the information is being asked for and the data as we explained today and many time putting a sidewalk does not require any study or provide uh it's not based on data it's based on um connectivity and where the bluff park is part of that what we call point of interest as we hear today I mean as we heard two of the young men that came up and speak today that go to blood park and they may be visiting their friend at Tyler uh John

Tyler area they will walk. So this is a path that will provide for that kind of situation that the student or whoever need to um pedestrian safety basically. So I just want to share that yes Calran did study for the south side um to put sidewalk there but we need right away from two entity city of Malibu and state park. We also need retaining wall right where the uh signal leading to the bus stop. Just want to address that item. It is about 120 feet of retaining wall for 5 foot tall that we will be required with this element that require additional time. We not able to get that complete within the timeline to put it into this project. Um placing it on the northbound side as we stated before is within the cowan rightway. We already have all those rightway and environmentally clear already. So therefore that's the most uh as Lee said stated earlier the most uh what is that term

it's feasible feasible to to place. So I just least damaging alternative opportunity. There you go. And we gone through with the first responder emergency and we make sure all that is not being impeded and we have confirmed that as of November 20th we will be able we will not be degrading or impeding the emergency respond I mean respond to the emergency during the emergency time. So you want to add um offer that information.

I would like to add that after the meeting where it was laid out by the first responders they had no impact. Pepperdine came in with new conditions beyond what the planning commission had planned in there. So I would ask you to consider that we did conduct the meeting in accordance with the planning commission request and after that Pepperdine came in with new conditions for you to add which will add time and effort. Thank you. All right, that'll close the public hearing. Back up. Does anybody want to start? Um, no. Let's just power through it. Anybody want to go first?

Okay, I'll go first. I'm going to propose that we adopt resolution number 25-57, exhibit 1, determine the project is exempt from the California um staff's recommendation. Is there any additional I need to read out of that? You want me to go through the whole thing? You're moving uh option number one from the recommended actions. Yes. Okay. So, mayor, mayor, who's calling? Tyler Sit. Hi, Tyler. Hi. Uh, just to be clear, the number one recommended action is the planning commission approval.

Uh, so that's just want to be clear for the record, that's what is on the action. Okay. I think that they that the u the area of Malibu Seafood deserves to have some additional lighting in it and the area near Zumearez. I'm in that area all the time. It's extremely dark and um I think that the dark skies lighting is responsible and it is something that is going to help safety at night for people who are out on the roads. So, I'm I'm confused. Are you moving to adopt what the planning commission approved and reject the changes that Calrans has proposed to make? Yes. If I could

somebody can second it or they can make a friendly amendment or whatever. But

if I could make a comment, I would like to second it. And I think we're not denying CALR's ability to uh take out the lights if they want to, but by having the approval of the planning commission, they have the option to keeping those lights in place. And I realize there was a good faith effort by the CALR and MTC to try and work something out. That's still an option on the table if CalR doesn't feel like they need to do it. But look, we we've got a safety issue here on Corral and that area along Z on PCH by Zumearez. It's dark and while Mr. Haver says it's it's okay. I think this is a case of good, better, or best. And I think putting those lights in would be better. So we if we approve this, we give them the flexibility to go go smaller. But that's our that's CalR's call. It also has a provision in it about how to work with Pepperdine. We haven't excluded that option. It's still there. Uh but Pepperdine should not have the ability to veto the sidewalk. It's got to be something that has to be worked out amongst all the parties. I think Pepperdine has got an open mind about this, but at the same time, we probably need those sidewalks in. And I'll I'll make the comment I was going to make before. It's not about just speeding on PCH. We have pedestrians that are in harm's way and we've got to get them off the street and out of harm's way. And if you look at the tragic accident with the Pepperdine women, they were actually standing behind cars and they still got hit. So slowing traffic down is important, but also we need to protect protect the pedestrians wherever they are, whether it's crosswalks, sidewalks, a sufficient distance from the travel of cars. This is what we have to do. So,

I'll second your motion to maintain the uh planning commission approval. Okay. For discussion purposes, I'm I'm going to say I I have a lot to say. I know where I'm going to come out on this eventually, and I think it's going to satisfy most of the residents that are here speaking, and that's not the reason I'm going to say come out where I'm going to come out, but I think it will. But I'm not going to support the motion that was made because I specifically asked CALR whether they were satisfied with the changes that they volunteered and that that they do not impair the safety proposals and they said yes. And I don't think it's for us any more to meddle with what they had prepared proposed in the first place had they not made those changes than it is for us to meddle now with the changes that they've agreed to make. Um, I think there was a good faith discussion that went on that came to that. I had a lot of questions I was going to ask about the specific issues that gave rise to those changes had they not have been made. Uh, and I didn't ask any of them because they were mooded by the agreement that was reached. Uh, so I'm going to oppose that and I'm going to say, you know, maybe I'll be shocked, but I it sounds to me, it seems to me based on the questions that have been asked so far and the discussion that's going to ensue that if the motion stays the way it is, we're going to end up with a two two tie, which is a rejection, which I don't well, which will then result in another motion, which I'll make, which is to approve the planning commission decision plus the changes that Calrans has proposed. And um I think that one will pass at least three to one if not four four zero. But um I'm going to withhold my um comments about this project as a general matter until I hear until I hear from Steve. But I I have a lot to say about the pros and cons of this. Um and I'll hold off a few minutes.

Can I have a point of uh information, pleaser? Uh if we have a two two tie, doesn't that automatically decline the uh appeal? Repeat the question, please. If we have a two two tie, doesn't it automatically uh decline the appeal? If the if if the if the council not able to reach a decision, if they're not going to be able to appe approve or deny the project, then the planning commission decision would stand in in that event.

That's the way it'll be. That's the way it'll be. Yeah, I agree with Bruce. I'm I'm not I I I want us to follow what the CALR agreed to do in in connection with their discussions with the planning commission. And let me just you know and and Bruce is going to have a lot to say. Let me just give you a little my perspective on this thing. one and again when those well before when I got elected during even before I got elected to the city council every city council that I've been watching for years has has said PCH safety is a major concern right everybody says we're going to fix it we're going to fix it when those four girls from Pepperdine got killed uh I was the mayor at that point in time and you know was did what I could to help bring Kell California Highway Patrol back to PCH. I supported the the uh effort to put the speed cameras in because when you get past everything else, speeding is the number one cause of death on PCH. Number one cause has been all along. You know, and I talked you I heard about, you know, the I knew about the four girls from Pepperdine. Let me tell you, they were standing on a sidewalk under a street lamp and there is nothing in this proposal that would have done anything to make their death less effect. And that to me is wrong. Like I'm spending $55 million and I'd like to see something happen on PCH which at least starts to slow down the traffic because that's what's killing people. That's what's killing them. And I got a problem with you and I and I'll give you another this bicycle lane. I got no problem putting a bicycle lane in. But I tell you what, we're putting a new bike lane that's going to be bigger and we're going to start inviting people to come in and bicycle up and down PCH. And they're going to be bicycling up and down PCH next to cars going 65 70 m an hour. Now, if that's

safer, I don't understand the word safer. All right? I just don't think that's going to make this place that much better. Now, I'll give you one other one. Calr has got a policy number 36. It's a it's a director's policy and allows them to deal with safe roads and they've used that in the past up in Big Su on Route One. They used the safety factor to decrease the speed on Route One from 65 miles an hour down to 45 miles an hour, right? I mean because people were getting killed in accidents. They did the same thing in me find the other street US 101 and San Miguel. They reduce the speeds so it can be done and I'm just the thing I'm most unhappy with. I mean and look I I have no problem approving this project and I still don't like the crosswalk appciation. is still not happy. We're not getting any kind of concession for speeding. I got no problem approving all the rest of the stuff. I and no along along no at no point did I plan on voting against it. But I do think look, I don't want to see you folks back in here complaining about people getting killed, right? I don't want to I I've heard enough of that stuff that we've got to start looking at something. If the people are going to come in and do the work, they got to do something that's really going to make a major difference in what the hell we're doing in this city. And speeding on PCH is killing people. And until we address that speeding issue, this is all nice. It's good to have. It's probably, you know, it's going to save a couple lives, but it ain't going to be the big issue that we need to get done. So, and I'll go back to Bruce. I'm I'm going to agree with Bruce. I'm not going to vote for the uh I want the MTC appeal, the things that were negotiated with the MTC to be

included in our project. So, thank you.

All right. I'm Well, I'm I'm hopeful that Maryanne or Doug will change their mind and and support um approval, denial of the appeal, approval of the project subject to the changes that Calrans had proposed. But here's here's my overall thoughts. F first of all I want to echo the um what Halen earlier said and I think Pamela Ulik I I want to express my appreciation to the CALR crew that's here tonight for all the hard work that they've done in trying to put this together as best they could and um for withstanding some hostility um to say the least I think at the planning commission as well as from some residents. So, um I think that was inappropriate and I can't apologize for others, but I apologize for myself to the extent that they've that that occurred. I I appreciate the hard work and to the extent that there's any eye directed at them, it's really being directed at the wrong people because these are the people that were charged by CALR by by people higher up to put together this particular project and um I'm sure they would like to do other things above and beyond it, but they have limited budget, limited time, and uh a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to have to cut through. So, I really appreciate all the effort that they've undertaken and I wish they had been received in a more polite and appropriate and thankful way. Um, I want to also thank everyone who spoke tonight in in any direction that they spoke as well as before. I mean, I I learn a lot when I sit up here listening to everybody give their presentations. Um, sometimes it's repetitive, but even even when it is, different people present that repetitive information in a different way and it all makes a difference. Um, real change is what we need. Everyone knows that. And this and I'm hopeful that Calrans in good faith will go forward with this master plan which will

actually and and and in a meaningfully way meaningful way improve PCH in Malibu should not be a highway. Not anymore anyway. It it it is our main street and it needs to be treated accordingly. And the only way that this is ever going to become a safe road through Malibu is when it becomes a boulevard or a city street and stop being a highway. And the trepidation I have coming into this hearing and still have and I believe this is the reason for the MTC appeal. And I and I and I think there's been a lot of eye expressed at them which is wrongly directed. The the the real problem is these changes are somewhat cosmetic, even if they'll have incremental safety benefit. And if anything, they may lend credence to doing less in the future as opposed to promoting the need to do more because if you make incremental safety changes, you have less concerns about making the bigger safety changes. which is why I say I'm going to hope that Calrans does go forward in good faith and and and continues to make further changes, meaningful changes. Um, you know, there's a short in the short term, we we we're being given anything that's going to make things a little bit safer. We we can't say no. But in a sense, that's the um the devilishness of the proposal because it's it's holding us hostage. It's saying if you want some better safety here, take these little safety things we're going to offer you. But we're not giving you the real safety change. The real safety change is slowing the speed. Everyone knows it. The real safety change is not just narrowing lanes with with a little bit. It might and and there will be a lot of residents that will not like this. What I have to say, the real change is making it one lane in each direction and having real bike lanes that are separated from the highway, the roadway. Until those things occur, this is going

to continue to be a dangerous highway running through our city or through our town. So on the one hand, you know, thank you for thank you to the state for this for the money that for these changes. And by the way, most of this money is to repave a highway to keep the traffic flowing, not to make it safer for the pedestrians and for Malibu. Uh but you know, thank you for what little you're doing, but um hopefully we'll get the real changes at some future date. But you know, how could any of us vote against some incremental additional safety? Can't. Um you know, Pepperdine's contentions, I I got to say, first of all, I I could be wrong. When I listen to the arguments and read the letters, I they ring hollow to me. I think the real issue there is, and it's the same issue that everyone who cares about the appearance of Melbour has. It's, you know, they got a beautiful front green lawn and they don't want it to become more suburban than it is. And and and I could I can appreciate that, but to say I I you know, I asked the question about indemnity, and it's not because I'm I would say, "Oh, if long as you're going to pay for it, we're willing to take I'd be willing to take a chance of somebody getting killed." I wouldn't. I was the answer really wasn't going to change where I come down to. But I think the fact that they're not willing to indemnify um the city against any um one that would be harmed in that area if the sidewalk weren't installed shows that they really don't have the confidence that the sidewalk won't improve safety. So that's why I asked that question. Um, but again, so I I understand why MTC is appealing this and and I I was very disturbed by some of the very negative comments that were expressed towards Bill, Joe, and MTC in general because I think they have their eye on the

long-term ball. The that these changes are cosmetic. If you want to make real changes, make real changes. don't make little changes that aren't going to really improve Malibu, that are not going to improve the safety all that much at all and are going to degrade our community um aesthetic. I get that. Where I come down different from them, and reasonable minds can differ, is as I said, we have immediate safety issues. If if we can just save one person from being harmed or much less killed, we got we can't say no. So, um I don't want to have to I don't want to vote no as a protest against this motion to um approve what the planning commission did after MTC and Calrans in good faith had discussions and came to a what I think is a reasonable compromise that Calrans is satisfied won't cause any sa degrad degradation in the incre in the increased safety and just as I was not going to be prepared to meddle with their decision if they stood with to um keep the things. I don't think it's really right for us, for Maryanne or Doug to say, "Well, notwithstanding the fact that you, the experts, are willing to make these changes, I don't agree with your decisions. I think you need these these other things for safety." Um, I will vote yes because I don't want to have to make a no protest vote. But I I'm hoping that at least one, if not both of my fellow council members will change the motion and make the motion to be to approve what CALR has proposed to do post the um, planning commission meeting. I had some other comments, but they're all scribbled down here and it's very hard to write read and I think I've said enough in any event. So those are my comments. Maria, can I

Yes.

Um, by the way, I sit next to Bruce and I guarantee you I can't read a thing he's got there either. So, it's uh I want to go back just a little bit. Uh, as as Steve mentioned, he was the mayor when the tragic Pepperdine accident occurred. I was mayor prom. And one of the things became a glaring comment was the 2015 PCA's traffic study had been largely ignored. The city of Malibu had done some projects, but CALR was missing at the plate. And one of the first things that we talked about was how do we get these things done? They were they were solid proposals in 2015. They appear to be still solid proposals. We had a we had meetings with the secretary of transportation, the head of uh CALR, the director of CALR, including the uh CHP commissioner. And I think the walk away we had from that was especially from the Secretary of Transportation, we are going to do what we can do. and he basically outlined quickly $4.5 million in emergency funding to come to us right away which was spent quickly and has projects that are still uh being finalized. And he said we're going to come up with improvements that as I talked about the 19month uh timeline and so forth within their funding and master plan. One for a western Malibu which is what's on the table today and one for eastern Malibu which is to come. Eastern Malibu is even more dramatic and we're going to have a lot of discussions about that, I can be assured. But let's talk about what we're proposing tonight. And we've gotten some criticism um taken out of context perhaps about appeal about approving what CALR uh had originally been

approved at planning commission. We're talking about five street lights. Get that? Five street lights. There's concurrence about corral uh sidewalk because it turned out it wasn't an issue at all. MTC admitted they misread the plans. You have an issue about the uh uh speed limit law that's in effect. Calrans hasn't finalized that, but they promised to come back and get it worked out. Then you also have an issue of let's see what's the last one about bike lanes and so so really it's all down to five traffic five street lights and uh Pepperdine Pepperdine in the study I'm in the uh planning commission outcome says it'll be studied and worked with uh Pepperdine to see what they can do and upon satisfaction by the uh city staff that it's been resolved or recent impass a a permit will be issued for the sidewalk. That's what the planning commission came up with and a studied response and I agree with it. So now we're talking about giving Calrans the ability that if they see a need fit for five additional lights as they originally proposed, they can put them in or not. They can they can be persuaded by MTC to leave it where it is or not. Good, better or best. Good is what is the MTC proposal. It might be better with what CALR has. Let's see what they can work out. We're not killing MTC in this. What we're doing is saying the CALR has ability to put five extra street lights in. So, my second stands and uh I don't have a desire to change it. I don't know about Maryanne with her uh make a motion, but we're talking about getting this done. And I and I want to echo what was said about

CALR staff. They have been somewhat roughed up. I don't think we've looked the gift in the appropriate way. They are trying to make us uh a safer place. They're doing us a favor with the limited resources they've got. Let's take it as a victory. Let's appreciate the gift just as you would at Christmas time. It may not have been what you wanted in your stocking, but it's what they've got to give us. Let's take it, thank them very much, and work our way to get to the next phase, which is East Malibu. This is all about safety on PCH and it's going to be done incrementally. And I'll make one other comment. One of the things that's been said quite often has been Malibu should take over PCH. We have a $60 million general fund budget. We're spending, you're watching, $50 million being spent just on fixing PCH. We don't have the money to do this. We have to work with our partners at CALR to get this done. So, let's be their let's be their friend. Let's be their partner. And let's get this accomplished. and that starts right here. My motion stands.

Thank you. Um the only comment I wanted to make is that um I did receive notification. I hope that in a future project we can work on ADA access from PCH to Zuma Beach because that doesn't exist. So since I still got county and Calr sitting right next to each other, it'd be great for you guys to work to get some ADA access to Zuma Beach ASAP. Thanks. Um okay. We'll call before you call the question, ask one more comment. Okay, which is this is directed to MTC. Please don't appeal this.

I mean, I mean that in all sincerity. I would you have the legal right to do it. I understand the principled objections that you're making, but it's not going to go anywhere. It'll just hold up the project. So, please, I think you've gotten a fair hearing now. I think we've all expressed our our views that you understand and I I hope that you let this lie at this point. No one threatened to go to coastal. Okay, we're going to suggesting you were I'm just I'm just saying I I think it would be great if this ended now. Okay. I getting signals that the community development department has

just prior to voting want to um have a cleanup item within the resolution on the typo of the bike lane mileage. In the resolution it says 15 miles. It should be 9.7. So just want to include that as uh an amendment. Just clarific identification of the typographical error. Okay. One last question. Yes. See, one last call on that. The issue of Calrans and Pepperdine speaking and getting some concurrence from the city staff. How's that work?

How is that going to work? So, you're talking about the uh the planning commission. Yeah. Um so, the it just uh there wasn't really there was just a a conversation that needed to be had. Nothing that um there was no I think um Council Member Stewart used the correct term, no veto power. So, as long as that as long as there's demonstration that the conversation was had between the parties, which it sounds like it was, uh, by Pepperdine and Calrans, then they satisfied the That doesn't mean anything. Okay, gotcha. Exactly. Okay. Do we want a roll call? Wait, don't we? Okay. Roll call, please. Mayor Riggins.

Yes. Sorry, I did that in reverse order. Do you mind if I begin? Um, Council Member Stewart, I'm sorry. I'm actually Yes, I'm reversing myself. I'm My apologies. Um, Mayor Rigggins, yes. Council member Stewart, this is approving uh recommended action number one, right? Correct. That is the motion. Council member Yuring, no. Mayor Prom Silverstein. Yes. With an asterk that I had wished that we would have just approved what Calrans came back with.

Motion carries. Thank you. Now we will take a 10-minute break. Be back here at 9:30. That should be enough time to get council member Conrad back.

No, we're just going to start public comment. It's fine.

Well, make the motion. Make a motion. I would like to move item 7 C to the next meeting. Do we have a second to the very beginning of I would like to wait for Bruce. He's in the bathroom. We're not going to get I just think it's we're not going to get it's the right thing to do. I don't think that we should be fine. I'll second it. All in favor? I see on the next meeting. Wonderful. Mayor, if I could just clarify the direction on that. We're continuing it to the next meeting, but I want to make sure I understand how that item is meant to be scheduled.

It'll be scheduled as early in the meeting as possible. Um, in its normal section. Yeah. Yeah. What is the normal section? So, I know like what time is that chunk? It is new business coming after um ordinances and public hearings and old business. Okay. Basically, it's going to be in it same spot. We can reorder it that night if we need to. So I item 7C has been continued and will not be heard tonight. It will be scheduled for the December 8th meeting. Yes. Sorry you were. So December 8th, come back. We'll revisit it. Maybe we'll make some changes before then to clarify the issue. Maybe not. We don't know. Have a good night.

Accomplish that without even being in the room, huh? Yes. Okay. So we're going on to item 4 A. General public comments for items not on the agenda. Andrew 24 hours. Andrew Venses, sorry. Come on up. Andrew, don't dole. Hurry. Hurry. Quick like a buddy. Let's get through this.

Hi guys. Good evening, Mayor. What do you got for us tonight? Good evening, Mayor Rigggins and council members. My name is Andy Eusnes. I'm the student manager at the TreeWalk run by the Malibu Education Foundation. Can you tell them to be quiet out there, please? Thank you. The door. And I'm Parker Kaplan, the assistant manager. Thank you for giving us the chance to speak with you tonight.

We want to begin by thanking the city for approving our temporary use permit and for and for supporting the fee waiver. Your support helps ensure more of the funds we raise go directly to Malibu's public schools for arts, athletics, tutorings, classrooms, etc. This year, especially exciting news, MEF is piloting a studentled model. We're helping run the tree lot, coordinating volunteers, taking care of trees, and supporting customers, gaining real experience in leadership and operations. The MEF holiday tree lot opens this Friday, November 28th, and runs through December 14th at the Loki lot next to the library. Our trees arrive Wednesday straight from Oregon, including Nordman's, nobles, and Frasers. We also have freshly cut wreaths, garland, ornaments, and MEF merchandise. Our hours are weekends 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Fridays until 9:00 p.m. Weekends 10:00 a.m. to 7 p.m.

And we'd like to invite you to the community night. Join us for two special events. December 12th, community night and holiday marketplace, student performances, um, local shops and holiday activities. And December 13th, Dick Van Dyke's 100th birthday celebration with birthday cake, music from his films, and a community card made by a Malibu High School senior. We hope everyone in Malibu will come out by our trees, enjoy events, and support our schools. We hope to see you at the tree lot. Thank you. Thank you very much. Kevin Keegan followed by Norm Haney followed by Anastasia's Kamarovski.

Okay, thank you Kevin Norm Anastasia Danny. Did Danny leave? Oh, there's Danny. Okay. Um, do we turn the mic on, please? The mic. Sorry, Nor. I have to press the button right in front of you. There you go. Thank you. You actually want to hear me? You put in an admission slip. You get to speak. We're required to hear you.

Council minute starts now. I don't have a project in front of you today, so I feel comfortable in mentioning a comment that I had from my nephew. I hadn't talked to him in 5 years. And he said, "How are things going up there, Norm in Malibu? I hear that it's impossible to get a permit. That the fire rebuilds are not being listened to. Nothing's going on. and what is actually going on? I said, 'Well, whoever you heard that information from doesn't know what they're talking about. The city council is doing everything they possibly can do to move the fire rebuilds forward. They're eliminating requirements to go to the Coastal Commission if they can do it. They're ringing their hands. They're not sleeping at night. They're thinking out of the box. They're doing everything they possibly can. They're hiring new personnel to handle all of the fire rebuilds that come in uh trying to get permits. They're doing everything they possibly can. And these people work as hard as they can possibly work without pay. And I have nothing but uh positive thing to say about the city council. I don't always agree with the votes, but I always agree with the work effort you put into it to try and make the right decision. That's it.

Thanks. I told my nephew he was wrong. Is that your brother's son? Norm, you're ignoring me. You should talk to him more often, Norm. I said, "Is that your brother's son?" Is that Mike's son? It's It's uh David, my sister's son. Oh, your sister's son. Okay. He lives in Arizona now. Got it. Thank you. So, you guys are getting a bad rep and you don't deserve it. Yeah.

Anastasia and then Danny. Danny, a lot of the people that have left that you had done your thing, I think. We have our room to our to ourselves. So, uh, hello to the folk on the TV who are probably watching me today because I just got a phone call. So, here I am. So, they asked me what I'm doing. I said, I'm learning about government. So, I'm covering a meeting, too, but I'm also running for governor of California. No party no party preference. So, it's a new concept. So, it's NPP2026.com. Once again, that's NPP2026.com. So, I think I have most of your guys' support, but obviously have to, you know, get out there and stuff. So, um there's nobody hardly anybody here in the room. So, so got to get out there. But thank you very much. Keep doing a great job. And um I would hope that uh also um somebody would champion the cause of communications for you know work with uh Catalina Island and get these radios going because um you know even in the future they'll be using radio communications in the clear not digital. So it'd be nice if we can bring that here to Malibu. Thank you.

Thank you Danny. Is Jason still here? Uh, no. No. Okay, so you have six minutes. Okay, that's fine.

Good evening, council. Tonight, I'd like to talk about septic tanks. As you may know, post Palisades fire, the regional water board has taken the stance that all beachfront rebuilds in Malibu must upgrade their septic tanks to new AO test systems. This runs counter to both Malibu code and the bilateral lamp agreement signed by the waterboard. It also will add significant project cost to any rebuilding homeowner and force the installation of hundreds of new concrete seaw walls along the coast to the detriment of the environment and public beaches as well as the general beauty of Malibu. I'm going to share here for you the language the waterboard is using to justify their stance, their inventive and suspect stance. Trevor, I hope you're listening as it falls apart under the slightest scrutiny. What the waterboard acknowledges is that MMC chapter 154020 specifically defines new construction to exclude the replacement or repair of an existing building that was totally or partially destroyed. We've talked about this. That's correct. And if the rebuilding structures are not considered new construction, then they don't trigger a requirement to upgrade their septic tanks per the lamp agreement and Malibu code barring any increase in plumbing fixtures, bedrooms, or flow. And as you know, every rebuild in Malibu has to submit a fire damage assessment packet to the city. That means every tank has to be inspected. Most tanks might pass, but some won't. And if their language, an OWTS is considered to be in a state of failure as defined in MMC 154020 prior to a rebuild, then a new or replacement OWTS would be required. And it would need to be an AOTS. Don't yawn, please. I'm kidding. I'm yawning, too. to meet modern code. Okay, so far there's no argument. But this is where the waterboard begins to play games. They are not content to have only destroyed tanks replaced and upgraded. They want them all. They recognize that

the code nor the lamp agreement are on their side in this regard. To achieve their goals, therefore, they are attempting to carve out a whole new definition of failure, which would implicate all Malibu beachfront rebuilds for the alleged infra infractions of a few. This again comes down to MMC code section 154020. The important part therein is the definition of failure. I'll give that to you here as written quickly. An OWTS is considered to be in a state of failure if one or more of the following conditions occur. One, backup of sewage into the building served by the system, not an issue. Two, dischar discharge of sewage onto the surface of the ground or waters of the state. Keep that in mind. Three, the static liquid level in the distribution box is above the outlet invert. Doesn't matter. Or four, the septic tank requires pumping three or more times during any 180day period. Doesn't matter. I'm going to quote the waterboard's own language here in full. I'm going to do that to show both how pernicious and obviously flawed it is. Per MMC chapter 154020, failure means the ineffective treatment or dispersal of waste water resulting in the surfacing of raw or inadequately treated sewage effluent or the degradation of surface water or groundwater quality. based on the lack of adequate horizontal separation between many of the beachfront OWTS and the high tide line coupled with exceedences of bacteria standards in the ocean water adjacent to many of these properties. These OWTS would meet the definition of failure in MMC 1540 for resulting in the degradation of surface water quality. Based on our interpretation of these sections of the MMC, the OWTS for the destroyed beachfront properties must all be

upgraded to advanced OWTS. The Los Angeles Water Board therefore expects that the city of Malibu will require the beachfront properties destroyed by the fire to upgrade to advanced OWTS. There are fallacies all over the place here. Setting aside questions about the bacterial testing, how often is it done? At how many locations is it done? whether or not the results point to human activity at all. And if so, who's whose human activity? They repeatedly use the word many to indict or to attempt to indict all. Any judge would throw this logic out of court at first sight. A high bacteria reading from two years ago, from half a mile away, has anything to do with the functionality of my individual septic tank today? I don't think so. It's also significant to point out that this logic, this dubious logic of the waterboard could have been applied at any point in the past. It could have been applied in 2024 just as it can be applied on January 9th, 2025. It doesn't have anything to do with the fire, which means either they hadn't concocted this scheme yet or they deem the logic too flimsy to even dare propose. They're attempting to use this traumatic event as cover to enact a long-standing policy goal. I have a problem with that. And the problem for me is not only the waterboard's perpetual and dishonest negotiation, nor their attempts to extract public upgrades on the backs of suffering rebuilding families, but also that our city attorney can't or won't push back and stand up to such easily dismissed bad faith argument. BBK is here to serve the city and its residents. At this moment, I want to make sure they're earning their keep.

We need firm push back here, and to date, we have not seen it. We can't play along and have this be a negotiating point in a sewer discussion. A, we need relief now. B, a sewer might never happen. This city was founded in part to resist unscrupulous interference from outside agencies. Now is the time to remember that commitment. Thank you. So, the good news from the governor's executive order took one major um step towards that. And Steve and would you rather see a sewer?

I think a sewer would be the best environmental option. Get your friends, sit down, and write some letters to the governor and tell them you're in favor of making sure mailbooks got the the access to whatever they need to be able to put the sewer in and not have to worry about the septics. If you do that, you're going to help yourself a lot more than you may know. All right, so do that. I'll write letters. Please do. Scott Dietrich followed by SAZ gone. And then Josh left. Josh also left. Okay. Bill Samson. Wow. I think everybody left. Okay. um Scott and then Lee Haber.

Thank you, Maryanne. I uh went into the rebuild center on Saturday.

I needed an electrical permit and Yolanda said, "Just give me a sketch with the whatever you need from the electrician, licensed electrician." So, I got that from the electrician. I take this terrible sketch into Jasmine and a half hour later I walk out with my permit. Yay. So, I just Anybody listening, please, if you're hesitating, get your act together. Now's the time to go into the rebuild center and they'll work with you and they'll make it really simple. Number two, we have a 25 mph speed limit all the way up um from what the pier it starts 35 goes to 25 all the way up to Rambla Pacificico and Las Flores. There is no construction going on in that area. I don't know why we still have a 25 mph speed limit. There's cones all over but they don't do anything. There's less building than there was before the fire. There's less everything. So, I don't know what we need to do to get that changed, but if there's anything you can do, don't make it painful for residents. Any little thing we can do to help people, let's do it. Um, so and number three, we need a city manager, nothing critical of Candace, she's done a great job politically in Sacramento, but she didn't sign up to be a permanent city

manager. I don't think maybe you did, but I don't think so. So we I know we need that. I have had several conversations with Glenn Bisera. Some of you don't like him. I don't know. He has not he actually said no, don't don't say anything cuz I've talked to him a couple times seeking help. Please just interview with him and see where that goes. I have been very impressed and I'm told there's about 500 people wanting to sign a petition to encourage you guys in that direction. So that's all. Thanks

to real quick. I'd like to I I think 500 people is a bit of an exaggeration, but that's okay. It's your presentation. Uh what do you see? The speed limit. Oh, the speed limit. Yes, sir. I get emails every week from residents saying, "You know what? This experiment you're running down there, keeping the speed limit at 30 m hour is the best thing you've ever done. Keep it going." So, I hear you, but I'm just saying, you know, there there seems to be an opinion on the other side that says they like that.

I'd love to see a 35 m hour speed limit for the whole stretch forever. Sorry, Lee. Do we have anyone online? There's uh five raised hands for public comment.

Well, I just want to say thank you and offer an item because speeding and speed management came up this evening. So, Trevor, I hope this will not create a conflict of interest for any of the city council members. There is a public meeting next Tuesday night here at city hall. I hope to see all of you here. It is about the PCH roundabouts and I hope you will all make it. It is a proven safety countermeasure. It is an intersection control and it is most definitely a speed management technique. And I know a few people when I made comments at the prior meeting questioned my comments about driving a bunch of them in Ireland. I can tell you I did experience a large number the other week on a Saturday in Arizona. I think that's part of the United States. Driving from Cottonwood, Arizona down to I17 on my way back home via Phoenix. I went through probably a good dozen of them on Arizona State Route 260. So, in our efforts for speed management efforts ongoing, I hope to see all of you here next Tuesday night. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, let's hold our five raised hands. And who's first? Thomas Spencer. Thomas, can you hear me this time? There you go. What you got?

Oh, thank goodness. I had a lot to say earlier, but it turned out the right way. Um, thank you for sticking with me, mayor, on this. Um, I want to speak about the urgent need for accountability. Starting with John Maza and Joe Drummond. Commissioner Maza has served for 16 years. At this point, that's not public service. It's political entrenchment. And throughout that time, we've seen a pattern that raises serious concerns about political integrity. Maza participates in planning commission votes and then turns around and engages in lobbying, advocacy, and uh appeals on the sidelines. Whether or not it violates a statute, it looks politically corrupt and erodess political trust. Commissioner Joe Drummond is part of the same problem. She may not be on the city council because she behaves like an unelected citywide power broker, injecting herself into major decisions, pressuring elected officials, and trying to steer Malibu far beyond the authority of her appointed position. And after what she did tonight, one thing is absolutely clear. She cannot ever run for city council. Not shouldn't, cannot. Her conduct didn't just cross a line. It put this community in danger. And that alone is disqualifying. And then there's the Malibu Township Council, the MTC. With Maza and Drummond at its center, the MTC has derailed safety projects. They've appealed needed improvements. They take pictures over people's walls and squeal on their neighbors. The MTC isn't protecting Malibu. It's destroying it. It's just absolutely destroying it one obstruction at a time. Malibu deserves better than entrenched commissioners and the back channel political operators that it's experiencing. We need transparency, accountability, and leaders who protect this community and not endanger it. For the future of Malibu, John Maza must be replaced. Joe Drummond's actions tonight

must permanently bar her from ever seeking a city council seat. And we must be honest about the reality. Maza, Drummond, Hat, Healey, Steve Yuring, and the MTC are destroying Malibu. Thank you. Thank you. Who's next? Dustin. Dustin, are you there? Yes. Can you hear him? Yes. Please begin. Hello. Yes. Please begin.

Oh, yeah. So, so we we the people of Malibu, we're we're we're just finished with this Malibu Township Council nonsense. We're done with the theatrics. We're we're done with the manufactured outrage. We're done with a small unelected group hijacking every single discussion, poisoning every single process, and dragging this community backward for their own personal crusades. The MTC has turned public participation into an absolute circus. They disrupt, derail, and dominate every issue, no matter how small, because they believe they are entitled to decide the fate of an entire city. And they are not. They do not speak for us. They do not represent us. And the community has had it up to here. For years, this group has operated like a shadow government, filling appeals, stirring conflict, bullying staff, intimidating residents, and injecting hostility into meetings that used to be about collaboration and problem solving. Their goal is not to help Malibu. Their goal is to control Malibu. Everything becomes a battlefield with them. Housing, they fight it. Recreation, they fight it. infrastructure. Yep, you guessed it. They fight it. Youth programs, events, those get fought as well. So, let me ask the obvious. How long are we supposed to tolerate the same handful of people dictating the pace and tone of this entire community? How long do we allow their appeals, their tantrums, and their conspiracyfilled monologues to override the will of thousands of residents who just want their community to function? This is not civic engagement anymore.

It's obstruction dressed up as virtue. It's ego masquerading as leadership. And we, the people of Malibu, are done pretending it's anything noble. Tonight, the question is simple. this council will will it continue to enable the group and the public and overwhelming rejected or will you finally listen to the residents? We are done with the Malibu Township Council. Thank you. Thank you. Who's next? Andy Lion. Hey Andy. You there?

Yes, I am. So, I I called in a month ago about the skatepark. I know you guys don't want to hear about it, but talking about accountability from our staff, our city staff that said it was so urgent that that temporary skate park be put up for salvage sale and and or for surplus sale and then salvaged off and nothing has happened there. Nothing. It's been three months now and Christian Ray go and and Rob Deau who told the you know the parks and rec commission that it had to come out we were holding it all up and it's not the case. So a $300,000 city all public amenity was thrown in the garbage and $1,100 was gained from the skate light. And I just don't understand why they can do something like that. And you know there's no accountability for that kind of a mistake or that kind of you know not having the contractor. So this is coming from the contractor. There's two separate contractors now. CS Legacy who won the bid is not even on the job. There's another guy that's building the skate park. So that that guy that said he needed to have that out so he could do it. I think he's gone on to some other job and he just wanted to, you know, get get something out of the way because there's no trenching. There's no bathroom built. There's no charging stations that needed conduit to them. Nothing. The skate park was designed to be put there for the reason that it would stay until the skatepark's done. And now we're hearing it's going to be February. It doesn't look like it's going to be February, by the way. It it's like so slow that, you know, they moved some stuff over onto the onto the lot because I made noise about the fact that it had nothing was even over there. So that they just threw some stuff over there which would fit on the other side, no problem. Um especially you know if

they got rid of the two mo motor homes or trailers that they put on for their own use. Um but you know it's like there's no it's like oh well sorry but you know this was something that was being used by kids and it's like well where am I supposed to go drive like down in Santa Monica or over in Westlake or whatever. There's nowhere to go. You talk about public safety and should I just have my kids skate in the street? Um I don't know. It it just she's off the hook. I mean, it was like a complete misleading statement by your city staff. And it turns out also the guy that's doing the skatepark, he might know the guys that actually won the bid and I was trying to bid to get the skatepark to put it someplace. It didn't need to come out. I could we could have moved it. The the numbers they gave everything about it. But she's like, "It's okay. Don't touch it. Don't say anything. Oh, too bad. You're going to get a skatepark." Well, no. My kid hasn't been able to really skate unless I drive him 45 minutes, you know, over the canyons if they're open or up the coast, you know, an hour. I'm not going to go down to Santa Monica because that's, you know,

Thank you, Andy. Nina. Nina, you there?

Nina. It's It's Nino. Are you there? Yes. Go ahead.

Okay. Um, good evening, mayor and council members. Um, my name is Nino Pcell. I was raised in Southern California, and Malibu has been my home for the past 26 years, and I reside in Sycamore Park, wonderful little enclave. In all that time, I've spoken at the council meetings one or on one or two issues, and I'm not one who usually comes to these uh comes up here and speaks, but I feel so strongly about the issue of the lack of a city manager and the availability of qualified candidate. I felt it necessary to speak up tonight. I want to bring to your attention a community petition. I believe you heard about it earlier. Um I understand it's being circulated of um in support of uh uh Glenn Bera for the position of city manager. I believe that this position already has a number of supporters and I do believe that that uh 500 number is not an exaggeration in terms of uh the number of signitories on that uh current petition. And from my conversation, the number seems like it's continuing to grow and I believe it could easily reach a thousand or more. Uh recently I reviewed uh uh Mr. Bera's CV and I'm genuinely impressed. He I've uh I used to be actually in the business of um uh uh locating high level management people years ago and I'm genuinely genuinely impressed by Mr. Visa's credentials and um but I haven't had the opportunity actually meeting face to face but his CV reveals uh uh his experience his government and industry connections and what I can see is uh a professionalism. Uh I've spoken to individuals who know him personally and they uh they have echoed the same uh understanding. I'm informed that he has a clear understanding of the challenges facing not just Sycamore

Park, but Malibu as a whole. He appears to have a history of bringing practical approaches to issues with a solutionsoriented approach that many of the people I know in this community feel is exactly what our city needs right now. My friends and I strongly believe uh he would be an excellent choice for city manager. So, I'm respectfully requesting that the council on the next meeting's agenda place the item of considering Mr. Basera as a candidate for the position of Malibu City Manager so the community can discuss it more fully in an open forum in front of the council and the community. Thank you very much for your time and your consideration.

Thank you. Is that Do we have any uh There's one more. Ryan. Ryan, are you there?

Ryan, you're unmuted. Ryan, I'm here. I clicked unmute. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. Um the the big item that I Calrans I hope they're I don't know if they're still there but uh needs to address is what they have not really shown in the last two years since the tragic event in October and that is what are they planning to do in eastern Malibu where we have our problems not far western Malibu whether we're going to get a bike lane between you know Decker and Enel or or Enel to the county line. That's it's not an issue there. That's not where the crashes are. That's where the speeding is, but that's the CHP's problem beyond the city limits. I found it personally very disappointing as a taxpayer to see so much work put into the wrong part of town for two years and we haven't heard a peep out of how we're going to fix eastern Malibu. Now, obviously the problem is speeding everywhere, but the big issue in eastern Malibu is there's not enough pavement road width. We already have had substandard lanes, even narrower than they exist today, and that was cured before 2003. But the issue is reclaiming the road width to fulfill the obligation of Weiner's bill 960 which passed and that is to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating bike lanes into roadways not particularly high-speed highways. It doesn't say that in the bill. It meant city streets. It applies to every city street everywhere in California. That comes with a very high cost for Pacific Coast Highway. And unfortunately, you did not see those numbers going toward

the real solution tonight. And that is adding the extra 5 ft on each side of the highway to accommodate the separated bicycle lane usage. In eastern Malibu, the right of way is the same 100 ft. And some people are going to lose a little bit of their flowers in their front yard maybe that they've encroached onto the state's easement. But uh Roé Knight ring probably has a 100 foot in a judgment against her from the state of California. And I assume that it runs pretty much 100 feet up and down the whole sequ. So let's not let our eyes off the ball here. Widening the road is what will separate vehicles from pedestrians. And look, pedestrian, parked vehicles, and moving vehicles all go together. It's the last segment of the trip. You park, you get out, and you walk. The only thing that's not 100% essential is recreational bicycle riding. So, thank you.

Does that conclude all our speakers? Thank you. Okay. Um, do we want to have brief comments from us or just go on to 6A? I got two brief ones. Go.

Uh, I wish the speakers who the first two speakers who we're not happy the Melwood Township Council would show up at the city council. I mean, let us see who the heck you are. If you got that kind of complaint, do it in person. Uh, because you know, this anonymous stuff is it's old. Uh, I just want to say a couple things. during the last couple rainstorms. I want to congratulate public works. They've done they kept the roads open, guys. I mean, this this thing was working like a charm. Rob, you and your team did a hell of a job. So, thank you very much. Uh, and I just want another thing. I've been attending these zone captain meetings now for the last two or three weeks. Uh, and like Scott Dietrich said, uh, the progress we are making is amazing. I mean, we are doing one heck of a job. So, if you haven't, you know, if you haven't put your permits in or your your project in, do that because the stuff is really starting to move. We're figuring out what's going on. We got new teams working in to help us get that done. If you're going to do it, now's the time to get going because we want to see it get rebuilt. So, thank you very much.

I'll be quick. Yes. I haven't gotten a chance. Sorry, I'm itchy. Um, all right. So, um, really quickly to Scott's point, I am confused. Is there progress or no construction on PCH? Because I've driven into town a few times now and it's like a lot of construction. So, I might be driving a different PCH than you. Um, is do you not see construction on PCH only?

Let's keep Okay. Um, I totally agree. We need a city manager. Love Candace. Um, I've asked, you know, Glenn sounds like a nice guy. Bring him in for an interview. Not sure what we could talk about. We've got finger on the button, but um I don't know why we don't bring him in for an interview. Um, Andy Lion, I skated streets my whole life and I survived. Um, I do believe somewhere in our mission and vision statement it says we've sacrificed modern amenities or something. So, for the time being, I think just go over the hill glider will he'll be okay. We're pretty sure a dollying up a kick a curb. He'll be good. Um, Ryan, dude, as a taxpayer, I'm bummed that we just spent five hours of our time with like an appeal that really didn't need to happen. So unfortunately that was our money as well and I want it back. I want those five hours back. And these guys, you guys are all sitting here still. The staff is still here tonight. So I'm going to end with that. But that appeal cost us money. So I'm going to thank you for passing that council. I really appreciate that. Thank you Bruce. I'll make a quick comment. Uh about a week ago, uh I attended the uh Tanga uh event at the Panga Library where they talked about the work that the MRCA and LA County Fire Department's doing for fire and land management in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is extremely impressive what they're doing. Uh we've even had conversations with the state parks people what they're doing. Uh we

don't know exactly uh all the details they have, but what MRCA is doing, not trying to build fire brakes that look like the Great Wall of China, but a mosaic throughout the Santa Monica Mountains for critical areas to control future fires or to limit the even the start of those. So, it's a very scientific approach. I know it isn't widely uh uh uh criticized except by a few people that are primarily about chapel issues, but when you look at what they're doing, this is a great benefit to the city of Malibu and all the other cities in the very high fire zone of uh western Los Angeles County and the supervisor's office is right behind us on this. This is something that Malibu uh promoted earlier this year and it's taken off even with the governor giving grant for several million dollars to get it done. So good progress is being made and we need to bring this show uh with MRCA and the fire county fire department to Malibu and hopefully we can get that done soon. That's all I got. Chris.

Okay. Try to be relatively brief. Uh first of all, Rob, can you tell us what the current um timeline is for the skatepark? So, good evening, council. Uh, as it is right now, weather permitting and and we've had some quite a bit of rain and now the the bowls are now pools out there a little bit, but we're we're working on that. Um the contractor is trying to get all all the all the skate parks um all the flat work done by the beginning of the year and then shortly after that we'll we'll have everything done. Um the rain's kind of held back a little bit but I I'll be able to get back to council on on on better dates. But we're I mean as of now we're pretty much on schedule at the beginning of the year February around that time.

Yep. Yep. for opening for uh I I think that's that's the majority of it. I think there's other elements that we're going to be still kind of waiting to be completed, but but the idea is is to try to get the skate park part of it done and open and have that available as we're working on other elements of the park. What's your degree of confidence that the skate park part of it will be open and usable by the end of February? I I my confidence is very high on that one. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I Scott has me confused. In any event, SC I I I appreciate almost all the comments Scott makes and I appreciate the fact that he makes a that makes the comments, but um the concept of let's get the speed limit back up again in East Malibu after what we just went through tonight where people are uniformly saying let's get the speed limit down throughout Malibu to me doesn't make any sense. I don't I don't get that. It seems to me like we've got the perfect proof going on right now that speed, lowering speed is an answer because as best I know, there have not been any major accidents and there certainly have not been any fatalities in the entire burn zone for lack of a better word where PCH is down to 25 miles an hour. And I think this is like proof positive. as long the more this continues and the more it stays safe. This is our best argument to the state of California for why we need a 25 or 35 mph speed limit. So, uh it's an inconvenience, but it but you know, we talked earlier about safety is more important than convenience. This is like the ultimate safety. So, I really don't get that one. Um I hope it stays that way for a long long time. Um Danny, I couldn't agree with you more with your analysis. you did add the word all at one point to when you were reading from the water board's letter. So that was like a little slight of hand there, but I think it was implied. Um, but in any event, I do hope that we take some kind of a position on this because it does seem to me reading the code or the lamp and reading what they're saying that they are twisting the law and that is just not right and it's adverse to the interests of our residents and I would like to see the city do something about that. at a bare minimum start taking um clear written legal arguments to them. And um I don't know about litigation down the line or not, but I I I'd like to see us do something about that. Um

right, three more things. Um Nino and the whether they are 500 or not residents, I don't know. I'll tell I I met with Glenn Basera. I was impressed with him. I don't know whether I would ultimately after a full interview where the city council interviews him vote to give him an offer or not. I don't know. But I'm becoming more and more sour on the fact that he is that he is a politician and that he is um uh trying to get support from the residents the way it's going the way it's been going. It's it's turning me sour on any possibility that I thought that this person would be an appropriate person to hire. So, just want to say that it's it I find it very distasteful the way this is going about. Um, if he if he wants the job, he should be um seeking the job through proper channels. And the fact that he's um lobbying us through residence is very disturbing to me. And I'm sorry, you know, I believe in I believe in transparency, accountability, but we don't conduct interviews in public where I mean I I'll be shocked if there's going to be a vote on the city council to bring a matter forward where we interview somebody in public and hear public comment on that interview. Uh that's just not the way it's done. It's not done anywhere that way and for good reason. Um last two comments. Um Travis Gibson, Thomas Spencer, Dustin. Uh I was really shocked that I wasn't included tonight for the first time perhaps in the um comments that are scripted and repeated and tiresome at this point. Um the MTC I think serves a valuable purpose. Are they always right? No. Is anybody always right? No. Are you guys always right? Never. So show your faces. I think you've also been identified as Larry in the past and maybe some other names. I think I said it should be Mo and Cur. Larry Mo and Curly. Show up at city council, show your faces, let's have a conversation. Or even just, you know, I've told you before, I'll meet you for coffee. I won't bite. I promise. But, you know,

stop this anonymous attacks on people. It's tiresome. It's you say the same thing meeting after meeting. One would think we're still in a political campaign here right now. I guess maybe you could be playing the long game. There's another campaign 11 months from now or what have you or a year from now and then there's another one two years later. Maybe you're just playing the long game. But I suspect that even the people that um somewhat share your views are tired of you by now. And I wish you would just stop it. But you know, you have a first amendment right to say your piece. Last thing is Hound and I agree on many things, but the one thing that one of the few things we disagree on, and you know, I'm going to say it. We I've told her this privately. Um appeals are important. Letting people have their say here is important. It it takes a lot of time, but that's process. I actually learned a lot listening to people tonight. I felt much more comfortable with the decision the city has made and and the direction we're going after having that hearing. But we had a long contentious appeal of the Malibu Motel if if people didn't take appeals that would be being built with its 60 ft retaining wall. And um there have been many other appeals that have resulted in denials of projects that should not have been brought that should never been approved in the first place below, but they were. And there have even been occasional appeals where we've let a project go forward that there was a previous denial of. They serve a purpose. More often than not, the appeals rejected, but it's an important part of the process. And I it it irks me to complain about a process that's important. You know, we're not an authoritarian place like some other parts of the country seem to be coming. And it's important to have process, due process, and um freedom of speech. So again, Travis, Dustin, Thomas, please come here. Exercise your freedom all you want, but please don't continue to hide in the shadows.

Okay. Um, so some people with Columbus, we have a we had a recruitment. We hired a firm to go se look solicit candidates and have an application process. Let that process work its way through. Okay? Anybody was able to submit to that process and if their resume was warranted then they will move along the process. But let the city council do the job that we have been um in uh empowered to do, elected to do. Yes. Whatever. Um and uh you know it's working its way through the process. So, just let us do this one thing. The one thing the city council absolutely gets to do is hire the city manager. So, we're on it. We're getting there. We're trying to find the right candidate so we can have some um stability for our city and um you know, somebody to uh be as great as um our our city staff is. And I just want to thank you. We're in the the the process of the thank yous for the h for the year and Thanksgiving and everything else and this has been a heck of a year and this staff has been outstanding and I just want to once again say thank you for everything that you have done. We would not have done anything had it not been for you. Um with that my other Thanksgivings are going to be for our community. I want to remind everybody that it is Small Business Saturday um the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So, please shop local and um give your money to our local businesses. If you've got relatives, take them out for a meal in town. Um we've been attending a lot of small business um activities here in the community. We've got a lot of new shops opening. We've got a lot of existing

shops that exist. Please, please give them your time and your money. Um, with that on Giving Tuesday is next Tuesday, so consider sh uh supporting some of our local um foundations and charities in our community. They all do great work. Um the Christmas tree lot is right down here on the lot. Um they've got students leading that. Go let them show their customer service skills and everything else. Um Boys and Girls Club, Malibu Ed Foundation, Los Angeles County Library Foundation are just a couple of the few ones that do great work. So, um there's plenty more out there. Uh just give some money to the world right now. And with that, we will continue.

Got one last two real quick ones. One, I don't know what I've been following the city for years. I've been here 30 years. We we have not had a better city manager than the Kansas Bond. So, I don't I don't know what that I don't know what you guys are looking for, but boy, you should be thankful for what we got. All right. Uh second thing I wanted to just me mention Jason Lawrence. He's Jason is the man that sits back there at the table. Uh he's there every weekend. And I just want to say Friday night he I want to mention his sense of humor. Friday night around 8:30 he gives me an email with the update of the the agenda and he gives me like 10 additional inches of reading to do and he closes his email and says and hey have a good weekend. So thank you.

Thank you Jason. Okay. Madame Mayor, could we maybe uh rearrange the agenda? I think we've got uh 7B and we got a bunch of people sitting over there that are uh I think you may want to check with the clerk about which needs to be done tonight. Some items need to be hexed out by the council. Let's just power through. Let's just Yeah, let's just work until I think we can get through the next four or five items pretty by Thanksgiving. Yeah. Well, if I got to leave before traffic after traffic breaks tomorrow morning. So, it would be I would like to hear if we can what items have to be done tonight.

Yes. The items that need to be done tonight are 7 A, 7B, which we do have consultants here for, and 7D, A, B, and D. A, B, and D. So I I'm going to formally move it may it may not pass that we now proceed with 7A then 7B then 7D and I guess as of 10:30 we'll have to take a vote on each one whether to proceed or not. Uh because I think it's it's probable that once we get through those three we're not going to have four votes to keep going. I just I would like to let's just go with the agenda. So do you have a second for that motion? I'll go I'll second that. Okay. All in favor? I

I I Okay, so 7A.

Do you want to do we want a staff report? Do we have any public speakers on this item? We don't have any speaker slipped for 7A and we don't have any raised hands either. Does council want a staff report or is everybody comfortable moving forward with this without one? It's the quickest. We need to provide direction. I'm not I'd like to hear something. Yeah, I think that would be Yes, we want a staff report. Yeah, it doesn't have to be very detailed.

Sounds good. Good evening, Mayor Rian City Council. Uh, so today it's we're going to talk about public safety patrols at city parks. Um, so as you all know, Legacy Park and on occasion Bluffs Parks become a central congregation site for people experiencing homelessness in the city. uh has led recently to proliferation of shopping carts on occasion, encampment fires and all sorts of other trans illegal transient activity. Uh so one of the possible measures that uh staff and uh has looked into is you know potentially having public safety patrols uh present at both of these parks to improve public safety presence and of course assist the sheriff's department in deterrence for some of these activities. And so we identified three options for doing so. The first option would be to amend our existing contract with American Global Security. So, American Global Security is the current contractor that secures all of the entrance gates at the city parks on a daily basis and they also provide security part uh security services during special events such as the Chumash Day events and other uh city events. Uh a second option for doing so would be to amend our existing contract with our parking contractor Last Parking. Uh they do have a community ambassadors program that is essentially like a community watch type program that has staff patrol uh parks or whatever other areas we designate them to to report any issues to the sheriff's department and increase public safety presence in whatever area that we designate them to. And the third option is of course to issue an RFP for security services. Uh, for example, City of Calabas has this contract with a security firm to provide quality of life patrols for an amount of approximately 200,000 a year. And this is a contract that provides coverage from one guard 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. So, we have those three options identified. And this is just a quick overview of what the cost would look like for on a daily basis, a monthly basis, and what that

potential start date would be if we decide to move in that direction. So, uh, we have those options there for your review. I can leave this up on the screen if you wish to look at it a little longer. It's also on the staff report, but we have of course a breakdown of what it would cost for unarmed versus armed guards and what the last contract costs for the amendment and also obviously for the RFP we have an option to um set an acceptable budget. And so upon reviewing those staff has recommended that in the interest of time and costs we amend the contract with American Global Security. Uh so as as we all know we have a contract already existing with them and they can actually make changes to this contract immediately. So if we were to amend that contract we can add the addition of two armor guards for 8 hours a day to the decision of the city council what hours they would like to have that uh those eight hours be allocated towards. Uh it would cost approximately $18,000 per month. And this would be for you know uh the council will decide the the ideal time of coverage. We the city staff recommends that it be for three initial three-month period through February 2026. And of course uh we should review a possibility of extending it through the fiscal year if the city council uh provides approval to do so before that uh contract amendments completion. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Uh do we have any clarifying questions? I'm sorry. I was in thought to start making a decision on something. I ask some questions, but I think I'll hold off until we're doing our deliberations to ask them. I I'll wait too. Okay. So, I made an I Well, I know, but I made an announcement at the beginning. We were not going to take any public comments after the staff report started. So, I'm wondering if we should give that just a warning. I'll support that so long as it is actually enforced every time to everybody. been doing pretty good so far.

Okay. So, um from here on out, um once the staff report has started, no additional public speakers or you know um and this comment will not be taken at this time. Sorry. Okay. So, public comments closed. Do we have anybody online that came in before? Okay. No, not closed. We're up here before You go. Sure. Go.

All right. I'm I'm going recommend we we approve this contract, do the three months, see what happens, and we can always bring back her increase it. And just another thing, uh I've had over the last month, I've had a couple conversations with CART. Uh they're the people that are feeding the homeless in the civic center and they're they're feeding like four days a week. And I've met with both Terry Davis and K Gabbert and asked them, look, I don't have a problem with them feeding the homeless. I just think what they're doing, they're bringing them into the civ the civic center. Uh and mothers are afraid to go to the library. Uh you know, kids are picking up their buses. They're sitting there and seeing homeless people drop their pants and fight. Uh I mean, they're getting accosted. And so I've asked them to, you know, if they could solve the problem by moving their feeding to a different location so we're not attracting them to the civic center. And if they don't do that, we may come back and maybe have the city do something to try and make that change. But I think if we can do that plus get these guys working and they help us in the civic sense. I'm in favor of this.

Chris,

what law enforcement authority is a security company going to have to remove people that are unlawfully in the park? So fortunately they don't have enforcement capability but what the recommendation of having the armed guard as a deterrent is that we have so this would be packaged as part of increasing measures that we have one being uh recently we expanded the signage throughout the park with all these different municipal code violations. These are bigger signs that we placed in strategic locations throughout the park and we're also trying to add a camera system that's going to be integrated with the real-time watch center with the sheriff's department. And so going back to the question, they don't have enforcement capabilities, but they do have increased visibility, reporting capability, and you know, as you all know, we don't control transient activity 24/7, but they keep eyes on the park at all times, you know, or within the hours that they're allocated uh to help us report to the sheriff's department uh the start of a new encampment, uh any sort of fire activity, any sort of new um illegal activity that would warrant sheriff enforcement.

Okay. Um, f first of all, I I when I read the report, I noticed it talk it starts off talking about people experiencing homelessness and and I've said this before that should not be the focus of what we talk about. Um, it may be that for the most part the people camping on our property are experiencing homelessness, but that's not necessarily the case. We have a camping law, not a law against homelessness, which would not be appropriate or permissible. So, we really ought to be focused on enforcing our law. And um I have we had conversations with the sheriff's department about if we have additional security and they're unsuccessful in preventing the camping that's going on in Legacy Park, for example, or in the library parking lot. that once we've made efforts to take care of that that then the sheriff's department will come in and do something about it or are they going to continue their their handsoff approach because it's not worth it to arrest people only to have to let them go? I mean, what's what's going to go on there?

Yeah. So the the goal is that these tenatively right these public safety patrols would be part of this conversation with the sheriff's department and city staff to if there is an active encampment they would be able to work with city staff and sheriff's department to actually remove them right there and then obviously they wouldn't have the capability to do so themselves but they would loop in a sheriff's deputy who would have then have the authority to do so um you know or city staff can go as as I have done myself many times go out and place a removal notice to have usually give them uh usually it's 48 to 72 hours to have their stuff leave and if they're still there with after that posted signage, you know, they can be forcefully removed or cited for doing so.

Okay. So, our law doesn't require any kind of 24, 48 or 72-hour notice. I would like to see that shortened, but um and and I I hear the term encampment all the time, which I think again is is weakening what our law is. Our law is a one individual is not permitted to camp full stop on public property. Camp means sleeping the night, you know, being there with your property for some prolonged period of time. So, so when I hear the word encampment, I think of multiple people with tents and stuff. That's not what our law provides. Our law provides for any individual is not allowed to camp on our public property. And I think we need to be talking about that and thinking about it that way. Um, it seems to me that the only difference between armed guards and unarmed guards based on the fact that the guards can't do anything other than talk to people and report is for their safety, not not to give them the ability to do anything. Would that be accurate?

That's correct. Yeah. Um, last thing is I'll say, you know, I I we have an ad hoc to improve our camping law and um I drafted an amendment to that law a month or so ago now. Um I would like to see this brought forward if not by for the last meeting of this month. Certainly no later than the fir than than the first meeting in January. So um I'd like to see that done. That's I think that's really important. It'll give the um law enforcement perhaps some greater authorization and empowerment to do something about it. Um I'm inclined to support the um the unarmed contract because I don't see what what we're getting for the additional bucks for the armed contract.

Uh let's go back on this side over here. I'm gonna go one real quick. Um okay, so I was wondering Steve mentioned the cart. I know that they also um ser give services to outside the colony. Is that right? Yeah,

they do. I know that that hasn't been um popular either and I don't know where there is a solution um to that. I also know that the sheriff's park in front of or on the side of city hall every day, which I was wondering if maybe they moved and parked at the county parking lot, that would help. Using the bathroom, this library has a bathroom and it's county. Not overnight. Oh, it's Oh, well, it city hall has one overnight. They have access. They got a key to come in.

Yeah. What about during the day? Like the substation's supposed to be there during the day. Um, that could help maybe because it is more I don't think they have access to the substation at this time. So,

no, what I'm saying is they could sit in their car, which is annoying for them, I'm sure. But, if they're going to sit outside city hall, they might as well where there's no activity happening, they might as well sit outside of the library where all the activity is happening. So, I would say that would be a suggestion to move the three or two sheriff's cars that I see sometimes right here. Um, that would be a sub a suggestion until the substation is active, which is close to where some of this activity is. I don't really see the point of the armed guard if they can't use it. Is it just like security theater?

Security theater. Got it. Okay. Um, how much does Calabasas cost? Okay. AR would you know if Calabasas is armed? They have armed guards. Uh, they didn't specify. No. Okay. No problem. And um I mean I'm all for it. It's safety. Uh I'm good with um hearing Doug. And that's it for me. Great Doug. Okay. Uh first off, I'm trying to understand the difference between Calvasis and uh the proposal here. It looks like one guard is on two shifts, so they're operating solo.

Uh, no. So, there's one guard for eight hours and then that one guard switches out and covers in the extra eight hours. Yeah. So, it's two shifts, one one guard at a time. Yeah. Uh, we would get better coverage if we could do that. Is that an option or not?

It is an option. It really just would have some changes in the monthly cost of course and the daily cost. So, if we're looking at the unarmed option, you know, for a 8 hour shift, it's uh you're looking at $472. So, you can would probably be double that daily. Um, you know, be looking at what 944 daily around there. So, yeah, I think that's an option we can we can look into with our uh with American Global Security. And then,

well, I I'm confused because it says service type two guards. So we're having two guards in the same car or same patrol. Calbasses has got one guard in two in 16 hours a day versus we have two guards for eight hours a day. So is it an option to have I mean you've just doubled the price. I would think if if we got two guards it's amount of hours. It's not a number of uh presents.

So So it is an option. We presented these uh the option to be two guards at a time for shift for for their own safety and for increased presence that it was recommended that we include two guards at a time but they did provide that option. If we would like to proceed with one guard at a time for like similar to the Calabasas contract we wanted one guard for 8 hours and then we substitute that one guard for another uh for an extra 8 hours. We we do have that option, but it was recommended for the like same with the you know the armed element to the recommendation that they uh work in pairs to bounce back between Bluff Park and Legacy Park uh for their safety. But again, it's up to your discretion. Yeah,

I honestly say I would I think we have to have two guards that are armed in uh acting in tandem. I can't I would I wouldn't want to be out there solo at 9:30 at night with no weapon. Um, what about the coordination with the library security guards? We've got library security guards and every time I've been over to the library uh like uh library events, especially when the weather's bad, they're all camped out there underneath the cover. The does the library security guards provide any benefit there and do we have any interaction with them?

Yeah, so they we work real closely with Malibu library and their security guard. They have no enforcement capability outside the library. they can only enforce the rules of conduct within the library itself. So they've they have on occasion banned a number of those individuals uh if they participate in illegal behavior uh within the library but nothing outside they they can't dictate or you know disband any encampments or any sort of stuff in a in a right in front of the library. Right. That's correct. Yeah. That's kind of worthless to be very honest. I mean, we're talking about uh people being offended by what's going on with uh u people that are unhoused or having mental problems and they're the security guard is watching them from the door.

Yeah. Or or you know, of course, they they do call in the sheriff's when needed, but as far as you know, being able to do anything particularly about it, they they they can't really do anything outside of the library itself. No. Okay. Well, when we talk about enforcing the Malibu City camping ordinance, um, are we going to be able to enforce it in the uh, canopy that's right there in front of the library or is that county property? We can't touch it. We still should be able to. Yeah. Even though if it's county, it's still public property. We still go in and uh, address those as needed. Yeah. Or we work with the respective partners. Same way we address encampments on beaches and harbors. Uh, we have great relationship with them as well as with state parks. And you know, they have their own protocol, but we try to enable them to be able to do the same.

Yeah. And I'm not I just want to make it very clear. It's not that I'm trying to chase these people out. I mean, this is we shouldn't make it so easy that they want to stay here and don't take advantage of our host teams and our outreach programs. Um, I'm in favor of the uh contract with American Global Security to try this out, but I think in the same time we're doing this, we need to get an RFP out and see if these guys are competitive. Uh so if we did it for three months, the idea would be three months and at the end of three months they along with everybody else has a chance to do an RFP. That's what I would suggest. I don't know if I have support for that but

well I was just going to to I mean can we sign with American Global now and release the RFP so when that three months is up we already have that RFP process done and then we can move to signing that contract. So we'd have a continuous of service.

Yeah, I believe so. I mean, we would have to move quickly um you know, once we amend the contract, you know, start drafting and issuing out an RFP as soon as possible so that we allow sufficient time for uh the bid to be open and then of course once we close it to conduct the interviews and then bring back a reasonable proposal to council. But I think we're well within the time range. We would just have to move quickly to, you know, get something ready for the council right around the time that the 3-month amendment uh concludes around February or so. Well, I mean, would it be more helpful given the holidays coming up and everything else if you had 120 days and then the RFP is released as soon as possible so that that can conclude? I mean, does that make

that would be ideal. I mean, we're nearing the end of the month. I mean, if you all would like for the contract amendment to start start of December, that could work, too. I mean, the great thing with American Global Security, they can uh, you know, make this happen immediately essentially. So, whatever you guys would like to see, I think 120 days is a fair um amount of time to, you know, once we issue that contract amendment, we can issue out an RFP and then have bring back a proposal for you all to review.

I I would be fine with 120 days and and what I would refer to this to my corporate world, we used to call it champion challenger. um the existing uh company periodically is challenged by competitors and uh obviously American security, global security is entrenched. Doesn't mean they're not going to get the job again, but at least see what somebody else might quote. Yeah, I haven't seen the contract, but I know our standard contract has a 30-day termination provision at will for any reason, including no good reason. So, I can't it when we talk about 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, they're all 30-day contracts. We have the ability to back out of them at any time. So, I would support doing it the longer one, but also moving quickly to do the RFP, can always terminate the contract before then. Um, is there any private security out there that can serve as law enforcement that has the legal capacity to act rather than simply to watch what's going on and report?

I can't really comment. I don't believe so. I can't really comment. I don't know, Sergeant, if you know of any.

No, I I don't believe so. No. Are are we able to provide some adjunct to the sheriff's department or or some other law enforcement agency that would then permit the people that we pay to do the actual work rather than just again just report what's going on? I I to me I we need to explore these kinds of things. We we it's we watching people and telling them what to do is just never going to do it never going to accomplish anything. We need law enforcement. Um I guess and that confuses me when I hear this thing about the library guards because the library guards you're you you say and this isn't critical view but you say well they can't do anything they can't enforce outside the library. They can't enforce inside the library either because it's the same issue. So, I would think that the library guards could be watching what's going on outside the library just like someone outside the library could be watching what's going on outside the library and calling the sheriff. The cuz none of these guards at the end of the day can do anything other than watch and report, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's a fair smile. And obviously they're not going to go in and physically, you know, get into any physical altercation with any of these individuals or forcefully, you know, break down a tent or any of that sort of stuff cuz obviously they have no arresting capability or sighting capability in on that regard. Yeah.

Okay. Two two last things. One is CART, I mean, you know, the people running CART don't do this on their property. They do it on the city's property. Seems to me that they're creating a public nuisance and they're aiding and abetting violations of our camping law. And I would hope that we might look into that too as a way of um curtailing what they're doing because it it's it's all great and good to be providing charity and to be um providing food for people who need it. I get that. I'm not unsympathetic to that. But we have an ongoing problem in our city with um with all kinds of issues associated with people that are camping on public property and it is not helpful to our city and the majority of our residents who would like to see that curtailed for other people within the city to unilaterally be taking it upon themselves to increasing the problem rather than helping to decrease the problem. And the last question I have is what about some kind of robot patrols and maybe even I I know that in some jurisdictions they use noise to keep to help facilitate emptying places that are not supposed to be occupied. I don't mean blaring all the time, but you know use it using it in targeted ways to to make it uncomfortable to be where you're not supposed to be. Could we be looking into those kinds of things? Yeah, we're it's some of those like noise chirping devices that some private property owners have installed on their properties. I I hear Yeah, we we haven't looked into that as an option. Um, you know, we're primarily looking at private security patrols, but that is something we could definitely consider.

It's not loud enough that it would bother people 100 feet away, but it bother people that are right next to my house and I can hear the ocean. I can hear the the ocean, you know, crashing up against the shores. So, sound's going to come up my house pretty quickly. You want those robots going around? All right. Those are my comments. I'm sorry. Do we have a first and a second? I just want What's the motion? I mean, I thought I made a motion to approve it. Approve what though? Yeah. What what what's the direction? Well, Doug, I thought made a motion that I modified. Do you want to stick with that? Uh, sorry.

Take the contract for the arms guards with American Global Security for up to 120 days and concurrently issue an RFP uh to be effective at the end of no more than 120 days. Second. Can we make sure that that's subject to a 30-day termination notice? Please add that in. There's your second, right? Yeah. We'll we'll bring the amendment back to the council on consent. All right. This is just direction, right? Okay. Yes. Yes.

I also had um I see that this company here, option one, the American Global Security already does some of the gate closing on daily basis. I've been told that the Malibu Equestrian Parks gate is not closed at night. So maybe we could just ask them to close it. That's something we can relate to the community services department. Absolutely. Yeah.

Thank you. And I would love to see the sheriff's hanging instead of at city hall at uh the library or the county property because sometimes what I do worry about is when we displace or we start talking about moving encampments. I don't we don't want them moving up into the mountains. So it's like it's kind of got to be a very organized and figured out way or we have the encampments. We don't know where everybody is right now. It feels like we kind of do know where they are and therefore there's some organization to it. If people just start dispersing or we're making it very uncomfortable for them,

I worry about them going up into our flammable mountains. So, thank you very much for that. Of course. Okay. Um, we have a motion in a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Um, do we need to take a vote for 7B even though we need to hear it after 10:30 p.m.? Okay. Take a motion for hearing item 7B. I'll make a motion to hear it. I'll make a motion to hear item 7B. Second. All in favor? I. None opposed.

Are the speaker slips in for 7B? We do not have any speaker slips for 7B. Anyone online? We do not have any raised hands for this item. Okay, we'll not be taking any.

All right. Good evening, mayor and city council. Thank you for taking this item. As you know, we're in the process of updating the safety element of our general plan. This has been a joint effort of the public safety department, the planning division support from Capstone City Planning and our primary consultant, Atlas Planning Solutions. Tonight we have Aaron um Fannon Steel from Atlas Planning and he's going to be providing you with some um important information about critical aspects of this update and so that you can provide feedback to them before they go too much further in this update. So at this I'm going to let Aaron begin.

All right. Good evening, mayor, council members. We'll get to the point. Uh so we just want to provide you a little overview of the general plan uh for uh your uh edification tonight. Uh go through the safety element, what its required uh components are and why we're in front of you tonight because there are some new requirements that uh we need to make sure your element is now addressing. Uh and then of course answer any questions and any feedback you might have. Next slide. Uh so um this slide actually I updated it. Unfortunately the update didn't make it was actually adopted in 1995. Uh you were incorporated in '91. Uh and at the time uh it was addressing all of the main concerns for the city. Uh as you could see, you also have a number of other elements. Uh these are all the required elements of a general plan. Uh we're just talking about safety and health tonight. Um, the last updated element that you had was the housing element, which I'm sure you probably really enjoyed all of those hearings when that came before you last year. Uh, next slide. So, this is mandatory. Um, it's one of the seven mandatory elements addressing the uh, safety needs of the community. Um required components typically include some background information uh maps of the relevant hazards uh goals and policies and then of course any implementation actions and programs that uh you feel are necessary. Uh nowadays the safety element does require more frequent update uh and I'll explain why that is the case in a couple slides. So basically these are the key hazards that the government code section 65302G um requires a safety element to address. Um the hazards on the bottom row are uh typically they're not hazard specific.

They're more conditions uh that actually can exacerbate some of the hazard concerns or some of the safety issues that you may face as a community. Next slide. So, let's get a little bit into the details of some of these. Um, geological and seismic hazards are a major concern for virtually every community in California. And these are the types of issues that we typically address. It's going to be seismically induced surface rupture. This is where faults actually are breaking at the surface. Uh, has been a large concern for many California communities. Seismic ground shaking or just the shaking that you feel when an earthquake occurs. uh and then liquefaction, ground failure and subsidance. And these are what we call secondary hazards to the primary hazard which is either the fall rupture or the shaking. Next slide. Now um another major concern is flooding or inundation. Uh typical or typically what you find are either flooding um hazards. The map on the left is the current FEMA flood hazard zones that are mapped in the city. Um, you also may have concerns associated with dam inundation or sea level rise or tsunami. Uh, and then slope instability is one that we like to uh include in here as well. U mainly because it's usually water that's causing many of the slope instability issues that we see across coastal communities in California. Next slide. And then wildfire is the the the the third major hazard that a lot of communities are concerned about. Uh and this is really focusing again on where are the areas where you have wildland fire concerns. Um the wildland urban interface conditions, uh evacuation routes, peak water supply, uh roadway

widths and clearance around structures are all key criteria concerns that uh um we look at when we're updating a safety element. So, here's why we're here tonight. Since 2006, the legislature has focused in on safety elements and started to look at safety elements in a very different way. And as a result, uh, we now have to address things like wildfire hazards for certain communities. We have to deal with climate adaptation or basically how climate change may exacerbate some of your existing hazards. Uh evacuation concerns. Uh one of the latest requirements is called extreme heat. Uh this actually does not go into effect until 2028, but we're going to incorporate it into this element update because we feel like striking while the iron is hot is important. Uh and then the the last real uh big piece to this is that every time you touch your housing element, you're now required to update the safety element. So uh it's one of the reasons why we're saying that safety elements are going to be frequently updated is because as as as often as you update your housing element, you should at least open this up. You can actually open it up sooner uh when you're updating your local hazard mitigation plan. And so those are the two kind of triggers where you would want to update this this document. Next slide. Oh, let's back up one slide real quick. So, today what we've shared in the staff report are some a series of draft goals, uh, objectives, policies, and actions that we've developed working closely with city staff. We've also conducted the SV99 analysis, and I'll I'll clarify what that is. Uh we have uh updated an evacuation memo that was previously prepared for the city a few years back uh and prepared a climate vulnerability assessment. These are all tools

basically to help support all of the new requirements. What we have left to do is once we get some feedback from you uh is to actually start working on preparing the draft safety element that you will then uh review and take action on. Um this element because you have very high fire hazard severity zones in the the mapped by CalFire uh is required to complete a review by CalFire and the board of forestry and fire protection uh and and approval by the board. Uh and then ultimately um we'll need to go through a public review process and ultimately adoption process uh with the city council. So that's what we have here are the topics that are addressed in your element. Um fairly straightforward. We tried to stay somewhat consistent with what was already in the element, but also really giving it that refresh based on a lot of the new requirements. And if we go to the next slide, I'll explain a little bit about how we've addressed some of those key requirements. So when it comes to the SP 1241 or the wildfire piece, um this again requires CalFire Board of Forestry review and approval. uh we've updated the goal and objective for uh the element and then we've really uh tried to bolster many of the policies to help address things like vegetation management, fire safe regulations, um looking at, you know, the prevalence of historic uh fire perimeters, uh long-term maintenance operations of any fire risk reduction projects uh as well as making sure adequate water supply and infrastructure is available uh to support firefighting needs. Um, next slide. Uh, for SB99, this is the requirement to identify single ingress egress locations within the community. And the map you see on the left is one of the maps, one of the eight maps that were prepared for this particular analysis. Uh this is really where we we're trying to understand where do you have those culde-sacs, where do you have those

roadways where they don't have a secondary connection into the rest of the transportation network and then what can you do about it? And so we've identified a number of uh policy focus uh areas to help the city not only today but hopefully in the future try to address some of these concerns. Um this uh next piece is focusing on that AB747409 requirement. This is again looking at the safety uh capacity and viability of the evacuation network. Uh again we relied on this analysis that was already done and really just tried to uh identify some best practices and and additional recommendations on top of what was already in that analysis uh that was uh part of the packet that was uh shared with you today. Uh and again the recommendations really focus on three kind of key areas. The demand side, the when, how and where people evacuate, the supply, excuse me, the supply side, um the physical and operational infrastructure that facilitate emergency evacuation. And then the information side and how information is being shared and received during an emergency. Um and the final piece is that climate adaptation piece, SP 379. So this is where we've focused in on um trying to understand uh weather related um as well as future climate related concerns and impacts. Uh you know things like extreme heat, drought, flooding and landslide are kind of those key things and how climate change may exacerbate those conditions. And then if you go to the next slide, another key component is you are right on the coast. So, we have to also be concerned about things like sea level rise and how that could address or or affect critical assets, transportation assets, and coastal resources. So, we go to the next slide. Um, here's our process. Um, we're essentially kind of in that public outreach engagement phase as well as kind of getting ramped

up for the CalFire Board of Forestry Fire Protection phase. Uh, and uh, that's really the rest of my presentation for tonight. I'm just happy here to uh answer any questions um and uh hopefully not bore you too much exhaustion. What do you want to hear from us? Uh what did we miss if we have missed anything? Uh or what should we know that is not something that you can just find uh because you know it's not on the internet like you've been in the community. You know this community way better than we do. So, what is it that we should know and make sure we we can go back and just double check that we've addressed.

Going through all the documents you got in here, make sure they're complete and if we have some change, additions, change, get that to you. Is that the that's the idea? Okay, absolutely. Is this going to go to the plan uh public safety commission? Yes, it will eventually go to the public safety commission. Okay, great. Um I have some questions. Is that um in here? Is there anything on alerts? Let me just verify we've closed the public, please. Thank you. And now we're back up to council. Make Kelsey happy. Go for it.

Thank you. Um I mean, have you I don't know how premature these questions are because I'm not It looks like you've done some studying unless this is I mean I see that you have um stoplights and and you've done studies on PCH and various culde-sacs. Um, but like have you I'm sure that you and Miss Dwanus have talked about the sirens and the alerts and the fact that we don't have them in public safety power shut off. So in your experience, I would ask you what have you done for environments like this where there is no communication? So all of this is awesome if you can get the information to the residents so that they know where to go and what to do,

right? I I don't have a solution to that. Well, and and you have to also understand the tool that you're using and what you're trying to achieve. And the general plan safety element is a much big it's a big picture tool when you're talking about things like specifically how you're going to do alert and warning.

Menius has an emergency operations plan and oftent times in that plan you'll have an annex for what we call alert and warning. That's going to drill down to the specifics of how do you do the warnings? how do you do the alerts? How are you integrated with the operational area with what LA County may be doing or or your neighbors? And so there are other tools. Um what we want to make sure we do is we set up the foundation so we have the right policies and actions in place so that if we are missing something from an alert and warning standpoint that we can address that as part of departmental action plans on an annual basis. Does that make sense?

Kind of. I mean it's sort of the big overarching right we're we're nuance yeah we're we're definitely at the higher level here kind of trying to set the foundation so that all the departments in the city actually have the tools available to them or they have the ability to come to you and say we have this action identified in our general plan that need we need to take these steps and now we need council's approval to go ahead and start doing that right and you spoke of neighbors I mean do you speak to do you speak to the neighbors members like Depa or does our safety commission department when you're doing these studies? We rely on city staff when it comes to coordination. There's no value in us

trying to build relationships. What we try to do is create these opportunities through this type of a project for them to use that as the opportunity to build those relationships peer-to-peer.

Okay. Um that's it for me for now. Um I guess like on page nine I've circled the public comm communication. Although the city has developed a mass evacuation plan, evacuation decisions depend on complex changing set of factors. So you're basically like putting this information out there, but really the nuancess of the evacuation type and direction is up to the safety department. Is that right? Because like in Woolseie there was a lot of why didn't the third lane open? So is this the study that says let's open up three lanes? So I think the safety element is more like policy level in terms of land use planning but actual evacuation planning is a a separate document. Um

does that answer your question? And and maybe another way to also look at this too is that you want tools for your departments to be able to ask things of applicants or neighbors to help you with problems. Right? So, if you've got a roadway right now and it has a median and it prevents you from having uh throughput um through the center of the roadway because there's something blocking cars. And you put a policy in a plan that says we want to promote that anytime we're redoing any of our roadways, we're creating more flexibility by removing these types of barriers from an evacuation standpoint. Having that policy in the plan allows the city departments to now start figuring out how they can implement that on the ground.

Okay. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you. Appreciate all the work that went into this. I seems like it's probably deserving of more than 15 20 minutes at 11:00 at night on after a long city council meeting. Thankfully, this isn't the first time we'll be talking, right? Yeah. So, I see this is going to be presented to the board of forestry for review. Then there'll be another the community meeting, planning commission and then come back to us. So yeah, we'll learn in that process if there's any problems that we need to deal with. But otherwise, looks like you've done a great job and I appreciate it. Absolutely. Doug,

uh, good question. Going back to the page four, it talks about being presented to the planning commission. Should that be the public safety commission or is the planning commission? U commission has has to review it as well. Okay. Yeah, it's also going to go to the public safety commission, right? Yes.

Okay. Um, you asked about constraints. I'll just make a quick comment from the experience we had in the Palisades fire. Uh, we are a communications desert. Uh, even even today without an emergency, if the power goes out, most of the people in town lose all communication. So, if there's any constraint or restriction, that's it. Um, so when I look at this December 9th meeting, what is this going to be doing? Take taking the um part that's attached here that's all in nice colors. Is that going to the uh forestry group? Is that this what it is? I'm sorry. Say that one more time.

Well, what is going to the forestry forestry board of forestry for review and approval? Is it uh this package that we have here, all the color slides? Pretty much all of the documents that we've shared. Okay. Yeah. And are we expecting this to be a critical review or are they just going to make sure we have it?

So the way that the CalFire review works is they have their own checklist. They're going to basically go through that checklist and say you have met it or not met it. And if you haven't met it, you go back and you figure out what you need to do to meet it. Um my goal is always never to go back. We always meet those requirements. Uh we we've have a pretty good track record. Uh once we've met all those requirements, then you're eligible to send it up to the board of forestry. Board of forestry does their review and then they'll provide you with any recommendations they may have. Usually when we have a clean checklist where we've met all the requirements, board of forestry does not provide any additional recommendations. However, there's no guarantees in life and we'll see what happens. Uh but once the board of forestry approved it, you essentially have locked in place all of the fire policies, any policies outside of fire that they're not relying on for your compliance, fair game for you to change. If you want to change any of the policies that you've met Board of Forestry compliance with, then there it may just be a discussion about whether or not we have to take it back to CalFire and the Board of Forestry for a second review.

Okay. And I'm assuming you've got the checklist. Yes. Yeah, I figured you did. All right. Thank you.

And I would just like to add that that piece is so critical because we're trying to get on the fire risk reduction community list next year, which will give our community members another way to get discounts on their insurance. And then when we apply for CalFire grants, they have to prioritize our grant applications if we're on that list. So, um, that's why we we they board of forestry is actually doing us a favor because they moved up their deadline by six months and but they felt for us. So, they they have taken it even though they wanted it in October, they're going to look at it in December to help us get on the list next year. So, it's a good thing.

Okay. Thank you. We provided adequate guidance. Yep. You guys know everybody happy? All right. Okay. Um move to hear 7D. Thank you. Second. I'll second. All in favor? I I. None opposed. Great. Do we want a Are all the public speakers slips in? Yay. anyone online?

Yeah, there's technic two. Technically two or Well, there's Ann has her hand raised, but she's in the corner and then there's one other hand raised. Okay. If you're in person, you need to put an inerson slip in. No online public comment. It was a receive and give a direction. Yeah, we did. Didn't vote. Go ahead and voice. Okay. Please, Brandy, please give us a staff report.

Good. Good evening, Mayor Rigggins and Mayor Prom Silverstein and council members. This evening, we come before you um asking the council to authorize the um mayor to execute professional service agreements for fire recovery and rebuild consulting services. Um there's a total of 18. I'm not going to read them all out, but I'll come to the second um recommendation. We do want to have a recommendation that will authorize the city manager or their design to amend these agreements if it becomes necessary to become compliant with either Callas or FEMA or any other government agency through the re um reimbursement process. So each of these agreements are going to be um for the recovery center. There is a total of 18 of them. In August, we submitted um released an RFQ. We received 30 proposals on September 30th. Staff did a thorough review of all these proposals and came down to 18 of them. Now, back in May, the city submitted a notice of intent for the hazardous mitigation grant program and then submitted a grant application on September 15th. Right now, we're going through the application review process. The dollar amount of that grant at this time is 14.6 million. Um, we believe it will be successful.

So, that's what we're here today. Part of that grant application, the city was required to um hire our consultants through a competitive process. As you may recall, in early middle January, we had um executed all these agreements under emergency authority. that was fine during those circumstances, but as we move forward through the grant process, we do have to acquire them through a competitive process. And that concludes my report. Thank you for that clarification because I was wondering why we had so perfect. Thank you very much. Do we have any clarifying questions? Did that was that a $14 million grant? Yes, ma'am. 14.6 right now. When do we know about that?

Uh they haven't come back with questions for the last two weeks, so it's going good. Hanukkah. Christmas is coming. Okay. We ready for public comment? Yeah. Okay. Uh Darren and then Joe Joe. Yeah.

Uh good evening, honorable mayor, honorable city council members, uh city manager. Um, first I want to preface my comments by echoing everything Norm said earlier. I'm glad that somebody in Arizona heard how hard you guys are working. Um, because I don't know what they do in Arizona, but at least one is well informed. I do believe you are doing your best and I appreciate it. And, um, approving these contracts would just be another step in that direction. I've had three meetings in the rebuild center since February and the first one was horrific. Uh the first one was horrific because of the person that I met who thankfully probably won't be reviewing my rebuild application. Rather than giving me any solutions, I was told a mandate which Danny explained earlier and obviously that didn't go very well. Um the second meeting was good and the third meeting was today. Um, and it was uh taken upon because my septic and civil engineer suggested that I go to the rebuild center and meet with Fox Consultants. It was the best meeting I've had in a very long time. And I just wanted to commend you for finding them because Mr. Fox and Sterling, rather than giving me a mandate and telling me the worst thing I could ever hear, actually worked through the issues related to Big Rock Beach and the septic systems over there in a solutionoriented manner that led me to believe that they are the right team to help everybody come back to the beach and rebuild correctly, safely, and affordably. So, please keep that in mind when you're reviewing this uh item, and thank you for finding them. Thanks. Thank you, Elena. She's doing one hell of a job with her team she's working with.

Yes, I want to echo what Darren just said. Thank you to Yolanda and to Brandy. She's the grant queen with FEMA. Thank you so much. Um I am I am a fire victim. I'm going to be owner builder, by the way. So, I do I have to rebuild my house. I have no aspirations of running for city council in November. Just putting that out there.

Yeah, exactly. Apparently. Um, so I I really appreciate that the geotechnical consultants are have been put on a flat rate because that's that's exactly what we asked for and that's exactly what is here. So that's fantastic. Um, I I think all the contracts look great. The only one I have a question about is Veritas who has the plan check and they're paid by the hour. I just want to make sure that there's no incentive to I'm sure Yolanda has figured it out, but there's no incentive for additional corrections because they are being paid by the hour. But everything looks great. Um, and I just wanted to say that. Thank you so much, Yolanda. You're the best.

Great. And our online speaker, our online speaker is Laura Kaufman. Laura, Laura, are you there? Laura, you are unmuted. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Oh, sorry. I had I am just here because staff asked were one of the consultants that were selected and I just want to thank you. I I raised my hand because I thought I might need to be a speaker, but I'm here to answer questions. Thank you. We appreciate Which firm are you with? Um, Invom Corporation. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Okay.

And I just wanted to commend um Brandy uh for all of her hard work and these are very complex agreements and Yolanda and team. I just these have been very complex and put a lot of work into it, Robbie, too. So, I just want to commend the commend staff and all the work that you've been doing and put into this. It's really really appreciated. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Okay, close public comment. We're back up here at the council table. Who wants to start? Okay, see

I just got two two quick ones. Uh the VCA consultants, the code enforcement, how are they going to interface with the code enforcement team we already have or are they going for doing different stuff or how does how does that going to work? Thank you for that question. Um the idea is they are going to work with our team. Um we will have the separate concentration for the code enforcement uh team but they are going to in they're going to they're going to work because she's doing a heck of Yeah, she's doing great.

Cool. Okay. Uh I I the software development their assistant city manager who has got some background doing software consult. I mean take a look at this. I mean, there's there's a ton of work, you know, all these individual legacy systems. It sucks keeping those things going. So, I mean, if he can help us fix some of that, that'd be great. That's it. You did a good job. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. I I I know that we are late, but I also want to to introduce a new team because it's important for me to for the council to know the new team that is coming in for environmental health. We have Fox Solutions. Do you want to come and say something, Ryan? This is our new team for that is focused on our environmental health for rebuilds. Just want to um Yeah, they've been waiting here the whole afternoon. So, I just wanted you guys to know who's

Yeah, I have a a four-week old daughter and drove up here. So, I have very little sleep. So, I apologize if I'm like dozing off over there, but I'll just say a few words. Uh, good evening everybody. My name is Sterling Scott. Um, I actually moved down here from Santa Cruz last night. Oh. So, uh, I I've been uh helping out over the past 3 weeks. Uh, but yeah, so I'm finally back. I'm from LA, so I'm I'm glad to be back here. And uh, yeah, hopefully we can get some rebuilds going pretty soon. So, welcome and congratulations on your baby. Sorry you're here so late. It's nice to meet you guys.

Well, um I just want to say, you know, we uh we recently came from a fire recovery up north and, you know, we want to take those experiences that we had up there and bring them here. And we like to think of ourselves as, you know, practical solutions for complex problems and we like to meet people where they are. And you know, for me personally, I had my house burned down when I was 14. Lost everything. Didn't have a single thing left. And so, I have a real stake in this. And you know, like any regulator, you're not perfect. You try to be as black and white as possible, but at least we care. And I think that's what makes us a little different. That's what we're going to try to do for our for our constituents and your guys' constituents. So, great.

Welcome to Malibu. These are jazz hands. Um, we're known around the world for them. And welcome to our city. Thank you. It speaks well of you that you hung out this evening just to appear and say hello to us too. So, thank you. We also want to introduce our new Joe Technical team uh is under the umbrella of for leaves. Uh Marcus.

Good evening. Thank you, council. I'm Marcus Johnson u with fourleaf and actually we'll be partnering with FINA and Amal. will be uh the face of your geotechnical team and we've come with a lot of experience and hope to help you in all the best ways possible. Thank you. Thank you. We have high hopes for you. Thank you.

So I'll introduce myself. Uh Amal Rudolph, a registered geotechnical engineer with almost 30 years in Southern California. So, I've been tasked by Yolanda to bring some some speed and a big team in to review these fast and efficiently and make sure we pay attention to the needs of uh not just your residents that you serve, but also the consultants that work with them. So, we're going we've been listening for the past few weeks and looking at where we might recommend some more efficiencies and then we hope to uh wrap that up with the uh workshop that was announced on December 10th. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. And finally, our coastal engineering Moffett and Nichols Wisha Jin is online. Uh so if she wants to say some awards, that' be great. Is it Wisha? Wisha, are you there? She's smart. She's sleeping. Please, we can hear you.

Okay. Yeah. Good evening. Um, I'm with Mar and Niko. We are um known for our coach engineering service. We're very happy that are able to help the recovery and our team experience. We have worked with the city on the uh FEMA mapping review process a couple years back. And we also have a secondary uh firm uh for Jotchnical just for the overflow and uh possibly for the CDPs for rebuilder coming in. Uh MB5 uh we have Roxanna de Antonio here with us.

Hello. Can you hear Roxanna? Are you there? Roxan, I can hear you very um poorly. if you could try moving closer to your microphone. Is this better? Yes.

Okay, great. Uh, good evening everyone. Rosanna De Antonio representing NV5. Uh, we are proud to be part of the geotechnical team and helping uh the city of Malibu recover from uh these devastating fires. I am a former deputy director with Los Angeles County Public Works. Uh, and I was responsible for the recovery and rebuild of the Woolseie fire. So, I have a lot of experience uh in that. I'm also a registered geotechnical engineer and a local resident. So, I'm very vested in this. Um, I am looking forward to contributing uh to the rebuilding of my community and thank you very much for the opportunity. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you, council. That's the new team and I'm very proud and very happy that we have a robust team that can help us with everything that is coming for those families and help them out. Great. Anybody make a motion or I'll make a motion to approve to authorize the mayor to execute the professional staff recommendation. Excuse me. Staff recommendation. Oh, staff staff. It's even easier. Yes, I'll sec I'll second that. And I really want to express our appreciation, my appreciation to everybody who's played a role in putting this together. And I know Candace and and Yolanda and everyone else and Brandy, you know, it it's been a long hard process for everybody.

Uh, you know, not not the least of which is the residents who've lost their homes. And I I think that we're finally starting to see people having optimism and um hopefully that will continue the course. Thank you so much.

I want to put in five seconds here. This is exactly what we hoped would happen with a rebuild center. The idea of being a concier service, consecutive, pardon me, concurrent approval and processing. You guys have got it set it up right and you've bounced off our initial uh program and I couldn't be happier about where this is going. Thanks. And by the way, thanks for everybody staying up late. You got day jobs tomorrow. Yeah, drive home safe tonight. All in favor? I. None opposed. Um Kelsey, do we need to do 8A or B calendar?

No, those those are at the discretion of the council. I would like to hear the calendar before the end of the year, but we still have a shot at that. Okay, perfect. Um, so I have a request for um an adjournment in the memory of um I would love to adjourn in the memory of Neve Roston whose birthday it's also today. And all of the other injuries and deaths that have occurred on PCH. I think it's very good what we did tonight. Happy h happy heavenly birthday to you. Happy birthday. And with that we are adjourned. There he is.