City Council - Regular Meeting

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Do. And. I. And I love. My. Love. The that love. Love. I. I'd like to call the meeting of the City Council public financing authority to order. Madam clerk, may I have the roll call, please? Councilman Grewal. Here. Councilman Kennedy. Here. Mayor Pro Tem twining. Here for a while.

Yeah. Mayor McKeon here. Councilman Burns here. Councilwoman Vandermark here. Councilman Williams here. All present. Madam clerk, do we have any supplemental communications? We have no supplemental communications for this portion of the meeting. Do you have anyone signed up to speak on closed session items? We do not. All right. So included in closed session is conference with labor negotiators. Government code section 54957.6. Agency designated representatives. Travis Hopkins, city manager also in attendance Marissa Sawyer, assistant city manager. Mike Liotta, city attorney and Zack's acting chief financial officer. Employee organizations. The Huntington Beach Police Officers Association, the Police Management Association, and Police Management Association. Huntington Beach Firefighters Association and Fire Management Association FMA Council. Do I have a motion and a second to recess the closed session? Motion. Second. All right. Recess the closed session. I got to do something.. If you find a song to sing. Don't see how the stars can lead you far away. Where? Find thoughts. Do run. That's your sailing. All the season long. We're. And no, not well. They go. On and on and on to the time you will never know what tomorrow's gonna be. Find a way every day to stop, to grieve

and make it. If you find it so

easy. All in all, I. The time

you. You never know what tomorrow's will be. Find your way every day. It's got to be ready for the song. Sing. There's a name written on my door. And it's mine. Could be yours. If you really want it. And more, more I. Ha ha ha. I don't mind for security of you. Don't you? See? You could lay all your troubles on me. Me? I ha ha ha ha! But all your cares away. Good evening everyone. I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council, public financing authority. Madam clerk, may I have the roll call, please? Councilman Grewal here. Councilman Kennedy here. Mayor Pro Tem Twining here. Okay. Mayor McKeon here. Councilman Burns present. Councilwoman Vandermark here. Councilman Williams here. All present. Thank you. Tonight's invocation will be given by Huntington

Beach police chaplain, Mr. James Pike. Not just for the sake of our own. The community. Good. We pray also for those who have been elected to our City council. For their leadership. We pray for their discernment. We pray for deliberation in this time of division or alternate opinions. And we pray that our entire city might be governed with wisdom and justice. For the sake of this beautiful place that you've put us, we thank you for those appointed to commissions. We thank you for those serving on city staff. We thank you for those who serve as first responders in our city, and we ask for your blessing in your holy name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. James. Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by David Weigel of American Legion. Post 133. David served as captain in the United States Air Force from 1984 to 1992. Weigel earned his navigator wings at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento. It, an electronic warfare officer on the B-52. He sat on alert duty at Griffiths Air Force Base in Rome, New York, for two years before returning to Mather as an instructor. Beagle spent his final years teaching aircrew and staff members about the capabilities of foreign air defense systems and how to defeat them. In 2018, Bible came to Huntington Beach, where he founded the local office of Visiting Angels, providing in-home care to veterans and others. Beagle joined American Legion Post 133 and 2021, and currently serves as a Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for your service, David. Please remove your hats. If you're wearing them, face the flag and stay with me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank. Closed session report. City attorney, do you have anything to report from? Closed session? Nothing tonight. Mayor. Thanks. Council member. Comments. Does any council members have would like to make a comment. I do. Mr. Burns. All right. I just want to say that, uh, the Huntington Harbor had its opening day. It was a good event. 61 years. Huntington Harbor Yacht Club, I should say. And then Special Olympics had a gala. Congratulations to Big Joe for, uh, athlete of the year in that, uh. And I just want to say that a lot of been getting a lot of emails about our, uh, recklessness with our financials and things. And I just want to remind people, when we came in, we had an adopted 22, 23 budget with a deficit of 41,634,329. And we have not had that deficit. We have not experienced the deficit. We've been able to manage to be right on it and balance the budget every year. And it's only getting harder. They are not making it easier for us with all the mandates and things are requiring or taking away. Uh, Sacramento or I consider them evil in the sense that they try to take away local control. And, uh, but we're working our butts off, and it's in the best interest of this city. So when people question it, I invite you to look back and see what we're coming in with and what we're working with. And that goes with some of the, you know, mandated increases in fees. And it's not like we want to raise

fees. We live here, too. And so we're doing our best. And it's for the people which we are a part of. So please understand we're doing our best. Councilmember Kennedy. Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to point a couple of things out. Um, you know, we do read all the emails, and I just wanted to show the commitment that this council has had towards the council. Uh, the, uh, the CIP, the improvement, construction improvement projects. So I took a ten year snapshot on the adopted budget, and I grouped them into three years succinctly in a row, took out the, uh, the year of 2022, 2023. It was an aberration. It was $59 million. Uh, we got a lot of Covid money. So the first three years, 16, 17 and 18, the capital improvement project budget was 73 million, rounded up $74 million the following three years, 19 or 2021. Actually, 1920, 20, 21, 21, 22. Those three years equated to 110 million. The budgets allocated towards, uh, the CIP. Then, in the years 23, 24, 24, 25 and 2526, the years that these council members, my council mates, including myself, Butch and Chad have been up here. We've allocated 140 million towards capital improvement projects, more than any other three year term. And in the last two years since the HB three came on board, we've combined to allocate with our council mates almost $100 million in CIP budgets so far, outpacing any other three year segment. So that's a lot of potholes being filled. So when you think we're not investing on our city, as they say, the numbers don't lie. So you can check it out. This is right off the adopted budget. So the point is that numbers don't lie. The falsehoods run

rampant, but they're just not factual. Thank you. Thank you. Bob. Councilwoman Vandermark. I'd like to remind everyone that this Saturday, we are hosting our pet Adoption Expo, and we will be waiving all adoption fees for our dogs and cats that will be brought in. The county is working on waiving the dog fees. We are working on waiving the cat fees. We want to get all these pets their forever homes. Um, we will have affordable cost services available like vaccinations, fecal exams, deworming, well, wellness exams, microchipping, nail trimming, um, no appointment necessary. And I'd like to thank Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen for working with Orange County Animal Control and the city to put this event together. So that will be Saturday, April 25th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Central Park West. Perfect. Council member. McGraw.. So, being a council member, one of the things that is great is that we get to work with so many good team members within the city. We've got so many people working on so many different projects. Many of those projects are they fall in the category, perhaps of the mundane or the monotony of what it takes to keep a city moving on a go forward basis. But we hear about them and they're all absolutely wonderful. So I wanted to use this moment I had brought up more recently a question, uh, in regards to the Olympics, because it's been a discussion point, um, amongst the community, what are we doing? What do we have going on? But most importantly, what are we doing in regards to trying to draw people in and then ultimately generate revenue through the Olympics? So I just wanted to kind of toss this one over to, uh, Travis, our city manager, because he actually has been doing a lot with other team members in order to generate that buzz in business. Yes. We are continuing to work and look at opportunities for the city, including the we're working with the Orange County, um, sports. Uh, Commission. Yes. And they are and they are being and they're helping us

organize with LA 2028 for opportunities coming forward, whether it's being associated with LA 2028 and doing those events on the beach or as, um, being our own events and looking for those opportunities. So we are meeting with them and looking for those that coming forward, um, finishing up the Olympics, we're hearing we're going to hear more information near the end of the year on on bringing those forward. And we'll be reaching out to our city partners on on opportunities. And then just so everyone understands how the mechanics of it worked with the city, there was an item. Gosh, it was probably eight months ago, or you'd set up the committee to be able to streamline a lot of the processes by which we can activate some of those events. So as Travis brings that information forward, we'll show you how that dovetails into the new process. And then we'll continually update everybody so they know what's going to be coming. When it comes to the Olympics, because the blink of an eye, it'll be here. All right. Chatter you good. All right. Um so exciting news. We'll talk about this later. But we received $500,000 from the county thanks to Supervisor Nguyen to help with our navigation center costs. Um so just another good example of creative solution and bring in revenue to help offset the burden to the taxpayers. So we'll talk about that later. That's. But that just is breaking news. So that's big. I just want to thank again the community for giving me the opportunity to to be your mayor. Uh, this year. It comes with a lot of fun activities. So, uh, this past weekend, on Sunday, I was invited by the, uh, Seaview Little League to throw out the first pitch at their annual hit a thon. And thankfully, I, uh, piped it over the right corner of the plate, knee high. So I was excited about that. It was on video, so I was a little nervous, obviously, as Pat touched on it. I want to thank the Yacht Club for inviting me to their 61st annual opening day at the Yacht Club event, which is awesome. So 1965, pretty cool. When it first started. And then lastly, I want to thank our sister city association and our sister city, Anjo, Japan for inviting me on Sunday to their annual

Cherry Tree Planning ceremony. Uh, we planted six new cherry trees this year at Central Park to symbolize our continued friendship and shared culture and student exchange programs that we've had with Anjo, Japan since 1982. So pretty awesome. Thank you. So thank you everybody. And then, point of order, Council members, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to move item 17 up, which is the safe and sane fireworks lottery up just after, uh, item 13. If everyone's okay with that. Okay. City clerk. So we'll do that. Uh, mayor, I. Also have a point of order. If you would indulge to move the new item that Councilman grill myself have put forward. Um, ahead of, uh, I guess it would be, um, the item that you guys had put out, which would be item number 27. I think it just logically would flow that way more naturally. So you're talking about the. Hmm, at the end. Correct? I'm fine with the way it is, but I'll defer to others. Doesn't matter. To me. Okay. I think it came in sequentially posted on the agenda, but I guess we can talk about that when it comes to it. Is that okay? Can we take a vote on that? Input. Input? I mean, I'm good with it because we're discussing the item. So ultimately it would be relevant to have it ahead of any other subsequent discussion. I'd I'd like to leave it as it is, because at that point I'm going to give my input on why I think it's necessary. Okay. And then have that discussion. Thank you. I don't care one. Way or the other. I you know, I've been gone. for as most.

You know, for the last three weeks. So I'm not totally up to date on this thing. So I like the way it's the way it is. But it to me makes no difference. I concur with Councilmember Kennedy to leave it the way it is. If I if I could just make a point, maybe this wasn't clear. So logically, the flow I think would flow more naturally. I know that sequentially. Our item came in after, uh, your item number 27 there, but let us suppose that our item prevails and there is a termination of the RFP moving forward. Then it doesn't make any sense to have a discussion about an ad hoc committee that would meet about an RFP. I guess in that scenario, if that were to happen, that it would unwind the previous item. Right. So I think it's okay the way it is, but it's again, it's not up to me. Councilmember Vandermark. I don't care if you guys want to move it. Leave it. It doesn't matter. I mean, either way, we're going to discuss both of them. Okay? Anybody else? Sounds like consensus to leave it. Unless you guys want to put it to a vote. Okay. Sounds like a safe. Okay. All right, so moving on to awards, uh, presentation section 13 or agenda item 13. So tonight we have a special presentation for those who assist us in caring for our public safety employees. The Orthopedic Fast Track program was designed to provide a professional sports team level of care for public safety employees and injuries to public safety members. As I'm sure everyone can imagine, our unfortunately part of the job and these injuries occur based on the physical demands of the job and are overwhelmingly orthopedic in nature. And so this program is primary goals are to one expedite care by removal of administrative barriers akin to our streamlined program. Provide a

list of approved doctors with pre-approved treatment options. Reduce and control costs, and then improve the injured workers and their families. Experience in 2023, prior to the Fast Track program being implemented, the police department spent $2.3 million in injured on duty hours and back backfill overtime related injuries, and after full implementation in 2025. And the police department is assuming the responsibility of the program. Internally, the department only spent $1.1 million in injured on duty hours and backfill overtime related to injuries, so that program saved the taxpayers $1.2 million. And this program has provided exceptional care with some of the best doctors and surgeons in the area participating. And the speed of care has resulted in better outcomes for the injured worker, their family and the taxpayer. This innovative program is cutting edge with other police agencies actively working to implement our program in their departments, and we will continue to innovate and are currently working with O-2 X, which is a human performance specialist and a potentially more efficient management system, centralized and working in compensation utilization review bill pay under the third party administrator. So we would like to thank our key participants who are here today for their willingness, willingness to build this program with us. So today, today we have, uh, Doctor Edwards, Doctor Grabow, Doctor Smith, Doctor Arian, Doctor Coleman, Doctor Binder, Doctor Muir, John from Esquire. Calm down. Take a photo.

How does everybody. Come on out to get a picture. Take. Us. Thank you so much. Right here. One. You. A. Your. You. Down. Us. Us. Yeah. It. Over here. You gotta go on the front. Yeah. You got. All right. Are you looking at me? You just keep those. All right.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's a it keeps. You the photos, doctor. Yeah. Excellent, excellent. You got my chest right? My age. And I was just informed by one of the doctors that the city of Anaheim just implemented the same program. So the biggest city in Orange County. Great job. All right, everyone's favorite part of city council. The adoptable pet of the month. So tonight we welcome back Jonathan Volesky from Ozone Animal Care that has two special dogs tonight Zion and Gucci. I want to see. This is Gucci here. That's. Golf for Jonathan. So we're. Zion. Hey buddy. He's smart. He knows his. Name. Zion. Zion. As soon as I said his name, he

looked. Up. Yeah. He's marveled that beautiful. What's his. What do they call that? The the chef. Yeah. The beauty. What about Gucci? What do we got over there? Yeah, I think Gucci. It's keeping a good. Record of adoption. Last two did not get it down like a record. What are you doing with. Jonathan? Sorry. We're having a technical difficulty. So can you come in this microphone? Sure. Tell us about, uh, Zion and Gucci, right? Yep. Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much, mayor. And thank everybody in Huntington Beach. We're happy to be here tonight. I have. Our operations manager, Jamie Link with us, and she's got Zion. And I have the puppy about 18 months old. This is Gucci, and they've only been with us for about a month. They're both great dogs. Uh, they walk pretty well on a leash as well as a puppy does. Uh, but love treats. And they're looking for their great homes. So we just want to say thank you again to Huntington Beach Mayor, you and the council and the city for the partnership, not only allowing us to come here, but also, as the council member mentioned, Saturday's event from 1 to 4 at the, uh, at the park. It's events like this that help us get these dogs great homes. And if I may, we have one more program we want to share. We just launched something called Dogs Day Out. So if you like a dog, you want to spend an afternoon or a morning with a dog. Uh, you can sign up on our website, Ocpd info dog. Stay out and you can take and Ashley, Zion and Gucci are in the program. You can take a dog out Thursday morning, Friday morning, Saturday or Sunday morning between 8 and 11 and just go to a park, go anywhere that's business friendly and spend some time with a pet. So we've just launched that program and we hope that you all take advantage and hopefully you find your forever pet and they find their forever home. So thank you, sir. You're welcome. And then if people want to go adopt these fine animals, where do they go.

So you can come. We're open seven days a week from 11 to 5 for adoptions at our campus. It's a 1630 Victory Road in Tustin. You can make an appointment in advance. You can go on to our website, OC Pet Info, and look at all the animals for adoptions, dogs and cats. You can actually make an appointment to come see them, or you can just walk in and we'll set you up where you spend some time with the dog, and you can actually go home with a dog that day. And we're running a special right now that dogs over £25 and over six months old, we're waiving all the adoption fees for that. So we hope you come and find your perfect partner. Thank you. Thank you sir. We appreciate. It very much, sir. Excuse me sir. Uh, mayor sir, do you guys have a. Did you give us a website? Did I miss it? And can you donate on the website? Just cash to help out. We we do have a donation link on the website. We actually take those donations through our nonprofit partner. But you can get information there on how to do that. Our website is Aussie Pet Info. Are there pictures of all the animals? Every animal we have for adoption? We have a picture, a little write up about them and their characteristics and then a video of them. Also. Can you see their website address once more? Thank you sir. Aussie pet Infocom. Okay, and last time I asked you. But make it clear to everybody you still take bedding, sheets and blankets, things like that. Yes, we appreciate those donations of soft goods and we use them with our animals. And you can just drop those off at, uh, at our shelter at 1630 Victory Road in Tustin. And do you take pet food to sealed bags of pet food or. No, you do. Yes, we do. And pet food is very important not only for our pets, but on the second Saturday of each month, we have a pet food pantry. So people who need a little help can drive through and get food for their animals. So donated food for that is very helpful and comes right back into the community. Fantastic. Thank you for everything you're doing with these beautiful animals. Thank you. Thanks for those

great questions. All right. Thank you. All right. In the same animal theme, uh, Ryan Ruston, come on up. Ryan. Ryan, come. Up. As you all know, uh, Ryan Ruston is, uh, sugar, the surfing dog's owner. And we declared, uh, December 5th. Step on up as sugar. They're surfing dog day forevermore in Huntington Beach. And tonight we're gonna codify that. Um, unfortunately, sugar passed away a few weeks ago. Shortly after that evening. Um, obviously been very challenging, as you can imagine for Ryan. Um, he's got a new addition to the family, but but I know, uh, Mayor Pro tem wanted to give him a special, special treat. Sugary sweet. So, Brian, what's the. New pups name? Sweet. Nothing sweet. Yes. Yeah. Are we going up? Yes. I don't want anybody out there. Yeah. Okay. So, Ryan, the new pup is named sweet, right? Yes, sweet. So the the question is, is sweeping on the surfboard yet? In the Jacuzzi only. He says, but she's in training. Yesterday. Yeah, she's at the VA hospital yesterday. Ryan does a lot. Of. A lot of great work with, uh, for therapeutic with veterans and his dogs, his three dogs in, uh, to give therapy to the veterans. So it's awesome. But we. Uh, uh, up here. We commissioned. Uh, Melissa murals to. Memorialize, uh, Ryan and Sugar, uh, especially for the, uh. The the new sugar. the surf dog. What have you been? Hello. Okay. Anyway. Can you. Anybody here? Yeah. So we commissioned.

This is just a small, uh, uh, a sample of what the the big picture is going to look like that we are going to share here at City Hall for a few weeks, and then after the opening of the International Surf Museum, we're going to be taking the painting down to the International Surf Museum so that it is it is displayed forever and ever. And ever seen it. Yeah, it's. Wow. That's incredible. She's an amazing artist. And I just love. The city just. Embracing me like this in sugar. And she's only been gone for three weeks. She's only gone for three weeks now. And, uh, just through the through the, um, sugar passed away and through all the messages. There's. This pup came along and there's a litter. She caught her. She was born on the day of sugar. Last wave on March 7th. And it was just, uh. I can't believe just how it happened, and I. And now I don't have to be like, I could have ended up, uh, just basically, this dog's really cool, and I can't. And her name is sweet, so, uh, you'll see her, even if just should just come and give kisses. You might not surf like sugar, but at least she'll. Well, you know. Yeah. She's been in Jacuzzi a couple times, and she's pretty. Pretty good. But, uh, I just want to say thank you to all you guys and, you know, like, all you guys have just been so loving it. And, sugar, I don't have a response. They don't have mom or dad, but I just feel like the city has just been the past. Like, at least like 4 or 5 years. And so you guys have just been, like, embracing me. And I'm I'm totally grateful for you guys. And thank you. Sugar. Elizabeth. Thank you so. But yeah. Yeah, I know that's I

mean. I can't see. Yeah. There we go. Oh, and another video. Yeah. Just going to start with this. Plate. Right here. Oh. Okay. And everybody direct their attention to the screen on the wall there.. Thanks for. Yeah that's. All right. All right Idaho Canada. All right. Good.

Well, I wonder. why you. If I asked if I could hold meet up like. Like. Yeah. She's gonna be so big one day. That's. I figured I'm never be able to. Do. It, so. All right. 123. Woo! I know. Yeah. Love you guys. Thank you. Oh my God. Thank. Oh good. That's right. Good job. Yeah. All right. That was awesome. We're good here at home. We're actually right. Butch. We're gonna have a bigger painting. It's gonna be made, and then we're gonna put it up in the surf museum. So that was just a small sample. All right, um, let's see now. The lottery, madam clerk. Yeah, yeah. Fireworks lottery now. Okay. Do you want to introduce your report? Yes. There's a PowerPoint. Okay. I got distracted. No problem. Uh, yeah. Just wait till I. I'll call you up momentarily. All right. Welcome to the 2026 fireworks stand. Lottery. So, what is happening is done by resolution number 2020 408. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach revising and restating resolution number 2016 zero one related to implementing charter section 805, Municipal Code charter 5.90 regarding safe and sane fireworks. This year's public high school winners are Edison High School winners, Edison High School field hockey booster club, Edison High School men's basketball club, and the alternates are boys

volleyball booster club, Charger Aquatics Booster Club, and girls flag football booster club. And I should say before we move on, that, um, the way that the high schools are chosen is that each high school is allotted one lottery, a booth, and they internally raffle it off between their booster clubs and sports. The next high school is Huntington Beach High School. The winners are Huntington Beach Volleyball Boosters Association, Huntington Beach High School Cheer and Dance Boosters, and the alternates are Huntington Beach High School boys soccer booster and Huntington Beach High School Band boosters. We also have Marina High School. The winners there are Marina High School Surf Team boosters. We also have our public high school winner, Oceanview High School, and those winners are Ocean View baseball, Ocean View Football, Booster Club and for our private high school, Liberty Christian High School. And that's an all team booth that they have there for our civic organizations. We had 19 applications that were received and approved for tonight's lottery. We will be drawing five winners and up to three alternates will be drawn for each organization. For each category. Our first category is civic organizations, and we had 19 applications. Lutheran Church of the resurrection, Knights of Columbus Council 6020 American Legion Huntington Beach Post 133. Shore Life Church, Therapeutic Riding Center of Huntington Beach. First Samoan Congregational Christian Church of Huntington Beach McKenna Claire Foundation, Cross Point Church, Patriots and Paws, Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus, Beach City Classics, Orange Coast GAC. Again, we are

sports. We Are One Sports Academy, Huntington Beach Elks Lodge, 1959. Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach, Orange County Children's Theatre, Huntington Beach, Huntington State Beach Junior Lifeguard Association, Monarch Preschool, and Robin's Nest for our youth sports. Ten applications were received and approved for tonight's lottery, and again, we will select five winners and three alternates. And from youth sports, we had HB Chargers, youth Football and cheer Huntington Beach or Huntington Valley Youth football and cheer team 90 dba California Rush culture football organization. Rise Oak volleyball and HB Football club Huntington Valley Little League. Cypress Football Club doing business as FC Premier, Vanguard Aquatics, Sea View Little League and to help us this evening is Miss Huntington Beach. Gabrielle, Sammy, I want to wish all of the lottery participants good luck and once you are selected, information will be provided to you and you will be contacted from the fire department for further instructions. So, mayor, if you could come up. All right. And we will walk you through this. Okay. Miss Huntington Beach will be spinning the lottery and you

will be reading the winners. Okay, so you guys. Check. All right, Miss Huntington Beach, let it rip. Number ten. Save you Little League. I swear I have nothing to do with it. Even though I throw out the first pitch on Sunday. It's on camera. All right, number five, we have NTB Football Club Inc. No, sorry, sorry, sorry. Rise Oak volleyball. Apologies. You owned it for a minute? Yeah. Uh, number one, HB Chargers youth football and cheer. Number two, Huntington Valley youth football and cheer. At number five is number three, which is team 90 Inc, dba California Rush. So we have five okay. So we have. five three alternates. Miss Huntington Beach take it away. Uh come on.

There you go, guys. All right. Number. Is that a nine or a six? Nine is, uh, Vanguard Aquatics. All right, number six said it before NRB Football Club Inc. I got bailed out on that one. There you go. Number seven, Huntington Valley Little League. All right. Congrats to the winners. All three. This nine, six, six and seven okay. You got that. All right. A lot of tension in here. All right. The next category is civic organizations. Okay. Same. Yeah. We'll do five. And then. 1818. All right 18. That is Monarch Preschool Inc. 11. Beach City Classics. Number five therapeutic writing center of HB. All right. Number 12.

Orange Coast gecko and ink. Okay. Sorry. Good enough. Gakuin. There you go. Three American Legion HB post 133. That a boy. We have three 11, 18, 12, and five. Okay. Okay. Number two is the Knights of Columbus Council 6020. Yes. In the audience. 15, which is Compass Bible Church of HB. Six. First Samoan congressional, Congregational Christian. All right. Congrats. All right. Is that it? Okay. Thank you. Is that all right? That's it. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Miss

Huntington Beach. Yeah. Just give me a sheriff's contact. Bill, that. Information. Yeah. He's my brother in. Congrats. All the winners. I know that's a big deal, so good luck on all the sales. All right. Next to the business highlight presentation. So as a reminder, um, sorry for tonight's business highlight, we have a few quick updates for our business community before we spotlight two great local businesses. So as a reminder, applications are now open for the Surf City Small Business Digital Grant program. Uh, this program we touched on about a month ago, we'll award a $1,000 grant to 15 local businesses, along with experts advising on hands on digital marketing, marketing and training. So if you're a brick and mortar business with 2 to 25 employees looking to strengthen your online presence, we encourage you to apply. Applications

close April 26th, so visit HB biz to learn more. HB biz. To learn more. Last week we had a really good uh am connect at the chamber, and I want to thank the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce for hosting a recent Am connect session, listening session, and the discussion focused on the city's entitlement processes. And we received valuable feedback from our business community. And we appreciate the chamber's partnership as we continue working to create more business friendly procedures and processes. Uh, through our streamlined program. So it's a very lively discussion, a lot of great takeaways and some good ideas were kicked around. Um, now for the business spotlight. So tonight we're highlighting two outstanding local businesses through our minute with the mayor series. So first is Tony's Pizza and Tony's Pizza is located at Warner and PCH. They've brought a true New York style slice, Huntington Beach, and have built a strong family run business. So we want to thank Jennifer and Brent Stebbins and their family for their investment in our community and their contribution to our local dining scene. And then second will be the Huntington Academy of Dance. And so our second spotlight is the Huntington Academy of Dance, a long time part of our community that continues to inspire young performers. And for 50 years, they have trained dancers of all ages, from toddlers to adults in ballet, jazz, hip hop and musical theater. And they'll be, uh, performing The Little Mermaid at Central Library in April 25th and 26th. So please be sure to check that out. And, uh, they asked me when I did that minute with the mayor series, which you'll see after this one, to become the official Nutcracker of Huntington Beach. So I said, it's not up to me, it's up to the people. So after that video, you guys are going to see a little special preview with them tonight. So let's play this Tony's video. What's up HP? This episode of minute with the mayor takes us to Tony's Pizza at the corner of Warner and PCH. Let's go meet the amazing family behind this business. All right.

Guys. Yeah, yeah. Brett, tell us about Tony's pizza. So we are a New York style pizzeria we try to bring. I'm from New York, and I try to bring that flavor to Huntington Beach. And we have stromboli, calzones, a bunch of different things that you would find in New York with that New York flavor. Why did you guys choose Huntington Beach? Show up on your business? Huntington Beach has always kind of supported small mom and pop businesses. And for us, we saw a city that supports that, and that's what we want to be a part of. I know I'm not I know you guys give a lot to the community. So can you kind of walk us through everything you guys are doing to help out? Um, we donate to the fire department, the police department? All the time. Um, we also, when they had to. Bolsa Chica fires right over here by us, we saw the firemen. They were all. It was super hot that day. They were all struggling. So we made as many pizzas as we could and just walked over to right here, to the fire station and made sure that they were fed, make sure they had refreshments to be able to continue to save our wetlands. So if people can dine in or get delivery, where should they go? We're a very small hole in the wall type of place, but if you go to New York, those are always the best rides, right? It's always a little tiny hole in the wall. Uh, no glitz, no glam. We just do good food, good service, and you can always just find us on social media or Tony's Pizza menu. Dot com. That's another local gem in Huntington Beach. So we're able to support local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop. Woo! What's up HP this. All right. Now the Huntington Academy of Dance. What's up HP. This episode of minute with the mayor takes us to Huntington Academy of Dance at Edinger and

Edwards. Let's go dance with the owner, Kimberly. Kimberly, tell me about Hinson Academy of dance. Well, Huntington Academy of Dance has been a part of the community for 45 years. I took over the studio when my mentor retired, and when I took over the studio, it really felt like a homecoming because this is where I grew up and where I learned to dance. And now I get to be a part of the Huntington Beach community that helped foster my love of dance. And then what sets you apart from other dance studios, would you. Say our studio is more than just a place to learn to dance? It becomes a home for our dancers. We spend a lot of time together building friendships, creating lifelong memories, and the dancers grow and learn confidence and become these incredible young people surrounded by a community that loves and supports them. What do you guys love about serving Surf City in the community? Well, Surf City is an awesome place to raise a family and we love being part of the local families and the local communities. If someone wants to take a class, where do they sign up? So you can go to our website or you can you can take a class here at our studio, and we also offer classes in partnership with the Community Services Department at the three local community centers Edison, Birdie and City Gym. That's another local gem right here in Huntington Beach. Just remember to support local. It keeps their city thriving. See you at the next stop. What's up baby? Yes. Push! That was a plié. Okay. That was my attempt at the plié. Position. One is. Councilman Byrne said. All right. As I mentioned, the nutcrackers want to be declared the official nutcracker of Huntington Beach. So they want to come out and give us a special performance. So please

welcome and join me in

welcoming the ballerinas.

Who? All right. So what does everyone think? Should we name the official Nutcracker of Huntington. Beach? All right. it's official. Thank you. We got to take a photo of that.

Everybody come on. Okay. You can't. You can't see me. I can't see you. So keep your feet like this. , all right? I think you could do it. Okay, everybody looking right here. Everybody say Nutcracker. Our next picture. I can hear. Our Nutcracker performance will be the first two weekends of December at the Huntington Beach High School, a historic auditorium. This season will be our 30th Nutcracker and the auditorium will be celebrating its 100th year. So it will be a milestone year for sure. But this weekend we have our Little Mermaid performances at the Library Theatre, and so we're super excited about that as well. So we're always dancing. So thank you for making us the official Nutcracker. It's official. Excuse me, ma'am, what's the age group from youngest to oldest in the studio, roughly, yes. So our youngest students are. 18 months old. Wow. All the way. through our partnership that. We have with. The senior center. And so one of our teachers is 98 years young, and she works with a group of senior. Seniors, older adults can. Can, can the 98 year old get on those toes like that. How do they do that without hurting

the toes? That's amazing. They have to be. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I got to say, mayor, the minute with the mayor, um, initiative you guys put together is something that I've seen. Emails from all sides of the aisle that appreciate that. So that was something that was well done. Who? Let's give a little credit. Who named the minute with the mayor? Actually, I'll give the Chris Casanova over there. Yeah. Yep. Chris Carson. In the back. It's a she says she says it's teamwork. It's amazing. It's a great logo, too. It's got to be the first of city council had ballerinas performing The Nutcracker. So yeah. Let's go. HB all right. Next to community events announcements. So Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak for the community events announcements portion of the meeting? Yes, we have two speakers signed up to for the community events. The City Council will now receive public comments for community events announcements only. Each organization is allotted two minutes for its announcement. When your name is called, please approach. Use both podiums, state your name and organization for the record. First Speaker Jim Rossman from American Legion and Max Safran from HB chamber. Please approach the podium. Yeah, of course, we only have one mic tonight. Yep. Makes it even better. Hey, Jim. Hi there. Uh. Two minutes, I thought I had three. You can have three. Go for it. Okay. Hi. Um, mayor, Council members, city manager, city

attorney. My name is Jim Rossman, and I'm the commander of Huntington Beach Legion Post 133. Our post is in part of this community for over 100 years. There are over 10,000 veterans who live here in Huntington Beach. Amazing. Jim, is that the most of any city in Orange County? Right. Barton. Is that the most of any city in Orange County? I think. we're we're not sure right there. Number one or number two. Yeah, yeah. Uh, we serve, uh, Huntington Beach, Costa mesa and Fountain Valley. We're a very active post. We participate in 4th of July parade and work closely with the city to assist Memorial Day, Veterans Day activities at the Pier Plaza. We also speak at local schools and operate the Veterans Resource Center, located inside the Huntington Beach Central Library. At the VRC, we assist veterans with essential services, including obtaining a DD 214, which is a discharge paper which you have to have, uh, other important papers. Navigating veteran benefits, filing Pack Act claims related to conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq related to Agent Orange, and burn pits. We help with burial benefits and signing up to care at the Long Beach VA hospital. Our hours are Monday through Thursday, 2 to 6 p.m. and Friday 9 to 1. Additionally, we offer financial assistance to veterans in need, helping with auto repairs, gas, food, cards, utilities, rent, clothing, just to name a few items to fund these vital programs, we are hosting our fifth annual Car Show this August 9th. You can

find out more information about the event at Car Show HB. We are a 501 C3 organization. We welcome it. Any donations and or prizes for our silent auction and raffle, as well as general donations to our post. Our website is WW post 133. If you would like more information or wish to contribute, please contact me at J Rossman 480 at gmail.com. In 2023, juniors from Edison High School established a veterans booster club. This is now grown to Marina High School in Huntington Beach High School. They assist us in buddy calls and post events. We also sponsor boys and girls state events. There's a great article in the Huntington Beach in April event. Uh, the Huntington Beach Living Magazine. Uh, about the VRC, and it's written by Brian Nguyen, who's a junior at the Huntington Edison High School. Okay. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to share this information to you and to the city. Thanks, Jim. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Ma'am. Sorry, Max. You only get two minutes. It's all good. All right. Great to see you all. Uh, mayor and council, it's always a pleasure to see you. It's always a pleasure to be here in a beautiful Huntington Beach. I'd like to invite the community out for this Sunday for a perfect chamber of commerce day for the third annual Taste of Huntington Beach. I say it's the third because it's the third year the Chamber of Commerce has taken over this event. It's very, very exciting. We've got over 80 vendors this year, over 80 Huntington Beach businesses here to come and support. Uh,

it will be at the sports complex at Central Park. We'd love to invite the community, come out and join us. Taste HB com or HBC. Com is where you can find information on that event. But we're very excited. Hope all of you will join us. Thank you so much. Thanks, Max. Madam clerk, do we have any supplemental communications? Yes, mayor. For public hearing, item number 15, we've received 14 emails regarding appeal of Planning Commission's action on Conditional Use Permit 22, Dash 011 and Coastal Development Permit 22, Dash 009, Huntington Club remodel and Bungalows. Item number 15. City Council presentation number two. Submitted by Jonathan Bailey. Item number 15 letter submitted by Jonathan Bailey regarding Huntington Club remodel. Item number 15 received from EPD solutions, Inc. on behalf of the appellants on the Consent Calendar. Item number 18. We received two emails received regarding April 7th, 2026. City Council Public financing. Regular meeting minutes, council items number 25. One email received regarding the proposed declaration of May 7th, 2026 as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Huntington Beach. Item number 26 for emails received regarding the proposed establishment of City Council lease review, ad Hoc Committee item number 2714 emails received regarding the proposed establishment of a City Council ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on the request for proposals for the creative strategy, branding, merchandising, media, communications and film industry systems. New item nine emails received regarding council discussion on the origin and procurement process of the city's assets and revenue audit, and the proposed

$720,000 Wolf House agreement. New item request for proposal. Creative strategy, branding, merchandising, media communications and film industry development services. Thank you, Madam Clerk. How many speakers do we have for public comments? 25. Please call them up by ten at a time. The City Council will now receive public comments for any topic, including items on the open session agenda. When your name is called, please approach. State your name and organization. For the record, Pat Goodman, Amory Hanson, Andrew Einhorn, Jeannie Paris, Lou Ann Shupe and Palmer, Ken Inouye, Jerry Donahue, Andrew Hard, guest P. As a reminder, unfortunately, we only have one microphone tonight. So do we have two now? We'll take it up.. The Wi-Fi microphones aren't working tonight, so we only have one that's, you know, wired in. Is that correct? Julie. Yeah. Yeah. So we only have one microphone tonight. Unfortunately. Go ahead please. My name is Lou Ann Nicole Shupe. I'm a fourth generation property owner in Huntington Beach. A street even has been named after my family. Nichols. You could say I have a vested interest in Huntington Beach. In 2009, the city had these ad hoc meetings asking, how can we improve in our image? I raised my hand and said, how about we do an art walk? So there I was, roped into running the Downtown and Huntington Beach Art walk from 2010 to 2012. Then I passed it on to the Huntington Beach bid in 2021. I was asked again, are you happy with Honey to Beach? I said, no, they said, do you want to do something about it? I said, yes, I was back downtown. Main

Street looked like a third world. The homeless were out of control. The entire city was out of control. There were homeless camping in our parks, making it unsafe for children. The beaches were a mess. I had friends who no longer would do their early morning walks on the beach path because they would get harassed by the homeless. You cannot walk on the beach out of fear of stepping on a hypodermic needle. The parking structures were unsafe because there was a homeless person camping in every corner and Main Street. At night, after everyone would go home, the homeless would have a heyday with sleeping on the outdoor restaurant, furniture, pissing, shitting and barfing all over everything. And let us not forget the cockroach incident. This was intolerable and something had to be done about it. The only way we could clean up our city was to get a majority in the city council. So I and my friends and Tony Strickland, Gracie Vandermark, Pat Burns, and Casey McKeon went to work and we worked hard and won. So what has happened in the last four years? First thing our city Council did was to enforce the no camping law. Plus, they added and passed additional ordinances to enhance the no camping laws, such as no loitering in the parking structure or public restrooms. There are no longer homeless, camping in the beach, harassing innocent morning walkers. There are no longer homeless camping in the parking structure, nor the parks main street open back up has cleaned up and improved their appearance by replanting the circular planters, enforcing codes, replacing the missing bricks on the circular planters, painting the Ballards and cement trash cans with a repellent. Over the last three years, Huntington Beach has achieved the greatest homeless reduction number in our city's history. There has been roughly 40% reduction in homelessness, and Huntington Beach is one of the only Orange County cities to see their homelessness

numbers decrease. Crime has gone down 26% across all categories. Some crime is down over 80%. Like the catalytic converter theft. While so many of you trash our city council, I have to ask, do you really want it to go back to the way it was? Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Mayor, Council members, city staff and people living here in our community. Kathy Reiter, a homeowner and voter in Huntington Beach since 1985. I'm strongly against agenda item number 27 because I believe we should form a resident ad hoc committee who works along with our city staff to review the submitted RFP, and then that committee could make a recommendation to the council for some vote. But my main topic here tonight is the political sign blight on our public property. Thousands of us don't like it. I don't like it. And I've even paid for some of the signs. As a reminder, in 2023, there was an agenda item to only allow political signs on private property and to limit the size of those signs to just the standard yard signs. However, Council member Burns offered an amendment to authorize a billboard size signs on both public and private property. Can you imagine a billboard on your front yard? That agenda item ended up being withdrawn and no vote was taken. So if you don't like those large corner political signs, I ask the residents to contact this current council and demand that they change the rules of political signs. There's no reason why they can't, because there are many cities who manage to elect officials without these large corner of political signs. And guess what? We could do it here. I'd also like to take this time to thank the members of the Huntington Beach Fire Department who, over the last six months, who have come to my home multiple times and provided excellent service and

care to my husband, they have treated him with kindness, graciousness and professionalism, and due to their swift action, my husband is still here today. So a heartfelt thanks from my children and I to the Huntington Beach Fire Department and their care to my husband. Thank you. Great. Good evening mayor and City Council Pat Goodman. Um, and I ask you to pull or rethink items 26 and 27, and I find the self-appointed ad hoc committees proposed in those two agenda items troubling as they conflict with the transparency essential for a democratic government. The City Council's role is to set policy and direction for staff, and not to operate through informal, self-selected bodies. Item 26, I think, is unnecessary. Staff should submit the requested reports directly to City Council for presentation at a public meeting. We're open to discussion can take place and discuss the leases and issues related to them. Uh, and the public has full access to the documentation. And item 27, please direct the city manager to appoint a committee of professional staff to assess the branding and marketing proposals. If you go forward with that, uh, the committee should return. Um, their top three recommendations as cited in the, um, uh, code or a full ranking of all submissions with written justification for each. This approach ensures transparency and protects the council, you folks, from the appearance of self-dealing, favoritism, and impropriety. We're looking out for you. Uh,

we often hear that the city should be run like a business. And, uh, I think there's room for discussion on that issue itself. I was going to speak about that, but, um, they have two different really missions and goals. Um, but some of the things that they, um, have in common is efficiency. And, um, uh, value to their customers, right? Taxpayers versus customers. But, um, I hope that you'll take these comments to heart and, um, really look at the way you select vendors and contracts and respect the process for what it's meant to, uh, give taxpayers, residents and yourselves the protection that you deserve as elected officials. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes. Hi. My name is Ginny Parris. Um, a longtime resident of Huntington Beach. I want to today, I want to especially thank all of the council members for your hard work and what you're doing to try to improve Surf City. But tonight, I particularly want to thank our mayor, Casey McKeon, as well as our previous mayors, Councilwoman Gracie Vandermark and Councilman Pat Burns. And also a shout out to Tony Strickland, who is also our mayor. The four of you were overwhelmingly in in elected to solve some big issues. We all remember how bad the homeless situation was, as well as the crime rates, the outrageous Rena numbers, as well as the city budgets, to name a few. You came in with a different set of eyes and hit the road running. In three years we have seen a significant drop in homelessness, 30% drop in this city. The only city in OC to see a decrease 26 drop, 26% drop in crime continuing to tackle Sacramento to protect local control and taking us

from a $41 million deficit in fiscal year 2223 to a surplus based on expense reduction in revenue generating policies, all without raising taxes. Thank you for that. Now we have an opportunity to explore different avenues to generate revenue and promote growth. Streaming our systems to improve how we do business in the city from branding, merchandising, media communications to local internship. Sounds different, but I think it's something that we need to look at. Whether we pursue the route remains to be seen. Whether we go with the Wolf House or another entity from the RFP process, I think it's worthwhile exploring these options. You have proven yourselves to be very successful in the past. Um, what do we have to lose by listening to these different perspectives? I'm all ears. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, Anne Palmer. I'm usually passionate about speaking about marketing, housing, art, advertising, nature. But tonight I want to speak about budget. And yes, it's boring. I'm not going to get into a lot of numbers. I've watched as other people present numbers and nobody pays attention. But personally, it took me years to move to Huntington Beach, and when I was deciding to move from L.A. County to either Huntington or Newport was exactly when the OC scandal happened in the late 80s and early 90s, it eventually terminated with Orange County going bankrupt. There was a lot of problems, and I decided I needed to look at budgeting and municipal finance a little more closely, but I would still leave it to the professionals. From 2011 to 2025, Huntington Beach had an excellent treasurer, Alyssa Backstrom. She was skilled, honest and forthcoming. She kept the budget in good order, and there were many who enjoyed working with her. But there was also

some leadership in the city that made, in my opinion, some unwise financial decisions. And they lacked long term planning. That set us off into what was a long term trend downward. And even though we received Covid money, that bolstered it a little bit. That downward trend was still existing, as it does in many cities because of increased costs and because of, um, unfunded liabilities. This council and the previous council have done everything in their power to identify everything they can do to save costs, to meet obligations, and to look for revenue generating opportunities. It's unfortunate that no matter what is proposed, somebody is rabidly opposed to generating revenue in this city. I guess they'd rather have taxes. Eight cities in this area have either increased or will be increasing their sales tax. And I know that you're all working hard to avoid that. One thing to consider if you talk to the car dealerships, um, a lot of people come here to buy cars from the neighboring cities because a percent or 2nd May not meet, may not make a difference on your weekly grocery bill. That's noticeable. But when you buy a big ticket item, it makes a big difference. So at this point, you're looking at raising revenue through some branding. And I'm going to come back and talk more about that, because marketing is an area of expertise for me. You're going about the right direction. Every city needs a revenue source that isn't just out of the pockets of its residents. So this is a little different than your general RFP. You're looking for an agency pitch, and a lot of it will be subjective. There are a lot of processes that can help you through that, and I don't think this city has done that before. So it would still be clear and resolute. It would be tied to your objectives and your

mission. But what is presented to. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Andy Einhorn. Huntington Beach, the Save act. A solution in search of a problem, the Save act requires one of the following to vote a valid U.S. passport. If you have one or a certified birth certificate, an estimated 69 million American women do not have a birth certificate matching their current legal name. When a woman marries, she faces something no man ever does. A bureaucratic gauntlet just to provide her identity. Her driver's license shows her maiden name. She pays $46 for a new one. Social security requires two certified documents marriage and birth certificates, each with fees, a passport adds another $130. To this. She could easily be out 260 or more dollars, so she orders a certified marriage certificate from the county recorder exactly as instructed. She arrives at her Social Security appointment still may be rejected because the Social Security Department requires a physically raised seal that the certified online copies do not have. So she starts over again, paying fees again. The Save act is designed to exhaust you in time, creates a poll tax with a goal of voter suppression. The seal requirements for both marriage and birth certificates

still appears unclear for each state, which may cause further confusion. Confusion for election officials. If the Safe act is your idea of government oversight, voters look forward to new council members with meaningful solutions to city problems. Not your trumped up voter ID diatribe. Your $720,000 branding study delivered one verdict that I certainly noticed. Your political agenda is destroying our city. Image. Residents have been telling you that for free since you took office. As a former business owner, I would never accept one bid or one RFP, and I was in business for 30 years. Have a great night. Next speaker please. Jerry Donahue I took a walk this morning on Bright Water Street, and as I was walking, I saw a sign I don't normally sign. And it said Community Service Day piqued my interest. Looked on the other side. It was the greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council. April 25th. This Saturday. I thought, I'm not a member of that organization, but I remember watching them on the 4th of July parades. There were all kinds of different ages and ethnicities. They have a big tent in our insular world, so I would I would like to have more civic engagement on behalf of these faith groups. And I want to remind council members that government and faith are two separate spheres, and council

time is better used by promoting activities of this sort. Instead of espousing personal religious preferences. Again, that's the Huntington Beach Interfaith Council. Tomorrow is Earth Day. I want to push two Earth Day events. I am a member of Amigos de Bolsa Chica. This is our 50th anniversary. 50 years ago, they wanted to build 1200 homes in what is now the Bolsa Chica, a group predominantly of women stopped this thing and tomorrow, rather Saturday at 8:00, we are having our annual running is for the birds and that will take place at Bolsa Chica State Beach. The following day. On Sunday, April 26th, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy on the corner of PCH and Warner, is hosting an Earth Day event where there will be numerous booths and vendors. And just a wonderful family day celebrating nature and especially celebrating the wetlands. I volunteered the wetlands and so many people drive by at 60 miles an hour and have no clue until they pull in the parking lot and say, this is a jewel. 90% of our wetlands have disappeared. Let's celebrate this weekend. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Mr. Amory Hansen. I'm speaking tonight in support of. I am 25, the mayor's item to declare Theodore Roosevelt Day. This item makes Huntington Beach the first city to honor President Roosevelt. America's 26th president. It was also present when Huntington Beach was incorporated on February 17th, 1909. He was a true environmentalist, supporting conservation efforts, including several of America's early

national parks. He also filed 41 antitrust lawsuits because leaders filed lawsuits. The Huntington Beach City Council is honoring these legacies by continuing to fight the high density Mach-E. I intend to do so as well. When I am a councilman, I urge the council to honor President Roosevelt with this resolution and our ways. Once again, I urge a yes vote, and I am 25. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Members of the Honeybee City Council. I'd like to welcome Butch Twining back. And I'm glad that you came back healthy and ready to service again. My name is Kenny Noah. I'm over a 50 year resident of Huntington Beach. As a resident of Huntington Beach, I was quite concerned about the fact that the closed session agenda refers to the fact that the City Council had discussions concerning six existing or pending lawsuits, which may have been caused by actions taken by the City Council. Since each of these lawsuits will or could cost the city millions of dollars in future costs and penalties, I respectfully request that all future lawsuit agenda items contain a brief explanation of the nature of these lawsuits, so that the residents of the city can make an evaluation and an informed assessment of the assessment of the actions taken by the City Council. In addition, I was very disturbed to note that an action taken on April 7th City Council meeting that the City Council authorized the City Attorney's Office to enter into a settlement agreement with the state auditor's lawsuit, whereas the state had requested information regarding the air show settlement. As the resident of Huntington Beach, I respectfully request submit that this lawsuit could have been avoided had a city council

simply told the truth from day one when he was asked to disclose all of the factors regarding the settlement. That is not proper government, given the financial challenges facing the city, we cannot afford to have a city council which can continue to adopt policies which will or cost. This will or could cost the city tens of millions of dollars. Now, Don, I respectfully acknowledge the fact that you mentioned that we have over $100 million of infrastructure payments during that period. However, I'd like to remind us all here that three years ago, I asked Pat Burns to make an assessment of the infrastructure report that we had. We had ten do. We had $2 billion of deferred maintenance, much of which is related to infrastructure items that could jeopardize public safety. So I respectfully request and acknowledge the good work of public works, but also respectfully request that this City Council seriously take its responsibilities to safeguard the safety of every resident in regard to the infrastructure. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Mayor. Members of the City Council, my name is Andrew Howard, and I'm here to follow up. Sorry. Let me grab my glasses. On an issue I raised at your last meeting regarding a business operating as Huntington Harbor Boat Rentals at 16722 Pacific Coast Highway. At that meeting, I asked a simple question does this business have the required approvals to operate, including a conditional use permit? And if not, what enforcement action is being taken? Since then, I received a response from code enforcement confirming that notices of violation, including

a final notice, have been issued and that and that the business is currently in the process of applying for approvals. However, the city still has not answered the core question whether this business is actually permitted to operate right now. I followed up twice in writing asking for clarification, including whether a conditional use permit exists, and I have not received a response. This issue is now approximately two years old. In that time, I have reviewed public records and have not found any conditional use permit for this use. I've also submitted a legal letter from our land use attorney to the city, confirming that this type of operation requires a conditional use permit and a coastal development permit, neither of which we have been able to identify based on our own business experience. Operating the exact same type of business. A Duffy rental business in Huntington Beach. We were required to shut down within a matter of months until permits were approved. So the question is very simple. If the city has already issued violations and the business is applying for approvals, why is it being allowed to continue operating? There's a very different standard than what was applied to our business. Additionally, the property is displaying large signage advertising Duffy rentals and paddleboard and kayak rentals painted on an exterior wall along Pacific Coast Highway. I submitted a complaint about this over a year ago and have not received confirmation of any enforcement action. At this point, we are simply asking for clarity, clarity and consistency. So tonight we respectfully ask that the City Council direct staff to provide a clear answer on the following. Whether this business is currently authorized to operate. If not, what enforcement actions are being taken and why it is being

allowed to operate. While while approvals are still pending, we provided both. We provided both our attorney's letter and prior city documentation requiring our operation to cease until improvements were in place into until approvals were in place, and we'll leave copies with the council. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Can you fill out a blue card, please? Yeah. Did you feel did you. Fill out a blue card, please. Did you do that last time or I can't remember. I did fill. Out a blue card. Let me give you my card and then call me and Butch. I'll jump. Yeah. Thank you. All of us will help out. Great. Appreciate it. So. Next ten speakers. Rory Bevins, brother, Steven Gerrard. Ross. Neil. Shania. Breslow. Tim. Gaddis, Charles. Jackson. Sonja. Beall. Paula. Schaefer, Keenan. Durham, Larry. Sloman. Libby. Patricia. Pappas, Roger. Knorr, Nora. Etcheverry. Please proceed. Good evening. Honorable mayor and council members. My name is Rory Bevins. I'm a Huntington Beach resident, born and raised, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and to introduce myself. Uh, my family and I recently met with the city, um, regarding our deep appreciation for the Park Bench Cafe and Central Park. Um, we've also had an opportunity to connect with and spend a lot of meaningful time with the current owners and have a great respect for what they've built and the role the cafe plays in the community. Uh, I'm not here to present anything tonight. Just to introduce myself and express how much it would mean to me and my family to become a

business owner in this great city. Uh, Huntington Beach is my home. I grew up here, and now my wife and I are lucky enough to be raising our two daughters. Um. I'm truly excited and grateful for the potential opportunity to give back to this community. Uh, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the city. And, uh, what a great place it is to be. And if anyone had any doubts about that, how many times you show up to a city council meeting and have, uh, Nutcracker performance and, uh, a surfing dog, uh, kind of video play in the background. So just want to say hi and appreciate all you do for our city. Well, sir, thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Good evening, beloved council mayor and citizens, I am Brother Steven Gerrard, said Orlovsky. And I continue to amplify new USA personhood cities throughout the United States, even here in Orange County. And I just want to give you an update of some of the progress of this new direction. I have been generating a California pre born personhood advisory petition since I've been in your area for the past four months, and I'm delighted to let you know that about 44 sheets have been completed by citizens in LA County and Orange County, and, uh, that's about 263 signatures so far. Citizens are learning about this new direction of the sanctity of life in America. Uh, and of those signatures, about 39 do come from Huntington Beach. And I'd like to just list off the last three names of citizens who signed this wonderful advisory petition. And that would be Benjamin Cobbs if it would also

be Guy Hill. And it would also be Charlene, Diane Peterson. One of the wonderful marketing efforts that I got when traveling to the California march for life, says equality begins in the womb. Wow, what a wonderful expression of equality. In my past, uh, journey of life, I was asked to actually write on the topic of equality, and I was asked by a particular city council in Ohio on how you could get the very words of equality right in the city charter. And I'm delighted that I was able to actually come up with inserting the word equality in the charter. It will also include, however, the child peacefully developing in the mother's womb. Where are we going in America? Well, we've got Mother's Day upon us. Father's day is just on the horizon. I've delivered the wonderful, uh, pre born personhood resolution to all of you. That step one. I hope that your agenda will be pacified a little bit, where you'll actually be able to vote on that resolution here soon. That's step one. My time is now limited. Just remember, we all have one thing in common in council chambers. Our mothers said yes to all of us. Thank you all. God bless you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. How'd you like that? Yes, to mothers in the womb. But what about after they're born? Who helps take care of them? They get dropped. A lot

of them do. There's over 300,000 kids that are in either. Uh, not in homes. Not in homes. They are. And they are let out when they're like 18. I like the life thing. If you're going to help people all the way through their lives, not just while that happens. Thank you guys for, um, embracing Sugar and Ryan. We all felt that sweet vibe. If you could find compassion, acceptance, love, and inclusion for others who aren't like you, you could probably save us 100 $720,000. How? To take care of Huntington Beach and stay out of the political arena. Too many people don't come to Huntington Beach because of political differences, making HB less political and more about humankind is a great start. Character matters here. Being ethical matters here, and I just want to I want to feel that in all of you guys. Um, and please listen to Mr. Ken. He's a brilliant man and he has a lot to say for you guys to learn from. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Good evening, and thank you for your time. My name is Shaina Breslow. I'm a local educator and surfer, and I am part of Creek team. I wanted to share some of what's been going on in our county over the last couple of months. We have uncovered violations that Orange County Public Works has had with their application of of herbicide throughout Orange County, especially within the waterways. There is currently an investigation going on for multiple offenses with the

agricultural Commissioner. There is also an additional investigation with California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as U.S. Fish and Wildlife, to investigate the violations of the lake and stream Bed Alteration Agreement that cover the waterways here in Orange County. We are concerned that the current policies have not been followed as far as application and usage of chemicals, monitoring and record keeping. As a county, we should start to move in the direction of an organic first approach. Many other cities and counties already do this throughout California. We understand the need for targeted application for invasive species in specific instances, but the blanket spray of herbicide that is currently being done is outdated, out of compliance and causing harm to endangered species. Critical habitats and our communities. Creek team has updates for the IPM system that we are asking Orange County to adhere to. This would be a combination of using herbicides like suppress mechanical removal and targeted stronger chemicals when needed, with clearly defined thresholds. We are looking for the Board of Supervisors to add this to an agenda item and then get this voted on ASAP. Creek team is currently working on communicating this concern to each one of the supervisors, and we are looking for. We are looking for every city in Orange County to support this progressive transition to improved policies. This is where you come in. I hope you can stand with us to better our county by communicating our city's desire to move in this direction. Please stand with Creek Team and let the Board of

Supervisors know this is an important matter to us all. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Miss, can you, you know, can you fill out one of those blue cards? I'd like to just create an acronym. Or is it like a creek? Like a little creek. Is, um, just a group of concerns? A committee members down with, um, San Juan Capistrano? Uh, by the Doheny. Okay. Jogger was running, and he noticed that the ecosystem. Okay. If you fill that out, I'd like to hear a little bit more about the herbicides. Um, I don't really like those either. Go for. It. Uh, good evening, mayor and city council. Tim Geddes in the house. Once again, we have. No disclosure from the city attorney on closed session litigation with the state of California regarding state audit, housing, voter ID, and God knows what else is the public being deliberately being kept in the dark? Is the council too embarrassed to say anything at all? What we're up against or what we're in for? So much for transparency. Or is the ability to see through you good enough? Not only is it transparency we're lacking, but without proper explanation, cronyism enters the picture. Like it or not, that concern has been around since the Pacific Air Show Settlement Agreement. Now we have the Wolf Wolf house fiasco, which was roundly assailed for its lack of transparency and cronyism, even in an above board RFP process will remain suspect to many. So what to do? I notice you have two proposed ad hoc committees on city leases and the infamous Creative Strategies branding and et

cetera, et cetera. Uh, but who will be on these ad hoc committees? Who isn't part of the problem to begin with? There is no outside measure of accountability, just the good old boys who might have rolled over on the on last meeting's agenda. Item 22 had not members of the public objected and cried foul. Will further litigation be called for if the ad hoc process lacks transparency and accountability, how about creating two more ad hoc committees on transparency and accountability with some expert outside input? Few in the few in the greater community outside your own suspect supporters will trust your judgment or your recommendations. Unless transparency and accountability is assured. It's time to start. Start representing the entire community honestly and effectively. It's time to trade in your ideological idiocy for some good, solid problem solving and act and action on our behalf. We need leaders, not lawsuits. Be careful or some hot new at new community slate will replace your old, discredited and not so fabulous current one. This is a change election and tag you're it. Next speaker please. Uh, hi. Uh, first of all, I'd like to echo, um, the woman who came up here, uh, from Creek team. Um, I've been following the work that that organization has been doing, and I would love to see this city, um, work with them and see how we can make sure that our ecosystems are are protected. Um, I would also like to give credit where credit is due. And thank Chad

Williams and Andrew Grewal for bringing agenda item 28. Um, I know I've had conversations with both of you over the last couple years. Um, where I've expressed that my own concern and I think the concern of a lot of people who live on this city are in this city, on both sides of the aisle, are looking for accountability and transparency. And it seems to me that this agenda item is an effort in in that direction. So thank you very much for listening to your constituents and bringing that forward. Um, and lastly, I'd like to make a comment on, um, I'm not sure if it was Casey or Don, but, uh, one of you in your opening comments today, we're talking about, well, you know, there's all these concerns that we're getting all these emails about this, uh, about the, you know, how the how the city is spending our money. But we've spent all of this money on, you know, city beautification and whatnot. And I don't personally have an issue with flagpoles or red, white and blue lines on Main Street. But if we are focusing on those kinds of efforts with the city's budget, while also having all of these lawsuits and having this, you know, this contract that people are concerned about, it seems a bit like painting your car, but not changing your oil. So, um, thank you and have a good night. Thank you. Yeah. Just to clarify, Councilmember Kenney was talking about infrastructure projects that we funded, actual infrastructure projects. Thank you so much. Next speaker. What the red, white and blue painted by the bid. Uh, public works. But as part of the annual painting process anyway. Yeah, that's what I thought. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Paula Schaefer. My discussion tonight is related to agenda item 26673 regarding the creative strategy RFP. This RFP process reeks of cronyism and patronage by the City Council in which you intend to use taxpayer funds to burnish your image prior to upcoming elections. To date,

you tried to cram through a $720,000 contract as a sole source process. When that sole source effort failed spectacularly. I might say you reluctantly issued an RFP. However, rather than relying on city staff to conduct the initial review of any submitted proposals which would be the appropriate procedure, you plan to form an ad hoc committee of city council members who will review the proposals. These actions do not engender confidence that this entire process has been given any careful thought or planning. Finally, if approved by the entire city council or perhaps only a majority of the city council, it will solidify the public's perception that this RFP is a done deal and the eventual contract will go to Wolfe House. Why don't you follow typical RFP procedures and direct staff to review any proposals? And with only the acceptable proposals that meet identified criteria forwarded to the City Council for a vote, that's what staff is for. Your process of subverting staff's role to perform the initial review of the proposals negates any effort of transparency that you think could be achieved by having the entire city council vote on this. It's obvious that the City Council will be voting on this matter. That's the role of City Council. Is this really how you plan to run the city like a business? Have you considered the reputational damage that you have done to the city with your efforts to date? Yes. This is a creative strategy indeed. However, perhaps not as you intended. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Patricia Pappas. Uh,

honorable mayor McKeon. And full council and staff. Um, about 2 to 3 years ago, four of us, Jeannie, Dylan and Anne, were thinking about our city. We. What? What were we missing? We came up with an idea called local HB. Our ideas focused on local, state, and national history. Uh, the four of us met with councilors McKeon, van der, Mark Burns and Strickland, and eventually Mayor Pro Tem Twining and the, um, all of the council, of course, approved this, so I what I brought tonight, um, is a handout or actually a little photo display. Um, so we met with these this group of councilors, and they listen closely to us. This was in 2022. And our council developed what is now named the celebration Committee. So with Julie Toledo leading us and Butch and also, um, mayor McKeon, we have and our seven member council, we've looked at the council's looked at budget, safety, public works across the city and to this our incredible we think it's an incredible idea. Um, celebrating our great town. And these images here are for you. They show the beginning of our celebration committee and a little bit of a write up about how that developed. We show our Chris Epting talk that actually we had a talk, uh, was it about a year or so ago, and now we're having a new one come up, which is very soon. Our animal shelter drive that we put on, and people came from all over. We just filled up that area, uh, in the lobby, our peer photo competition. And you'll

see some of the pictures on here. They are now displayed outside in our lobby area. You can see the equestrian center. That was a great event for local people. And then also really important is the year our 250th anniversary. So some of our committee members on our celebration in our celebration group, they have written articles and some of those are here. Um, those articles are going to be posted. They're going to be framed and put up in the lobby. Um, you probably have seen the photo display, but I just want to give you something to tell you. Thank you for what you are doing for our city and for our community. All of you, and go to Facebook, X and Instagram. And you can see these articles and pictures. Thank you. Thank you for the artwork. It's beautiful. Next speaker please. Okay. Thank you. Um. Good evening. My name is Russell Neal. I live in Huntington Beach. There are two underlying issues with respect to the proposed creative strategy RFP. The first is the urgency of getting something done in time to take advantage of the upcoming 4th of July opportunities. The second is meeting concerns about openness and fairness of the bidding and awards process for this contract. The RFP currently on the table is a compromise which meets neither concern. It is too slow for the first and too fast for the second. I propose splitting the procurement into two parts. The first would be a directed procurement to Wolf

House for the limited scope of the 4th of July plan. The second would be an RFP for the whole long term creative strategy plan. Without the 4th of July time pressure. More time could be allowed for development of this RFP. Consideration of community input and for bidder response. If this approach is acceptable, we could perhaps move on to things more productive and less acrimonious. I do not think the proposed open discussion session concerning related matters is compatible with the format of a council session, and do not believe any good can come from it. I suggest focusing on reaching a workable compromise, such as I have suggested, and moving on. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening to everyone. I want you to pay very clear attention to what I have to say. I respect all law enforcement, but I have four powerful sheriff and Ball. And they tell me, tell the hundreds of beach friends of mine. Share. Officer, do not cover corruption. I am tired of corruption in housing and I'm super stressed. The judges are involved. I was brought by federal 1969 from Cuba and are being discriminated by people from Mexico. As Lieutenant Smith. Very nice officer and he knows I don't do drugs, neither drink or smoke. Not on my

family. Neither friends and my mom and dad are in heaven. I have an amazing life. Sent newborn by dealing with the wrong employee for Mexico and government have been super stressed and I mean, I put an application for the same people that you guys got in Long Beach. Supposed to be the state and federal that they sent me their 301 is Ocean Boulevard, suite 300, Long Beach, that they don't exist. Get that same government to subsidize the two bedrooms that are poor for coastline. The first person, because I went to Fountain Valley and I talked to Bodine there and Jennifer told me, yes, the city will put 506 low income, middle income and affordable. And I said, about 40 years and pay taxes. I'm a low income now. She said, you'll be okay. And I've been discriminated by people from City Hall, which is local government, and the stress that I never heard in my life that now everybody's very aware you guys better call me soon for my key focus. And you can't, uh, Gracie, you became a mayor with my vote in 2021, and I got also my friends to support you. Now, you're not going to be cured if you break news from Miami that I have family in Cuba. Miami. Very angry. And government support Cuba in this country. So pay attention because I have great family from Mexico from the 70s. They were not running anything in government. I grew up in Orange County. So if you allow Mexico, Vietnam to the, the, the I mean, um, Espanol Cuban to the primary of housing is going to be made your problem so that sooner you will call me with a kid for

counseling the same people that you guys got to get those young girls in there, make it happen for me. I don't have no right in this country. You let me know, because there's Congress standing by. And that's what I was told. Every city, including Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley. Thank you. Soon as possible. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. City council members. It's neat to hear about the tie between Huntington Beach and Teddy Roosevelt. Some people compare him to current political figures. There is no comparison. Teddy Roosevelt was a war veteran, not an entitled Playboy. He did not start any wars as president. Not like this year. Roosevelt did not have any known extramarital scandals and was considered devoted to his wife, Edith, not like this. Years political scandals on both parties. Roosevelt was a significant supporter of women's rights when he held traditional views on gender roles. He advocated for equal pay, improved working conditions, property rights, and endorsed women's suffrage. The right to vote. This is in contrast to the Safe act that will disenfranchise many women. In contrast to the efforts to reduce health care, I guess Teddy would support no tax on tips. Roosevelt's square deal emphasized justice for workers and consumers, and was demonstrated by his fair mediation of the anthracite coal strike by his successful attacks on trusts he considered to be harmful to the public interest, and by the enactment of such landmark laws as the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act and Interstate Commerce Commission, with meaningful regulatory authority

over the nation's railroads. In contrast, inconsistent tariffs, a war, and giveaways to the Epstein class, in contrast to the lack of control of monopolies. But let's face it, Teddy was a racist, imperialist. Sound familiar? Imagine living in 1969 when we were stuck in a meaningless war, sending people to the moon, and our president was a crook. Is this what MAGA means? Yes. Next speaker. Please. Good evening, Mayor and council. My name is Larry Slonim. I'm strongly opposed to agenda item number 27. And having a setting. Up a three member committee, primarily because. It's just. Of the city council members, which you have already shown over the course of the time that you've been here, that you are not impartial. That you vote. As a block and you think as a block, regardless of how many things you different people you talk to and say, you have a varying opinions, you don't display that pride. For the year, recommending that we have a, you know, three member city council or three members on the city council. We need to have more people involved, such as what's been suggested. As, you know, a resident, make up of other residents or other staff that are more impartial and more objective. A lack of fiduciary due diligence and accountability are glaring on this council. The suggested price tag that was came up in the study that was proposed of $720,000, is unqualified and unsubstantiated. It's just thrown out there, and that's a tremendous amount of money to be out there, randomly

established and discussed and overseen. We need more RFPs to take a look at that to justify that. Wolf House's preliminary audit and report on page 17th May the following paraphrased observation. Our City Council's negative based political agenda is damaging the reputation and economic well-being of Huntington Beach. We, the resident taxpayers, can't put up with that any longer. The approach taken by this current proposal only perpetuates Huntington Beach's negative public relations and image. You. We can't afford to keep doing this as not how you guys run a responsible government. It's just not being run the right way. You need to get back on track. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. So what's the common theme tonight? There just isn't a better word for it. Cronyism. The president, Theodore Roosevelt Day, is an obvious attempt. To. Promote your friend's book. The Theodore Roosevelt was known as a progressive and a conservationist, neither of which aligns with this council. Running the city by ad hoc committee is another example of cronyism. Making sure your friends rise to the top of the pack when evaluating proposals is clearly corrupt. Analyzing and evaluating the city's leases in an ad hoc committee is quite suspect as well. Both of these attempts to use closed door, ad hoc committees for things that should be done by staff and then discussed in public, reek of cronyism. It seems to be common knowledge that mayor McCann is trying to

navigate a city contract to his friend for rebranding or marketing to try to clean up the city's image after it has been trashed. Trashed for the past few years. I strongly oppose issuing any further contracts to Wolf House. It's already concerning that the city paid him $30,000 two months before even had a local business license. At the last council meeting, you were actually ready to issue a $720,000 contract without competitive bids to a company that can't even get its own website up. In the several weeks since, we've all become aware of this plan. I mean, how long is it going to take him just to get his own website up? If he can't manage his own website? What makes anyone think he can manage anything for this city instead of closed door ad hoc committees? This council should work to include citizens in this process. I'm very anxious to watch the last agenda item as it's discussed. I want to know much more about how all this cronyism came about, and what will be done to prevent any future backroom deals. And since I have another minute, I was just wondering where are the library books going to be put on the proper shelves? The lawsuit was ended months ago. The election was, what, eight, nine months ago? You've gotten the word of what the citizens want. It's time for those books to be put back in the children's library. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Welcome back. Butch. You're looking. Good. To quote Alanis. Morissette. isn't it. Ironic? Isn't it ironic that this very. City city. Council that just a year ago spent their energies to yell out groomers, pedophiles, pornography? Who called

librarians, librarians. and community members groomers, pedophiles. And pornographers? Has this year proposed to give a $725,000 contract to Wolf House, who has a website with the phone number one 800 556. Wolf, it's the hottest talk line, which was soon changed to 18856 Wolf. But one 800 556 Wolf is the hottest talk line. Let's sample that, won't. We? If you call that number. Welcome to America's hottest tag line, guys. Hot ladies are waiting to talk to you. Press one now, ladies, to talk to you. Interesting and exciting guys. Free press two to connect. Free now guys, press one now. Ladies press two now. Okay I think you get the gist. Is there no oversight on the city council? Have they changed their morals? Have they changed their outrage about sexualization? Second, while the whole pitch RFP for a PR firm, A PR firm to clean up the bad reputation you generated is going too far. I still go back to Atlantis, isn't it ironic? And one last note to Andrew Groves. Since you did host, ironically, the divisive author and his his new book on Theodore Roosevelt at your restaurant, connecting more cronyism to Theodore Day to boost book sales. Perhaps you should recluse yourself from

that vote. Thank you. Anywhere speakers. Is there anybody else in line? No. All right. Okay. Now we'll move to council committee appointment announcements. Oh, you did. Come on down. 25. Yeah, I know. It. And, father. At the last city council. Meeting. The item to. Approve a nearly three quarter million dollar PR contract was pulled before the meeting began. It looked for a moment like the City council might actually be listening to their constituents, as they had received a ton of emails opposing the contract and also received an earful from citizens opposing the contract during public comment. But alas, it seems that maybe only 1 or 2 council members were actually listening while the others try to play misdirection and obfuscation. I direct your attention to this week's agenda items 27 and 28. The concern that very same contract, item 27 suggests creating a special ad hoc committee composed of several council members to make recommendations for the proposed PR contract. I spoke at the last City Council meeting about how contracting processes work in the real world, in both business and government, and how far removed from that process things seem to be under this council's guidance. Normally, the staff would review the RFP responses to ensure their compliance flagged differences between them, and then make their recommendations to the council. But item 27 proposes that select members of the council take over the evaluation process, which sounds striking, like let's circumvent the

normal RFP process so we can force this contract to our buddy. But I'm afraid that that is also the least egregious violation of normal contracting procedures under this city council. You see, in a normal contracting process, if you're involved in the research, development and analysis for an RFP, you are forbidden from bidding on it. The reason is your inside knowledge gives you an unfair advantage over other vendors, and also because it allows you to potentially develop or shape the RFP by inserting requirements or conditions that competitively advantage you and disadvantage your competitors. Given that Wolfe House performed the initial analysis and made the recommendations for what the PR program should look like, they meet the very definition of being involved in what the RFP creation process should be, and having inside information. As such, they should be forbidden from responding to the RFP for these PR services. Now, agenda item 28 appears to show that at least two council members were listening. They appeared to at least be challenging this headlong rush to bypass normal contracting procedures and hand over nearly three quarters of a million of taxpayer dollars to affirm the citizens have every right to be skeptical about. I look forward to hearing that discussion. Thank you. All right. Now, in the council committee appointment announcements, council members, do you have any council committee appointment announcements? I do, all right. I have I'd like to appoint Jared McKnight to the my CPAp. Okay. Position. Anybody else? AB 123 reporting. Does anyone have anything to report? I do. Okay. Um, I went out to Sacramento in support of Tony Strickland's item to, in other words, to give us some kind of a process to challenge the arena numbers. Um, last week, two weeks ago. I. Think two weeks. Ago. Perfect openness in negotiations and disclosures.

Does anyone have anything to disclose? All right. Now we're going on to the public hearing, which is the appeal of the Commission action on the conditional use permit number 2022011 and Coastal Development Permit 22009. Huntington Club remodel and bungalows continue from the March 17th, 2026 City Council meeting. So as a reminder, um, this was continued from March 17th. Does anyone have any ex-parte communications to disclose on this item? Casey I'm going to recuse myself. Councilwoman Van der parks recusing herself. I'll be. Recusing myself, too. Uh, Mayor Pro Tem Judge Twining is recusing himself. Madam clerk. Can you just announce. Just briefly why you're recusing? The owner of the property, uh, made a contribution to my campaign. But you. don't need. To. Butch's for. For the public. Edification. Is an ounce a common law conflict so he doesn't. Have to. Okay. Madam clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this item? Item number 1514 emails regarding the regarding appeal of Planning Commission's action on Conditional Use Permit 20 2-011 and Coastal Development Permit Number 22, Dash 009, Huntington Club Remodel and Bungalows. Item number 15. City Council presentation number two. Submitted by Jonathan Bailey. Also item number 15 letter submitted by Jonathan Bailey regarding Huntington Beach remodel. Item number 15 letter received from EPD solutions, Inc. on behalf of the appellant. Good time to open it. Right. So that.

Again, I'm going to reopen the public hearing. Yeah, so I'll reopen the public hearing. So here. Yes. Uh. Before you open the public hearing, we were not intending to give a presentation, but we can update or pick up from where we left off at the last meeting and just recap the, um, reasons for continuance. Perfect. And if the council wants the full presentation, we're happy to give it. But we are not intending to right now. Okay. Okay. With that, I'll introduce Joanna Cortez, principal planner. Okay. Hi. Good evening. Mayor. Members of the city council. So I'd like Jennifer mentioned, we're just going to go straight into the continuance portion. Um, so just a quick recap. The project was continued to today's meeting to address the following to allow further discussions between the appellant and the applicant. The applicant is here and he can expand on that further. Secondly, provide an update on the entitlement Plan amendment, which is the condition from the original Planning Commission approval to light up the six unlit um tennis courts at the site. Uh, an update in terms of that, where that application is at, staff has reviewed and and provide comments and corrections to the applicant. And so that's the next step is for them to work on that and to resubmit it to staff. And lastly, to confirm that the lighting violation that was brought up during the last meeting, which the fact that there were two of the six, uh, tennis courts had were lit that weren't supposed to be lit up to confirm that that lighting violation had been resolved. We spoke with our code enforcement staff, and they confirmed that the lights have been removed. Removed? So that violation has been resolved. So just really quick since the last meeting, just to kind of focus on just new information that's been brought up since the last meeting. Uh, the city received a letter from the appellant's lawyers highlighting safety concerns related to, uh, pedestrian crossing a new drive aisle between the tennis courts on the site, and that a safety report was necessary. So

planning staff has worked with our other city staff members from fire, police and public works and reviewed the issues raised in the letter and ultimately determined that a study was not warranted. In addition, a third party environmental consultant also reviewed the letter and determined that there was not substantial evidence to support a separate safety analysis. The applicant has provided a response letter, which is part of your agenda package today. The. In addition to that, city staff has worked with the applicant, so the aforementioned city staff members worked with the applicant to incorporate some design features to help alleviate any perceived concerns related to safety in that particular area of the project. So some of the design features that were proposed were adding gates, adding pavers to highlight the crosswalk right there, um, different colors and materials to add to kind of distinguish where the pedestrian walk crosswalk would be versus the rest of the drive aisle. And the applicant has provided renderings that are also part of today's agenda packet, and I have them available here should the council want to see them. And so it's up to you. Um, with that, that's kind of just the last update since the last meeting. And staff is available to help answer any questions. And the applicant is present as well. Thank you. Thank you. Joanna. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing. Public hearings open. Madam clerk, do we have anyone sign up to speak? Yes, we have three speakers. Okay. Please call them. Up. When your name is called, please approach the podium. State your name. Tom McDaniel,

Jesse Bolling. David Reiner. Filled out the wrong color. Go. Afternoon. Mayor. Council members. Tom McDaniel, longtime. Member of the Huntington Club. Huntington Beach resident. And I spoke at the the hearing on the 17th of March. Um, and a number of things were brought up at the end of that that compelled me to want to look deeper into some of the issues that I think are important to this, to this project and specifically, um, the questions about the the role of the club management and the operation and management of the bungalows and certainly the other is on the financial projections associated with the bungalows being put forward. Um, and so I dug back into that. And what really struck me at that hearing was that the club management wasn't in the room. And they have an important role in this project that I think needs to be clearly understood. So I dug deeper to try to understand what those issues might be coming from them. And the first place I looked was basically getting five different emails from Camaraderie Club asking members to approve new rules and regulations. And ordinarily you wouldn't give that much thought, but they wanted this to be effective. On March 16th, a day before the hearing and approved by April 30th. And if not approved or signed, you could lose your club privileges, which seemed pretty pretty severe to me. Um, and so if you go into the body of those rules and regulations, something really stood out to

me. And that is under 1.3 b that the club has the right to close down their facilities during periods of construction. Project construction for indefinite periods of time. And during that shutdown, members dues will not be abated. And when you put that up against this project, from an operating standpoint, it's a train wreck, a project in which for extended periods of time, facilities are going to be out of, out of, out of operation. Um, and the impact on the members are going to be significant. And so from camaraderie perspective, they're looking at a project that's going to be unbelievably difficult from an operating standpoint. That's point number one. Point number two, on where they stand with regard to the bungalow project. Uh, February 7th letter from camaraderie to to members stated three specific points. One, as it relates to the economics of the bungalow project, they didn't endorse those economics being brought forward. Who better to understand what kind of what club memberships interests would be in that book bungalow project than the club manager? And I think it really brings into serious question if those assumptions are wrong on that. You've got a project embedded that creates just an enormous amount of disruption across the board that could fail. Second, they clearly stated that they have no interest nor contractual obligation to manage those bungalows. And then third, that they're really point of interest was to impel, um, GRF to really uphold their obligation. To improve the fitness facilities and the swimming pool. No mention in there about the bungalow project. Thank you sir. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Yes, sir. Sir. You want to finish? You can finish. Yeah. Go ahead. Three speakers. Two. Okay. Please. Sorry. Sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. So let me let me finish. Um, you put all that together, and I think there's three key areas that need additional review. One, this is a complex construction program in the middle. Infill project of an operating facility. And I've seen nothing in the record that really gets down to what's the construction plan? The staging plan that's going to implement this project in a way that's going to be safe for everybody involved. Number two, I think you need an independent financial review of the bungalow project, supported by a member survey, to see what the true need is going to be. And then third, really is an operating plan. And how does camaraderie plan to operate this club through a very difficult period in order to frankly retain membership and avoid severe economic harm to their own operational capabilities? Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening everybody. Jessie Bolling, I'm the attorney for the three appellants. Um, pleasure to be here. I just wanted to say that this is my first opportunity to be in front of the Huntington Beach City Council, and I've just been so impressed by all of you up here. Um, you have a difficult and sometimes thankless job. I recognize that, and your staff has also been wonderful. You really have a great team. Um, I would like to point out that there is one item up here that I wondered. Maybe it has been resolved, and that's, um, that the applicant was going to provide some sort of management study or example, and maybe that's forthcoming. I haven't seen in the documents, but it wasn't listed there. I remember that from the last city Council meeting. Um, but I'll get into it. So one of you mentioned that the Huntington

Club, formerly Seacliff, is the crown jewel of Huntington Beach. Somebody said that at the last hearing, and I remembered that, and I've gotten involved now on a pro bono basis. And, you know, my goal here is to have a win, win win, right, for the membership. Who are the citizens that are members that live here? Right. For a land owner who is clearly trying to improve and make his property more valuable, and a tenant who obviously wants to run the club in a way that's profitable, and I just don't think we can get to that win, win, win. Without further study of this issue. And so today, I'm not asking you to approve or not approve this plan. I'm asking you to continue. Right. It's a simple, easy decision to move the decision making process to later when we have more information. And I think at that time, we can come back here and we can make a good decision. That is supported, uh, that, um, hopefully is supported by all three parties rather than, um, the situation we have now. And so most of my contentions in my letter are speculation. These are not things that are absolutely going to happen. There are things after quick study on a pro bono basis that I pointed to, um, and done some research on, and there's concern with the community that this could end up being a very bad situation. And of course, I'm a lawyer and I'm a trial lawyer, so I'm thinking about liability. And I would contend that a safety study protects all of us, right? The applicant should absolutely do a safety study done by an independent third party. Right. That's, you know, preferably chose by the appellants or the city council, uh, because that if they follow it, they're resolving themselves of liability. If

there's an accident later. Right. And that's something that we can all do together rather than approving this, uh, conditional use permit now and making it a condition and putting it in the hands of the applicant at the end of the day, and that I have. four seconds. Yeah. Uh, that protects you both politically and it protects you and insulates you from liability because you had this safety studies done, you're probably issuing a conditional use permit that says it needs to be followed once you get it. And of course, for my clients and a lot of club members, it opens up two opportunities, right? One, you can tell families that, hey, look, a safety study has been done and everybody is in agreement that if these protocols are followed, you don't have to worry about your kids getting hit by a car. And then two, maybe it opens up the opportunity to change this plan in a meaningful way, where some of the things about the club that we love in the tennis community can be addressed. And I'll point one out, um, is just if those back courts are not lit, like tennis will change at that club forever. And players like me and others will have to move on to different facilities because there won't be enough lift courts at night. And so I just contend, no. Yes. No, no, just continue. Maintain this. We need you to be our voice. Right. It's a non-Equity club and we ask you if you kick the can down the road a little bit, we'll work in good faith to make sure we get the answers to our questions and present them to you. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. And we're speakers, madam. Clerk. No more speakers. I'm going to close the public hearing, and now we can open up to questions and deliberation. Council members, anybody have any questions? Mayor, before you begin, let's.

Make sure we focus our discussion tonight on the land use component. Last time we kind of got off track talking about some economics and whatnot. For sure. I'm sure there'll be more questions about that, but that's a good point. Does anyone have any questions or want to start? Go for. It. So I. Read. The attorneys. Very lengthy letter. Thorough. Thank you. It was submitted. to us. Countless times by. many of the members, and we appreciate that. I took the time to read it. Safety comes up quite a bit in there, so let's just address that. I heard Joanna and our building department over here say that you did you look outside or just staff reviewed the need for safety study? Jennifer. We consulted with our city's traffic engineer, traffic manager. We consulted with the city's fire department and the police department. We had them review the plan for basically the design to see if the project design creates a hazardous condition. Jennifer. Sorry. Real quick. Is it possible just to put that up on the screen so at home so we can people can see what we're talking. About. Sorry to interrupt. Yeah. So we asked them to review the plan to see if the proposed design creates a potential hazardous condition or any safety concerns. Um, all three departments came to the same conclusion. Um, and then we also had and we can provide more details on that, but effectively based on the design, the layout. Um, one of the, uh, one of the points of the letter was that this is a proposed road. It's actually not a road. It's a drive isle with parking, 90 degree parking on one side of it. So, um, and then it leads to the intersection where the conflict zone is stated only leads to about 20 parking spaces. So you have, um, one minimal numbers

of parking spaces of cars driving back there. And also you have slow speeds due to people entering and exiting the parking spaces. That combined with the site distances that are required, as well as some gates at the entry to the driveway, as well as gates that are at the pickleball courts, and which the police had recommended, and the applicant had suggested gates at the tennis courts. They didn't believe that a separate, uh, safety study was required. We then had our third party environmental consultant, um, their traffic person review the site proposal and the letter and come up with some, um, recommendations as well. And also determine, give us their feedback on whether or not they believed that a traffic study was warranted. They came to the same conclusion. Yeah, I appreciate that. Um, safety is a concern. That sounds thorough. That's probably not the answer that the the applicant, the appellant would be looking for. They would potentially prefer an outside study. But I've got to say I've worked with the fire department in our building department for years. I mean, we have the best fire department in the country, and safety's part of their mandate, hands down. So if I was just to say I'm just going to rely on the fire department alone, I would have to say unequivocally, I believe that they've done a thorough job. When you bring in the building department. And trust me, I've seen the building department compel, you know, applicants and people that are trying to get cups or enhance them, get put through the ringer. So the fact that they thought that it was, uh, well thought through and safe gives me a certain level of confidence that it is safe. So on that note, I just wanted to bring that forward.

And just to clarify for the the attorney. So the cup was issued back in, you know, within the 90s, the original cup that that we're talking about. So the CFP still runs with the property. Um, and as the city attorney said, in all reality, it's a very emotional topic. But when it boils down to the responsibility of the city council, it really boils down to what we decide in terms of a land use. So the CFP was initiated when. , I mean, the original CFP for the entire site was the 60s, but the tennis court area, uh, the tennis clubhouse is actually 80. Okay. And that term, you said, is the use with the bungalows agreeable? Jennifer, what what's the term you use? It's an agreeable with. An ancillary use. Yeah. Ancillary usage. Get that wrong every time. So for this fact, for the the residents, the members and I know a lot of members I live, I live closer to the country club than anybody on this dais. And I'm not even a member. And I've never been one to say, let's build. But I'm also wanting to try and be as fair as possible and keep a motion out of it. You know, I have a lot of members saying I love it. Some of my friends, no, not yet. So I have to just kind of take the noise out of it and make a decision that I believe is based on facts. So when you say ancillary for definition, for anybody who might want to get a little bit more description, that means what the bungalows fit into the cup as written. , they're ancillary to the primary use, which is the golf, the private golf and tennis club. The uses such as like the fitness center, the spa, the proposed bungalows are all accessory or ancillary to the primary use. Okay. Thank you. That's some of my, uh, council mates have some.

And do you want to. Go? Can you just put that plan back up on the screen, Joanna, so that people at home can see it? Just the site plan that we're looking at on the screen. I don't think that people at home can see it. They can. That's fine. But. Oh. There it is. There you go. So is the concern. Looks like there's a crosswalk right in the middle of those tennis courts. Pathway halfway. Is that is that right? And then is like another one on the north northern edge of the tennis courts. Correct. Right. Okay. So there's two crosswalks. So what is how can we assuage their concerns that people, children when they cross those crosswalks. Because it looks like there's a lot of landscaping. There have line of sight that they're not getting hit by a car that's just entered that gate. Um, looks like the southern edge of the tennis courts. I think we can get comfortable with that tonight. It sounds like that would assuage their concerns, but as that been looked at. Yeah. So, um, and and actually the applicant, if you guys, if the council does want to bring them down. Come on. Down did create some new renderings. Um, and this was based on the conversations with PD to create a basically a different color and texture for the crosswalks as well, and materials as well as the drive. Aisle. It creates a slower vehicle movement. The colored crosswalks will make it more visible. They also are proposing some signage that would basically make people be aware that there could be people crossing at the northern, um, crosswalk. And then the last thing was, I think they did propose to remove some of the lower trees, still keep the taller palm trees, but remove the lower trees to create more visibility in the area. And then the the final, um, improvement would be to gate the tennis, uh, the,

the tennis court so that if you're entering an exit the tennis courts, you, you're slow, slower, because you have to open and close the gate or open a gate to get. Out. Okay. So thank you for being here. So again, I'm a child, an adult, and I'm crossing the tennis courts on that crosswalk. How do you assuage the concerns that there's a blind line of sight with those trees from someone jutting out small child? Um, which I've seen often around there. And I believe that's a concern as cars are coming up and the child darts out from out of those trees, or adult darts out from out of those trees, how do you assuage their concerns about that issue? Because that seems to be where this is really focused on. Is that question? Yes. Please. So .. Like Jennifer pointed out, is that. Hold on. Sorry. You're good. Now. Yeah. There you go. So like Jennifer pointed out, is, um, Joanna, if we could scroll down maybe a little bit. More. Yeah. That works. Um, so first is there's a gate when you're entering this area, and at the start of that gate, we're going to go from the black asphalt that's currently in that part in both parking lots, the golf club parking lot and the tennis club parking lot. And then it's going to transition to pavers. So the pavers do a couple of things is that the pavers is one is that it's a visual cue that you're entering a new area. So you need to be cautious and alert. Number two is that it's a textured material which automatically will make drivers slow down. And then number three, it's also auditory is that it makes a noise when you drive over it, which helps alert the pedestrians that there is an automobile coming. Um, then once and then on top of that, once you enter the gate is it's a hard right turn from the parking lot into this sort of t, um, drive aisle and hammerhead. And so you're almost at a complete stop when you're going to be making that right turn into the gated area. Even if that gate were to be open, say, during daytime hours. And then, like Jennifer

said, is that we're going to include, um, yellow, you know, caution, drive slow signs and pedestrian crossing signs at both the crosswalk in between the pickleball courts and at the more northern crosswalk, and then the crosswalks themselves are different materials and colors than the paper than the pavers. So that will also be a visual cue as you approach those crosswalks that, hey, this is a crosswalk. Could you guys put up any like pedestrian crossing signs or some variation of what you see on our public roads where there's actually like a, you know, you push the button and illuminates in the ground some, you know, flashing beacons. I understand you want aesthetics, but is there a way to have people, you know, notify cars coming in somehow? Have you guys looked at that potentially. Um, that was not one of the police department recommendations. They just recommended kind of the basic road signs, the yellow ones that say pedestrian crossing or caution drive slowly. So where were the illuminated ones you're talking about? We would be open to that. Okay. And then I guess those pedestrian crossing signs, where would those be located? Those would be located at the crosswalks. Okay. Yeah. I'm just trying to think if you guys had some again, and I'm not trying to get crazy like you see on public streets, but just some kind of illuminated because I just I just know, man, I'm, you know, I've been there, I see it, I see kids all the time. They're just running quick and people are playing tennis and they're in pickleball with their, their children and they're darting around. So I don't know if there's a way to maybe illuminate those crosswalks or something like that. I think. We could illuminate the signs. Maybe. Yeah, signs. Yeah. I, I. Often don't. Trust the, uh. The pedestrians more than the drivers. That's why I was kind of thinking. on the sidewalks worn like something just to wake up and draw the attention of the pedestrians because I like, I mean, they're at a club having fun. Who? He he talking and not even look and walk right in front of a car. That's the. Well, my. Big fear. So maybe we put signs at the on the crosswalks right

before you. At least a line or something. Could you maybe again, we're just we're spitballing here, right? I mean, is there like a sensor that, you know, when that gate opens, it then illuminates the crosswalks for pedestrians, knowing, hey, like a car's coming in. So you can kind of do like the inverse. Definitely possible. Okay. Yeah. Drive. Right. So as soon as the gate opens, it triggers like a crossing signal for, you know, pedestrians that were, hey, there's a car coming in. Okay. Yeah. What's the total distance between entrance to where you could turn right or left in the hammerhead, 100ft, 115. So it's about 50 to the first. It's essentially the the crosswalk in between the pickleball courts is equidistant. It's about 50, 55ft. The total to the northern crosswalk is like 110. And then it's like another five feet with those planters or so. So about I guess, 115 to answer your question of right or left. Thank you. Any other questions? Comments? I'm real quick. It's obviously been kind of an emotional for some of the people in there. I don't think a lot of the issues that would have been brought up isn't our realm of like, this is a club issue, and I mean, it's a tough decision, but they've asked for a continuance. Uh, have you guys talked to them about, uh, a, uh, agreeing to a continuance? But we're staying out of that aspect. I'm just trying to ask you if you've talked to them about it, and that's between you guys. Kind of. So after the March 17th continuance, as it was, you know, one of our homework items was to go back, continue discussions with the appellants. Um, and we did so and we did so in good faith, is that, you know, we reaffirmed our agreement, um, for their request to one, uh, fix the playing surfaces of all the tennis and pickleball courts to number two, uh, refinish or replace as needed, all the

fencing for the tennis and pickleball courts. Um, number three was to, uh, host planning workshops for them to weigh in on equipment and furnishings for the new clubhouse. And then number four was, um, to continue the lighting application, which, of course, is already a condition of approval. We agreed to from the Planning Commission, but that was one of their requests, wanting to make sure we did that. And in that vein, since March 17th continuance, I had our lighting consultant fly down from San Francisco and meet with me and the appellants at the Newport Beach Tennis Club, which is a club that uses our consultants technology. And so we walked the property, um, and the media consultant pointed out, you know, what would be similar or different to our proposed lighting plan at the Huntington Club for courts 11 through 16. And it was a productive meeting, and we had some good takeaways from that. One was that we're going to lower lights to 18ft. And then number two is that we're going to study potentially putting some landscaping that would go higher than the tennis fences to additionally, you know, mitigate any potential light spill over. Um, and so those were the takeaways. But we frankly, the appellants continue to make more demands. As I stated in my letter. Um, and so, you know, these continued continuances, um, we don't think are are going to get us anywhere new. Um, and they're just delaying us starting this project. So. No. So no. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Um, this really has no bearing on the decision, but there's a couple of questions I'd like to ask. So, you know, one of the concerns was raised, and this isn't really a concern. It's more of an observation. So the same, uh, entitlement process was granted in the Newport Beach Country Club, correct. To build some bungalows. From what I was

reading from some of the letters submitted, there was the right to build that was granted well over a decade ago and then was just recently given an additional extension. Is that true? Uh, not entirely. Is back in 2012, there were entitlements at the Newport Beach Country Club, um, to do a similar bungalow and loft project, but that was put on hold because that had not to get too detailed, but it had certain, um, basically parts in it that we decided that we didn't want to do anymore. And so we amended it in 20. I think the approval was in 2023. I think it was November 2023 was what we call plan B, and it changed the project. So basically that was the that was a big reason for the delay is that we decided that we wanted to do something different than what was originally approved. Okay. I know one of the concerns, um, for a lot of, uh, residents would be so there's there's going to be the condition placed, uh, added to the cup. I believe that this is for only for members and member guests. Correct? Correct. So the concern I would have is even though that's added to the the cup would be the cup, um, there's ways that you can extinguish the cup. I believe it could be overturned by a future legislative body. Council. Is that true? We talked a little bit about it. You want to opine on that real quick because then that'll caveat into one thing that I think is going to be important. Well, there would have to be findings made that there was a some kind of ongoing violation in that case. That'd be one reason that we could get rid of the Cup, but it would have to be a public hearing process. Okay. The thing that, um, knowing that that is the intention through perpetuity, you know, I don't think there would be any reason that you guys would push back. I'd like to see some kind of a deed restriction on the property that guarantees that if Mr. Hill decides to sell, because

that's a that has a separate APN, correct? I believe that they did a lot split to refinance back in like 2018. Um, so that could, you know, it could be entitled, it could be built. And, you know, just to make sure that although the cup would run with the land, I guess in the case of a sale, just to ensure a residents who've worked hard to have these single family homes that are surrounding your beautiful club to make sure that that could never revert to any type of short term rental, uh, they could circumvent the member and member use only caveat or covenant, if you will, because to me, um, the protection of that right needs to be through perpetuity, you know, so. But Don also a deed restriction to not allow permanent residential housing as well. Well, yeah, that's fine too, because that would there's not going to be ever. Yeah. We want to make sure that what you're proposing is what stands to be there forever, because that's the point of us saying yes to this is short and not short term member housing. You know, beautiful bungalows for members and member guests forever, never short term rental, never breaching outside, you know. Well, that's a guest of a guest three generations down, you know, three, three degrees of separation. Next thing you know, people are coming and going. I think a lot of people can deal with beautiful bungalows. The financial forecast you guys gave, I said, this last name means nothing to me. I don't care if you don't make a penny, because Mr. Hill is going to have to cover the debt service, period. Um, and so I don't factor that in. But the bottom line is you've stood before us and said we want to build this. Member units. Member, guest and limit it to that. And it's very important. So I mean, we can say the cup covers that. But to me that doesn't mean feel like enough, is it? Maybe it is. I'm with you, but you know,

we'll let others talk. Yeah. You want to jump in? No, I'm trying to look at this high level. I mean, I understand there are concerns and disagreements surrounding the project. Just overall, I've read every single one of them email, emails. But also, I understand that my role as a council member is not to step into private disputes. And our job is to look at the land use, the conditions, approval and ultimately the real impact to the residents. So I understand I like getting granular like this, but I would defer. I don't I don't know whether we can adjust things to that degree. I don't I would I'm not an attorney. I'm just here to look at it from the land use perspective. I'm so back me up. We're talking about adding a condition where. Well, what. Are the protections of the current Cup that guarantee that it stays as a bungalow for member and member? Guess what? What certainty do we have? And and as Councilmember Grewal said, and we started off this hearing, this is a land use decision, but this is part of the land use. So this is yeah, I think this. Material to this discussion. I agree. So I guess I'm missing the what are you talking about doing a covenant on the. Well yeah. I mean does the Cup give us enough certainty of perpetuity protection or could somehow 20 years from now, you know, the world changes. There's new council members, uh, short term rentals are the the thing that everybody's hot on now. And except, you know, everybody who lives in all the Seacliff areas, it worked hard for single family residents. And next thing you know, something that was voted on 20 years ago by a council is, you know, old news, and somebody comes in and says, I don't care about that cup. We want short term rentals. They got a new owner maybe sold it off. And next thing you know, we have short term rentals. Tell me how we can avoid that. And well, I think first of all the cup would in order to modify it, there would have to be two, two things that would happen. One, they would be in violation of something as far as their land use approvals. They're not they're not acting, um, up to whatever they agree to as part of the cup in the

first place. So at that point, we could bring a revocation hearing and revoke the CB and Cup could sensibly go away. Due. The second. Yeah. Go ahead and then you can. And then second, the cup will run with the land. So it will transfer and it will run in perpetuity. And a future council couldn't unilaterally come in and change the Cup. It would be a vested property right with the applicant at that point. So the only way to change it would be with their concurrence. So when you say a vested property right with the applicant, if you have a new owner, would he have the right to try and revoke it? No, no, that's what I'm saying. He could come in and apply for a modification to the cup. He or she. Well, what if the modification is I want to turn it into short term rental. Right. And and at the in the future, if something like that were to happen, it would have to be voted on by the Planning Commission and the city council. Okay. That's right. If there was a deed of restriction, I mean, it'd make it a little tougher. What would you think Mister Hill would say if we said Mister Oak, we'd like you to put a deed restriction guaranteeing that because what he just said, we've seen our planning commission go from we lean more conservative, I would say one way or the other. The planning commissioners may mirror our thoughts. Maybe not. But if you have a completely different political makeup up here, you're going to have a completely different set of appointed planning commissioners that typically may think like their council member that appointed to them. So if that's the only stopgap, that's a little scary personally. And let me let me mention, I mean, it wouldn't just be the cup. There would have to be a depending on what uses were permitted and whatnot, and might have to do a zone change or make some other legislative decisions, but it could be done. But could we also to Councilmember Kennedy's point, a conditional approval, can we put a deed restriction on it, preventing short term rentals

and long term residential housing? Would the applicant be agreeable to something like that? So Mister Hill is visiting his, um, daughter in Spain right now. Otherwise he would be here. Um, that I don't know. I mean, I can't I can't speak on Miss Joe Hill on whether or not he would be acceptable to a deed restriction. I mean, he fully intends for us, you know, to only have this available to members and guests of members. Um, and of course, he's comfortable with the condition that the Planning Commission imposed where, you know, that is a condition of our condition of approval on our cup. Um, but doing a deed restriction is I can't answer for him on that. If I could just kind of. Chime in, you know. As much. As we might. Like to think that our decisions are the right decisions, I'm not so. sure if the decisions that we make. Are, you know. Locked in indefinitely into the future. Perhaps there is a future community one day, a future council, one day that, you know, has that that latitude to make, you know, that decision. I guess it would take the property owner ultimately desiring to make that change of use, or at least apply for that that cup. And I don't know, I just think that's kind of a big decision. Um, and big decisions like that that we lock in, you know, like measure C for the park, that usually involves, you know, the entire community voting on it. So it's kind of I feel like it's a little bit of a big ask. And there and I will say there, I mean, through the Cup process, there are protections in place that will that will safeguard against what you're trying to protect against. But this would be an added measure that again, I without the owner here to agree to it, I would be loath to put that as a condition. Right? I mean, understood, but, you know, intentions and time don't always stay aligned. Things change. You know, what people thought about 50 years ago is not what people are thinking about today. My point is, um, you know, if we were to vote, I'm going to be in support of the, you know, of

this initiative. But I would probably make a substitute motion that says, you know, I would vote yes with with the applicant's approval of a deed restriction. And I don't see why Mr. Hill would have any reason not to approve that, because if he sold the property, the value is still there. As a member bungalow and member guest only, uh, if he hopes to sell it and somebody can get a different use and monetize it at a higher level. That's not the intent that I would be voting on tonight, and that's the intent that I would be protecting against. So my substitute motion when it comes time would be to approve it with the condition that the applicant is willing to put that deed restriction on the property. Yeah, I'll second that. But everything you just said, it seems like he he would agree to it. You just say you almost reiterated everything that we're asking. It's just that without him being here. Understood? I just don't want to. You know, you don't want to. You don't know if you have the authority to speak for him in. This case. I mean. Because everything you said was basically what we're asking for, his intent until he sells it, but then that's somebody else. If he sells it and the other new people want it, that's there. Yeah. And I mean, something too, is, I will admit, is my ignorance as to a deed restriction in terms of like exactly what that involves, what that looks like, what other, you know, implications could that have that are not even related to just us making sure that the bungalows are only used for members and members? Guests? I just don't know. So that's another reason why I can't, you know, sit here and say, yeah, that sounds great. So let's just let us let us just suppose that we do vote on that and that prevails. And then it turns out that he's he's he doesn't want to do that. I mean, where does that put us as far as the hearing goes? And are there any kind of added costs to him personally in order to apply for, you know, some kind of a sort of a locked up deal like that? There would be added costs. I

don't know what they are, but I mean, one, one way and Jennifer, you can you can maybe jump in and correct me if I'm wrong. But I mean, one way to do it would be to add the condition on the condition that the applicant agrees to it, and if not, it goes away. I don't see go ahead Jennifer, I mean, there's there's there's no negative value attached to a property when you put it first off, it's going to be negligible. It's going to be a covenant recorded at the county recorder's office. Of course. No cost there. Yeah. It's a record on the record. And um, you know, again, with his intention to be member units and member guests, and that's already condition of the cup. All we're doing is guaranteeing that that that that language is locked in and it stays with that property. And it doesn't have the wiggle room to get out, because again, time and attention is change. And that's just factual. I don't see why Mr. Hill would have any any pushback, but I can't speak for him as you can't. But, you know, I'm willing to make a motion to approve the land use or, as it stated, the right to, you know, to move forward with that. And if he doesn't want to do that, I would say he has to come back and lobby. Maybe somebody will change their mind. I don't know, I wouldn't want it to be the kiss of death if he says, I don't want that because he's not here right now. And if I would imagine Mr. Hill would like a vote tonight. He wanted a vote a month ago. I'm just wondering, you know, since we're spitballing here, is there anything else that would give the council comfort that we can think of or, um, Mr. Bigelow, if you could think of that, you know, could more so solidify this conditional condition, but without it being, say, maybe a deed restriction, something that I could, I don't know, maybe I. not speak. Better to. It really isn't. Yeah. I can't not that I can think of. Again, not to belabor belabor this, but the the Cup

does offer enough protection. This is your definitely belt and suspending the the process. But without the applicant, the property owner here I think. What's it what Mike what's his mechanism? If we approve that condition as of a deed restriction, he comes back and doesn't like it. Can he protest and bring it back in front of the council? It would have know the go ahead JV. No, the answer is no. I hope yeah. No he wouldn't be able to do that. I mean I guess what he could do is apply for an entitlement plan amendment to remove that condition. Okay. So there is a mechanism in place. At some point. But okay. How much would that cost. Yeah, that would that would involve going back to planning. Yes. It has to go back to planning Commission. It requires another public hearing. Uh, the entitlement plan amendment, I don't know the fees off the top of my head, but it's a few thousand dollars. Okay. So to give Mr.. Oh Hill, um, some certainty, what can we call for, like, a straw vote? Well, you know, give me the explanation of the straw vote. I haven't called for a straw vote. Is that an informal vote that says. In this, in this context, you can't do a straw vote? Straw votes only to get essentially to get the temperature in the room on a future vote that you're going to take during the meeting. Well. Why don't why don't we just, um, just a hypothetical, right, with your your substitute motion. Just ask him to do it in good faith. But it's not a condition upon, you know, approval.. And that's fine. He wants to do it that way. He could say no. And everything still moves forward. Yeah, I mean, I the only problem is, you know, two city councils ago, there was a completely different collective thought process, completely different planning body. So in two elections things have changed dramatically, which could mean two, three, 4 or 5 elections from now. Things

could revert back to others that might say, I don't care. We love short term rentals. You know, I, I don't know, I don't want to kibosh the guys project over and over the language. But, um, I wish he was here right now so we could ask him this question. You know, why don't maybe this is maybe this is just, um, a good segue to delay the vote for one more meeting just till two weeks from now. Give you a little bit more time. I know that they keep asking for things, but we kind of meet a compromise with them a little bit more time to talk to these guys. I know you don't have to say yes to anything. They're asking for you. You don't have to say no. But we accomplish that. We get Mr. Hill here, we kind of run it by him. Um, again, I'm not trying to kill the guys project. I want to support the project, but I have to be protective of the fact that you can't overturn a cup. And the bottom line is, the residents around there do not want that. And Mr. Hill says he's not going to do that. But time and things change, Mr. Ogilby in heaven. Someday his kids may think different. Whoever his hairs are, might say, hey, I want, I want the revenue of it, of short term rentals. I'm willing to spend the money. Let's let's quash that thing. Got a new, you. Know. Just just curious because I actually don't know. The answer is, let's say we put on the deed restrictions just like the process, because I understand that. It's just like if we if if we future owner, whoever ever wanted to modify the cup to say for the short term rentals or something else is that they got to go in front of the planning commission, they got to go in front of the city council. Basically, the process we're doing right now all over again is that if you add the deed restriction, what extra protections does that actually give? Is it not possible to overturn the deed restriction? Is it another series of public hearings, or basically how would that work? In other words, how easy is it to remove a deed restriction?

I mean, that's the same process from the city perspective, right? So if the council, let's say the council, uh, required a condition of recording a covenant on the property, right, that it can't be used for short term rentals or, um, uh, permanent residents, um, because it's a condition of approval, they would have to go back through an entitlement plan amendment to remove that condition, approval at a minimum. And then like what Mike was saying is that it could also include having to amend the zoning and do some extra processes. Right now, you couldn't do those things in that zone, right? So it would depend on a bunch of factors. What the process would be. And if the council at that time approved an amendment right to remove that condition so that a future owner could do those activities, then part of that would be agreeing to remove the, uh, would have to include a removal of that deed restriction. For her. It's just an extra hurdle. So so in essence, if the if a future, this future ghost body ultimately wants to do it, they can do it. And us putting an extra hurdle if they want to do it, they're going to do it. So are we just almost feel like now we're putting the applicant through an exhaustive process when we've all kind of generally decided where we want this to go? I'm just I'm apprehensive about delaying this again and then putting it back on the agenda, etc., when we're all kind of generally they've they've met all the terms that we asked of them. And from a land use perspective, there's nothing outside of the. I agree with the extension and stuff, but the I don't I don't mind putting the extra hurdle on so they keep their word. They're locked more into their word of keeping it what it's designed to be. That's what I'm really interested in. Yeah. And leaning it and I'm, I'm interpreting it as even with that extra hurdle, if somebody wanted to do it, they could do it. It would just take

maybe a little bit more work. So our, our kind of double lock safe we're putting on can still be broken into. So we're kind of we're we're almost in the same situation on grand grand scale. I would love an idea like this for. A publicly. Owned asset, you know. But this is this guy's private property. and it will be somebody else's private property one day. And who knows what those property owners want to do with their property and the rights that they have. My whole thing, though, they're in the middle of a community, and they got to live within a community. You can't just do whatever you want in a community. You gotta kind of melt into it and be a good neighbor. And that's where I get where, okay, he puts that and all of a sudden he goes, you know, I don't want to put a little hotel there or I want to do this, I want to do, you know, stick to your word. If we put that extra hurdle and it's not asking that much, but yet it makes. it safer for the community. If I could, though, there's a process where they would have to go before the community and apply for that, and there would be a public hearing in the community come out and speak against that. I mean, we have a process for these things in the future as well. Yeah, I don't think we need to take a private owned property ever in to take it to a public hearing. That's that's not the spirit of private ownership. I'm I'm not trying to make this unreasonably difficult. Like I said, I, I'm in support of this, and it's a difficult decision. I've, I've thought about it for a long time. And like I said, you know, I'm very close to that, uh, proximity. And, you know, I don't want to stand in the way of of somebody's right to build within the confines of what's already been dictated as their right to build. They haven't they're not even asking for any exceptions. So, you know, um. You don't want them to change. Yeah. I don't want them to change it. I know the cup. Uh, you know, maybe I'm, like, overthinking it with the planning, the cup, uh, and the

council, it just. It could happen. I guess. Anything could happen in life, though. Yeah, but, Don, to your point, he's approached us to create these bungalows inside the club, which is different from the current use. So he obviously wants this plan to go forward with this land use. I don't see why he would have an issue. I don't speak for the the man to then further commit to his his plan of with a with a deed restriction. To your point I mean you're just to Andrew's point double locking in. But this is the project he wants to build. I mean, you know, bungalows. So why why would he have an aversion to. It? A deed restriction puts no negative value on your there's not a negative connotation because the use has already been identified as a permanent use. So, you know, a deed restriction could have a negative value if you were hoping to change the use to a, you know, what might be considered higher and better use. But because he's made the commitment forever, the deed restriction would have zero negative value to his real estate asset because he would have to sell it as what it is. Remember only and you can monetize it if you can run it better and make more money than he did, you know that would be the attraction to a new investor if he wanted to buy that, but he would be buying, you know, member and member guests. So, uh, not hey, I can get a change if I can move the needle with planning and counsel. Don, I would support your motion if we could add the condition about the crosswalks like some kind. If you agree to a notification like. Could you do it both ways for pedestrian notifications and vehicle notifications on those two crosswalks? Yeah. I mean, it could probably what I'm thinking is, you know, what we were talking about with the illuminated sign is that the sign like blinks or something? Yeah. When there's or maybe it just blinks. Like generally if you open the gate you're going to see the blinking crosswalk. Because you also could you also maybe. Yeah. Is there a way to uh, the other way as well with pedestrians coming then it would notify the cars. Yeah okay. I'm sure that's

doable. Yeah. Okay. The fact that he is not here, um, I'm not comfortable putting that that requirement of a deed restriction on when the applicant who's got a lot of time, money invested in in this initiative and wants to better the club. Uh, and has given a, you know, and the cup protects it, you know, the extra if he was here, it'd be good to have him. But I don't want to vote in I don't know how anybody's going to vote, but if it didn't go through because of that deed restriction or it went through, uh, and he wasn't, you know, with the condition, and he wasn't willing to do that, then he doesn't really have the right without going through major costs and time. I don't think that's fair to the applicant. And if you want to call for the vote, um, I don't know. I guess. Well, yeah. So I mean, your motion would be to continue it to one meeting. Or so. You a motion to you for the deed restriction. I. Suck. at it. But if you if you're withdrawing. Yeah, yeah. I mean without I don't. Know I think you're being reasonable, Don. You know, with I mean it's his property and no matter I mean the double lock, it could be broken open. Um, why are we adding. I feel like we're grinding that this guy down now, at this point. That's not my intent. No, no, no. Yeah. And we're just having a conversation about it. I'm just deliberating together with you. Yeah. No, I get it. Um, if you were to said, hey, if we approved it that way. Jennifer. And he said no, um, if you said he could come back and, you know, lobby and, you know, one more time in person, I might be more inclined, but, you know, to make a vote with that kind of a restriction on it that he might for some reason be thinking about something that I'm not thinking about. He's a lot smarter than I am. He's a lot more successful than I am. And maybe there's another reason that I'm not contemplating right now that he would not want that. Um, so I'm not comfortable with my motion with since he really doesn't have a fair remedy and he's not here. So I'm going to have to

rely on the cup. Uh, and, and the language in the, you know, the CP and, uh, and the fact that it would still be a lift to get that changed. Is that correct? It would still be fairly arduous to change that. Yeah. It would take, at a minimum, a public hearing of of amending the Cup. But, um, if if the zoning that's currently in place stays in place, you would have to also request a change to the zoning code as well as a change to the local coastal program and have to go through Coastal Commission. So so, Jennifer, does the current zoning prevent short term rentals and permit and long term residential dwellings? Yeah, it would be have to change to residential zoning. Okay. That makes me feel a lot better. All right. I withdraw my motion. Okay. So then, Pat. It's withdrawn. Okay. Can we put on the confirmed as a condition? Would you like me to repeat it on the. Yes, please. Yeah. Just, um, to put illuminated, uh, pedestrian and vehicle, uh, I guess crosswalk warning signs both ways. So when the gate opens, it illuminates at the crosswalks, when the pedestrians cross the crosswalks, it illuminates. Okay. Mayor. Yeah. Do you also want to. So right now, the differentiated materials for the crosswalks and the drive aisle are not in the current condition. So can we ask does the. Council also want to add that as a condition please. Okay. So you want can you repeat them all Jennifer. So we can hear. It. Signage for both the pedestrians and the vehicles at the drive aisles as well as differentiated materials and colors at the crosswalks and in the drive, I'll. perfect anything. Else. Anybody else? You want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve with those conditions. And Jennifer, can you also just repeat the current conditions

that the Planning Commission put on it as well? So just all the conditions now total. So everyone's on the same page. Hold on. Yes. We'll split up. Right now. So these are the conditions. So kind of in point saying the use will comply with the following. And these are the loss will be limited to the Huntington Club members and their guests. Only less than 30 days only. We have condition to be that says that the units won't be converted into residential units or short term rentals open to the public. Occupancy of less than 30 days are subject to pay a tax on the rent charged by the rate at the rate equal to the current combined state and local use tax rate. There will be signage added around the bungalows to enforce quiet hours between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.. Facility personnel will be present to enforce those quiet hours to limit congregating around the bungalows loft units to protect the residents in the area, and then, in the event of multiple verified complaints of violation of the Huntington Club noise control, a violation of the city's noise ordinance, the applicant shall immediately meet with the Committee Development Department to discuss mitigation measures, and the applicant will work with the Committee Development Department to process an application to provide lighting for up to six unlit tennis courts on the properties, which is what they're working on, and the rest are standard conditions. But those are very specific to this use. And you also committed, uh, with the appellant, what was it to resurface the courts? What else did you agree to? What that. It was to fix the surface of the tennis and pickleball courts, to refinish or replace as needed? Basically the tennis, fencing, pickleball, fencing structurally is fine. Aesthetically, it could use a little help. So refinish or replace is needed. Um, and then the last one was to do workshops with them, uh, so they may give input on equipment and furnishings for the new clubhouse. Can we add that as a condition as well? Okay. Lawyer has um. Yes, sir. Yeah. Go ahead.

Um. Thank you very much for the, uh, uh, deep conversation on this, uh, on behalf of my clients. Um, you know, where things are going. We were hoping that in, gee, it shouldn't just be that they shall work with the Community development department, but that. they will a condition of getting this permit is actually getting them lit, right. The back courts lit. I think the issue, though, right, is the. That's another entitlement process. Yeah. That's a separate one. We can't necessarily there's no control. It's a discretionary review. Yeah. That's a weird I know I have an issue with that one as well. It's a weird loophole vortex that we can make it a condition, but that has to go through a process. And I think the shell makes them go through it. Right. Joanna. And to be clear, for just my clients, it could be rejected in the plan, could go forward. Correct? Right. Joanna. Yeah, they would still have to go to the public hearing. It's up to the hearing body, in this case, the planning commission, to either approve it or deny it. Or could you make a. To keep those conditions on. But if it were denied, could you condition the applicant to appeal that to the council to satisfy this condition? It's difficult when it's a separate entitlement. Right? I mean, I'll let. Well, if the language says that they have to get the Baccalaureus lit and then eventually they don't, then this use permit fails. Yeah. So what happens there. Well, that's why we don't want to have a condition. That's why the Planning Commission didn't make a condition. That said they have to have the back courts left because the planning Commission cannot determine predetermine a future discretionary action, which is why they said they had to work with staff to basically apply for that. And where is that process right now? It's been deemed incomplete. The applicant has comments. To check something. It's not implant check. It's in the early stages of the

entitlement review. We are working with them over some corrections that we had. Okay. Uh, if if you'll, uh, let me put a few more out there just for your consideration. Um, in addition to the court light improvements, uh, there's an important word differentiation between court reconstruction and court resurfacing. Uh, our talks. And just to say, Jonathan, has been very candid and upfront about what he can and can't do. You know, it would be our request that there'd be a condition for court reconstruction as opposed to just resurfacing. Those courts are 50 plus years old. You know, there's going to be a lot of construction in that area. It'd be, um, great for the membership and I think great for both the landlord and the tenant to show brand new courts as part of this. And this is the time to do it. In addition to court reconstruction, he went over the fencing and court infrastructure, and I'd just like to put that on the record with being, um, items. We, we hope the council puts into the use permit. I don't I don't personally I don't feel comfortable with that. That's government I think impeding too much. And you guys private agreements amongst each other. So yeah. I think in good faith, Mr. Oakhill will probably recognize the value in doing that. Let's hope. You know, I don't think he's a man who is short on capital. And, um, let's just as Casey said, we're not in a position to put that mandate, so to speak. But let's hope he continues to act in good faith. I don't think he wants us to be adversarial. I think he wants us to be something that he looks on with pride and and hopefully over time, the members will as well. I remember, you know, I was against Pacific City when I was young. I didn't want any part of seeing that kind of growth. I loved my Huntington Beach. Now I love Pacific City. You know, it's one of those things that kind of grows on you. So let's just hope that his vision and his pride becomes the pride of the membership. And, uh, and he does you guys, the right in

every way possible. Okay. So just again, Jennifer, to recap. So the current planning Commission conditions, the ones we added. correct repeated. And then can you add the ones that Jonathan just mentioned as well with the resurfacing of the courts and the with the fencing. Right. Yeah. Can you just repeat those? For the record. It was so it was fixing. So there's certain tennis courts that are not leveled. So it's making sure they're all leveled. So essentially leveling the tennis courts and pickleball courts and then refinishing or replacing as needed the existing tennis and pickleball fencing. Okay. Is that clear for the record. Yeah, for the record. So we have the tennis court improvements. Uh, pickleball, tennis, pickleball court improvements, the safety improvements, and then the planning commission conditions. Okay. Everybody good? All right. City clerk, please call the. Roll. Was there a second. Pat, Pat. Pat. Okay. Councilman Grewal. Yes. Councilman. Kennedy. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman Burns. I. Councilman Williams. Yes. Item passes 502. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Everybody. All right, moving on to the city manager's report. Uh, city manager, please introduce your report. Yes. Thank you. Mayor and city council. Um, we have an e-bike update report to be provided by our police department. Yes.

Sergeant Mike Thomas will give the presentation. Uh, good. Evening. Mayor. Mayor pro tem and council. Uh, Mike, Mike. Thomas with the police department. Uh, I'm just going to give you a quick update on, uh, on our e-bike situation in the city. I know many of you have asked about it, and I've spoken with you firsthand. So, um, we're going to talk about some of the steps that we've taken. Uh, talk about the statistics. That is, define our strategy. And then we'll also talk about some things that are coming up on the horizon. Uh, in our proactive stance in dealing with the e-bike situation and in particular the e moto situation in Huntington Beach. So when we started keeping statistics about five years ago, in 2022, we were at 72 crashes citywide, uh, through last year, we were at 198, which represents a 175% increase. Uh, of course, we have been, um, increasing every single year. Uh, but we have adopted some strategies to be proactive, uh, to address the issue. Uh, and of course, e-bikes are becoming just more and more affordable and more prevalent. And so the statistics that we're seeing in

Huntington Beach are not uncommon for other agencies, particularly in Orange County. Uh, we're really we're kind of the hotbed for e-bike and e moto activity. Just an overview of our statistics, things that we pulled out about 50% of all of our crashes. And this includes those who, um, who are not at fault. So really, like if a car pulled in front of an e-bike and they're on the right side of the road, this would also take into consideration that number. But about 50% of our crashes involve someone under the age of 18. Um, we started looking at last year was the first year that we actually started pulling out. Uh, the under 18 group, and we defaulted to the 11 to 14 and 15 to 17 year olds. So essentially middle school versus high school, uh, as you can see, uh, middle school out of the crashes, 44 versus 23. So almost double the amount when you're talking about the middle school riders. Um, so we have a focus. A lot of our efforts when it comes to education and enforcement around middle schools, particularly, uh, riding on the wrong side of the road, uh, though the the third most common, what we call primary collision factor or the reason for the crash, uh, for under 18, it's the number one reason for that contributed to a crash. Uh, and then finally, as I mentioned, uh, many of the crashes that we see, almost 1 in 3 of our crashes, the rider is not at fault, which really has affected the way that we have dealt with the situation, which I'll get a little bit more into. So these are just kind of a general overview. This is all ages. Uh, the top three reasons for the crashes that are, in order unsafe speed or speeding, unsafe turning. And as I mentioned, wrong side of the road, though it is number one for under 18. Uh, going back to that 1 in 3 statistics that I talked about,

um, we we recognized that many of the riders that are on the road, particularly when it comes to the young writers, a lot of them just don't know better. And we feel that education is a very effective strategy, uh, coupled with enforcement, of course. I'll talk a little bit about our diversion program that we've been doing in Huntington Beach. Um, but one of the unique things that we've done in Huntington Beach that others are starting to really emulate in their communities is our hands on rider training, um, addressing the actual strategies? I'll get into that looks like I'm stuck here. Maybe need to hit that arrow on your screen. Okay, perfect. So our our strategy is essentially two pronged enforcement and education. Really you can't have an effective solution without both of those. Um, and you can't just do one or the other. Um, there's a group, I call them the one percenters. Really? The kids that are on the electric motorcycles that I'm sure a lot of you are aware of. Many of them have pegs, but not always with. That's a dead giveaway. They look like dirt bikes, but those kids already, they're on the road and they they know that they shouldn't be on the road. And a lot of times they're the ones who are running from us. And of course, that also goes out to other agencies throughout California. And really the nation. But it's kind of a different mindset because if you're on the road and you know that you shouldn't be on the road, every time you see a cop, you already have an idea that you're probably going to run from them, which a lot of them do. Um, so we've been proactive with just really monitoring those and not just chasing them outright, but just kind of doing a follow up later on. If we can't catch them in a driving and safe way. Um, and then of course, education. We'll talk about that. Uh, one of the things that we've developed is a team that is the word has been used ancillary. So essentially a secondary assignment. Many of the officers work patrol or we have our school resource officers

who are part of this team. Uh, it's six officers and myself, a sergeant. Uh, we're looking to expand the team, but really, um, we do primarily most of the enforcement when it comes to e-bikes and motos because we're really the specialists when it comes to this subject. Um, along with the training, um, the, the training that we do is, is pretty labor intensive, meaning, uh, we go through a formalized rider training program, which I'll touch on a little bit here. I won't get into the weeds about it, but really, you need a specialized team in order to affect the solutions that we've adopted. Uh, going into enforcement. Uh, these are just some of the body worn camera videos from some of our officers. We're very effective when it comes to enforcement. We are, uh, ensure that we put this on social media. As you know, kids talk. Um, so a lot of the things that we're doing, they know officers by name, uh, they're responding to our social media posts. But really, the word is getting out and is really affecting the way that some of the kids are riding. Not all of them, but we got to start somewhere. Um, so far this year, we've done 11 operations, if you will, or really a planned, uh, operation where we go out, uh, we're going to begin incorporating, uh, the beat service road. We have some officers that last week that three of them were trained on lidar, essentially like a radar detector. Uh, we're going to be using that on the beat service road. We've done that in years past, but they're going to be team members. So it's going to be a little bit more effective. And we can do it. Uh, we just organize and then just rally. If we need to deal with an issue. Um, and also with our sidewalk ordinance, uh, which a council member, Grant Vandermark, um, brought last year. And it has been great for us that obviously deals with the, the speed limit. So that'll be helpful. Uh, 78 citations so far. Many of those written by the team. Um, really quick. Um, this case was from November of 2025. I won't get

into the details, but essentially, uh, two minor riders, same father, riding the same motorcycle. We let the motorcycle go. He had good reason. Two of the three times. On the third one, we took it and we ultimately approached the DA's office, and the DA's office was very interested in the case and ended up prosecuting the father. Uh, it was a misdemeanor, but that really was the catalyst. Soon thereafter, uh, Yorba Linda, the OC Sheriff's Department, they filed a felony case, though it predated ours. Uh, the DA's there talk. And so really, our case was a kind of that first domino that fell. And now we've had a number of cases since this time, uh, get filed with the DA's office at other agencies. And so we're very proactive when it comes to working with the DA's and, of course, with our law enforcement partners. Uh, just to give you some more totals that get you up to speed on everything. So far this year, we've had six pursuits. As I mentioned, our policy states that unless we have a serious imminent threat to the community that we can articulate, uh, we're not going to pursue them. We're not going to be traveling on the wrong side of the road, which is what they typically will do. Uh, going high speeds. We will really dial it back and go into an observation mode. And when possible, use our drones. Uh, or HB one. And as you can see, 11 impounds. Now on to education. So really the big thing about our educational program, it's not the average education program where you watch a PowerPoint, you take a test and you get a school permit. Uh, we've adopted a formal rider training program. So think of it like a mini DMV test. It's passed or fail. We don't just say, hey, kids, have a good time. Uh, we felt that it was very effective to have the kids come out and actually show that they can, uh, ride their e-bikes in a safe way, at least have that basic level of understanding to operate these really these vehicles on the roadway. And so that was kind of the first of its kind in

California. And so our district, the Huntington Beach Union High School District, and the HB City district, uh, starting this fall, it's going to be a mandatory program. Uh, over the past few years or so, they had the written testing where you had to get a permit and take the test. That's still part of it. But this is now the second area. So, like I said, like a mini DMV where you actually get a written and a hands on practical training all at the same time, it's typically the two hour session. We run them at least once a month. We'll ramp that up over the summer to start picking off some of the students that are going to be going into the school for the fall. So that way we can hopefully get as many riders training as we possibly can. Uh, we're very proud of that program. The chief's been supportive about that. All of you have been great when it comes to supporting our efforts. And of course, the community. Uh, we've had a ton of feedback from those who have attended our, our events. And I know that a number of you have been to them in person. If you haven't, I would recommend that you do, because it's great. A lot of the parents actually get there, and they have absolutely no clue about what it is that they're going to see. Um, they'll see some of their, their, uh, student riders, their kids, and they'll say, wow, I had no idea that this was a rule or I didn't know that, you know, maybe not this bad, like riding on the roadway. And so it's a great way for us to really highlight safety in a creative way in a, in where the kids are actually being able to demonstrate. And as I mentioned before, we've had a handful that didn't pass. And so it's a great way for us to then pull that parent aside. We wouldn't have otherwise had that conversation with and say, hey, you need to work with this child, your child, in an area secluded so they could get a little bit more experience. And I had one girl in particular who couldn't even turn her bike around. She literally would go finish the exercise. Her dad had to pick up her back to turn her at 180, and she'd come back. So about exercise two, I said, hey dad, she's not going to pass, but keep practicing with her. Give some pointers. A couple weeks later, she came back. She passed, but we would

have had that conversation. She would have been out there on the roadway and heaven forbid it was my daughter or one of your children. I know anyone here in the audience that has kids. You really couldn't live with that. So it's a great way for us to be very proactive and creative about it. So much so that we created this post course, uh, Police Officer Standards and Training for those that don't know. But it's like the gold standard of law enforcement training in our state only course in California that does this. And so we actually have had since March of last year, we've had 28 law enforcement agencies throughout California as far as Walnut Creek. Um, 75 law enforcement officers train. We have our next one in June. Um, I'm already getting my phone ringing off the hook. I'm constantly getting contacted by people from other agencies, um, asking us, hey, what are you doing? What's your program? We want to do it. And of course, obviously that all leads to it. What we're doing here and how great you guys have been in Huntington Beach, really leading the way with effecting change within our state. This is just a picture from our very last, uh, writer training. We I think we had 60 riders that day. This is just one of two groups, uh, and it doesn't even capture the whole picture, but smiling faces. Parents are extremely happy. Happy, thankful. Um, we've had a lot of connect, uh, connections with the kids. It's been really great, and it's been very rewarding from my side of it as well. Uh, since our first one that we've done in May of last year, we've had 737 riders and their parents through, um, and again, that leads California. Really, because we're we are at the forefront of this program. And it's just a great number to point you to just the success that we've been having in our city that others want to emulate. OTS has been a very great strategic partner. They're all about it. Um, they're always calling me. I'm talking with them. I want to be at a symposium, uh, that they have, uh, in the chief as well. Uh, in June that's going to be in Sacramento. Uh, this will be

my third year in a row being a guest speaker, talking particularly about e motos and E devices, but always talk about how, uh, Huntington Beach has been so great and leading the way in this, uh, this situation, which is so important to many people. Uh, these are just some upcoming things that we have planned the 25th. That's just our standard rider training. This is actually the first of its kind where really everyone that's in the course is someone who's gotten a citation. I think we had 60 citations issued last month. Uh, I did not tabulate those numbers. I'm sorry we did not add that in, but I, I looked at it before I came here today in March. We had 60 citations. Many of those riders are coming to that diversion course, if you will think of it like a driver's ed type of deal. In lieu of a fine, they come to the class and then, you know, as long as they pass, uh, then they're going to get a permit and also get their ticket waived. Uh, so that's this, uh, this Saturday, uh, May 15th is, uh, is our, uh, HPD device symposium. Uh, I say e device that really incorporates anything that's got electric motor, but really the the focus of it is going to be fixated upon e-bikes and e motorcycles. Um, so we'll have, um, representatives from health, education, law enforcement, uh, even some e-bike manufacturers. The type of family is going to be there. Uh, Jesse Hayes and Casey Hayes is also going to be there. They're actually going to speak along with the medical director from shock. And one of the first blocks, really just touching the heartstrings of people and connecting with the room. But we've opened that to the essentially the state of California. So we have many agencies, even from Northern California, that are wanting to come down to, to be at that event. So that's going to be a big deal, and that's going to be on May 15th. Uh, and then finally, as I mentioned, the post course June 16th through 20th, uh, we have a bunch of agencies that are very interested. I think we have ten

officers signed up. Of the 20 that we're allowed. And that wraps it up. Um. Any questions? Comments I do, yeah. Um. I was reading in the paper the. other day. that I think, I think it was a city of Newport Beach, outlawed. all e-bikes or motorcycles. That don't have pedals. Um. You know. That can. Be powered by pedals. Is that. Uh. Regulation or. Law in Huntington Beach? So if they don't, if they don't have pedals, they are absolutely not an e-bike. If they do have pedals, they might be an e-bike, if that helps to fix the problem for you. So there's there's a lot to eye for us. Speed is the number one indicator to tell whether it's a pocket bike or an electric motorcycle or an e-bike. So there's some other factors, too, that define what an e-bike is. There's three different classes, but without really going into the if it doesn't have pedals outright, we know it's not an e-bike. Absolutely not. Thank you. And just one more question. Um, is Huntington Beach and, you know, basically out in front of, say, just even in the state of California with our regulations and, uh, enforcement, uh, are basically our enforcement regulations, is are we more stringent here in Huntington Beach than, you know, other places in California? Are we ahead of the curb with the state? Uh, not to brag, but yes, we are. I've gotten calls from people in Australia before. If that gives you an idea of what we're doing here in Huntington Beach. But really, we're taking the vehicle code and we're really going in, and I can't I will not take credit for this. But like, working with, uh, others within our agency, other neighboring agencies. But just the traffic community, particularly the law enforcement, is very tight knit. So really just and that was really the idea for the post course that we developed is setting a best practices for law enforcement. But we bring in the DA's office, we bring in representatives from health to talk because there's so many different stakeholders, if you will, that this touches. I felt

bringing everyone together under an umbrella and actually teaching the cops to then be able to go out and share that education with their communities is going to be the most effective way. Thank you. And I think I speak for everybody up here. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for being part of the greatest police force I believe in, in the United States. And it's because of officers like you. Thank you. Sir. Don. I can echo that. It it's it's great to be leading in so many different things here in Huntington Beach. We lead the way in a ton of stuff. And e-bikes is important. A couple of quick questions. I remember when you used to go to traffic school, not you. Me. The first time I recall it might have been free. You always paid a little bit of a fine, but you didn't pay the ticket and the ticket didn't go on your record. But, you know, over time you even traffic school, although they take away the ticket, it's expensive to go to traffic school. So with these kids, you kind of you, you kind of equate it to like traffic school. If they get a ticket, what is the cost of a ticket? Let me ask you that first. So the cost of a ticket, if it's a municipal code violation, we just go by the bail schedule. I believe it starts at 275. Okay, so it's expensive. Yeah. Um, I know that if you if you get, like, something related to the California vehicle code and it goes to court, it's about $400. Uh, Bobby, you would probably know better than me. He's been at traffic court lately, but I know we had a registration citation that that was, uh, recently went through, and the judge said guilty, and it was like a $400 fine. Okay, so, yeah, there's some there's some pain, but if they go through your course, you take away the ticket the first time. Right? Yes. What if what if it's a second offender. Can they come back to the course or they're done. So it's always officer

discretion. If there's some extending circumstances where the officer feels you know what, let's just send them back to you. But that'll be ultimately up to the officer to decide. Um, but of course, being the leader, you know, our stance as well. You could you warn them one and if they if they do it again, then I would recommend siting them to court. But again, I'm not telling them to do that. I'm just that's just something that I feel is the best way of handling it for them to best learn, because we gave them one warning. So what are we going to do from there? We can't just keep giving them warnings, right? Fair enough. My next question is how do you get new e-bike purchasers to your course? There's one way you get a ticket. How do you get everybody who's under 18 to your course? I have an idea, but I'd like to hear what you guys do. You do anything. So my my idea was if the schools are on board, unless they go to private school, they're going to come through our course because the school is going to mandate that they come through our course. So but of course, that's talking about Huntington Beach. Right, right. Um, so yeah, so that's my solution for it. And I also want to want to emphasize that what we've learned along the way is that this could be the greatest program in the other, uh, in the world. But if the parents don't know what they're missing out of or don't necessarily know that their kid is part of the problem, quote unquote, they're not going to bring their kid. They're not going to want to come out on a Saturday and spend their Saturday to come to this class. So I felt the best way of doing it would be for it to be mandatory in the schools. Agreed. Uh, because the riders that do come through showed a notable improvement. And to their own testimony, they say, wow, this is I learned so much here. And to me that's just fuel to just keep going. And but to your point, yes, I think it should be available to really anyone who's riding anybody, particularly if they don't have a license and haven't had any sort of rules over the road type of training. So what I was just what occurred to me like if if you had a hang tag, you know, every

e-bike store here in Huntington Beach, if you guys had a hang tag with the QR code, and when somebody came in to buy an e-bike, a lot of times it's a parent and they could, you know, inquire, who's the bike for? It's for Johnny. Johnny, how old's Johnny? 15. They have to scan that QR code. When I was younger, here in 19 beach, you had to go to the right here and get a bike license. You know, that's the that's out now, I guess maybe. But if they scanned a hang tag and it took them to some kind of a mechanism that says, you know, you know, you need to sign up and attend one of these courses, it's not necessarily mandated, but it becomes a little bit more voluntarily suggestive. You know, that the parents now see this. What is this? They scan it and all of a sudden it says, if your kid is 18 or younger and this is intended for them, you know, sign up for one of these courses and it takes them to the sign ups. You might get some, you know, uh, some sign ups that way. And it doesn't hurt the e-bike sales. It doesn't do anything but make the parents more aware when they're at point of purchase. They scan, they, you know, you go down and just hand them to all these bike shops. They just hand them, hang them on the handlebar, buy it, scan it, and it takes them some information. No. Yeah, I think that would not. That's not an outside the norm. What uh ask for the and I know the e-bike shops are very on board with wanting to help and be part of the solution. They want to make sales, but at the same time they also want to keep their customers safe. So I feel they would be. Obviously that would unless there's a law that stated that they needed to, which I know that there are some. I think they would voluntarily comply. Yeah, I think they believe in user friendly, you know, and supports the reason, you know, how great e-bikes are. It's just something to think about. Keep up the good work. Thank you for keeping the kids safe. And I can guarantee that you're making an impact. And, you know, hopefully saving lives, which I'm sure you are.. Absolutely. I got I got a nine and a 12 year old. So I just think of them all the time too. So that's what keeps me going. And and yeah, everyone that's on the team also believes in

the mission too. So it hits the heart. Yeah, I'll just. Say just I know I speak for. My colleagues, but. This is one of our most. Uh. Proudest achievements. You know, when we got elected in. 22. Sat down with the chief and asked him what the number one issue in the city was, and he said, e-bikes. And we worked so hard at it with you guys and your help, um, creating new ordinances, working with all those schools that require safety classes and just evolve with constant attention to it. We I think, again, if I speak for my colleagues, we don't get a lot of e-bike emails anymore and concerns. And, you know, I've said, you know, out in the public that we lead the county in e-bike safety. But now, as you can see, that we actually lead the state. And so much so that, you know, Pat and Butch and I are the Intergovernmental um Relations Committee. And they're actually finally, at the state level, pushing a lot of e-bike safety legislation bills. And I believe it's all because of the attention we brought to it. The our focus about it to find solutions. And I was at my Octa meeting a couple of weeks ago, and I talked about it, and they talked about Huntington Beach and and you know, we're just again, leading the county and leading the state. So we're really proud of it. It's a very complicated issue to resolve. I'm not saying we're fixing it, but we've done such great work. And I really appreciate you guys looping in the eye of family and Jesse Hayes. If everyone remembers, he's our e-bike safety ambassador. He actually died on an e-bike and was resuscitated multiple times on the scene, and we honored him last year. So I'm really excited to hear that he's involved in that. What was that date again? May 15th. Uh, May 13th. May 13th. Okay. At the senior center. Yes. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mayor. I'll be really brief here. Um, so the emails that I do get are more specific to the Pacific Coast Highway. The corridor right there, um, between pier, the pier and all the way down through to Sunset Beach. And one of the primary concerns is, is that there are people walking or there are people just slowly biking, biking, and then you've got a 30 plus mile per hour you bike. That comes by safety issue. People have been hit or narrowly hit.

What's the, um, strategy in regards to mitigating against that? So. Uh. We, we actually have, uh, we've actually ran a leader on the or the radar on that beach service road before. Uh, so we have one officer on our team who has already been trained, but then we just had three more train last week. So we're anticipating already as it, as it begins to warm up. And those complaints that are going to be coming in as they do every year. Uh, so our way of addressing is just being out there and doing enforcement, uh, and doing education warning when, when feasible. But if it's egregious or it's a repeat offender or the officer decides, hey, this person needs to get a citation, then we're going to cite them and we're going to be we're going to be proactive about it. All right. Anybody else. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Uh, now moving on to the consent calendar. Items 18 through 24. Does anyone want to pull any items? I myself need to need to pull 18 for the minutes to make a quick correction. Anybody else? I'm Pauline, number 19. Okay. Anybody else? Uh. Discuss 18 miss. Well. Perfect. Do we have a motion to move the balance. Motion to move the remaining items? Okay, so that's 20 through 24. I think. Councilman Grewal. Yes. Councilman Kennedy. Yes. Mayor Pro tem twining. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman. Burns. Hi. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes. Councilman. Williams. Yes. Items number 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Pass seven zero. All right, so, Madam Clerk, just on the minutes on 18, that

first sentence in my council member comments, just as mayor McKeon announced that per municipal code section 3.0, 3.100 and city charter section 13, it says should say City Charter Section 613. City charter. Mayor, is that what you did? You say? 613 during the hearing? I don't believe so, but that was my intention. So I think the minutes have to accurately. Reflect that. Did the video say 13? When I reviewed the video, I saw that it said 13. Okay, that's fine then. All right. My intent was 613 but that's okay. And I think we're going to be able to get the minutes pulled up on the screen here in just a moment. Before you before you start, Councilmember, just so we're clear, the minutes are as they were stated during the meeting, if there was an error in the minutes, that's okay. But we can't correct or change what was said during the meeting. I understood. Yeah, and I guess my concern would be more of the, the substance of of what was said, you know. Doesn't matter just right. It's got like I said, it's good case. Yeah. No, I was just saying my intent. But is what I said on video. So the minutes are just an accurate reflection of what was was stated at the meeting. Okay. Let me just read something then real quick here. Because if we can go to council comments, uh, Mr. McKinnon's comments there, and maybe this is just something that can come up later then. Um. But there was a statement essentially that that council had decided to pull this agenda item. Um, yeah. Which okay. So let me just put it this way. So I see it. So, uh, if we can go to McKinnon's comments, we have there, um. We got his words up.

It'll be a little bit. Yeah. Further down. Yep. You're right there. Oh, okay. So just reading it from the top here says, uh, mayor McKeon announced that per municipal code, section 303 100 and city charter section 13, the request for proposal process is not required for Administrative Item number 22 regarding a professional service contract between the City of Huntington Beach and Wolf, has he added that council, due to express community concerns, has withdrawn this item in order to implement the RFP? Um, and so again, this might be more technical or substantive, but, um, you know, City Manager, if I could just ask you and this is a conversation that we had had before, this was an administrative item. Was this something that you directed to be pulled? And the question isn't whether or not you're happy it was pulled, but did you direct this item to be pulled? I discussed with the mayor about pulling the item. Okay, but was there any direction to pull the item directly from you? And I mean, you've given me the answer multiple times before. Yeah. We talked together about pulling the item. Okay. I guess again, did you direct him to pull the item? And again, we're here to clarify if the if the if the record says what it says, then it's accurately reflected there. Then then we're not here to correct something that's on video as supported in the minutes. Does that make sense? Okay. We'll get around to it. Uh, when we talk about the items, that's fine. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second motion and a second. Councilman Grewal? Yes. Councilman. Kennedy. Yes. Mayor Pro tem twining. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman.

Burns. Hi. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes. Councilman. Williams. Yes. Item number 18. Passes seven zero. All right. Vandermark, number 19. So this is an item I'm excited about. Um, this is actually a partnership with supervisor between Supervisor Janet. When the county and the city. Uh, one of the promises that we made while we were campaigning was that we were going to tackle the homeless issue. We were going to reduce the numbers. And, um, we started working to look into the funding. We started working with the homeless task force and our police chief and our fire to see what it is we can do. And then we started looking into the funding of the navigation center, and we found out that our navigation center, we were funding it through ourselves, through a city, while other cities were actually receiving help from the county. So when our supervisor, Janet Nguyen, was elected to the board, I was a mayor at that time, and I approached her and I asked her if there were any county programs for that we can use to help us with the shelter, something we can partner with to assist us. Um, knowing other cities were getting assistance, I asked our goal why are they receiving assistance while we're not? Just a second. Sorry. So I asked them why are they receiving assistance? But yet we are not an apparently former council members from other cities. When they open their navigation center, requested the county help them financially, and they did receive the help. But the former council never asked. So because they never asked, we never received any funding. Um, so at that time when I was a mayor and I did ask us, I'm not Senator Supervisor Janet Wynn, if she can look into any program, she found this one, uh, her staff, they looked and I'm so grateful that, um, after us reaching out and saying we need help with the navigation center. What is it that you can do? They actually jumped right

up and look for the funding and came up with $500,000 that they can, um, help there, toss our way so we can help with our navigation center. And this wasn't really quick. This actually took a few years. It started when I was a mayor. And then when Pat Burns became the mayor, we continued to work with it. And it's not until now that Casey is a mayor that this finally came into fruition. And the $500,000 capital improvements funding, um, through this partnership, we're going to be able to maintain a safe, functional and welcoming facility for community through the navigation center. Um, our homeless task force and many other groups are helping the homeless residents find the help that they need. And one thing I'm really proud of is that while our numbers were reduced, we didn't reduce those numbers by sending them off to our neighboring cities. We actually found them the help that they need. And that's one thing that not even the state was able to do. Um, we've carried the shelter on our own budget since day one, and this partnership with the county, it finally recognizes that homelessness, it is a regional challenge, and it does require a regional approach. And I'd like to thank Supervisor Janet Nguyen, the county staff Council member, Pat Burns, Mayor Casey McKeon, as well as our city manager, Travis Hopkins, Jessica Kelly, our homeless task force. You guys have been amazing. Um, for helping us get this done. If it wasn't for all the work you guys did and the success that has come through our navigation center and the homeless task force, the county might not have seen that this. These are funds well spent. So thank you for all the work that you guys have done for us. And that was 500,000. $500,000. Fantastic. Yep. Anybody else? Um, I'd just like to make a

motion to approve this. Second. All right. Councilman Grewal. Yes? Councilman Kennedy. Yes. Mayor Pro tem twining. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman. Burns. Councilman. Councilwoman. Vandermark. Yes. Councilman. Williams. Yes. Item passes seven zero. All right. Uh, moving to Councilmember. Items, uh, number 25 is is mine. So this is, uh, to declare May 7th as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Huntington Beach. So, uh, this proposal recommends designating May 7th as the Theodore Roosevelt Day in Huntington Beach, California. The day marks the anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's first visit to California in 1903. During his well-known nine week Great Loop Tour. One of the most memorable presidential journeys in American history, the year 1903 is also notable for several local milestones in American history, including the Wright Brothers First Flight, the first World Series, and the introduction of the teddy bear named after Roosevelt, and the historical significance is May 7th, 1903 is meaningful for several reasons, so it's official. The first official recognition. And so this would be the first time a city in California officially sets aside a day to honor Theodore Roosevelt, whose impact on conservation and national parks is still felt today. It has connections to Huntington Beach's beginnings. So in that same month, in 1903, Henry Huntington purchased Pacific City, which eventually became Huntington Beach. This shared timing creates a strong historical link between Roosevelt's visit and the city's founding. The influence on conservation. So during the 1903 trip, Roosevelt Roosevelt spent three days camping in Yosemite with naturalist John Muir, and that experience helped shape his commitment to conservation and the protection

of public lands, and a deeper historical connection is that the story of Yosemite's preservation goes back to Abraham Lincoln in 1864, influenced by photographer Carleton Watkins, Watkins had ties to call US Huntington, whose railroad was later passed on to Henry Huntington, so these connections highlight how local and national history are closely linked. So it's also worth noting that in the 1930s, the Pacific Coast Highway running through Huntington Beach was named Roosevelt Highway in his honor, designating May 7th as Theodore Roosevelt Day would help reconnect with that history and encourage continued appreciation for conservation and environmental stewardship, and recognizing this day would honor Roosevelt's legacy while also tied into the celebration of our nation's 250th birthday this year. And so this would also, one of the speakers talked about it with our celebration committee. We're big on history. It's been a very successful committee of like local and national historical events. And so that's another way they can weave this into their celebration. So the recommended action was I would just like to make a motion to request staff to bring forth the resolution at the May 5th, 2026 City Council meeting declaring May 7th, 2026, as Theodore Roosevelt Day in Item. Beach, second. Questions, comments. Clerk, please. Just a quick comment on that. Yeah. You know, I just my wife and I, along with 5 or 6 other couples, spent almost two weeks in Croatia this last September. And the number one thing the Croatian people wanted to come to the US to see was the national parks. I couldn't believe that they were so excited to talk about the national parks, and when we were telling them the different parks we've been to, they were astounded. Croatia's got a lot of beauty, but they I talked to so many people, said, I want to come to the U.S. I said, why? They go, we want to see the national parks, national parks. So they're the jewel of the United States. These national parks. And I believe maybe you said it was. He was like

integral in creating he create the first national park? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's incredible. I like this. Okay. Clerk. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Councilman Grewal. Uh, per one of the residents requests, given the fact that I hosted a Teddy Roosevelt event with an offer, an author listed here, I will recuse myself from this. Okay. Councilman Kennedy. Yes. Mayor pro tem. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes, Councilman Burns. Hi. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes, Councilman Williams. Yes. Item passes 601. All right, next up on the agenda, item 26, submitted by Councilmember Kennedy. Uh, mayor McKeon and Councilman Burns to create a city council lease review ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on city leases. Councilmember Kennedy. Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to quickly read the the issue statement. The city maintains a diverse portfolio of assets, including numerous properties leased for a variety of uses throughout the community. The City Council has undertaken ongoing efforts to ensure these leases. These assets are managed strategically to maximize their value and deliver intended amenities that benefits residents, visitors, and the city's overall financial position. These efforts have resulted in several key initiatives that I'm proud of with our entire City Council's work towards. That's not in the issue statement. I added that right now, including the centralization of lease administration, improved management of lease revenues, updating outdated agreements, and aligning lease terms with current market conditions. There are additional areas of improvement that should be considered, including the implementation of an open bid leasing process in which prospective tenants actually compete in a transparent and

competitive environment. Given the scope and importance of the city's lease portfolio, establishing a dedicated forum for focused review will enhance oversight and strategic alignment. And ad hoc committee composed of City Council members would provide the opportunity to review lease agreements, evaluate terms and conditions, review market alignment, participate in or provide input on lease negotiations, evaluate open bidding leasing, and develop recommendations for City Council consideration. My thought is this as we you know, when I first came to council, I kind of summarized out loud that Huntington Beach is really a real estate company. We have so much valuable real estate, and I've been privileged to partake in, you know, the watching the process of lease negotiations and things like that. What I've learned in the private sector is real estate was one of the last major marketplaces to be disrupted. And the people that I spent almost 30 years with were the founders of two very disruptive real estate technologies. Auction comm. And what that showed us is a transparent and open bidding platform is really the best way to drive value, because what that does, it makes sure anybody who's interested in an asset, whether it be a lease or a purchase, knows exactly what the market is bidding and willing to pay for that given asset. So that can trickle down to a lease. We have some incredible leased assets or assets that will be coming up for lease. And from what I've heard, there's been a couple of different times where other people maybe we've uh, uh, picked a a lessee and, you know, through through the grapevine have heard that other, other entities might have said, wow, you know, I probably I wish I would have known, uh, this is all it would have taken or things like that. The spirit of this initiative would be create not necessarily for every asset, but for for the allocations that would

drive competitive bidding, where there's real value in being the lessee on these locations, to let every participant know exactly what we used to say in the auction business where the money is. So, in other words, if if I want to lease property a down here and I'm a person or an entity and I say I'll pay this much a month, I will put this much money into the property, uh, this, that and the other thing, somebody else that might want that asset a little bit more in a transparent environment might say, well, you know what? I'll pay X plus one. I'll actually put a little bit more money into that asset and I'll do X, Y, and Z. And then that gives anybody who's interested the absolute knowledge of what it's going to take to be the winning bidder, the winning lessee for that property. There's no better way to drive value than having an open, transparent marketplaces. That's why, uh, Sotheby's and, you know, some of the greatest assets in the world are done through, uh, auctions, valuable paintings, coins, cars, you name it. Anything of value you want to drive value. You make sure everybody who's interested is aware of it and make sure they know exactly where the money is. So I'm not talking about a complex system, but I am talking about instead of a sealed bid, I open and transparent bid where people that are interested in a property know exactly what it's going to take. To be what I would say in the money or the top bidder. Uh, and everybody has a fair opportunity to counter outbid. So it's a great way to drive value. So this is something the ad hoc committee is not designed to, uh, to pick winners. It's designed really the the ad hoc committee is designed to have oversight on the process. Number one, you know, people. And we're going to see this on the next thing with the the Wolf House. RFPs are not a perfect science. So I'm bringing my private sector experience into government. And I'm seeing, uh, with the with

my cohorts here. We're making a lot of progress on managing inefficiencies and creating opportunities. So this is I'm not saying it's inefficient the process, but I'm saying there's room to develop and enhance. So the ad hoc committee is going to be designed to kind of be a steering committee in regards to a better way to bring to market our starting with our allocations. That's number one. Secondly, as we've gone through some of these lease negotiations, in the end, you know, as I'm sitting there, I'm thinking to myself, I've got a lot of experience in commercial real estate and lease negotiations. I want to talk to these tenants. I want to be party to these negotiations. We have a lot of, um, industry knowledge up here with people that have a lot of commercial real estate properties. They own, um, businesses that they're in. And I think that we should be part of the negotiation when we're getting down to, you know, some of these locations rather than us kind of giving the talking points to somebody that doesn't have this is not an indictment on anybody who's the messenger. But if they don't have the the experience that we have up here as a council that currently we're not leveraging, I think it would be beneficial for the city, the residents and everybody involved that, uh, there's a few people that are part of the negotiation process with the potential lessees. Again, I'm not talking about every small location, but some of the A locations. We can start there so that the communication doesn't get lost in the messenger or lost in the translation, where we can negotiate, you know, deal points right then and there and come to some deal points with the winning person, the winning lessee, uh, if you will. And basically drive the best value for the city, fair value for the lessee and the best possible revenue out of our allocations, starting, uh, that benefit our residents. So

that's the spirit of this initiative. Um, uh, in regarding an ad hoc committee, you know, I'd like to be part of it. I would nominate myself. I would nominate Butch Twining because he's well versed in leases. He owns a lot of commercial real estate, and the other person has a lot of commercial real estate experience. Is Casey McKinnon. So unless there's objections, I would I would move to, uh, point us to the ad hoc committee. Again. This doesn't mean we pick winners. This doesn't mean we have final say. This means we have oversight on the process. We're involved in negotiations. Everything will involve council input as well. But you can't put seven people in front of a lessee. You'd overwhelm them. So that's the spirit of the ad hoc committee. Thank you. Dawn, I would second, uh, the motion, but just the salient point you make. And again, it dovetails in the next item, is that the electorate elects us to represent them in their local government. And so what? They're electing us is to weave in our private sector experience, to make government better. I've heard comments about, well, that's what staff is for, which is true. However, we live in a constitutional republic, so the electorate wants to be represented in government to provide, again, private sector experience to, you know, work with staff, provide recommendations as this ad hoc, you know, um, agenda item says. And again, it doesn't mean other council members can be involved in these ad hoc. But to Don's point, only three can get together at once. So that's the the genesis of these ad hoc is to is to weave in and contribute our private sector experience, to make government better, to make these systems better, and then provide recommendations with staff. And to Don's point, you know, myself, Butch and Don have extensive commercial real estate experience, so I know

that'll be a benefit to this process. And I'm excited that this is moving forward. And I appreciate you nominating nominating me to be on it. So I just want to make a comment I think. So the open bid leasing element of this, I think that that's great. I, I think that everyone who's bidding on a project should see what everybody else is bidding on a project that's that's free market right there. I think that that is important. If we were just looking at ways in which we could expedite and make this clearer and more transparent, especially for the people who are bidding, my only concern with the three person board is, is that we're boxing out the rest of the council members, right? So so you have three people who might be interested in on project. And then by the time all the decisions are made and it comes to council, it's already been moved forward to to some degree. I mean, I have a I have a problem in general with just having meetings with three people only when it's not transparent to the public or with all of council involved, even if it's in closed sessions. So I'm just I mean, I don't understand why we need three people to do this when council members already have the ability to have these conversations with the city manager. And they can they can, we can already right now engage in those negotiations. Why do we need to galvanize it through a specific three person committee? Well. I will ask the city manager and the city attorney. My understanding with the ad hoc is that it creates a mechanism for three people to to collaborate. Then they could share that work, of course, right, with other council members through the city manager and our city attorney. Like updates and progress. My vision. Let me just jump in because my vision is not to box anybody out. My vision would be, first off, thank you for your comment. But if that was true, why aren't we negotiating with lessees right now? We're not. We're negotiating via a messenger. So that mechanism, if it was available, we're either not using it or it's not viable. The ad hoc committee

would be they're not to would be to, uh, first off, develop the process. Number one, give it some oversight. Secondly, once we start seeing bidders come in, there wouldn't be any negotiation on deal points without the closed session consensus of the entire body. Like, what do we want to here's where we're at, who do we like, or whatever the case may be, but what are the deal points that we think are important, just like we do right now? But instead of then sending a messenger off that doesn't have anywhere near the experience that, you know, we do collectively, then we take the collective body's input. Then we utilize a couple of voices to do the negotiation directly with the potential lessee. And that those three people can change. I don't care, I don't have to be. I don't even really want to do a bunch of different negotiations. I want to get the process started. The decisions will be based on, hey, what do we want as a body for this lease? What terms and conditions? Here's where they're at. How do we want to encounter them? What do you say? What do you say you, you and you? Yes, that makes sense. Okay, write them all down. And then instead of somebody who goes back with zero experience in commercial real estate saying, here's what we got, can we do it? We go back with, you know, some, you know, subject matter expertise in the space and say, this is what the council is looking for. And that voice represents the input of everybody in our meetings. Mayor, I think you pointed a question over to me. So I did want to I did want to mention and the recommended action, and this has to be true of all ad hoc committees. They have to be for a limited purpose and a limited time. Right? So so it can't be an infinite, um, and as this meant that. It is. Yeah. December 2026. End of the year. Yeah. But I guess my question is, um, ad hoc allows three individuals to work together and collaborate, but then can the those updates

be then shared with the other council members via, you know, their city manager update? You'll run into a Brown act problem. Okay. How's that what's that? If you start sharing the information at an agenda meeting, you end up running into a serial meeting situation. Wait a minute. So we. Create a process where three different people want to lease an asset. And this process has nothing to do with the ad hoc committee. We've already laid out a process that everybody goes, that's a good process. This guy bids I asked, this guy bids X plus one, this guy bids X plus two. But he's got a couple of different things. He likes this. So in the end, collectively we go which one looks like the lead horse. Kind of what we do right now don't we. Discuss you know, what the asset should bring. And then we send off the messenger. So we talk about it in a closed session and we say, here's the deal points. How do we how do we counter. They can also bring it to the dais. Right I mean they're here's. What we want to do. Here's who we interviewed. Here's what we came up with. I think I think. the the ad hoc committee is a good idea. I think again, you're gonna you're going to be limited in scope. It's probably a good idea for the ad hoc committee to set up a process, have that process in place, and then pass it off to, uh, pass it off to staff. Okay. That's fine. But in the end, more importantly, that's fine. I can I'd love to give away all that stuff because I don't really want to do it all. But what I do want to do in the end is I don't want to leave our negotiations up to somebody that I feel like I'm a way better negotiator than, or Andrew is, or butcher's or Casey's or Chad's or Gracie or Pat. Not just no indictment on the people that run back to, uh, the potential bidders. Uh, lessees. But I guarantee there's more better negotiating skills on this dais than what we send out to the marketplace. So I don't care who goes and does that, but I think it

should be somebody from our city council that wants to do it that we believe is good at it. And it can it can alternate I don't care. There's there's no want to be the guy. If I could just chime in. Councilman Kennedy, I think that. The way that it is. Right now, it's fluid. And there are certain times where, you know, Councilman Grohl. Might be the best man. For the job. Because it has something to do with, like, concessions. or restaurants. There's other times. Where, you know, maybe there's commercial. development and, you know, councilman or mayor pro tem Twining. Be the best man. For the job or yourself. It's fluid the way that it is right now. If we create this ad hoc committee and say, I'm not on the committee or pass on the committee, great. We're barred out. We're barred out because we just said that the ad hoc right now, then we'd have to vote for. The ad hoc committees over and over. But the way it is right now, at any given time, we pay attention to these leases that are coming up as council members, and we could decide just as you okay? Yeah, we could decide just as we as we have with some of the recent ones that we've we've worked on that as council members, we can kind of just dive into this. We could I'm like, hey, I'm going to roll up my sleeves. I'm going to jump on this one right here. That's fine. So let's create the process. You know, I'd like a little bit of input from the ad hoc committee. Create the process. From there we can turn it back out to, as it is, status quo. But with one caveat. The final negotiations back and forth. I want people from the dais, like you said, maybe it's a food product location gruel. You do it. Maybe it's a, you know, something. That's your wheelhouse. You do it. Maybe it's something in my wheelhouse I do it, or two of us do it. I don't care who doesn't, but any one of us, when it's specific property types, has a better ability, in my opinion, to negotiate face to face with tenants on some of these high value targets. Then sending off a representative from the city. And if you don't agree with me, then I that's where. How about. And maybe. You feel an ad hoc committee

develops the process that includes and you guys get together, you develop a process that includes council input of course. Member could we do this? Maybe we just make some type of, uh, you know, rule that, you know, any future leases, any type of asset that's going to be negotiated on. It's just almost like a rule of three that you have to involve three council members, but it doesn't necessarily lay out who those council members are. Yeah. Okay. That way, that way you're. I don't care. Yeah that is fine. So that's just to make this point that way, we're assuring that there is a council member involved. Right. Someone from the dais is involved, but it doesn't bar people out that aren't on that ad hoc committee. And I know that it could be changed, but you have to vote on. No. It can be as fluid as at once. All I want is to change the process, make it way more effective for our assets, and then change the negotiation tactics. So in the end, somebody who's that? We go, hey, this one's your wheelhouse. You do this one, Gracie, this is perfect for you. You know, you got the right ideas. You know, take all our input, ball it all up and go get it done. I don't care who does it. And you. And you can set that up so you guys should. That's a good reason to set up the ad hoc committee to develop that process. Okay. Yeah. No negotiation will happen without, you know, everybody going. Gruelle, Twining, McKeon Burns, you do it. Williams. Kennedy, whatever. But so the key for me, I'm looking at everything, especially because it's the theme is transparency. Is it possible to involve residents in this process or does it have. To be why would you involve a resident in business? The ad hoc committee can get together, the ad hoc committee can and should get together and develop the process, and then bring it back to council. And you guys can debate on if that was a good process or not. Yeah, that's fine. So we'll start there. By the way, the reason I would involve the residents is so that we don't deal with the issues that we're dealing with right now, where they think that things are happening behind closed doors. Well, I think you're going to learn, Andrew, that when you're, you know, making

decisions as a leader because you're elected or appointed, they're going to say that no matter how transparent you are. And so just by acquiescing, oh, I'm afraid they're going to think there's no transparency. So let me get them in the middle of it. That's just not how it works. That's something you guys can work out in your ad hoc committee. For sure. But to that point, I mean, the residents are involved through us where they're elected official. They hired us through an election. And anything that is negotiated, any contract that's negotiated has to come to the vote of the people in public. So if leases as they are now or other contracts are negotiating closed session, that is in closed session, then comes back forward into the front of the public to discuss and then deliberate and vote on its agenda. So the residents are involved in this process. They're involved. However, we all know that there's a ton of meetings that we have that the residents aren't privy to in which they're not nefarious meetings. But there's a lot of information, and we get afflicted by the curse of knowledge, because we've heard the same subject over and over and over again, and then we don't communicate it clearly to the residents. We assume that they understand. So that's why I bring that up, is, is that it's really about the communication process, this being a public meeting and having them understand, I just don't want to put us in a position where it almost seems like there's more doors that are being closed, as opposed to being closed. That's a great segue right there to if it's if it's in closed session, we can never disclose it. And if it's not in closed session right now, we do not have a messaging platform to get the message out, which is why we're going to talk about Wolf House and anybody who can do that better than what we're doing right now. On the next topic right now, because, you know, I talked to, you know, the city manager and all these people, all the weed, all the weed things, they think it's our fault. It's not our fault, but we don't have good messaging that gets it out there. And we can't rely on a couple ladies who we got to got them doing a million different things. If that's not their core job responsibility. You're getting off the topic. To answer. Your question, you got to ask. Why we need mechanisms okay. We don't have. A motion and a second.

So just to clarify, the motion is to establish a process, not to review leases. And then after you guys threw that. committee and then once the process is established by whoever is in that ad hoc committee would be presented to the council, and then we can approve or not approve. Correct. Perfect. Okay. And there won't be any designation of who does, uh, lease negotiations. But I think hopefully you guys will all agree at some point That every time we're dealing with a high value target that can drive a lot of revenue. That's somebody that we believe is, uh, good at it. From the diet. Yeah, from from from our team of seven is involved in the negotiations. I don't care who it is. Yeah, yeah, we can line that up. But will we have further discussion on that. So, like, will we discuss. Are we committing right now to a specific I know we're not committing to the people. We're are we just committing to the idea of galvanizing that process and streamlining that process and then bringing it forward to a future meeting to discuss? We're going to create a process, as Gracey said, and then bring it to you guys, and you guys can do the secret thumb vote. Yes. No. Yeah. But ultimately, like, whatever, whatever. Yeah. Ultimately whatever process happens, okay. Decided has to come to council for a vote. Whether it's a contract or anything. Everything that's in closed session when it comes to finality, it's reported out to the public. So if there's a contract or at least negotiated once it's finalized, it's either reported out or its agenda is whether it's, you know, labor contract negotiations that are finalized. I mean, everything is agenda to the public. And so residents are involved and any council member can go out and and engage with residents and get their input on any process or procedure in the city. So that's a misnomer that I know we'll talk about, but there's no backdoor deals, there's no backroom deals. Everything comes out to the public to be voted on and discussed, and it's made final. So this process would be the same. So to answer your question,

Gracie, yes, just to develop a process for now. Okay. So is that like. A substitute motion then. Because the recommended action as it's written is to establish a city council lease review ad hoc committee consisting of three council members. Yeah, that. Would review city leases. No, you're right. Substitute motion. Substitute motion to create a process to bring it back to council just for the bid process. There was really no motion to begin with. Yeah, but I'd like Gracie's motion or substitute was counter. count counter to the language. Gracie's motion to create a process. Correct. To create a process. And then once it's created, it will be brought to the entire council. So we can say yes or no. Yeah. If anybody didn't second it, I'll second that motion. Gracie. All right. City clerk, please call the roll.. First by Vandermark, second by Kennedy. Establish the process through the ad hoc committee to review leases, then brought back to the council. Councilman Grewal. Yes. Councilman. Kennedy. Yes. Mayor Pro tem 20. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman. Burns. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes. Councilman. Williams. Yes, Item passes seven zero. All right, moving on. Item 27, submitted by mayor McKeon to create a city ad hoc city council ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations on the request for proposals for the creative strategy. Branding, merchandising, media, communications and film industry systems. So, as everyone knows this, it is issued a request for proposals for a firm to build creative direction, strategy, branding, merchandising, media communications and film commission systems into the city and importantly, train city staff to operate these systems. So this RFP is requesting qualified firms to provide a methodology for building a creative strategy and communications infrastructure branding

approach. With ownership of the city's intellectual property, merchandising program, media and communication programs, and film commission with industry attraction strategies. This program provides the city many opportunities to improve communication with Huntington Beach residents, businesses, and visitors, and this includes revenue generation and capture for the city and businesses. So I propose creating a City Council ad hoc committee consisting of three council members to review the process, receive proposals, and provide a recommendation on the approach for the project to work alongside staff. And so a part of my motion, I would like to to nominate for this process. Uh, Councilmember Grewal, Councilmember Kennedy and Councilmember Burns. And so that's my motion. I'll second. Discussion. Yeah. So my philosophy on this is I want this whole thing to be completely done on the dais publicly. I don't I don't want to be involved in any three person committee or meeting having to do with this. I think right now at the stage of the game with this particular item, I mean, the council never even formally discussed or voted on even a general need for a comprehensive rebranding and marketing overhaul. I mean, that's typically where a process like this begins with a clearly identified need, ultimately followed by council direction. But now we're all we have. We're talking about a committee for an RFP, but we haven't even discussed the need. I mean, that was ultimately the process. Whether we can I think we should pull it all the way back and have an initial study session and completely scrap the idea altogether and then move forward the right way. So you don't want to be on it. I take. Correct? Okay. So that I would like to do a substitute, uh, to put on Councilmember Kennedy Burns and Mayor Pro Tem 20, if they would like to be on this ad hoc again, this is to the RFP and process. Um, it's out there, I

think, till Monday. So the is provide provide horsepower to help with the review process. Um, as I mentioned, there's, you know, a great opportunity here to implement these systems to, you know, bring in potentially a lot of revenue, which I know we'll talk about next. Um, like most cities were facing, uh, you know, structural budget issues where our expenses are increasing roughly 4 to 6% a year, like most cities in California with cost of inflation and, and goods and revenues, like most of these in California, are only increasing about 2 to 4%. So that's almost 50 to 75% gap in Delta every year. And so there's not a lot of proposals to bring in, um, revenue from what I've heard outside of a sales tax or property tax increase. So this is a huge opportunity to build virtual systems into the city that can bring in potentially tons of revenue by bringing back our intellectual property. I have this hat on the dais up here, uh, through this process, it was deemed that we have never trademarked our Huntington Beach logo. This hat right here on my desk. We don't own that intellectual property. So everywhere in town we see that logo on a hat, on a shirt, a sticker on someone's car, and all the major retailers in town. Target, Walmart I saw I had up here tonight. There was a collaboration of the Hurley H with HB. Just know that we receive no licensing revenue from that logo. Um, again the next. But thought that that was done for this this opportunity show that the Surf City store is making $800,000 a year in revenue. I think it's yeah. Remember ad hoc committee. Okay. So I'll, I'll continue next.

But the reason for the ad hoc and the RFP is like there is a need. The need is that we have structural budget issues that we need to resolve. And this is a creative way to do those things. And the RFP process well is in motion. Let's let the process play out. Um, we were told there's a lot of firms that can do these services. Um, I believe it's a good idea. I believe it's a good idea that we presented with the merchandise and the film commission, the creative media infrastructure to unite all our systems. It's worth discussing. It's worth looking at. There is urgency, of course, to capture the American 250th celebration. And so this ad hoc would provide horsepower as these RFP come in next Monday to jump in and review it and see if we can, you know, find a firm that can do these things and see if we can find a firm that can help implement these systems and train city staff and unite all our departments, which are in silos in a lot of cases. Right, you know, enhance our arts center, all those things. And so that's the the genesis of this ad hoc is to provide three individuals the horsepower to jump in and help out. Because of that time sensitivity. If we want, if we can capture the America 250 celebrations, really enhance our Independence Day parade celebrations, bring in big sponsors so we can afford helium balloons and all those things. That's what the ad hoc is for. We have a lot of talented individuals here. And again, they would provide recommendations. Those recommendations go to staff and hopefully the staff says, hey, we recommend firm A and maybe the ad hoc says we recommend firm B or firm C. Well let's have them both come up right at a meeting and let's talk to them about it. Let's talk about their presentations. Let's talk about their ideas for bringing their revenue and the systems they can build into our city. And so again, there's there's no backroom deals. There's there's there's nothing untoward. Everything comes back in front of public. But it's an amazing opportunity that was presented to the city that I think we should look at and do our due diligence as council members to research. And that's why I recommend this ad hoc to give that horsepower along with staff, because this is a

creative proposal. It is unique. Other cities have these things. We don't. We should. I mean, we're Huntington Beach, California, right? We should. We should be punching at our weight class. We should be brought up to to, you know, to realize the value that we all have here that we just haven't done yet as a coastal city on, on the, you know, in the Pacific Ocean. So that's the ad hoc, that's the genesis of it. And I'm, I would I'd be hopeful that Kennedy and Twining and Burns would be like to be on it. And if they would, that would be that would be my motion. Mayor, if I could just express some of the concerns of the community before I get into some of the things that I have to share. Um, and what has been expressed is, you know, just the simple fact that, I mean, essentially what you just shared it, it mimics it. Parrots. Uh, exactly what was in Wolfe's audit and during council comments at the last council meeting, you gave a series of essentially, uh, demands or imperatives of what ought to be in the RFP. And I think the concern here, too, is the fact that, you know, it's your commissioners fiance that produced this audit, and then you parroted the words from that audit saying, this is what ought to be in the RFP. Now, we have this RFP that's out there that mirrors the words that you shared from the council, and now you're creating. Yes. So so. We're on the scope of, uh. Remember, we're talking about I was just going to jump in. And that was my next words. And now we're creating this ad hoc committee that it would seem as though this ad hoc committee to the community. And maybe you can explain it to them, make it make sense. It would seem this ad hoc committee is just kind of a way to assure that, you know, the guy that you said, I'm highly confident. What follows is the best group to perform all of these highly specialized services. Are you not making sure that he's going to be the one that gets awarded? I have not proposed myself to be on the ad hoc. What I just said for the past few minutes is this ad hoc would create additional assistance to staff to help jump in and provide horsepower to review proposals that come in. I mean, we've we've been told from members of

the committee, there's a lot of firms that can do these things. This was this this proposal was brought to us by an individual, um, who from the research I've done, is one of the best in the industry. So he brought forward this proposal there. The committee said, well, let's do an RFP. Fine. So we've done the RFP is out there. I'm hopeful. Last time I checked, there was I get 50 applicants potentially. So that could be a lot of great firms that we could that we could really bring to fruition. This these, in my opinion, amazing opportunities again, to capture our intellectual property, which has not happened. Again, this hat's on my desk. To me, the fact that we have never trademark our HB logo just disrespects generations of HB residents before us. And so that's the reason for the ad hoc is let's bring in some horsepower on this council just to not put their thumb on the scale, but to assist in reviewing and provide input and recommendations. Like I said, if that ad hoc comes back and says, hey, we like Group A and staff says we like Group B, then let's bring them both forward and let's have them present and have them give their resume and their ideas on how to implement these systems, and how we can bring back our intellectual property, create a media infrastructure that communicates amongst our departments. Create a film commission that many other cities don't have that we should have. Um, so that's the reason for it. So if I may just ask you, what's the rationale for not putting yourself on the ad hoc committee? Because like I said, when the RFP was initially last meeting, I don't want, you know, the myself to have people think that this process is is poisoned. I think this opportunity is is too huge from a revenue perspective, but also a community benefit perspective that I don't want to have it be tainted. So I'd like to separate myself from it. I will be on it, of course, but I would like these other individuals to be on it just so that the community feels understands my position. Do you think that maybe it would be better? And, you know, I don't think I'm speaking too much for the community here, but would it be better to

recuse herself from this. From the ad hoc? I, I just asked not to I nominate these individuals to be on it. Are you asking to recuse from the ad hoc. From even being a part of of this item? I mean, you're. What item you're talking about the ad hoc on the agenda. You're you're you're not putting yourself on the ad hoc committee because there's a concern, right, of. Yeah, but my emotion is, why would I recruit then? I can't vote on whatever the ad hoc ends up being. This is my agenda item. I'm not nominated to be on the ad hoc. Why would I recuse myself? What's he recusing from? Yeah, let me tell you why. I want to be on the ad hoc committee. Um, by virtue of an election, six of the seven of us were hired by an election. Okay, I campaigned on two things managing inefficiencies, creating opportunities. We've managed quite a few inefficiencies. I'm going to have to say it. The RFP process, in my opinion, is faulted. It's weak. It's broken. We've had many different RFPs where we've had one person show up to bid the oil well, for that matter, the one you guys approved another $3 million for the failed oil. Well, the one bidder that went well, we fired many people that have come through the RFP process. We just renewed a contract for a water sampling guy because, uh, the the lease contract expired. And I said, well, um, did we do an RFP or he was the only guy. And I said, oh, really? I pulled my phone out and I put in water sampling, and ten companies came up in Orange County that we could have called if this RFP process was efficient and said, hey, Barney, we're doing an RFP for water sampling. You guys do that. Do you want to apply? Hey, Betty, do you want to play? Hey, Wilma on. Wait, nobody does any outreach for for companies that are in the. Space Council member we're after. Well, this is why I want to be

on the RFP. I mean, on the this thing because it's inefficient. I don't care who we pick. The number one factor is this is an opportunity to create revenue. Nobody ever said, let's bring a film commission. So if somebody else says, hey, I can do a better film commission than this guy, he'll win. If somebody says, hey, I'm a better brander than this guy, he'll win that piece. We can bifurcate it. We can try for it. Yeah, I could care less about the the branding of the city, the reputation, uh, was made clear that the city was headed down the wrong way in the last two elections. I remember we're talking ad hoc. Okay, well, yeah, and that's why we are where we are now. Now, we do own that trademark, because trademark law gives you the right of first use. So the good news is we own that trademark by the virtue of right of first use. The bottom line is our RFP process is failed. There's room to improve it. I was hired to manage inefficiencies. I want to be part of it because I guarantee that I can get in there and I can find a bunch of holes in the process, make it better for the betterment of the residents, betterment of the city, betterment for the department, and help them out. You guys get to hire me and you don't even have to pay me. That's why I ran for city Council and I got elected as a top three vote getter with my friend over here, Chad and my friend Butch, and that's mandated. They want us to do what we do best. And that's one of these things, is this. That's why I want to be on the RFP evaluation. I don't care who gets the work, but the bottom line is, can anybody here say that we don't need more revenue? No. Can anybody here say a film commission? No matter who does it? It's a bad idea. No. Can anybody here say. Ad hoc? Done. We should manage our trademark. No. We're talking about the ad hoc. Okay. I'm done. Okay. I was asked why? Why recuse? I just I believe the process is tainted, and I've got some thoughts. If I could share, if it's my opportunity to kind of deliberate just a little bit. I've got some slides. Uh, Julie, if we could pull up, um. Is this on the ad hoc committee? I'll. You got your issue. I'll ask a question specific to

the ad hoc. So let's get into the detail, because you you've you said about adding horsepower, etc.. So just, I mean, kind of walk me through the process of the ad hoc and specific to this item. So I think everybody understands kind of the role that it's playing. Sure. So as bids come in, the RFP will close on Monday. Let's say there's 30 bids ad hoc and help review as well, and dive in and dig in with those bids and staff. Will dive in and dig, dig in on those bids and their scoring mechanisms in the RFP. And, um, again, like, we have a lot of great private sector experience with diversity of of skill sets and experience. And so the ad hoc would say, hey, of these 30, we think A, B, and C score the highest based on these, uh, these, you know, I guess requests through the RFP. What do you think staff and then staff will give their presentation. So it's just another set of eyeballs. I keep saying like provides horsepower to assist in this process. And then again, whatever is recommended if there's different recommendations, let's bring them both in front of council and let's talk about it publicly. And let's ask questions and go through it. This is an amazing opportunity. Um, you know, I hope I'm hopeful. People have read the audit. I'm hopeful people have read the presentation that was provided. I'm hopeful people have read the contract. I'm hopeful they've read the scope of services combined with, uh, attached to that contract. And so the ad hoc is to have three members of council just come in and provide a horsepower. And again, the urgency is if we can, you know, get this implemented to capture the America 250th birthday celebrations that really create the foundation for all these systems that then be successful going forward in your, your, uh, you know, past that, there's one opportunity to really launch from this and that's this year. And so that's that's the genesis of the ad hoc. Which would. You be amenable to? I mean, we have a lot of firepower in the Finance Commission. We've got fortune 500 CEOs. ET cetera. Working through the Finance

Commission as a as a nitro boost of horsepower. Not support that. So Finance Commission. Um, sure. But I think in this situation, because of the time crunch, the RFP is back on Monday, a lot of horsepower. I keep using that word up here and experience and, you know, real Estate. Finance Commission would have to comply with the Brown Act and agenda as the meetings and. Go, yeah, just the timing. And then also to that point, then if we have an ad hoc committee of three council members, once again, we can't communicate because of the Brown Act. So the three council members that would be on that commission could not communicate in any capacity. Could they communicate if and or would you be working in conjunction with the staff that's reviewing the RFPs? Yeah, that'd be the goal. Yeah. Then with the staff be able to communicate like how does that work between staff? Is that chain? As long as no other council members are involved, it's fine. Yeah. Well there would they would be by way of the ad hoc committee. It's when you come to the dais, that's. What it's. It's the ad hoc committee can operate independently with staff, evaluate the RFP. Yeah. And that's the spirit. Of bring it to the dais. And that's when we discuss it. Right. We present it. You guys ask whatever question. So what would and or perhaps this is even for you, Don, because you're passionate about this, what would the process how would the process be different with you involved versus the having the city team members involved? Well. First off. If I could ask anybody, when you guys are starting to look at if there's a well, when there's one applicant, not in this case, does anybody ever make outbound phone calls to solicit new vendors? No, of course they don't. So I'm going to I'm going to start to write an SOP for. Do we I mean, we should ask that. We should do. They told me they don't. That's part of the procedure. Jennifer does. She just said. She does. Nobody calling. Guys. Okay. Nobody called on the water thing. We had one bidder. Okay. Secondly, um,

when we start selecting, uh, companies and we're zeroing in, does anybody, uh, conduct a full outbound, uh, campaign to clients satisfaction? You know, what kind of results have you gotten? Have you have we done that kind of research before we award a contract? Do we do that? Is that part of the RFP process? We're talking about the RFP process for this particular. Okay. Well, these are the things I'm going to do. Well, I think I think we're going to do them. If we're not, we're going to implement them. The reason I bring those up is I'm trying to understand the difference between the ad hoc committee and the existing process to determine the. Well, I don't know what I don't know because I'm not in that process, but I guarantee I will find things to improve it. If you're going to go out, are you going to, uh, would you want to surround yourself with people that are in the culinary world if you're trying to, uh, you know, improve a process for the culinary world, or would you hire janitors? Not to say the people of the city are janitors, but they don't have the same skill set. I don't, I have and I don't have the same skill set. They don't that they do. So there's going to be nice, cohesive alignment. We're all trying to make a better process. And we'll start with these guys. Sounds like there's a lot of vendors so we can review their proposals. We can ask questions. I'll probably ask questions they've never thought of. They'll probably show me things that I didn't even think of together. I bet you we will come to some new improvements in the process. What better place to start with one that's a high ticket, high volume process where there's a lot to look at. Lots of bids, lots of vetting, lots of, uh, you know, verifying, lots of, like, justifying numbers. Yeah, I get the RFP game. If it's about cost, I'm the low bidder. If it's about revenue, I'm going to come in. I, I've seen our city go. You got it for the low bid. Maybe they were the best, but the low bid was a driver. And that to me is broken. Yeah. And I think that Councilmember Kennedy's point I mean, it's a provider recommendation. So it's to work alongside staff. And again it's allows three council members to really dig in and dive in and help out and then provide a recommendation. And like I

said, if staff says, hey, we like your recommendation, however, we recommend Group B, then bring them both to council and let's have them come up and present and ask questions and public and deliver it and kick it around. So that's the goal is again, we have a lot of talent up here. Let's use it. Um, like I said before, I mean yes, staff is amazing, but people elect us to come in and represent them on council and implement our private sector experiences. And so that's what this ad hoc will do, is to be provide that horsepower as part of the process. Back to the finance committee. I think we have phenomenal talent on that finance committee. I guess what's what's the urgency here? Because it feels like a lot of mistakes happen when we're moving fast. What's the urgency with this particular RFP? Like I just said. So the urgency is if we can capture and get these systems implemented to capture their America 250 celebration and all the festivities and all the elements that the the initial proposal that was sent to us, whether it's, you know, enhancing the arts center, uh, enhancing our Independence Day parade, bringing in big sponsorship dollars, you know, fixing our, our, you know, branding, having one United Brand Bible, um, creative brand infrastructure, um, film commission. All we've been together with those those systems in place. If we can implement that and then capture that America 250 season and celebration. That'll launch our city to the next level. And so that's the urgency. And that's why, you know, finance Commission. Sure. But in this situation, I don't think it's necessary. That's why people elect us to sit in these big chairs. Um, we don't we don't need to delegate down. Uh, I think one thing not to interrupt you, but let me. I rush. Neil brought a great idea. Maybe we the one thing that is a driver right now. And if anybody thinks otherwise, you're probably not in the right seat business wise. But there is an opportunity to capture revenue from America. 250 you see it everywhere. Every football field, everything, everywhere is America. 250 so maybe, uh, as we start, uh, involving

ourselves with these vendors, we also maybe, uh, cut out an initiative. Tell me, Mister vendor, what you're going to do right now to capitalize on something that is time sensitive, that once it's gone, it's gone. And that's America 250 and maybe we put that initiative. Because, Don, we're just talking about the ad hoc committee, not the process to. Say, well, everybody's asking questions. We're all over the board. I'm just trying. In trying to get this focus. Okay. So I. Can I just hone in this ad hoc committee, you know, with the RFP and the sense of urgency for the 250, you know, celebration, uh, I guess you guys are referring to the 4th of July. Is that right? Yeah. The whole, you know, not just one day, the whole, you know, lead up to it. You know. That, right? Events being going on at the arch that yes. That America's. Yeah. Independence Day, the America's. Challenge for me if I knew that. No I'm saying America's 253rd. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So do you did you know that it's not in the RFP? It's in the audit. It's in back to our contract. Back. Let's get back to the ad hoc. I'm back to the ad hoc committee that's talking about the RFP, the urgency to get this done is America's 250. It's the one thing that was not put into the RFP. You will not find America 250 or 4th of July parade. You can find it in the audit. You can find it in the seven 20,000 contract. You can find it in your comments, but it's not in the RFP. So there's this urgency to get it done for a 4th of July America 250 but that's not part of the bidding process. Even so, what's the urgency? We're making mistakes when we're moving fast here. I think we should kick it back to the finance committee. Again. They're just we didn't write the RFP staff did. I mean, it was pretty clear, you know, what was proposed to the community and then what was in the RFP to put it out to the community. And that's, again, what the ad hoc can do and say, look, you know, there's urgency. Can we get can we

build this brand ecosystem now and get this, these systems in place to capture America's 50th birthday, to launch it. And that's that's further to my point that the ad hoc committee can then provide that recommendation as, as these firms are coming in. And so that's to me, that's simple. But if we but if there's nothing about the 4th of July in the RFP, how would we do that? Good. I just want to. Say that I'd. Be more honored to serve on the on the ad hoc committee, uh, as all you know, I've been pretty checked out. I don't even know what I was going to have to abstain on voting for this, because I don't know anything. I've been gone for three weeks, and, uh, so I come in with a very fresh set of eyes and ears. Uh, I have no perceived notions on who is bidding, who has bid, who's done? Uh, audit. None of that. So I come in very fresh to this, and I probably only met Tyler Wolfe maybe two times in my life. Uh, I, I don't know what his qualifications are, but I know that if I'm on this ad hoc committee that I'm going to look at the 50 or so proposals that come in and it's going to it's going to be a clean slate. So I just want you guys to feel comfortable that because I've heard, you know, and I've read the tea leaves, I've read the forums, uh, you know, uh, the mayor's going to is going to, uh, appoint his cronies. I'm not a crony. I will look at this thing and, uh, with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of years and and I and if if I'm, if I'm allowed to, then I will pick whoever's best or I will recommend whoever's best for. In the end, the council is going to vote on it, you know. Yeah. Um. And real quick and I would just say to answer that question, I mean, because RFP doesn't say reference America's 25th

birthday doesn't mean these systems aren't important and should be, in my opinion, implemented and brought forward. So as firms are coming in, I mean, all these systems would then naturally capture America's 250 so the urgency is if we can get a firm in there to implement these systems and create this, this brand ecosystem, let's move on it. Like people elect us to make these big decisions and have these creative ideas, especially one like that. This is creative ways to bring in a lot of revenue to our city. That's virtual, that's build systems. It's not physical infrastructure nor a sales tax increase or property tax increase. So this ad hoc just gives that horsepower to to get this done and see, see if we can bring it forward in a timely fashion. Yeah I mean the bottom line is this it's not in the RFP. And if it wasn't in Tyler Wolfe's thing and we let's say we'd all agreed at some point we need an RFP for merchandising, uh, film commission, you know, messaging and some. And we didn't define what we needed in our merchandising. But the America 250 was coming up. If companies were coming to us with no vision on how, uh, something that big if they're. Oh, no, I don't even think about that. They would be out just by by virtue of their incubating inability to even have that kind of foresight that, hey, there's a gigantic anniversary coming up here. Yeah, I'm going to tailor something for that. Yeah, and that'll. Be. All right. Vandermark there a motion on the table. Vandermark has come. Can I say something? Yes. Thank you, thank you. I'm trying to be polite here. It's getting really difficult now. Pat's after me. Look there. I don't believe there's anything nefarious going on. I mean, I've seen the forums, all these backroom deals. There's the. There aren't any backroom deals. What I can say about this is I'm not comfortable with any of this. I think it's too broad to rush, too messy, too many mistakes. We didn't go through the prep, through the traditional RFP process. I personally am just not comfortable with any of it. Um, I do believe that we should have had all our, you know, T's

crossed, I's dotted ducks in a row because this is a huge deal. This is a huge contract. That's a lot of money. So I just don't think that I'm comfortable rushing something that's that big of a deal. I mean, that's a ton of taxpayer dollars. So that's all I have to say. But I did want to clear up. I do not believe there's anything sneaky or nefarious. I'm just not comfortable with rushing such a big contract ordeal. I think this is something that needs to be really thought through, looked into, vetted properly. And that's where I stand. So that's fair. But the RFP is in process. We're in day six. You know, let's let's let it play out. Let's have submissions come in Monday. And with the ad hoc, let's see if we can pull it off. Right. Because anything that's going to happen is going to come back before council. Like this opportunity is too big not to at least try. And I understand things. Maybe, maybe people think it's messy. Um, maybe they, they want RFP, don't necessarily have to write. I mean, municipal code says you don't. The council has authority to enter a contracts and charter. Section 613. But this opportunity is too big. Let's not at least try. Life sometimes is a little bit messy. It's not always clean, but we have a chance to clean it up. Let's let the process play out. Let's let these proposals come back, and let's see if these ad hoc can provide. Jump in, roll their sleeves up, provide some good recommendations, and then work with staff and then have it come back to council. And that's, you know, let's just let the process play out. I've read everything and it gives us a way out that if we're not happy with any of it, we can, um, yeah, yeah, but, dad. Hawk, I'm. I think it's a great idea. I think council should be directly involved. Take some ownership to this process because it is a huge deal. And so I think it's good that we're involved and we're taking part and we're trying something new. We're trying to get into it. So I'm all for the ad hoc. I'm all for looking into this and taking some ownership, and we move on and

I'm going to second it and call the question. If I could. I had some things that I wanted to present and then and then we can rock and roll with that. Julie, if we could pull up. Um. Well, is this on your isn't this your initiative? 28? We're going to do this. No, I both I've got some slides for this. I've got some thoughts on it. Okay. Because I thought you had one for 28. That called the question. I don't know if there's if. Okay. So that takes what five votes to make happen. Yep. Okay. Okay. Call the question. You got a vote on the call. The question. Yeah. Okay. Councilman grill. No.. Councilman Kennedy. Yes. Mayor pro tem. Tony. Yes. Councilman. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman Burns. I. Councilwoman Vandermark. Yes. Councilman. Williams. No. Item passes two, uh, four. Five two. Okay. So now you have to vote on the item. So the motion on the floor was the populate the ad hoc committee with council member Kennedy, uh, Mayor Pro Tem Twining and council member Burns, which I made the motion. Council member Burns seconded. Okay. Councilman Grewal. No. Councilman. Kennedy. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem. Because I think that I can help get this train back on the rails. Yes. Mayor McKeon. Yes. Councilman Burns. I. Councilwoman Vandermark. No. Council. Councilman Williams. No. Uh, item passes. Four three. All right. Next item on the

agenda, I believe, is 28 Council members, introduce your report. Okay. I think that, uh, Councilman Grohl and I will probably kind of bounce off each other a little bit here, and you can go ahead and just put up that. That first slide. Um, and so, uh, this was brought about out of really just abundance of concern from the community. And I would also say a concern that we didn't really have the opportunity to discuss this. I think the whole procedure of how, essentially that item was pulled at the last council meeting was, was improper. And so, I guess back to my first question. I mean, what we want to pull off here is a, you know, it's an after action review. It's something very common in the military. Any operation you go out on, you kind of go over, hey, what happened? You know what went wrong, what went right, what could we do better? And essentially, that's what, you know, I'm hoping that we could do with this item. You know, with this audit proposed the creative service contract is is a risk mitigation. And and it's really our fiduciary responsibility to do so. And so, uh, if we go back to the last meeting, you'll remember during council comment, the mayor had actually pulled this item so that there was no discussion about it. And he said it was the city council that's pulling the item. At least that's what the minutes reflect. Um, back to my question for you, city manager. Uh, did you direct that item to be pulled? And I'm not asking whether or not you're happy that it was pulled. Was it pulled at your direction? I didn't direct, okay. Thank you. So no direction. Um, city attorney, did you direct that item to be pulled? Not asking if you're happy you were not here. Correct. All right. And so if you go back to that item, what type of item was it? Was that a city council member item or was that administrative item. It was it was administrative item. And so we have an administrative item that was

being unilaterally pulled by one sitting council member. If a council member was to pull that item, we would have to vote on it. And so it was presented as though this was a council decision to pull the item. We never had the opportunity to vote on that. We had never had the opportunity to deliberate on that. It was just something that was shut down unilaterally by our own mayor. And so that process is completely broken in terms of how that went down. And this is one of the reasons why it's important to be having this item tonight. And, you know, Councilman Grewal, I can just kind of pass the ball over to you. I know you had a series of questions, and then after girls questions, I've got a bit of a presentation I'd like to bring out. Well, I mean, this item is about the transparency and talking about this because the community is concerned that this process has happened in reverse. And, I mean, I think we just defined it right there. It was it was treated as an age item or an administrative item, but at the same time, you know, we really need to look at the need. I keep going back to that. We're talking about the RFP. We're talking about the ad hoc committee. We never had a public study session. We never got to really kind of walk everybody through this and determine that we want to spend $720,000 on this item altogether, let alone the concerns in regards to the contracts. But the concerns that I have is how we're deviating from our standard contracting practices. In addition to introducing an ad hoc committee. Now, I mean, look, even everything's being done with good intentions. The structure raises questions about the consistency of the transparency, public confidence. So, you know, I think it's imperative right now that we go through this process. You know, I think it's important that we understand from the very beginning when it comes to establishing the need. Right. So when did City Council formally direct staff to pursue a rebranding or expanded marketing initiative? So was that that was through you, correct? Travis. Yes, yes. Uh, opportunity came to, um, that appeared to provide, revenue opportunities for the city. And I continue to

look for those opportunities. You continue. You look for those opportunities. Definitely. So then how was the scope for the initial $30,000 audit determined? So I worked to develop that. Was Wolf. Sorry. Go ahead. What was was he responding to a a posted opportunity by our city, or was he brought in to our city? No, he came to us. Did he come to us on his own volition, or was he brought by a council member? And I can. I. Explain? I was introduced to him. I knew Susan from campaigning. That's how I then, uh, I met Tyler much after she broke up with her boyfriend. And then she started dating him. They showed up to an event I remember at Butterfly Park, and that's where I first met him. Then it was several months later, and I don't remember how we got talking. Contacted, but he wanted to film. Uh, in one of the local buildings with Swat, our Swat team. So I facilitated that connection. Uh, um, and they filmed it. It worked out great. And he was starting to ask me about, uh, doing more of it, utilizing it and and getting things for us that would be beneficial to the city. And filming. Well, I don't know anything about it. And then he came about a year later, if not more. And, uh, he started hitting me up about this film commission, how he believes that Huntington Beach has so many assets and so many things that could be used by the film industry. And I kind of understood that because coming from Long Beach, I worked on so many films, I

worked on every level of whether it be a pilot to a high, uh, um, epic movie. And um, so I, I could see the value of it. But at the time I was mayor and I had my hands full, I didn't I was too busy and buried and I didn't really the business sense of it. I knew I didn't have the capacity or the will to really learn all about it, but I knew Casey was coming in as mayor. He's got a good business mind, and I and I hooked those two guys up together, and that's how it took off in that aspect. That's. So then. It my best familiarity is how that took off at that point. Thank you. Perfect. So then when the audit was structured, how was the audit structured? Was was the cause. Did you set up the audit? Was it pitched to you? Did you develop the audit? Um, yes, it. Was pitched to me. So was it pitched to you as part of a much larger ad on contract, or was it just the individual audit? Let's determine the needs and then go from there. Yeah, it was a. Pitch to do this audit to evaluation for future, potential for the city, for future revenue, for. For future revenue from the city. So then what? Why didn't we why weren't we presented the audit independently? First, for discussion purposes, we were presented the audit in conjunction with the contract. I think because of the timing of finishing the audit. The timing of finishing the audit, and then it immediately dovetails into an ad on contract and then furthermore, on the contract itself. That's not our standard form contract. So there was a specific contract that was curated for this particular project. Who made the determination not to use the city's standard form contract. So I'll jump in there. Andrew.

So to further on past point, so when Tyler was introduced to me, I'd obviously heard of him. He was working on a, you know, a short film for Huntington Beach. Um, from what I've seen and based on his references, um, in the presentation that is not, you know, was on the last meeting, but um, was it was agenda was out in the public. Um, he's one of the best in the industry in terms of, like, branding, uh, marketing, fixing, uh, you know, systems, media, movie shoots, etc.. So I want to I want to work on, uh, I'm coming back to to Huntington Beach. I'm moving from Texas. I want to raise my family, um, to Pat's Point. Um, you know, him and Susan or adopting, their daughter now from. It was a tough, you know, foster situation, so wants to bring his skill set here, wants to open up a studio here. Wanted to create a private film about Huntington Beach and Kent encountering all these broken systems in our city. We don't have a film commission. Um, the permitting process is backwards. He's like, there's a lot of what things I see we can fix here. And I'd like to do an audit, um, to see, to get in. And really, this is what I do. He's like a fixer. Right. So he does white label work for corporations like Roush. It's on his recommendations on the presentation. I mean, we'll pull that up in a minute. Multibillion dollar company, you know, white label work to come in there and fix all their systems. So he's like, but I need to do an audit first. So that's when he was introduced to Travis and Marissa. And that's where the audit process came out. At that point. Um, you know, when the audit was out talking was, you know, city manager and Marissa, that's when the the proposal came forward on on the the contract to actually, you know, have a proposal to fix the systems again, whether that contract comes forward or not, if it does come forward, council could then deliberate ask about, you know, force that individual is not here tonight. Um, this item is a little premature because the RFP is in process. So that individual is

not here tonight to answer questions or defend himself. So I will I will do my best from what I know. But said contract would come forward and be discussed on with council. Like it's council. Uh, staff doesn't always go out and look for these things to fix. If they knew how to fix these things and knew that they needed to be fixed, then we wouldn't be in this situation. Oftentimes, the private sector approaches a city. We have other assets in the city. Um, that private sector is working on a fix for us. And in this case, the private sector comes on. If this individual happens to be one of the best in the industry and is from Huntington Beach and is a local, why should we not at least entertain his ideas? And when his proposals and so that that any contract that would come forward would be talked about with by council and then voted on in a public forum to a question about an abnormal contract or not a regular contract, like all contracts are usually unique. So if this is a unique project, there's going to be certain unique deal points in the contract and that will come forward again. And that's some of these are business points that we would then decide on council if we want to approve it or not. Nothing wrong with that process. No no no no I'm not. This isn't a subjective analysis. This is literally just covering all of the things that we didn't cover, because we didn't have any sort of a study session. We saw the audit, and then I saw the contract at the same time, and there wasn't an opportunity to ask questions or discuss any of this. And then the rumor mill starts to swirl up. And that's why I was asking on the $720,000 contract that Vig wrote. Correct. Vig. Uh, Mr. Vig. Liotta, you wrote the $720,000 contract. Correct. So the contract was actually our standard form contract that had been that had gone through a negotiation process and, and some, some of the terms rewritten. So there was a negotiation process on that. But we did the did the consultant have council reviewing that or were you writing the contract on the consultants behalf?

The consultant did have an attorney. I think that was helping him. So we were amending the contract specific to the needs and the red lines from the consultant. And then it came to the city. Would you say that some of the terms in the contract are outside of what we would normally do for a city? Yeah, absolutely. They're definitely outside the scope of our standard professional services contract, for sure. But if I if I can jump in, though, those are those are business points that we as an elected body can discuss and decide if there's an issue. I you call me on Friday about a certain issue. So if you'd like we can pull up that contract because from what you told me, that was incorrect. So would you like to pull up the contract and talk about that section? I don't I don't even remember which section we talked about. The $360,000 trap door. Yeah. I mean, but I don't want to get into the granular detail of it right now because it's out in RFP. So we're going to go outside of the scope of this. I know. But you guys agenda is it tonight. So I mean if. You we didn't agenda it as a study session I just want to go through the timeline here. But yeah, but the trap door the 360 is not is not accurate. So we can. So okay so. Just if I could just jump in just so the public is aware that contract is no longer in effect. It's completely as. Yeah. But I appreciate them putting this agenda item on because we can clear the record with uh unfortunately some false information that's out in the community. So. Julian pointed that contract. If the city decided to cancel the contract simply for convenience, just after month one, this isn't going the way we want it to go anymore. He receives the remainder of the contract up until that point. So theoretically, after month one, he's receiving a windfall of $345,000 for work that he ultimately does not produce for the city. Okay, so there's termination rights in the contract for the city in the scope of services. Um, it's in all three disciplines. So film, uh,

merchandising and in the media systems, they all have defined deliverables in the scope of services. Julie, can you pull that up? I think we have. This. I have the language here. It says if the city fails to provide requested information, approvals, access or cooperation within a reasonable time, any resulting delay by the consultant shall automatically extend the applicable project schedules. Right. That's one. And then if the city materially interferes with delays, blocks or refuses access necessary for performance and does not cure after notice, consultant may suspend services and or terminate with payment due for work performed, plus termination fee as described in section four, which would be in Chad's hypothetical. If it was the first month, it would be the remainder of the contract -50%, which would be a watershed of $360,000 at the top. My point is, is it's you would not enter a contract. If so, the city would have termination rights for cause. So he doesn't hit his deliverables. The city can terminate. He has a chance to cure if we materially interfere, he can terminate the contract. We have a chance to cure. Then if the city has another termination, right, they can terminate fruit for no cause anytime whatsoever. Whatever is remaining. And then we define cause in the contract. So we say without cause. But yeah. So again. So like let's say new counsel comes in. It's 120. They don't like it. They, they can't terminate for cause because he's he's met all his deliverables. They say we want to terminate the contract. Well you got four months left, $120,000, $60,000. You would. Oh, you would not enter this contract. If you're going to just terminate in the first month. Right? Like that's just bad faith. And no one would ever enter a contract like that. So that's a business point for him. And this firm. They're implementing systems that cannot be removed. So you're this is a two year project. He's hiring some of the best in the industry for each discipline. And you know, based on the presentation you show, these are all below market rates for what you would achieve in the private sector for all these top level individuals, that that would, you know, join this project for

the 30,000 a month. But again, every discipline, the film, the media, the merchandising all have defined measurable deliverables in this scope of services. If he doesn't hit it, the city can terminate again. But then the city has another termination, right? They can terminate for any reason whatsoever. And if they do do that, pull that trigger whatever balance of term left is in the contract, it would be a 50%, which as a business point makes sense, because you're going to have the rug pulled out from underneath you when you were working in good faith, implementing these systems that cannot be removed from the city, they're fused into the city using your high level talent who's now, you know, come off of other jobs to work here. So again, you've hit your deliverables and the city wants to pull the rug out from underneath you for, for without cause, whatever's in the balance, you get paid 50%. So benchmarks were pretty ambiguous. Can you name can you quantify one. Billionaire mayor? Sure. You qualify one. Can you pull up the scope of services benchmark? Sure. Let's look at it. Let's go through it. Yeah. It's under the scope of services. Just just to remind the public this contract is no longer in effect. These terms are no longer anywhere in the ethers. It's just it was something we're basically discussing a dead item. Well, we're discussing a contract that was drafted up by the city that that is beneficial. It's we're saying it's a normal business deal, but we're a municipal organization. So that's not been there. Are we drafting it as a business or. Municipal organization? My point is simply that the the agreements no longer no longer in effect, it's never worked. This is an after actions report. We're trying to learn from mistakes that were made. So, Mr. City Attorney, that termination clause, did you like that termination clause? Did you think it was good for the city? I so I'm not here. I will give legal advice, but I'm not here to really give you guys tell you guys your business points. Right. So I leave that up to you to negotiate. Right. So that's again, that's a business. But you didn't put that that term in there. That wasn't you.. I did not draft. So where did that where did that come from? Where was that drafted. I don't I can't remember now where it came from. I mean it didn't come.

From me from the city manager's office. Again, I don't want to speak on something I can't remember. Our city manager, can you speak to that? Was. Was this your terms that were put in? Because now there's no accountability. Now we're doing this. I work for a council member. Was there a mayor that was involved in drafting? I'm not I'm not trying to hide from this. Like Travis and I talked about it when he asked for advice on certain issues. When a private sector comes and says, hey, at this business point's important to me, Travis says, hey, what do you think it's okay for council members to negotiate contracts. It's okay for council members to negotiate leases, because what happens is when that final product comes, is done, it is then presented to council to vote on and deliberate on. So if you guys didn't like that business point, we could have talked about it, removed it, voted on it or not vote on it. It's okay that the electorate elects us to ruin our private sector experience, right? So it's okay for Travis to City manager to ask us, hey, he has his business point. What do you think to me that that seems fair, that that business point of we can terminate for cause if he doesn't hit the milestone deliverables as an example, on creative media strategy and communication infrastructure. Months one through three, he must one of the bullet points of of four, he must prepare a draft city brand Bible and initial communication standards framework. That is a defined, specified deliverable. If he does not, and that one that one system city can terminate. So going back to your point, it's okay for council members to weigh in and help Travis and Vig negotiate contracts because again, the final product comes back to council to be deliberated in public and voted on. There's no gotcha thing. There's no there's nothing untoward. There's no backroom deal. I would hope that you guys would want to jump in and help out if Travis said, hey, what do you think on this? You know, a small business contract? Andrew, what do you think? Great. Yeah. I want to provide my my experience. I want to provide my skill set because because you know that whatever you help, we'll come back in front of council to be deliberated on in public and voted on. I was hopeful that

this opportunity would come in front of us. And I'm glad you guys are talking about it today to show the community that there is no backroom deal, there's no cronyism, right? This individual lives in heights and beaches. Bring it forward. But again, I will say that if you guys don't like this proposal, what proposal do you have to fix? Our structural budget deficits? Besides the sales tax increase or hotel tax increase? What we're getting off the agenda item right now. I think that's a that's a good question and one that is that I would have loved that we did address in a public study session. So that's why I'm talking about the rushing of this. Right. If we had kind of we went to Travis, Travis came back and said, you know what, let's discuss this. We got this audit, which we didn't really I knew about it. I mean, I'm not pretending that we didn't know that there was work going on, but we have this audit. Let's look at it and then determine what the need from the audit is and then just be a lot more. I mean, I know we're rushing for the fourth, but we can do a lot of that, I think internally. So that's where we have this discussion. Sure. But again, we're elected to make big, bold decisions. Right. And like I said, I've talked to Zach, our finance director. Like our expense. Our responsibility. Our exactly our expenses are increasing about 5% a year in revenues is about two and a half to 4%. That's a huge delta. So when these opportunities are presented to us by the private sector, it's incumbent upon us to jump in and try to fix them. And I understand if you guys don't like this proposal, I don't understand if you think it's rushed, but there's a there's a way to do it correctly, which we are doing. There's a way to talk through with the public if we have to be here until three in the morning. Right. We were elected to do that. You don't always have to have a study session, because sometimes opportunities like this. Point of order real quick. Can I. Get I'll make the motion to extend after 11. Thanks, Pat. Oh. Thanks. So again, sometimes these opportunities you need to jump on and and we're all talented. We're all in the private sector. And so let's at least try let's let the process play out. Let's let the RFP finish on Monday. Let's see

what comes back and let's see if we can, you know, find a firm that can implement these systems to again fix our branding with our with our take back our intellectual property. I mean, in the audit itself, it said that we subsidize the library half $1 million a year. We should be able to fix that easily with better, you know, communication with the real quick. Let me just finish. Well. I mean, there's a there's a grant being proposed. But we didn't vote on the 11:00. Are we supposed to vote on it? Technically, you should vote on it. I think you can do, Stuart. We're good. All eyes. I I I yes. So I guess then let me ask another. So I understand with the $30,000, so will the people that are putting forth an RFP right now. Are they afforded a process. Because I want to make sure that we're not we're not liable for anything here. Are they afforded a process whereby they can also do an audit and then allow that audit to be a part of where are they going to get an opportunity to also do an audit? Is that part of the full proposal, or is it strictly just the business that we laid out there? Because if we have one group that had the benefit of doing an audit, which was very valuable. Well, that's an advantage. You got paid $38,000 to put together his audit that's now being used for the bid. How is that? I think they're bidders. Sure. I think guys are looking at the wrong way. It's actually more fair to the bidders. He actually did an audit to expose all the broken systems in the city, create a roadmap that now other firms can then read his order and go, hey, I can do this as that. Like he actually like we did, we paid a firm to was a 50 grand to do audits of all our leases. Right. And then you present the audit. So he actually did the other bidders of service. He created the road map. He showed where all the broken systems are. And then he actually his proposals out there and how to fix it. So he's created a cheat sheet for them. So it's the inverse in my opinion, of what you guys are saying. Andrew, I think to answer your question though, the other they could propose other as part of the RFP process, other methods and systems that they may find in the in the city that they

want to work on. Okay, if I could I'm going to jump into my presentation. I'm just going to try and get through it uninterrupted. If I could guys just let me go through and then I'm happy to deliberate, you know, some more. So the purpose of this whole review, and this is where we're getting back to what do we want to do? We want to protect the tax dollars of of our taxpayers and follow our own laws. And so looking at this, Wolfe has $720,000 professional service contract. I look at it as it was a potential legal landmine. And I want to make a point that just as in any other time we present, I'm presenting as an in my individual capacity as a council member, same way we speak. This is just my visual aid right here. So it's a potential legal landmine that had it been signed, it could have exposed the city to liability, avoided contract and potential personal liability for those involved. Next slide. Can you. So questions regarding I'm expanding on if I could mayor please questions regarding the 30 k Brandon systems audit and report. So we already have one of these questions answered was Wolf responding to posted opportunities put out by the city. We know the answer is no. How was Wolf introduced to our city manager? We know that he came. I guess ultimately through council member Pat Burns, who went to Mayor Casey McEwen, and Casey McEwen led him to the city manager, who we have here. Um, regarding business licenses, I'm pretty sure we passed an ordinance, and that's under the city treasurer's office at this point. In terms of business licenses are taken care of. If I could just ask our treasurer, Jason Schmidt, I got a number of questions. Uh, who runs business licenses now after that ordinance? That's that's yourself. Right. So it's 30 days after the date that the ordinance was passed. So it would be as of April 3rd, 2026. I do. Got it. Okay. So previously we've been the director of finance. And we've all seen a lot of

social media buzz this week about Wolf Haas and his business license application. Can can you tell me when was his business license application submitted? April 6th, 3 p.m.. And so this is the day before our last council meeting. That is correct. Okay. Had what had he previously applied for a business license before? Uh, after checking with their head of business license? No. Okay. So Wolf Haas did not have an active business license when he was contracted for $30,000, and that transaction had taken place with the city. Is that correct? He didn't have an active business license at that time. Presuming that contract predates April 6th, 2026. That is correct. Okay, so he's definitely doing business with the city. Without a valid business license, with the city. Um, looking back at his business license, how many employees, what type of team is he bringing to the table? Uh, how many employees did he sign up with? With his business license. So judging by the fact that he checked the worker's comp box, and by definition of what's in that box, it would be one. One. Because any other sublicense would have to have separate contract, sorry, separate business licenses with the city. And there are no subcontractors. And there's some concerns in terms of whether or not he actually has a facility, a building, a studio. What address did he put on his business? So the address he used is used by 85 other businesses within the city of Huntington Beach. It's a virtual offices in the Comerica Bank building. Sorry. Can you say that again? How many other businesses? 85. It's pretty standard. Okay, so this is like a P.O. box. Uh, it's a virtual office, so you can rent the office. I think it's $29 a month. And then, um, you can have rent space if you want to have a meeting or something like that. So it's somewhat like a WeWork. Okay, I understood thank you. Treasurer. So looking at what our municipal code says right

there in chapter 5.08.01, license required says there are imposed upon businesses, trades, professions, callings and occupations specified in this title. License taxes in the amount hereafter prescribed highlighted here. It shall be unlawful. It shall be unlawful for any person to transact and carry on any business, trade, profession, calling or occupation in the city without first having procured a license from the city. As we just saw, he did not have a license procured from the city. There was a transaction that took place. Therefore, this $30,000 payout that he received for this contract was unlawful. Let's go to the next slide. And now we get into $720,000 professional service procurement process. How should it have gone? We actually have a procurement process. It is a process the way it should have gone. We just jumped right into 3.03.10 as the justification for entering into this agreement, when in reality there is a process, there are prerequisites, just as you see in that chapter. 303.01 and what does it apply to? It applies to professional service contracts that are greater than $30,000. And that's exactly how it reads. Write off our municipal code. You see, it all contracts for performance of professional services for the city, which exceed $30,000, which in this case it's 720, shall be awarded in accordance with the procedures of this code. What is this code? This code is that process. 3.03.01 through 3.03. 100. Did we actually follow that or were we about to? It was a landmine. I continue. Uh, let's go to the next slide. And so professional service procurement process, how should it have gone. Here's the breakdown. We just arrived at 3.03 100 all the way at the bottom there. Here's the

process that it should have gone through. And this is our procurement process. These are our laws. My fellow council members. And we need to adhere to the laws that our city has passed, says number one. The director prepares scope and necessity of the statement. You see the reference there in that section 3.03.04, and you'll see a progression here in the sections. And then what the city manager plus the finance director approved budgeted funds 3.03.04. And then they solicit a written proposal. This is the rule of three. And so this was a question that came up earlier. Do we actually go out and reach out to qualified professionals. Not only do we do that, we have a law. We have an ordinance that requires that this go out to three qualified professionals to prevent to present their proposals. And then we evaluate proposals and select best qualified. And then at that point it comes before the city council. The city council approves final contracts greater than $100,000. 3.03.10 we skipped that entire process. That's how it should have gone. Moving on to the next slide. What actually happened? What actually happened in the workforce process? How it deviated? There was no scope necessity statement prepared by the director. There was no rule of three, only one firm. It was Wolf has no competitive proposals or solicitations. It incorrectly cited 3.03.10 as authority. It only applies to contracts that are less than or equal to $30,000. There's other valid exceptions that you can find in 3.03.08, but that has to do with emergencies that are taking place in the city. That has to do with legal experts that maybe our city attorney needs to hire. None of those exceptions apply to this Wolf contract. And so the $720,000,

no big contract, it just gets pushed straight to council and does not follow our laws that we have written in our municipal code. Going to the next slide. And so what is the consequence of bypassing the code? Well, there is precedent for this. This is a 160 year old black letter law. You can't just vote or waive the rules. Altman versus San Francisco. It's a landmark decision for California. Supreme Court cited hundreds of times across California case law. The mode prescribed in the is the measure of the power. I repeat, the mode prescribed is the measure of the power. Essentially, what it says is that if the law or your own city code says you must do a contract a certain way, which that's what we just read, like getting at least three bids or following the rule of three, then that is the only way the city has legal power to make the deal. You can't just vote to skip the rules and waiver it. Next slide. And so the binding nature, once the City Council enacted an ordinance like we have in chapter 3.03, that ordinance has the force of law. It's binding upon the city itself until it's formally repealed or amended. If we don't like what's in the municipal code, here's what we can do. As a city council. We could meet about it. We can amend it. We vote on it. It gets read out, and then it has to get read out a second time. And so you see the imperative that shall mandate the director of the Department shall prepare a written statement defining the necessity and scope. The word shows mandatory. It's not just directory. Next slide. And so ultra vires beyond the powers. This has come up before a contract that is in direct violation of the city's own mandatory procurement laws is utterly ultra vires. It's beyond the power. We don't have the power as we just saw in

that Supreme Court case, to violate our own laws or just waive them. And so a no bid contract is $720,000. That bypasses the due consideration of competitive proposals required by our municipal code, is what I would say is an apparent violation of the very law that Council swore to uphold. We swore to uphold these laws. Next slide. And so we have an inherent conflict. The making of the contract, the making of the contract. There's court precedent for this, too, under Steagall and City of Taft, the making quotes of a contract includes the preliminary planning and drafting of speculation. So here's the problem Wolfe has. Acting as a consultant. He produced the audit. The audit didn't just find facts, it created the specifications for the $720,000 contract. And how do we know that? We know that because it's actually in exhibit A attached to the contract. It says exhibit A admission. The $720,000 contract exhibit explicitly states it focuses on initiatives where identified where in the city, asset and revenue audit. There's no escaping that. The smoking gun exhibit A of the $720,000 contract, the making of the contract under Steagall versus city. Taft. If we can go to the next slide, the smoking gun, it's an explicit admission. And it was there in exhibit A strategic advisory and implementation support. This engagement focuses on three strategic modernization initiatives identified in the city, asset and revenue audit. That's a quote. And then it goes on to list three pillars creative direction, film, digital media, municipal merchandising. That's important to remember those three pillars. Next slide. And so this smoking gun this specific sentence is what dismantles any claim that the audit was just a preliminary idea. And it brings about direct causation under government code and section 1090. It's a it's a self it's a it's a conflict of interest

law, a conflict exists if an advisor participates in the making of a contract. We just saw how that's the case by stating the contract focuses on initiatives identified in the audit. The city is admitting on paper that the audit dictated the scope of the $720,000 deal. I mean, this is a textbook case violation in my opinion, of that government code. 1090. This is self-dealing. Next slide. So the inherent conflict because the consultant who planned the work was the same consultant to be awarded the work without a competitive bid at that stage, the $720,000 contract appeared to violate the core prohibition of that section 1090. If the city had signed it. And this is from my research, if the city had signed it, the city could have legally been prohibited from paying him, and any taxpayer could have sued us and potentially clawed back every cent. And so this is what courts sometimes called bootstrapping. Wolfe has used the same contract, the audit, to convince the city of a need, and then use the same audit to define the 727, $720,000 solution. Next slide. And so the apparent failure of what might be a safe harbor for him, government code 1090 7.6 the safe harbor only applies if the first contract was limited to conceptual work. We saw this was not just conceptual, however. The $720,000 contract was not. It was more than concepts. It was implementation. As we see in the quotes, we will assess, build, implement, train and transition. You cannot claim the first document was merely conceptual. If you immediately turn around and sign a contract to build the exact thing defined in that document. Next slide. And so picking apart exhibit A and the audit itself. If you compare these two documents side by side, things

get even worse. You look at audit page seven identifies film and media production as a revenue recovery opportunity. Well what is the contract? Do contract make a film and digital media office development. One of the three primary objectives. Remember those three pillars again another comparison audit. Page 13 identifies municipal merchandising as a missed opportunity. What is the contract say? Contract says make municipal merchandising modernization a primary objective. Next slide. And so in exhibit A of the proposed $720,000 contract, it is explicitly admitted in this new unbilled contract was based directly on the findings of the audit. Wolf has had just completed. And when the person identifying the missing millions is the same person who shows up with a contract to find the missing millions, you have an apparent textbook violation of government code section 1090. Next slide. We're just talking about this kill switch in section 12. It's the termination clause on that $720,000 contract. If the city terminates for convenience at any time, and that could happen to Wolf. Foster, seize 50% of the entire remaining balance as a termination fee. By way of example, terminate after month one. City pays them approximately $345,000. It's a windfall for work that was never performed. This is where we get into some major issues with California law. Next slide. The potential legal gift of public funds violate violation of California Constitution. California Constitution, article 16, section six says the legislature shall have no power to make any gift of any public money or thing of value. That bullet point public funds may only be spent for a public purpose, with adequate consideration, paying hundreds of thousands for services not delivered is a classic violation and dereliction of a fiduciary responsibility. I

mean you can enter in next slide. You can enter into a bad contract in the public sector anytime you want. But us as a legislative body, as a municipality, we have this fiduciary responsibility to not enter into agreements where we ultimately could find ourselves paying a contractor for work they did not perform. That's a textbook gift of funds. And so the termination language is so vague in that contract that Wolf could potentially terminate the contract himself and still argue he's owed half the remaining money. Combined with the five day deemed accepted rule, this gives him all the power and the city almost none. This is a one sided trap for taxpayers, and so just concluding on this thought, Wolf wrote the audit that created the need and scope. Now he's now bidding on that's that government code going to the next slide. That's that government code section 1090 self-dealing. We skip the mandatory Huntington Beach municipal code, chapter 3.03 Procurement process. The rule of three was violated and any resulting contract would have voided under Ottoman. Next slide. That 50% kill switch termination fee equals illegal gift of public funds. One sided terms exposed taxpayers to massive risks. This was not a procedural procured professional service contract according to our own laws. It was a high risk, legally flawed, no bid deal that put the city in potential jeopardy. And so I would like to make a recommendation that I'll make on this next slide. But Julie, if you could, because I was told, just bring it up at the next some current concerns because ultimately this leads to and it'll be slide number 26. You know, are we guiding or are we going um, sorry. Slide 26. Back up a little bit. This whole process, I believe, has

just been utterly tainted, because if you follow it from the audit itself that was written to the mayor's statements at the last council meeting to the resulting RFP that is attached to this agenda item. So I can speak on this agenda item. What are we being asked to do? We're being asked to vote for a committee to guide an RFP process when the mayor is already told the public who the winner should be. I mean, those are your words right there, mayor. I am highly confident that Wolf Horse is the best group to perform all of these highly specialized services. It's hardly guidance. It's more of a coordination. And so creating this committee with the mayor's involvement creates a potential due process violation that could make any resulting contract legally indefensible. And so here's in the next slide. Here's the pattern that we see running through the evidence and analysis of the RFP is verbatim the mirror of the mayor's mandates. You've got this 123 mayor's statement, the audit, the official RFP. Next slide. The evidence shows a three stage hand off stage one. The audit written by Wolf, has created the concept. Stage two the mayor announced them as a list of imperative. Stage three. The RFP codified them into mandatory bidding requirements. Next slide. The evidence shows a three stage handoff. Go to the next slide. The RFP is a near direct implementation of the mayor's spoken vision. He spoke about the brand, ecosystem, merchandising, film office, creative venture, infrastructure, media relationships, local preference, and fast timeline. This level of mirroring makes the RFP vulnerable to arguments that it was shaped by the same consultant Wolf has who wrote the audit that first framed these exact imperatives. Next slide. And so you see this direct chain that takes place audit mayor RFP will force audit draft for creation of the vision. Mayor publicly repeated the same imperatives. City issues RFP that mirrors both. This results in what I would

say is a textbook 1090 self-dealing sequence. Next slide. The direct chain. If you look at number one here, the audit, we have pages that we're going to reference. And bear with me folks, I'm wrapping up. But this is big money on the line. And it's our taxpayers that are at risk. And so it's important to get into the details here. We're talking about three quarters of $1 million that we almost made a big oops on. And so pages three, seven, nine, 11 through 15, it writes us build, fix and run brand ecosystem. You see the licensing, the events, the tourism, the sponsors, everything. City control, merchandising program all the same language. Let's go to the next slide. What do we have in the mayor's statements? A firm who could build, fix and run brand ecosystem. Sound familiar? Consist of media merchandising, licensing. Sound familiar film, cultural programming, optimization, optimizing our city revenue. And it goes on. The firm needs to create implement a film and digital media office for permitting and location marketing. Sounds very familiar. Next slide. Then we look at the actual RFP that was issued April 13th, 2026. Familiar words, title, scope, creative strategy, branding, merchandising, media communication, film industry development services. These are the exact pillars brand, ecosystem, city control, merchandising, licensing, film and digital media office, creative direction, infrastructure, staff training. This is the exact structure, the direct chain from audit, mayor RFP. Let's go to the next slide. And so the legal implications my point of view, the same contractor who wrote the audit that created the need in the scope repeated on record through a series of imperatives by the mayor, is now bidding on the RFP that was built from his own audit. To me, it seems this is a precise sequence prohibited by government Code 1090. And so with that, I would like to make a motion if I can get back to my slide here where I have this motion, it would be

number 23 for you. Julie. The motion would be a recommendation to be considered here. Consider a vote to terminate slide 23 for you. Right there. Consider a vote to terminate or reconfigure the approach for the RFP for creative strategy, branding, merchandising, media communication and film industry development services. Second, you guys, for your patience and allowing me to present some of these concerns. And thank you for your second. Mr.. City Attorney. So as a city attorney, can we dive in? I'll I'll be brief. Mayor and I can get through this quickly. I and I'm not you know, I don't have a 50 page presentation to provide or and and we're not in a court of law. We're presenting legal arguments. So I'll say this. The municipal code does. It's. Julie, can you pull up my slide? It's 3.03.10, please. Yeah. So the municipal code does allow for the director in certain circumstances, as was mentioned in the actual that contract that's no longer in effect. And it's not not being presented. It's Julie. It's a 3.03.10 authorization by department directors. Right. So we've we've taken the position not only in this situation but in the past that that a director does have the authority. If it's been if the agreement's been budgeted to directly enter into the into the agreement, meaning they don't have to go through an RFP process. So that's that's number one. And it's you can argue and there's certainly arguments on both sides. We could sit here and debate this all night. We've made this determination in the past and it's followed through on followed through in this. Contract. It's better. Otherwise I and I and I will say this, I think,

um, our municipal code's highly overdue for a revamp on the. That's the presentation. There's a. Professional service and the service contract procurement process. I definitely think we could. Uh, 3.03.10. Yeah, we could revamp that contract or that code to make it a lot clearer. Yeah. So what lessons learned, I guess. And you set it up. You just about pulled it up. Yeah. One of the good things is that, like I said, I think we my office is going to take a look at, at that procurement process and see if we can come up with some better. Yeah. Right there. Right there. Yep. So and then on to the second point about the I'm not going to address all the other stuff. But as to the 1090 issue before the before the contract ever came before the council, um, we looked at the 1090 applications and ran it by more multiple outside counsel review, and they all concluded the same that 1090 wouldn't be implicated in this case. Now, the only way. To city attorney, you said that you would provide the response, and you just told me that you never even. Got I don't have a back. So, so and I'll follow up with that. So that that was verbal that I got that over the phone. But I do have a firm that's going to draft a memorandum for the council. And as soon as I get it, I'll provide it to the entire council. As to the analysis on this case. Why don't we just just reach out to the FPC? That would be the governing body that would decide. And they're more than willing, if we reach out to them to give their, their, their recommendation. It's a good point. And so the FPC will only give on 1090 issues because and this is to to Chad's credit, this the 1090 issue is very complicated. And there's multiple multiple FPC. Uh, rulings, letter rulings on this issue. Um, but we could

reach out to the FPC for sure, but they will provide in order for them to provide formal advice. It does take a bit of time, and that's the only way. My advice, outside counsel's advice only goes so far. If you get something from the FPC, then you're essentially cleared of any any. No one can bring a lawsuit or or a complaint with the FPC if you get something from them. But just to confirm, Michael, uh, it's your opinion that no. 1090 violation occurred, nor your outside counsel. And then if you look on the screen, yes. Casey McKeon. That's true. Thank you. And if you look on the screen, the one section that Councilmember Williams left out, which is what I said in in my minutes, is 3.03.10 municipal code. The director of any department for which such services are required may contract directly for any professional services. When procurement of such services has been budgeted and are sufficient, unencumbered, appropriate funds available, or in the cost of which will be fully paid or reimburse the city. The annual budget for the fiscal year in which that agreement is entered into shall provide a general description of the work to be performed, so nothing was done untoward. Um. It's in the authority of municipal code for a director of any department enter into such a contract. It's also further evidenced by the fact Mr. Mike Liotta that section 613 of our charter allows the council to enter into contracts, correct? That's correct. Well, it says that the council is charged with entering into all contracts and the plenary authority that you have pursuant to the charter, allows the Council that this rule is set up for the city department heads. It's not set up. Hey. What I love. Is that everything I said was on the record, and people are going to be able to fact check all of this. But this is on the record as well from our parliamentarian and our legal legal attorney in on the charter. Which you spoke about is our governing document. So, Mister Mike, if I were to understand correctly, the RFP process is designed for staff to provide a system to them, present to counsel,

correct. It's designed for staff to evaluate contracts. Not all of them necessarily come to. The. How about so. Explicitly what it says. Read the municipal. Chat if you don't mind. We let you give your presentation so charter section 613 says any council, the council can enter into a contract. So we don't need to go through an RFP process because the charter is. Our the council directed the contract. There's no that that municipal code section applies to directors. To directors. So the council can enter into contracts. The council's counsel can bring forward contracts. They can reach out to private firms to bring forward contracts. Right. Because again, section 613 of the charter is our that is our Constitution. It allows a mechanism for these things to happen, which again, that's why the electorate votes for us to represent them on council. So what council member Williams went through is is a municipal code section for staff to bring forward. But I just showed you on the screen that's up there right now, three, 3.0, 3.10. Even in that muni code, there's a system for the department heads to bring forward professional service contracts when it's been budgeted right. Regardless. Section 13 six. Section 613 of our charter allows council members to negotiate contracts or bring contracts because those contracts will then come before council in a public setting and be voted on. You're maybe taking a little, little too far. Okay. You can back. Up a little charter code section, but the the point of the point of all of this is that code said the municipal code section, that Councilmember Williams referenced 100% needs to be rewritten. Right? I and. So why would you say something like that, though? Because what it says right here, you're reading Dot 100, but what comes before 100 is. I'm 90 again. On 80. All contracts. All contracts, not just director driven contracts, all contracts. This is our municipal law for performance

of professional services for the city, which exceeds 30,000, shall be awarded in accordance with procedures of this code. What is this code? Is the entire procurement. list in chapter three. We don't. We can debate again. We can debate the the interpretation of this all night long. The at the end of the day, that's the path that we chose. And at the end of the day, that path never made it past the council meeting. So it's really an academic discussion at this point. And we're just essentially. We're hoping. To chasing forward. Yeah. But again, this I'm glad the agenda is this because I want to communicate to the community that nothing improper was done. It's allowed by the charter. It's further allowed by section 3.03.10 for department directors to enter into contracts. Right. But again, we need, you know, fresh ideas to bring in and creative ideas to bring in revenue. Okay. Because the only answer I've heard or idea to fix our structural budget issues, our sales tax increases or hotel tax increases. So if you guys don't like this proposal, I would counter to you. Which proposal do you have? Councilmember Grove. Well, if you if we want to have a separate budget discussion, we can do so. We have committees. We talk about this all the time about bringing business into the city and different ways in which we can do this. I'm just going to hone in on the fact that this process is sloppy. It's led to a rumor mill that something nefarious was done, which is not what I'm suggesting. But the reality is we're rushing through this process. We should have had a study session as to this need to begin with, and how much we want to budget for it, and then we should have moved forward under the procurement procedures that were just laid out. The ones which you even said are fuzzy. Right? So if we have a fuzzy lane through which we're traveling, then we should probably not continue traveling down that lane and we should pull back a little bit. So I once again back to it. I sure second the motion that we terminate the idea behind this and reestablish. Andrew, and I think you'll

indulge me on this like life isn't always super clean and sometimes not messy. When a great opportunity comes in front of you, someone comes in your private sector and you grill of this amazing restaurant. It's fully built out. It's prime. The guy needs to sell it, but I need you to give me an offer in a day, I know. Would you would you drop everything to. Do that? I'm not going to consider hypotheticals and platitudes. But again, sometimes that that timeline of what you want to go through a study session and RFPs, sometimes that doesn't exist. And that's one of these examples. But again, nothing was done improperly. There's mechanisms in our city charter and our municipal code, 3.03.10 to get us to this point. But again, it would then come in front of council. So the RFP is already out there. It's in process. Let's see what it comes back and let's let the process play out. But again, you guys are going after someone who's not here to defend themselves, not. Just make it clean. I'm not going after Tyler. And not. Going after me either. It's just you said nothing improper. We paid him $30,000 without him having a license. That was proof. Okay, so let's talk about that. So sloppy. He said okay. Moving fast. He didn't have a business license. We paid him 30,000. And now we're asking a guy to brand our city. That needs to probably fix his own brand on his website when it's going to an adult hotline at night. I mean, we're moving. Wait. There's a motion on the table. Sure, but real quick on the business license. Like, I'm pretty confident he's not the first nor the last business, so not really so. But however, this is a good learning experience that we can weave in to streamline. So, Travis, can we now move forward on streamline to create a system where city, going forward has to require a business license before any, you know, audit or payment is issued? Yes, definitely. Okay. So that's a good learning experience, right? So through this process we can clean that up. Because again I know of several businesses that don't have a license. And to the point when they asked when he did business, he said February 1st and back paid to February 1st. So that's through this

process. We can into rigs point if there's ways in municipal code to clean things up, we can do that. But the process is working through correctly, right? Let's let the RFP finish. Let's see what comes back. And let's see if we can jump on this opportunity to really create these systems. And again I keep going back to my hat. I mean it's just to me it is so unacceptable that we don't own our intellectual property, our HP logo. And through this audit, I want the community to know Mr. Wolfowitz was the one who staff have been told for years by previous attorneys that we could not trademark our HB logo on this hat right here. Through his audit, he introduced city staff to patent attorneys. So that's not true. He had he had solutions that they didn't realize themselves. They asked, can I share those solutions with other clients? He said, absolutely, this this now is in the process of being trademarked. And once it trademarked through, hopefully a firm comes through and can create merchandising opportunities through our city. If the Surf City store is doing $800,000 a year, what could a city wide program do with marketing communications systems, advertising, an online store put out new apparel, new merchandise, new items quarterly? You could do a subscription service like they have in the NBA, where you pay $25 a month every time a new piece of merchandise comes out, it gets dropship to you. We could work with local manufacturers to produce this merchandise again if they surf city stores do an 800,000, what could we do as city wide in this presentation? Mr. Wolfowitz created, you could put kiosks in our city facilities, right? City hall, the library, the senior center, other facilities where people can, as they're waiting for their appointment, the planning department can go online on the tablet, scroll down and look. Oh, and HP hat or sure to sticker, right? I mean, there's 75 in the 75 liquor stores in our city selling bootleg HB stickers. Not a guy going through our neighborhood with the new menu every every

Christmas and Independence Day. Hey, I got new HP merch, so every time you see this logo on the community, just know that we don't own it. We don't make any money on it. And just lastly, I'll wrap it up just on the art center. Again, we're subsidizing it. Let's bring in a group. The private sector is here to help us. Let's invite them to come help us. Right. Let's not to get caught up on a on a technicality, which our city attorney says is not accurate. Everything we've done, we're allowed to do the process in there. If we really want to be business friendly, we really want to encourage the private sector, especially some of the best in the industry, who now live in Huntington Beach. We should be inviting them and have their process let them come up in front of us personally and talk about it, instead of attacking them when they're not here. So I think it's appropriate if we want to fix our city and want to fix our budget, we should entertain these big, bold ideas and walk through publicly how to do. It. Motion on the floor in a second. No. Yeah, my feedback is real quick on that motion. It has a great presentation, super thorough. The only you know to his question, I think that we should how we got here. Your presentation did have a lot of had it been could have if the city had signed. Um, so our city attorney said that there was nothing illegal based on the codes, legal advice, outside counsel. So we are where we are. The contract was never executed. So this process, all those sloppy and created a lot of, um, you know, uh, false senses of cronyism has now got us to a place where we all can agree we need revenue, we need better communications. And I think a film commission would be incredible, no matter who deploys this. The winning strategy. Now we have people, um, that are raising their hands saying, pick me. So now we have a process. Remember,

everybody has a vote. So when it's all said and done, everybody's going to have a vote on whoever staff selects as the one that we want to move forward with, or no one for that matter. But, uh, what I think is we should now let this process move forward. We should entertain everybody's, uh, skill sets, and we might be shocked. There might be somebody that's so incredible. We're going to be like, boy, how are we got here? Really sucked. But, boy, the end result is fantastic. Um, and nobody here is committed to Wolf House industries. We're committed to what he, uh, proposed, which is a preferred solution to drive revenue that nobody can argue against. So I think we go through the RFP process. You know, I still want to be part of helping these guys make it a little tighter, a little bit better. Uh, not just for this deal, but for all future deals, because I believe unless somebody can tell me otherwise, that this is an ironclad best RFP process you can ever see, I would have to disagree. Um, so, you know, I would. I don't know where the motion is, but I, I still would like to see there's a lot of applicants now, a lot of variety. Uh, we have a lot of eyeballs on it. Everybody agrees there's nothing to various. You've said it. You've said it. Gracie said it. I'll say it. There's nothing nefarious here. The cronyism, the people, the keyboard warriors with their ignorant fingers. They can say what they want. The bottom line is we have a lot of people that have a skill set that match what we are looking for, that if we can find the right vendor or vendors, um, maybe it's not an all in one solution, maybe one, two, three get three separate different things. We're going to be stoked in the end that we went through this. How we got here a little sloppy. Uh, the bottom line we should move forward. But on a real quick note, I mean, this is just kind of a little bit of fun. Do you have a business license because you need one to. Based on what I just looked at, you're a home based business. What transactions am I doing with the city? No, it doesn't matter. It says

Huntington Beach requires most business operating city have a business license. If you're a business based out of your home in HB, you're right. You're considered operating. If your business is run from your home, you need a home based business license. If you live in Huntington, your business home base, that means your base of operations is in HB triggers HB licensing. Even if your income is earned elsewhere, your business exists in your home in plain English. In plain English, if you organize, invoice, market or run your speaking business from your HB home, the city considers you operating a business. You need a business license. All right, well, I'll have to look, maybe I need an update. That everybody learns something. I might be wrong. This is just what Google told me. Uh, real. Quick, I think. I think you're probably right. But, you know. With that municipal code, apply to me in chapter five that says anyone doing transactions with the city, I'm not doing transactions with. The city we're talking about. It's midnight, guys. It's your business. It's midnight. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's. And one last note before we go to vote. Just another correction of the committee, because this is the opportunity. So we spent over $8 million last year on professional service contracts. How many of those professional service contracts have the opportunity to make us money and can provide the community benefit that this proposed one did? And it's a this is an investment, right? This is a not to exceed 24 months. Right. With, with, uh, deliverables that much more can be canceled. And so the revenue potential based on the presentation showed at year five, potential revenue brought in the city is about 18 plus million dollars on a $720,000 investment. That's an ROI of 2,400%. So you would obviously do that. So again, just want the community understand that, you know, $1 million last year for professional service contracts. This one is 360 year not to exceed two years. It's an investment. So with that motion on the floor. I want to turn. Back the record on one thing, because I think Councilman Kennedy said that. I said there was nothing nefarious with this

or I don't think I absolutely think that there's something nefarious going on. Absolutely believe something DeForest is going on with this. Yeah, well, it could be nefarious, he said. It's not illegal. Um, the contract was never signed. They executed a $30,000 contract. The community has eyes and they can see, and they're going to remember. This is very obvious. That's all. Facts are not innuendos. They're different. Chad. You just got about 30 slides of facts. Let's let's go ahead. And which we're. Correct. Yeah. Which were corrected by our legal city. I'm going to call the question. Yeah. Let's call. It which we're corrected by our legal city attorney. Call it for the record. So can you repeat the motion please. And the second. Are we going to go back to the motion? All right. Consider a vote to terminate or reconfigure the approach. So I, I'm making a motion to terminate the approach for this RFP because I believe it's tainted. Second. Terminate. Okay. Councilman Grewal. Yes. Councilman Kennedy. No. Mayor Pro tem 20. Since I'm on the esteemed ad hoc committee, and this RFP has been out there for several days, I'm going to say no because I want to see the proposals. So no. No Councilman Burns. No. Councilwoman Vandermark. Not because I think there's anything, like I said, nefarious, but I'm just not comfortable with this whole process the way it's processed. So, no. You mean yes? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Councilman Williams? Yes. Motion fails. 3 to 4. All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Okay.

Second. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council public finance and Authority is Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, and the Civic Center Council Chambers, 2000 Main Street, Huntington Beach, California. Good night everybody. Let them go. Flying high.