City Council - Regular Meeting

You better get your dreams before they fade away We're all here until we know not when

You know we'll be together

So. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. so so Thank you. Thank you.

She comes home late, tell me, honey, where have you been? Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping under the bed. I got up this morning too late to go to work She told me to get out and she threw me down my shirt Well I ran to the station and I got on the very next train And when I opened up my eyes I was back in bed again

Hey guys, tell me when. 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 Gruhl?

Here.

Councilman Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney?

Here.

Mayor McKeon is absent pursuant to resolution number 2001-54. Mayor McKeon has requested permission to be absent from the closed session portion of the meeting. Councilman Burns?

Here.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Here. Councilman Williams?

Here.

Six present, one absent.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do we have any supplemental communications?

We have no supplemental communications.

Madam Clerk, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

We have no one signed up to speak.

All right. So included in the closed session today, there'll be conference with real property negotiators, government code section 54956.8. Property is 21091 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, parcel number 02428116. Our agency negotiators are Travis Hopkins, city manager, Marissa Surr, assistant city manager, Ashley Wysocki, Director of Community and Library Services. Chris Cole, Community and Library Services Manager. William Krill, Real Estate Project Manager. Negotiating parties, Puya Honari, Pacific City Hotel, LLC, DBA, Paseo Hotel, and Spa. They won't be present tonight. Under negotiation, price in terms of payment. Conference with Labor Negotiators, Government Section Code, Section 54957.6, Agency Designated Representatives, Travis Hopkins, City Manager, also in attendance, Marissa Surr, Assistant City Manager, Mike Vigliotta, City Attorney, Zach, Acting Chief Financial Officer, Huntington Beach Police Officers Association, Police Management Association, Police Management Association, again, sorry, Huntington Beach Firefighters Association, and Fire Management Association. Counsel, do I have a motion to adjourn to a recess to close session? Motion.

Second.

We stand adjourned.

There's a name written on my door, and it's mine, could be yours if you really want it and more, more.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm a mind for security, so if you don't you see, you could lay all your troubles on me, me. I don't mind always being there for you Put all your cares away. Every day, every day.

when you smile at me i can see you're giving all the love that we share and it's all i'm living for every day every day every day is sunshine and i'm so glad that you're mine if the rain and the snow and the ice is cold deep inside love is new and the sun comes shining through every day every day

La la la la la la Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

You ride with the winds that bring you gladness And see if you can see The place that screams for all this madness

Where wandering thoughts do roam. And ships sailing on the seas sail onward. And love not rare.

find your way every day

Find your way everyday.

you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back.

Stay at home, sitting staring at the TV. She comes home late, tell me honey where have you been? Well if I didn't feel so down I'd be sleeping underneath the moon. i got up this morning too late to go to work she told me to get out and she threw me down my shirt well i ran to the station and i got on the very next train and when i opened up my eyes i was back in bed again I don't want to get a job because work is just a waste of time. I'm going to be an independent person for the rest of my life. But if she catches me at home, she's going to beat me all about the head. And if you come in shouting, you better get yourself to bed. Come on, please let me stay at home, girl. And see if you can see the face that screams for this madness.

We're wandering thoughts do roam. And ships sailing on the seas sail onward. And love and I Find your way every day.

Once I had a dream that made me sad How so many people can be bad Everybody wants all they can grab We're all here until we know not when Love has gone and won't come back again I'm gonna take it

We'll be together You know we'll be together

There's a name written on my door And it's mine, could be yours if you really want it And more, more Uh-huh, uh-huh I'm a man for security So have you, don't you see

Let them go flying. Always been there for you to come and tell your troubles too, too. Put all your cares away. Leave them to fade away. Let them go flying.

Thank you. you So, you you you so Thank you.

Every day, every day.

when you smile at me i can see you're giving all the love that we share and it's all i'm living for every day every day every day is sunshine and i'm so glad that you're mine If the rain and the snow and the ice is cold, deep inside love is new and the sun comes shining through every day, every day.

Every day is sunshine.

La la la la, la la la la. you Thank you. Thank you.

I'm sucking my stick right now.

I haven't had a decent meal. I drank one in 18 hours. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. ¶¶

We'll see you then.

We'll be right back. Find your way everyday.

you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back.

Stay at home, sitting staring at the TV. She comes home late telling me, honey, where have you been? Well, if I didn't feel so down, I'd be sleeping underneath the moon. i got up this morning too late to go to work well i ran to the station and i got on the very next train and when i opened up my eyes i was back in bed again I don't want to get a job because work is just a waste of time. I'm going to be an independent person for the rest of my life. But if she catches me at home, she's going to beat me all about the head. And if you come in shouting, you better get yourself to bed. Come on, please let me stay.

I'm sorry. so so

. .

you you

Once I had a dream that made me sad. How so many people can be bad? Everybody wants all they can grab. running don't have much to say you better get your dreams before they fade away we're all here until we know not when

you know we'll be together if we try

Every day Every day Every day is sunshine And I'm so glad that you're mine If the rain and the snow and the ice is cold, deep inside love is new and the sun comes shining through every day, every day. Every day a sun shines.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

We'll see you next time. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back.

. . . . . . We'll be right back.

There's a name written on my door And it's mine, could be yours if you really want it And more, more Uh-huh, uh-huh I'm a mind for security So have you decided

I don't mind always being there for you. put all your cares away let them go flying

you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you.

If there's clouds in the sky, you can dry your eyes. If there's rain up above, you can give your love every day, every day. When you smile at me, I can see you're giving all the love that we share, and it's all I'm living for every day.

I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council, Public Finance Authority. Madam Clerk, may I have the roll call, please?

Councilman Grewal?

Here.

Councilman Kennedy?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney?

Here.

Councilman Burns?

Present.

Councilwoman Vandermark? Here. Councilman Williams?

Here.

At this time, Councilman McKeon is on his way. Six present, one absent, pending.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Tonight we'll be having the invocation by Huntington Beach Fire and Police Chaplain Roger Wing.

Would you please join me in prayer as we ask God's blessing on this evening's city council meeting.

Most gracious Heavenly Father,

We come before you tonight with gratitude for the opportunity that we have to gather together in service to our community. Your word reminds us that where two or three are gathered together in your name, you're present among them. And that's really an awesome and a powerful truth to consider. that you, Lord, are actually here with us this evening, that you're aware of every conversation, every decision, and every heart represented in this room. May that awareness guide us in all we say and do tonight. We pray especially for our mayor and city council members as they consider the matters on the agenda this evening. Grant them wisdom, discernment, integrity, unity, and clarity of mind. Help them to make decisions that promote the well-being, safety, and flourishing of our city. We also pray for all who will speak and participate this evening that every discussion would be conducted with respect and a sincere desire for what's best for our community. As we enter the busy summer season, we ask for your protection over our city, our beaches, and all who live in or visit our community. Give strength, endurance, and safety to those who work so tirelessly to keep Huntington Beach secure and welcoming. We especially lift up our police department, fire department, marine safety personnel, and all our first responders. Watch over them on every call. Grant them wisdom in every situation and bring them safely home to their families each day. We also pray for our city manager, department heads, and every city employee who faithfully serves this community. Bless them for their dedication and grant them wisdom and encouragement in their responsibilities. Finally, Father, we ask that your peace and wisdom would guide everything that takes place during this meeting tonight. May our efforts ultimately serve the people of this city in a way that honors you and benefits our community. And we ask all these things in the most holy name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Chaplain. Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Mr. Ernie Delgado, American Legion Post 133. Ernie Delgado joined the Marine Corp in 1969 and served until 1975. He completed boot camp at Camp Pendleton, followed by a one-year stint for recon training. In 1970, he deployed to Vietnam for one tour while he was based out of Da Nang He spent the majority of his time in the field in locations such as Laos and on the DMZ. He served as a squad leader and achieved the rank of Sergeant E-5. During his service in Vietnam, he was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon and a Purple Heart. Upon completing his tour, he returned to the United States and was stationed at Camp Pendleton where he worked with the Combat Engineer Group. Following his honorable discharge, Ernie enjoyed a long career at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing spanning 33 years. He has lived in Huntington Beach since 1997 and is an active member of the Huntington Beach American Legion Post 133. Thank you for your service, Ernie.

Let us begin. 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.

Mr. City Attorney, do you have anything to report from the closed session?

Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Members, would any of you like to make a comment? Councilman Kennedy.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I just wanted to point out a couple of really fun and exciting things that were happening last week. Huntington Beach is full of champions, full of winners. We've celebrated cheer teams. We've celebrated the Edison football team, baseball, water polo, volleyball teams. Our Oilers are right now in the CIF playoffs. Hopefully they're in a game right now. Hopefully they come out with a win. It's a must win. But what I did on Friday was incredible, Friday and Saturday. Spent some time down at Lower Trestles. I really want to commend the HB Board Riders, the founders, Chris Marino, Ziggy Williams, and Casey Wheat. That HB Board Riders club has grown into the West Coast Board Riders. And this weekend, they were competing down at Lower Trestles with some unbelievable waves against the United States Board Riders National Championship. There's over 20 clubs from all over the country, the Florida coast, the West Coast, San Diego, three of the islands for Hawaii. And it was an unbelievable format that they put together. Building these clubs for these cities is really giving surfing a new look. It's not an individual sport. These cities now can rally behind their own club teams. There was Santa Cruz, San Diego, Encinitas, you know, Space Coast, Jacksonville, all over the place, these clubs. So there's camaraderie amongst competition. So their format is super fun. It was really a different feeling. The contest was unbelievable. The HP board riders were competing against some of the best surfers in the world, ex-pros like Rob Machado from the Tour. We've got our own Brett Simpson, two-time U.S. Open champion. A lot of great surfing going on, but it was just an incredible experience. atmosphere, the growth that they're experiencing is unbelievable and commendable. The whole vibe, if you will, was super fun. A lot of families, a lot of people showed up. And they couldn't do it without really the core group, the founders that I've mentioned, really their secretary, the glue, Michelle Golitsky, their current president, Billy Webb, and the amount of team writers they have, the talent. So what they do is they put seven surfers on a team. There's a female, which we had Bailey Turner. We all know she's unbelievable. Then they have the youth group. And then they've got the mid-20s, the 40 and over, 50 and over. And it's a really fun and exciting thing. So I'm super proud of what the board riders have done, what they're building. The United States Board Riders Club, there's over 50 clubs and growing. And a little, also they wanted me to make sure that, I wanted to make sure to throw a special shout out to the Danny Kwok Family Foundation. Danny Kwok's a very notable surfer from the 80s and 90s, used to be high up at forgot the company, Quicksilver. And with all that said, anytime the U.S. board riders or the West Coast board riders or the Huntington Beach board riders are gonna have a competition anywhere local, it's worth checking out. The winners of this, the Casey Wheat Cup, and the West Coast, well actually the national champions, the hometown heroes down there, San Clemente held down because that's their break. They've got an incredible team, they won both competitions. And so with that said, really proud of the HB Board Riders, the founders, the group, And a couple honorable mentions, all from Huntington Beach, that are all part of the growth is the Cabellian family, Robert Mills, the Castle family. And then there's our special photographer, Ronnie Lyons, who brings the greatest photos. So I'm proud of the board riders. Worth checking out. And they are unbelievable ambassadors for Huntington Beach. Goodwill all the way around. Great job, guys.

Thank you, Councilman. Anybody else? Oh, Councilman Burns.

Vote wisely. Be educated in your vote. Just don't vote for what you think is a cool name and stuff. Our American ways have been being attacked for years, and we just got to protect them. And the best way to do it is vote wisely. Educate yourself on what's the subject and who the people are you're voting for, and vote accordingly. And remember, government can't give away anything for free that it doesn't take from somebody who's earned it before. So just be American. Thank you.

Councilman Gruhl.

Yeah, just a quick note, and I've talked about this before, but I just want to bring it up because I recently was over at Central Park. I met with a few of the volunteers from the Secret Garden, as well as being somebody who visits the urban forest. I just, I want to let everybody, you know, really encourage everybody to go and take advantage of our 775 acres of parks across this city. It's important to mention that it's actually really so much work being done by the volunteers that work in certain areas of the park in regards to Secret Garden I'm talking about specifically, but also over at the urban forest. They keep these parks pristine and they work very closely with Public Works. Public Works has a real deep passion for the parks as well, especially when it comes down to the infrastructure. I want to just thank all the volunteers that help and donate their own time and to keep our parks clean and beautiful and the best in Orange County. Thank you.

Councilman Williams.

I'd just like to speak to maybe the elephant that was in the room, the big news in our city last week with that gentleman and his wife when he was attacked on the boardwalk. I do think that there is some good that can come out of this. Number one, just highlighting the fact that I think he exercised incredible restraint, and in the depictions, there is a young man, I think, that needs to be a little bit vindicated. He really is an unsung hero. It's the young man that stood up in front of all those others, and it really takes courage to, essentially, he used his body to block the others, not knowing what the outcome could be. He could have been joining that man on the ground, and so I think that's very commendable. Like I said, it takes courage, and he deserves a little bit of vindication, and hopefully if his Family is up for it. I'm hoping that maybe the mayor at some point in the future could spotlight what he had done, because I think it's commendable.

Anybody else?

Mayor, if I could just address just real briefly, there's been some talk about the CDBG funding and the recusal process and we've looked at it and we believe council member Greel's recusal did substantially comply with the state law as far as recusal. So I just wanted to put that out there.

Thank you. All right, moving on. The adoptable pet of the month. Tonight we have Jonathan Volsky of OC Animal Care who has two very special dogs who were found together in an unincorporated portion of Orange County and have clearly formed a very strong bond. Can I introduce you to Kylo and Bumpy?

Thank you very much, sir. Yeah, please come around. So I have the honor of having Kylo with me. Kylo is a male, eight years old, and just loves treats and loves affection. And then, if I may tonight, I'm going to introduce one of our great volunteers. So Orange County Animal Care, our headquarters are in Tustin. I hope you all get the chance to come and visit and go home with a dog or a pet. But really what makes our agency work so well is great volunteers. And Alex here is one of our 400 volunteers. And I'm going to hand the mic over and let him introduce his special friend.

Sure. I'm Alex Kurazmi, and this is Bumpy. She's a two-year-old pit bull, absolutely lovey, very affectionate. I'm very impressed with her behavior. She's been great today. And I have to say, if you're interested in volunteering, I really recommend you come and check it out. It's been very rewarding for me personally. I'm going on about three years now. I spend my Saturdays there working with the dogs and training up other volunteers, and I strongly recommend it.

How are you doing?

Good, sir.

Thank you so much for having us.

And I do want to say right now, although we've got these great dogs and we're so appreciative, so far we've brought nine dogs, not counting these two tonight, to the Huntington Beach Council meeting, and six of them have moved on into permanent homes. So I want to thank the council and thank all of you for that. Thank you. And just real quick, right now it's what we call kitten season. So we are overflowing at our shelter with kittens. So if you've been looking for a cat or a kitten, we've got some for you. But we're also looking for fosters. And our fosters take home some cats for a period. Some of them, when they're very small, need bottle feeding. We'll supply everything you need. And then some of them just need a break in a safe place until they can get big enough to take care of themselves. So on our website, which is www.ocpetinfo.com, there's information there about fostering, and we'd love to get some cat fosters and some new cat owners. Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you. Well, I also want to say these are two incredible dogs right here. If I was up in that crowd, I would be down here grabbing one of these right now because these dogs are cool. I'd take one home with me, but my wife would kill me. So I love you guys.

They look like they're starving.

Yeah, my wife's probably gonna kill me just for saying she'd kill me if I'd brought one of those dogs home, so. Oh well. I'll worry about that later. All right. Business highlights. For tonight's business highlight, let's start with recognizing our newest businesses that have recently opened in Huntington Beach. This is an opportunity to officially welcome them, thank them for choosing Huntington Beach, Acknowledge the investment that they are making in our community these spotlights represent just a small sampling of ongoing businesses Activity across Surf City, and we appreciate every business that calls Huntington Beach home You have you can look up there on the screen. You can see where they are in my coffee shop Champagnes which is 200 Main Street which is having their their grand opening ribbon-cutting and at 11 a.m., excuse me, this Friday, again, 11 a.m., 200 Main Street, and the place is called Champagne's. It looks really good. I know a lot of people have already gone. So Dwight's Beach Concession, they had their grand opening last week. I know I attended it, and they're ready to go, and that place is beautiful. It doesn't even look like the old Dwight's. Garlic and Noodles by Joy, Habachi Hana Grill on Main Street, Izakaya Takase on Ettinger, Mendocino Farms, already been there, Subculture, Taste of Italy, The Brunch Cafe, The Habit Burger and Grill, been there too, and The Lighthouse on PCH. I'd like to thank everybody that has come in new businesses right here in Huntington Beach. And there's a picture from last week at Dwight's. You can see me in the way back. It looks like I'm probably photobombing there. But it was a nice group out there, and we all had our strips. So we also want to acknowledge, I don't know if you guys know how long Dwight's has been there, but I think it's like 55 years.

Maybe it's longer.

Do you guys know?

I think it's one of the oldest businesses in the history of Huntington Beach. Yeah. I mean, they've been there a long time.

Oh, it opened in 32. I was a little off.

Okay. Thank you. Oh, Jack's.

Yeah. Okay. Um, Oh, yeah, they were a local favorite since 1932. They've rebuilt and refreshed after a devastating fire, so please show your support and stop by their world-famous cheese strips next time you're on the boardwalk. And to continue our minute with the mayor, and our mayor will be here in a few minutes. He just texted me and says he's almost here. This week's feature is Elevate Aerial Silks. And I believe Councilman Kennedy was there too, so maybe Councilman Kennedy wants to maybe talk about Elevate Aerial Silks.

Well, I can tell you it's a fantastic operator.

There you go.

Fantastic operator. A mother, family, raised her kids here in Huntington Beach. It's a great environment for kids of all ages, older people as well, all ages. So she does a great job. She's a talented lady. She even does it herself. And it's a lot of fun. She got a lot of good reviews. So check it out down there.

We have a video. I think it shows Kennedy hanging down on one of the silks. So let's see.

Welcome to another episode of Minute with the Mayor. I'm with special guest, Councilman Don Kennedy. Today we're at Elevate Aerial at Hamilton and Newland. Let's go meet the owner, Jackie. Let's do it. So Jackie, tell us about Elevate Aerial.

We're an aerial art school and we teach aerial silks, aerial hammock, aerial hoop to kids, adults of all ages and all abilities.

So Jackie, what is aerial? What's aerial silks?

Aerial is gymnastics and dance in the air. We manipulate the fabric or the apparatus to make a performance.

Why'd you guys choose Huntington Beach to open up your business?

Huntington Beach for me is home. I'm a mom and I've raised four kids here in Huntington Beach and as a mom I kind of know what the extracurriculars that a family wants and so I've tried to make Elevate a very family-friendly environment.

So I got to ask the question, I think I know the answer. You do this too, right?

I do, I do, yes. All of our instructors are very well versed in all of the apparatuses. Most of us are performers.

It's a way to get fit too, it looks like.

Yes, it's a very good workout. It's hard, but we tell our students not to shy away from hard.

How long are the classes usually?

One hour.

One hour? Yeah. Nice. I would imagine the theme in the end, it's about fun.

It is. We want you leaving feeling better than when you came.

That's another local gem right here in Huntington Beach. So remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop.

I do have to say I'm a little disappointed in Mayor McCann and Councilman Kennedy for not going aerial, but okay. Our second feature tonight is, well, this place needs no real introduction. It's been a staple in downtown Huntington Beach for a long time, but our second feature is 25 degrees. an iconic downtown Huntington Beach restaurant off Walnut, known for its elevated casual dining, a scratch kitchen, craft cocktails, live music, and a conversation-forward atmosphere. Now under new ownership, we thank Dallas Selling and her family for bringing new energy and care to this local landmark. We look forward to your ribbon-cutting this Thursday with the Chamber.

What's up, Huntington Beach? This episode of Minute with the Mayor takes us down to 25 degrees right off of Walnut and Main. Let's go meet the new owner, Dallas. Dallas, tell us about 25 Degrees.

So 25 Degrees is definitely an iconic landmark of Huntington Beach. We bring together elevated casual dining, curated cocktails, live music. So it's definitely a place that resonates with you long after a lost call.

And so we came in for the first time to 25 degrees. What do you recommend they try?

Well, definitely what you're eating, which is our prime flat iron. But any one of our burgers, there's so many different ones that and the appetizers. We have so many different options on the menu that it has something for anyone's taste buds.

What do you love about just serving the Huntington Beach community? The people. Yeah.

Yeah, I love, like I said, all of our regulars that come here multiple times a week, our companion business owners, people like you, and then the people that have arrived for the first time. Huntington Beach feels like home, even if you've just arrived.

That's another local gem right here in Huntington Beach. Just remember to support local and keep Surf City thriving. See you at the next stop.

All right, thank you very much. Thank you again to all our new and longstanding businesses for choosing Huntington Beach. We're grateful that you're here and we look forward to supporting your continued success. All right, community events and announcements. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for community events announcements?

We do. I will call them down. 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, and state your name and organization for the record. Pat Goodman, Jason Schmidt, and... Surfing Walk of Fame. Surfing Walk of Fame.

I think since they're all down here, I think we'll start with the Surfing Walk of Fame, and then we'll go on to the others.

Well, thank you, Huntington Beach, Mayor Pro Tem, I'm sorry, Casey isn't here for this, and council people, and our city manager, city attorney, our chiefs. We're super happy to be able to join with you today and present our 2026 Surfing Walk of Fame shirts from Wren Spooner, one of our longtime partners. We're thrilled. We want to invite everybody in the city to come down. It's July 30th this year during the U.S. Open, and we are celebrating our own P.T. Townend, his 50th anniversary of his world championship. P.T.

Best thing about this, we get to dress our council like they're in Surf City, right? We'd like to thank Ryan Spooner for that, but... It's a pretty big year for surfing in the fact that pro surfing is celebrating its 50th anniversary. And you guys are a big part of what's going to happen because of the Vote 7-0 to move the surf museum to the library. We're going to open on July 24th with the installation of the history of pro surfing's 50 years. So that's going to be a really big thing to look forward to. Of course, you guys will all be there, and you've got the right shirt to wear.

If you guys would join us down here, we'd love to present you with your shirts. Guys and girls.

I must mention, PT was down there at the lower trestles, right? PT, the board riders? You were there. Was that great waves?

Thank you. Thank you. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.

All right, hold one for me. One, two, three. Okay.

Thank you, guys.

Everybody come down. Everybody's welcome. We have a giant tent. We close down Main Street. Come down and join us.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm gonna read a statement by the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council entitled United in Grief and Solidarity. Today, we at the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council stand in grief and solidarity with our Muslim neighbors and friends in the wake of the horrific and hateful attack at the Islamic Center in San Diego. We are devastated by this senseless act of violence that took the lives of worshipers and shattered a sacred space of peace. Our hearts are broken for the victims, their families, and the entire community affected by this tragedy. As an interfaith community, we unequivocally reject the hatred and violence that fueled this attack. We come together to support our Muslim brothers and sisters with love, courage, and unwavering compassion. In times of such profound loss, our shared commitment to protecting one another and upholding the sanctity of every faith is more important than ever. Thank you.

Thank you, Pat. Is that the last speaker, madam? Oh, I forget about Jason often. Go ahead, go buddy.

Good evening, council and community members. As you know, I'm your city treasurer, Jason Schmidt, and I'm excited to share with you tonight details about the upcoming launch of MyMeter, an easy-to-use digital platform that puts city residents in control of their utility accounts. With MyMeter, you will have secure 24-7 access to your utility account on your computer or your mobile phone. You will be able to do so many cool things that will make your life easier, including viewing your account, tracking your usage, receiving your bills electronically, paying your bills automatically, and receiving instant custom alerts for high usage, big bills, potential leaks, and outages. At our next council meeting, we're going to show you a video for all the features of MyMeter in action, so be sure to bring some popcorn. So how does all this work? Starting June 15th, residents will be able to create their Mitometer account. All you'll have to do is go to the city's website, click on the Mitometer link, and follow the registration steps. You'll be asked to enter basic information including your account number and your name on your account to register. So please make sure to have both of those with you when you log in and before you call us. We will be providing step-by-step instructions, online resources, and customer support to help make this transition smooth for everyone as we get closer to the go-live date. In the meantime, please look at our social media platform and your current water bill for more information on MyMeter and get excited because MyMeter will soon be here to make managing your water account smarter, faster, and way more fun. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Treasurer. In all the excitement, there's a couple of other announcements that I forgot to make. This Thursday, there's going to be all kinds of stuff going on downtown.

He'd do that. It's just like him.

There is a ribbon cutting on Thursday at 4 o'clock for 25 degrees. There's also, everybody has come to know Pristine Motors in downtown Huntington Beach. It's under new ownership now, and he's going to have a grand opening. He's calling it Porsche Night. He builds race car Porsches. I've seen some of them, and they're pretty amazing. And that event is from 5 to 7 p.m. at Pristine Motors. I think they're down like on Walnut and 5th, right next to 25 Degrees. And then after that, since you're already going to be downtown... Come over to the Pier Plaza and Amphitheater because there's going to be the unveiling of the HB 250 banner and logo. It's going to be unveiled at 7 o'clock on Thursday evening at the Pier. So hope to see you guys all there. Our illustrious mayor is back now. I hope I filled in for him fine. Here he is, our mayor, Casey McKeon.

okay hang on a minute oh okay we're at uh oh thank you thank you i believe we're at supplemental communications announcement uh madam clerk do we have any supplemental communications we do oh good under the city manager's report item number 11 revised full year of fiscal year 2026-27 proposed budget powerpoint presentation One email received regarding the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27 and finance commission 2026-27 budget discussion questions for council. Under administrative item number 16, two emails received regarding the recommendation by the city council ad hoc committee to end the request for proposal for creative strategy branding, merchandising media, communications, and film industry development services, and not award a contract. Council member items. New. One email received regarding the proposed establishment of a city council ad hoc committee on juvenile e-bike safety and enforcement.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers do we have?

31.

All right. Please call them up. Thank you.

The City Council will now receive public comment for any topic, including items on the open session agenda. When your name is called, please approach, use both podiums, and state your name and organization for the record. Mr. Amory Hanson, Pat Goodman, Buzz McCord, Nora Pedersen, Carol Doss, Andrew Einhorn, Richard Spindler, Mernez Blades, Janet Jacobs, Jeff Wells.

Good evening. After the illness and passing of my sister, I'm just now starting to catch up on the happenings of the city. As you might remember from previous addresses, my interest is in integrity and transparency. So what I have found is a lack of both. With cronyism at the helm, funds have been removed from local charities, Robin's Nest, and All for the Children, benefiting our local children. The funds were shifted by Pat Burns to a veteran's fishing trip. Curiously, the vet group is based in Temecula and has councilman Andrew Gruhl as executive director. Then I learned that the city council people, Gracie Vandermalek, Casey McEwen, Pat Burns, and former city attorney Michael Gates were fined for hiding the tickets and perks they received from the Pacific Air Show. they will now pay FPPC fines on their omissions. Harebrained schemes of the city council have cost our city millions in court, and when we lose, as we certainly do, we appeal, resulting in the loss of more millions in fines and attorney costs. Currently, the city appears to have confirmed in court that they are anti-affordable housing, anti-freedom to read, anti-water fluoridation, anti-diversity, anti-freedom of speech, anti-right to vote, and anti-science. Our finances have shriveled, but now there is a brand new wacky idea. Spend taxpayer money or borrow more from the reserves to rebrand Huntington Beach. Big money was handed off to Mayor Casey McEwen's close friend, Tyler Wolf, for the study. It will be fascinating work of fiction, void of integrity and transparency. Not a thing has changed.

Good evening, Mayor McKeon, City Council, Pat Goodman. I just want to thank the staff and take this opportunity to thank the work that's been done for the proposed budget and various study sessions today. I have a few comments and requests that I hope will be addressed tonight. I haven't looked at supplemental information or reports since Friday, so I don't know if it's already on the agenda attachments, but here goes. transparency and balancing strategy the May 5th City Council PowerPoint identified a 15 million dollar balancing strategy as and it would be helpful to show how that gap is being filled in a table and then also a side-by-side comparison of original versus revised departmental budgets so the public can see exactly which services and staffing levels are affected. And I believe that this is kind of in line with that too. I believe that library and community services budgets need to be presented separately. The full-time staffing that's shown on page 65 of the budget combines both community development or parks, I guess, community development or community and library services. I'm sorry. Let's see, and then I also ask whether there was some reference to the city reviewing a facilities master plan for the library. Will that be the one that was recently submitted by the architectural firm Johnson Favreau? On litigation costs, this comes up frequently at city council meetings. Please present a five-year analysis on non-personnel litigation costs, including outside legal fees. This is a significant concern of residents often heard at city council meetings. On housing, the budget references SB2 funding, which would go to help housing and homeless services, but receipt remains contingent on a certified housing element. Please provide an update on this and the likelihood of securing SB2 funding in 2026, 2027. In the funds definition section, please identify the specific projects referenced in the affordable in lieu fund narrative and confirm whether associated fees are reflected in this budget. And I think that's enough for now. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

OPM. OPM. As an entrepreneur, I relied on OPM, other people's money. Every dollar you spend is OPM, but your OPM is my taxes. Your OPM used to belong to the taxpayers of Huntington Beach. You gifted a single vendor a 40-year monopoly for our beach and parking. You wrote him a check for $5 million of unproven damages. You failed to submit a simple zoning plan for so long that Sacramento now threatens to fine us 50,000 bucks a month. Your failed library censorship crusade cost us a million dollars in legal fees, payable to the residents who beat you in court. And just a month ago, you were about to pay a buddy of yours $750,000 for a no-bid PR contract.

No bid.

Your track record with other people's money is a disgrace. OPM is not your play money. Your trips of ego are a betrayal. Please stop it. Start with 26, 457 tonight. Thank you.

Thanks, Speaker, please.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Carol Dawes, Huntington Beach resident. I'm here to comment on the budget and the long-term financial health of Huntington Beach. The reality is that our city faces a structural deficit estimated at roughly $15 million, and residents can already see the effects throughout Huntington Beach. Yes, the 40-year-old dock in Huntington Harbor is finally being replaced, but many other problems remain unresolved. The batting cages at the sports complex have been closed for two years, awaiting repairs. Central Library recently closed unexpectedly due to a chlorine leak, and roof leaks forced removal of community artwork. The Oakview Library and Community Center project, something residents truly need, was abandoned. And according to the city's own reports, Huntington Beach's stormwater system received a grade of D, with more than 900 million in repairs needed over the next 15 years. I live in southeast Huntington Beach, and frankly, it was alarming to read in a city report that corrosive soil conditions are damaging pipes and manholes, creating the potential for sinkholes. These are real problems affecting residents today and in the future. which is why many taxpayers are asking why does the city council continue spending large sums on lawsuits and political fights that are unlikely to succeed. The most recent example is the city's ongoing battle over affordable housing. Huntington Beach now faces $50,000 a month in fines, money that could instead support infrastructure and vital community services. Another example is the ongoing culture war surrounding the library. Taxpayers have already paid millions for a special election and a losing book censorship lawsuit, while legal fees continue mounting because of the city's appeal. Yet this council still has not accepted an $825,000 donation from the Friends of the Library. At some point, we need to ask, what is the long-term cost of these political battles to future generations? What happens as infrastructure continues aging, pension obligations grow, and legal bills continue mounting? I urge this council to focus on investing in the future of Huntington Beach instead of legal and political conflicts that polarize our community. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

I'm Ernest Blades. I've lived here for 48 years in a particular community that I'm very concerned about. There's been a proposed Redondo Circle project, and I do appreciate all your efforts to support growth and development. But I'm worried about this project. As currently designed, it's simply too large and too intense for the location. Placing a 40-foot tall warehouse so close to nearby senior homes, sensitive receptors, and important emergency access routes is a real concern for those of us who live in that area. With the increased truck traffic, the proposal is that there be 12 trucks an hour, 24-7. The noise alone is at any rate, the traffic, the noise, the lighting would have a direct impact on our day to day quality of life, as well as on safety and access, especially near hospital corridors and for first responders. I'm not opposed to the development, but I strongly believe that this project needs to be scaled appropriately to fit the surrounding community. Reducing the building size and height, increasing setbacks, improving buffering such as taller walls, and limiting the hours of operation would go a long way toward addressing these concerns. I respectfully ask you that you require these kinds of revisions before considering approval. Thoughtful changes now can help prevent long-term impact on residents and ensure the project better align with the needs of the community. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Please make plans to meet with us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Janet Jacobs. I am one of your campaign volunteers for the last five years, and I know you guys recognize this hat. We promoted your slogan that you were for the people of Huntington Beach, not for Sacramento. Make Huntington Beach great again. Number one, the lumberyard proposal. to build an industrial warehouse business in my residential neighborhood. Thank God it's been appealed, right now anyway. Placing a 40 foot high building in that area right up against my senior community would suffocate our community. It would block the airflow, it would put so many toxins in the air. The light that comes from that area is all we ever get and you would be blocking that. There's about 100 residents in my community whose physical and mental health would be jeopardized And I ask that you protect them rather than make it a city liability. Plus the financial security, because our home value would definitely decrease. I love my home. It's my retirement home. I don't want to move. I don't want to be pushed out. I'm praying daily that God hears our prayers. I just ask that you scale it back, make it smaller, make it something we can... We can enjoy an area that we can enjoy. And I'm wondering where all those lawsuits that Michael Gates filed against Sacramento on the high density housing, was it really so that we could build industrial complexes all around our city? It appears that the 2017 city rezoning from redistrict manufacturer to industrial was improper and they never notified Huntington Beach residents of this proposal in a proper way. In 2022, it was to be rezoned for residential, but that meeting never took place. We are asking to correct this error and rezone it back to restricted manufacturing zone or another 0.5 far or whatever. Terry Park, that's another thing, our little park there. It's a mess. I think it's being used the building there for the city storage and it's termite infested. It should have a restroom per the ADA guidelines and the concrete around it is so broken up and badly buckling that it's an accident waiting to happen. Parkview Lane, the lumberyard fence, it needs to be replaced. It's falling apart. So the city needs to call them on that. And the plants that belong to the city along that same fence need to be removed. The dead ones need to be removed. I'm against the high increases in our trash refuge. And I ask that you lower those increases. And I'm looking forward to our study sessions next week. 17 seconds left. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name's Jeff Wells, and I'm a member of the Terry Park community as well. I might also add a 52-year resident of Huntington Beach. I believe that the 7600 Redondo Project or Circle Project should not move forward in its current form because it places an oversized warehouse too close to sensitive residential surroundings. A smaller footprint, lower height, landscaping, larger setbacks, taller walls, and operating hours limited to daytime hours, not 24-7, necessary mitigation measures to reduce truck traffic, noise, lighting, privacy, quality of life, and public safety conflicts. Without these changes, the project will create unnecessary impacts on nearby residents. This project should be significantly revised with the residential community in mind. And finally, data such as EIRs and noise studies, they need to be reconciled so there's a clear path to approve or deny. I thank you for listening and I also look forward to meeting you in our study groups. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Mr. Amory Hanson. I'm speaking tonight in support of I Am 17, the mayor's item to create a flag display program for streetlights. This program will enhance Huntington Beach's already present patriotism during America's semi-concentennial. I predict that this year's Huntington Beach Independence Day Parade will be the largest parade ever in the history of Huntington Beach. Let's continue to display the American flag in Huntington Beach. Once again, I am J. Yesva, and I am 17. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Richard Spindler. I'm an occupant of a home in the Terry Park community. I'm here to speak directly to everyone on the council. If any one of you city council members were able to stand on your own property line, throw a rock, and hit a 40-foot tall building that was operating 24-7, loading and unloading operations during that period, I'm sure you would feel that that was unacceptable to be in your neighborhood. At the present time, the noise in our neighborhood is negligible between sunset and sunrise. We have emergency vehicles leaving Gothard. We hear them like they're in our backyard. We have the heliport working. They are necessities. We live with that. We embrace that. That's a part of our city, and we enjoy that. The noise of trucks transferring cargo, electric or not, will be heard throughout the neighborhood. We will be hearing those sounds with every operation. The neighborhood is quiet and has been for a decade. The only unaffected would be the deaf. because we would hear the backups. I've been trying to follow the actions and the different changes that have come through. Nothing's been written in concrete. We haven't heard specifically what's going to happen. All we hear is there has been a change in zoning. Few years later, there's been another change in zoning. The existing adjacent businesses do not operate 24 seven. They do not make noise in the middle of the night. It would be kind of unconscionable to do that to a neighborhood if you weren't willing to do it to your own neighborhood. So please remember. We are your constituents. We appreciate you representing us, and we hope that you do, in fact, represent us. Thank you. Oh, one more thing. I've been a resident in Huntington Beach off and on because of life. But 1966, I moved to Huntington Beach. I went to work at Douglas Astronautics. Actually, it was Douglas Astronautics. went into the service, came back, went back to work at McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, and have considered Huntington Beach to be the best thing since Venice ever was. So thank you for being who you are and protecting this community, and thank you for your time.

Thank you for your service. Thank you, sir.

Andy Einhorn, Huntington Beach. Democracy is under direct threat, and this council cannot stay silent. I was raised to speak out, and that's what I intend to do. There is an active federal discussion about employing ICE agents at polling locations. The Heritage Foundation documented 68 cases of non-citizen voting in 40 years. This is not a crisis. It's a cover story for racism, plain, deliberate, and undeniable. Trump is pushing for an election army for 2026, despite laws prohibiting military at polling places. Let's be honest what ICE at polling locations means. People see ICE. They turn around, they go home, especially people of non-white skin. This is not a side effect, this is the goal. These are agents with a documented record of breaking car windows, injuring people, ignoring due process, killing American citizens. And if a confrontation occurs outside of your polling place, what happens to the election integrity? We watched January 6th, five officers killed in its aftermath, more than 140 injured. Trump looked at that carnage and handed out pardons. Pardons. Now he wants ICE agents at your polling locations. This is illegal under 18 U.S. Code 592 expressively prohibits armed federal agents at polling locations punishable by up to five years in prison. The pattern is clear. Trump manufactures election lies, confusion to underline election results. January 6th was the blueprint. The rule of law is under assault by those who place personal power above our republic, and that is a real threat. Deploying ICE agents at polling stations is simply wrong. It's a federal crime. So here's what I'm asking you to do. I want you to go on the record. pass a city resolution that tells the feds, Huntington Beach voter, we oppose voter intimidation. Every voter has the right to cast their ballot without fear. No ICE agents, no armed intimidation, no exceptions. We demand enforcement of civil rights, of equal protection. We expect polling places to be safe for every citizen without profiling based upon skin color.

Next speaker, please. Want to call some more up?

Paula Schaffer, Linda Diaz, Michael Shreve, Jerry Vinland, De'Dale Fike, Chris Cluey, Daniel Tassa, Shelby, Roz Price, Steve Moldena, Brian Theanis.

Speaking tonight as a representative of the Friends of the Public Library. In the past 25 years the Friends organization has donated over 4.8 million dollars to the library and those funds are solely for reading materials. The Friends members have donated thousands of hours per year to the library. These two factors allow the city the ability to spend tax dollars on library staff or other services provided by the library. The Friends' sole mission is to continue to donate money to the library for reading materials. The city has a goal to make uses of city-owned property more uniform by means of memorandums of understanding. During the past year, actually more than one year, the Friends organization and the city have exchanged many documents in an attempt to agree on terms. Earlier this year, the Friends made an offer to the city as follows. In return for the Friends commitment to donate $825,000, Over three years, to the library, the Friends requested these three conditions. One, the city not impose on the library any restrictions in violation of the First Amendment and the California Freedom to Read Act regarding censorship or discrimination on the basis of content. Second, allow the Friends organization continued use of library facilities for book sales and gift shop sales. And third, continued usage of meeting rooms for Friends events and meetings. The Friends intends to continue its fundraising efforts to support the library and to fulfill its nonprofit mission, as it has done for over 50 years. Acceptance of this agreement should not be a difficult decision for this city council. You're all aware that the majority of the voters in this city support the library as evidenced by measures A and B, which won handily last year. And the court has ruled us that the city must follow California's Freedom to Read Act. You have also individually taken an oath to uphold the US Constitution, including the First Amendment. So why the reluctance to accept our commitment to donate $825,000 to the city? If the City Council would only focus as much attention on this matter as it did recently contracting efforts to spend money, the library could perhaps already have $250,000 to spend on reading materials in this budget year and $275,000 for next year. This would certainly help with the city's budget. City residents and its library supporters deserve answers from the City Council promptly.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is Dale Fike. I'm here to talk about the Cherry Park and Redondo Circle buildings. I live right across the street from the project that's going to happen. There's only five houses on that short block between Huntington and the end of the street, and that's all in front of the proposed buildings. My concern basically is going to be the height of the walls. Right now the wall is six to seven feet high depending on where you park or where you walk through. And that's right in front of my house. They say they can only build a nine foot wall. On the east side of the park is directly next to the senior center. There's a 14 foot wall that looks like it's protected pretty well and kind of keeping the buffer between the lumber yard. There's any reason why we can't have a 14-foot wall in front of my house that buffers the wall between the 40-foot building? I don't think so. I also just noticed coming here tonight, right on... Talbert? No, not Talbert. Next one over. There's, right by the water department, there's a wall back there right next to the condos on Main Street that is definitely taller than 14 feet tall. So it can be done. Let's see where the... Remember, this is going to be a 24 hour operation. When are we supposed to sleep? There's supposed to be 95 trucks a day. I don't know how many of those are going to be at night, but there's going to be at least a few. My neighbor next door has a two-story home. His bedrooms are on the second story right in the front of his house. That means it's right across the street with the bedrooms up 20 feet high. That little buffer wall isn't going to help them much at all. Landscaping and trees. Landscaping there has been very, very poor by the lumber yard. I actually went over just about a month or so ago and complained about the trees and the shrubbery and the dead trees because there's no water. Sprinklers has been in service. They came over and they sent five or six guys over and started chopping and cutting. And at least now you can see the wall. which is going to protect us from the kids that are running back and forth in there and doing questionable things. We also have drug people back there. Also had some homeless people sleeping back there. But at least now you can see the wall, and it's going to keep and contain some of that. We've also taken... Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Linda Diaz and I'm here to thank you. City council people for your service, your public service and all that you do for us. Huntington beach is a much safer place than it's ever been. And I'm grateful. Very, very grateful. I'm an avid Walker. There was a time a couple of years ago. I was afraid to walk in the city up on the riverbed and now the Huntington Beach Police patrols it regularly. It's safe and I am ever so thankful. I'm thankful for the Goodyear blimp landing on the beach, bringing great PR to our great city, our beautiful beaches, all that Huntington Beach has to offer. There are expenses, yes, like an old house, we need the new roof, we need new things, and there's never enough money, and somehow we manage to do it little by little, little by little. And I thank you for all that you do and making sure that everything gets done little by little. Thank you.

Thank you. Linda, would you please fill out a blue card, Councilman Williamshire? I'd love to get in touch with you. Next speaker, please.

Hey, thank you for being here. I've lived in, I'm at the Terry Park community. I've lived there for 50 years. We're not against any commercial projects. But you look down Gothard area, Talbert area, they're all low level buildings. They're not 40 feet high. And a 24 hour diesel facility next to a senior apartment complex, There's been so many studies about cancer and diesel fuel and diesel exhaust. Look at the Port of Long Beach, look at the people there that are dying of cancer because of all that diesel exhaust. Now you wanna bring that to Huntington Beach? The pastor who talked said you should work with the community. So we hope that you work with our community, come to our meetings and see what we would like to have working with you guys. Okay, the zoning also calls for a sidewalk where Mr. Fike was just talking about. Trees, nobody's gonna use that sidewalk. There should be more trees there for birds and animals and things like that. Look at what happened at Walmart. You built a great berm there, great trees. The diesel trucks are out on Talbert. They're not in a neighborhood. They're facing a cemetery. Why do diesel trucks have to come in our neighborhood? I don't get that. And come and talk to us. See what exactly what people want and let's work with us. And you're right, elections are coming and we're doing our due diligence on who to vote for. But we don't know who this Mr. Mumford is. Maybe somebody could tell us who that is. Thank you.

Next speaker please.

Hi, my name is Michael Shreve. I live in the Terry Park community, too. I've lived there for 29 years. I've raised my children in there. This project is horrendous. We're the second oldest city in the neighborhood. And you guys will sit up there and talk about new business and how great it is, but you're forgetting about us. We're the people. We're the ones that made this community, and we're being taken advantage of. And I surely hope you would come to our study session and see what the community is about. Actually, look at what they're trying to do. In 2012, the lumberyard wanted to put an RV storage lot there with 24-hour access. And me, my wife, and another person came to the meeting and convinced you that it wasn't a good idea to be 24 hours a day. So it went to just a storage facility. So why now is it okay to have 24 hour traffic there? It makes no sense to me. And once again, I think you feel more about the community that the businesses than the citizens. It's ridiculous. And Gracie, you ought to just check out now because you don't pay attention to anybody in the room. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. Sir, I'm actually taking notes about everything you guys are saying.

Hello, everyone. Chris Cluey, candidate for AD72. And I would like to talk about a comment that Mr. Burns made at city council last meeting where he said, I'm worried about all the fraud and stuff. and said, referring to all for kids. This is from Voice of OC, by the way. Yet Burns offered no details of alleged fraud. I just questioned that center quite a bit as far as being one of the top money getters. So let's talk about fraud. Because when you bring a fraud accusation, you got to have proof. Otherwise, you're just lying. And so we do actually have a lot of proof of fraud happening here in Huntington Beach. We have an RFP that was gonna go to our mayor's friend for $750,000, a no-bid contract. Thankfully, that's getting pulled in this session, but why was it ever proposed in the first place? We have city council members who did not disclose their proper financials and were then fined by the FPPC. We have a city council that voted to give $8 million to their friend, the air show, Kevin Elliott, In return for what? How much did he donate to your guys' campaign? And then most recently, we have a city council that decided to take $15,000 from Huntington Beach charities that serve Huntington Beach residents and direct that to a charity in Temecula. And I'm not against helping vets. I think that's absolutely something we need to do. And it sucks that the Trump administration is cutting so much funding to the VA. But to direct that money to an organization that doesn't even work here and that has one of our council members as its executive director, that is fraud. And the problem is we can't trust you anymore because this has been a pattern of behavior. Once, okay fine, maybe someone made a mistake. Twice, that's a problem. The third time, the fourth time, how are we as citizens supposed to trust anything you say up there? You have all these people from the Terry Project talking about this facility that's gonna be constructed, how can they trust you? The guy that just spoke, he says he doesn't believe you, and I understand why. Because you guys have done nothing to earn that trust. You have lied to us over and over and over again. And I don't want to be here yelling at you. I want to be here for the stupid dog stuff. I love the dog stuff. Like, that's amazing. That's what our city council should be. But I have to come here and yell at you because you are not abiding by the American contract. We are a democracy. We are supposed to trust our elected officials. And we cannot trust you. So I urge you to build that trust back. Thank you. Sir, if you can, fill out a blue card.

It'd be appreciated so you don't sound like such an idiot.

Just to clarify the record, because I've said it multiple times, this number keeps seeming to go up. Their show settlement wasn't $8 million. It was actually $4.9 million with payments spread out over six years. The council then sued the oil company and brought back $5.25 million to the taxpayers, so thank you. Next speaker, please.

Okay, well, following that... I'm here to talk about the Terry, the Redondo Circle redevelopment. I'm here to talk about noise specifically. First, I should say, my name is Steve Melinda. I live in the affected residential tract adjacent to this redevelopment. The noise, that's what I'm here to talk about. I live in the neighborhood. It's south of Taylor, east of Gothard, north of Ellis, and west of Delaware. Okay. Gothard businesses make all kinds of grinding noises along Gothard there on our west flank. When I get home from work, I can hear them grinding away. I mean, I'm in my house and I can hear grinding, so it's loud. It travels. Noise travels. This is at the daytime, or in the evening, I should say, when I'm home. The people who live right behind where the railroad tracks are, I don't know how they deal with the noise. They would drive me crazy. I work in aircraft maintenance and fabrication. I work in loud environments. My whole life, I know exactly what it is. I know how to deal with it. When I come home, I want a nice, quiet neighborhood. We have that in the evening right now. In the after hours, it's quiet. The police heliport, it's loud. Short duration, we can live with it. Concerts, okay? Pacific Amphitheater, 10 p.m. curfew, right? There should be controls here. How much time do I have? We're running out of time. Okay, we want nighttime, we want it to be quiet at night, basically. Okay, this project, we've heard different numbers, seven vehicles an hour, 12 vehicles an hour. We can't really clear it up because the data sets is confusing based on what kind of vehicles and all that. But imagine you go to sleep and then you woke up by the sound of beep, beep, beep, beep as the truck backs up. And then of course, you got the forklifts loading and unloading, all this stuff, right? So it's noisy, it's a noisy activity. 24-7, seven days a week, day after day, week after week. You guys, you have control of this, okay? Running out of time. The commission, there was an issue that came up during the April 28th Redondo Beach. The hearing study was flawed because they only did one, they measured one truck backing up. at one instance in time, not with all the other related activities of doors opening and forklifts operating and all this other stuff. So it's a flawed study. They voted to move forward anyways because it complied with code, zoning code. We disagree with the commission. We need you guys, we need a mandate for noise mitigation. We need to either be engineered, redesign the whole project, start from scratch, whatever it is, Let's see. What we need is a denial, a removal of nighttime activities, quiet at night.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for your time, guys.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Roz Price, as most of you know me. I'd like to take a moment to speak on the city's budget discussion and how it connects directly to the quality of life in our neighborhoods. First off, I want to acknowledge that balancing the city's budget is no easy task. I can't imagine being in your guys' shoes, but I hope to soon. These are real decisions that impact real people, and I appreciate the thoughtful work and the time it goes into making these hard decisions. As we look at our budget, I believe our priorities should remain clear and consistent. Public safety first, ensuring our police, fire, and emergency services are fully supported. At the same time, we need to maintain the cleanliness and appearance of our city, including landscaping, parks, public spaces, because those are things that directly impact the quality of our residents and the experience that our visitors have, especially neighborhoods like the neighborhood surrounding Marina Park, which is off of Edinger and Graham. I want to give you guys a quick thank you for finally getting all the weeds cleaned up. I could barely pull out of my neighborhood with having a blind intersection. That was really difficult. I'm personally very grateful to live next to the beautiful park. It's something that I get to enjoy every single day, whether I'm walking through it or simply looking out my front door and taking in its beauty. that makes Huntington Beach feel more like home to me. At the same time, I want to raise concern regarding Marina Park. While we absolutely love the sporting activity and the community engagement it brings, there are real impacts on the surrounding neighborhood, particularly with the and the trash overflow and the sound ordinances that are going on, which often ends up in the gutters throughout the streets and the entire neighborhood and on my front lawn. I, on average, pick up every day at least one bag of trash and have to deal with at least 20 parents yelling and screaming at each other, cussing, and then going to play baseball after that. And I also put in for residential parking and for some reason that was squashed when I had 96 signatures and over 70% of the people wanted the residential parking for us. At the same time, I'd also like to know where we're at with the parks and renovation project that residents previously supported. Specifically, we picked out a plan to address the parking issue and implement more parking. I don't know where this got less than the budget. In addition, I would like to strongly encourage the city to explore or revisit residential parking options. Now when it comes to the budget, we also have to be honest about the pressures we're facing, costs are rising, and we can't simply cut out all these challenges that we're facing. That's why it's essential to drive business into Huntington Beach by supporting local businesses, expanding our tourism, and making it easier for small businesses in the community and events to operate, especially in our beach and downtown areas to strengthen our revenue. When businesses thrive, our city generates more revenue naturally, and that helps us maintain without raising taxes on our residents. That's something I believe is critical for families that are already facing financial pressures from the current cost of living. I'm Roz Price. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Daniel Tassa. I'm just another concerned Riviera Track Cherry Park resident. Been there 21 years. Bought my place in 2005. I'm approximately 300 feet from the property line of the lumber yard. There are a number of major concerns, obviously. One of the most important, of course, is the noise. Will people be able to sleep? Huntington Beach says it enforces strict commercial noise limits in Chapter 840, restricting exterior noise in adjacent residential areas to between 55 and 75 decibels in the day and 50 to 70 decibels at night, 10 PM to 7 AM. These limits govern maximum cumulative exposure over a one hour period. On November 2024, on a Friday afternoon, an inadequate noise study was completed in and around the project site. Needless to say, of course, it passed, but it was very inadequate. Sound samples needed to be taken from a similar warehouse site at least one hour during the day and one hour during the middle of the night, meeting, of course, the code decibels at the property line. I believe the people responsible do not want to conduct a new sound report because they think it might fail. And I also refuse to believe that the city council doesn't care about the kind of noise this trucking operation will create for the residents. Two weeks ago, we met with city planners. They all agreed. that a new sound study should be done, but instead they reduced the trucking at night 50% and called it quits. So now instead of every 12, instead of every five minutes having a truck, will be a truck every 10 minutes. And that's not going to reduce the amount of noise. So a new sound test, I think, is very important. It was almost unanimous. They thought so, too. But in the end, they just passed. Of course, it was appealed, but it was passed anyway. So I think the importance... I'm stressing a new sound test has to be conducted, an accurate one, a reasonable one, one according to the way it's supposed to be done, and go from there. If it fails, there are many ways to block sound, and we can work that out. I'm really looking forward to face-to-face during the study sessions with you guys. I hope the city council will agree with the residents enforcing a new, accurate, complete sound report before the project is approved. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you very much. Next speaker, please.

Thank you. Why are we still talking about the libraries? Three years of our lives talking about the libraries. Casey, I challenged you at the town hall to be the mayor to stop picking on the libraries. $825,000 is a lot of money. I know I could do a lot of things with $825. Pat, you could buy some suits for $825,000. Would you? Why not? Okay, you could buy some more Hawaiian shirts. $825,000 worth of jeans and Hawaiian shirts. Okay, but the Friends of the Library trying to give $825,000 to you for books. We need books in our library. Most of the funds that buy books are from the Friends of the Libraries. It's a gift. How often does somebody give you $825,000? They could buy a lot of books like how to follow FPPC rule regulations and violations and not get fined. You could buy books like how to represent all the citizens of HB and not just your MAGA donors. You could buy a lot of books. You could buy a couple police for that much money. You could clean the beach bathrooms. I know that summer's coming and they need to be cleaned. That's a lot of bathrooms to clean for $825,000. $825, you could fix the broken elevator in the parking structure. For $825,000, you could pave a street, or maybe two. You could also fund Be Well For Our Homeless back for $825,000. You could lower, not increase, our trash bills for $825,000. $825,000, you could work on the infrastructure that is failing. It would be a start. For $825,000, you could work on safe stairs here at City Hall. Every time somebody walks there, they practically fall. You could, for $825,000, you could stop suing with frivolous lawsuits and spend it back on our citizens. For $825,000, you could help the homeless. For $825,000, you could get more police. You could get more fire. You could get more police to monitor the e-bikes. so we don't have any more accidents. For $825,000, we would not have to dip into our reserves as much to balance our budget. For $825,000, Chad could build up his youth pastor program. For $825,000. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Stephen Gerard Sidlowski, Third Order Franciscan, speaking in favor of a new possible resolution. I would like to open with Holy Bible since we are in the Mother's Day to Father's Day timeframe. I'll modify it to be all inclusive. My sons and daughters, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live in my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. That's in Proverbs 7. I provided you a wonderful correspondence letter, everybody. Citizens, you can see me afterward if you would like to get a picture copy of it. Dear Huntington Beach Mayor and City Council and citizens, please know that myself and approximately 200 citizens recently attended the Horizon Pregnancy Clinic 5K Walk for Life this past Saturday. from nine to noon during this time i educated citizens in the new direction of u s a pre-born personhood cities and passed out bible bookmarks amplifying fatherhood motherhood childhood and pre-born personhood you have already received the bible bookmarks I am now providing you a list of the 89 Huntington Beach citizens that have graciously signed the California Preborn Personhood Advisory Petition from January 12th to May 19th today. Please know that over 440 citizens throughout California have graciously signed this advisory petition, and they all support this new Huntington Beach direction. On the back of the correspondence, I again provide you the resolution that I hope you're going to put on your next agenda because there's only two more meetings prior to Father's Day. A resolution in support of a Huntington Beach, California declaration of a safe, pre-born personhood city. Remember it was Nellie Gray who started the Washington D.C. March for Life. Yes, actually a Democrat woman, she's one of my American heroes who started the Washington D.C. March for Life. She stressed to me that as I did my pro-life in America that we must amplify personhood. Frank Prevone also stressed that we have to amplify pre-born. That's why you should be called now a pre-born personhood city. I encourage you in holy wisdom and understanding to move in this new direction. Thank you kindly. God bless you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Therese Bartusek. I recently moved from Chicago, Illinois, to Corona Del Mar. And back in Chicago, on May 16, 1979, my sister took her life. And prior to that, she had had an abortion. I just wanted to let you know that I'm here to support this resolution for personhood, because that little baby has a name, Abigail. And my sister had a name, Elizabeth. And they're both gone. Lots of other things matter. I know, money matters, right? But life matters more. And so I'm here to just... On behalf of her, I feel like I came out to California for many reasons, and I guess this was a surprise for me to actually be able to partake in A Walk for Life, which happened at Horizon Pregnancy Clinic just last Saturday. I do have a paper here that can be shared where people can have healing from that if they have had it done. And there is healing available. And I just want people to know that. I'm not here to bash anybody or condemn anybody. I'm here to say there is healing and there's hope. just to reach out. And the clinics are available to those who are in a situation where maybe their boyfriend or husband even does not want them to have a child, which is what happened to my sister. And she was too scared to do anything else, so she went through with it. But it killed her. It killed the baby, and then three months later, she was gone. And she was never the same after that. So there is hope, there is healing, but there also is prevention, and there also are people who are willing to come with love, with hope, and with compassion to hear your story and be there for you. So I hope this can help to know that that baby is a person, And Declaration of Independence of all years, 250th anniversary of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I pray that life, being the first word there, will really take precedence. And I just thank you for all of you. God bless you all. And I'm glad you're all here.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor McKee and council members. My name is Brian Theanis, your favorite planning commissioner, city council candidate, by the way. I just want to thank the city council for all the hard work you do and the dedication to keeping our city safe and clean, keeping our fire department and police department one of the best in the country. I believe that Huntington Beach is the best place to live in the world. In fact, when we made the sanctuary city status, I did some research. I spent two hours talking to an ICE agent, and what they have to do in cities like Los Angeles, they actually have to go, they get anonymous tips from police officers who could get fired for telling them, hey, we're releasing this guy from jail, and here's his record, and They have to get a court order to go out on the street, and if the police could cooperate, then we could get a criminal who's in from some other country, undocumented, and we just get them out. I don't understand why that's so bad. It's crazy. Anyway, the Planning Commission just heard a project the other day. It was for a couple of accessory dwelling units and two new homes. residential units. They were using one of these crazy Senate bills that came from Sacramento, Senate bill number nine. It basically allows anybody with a single family residential home to build an accessory dwelling unit up to 1,200 square feet with a kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, a full-on apartment unit. With really no regulations, no parking. They had no parking. We were able to kind of delay the project because the main structure we had an issue with, so they have to go back to the drawing board. But one of the things that I noticed is that back in 1979, the state... The citizens of the state of California voted for Proposition 4, which is Article 13b, Section 6, that says when legislation is established, mandated for a new program to affect the local government, that the state must cover the costs. So here they've passed all of these mandates. that don't include, this is gonna burden these mandates for these ADUs. Imagine we've got 78,000 single family residential units. If only 10% of the people bought in and decided to use Senate Bill 9, that would be 8,000, almost 8,000 new residential units. So I think that what we should do is look into really what this infrastructure costs. I know just by way of example, the housing, the RHNA element is a $110 million deficit for those additional units, and we're only collecting about $2,500 for a new unit, and it should be 13,000. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello Mayor and City Council, I'm back. You've heard from a lot of our Terry Park residents tonight in support for the appeal that was filed. We again have asked all of the City Council members to meet with us regarding this project. So far three out of seven of you have returned emails and agreed to meet with us as doing a little study session. So we look forward to seeing all seven of you hopefully next week for half an hour, an hour of your time. Again, this project has been pushed through the entitlement permitting process with very little oversight and community engagement. We sincerely hope there are no conflicts of interest with anyone sitting on that dais tonight. This project does not fall within the city's opportunity zone, so there should be no waivers attached to the project. Why is it being kind of looks like those waivers are happening behind the scenes? Our concerns are worth listening to and they are valid. It's not too much to ask for a proper noise study landscaping, a wall, EIR, and continuing air monitoring due to the toxins that are known to be on the property. In 2017, the city's general plan, Huntington Beach, adopted a new RT framework, and this should not have been included in that upgrade, in this update, because it is surrounded by all these sensitive receptors on three sides. It should have not have been included. It should have stayed at the zoning level that it was. But it was bulk updated along with everything else. Here's a 1980s schematic of the actual buffer that the lumber yard is currently not maintaining with the residents. They continue this morning spilling stacks against the concrete wall. Redondo Circle moved from an M1A, lower intensity industrial zoning framework, to roughly updating the .05 Florida area ratio to 1.0, which is going to give the residents a 40-foot basic cement wall in their front yards. And it's going to be shading and covering the entire senior community to the east. these people will have no airflow or sunlight in the afternoon hours. For those of you that want to learn more about the Terry Park community's stance, please go to our website, terrypark.com. We also would like for local people in the area to take our cancer survey. We have the state looking into the cancer cluster that's in our neighborhood. So we need more participants for that. And I encourage everyone who is in Huntington Beach to start studying the Beach and Ettinger Corridors projects that also pertain to the five point situation that they're trying to basically make this into the halfway point between the interstate and PCH. So the Gothard corridor project and the there's three different corridor projects that you guys are being pressured into dealing with. But this project, as it is right now, does not belong in our neighborhood. We're not trying to stop the project. We're just trying to make it better for the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, please call up the next group.

Irene Contreras-Garcia, Tim Geddes, Elaine Keeley, Sonya Beal, and Russ Neal.

Good evening, Mayor and Councilpersons. Thank you for letting me speak. I'm Irene Contreras-Garcia. I'm a fourth generation local Huntington Beach. I grew up on the corner of Garfield and Delaware, and after I got married, I moved to the community that's the Terry Park community, and that's why I'm here. I've lived there almost 60 years. I've raised my four children there. We hear all the noise from the sports complex, from the helicopter port, from the fire department. And this is going to be an additional noise level that we won't even be able to sleep at night. And I'm talking about the lumber yard redondo project. I'm asking all of you council members to please consider the residents that you represent in our community. There's a church on one side of the project. There's a 55-plus community. community on the other side and then there's a residential on the other side. So this is really imperative that you take all of this into consideration. I know that you wouldn't want this project in your neighborhood or backing up to your neighborhood. You wouldn't want the trucks 24 hours You know, that's nonsense. I don't know of another situation or another industrial area in Huntington Beach that backs up to a residential church in a 55-plus community that has 24-hour noise systems. So I'm asking for our community and for every surrounding community and everyone in Huntington Beach that because we don't want this project with 40 foot tall building, I mean 40 foot buildings, we don't need it. We don't need the noise. We need, We need something that'll help the community deal with the toxins in the soil. We need something to help us with the wall for a sound barrier, like a 14-foot wall, if not higher. We need your help, and that's what we're here for, asking for your representation of the residents that need this help. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Tim Geddes in the house and dealing. Today is allegedly celebrate your elected officials day, although I cannot imagine a less deserving bunch than those sitting on the dais. You all have sunk to a new low by taking badly needed CDBG funds from worthy local nonprofits like All for Kids and Robin's Nest and handing it over to a sketch organization based in Temecula, which purports to serve PTSD, afflicted veterans with free fishing trips. This despite no recognition by the VA for this being prescribed treatment. How many of our local citizens does this Save the Brave outfit serve? Now is a clear case of cronyism a sop to council member Andrew Gruhl, who helps administrate this Save the Brave outfit, or it is a slap to opposing former council member Natalie Mosier, who is the executive director of Robbins Nest. Which is it? Both? I have heard that council member Pat Burns may have questioned the legitimacy of All for Kids receiving funds when there is actual fraud going on right under his nose. To borrow a parallel from the song Sweet Home Alabama by Leonard Skinner, I hope Pat Burns will remember the HP community doesn't need him around anyhow. However, the whole mega city council is responsible for mismanaging this issue along with many, many others. Speaking of cronyism, I am pleased that Wolf House has gotten the silver bullet. No thanks to our mayor and Tyler Wolf cheerleader. The RFP process under an ad hoc committee would have been a joke and a disgrace. Doubtless other schemes may be hatched this year by the least transparent and ethical city council this century. Not only the least transparent council, but the least competent, as the state audit and the Sweetheart Pacific Airshow settlement might suggest. The Surf City taxpayers have been soaked big time already, and that doesn't include the dunking we may receive from the state on our housing element shortcomings. This council is clearly trying to have its cake and eat it too. Oh, by the way, today is also National Devil's Food Cake Day. No cake for you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, City Council. I am here once again to ask the City Council to accept the Friends of the Library's $825,000 gift for new books and materials for the Huntington Beach Library. More than a year ago, Director Wysocki shared the library's annual collections needs with us. The Friends are proud to fulfill our mission by providing funds for library collections. At the City Council's request, we worked to memorialize a long-standing relationship between the Friends and the City through a written agreement reflecting a partnership that has existed for more than 50 years. Since then, multiple drafts have gone back and forth. Recently, the Friends were asked to make more revisions to the draft agreement, and we did so. The agreement now addresses the city's many requests, including insurance, volunteer screening, and city input on library fundraising activities conducted on city property. The most recent version has been in the city's possession for over a month, yet we have received no communication. Again, our goal is to give $825,000 at no taxpayer expense to support the library. At a recent Southwest Huntington Beach meeting at the Edison Center, Mayor McKeon expressed confidence that an agreement could be reached by the end of February. Unfortunately, in the past five months, I have met with Mr. Hopkins and Mayor McKeon only once and it now appears progress has stalled. I have also learned that not every council member has even seen or reviewed the Friends' most recent proposal, so I encourage each of you to follow up with Mr. Hopkins, who has our latest draft. Please review the agreement, and you'll see that we've made changes that you've requested, and we are ready to sign an agreement and to make our gift to fund the library collection. For the public, I would like to publicly thank the volunteers of the Friends of the Library. You received and clean and sort and prize and shelve donated books for sale, helping the contributions to the library system. The Friends gift shop also works tirelessly to provide thoughtful and unique gifts for holidays, birthdays, and special occasion. Your work matters, volunteers. You are deeply appreciated by us. To our 1,200 members in this community, thank you for continuing to believe in libraries, in literacy, and the mission of the Friends organization. And finally, for the families whose loved ones entrusted us with bequests, we remain committed to honoring those gifts responsibly. We will direct funds toward library collections and materials, not infrastructure projects such as HVAC, fountains, or roofs. At the same time, the Friends leadership and members remain willing to help raise additional funds outside of our organization because we care deeply. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Yeah, my name is Russell Neil and I live in Huntington Beach. What makes America special is a stack of three interconnected ideas. At the top of this stack is our economic system of private property and free enterprise. Under that is our constitutional system of equal justice under law, which makes the economic system possible. Finally, the whole system rests on the foundation of the biblical faith and morals of the Christian founders. Tonight I focus on the system of private property and free enterprise. The legal protection of private property and free enterprise is primarily a benefit to the weak and poor, not to the strong and rich, who need no such protection. It is this system which makes America the land of opportunity. This system does not guarantee equal results, but only equal playing rules, which the individual can take advantage of or not. That is why it is called the land of opportunity, not the land of guaranteed success. This system objectively produces better results than every utopian scheme that has ever been tried. If, for example, the welfare state of Great Britain was an American state, it would rank 51st in terms of income per capita. This is also the most moral and biblical of all systems, minimizing coercion, maximizing choice, and supporting the highest level of private charity in the world. The system is under constant attack from those who prefer free stuff over freedom and from those who would exploit envy to gain power. I commend this council for making Huntington Beach a place that protects private property and encourages free enterprise in contrast with other places that promote an ungodly envy and power based communist nightmare. Thank you and God bless and preserve America. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker please.

Hi Mike, I hope you're feeling better. Yeah, good. Well, I was just, had something written up, but then I got to listen to everything that was happening and what I observed. Casey and Pat, you know, you were really rude while people were talking about the budget. Pat was talking about the budget. And oh, other people's money, that is all of us. And that's what we're concerned about as well. And I thought he did a really good talk on it. Pat Burns, I really liked your do your homework before you vote. Let me just, I know you probably already know this because he was one of the Fab Four with you, Tony Strickland, that in 2016 he paid a fine of $40,000 because he mismanaged his campaigning that he had of over $65,000. That's a little FYI. And I feel really sorry for all of these people that are going through this 24-7 stuff. You had the city-town meeting like in, was it January, Casey? And this is where we're at? It's not right. And I also feel sorry for all of the red hat people that voted for you because they're starting to figure you out. And Mr. City Attorney, it's time for you to start doing your job. It's time for you to start doing your job. And Casey, I'm not surprised by the flag program, the city-sponsored flag program. It doesn't surprise me. Let me get it going. But what you might be surprised of is that many don't want to see a flag in front of their homes or rows of MAGA-fied flags down our HB streets on public light posts. Many Americans believe MAGA's collective narcissism has destroyed the flag's true purpose. That being a symbol of national unity and respect for all. Why are we spending city funds to endorse neighborhood flags hanging on public light posts? Currently, this is illegal in Huntington Beach for residents. to display flags on existing eligibility streetlight poles. My views do not make me unpatriotic or unappreciative of the true meaning of the flag, the American flag. But here right now, are you guys doing the best you can, each and every one of you? Are you?

Thank you. All right. Okay, now we're moving on to council committee appointment announcements. Council members, do you have any council committee appointment announcements? Sorry, Roger. Come on, Roger.

prayer isn't here again seriously the chief of police has to be over here he's supposed to be here every single every single time that you guys are here he's supposed to be here instead they got a little mini me that kind of looks like him but it isn't him all right so you shouldn't have him sub for him i asked eric how many times he's went to israel this past ever since he's been here and he didn't want to comment So, please, make him show up here. I mean, he gets paid over $500,000 a year from you guys. And every year, he gets a bonus. He gets a bonus of a longevity bonus of 5%. Okay, so $500,000, that's $50,000. That's a $25,000 bonus every year just for longevity purposes. That's insane. Okay, but besides the money that he gets paid from his retirement, actually, quote, forced leaving of the sheriff's department. He got removed at the Sheriff's Department from being in charge of the prisons over there, the jails over there. The jails of all L.A. County, he was in charge of. You know what that means? When he started, there was only three deputy gangs. And each gang was like between 18 to 30 people, deputies. When he left, there was over 17 confirmed gangs. Seriously, and four of them, the most vicious ones, besides the original three, were from the 3,000 boys, the 4,000 boys, and the 5,000 boys. That's for the 5,000 block, the 3,000 block, and the 4,000 block of the jails. And he's never, ever reprimanded any of them from doing all these just despicable things to the inmates. And the inmates are not guilty. A lot of them were not even guilty yet. They were just waiting because they couldn't afford to pay the bail. So that way they can go and have a decent... So that way they can be out and try to gather evidence for their... for their innocence, to show their innocence. They couldn't do that. Instead, they were forced, if they were asking for you to go to the library or anything, if they asked in a different, in a wrong way, they'd have a meeting. I mean, the deputies would see them in the middle of the night. They'd bring them out, and they'd do all these things to them. It's insane that we have this guy as the chief of police over here. You guys gotta look some of this stuff up, man. I mean, it is scary that this is the person that gets $100 million a year for his department, for the police department. Over $100 million a year. And he's only open Monday through Friday. I've never seen a police station that's closed. The station is closed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's only open from 9 o'clock for business, from 9 o'clock until 5 o'clock. Or 430, I guess. I mean, it's insane. On Friday, they're closed. A police department that gets $100 million a year, over $100 million a year. This is insane. It's insanity. A police department that there's no way. The reason that we have no crime is because nobody writes a crime report. Everything is an incident report.

All right, Roger. Thank you, everybody. All right. Now we're moving on to council committee appointment announcements. Council members, do you have any council committee appointment announcements? Seeing none, AB 123 reporting, does anyone have anything to report? Seeing none, openness and negotiation disclosures, does anyone have anything to disclose?

I spoke to the POA.

Anybody else? Spoke to the POA as well. Okay.

Same, spoke to POA.

All right.

Same.

Okay. Moving on to the public hearing. So this is revised to approve the changes to residential and commercial trash collection services and residential trash collection rates by A, adopting waste infrastructure system enterprise, WISE agreement between County of Orange and City of Huntington Beach and B, approving the introduction for ordinance number 4348, adopting the first amendment to the revised and restated refuse collection and disposal services franchise agreement between City of Huntington Beach and Rainbow Disposal Company Inc. and C, conducting a public hearing to adopt resolution 2026-11, increasing residential trash rates effective July 2nd, 2026 and ratifying the methodology for future rate adjustments. Madam Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this item?

Yes, we do have supplemental communication for this item. One moment, sir. So for a public hearing, item number 10, revised PowerPoint presentation, one email, and 315 protest letters received regarding changes to residential and commercial trash collection service rates.

All right, staff, please introduce the report. Thank you, Mayor.

I'll ask our Public Works Director, Chau Vu, to introduce the item.

Thank you, Travis. Good evening, Mayor, members of council. Tonight, we're asking the council to approve updates to the city's residential and commercial trash services to ensure long-term landfill capacity, comply with the state SB 1383 requirements, and maintain a balanced refuse fund. This includes approval of 10-year wise agreement with the county, which increases the landfill disposal costs, introduction of ordinance number 4340, amending the franchise agreement with Rainbow, a.k.a. Republic, and adopt a resolution 2026-11 to adjust residential rates by $7.58 worldwide. per month beginning July 2nd, 2026, with the defined methodology for future adjustments. We have Deborah Jabinski, our senior analyst, as well as our consultant, Haley Kunert from HFNH, who will be giving the presentation. Deborah.

Members, thank you. Appreciate you, Juan. I'm Deborah Jabinski, as Chau just said, and I'm here with Haley Kunert from HF&H Consultants. So we're going to give you a presentation on all the items before you tonight in this action. So tonight, we're requesting that you consider and approve changes to the city's refuse and recycling rates and services in this presentation. we will be providing a more in-depth look at the information that I previewed for you all at the March 17th meeting as part of the city manager's report. So we are asking you to consider these changes and move on to the next slide. So the key issues affecting the refuse services and rates are the new landfill agreement with the County of Orange which is necessary to ensure continued access to the local landfills. There is a substantial 85% rate increase as part of the new agreement, but there's a three-year phase-in that helps smooth the overall impact to our residential commercial customers, and in addition, The landfill rate is a portion of the overall services provided. So again, people don't see a full 85% increase on the actual rate. And then we have the SB 1383 organics compliance. So the state mandated food waste recycling programs must be implemented for residents and businesses. So the law commonly known as SB 1383 took effect in January 2020. And we have implemented as much of the mandates as we were able to, lacking a franchise amendment and updated rates, which are necessary to start providing the food waste recycling programs. So following this presentation tonight, we will have a public hearing as required by the California Constitution, more commonly known as Proposition 218. That is the city's legal framework for setting property related fees and charges, commonly for utilities and services, and refuse collection is widely considered to be such a property related fee. And again, as I previewed on March 17th, on April 3rd, We followed the procedural requirements. Notices were mailed to all of the affected residential properties previewing tonight's public hearing and giving everyone the opportunity to voice their objections should they have them. So with that legal framework established, I wanted to provide some context for the refuse franchise amendment that is part of tonight's recommended actions. So briefly reviewing the history of our current trash and recycling franchise agreement. It's a 20-year-old agreement. It was originally adopted in 2006 with Rainbow Disposal. And Rainbow was acquired by Republic Services in 2014. So in the staff report, it's referred to by both names because the Rainbow entity does still exist, but as a division of Republic Services. In that agreement, it's 20 years old, there are no provisions for the mandated recycling service updates that have been enacted since that time. And especially for the SB 1383 super comprehensive kind of omnibus actions regarding recycling and mandated services. So implementing the food waste and organic services requires a franchise amendment so that the services are part of our contract. And the new services do come at increased costs, which HFNH will review later in this presentation. And finally, it should be mentioned that we are currently under CalRecycle compliance review by their jurisdiction and agency compliance enforcement branch or JACE, the acronym in the presentation. So it is very important that the city move forward with the balance of the SB 1383 implementation. So the other key thing affecting our rates and the reason we're here tonight is that landfill disposal agreement known as WISE, the Waste Infrastructure System Enterprise Agreement. So this is a 10-year agreement. and it guarantees local landfill capacity and access at preferred rates. Again, it comes with an 85% increase, which is substantial, but it is still lower than what we would pay to export trash outside of the county and with no guarantee that we would have available capacity outside of the county or elsewhere. So for the next slides, I'm going to introduce Haley Kiernert from HF&H Consultants. Haley was a key part of the development of the amendment and negotiations with Republic Services and in reviewing and ensuring that the city will be in compliance and have a modernized agreement that will see us through the remaining 11 years that we have in our term. So, Haley.

There you go.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, and the rest of the City of Huntington Beach team. It is my honor to be here as a Edison Charger alumni and to be supporting the jurisdiction in implementing the state mandated programs. So as Debra mentioned, SB 1393 went into effect January 1st, 2022 and required a various set of state mandated programs for organic waste collection to keep organic materials out of landfills, including food waste, cardboard, paper, things that have traditionally ended up in the landfills and can be repurposed into beneficial materials and other procurement matters such as compost and mulch to benefit the soil. So some other requirements include contamination monitoring to educate customers on proper sorting and use of the containers, as well as inspection and enforcement. There is now teeth to the state mandates related to solid waste and recycling. The more fun side of SB 1383 includes an edible food recovery program which includes providing education to businesses as well as getting food to those who need it. Finally, there's some education outreach requirements as well as the procurement of organic waste to close the loop on this organic material that is being kept out of landfills. And finally, we have to do a lot of reporting and record keeping to ensure that the state can see what the jurisdiction is doing. Some key service enhancements for the SB 1383 amendment include those SB 1383 collection services, which includes the food waste now being able to be commingled with the green material and being co-collected, as well as some additional programs for commercial, which includes a commercial recycling cart, as well as some split bins for customers who may have space constraints. The additional requirement of the recovered organic waste procurement support, the city has the amazing compost pile, but adding on to ensure that the jurisdiction, that Huntington Beach can achieve those requirements. Route reviews to ensure generator requirements with the contamination monitoring protocols, as well as software to support the record keeping for the state mandate. Edible food recovery program assistance has been included where a third party will be brought in to support the businesses in the jurisdiction with getting those edible food recovery programs in place and getting the food to those who need it. And there's an additional added facility exhibit for material monitoring for where the material is going to ensure oversight of that. There's also a mechanism for a residential organics facility change. So if a cheaper option or a more cost-effective option becomes available, the city does have the ability to direct that material to a different facility. So some key contract enhancements versus service enhancements includes performance monitoring metrics, so liquidated damages and other metrics to ensure oversight of the contract and the agreement that weren't previously in place. Additional sustainability advisors to support the generators and the city customers with implementing programs, being out in the public at city events and supporting with implementing these new programs and services, as well as a labor contingency plan that is going to be reviewed and updated annually to ensure contact information and that both the city team and Republic team have a plan in place due to past experience with work stoppages. There's additional standardized reporting requirements, and so ensuring getting the data that's necessary to develop and implement new programs in the future. Defining a flow control for the material streams. As mentioned, we have that ability to direct materials to another facility for certain streams, and then also just making it very clear who has control of determining where materials go for each of the different streams. Finally, we've added some defined terms for ease of future state-mandated considerations. Coming on the docket soon is SB 54, which is the Extended Producer Responsibility Bill, and this will hopefully alleviate some of the burden that the city will have to change and discuss with Republic in the future to ensure ease of implementing those requirements.

All right.

And then of course the implementation and transition. So from June to December of 2026, there'll be an education and outreach period to give folks a chance to get comfortable with the new program. The residential organics cart rollout will commence July 1, 2026, but then the additional carts will be rolled out over a two year time in alignment with that phase and over a couple years for the residential increase. Starting January 2027, The commercial and multifamily auto enrollment will begin because this is a state-mandated program. However, we wanted to ensure a substantial education and outreach period before customers were automatically enrolled. And then the additional residential cart charge will begin at that time, giving folks a chance to right-size their containers in the meantime and ensure alignment with the services that they need. So rate impacts will be in addition to the annual CPI and disposal adjustments that are already incorporated into your franchise agreement. So the residential three-year rate phase-in July 1 will be $3.54 with a total customer impact of $7.58, which includes CPI, disposal, and the city account services adjustment. July 1, 2027 will be $2.68 on top of the annual adjustments and then following that July 1, 2028 will be $1.46. Commercial customers depends on the material type. So your solid waste or your trash will be a three year phase in of a 1.86% or this year it's the 14% impact due to the wise agreement change as well. Commercial organics recycling will receive a one-time adjustment of 57.51%, or as shown, 76% with those WISE increases and the annual CPI. Sorry, that would just be the CPI adjustment. Commercial recycling, there will be no change to the current rates for SB 1383 programs. There will only be new services. The increase with the WISE agreement and the annual adjustment is 12%, though. And with that, I will hand it back over to Deborah for the recommended action.

Thank you. I don't think it's necessary probably for me to read through all the recommended actions here on the slide because I have a feeling the clerk is going to repeat that again. But basically tonight there are three recommended actions that I'll summarize. We want to approve and authorize so that we can adopt and execute the wise agreement with the county to ensure our landfill capacity. We're going to approve the ordinance that adopts the franchise amendment so that we get the first amendment to provide the services. And then finally, the third recommended action will be to adopt the resolution to implement the rates. So we are available for any questions. And we also have our colleagues from Republic Services here. Dan Kaepner is here and Debbie Kille, who's our municipal services manager. So we're available for questions.

Thank you, council members. Does anyone have any questions on the report? Go for it.

I'm going to start off with a couple high-level questions. I might circle back up from my other co-council members to ask their questions. So first and foremost, I think it's important for those who are watching, and we did have a previous meeting in regards to 1383, to understand that this is a mandate by the state. This is not a city preference, and we're actually just really working towards compliance, and that's key and it's essential. And there are some good things about this bill. I think the fact that we're focusing on the organic waste disposal. And then on the flip side, the bad things about this bill is that it's an unfunded mandate and that ultimately all the taxpayers have to pay for this. So leaning into the dollar element and the money piece of this, one question I have, whenever there's a program that comes down from the state, and I've seen this as a resident as well as a business owner, is that then there is a an industry, if you will, within the city of compliance surrounding that mandate. And that falls as kind of, I call them taxes, but when you don't necessarily comply with everything, then you get penalized into thousands of dollars. Is there, from the city perspective, are we adding staff? Are we adding compliance officers? And what are the potential penalties for the residents as well as businesses if they don't fully comply with the mandates here, especially given the fact that really there's a six month education program and sometimes it's hard to even get to every resident or business based on just that six month timeframe. Are we bringing in new officers? Are we hiring more officers for the city?

So yeah, the residential rate proposal includes 0.75 of a full time employee because that would be the part that we attribute to the residential enforcement and then the other 0.25 of that person's time would be on commercial enforcement. And that is because the way the law is written, the state says that we can delegate inspection and auditing to our hauler, but we are responsible for issuing any notices of violation, warnings, and similar. And then finally, if we were to get to the point of citing. So it's in the municipal code, it's in chapter 8.22, and that is something that we adopted a couple of years ago as part of our ongoing building towards compliance.

Okay, so the cost in regards to staff would be one body?

Yes. Okay.

So it's one person. Okay, got it. And then 75% of their time will be spent looking at the residential compliance piece. Does that include lid lifting? I've heard some stories about other communities that have maybe fast forwarded on this where people actually go around and they look in your garbage to determine if there's organic scraps being commingled with recycling or what have you.

Lid lifting is part of it, yes.

So we would go over it. So we're going to have an employee dedicated to lifting people's garbage lids to see if they're compliant?

So part of that inspection and, like, route auditing is delegated to the hauler. So, you know, that... And the drivers also will see it as they're tipping the containers and they'll know if there's contamination. So that's part of it. It's not their... They're going to be more on the noticing and warning and then eventually citing. So yes, there'll be some follow-up inspecting done and there will be lid lifting done by city staff, but that's not gonna be there full time.

Okay, but part of their time will be spent towards that. And then so from the Republic or Rainbow side of things, do they have, are there cameras, are there mechanisms within the vehicles right now where they're monitoring what's being dumped or tipped?

I'm gonna bring Debbie Kelly down.

to address that.

Hello, good evening council. Yes, the trucks currently have cameras on them that are watching what's going in the hopper. A lot of that's for safety as well, because there are things that are put in trash cans and recycle bins and carts that are hazardous, and we need to make sure that we're protecting ourselves. So there's things like batteries and hazardous waste. So we already have those cameras there. In the commercial side, we do film that, and if there is any contamination in recycling, businesses are already being charged a contamination fee. We work with them on education and outreach and making sure that they know what things can and can't go in that.

Okay, so then in the event that there's a garbage truck and it tips and then they see that, especially with its 1383, that there's a big bag of banana peels commingled in with the regular garbage, then they theoretically could get fined for that?

Well, there is a three strikes situation. It's a We're gonna lean on education before we start finding people. So they're gonna get a tag first that's gonna be a notice of contamination. But ultimately then there will be a fine assessed and that will be by the city enforcement officer. So we'll be sharing that information with the city when we're finding residents or businesses that keep having those contamination issues and then the city will issue the NOVs.

Okay, and then on the business side, we had talked about this in the last meeting. So in certain situations, especially downtown businesses or businesses that don't have a limited amount of parking, we're already you know that we already have to have and a lot of those businesses, especially if they're restaurants, they have to have like a grease interceptor and then they have to have a disposal for their grease. Then they have the recycling bin and then obviously just the regular garbage bin right now. In the event that there isn't space to fit in the new additional bin for some of the organic waste, it did look like there was a little bit longer of a time frame there. Will those be visited on a case-by-case basis? Can businesses share, for example, an organics waste bin?

Yeah, every business will have a site visit. We will work with every single business to make sure that they are set up with what they have space for. We are already doing that through the old organics program that was for the higher volume generators. So even your business, we were out visiting with you and letting you know what kinds of things you needed at your restaurant. So we'll be doing that with every business. And if they There are exemptions where our waivers that exist for space constraints. So in those downtown areas, we've already exempted some businesses who just don't have the space. In this new program though, we are gonna have what's called a split bin. Deborah mentioned that. And a split bin allows, it's a three yard container but half of it is trash and half of it is recycled, so it'll fit in those traditional dumpster enclosures, and then they will be able to do both of those, trash and recycling.

Okay, and then on the edible food recovery, just a question on that, because that goes beyond, I just want to confirm for anybody who's watching and understands this, number one, is that only going to apply to commercial or is that residential as well, on edible food recovery?

Only commercial.

Okay, and then that will be, the education element of that will be conducted by Republic or by the city or both?

We'll be hiring, it'll be the responsibility of our public services, we do it in other cities right now, and we hire a third party that takes care of that. So Abound Food Care, if you're familiar with them, we've used them in other cities, and there's other programs that exist that they go out, they do the education, they work with the businesses and educate them on edible food recovery, getting them to sign contracts with, or agreements with edible food recovery organizations, and then that information is relayed back to the city so they have that to report to CalRecycle.

Okay, and then that gets, just so everyone understands and that I'm interpreting it properly, that gets distributed to food banks and organizations in which perhaps they're feeding people who need it by way of the restaurant, et cetera, or the food service operation.

It's positive things about SB 1383. It's actually going towards hungry people.

Okay, those are my general questions right now. I'll pass it along. Thank you. Don, go ahead.

Thank you. Reiterating what Councilman Grewal said, this is a mandate. Is there any profit, though, for the city? Is this straight pass-through, or is this any bit of a profit center? I was under the impression it's just straight pass-through cost.

So you're speaking about the residential rates. Yes. we're not allowed to profit by law. So it's the portion that we pay to Republic is a straight pass through and then we keep a small percentage. So 8% of the proposed rate is just done to cover our costs for staff and for city account management services where we have the cost for the billing software and printing paper bills for the people that still get paper bills, all of that factors into all of that account management services.

So, you know, everybody on the council is also a resident of Huntington Beach, so we are, you know, paying the same cost. When we first met with you guys, can you explain to me the, for a residential, in my house, I've got, you know, two recycle bins and then two, all the other trash. And then we have the green bin outside as well for like the grass clippings and everything else. So, The trash goes in the brown, the recycle goes in the blue. So in my trash right now could be a mix of everything that's not recyclable, which includes now food waste that doesn't go down the garbage disposal, banana peels. So what is gonna go in the new composting bin? And when you guys met us the first time, you gave us like this little bin. is that what the residents are going to get? Like they keep that on the counter and they go, okay, the eggshells and the banana peels go here. How do you see this happening in the real world in a kitchen or where they keep the trash?

I'm happy to answer.

Yeah, I was just going to say, we will have the small pails available to any resident that wants them, and we will be distributing those through various outlets, you know, giveaway events and public events that we attend, and so that is intended just to help make it more convenient for the resident to collect the food scraps however they choose to do so in their own kitchen. So that is what that small pail is for. It's not intended to be used as a collection vessel, so to speak, for Republic when they provide the service.

So will you then provide another bin?

No, your banana peels are now going to go in your green bin with your green waste.

Okay, so what will go in the composting bin, the bin that goes to composting? All the food things will now go in the green bin?

Correct. Yes. Any non-liquid food should go in the green bin with your yard waste if you generate yard waste.

Okay. That seems okay. The thing I liked about it was that it's not a pass-through profit center. You guys are right now using the best available options, is what you've said, but there's flexibility. If another option arises that's better, we have the ability to pivot, so that kind of gives us a little protection. And you were able to tighten up, I think, our public works, as you kind of indicated, tightened up our contract with some additional liquidated damages clause, some enforcement mechanisms that favor the city. So I did think that was favorable. The one thing, and I'll close on this, it was just SB 1383, it looks like it was passed in 2016. So it's been a long roll. So I was just curious to see if it was a bipartisan bill, who passed it, who voted for it. This has nothing to do with politics, it's just a statement of fact. So the Senate bill passed with 25 yeses, all Democrats, 12 nos, all Republicans. two no votes, one of each party. And the Assembly Bill passed with 44, Assembly Bill, same number, 1383, 44 yes votes, Democrats, 24 no votes, Republican, and one Democrat, and 12 no votes, three Republican, nine Democrats. So it's just telling, it seems like a decent program, but with all new regulations, all new mandates, there's always that cost. And I guess in the end what we get is more free compost. Thank you.

Any other questions?

I'm just curious on the fees, is that gonna be a fee that's mandated by the state if someone violates more than three times or is that something that's our discretion from the city?

So the framework for the fine structure was actually included as part of the regulations that the state handed down, but it very much aligns with traditional administrative citation schedule of fines. They set the fees. Yeah, they set the fees, but it's not out of line. It wasn't anything unusual in terms of what we would see for a typical administrative citation if it gets to that point.

Okay, so it's not a suggestion from them, they've actually set a floor that we would be required to charge for violations?

Yes, I think they set the minimum, and then, correct me if I'm wrong, they set the minimum that we must fine, and we're free to make it more if we so choose.

Okay, and do you guys happen to know what those fees look like?

It can range anywhere from $100 for the first violation up to $1,000 plus. If you look at the requirements on the jurisdiction, the fines can be up to $10,000 a day per each instance of violation. For example, if the city never implemented an edible food recovery, that may be a major violation and would be a more costly fine on the jurisdiction.

Okay. Does the city have a little bit of discretion? Can they go beyond three strikes? Could they go four or five strikes?

I would love to actually clarify that. There is no mechanism in the amendment for fining contamination fees from Republic. It's actually a method to provide a warning and the customer can then clean the bin and have it collected the following week or clean it and then request and call and ask for an additional pickup, which is about $26. So just providing that clarity that on residential customers, it's not a contamination fee or fine. It's the option to either clean your container and have it collected same day for a fee of 20-ish, $25, or have it collected the next week. For commercial customers, it's the same program that's been in place under 1826 and 341 for contaminated containers.

Okay, that's interesting. If I'm hearing you correctly, residents don't need to worry about ever getting fined. If anything, they might get passed up on a pickup and have to do some type of cleanup or pay an optional fee if they want someone else to take care of it.

Well, if the jurisdiction gets a complaint from a neighbor that they see them contaminating the container regularly or for public, you know, provides notice to the city of, hey, this customer is frequently contaminating, to Debra's point, the container, city staff member would go out and enforce if necessary.

Okay, they could enforce but the state doesn't mandate that they would have to enforce and fine them? There's nothing in the law to fine them?

No, if there's no evidence to support it, a fine isn't necessary.

Okay, I'm trying to roll back the time and remember when the blue bins first came out. I guess I heard, and I don't know if this is true or not, now the brown and the blue, they all go to the same pile, is that correct? No. No, okay, all right, good. All right, no other questions.

Don.

Just one final question.

On the recommended actions, just so all the residents know and we know the full scope, what would happen if we didn't pass through? I mean... didn't we adopt them? I mean, what would happen?

So you are currently undergoing a JACE compliance evaluation and at the end of that you would, you know, CalRecycle will provide their findings, you'll have a chance to respond and depending on the gaps you would be put on a compliance action plan which could result, you know, if you don't close the compliance action plan in those fines of up to $10,000 per day for each instance of non-compliance. And it's a 182-page regulatory text. So there's a lot of things you can get docked on.

That's a lot. And my final thought is, and I sent a text to Debbie today, Republic's got some good people. My pickup guy, Miguel, big smile every time I see him. It's just a pleasure to see him. And I sent a text to Debbie, said make sure you let him know that we appreciate him. He's a good man.

And he is one of our better.

I've had a lot of good ones come through my circle. They're good people. Thanks.

Butch. Just a couple things. Just to clarify, of the total increase in costs that our residents are going to see on their bill, only 8% of that increase, you know, it's going to, you know, for when it goes up, say, $8, you know, the first, you know, tranche, 8% of that are 56 cents. Basically goes to the city to help offset the cost of enforcement and administrative and all that, right? So really 56 cents out of the first $8 tranche is going to go to the city, is that correct?

So that 8% referred to the rate overall. So, you know, if this gets approved as proposed, $36.64 is the monthly rate to residents. Then of that 8% is what the city uses for public education, for enforcement, for all the city account services and customer service. Okay.

I got it. Yeah. Out of curiosity, how does Huntington Beach Orange County stack up against you know, Los Angeles, you know, other jurisdictions around, you know, say it's just Southern California, in terms of our increases, is it pretty similar to what other jurisdictions are doing?

Yeah, I'll weigh in on that. So for SB 1383 increases, for the residential sector, we saw anywhere from a 10 to 30% increase depending on the size of the jurisdiction. For commercial customers, it was a little bit less because a lot of the programs were already in place, so it was more like a 2 to 10% increase.

Okay, thank you. And then just one, just an observation. At my house out in the desert, I got there, this last week, and I noticed that we had, for the first time, we had these containers that were in our kitchens for the food stuff to go in there. And inside those containers, there was little plastic bags. And we got a couple emails from concerned citizens that said, the odor is going to be horrible if we're filling that up with food waste. Imagine after a week, and the way they have it set up down there in the Palm Desert area is there's little plastic bags in the containers. You just tie up the plastic bag and take it out. You don't leave it sitting there for a whole week. Is that kind of the plan?

No, that's not our plan for here. Plastic bags, and I'm hoping that they're using compostable plastics. But even a compostable plastic is still a resin. It's still a plastic product.

Right.

And it's really not desired. The commercial composters don't want that material mixed up in the things they're making compost out of. And so we're not going to allow it. We'll allow paper, but not plastic.

Well, the way these are set up is you basically just go dump it, you know, and the plastic bag stays in there. So my other question was going to be, are you going to provide the little plastic bags, you know, like the ones I saw down in the desert? And apparently not. It's just we just put the food in there and then you dump it in your green receptacle, correct?

So, yes, if someone wanted to use a plastic bag, as long as they emptied the food out of the plastic bag at the green container and then put the plastic one in the trash container. That is fine. We just don't want the plastics in the composting, the organics container.

Thank you. I might also offer, there's a lot of tips and tricks that Republic will be educating on for how to reduce odor and mitigation. A lot of jurisdictions have been implementing these programs. As a resident of Costa Mesa, I've had a program for back to 2016 and having a Toll House cookie dough container on my counter. So you can get creative with what you use and stick it in the freezer to help prevent odors, stick it in a place that won't be seen. So there's a lot of tips and tricks that have been developed since this is a slightly later implementation. You have the benefit of learning from the mistakes that others have made.

Thank you. And then just one other thing, just to echo what Councilman Kennedy said, I really do love and appreciate everything that Republic does. They actually did a little parade for my two-year-old today with a couple trash trucks, and he was so excited, and I had it videotaped, and I want to just thank Republic and thank Debbie for making that happen. You guys are awesome. You're awesome neighbors, and you're an awesome company, and I appreciate you guys.

Thank you, and we do enjoy giving back to the community. We've given lots of community tours. We've been out at the Public Works night with our Touch a Truck, with the electric truck, so we just, you know, if we have little fans out there, definitely reach out to me. We'd love to give you a tour or let you know how we recycle. It's not one pile, three piles, and where it goes after that. We'd love to educate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll jump in. So I just want to reiterate that no one wants to pay more, and this is just another unfunded, state mandate from the democrat super majority in sacramento just like the high density housing mandates another unfunded mandate and people have asked how are we fighting back like we fight against those unfunded high density housing mandates and a resident sent an email with some questions and public works director chao was generous enough to give me some answers so i just want to read it to the community the question was what efforts did the city make to negotiate the county landfill fee increase on behalf of the rate payers and what were the outcomes? The city joined a coalition of Orange County cities that was led by the OC City Managers Association. Our Public Works Director Chau Vu was part of the coalition team participating and advocating for Huntington Beach. The coalition secured a one year extension of the outgoing agreement which was originally set to expire on June 30th of 2025. This allowed the city time to conduct an in-depth review and analysis of the county's landfill operating costs and projections. The county initially proposed an immediate 92.3% increase to $82 per ton of disposal. The coalition secured a three-year phased increase with the year three rate of $81 per ton, slightly lower than the county's initial ask. The coalition also secured a more favorable calculation of ongoing annual disposal rate adjustments starting in 2029 and 2030. This is a blending of two separate CPI indexes to help smooth future annual rate creases. Second question, has the city explored any general fund contribution to offset a portion of these costs and reduce the burden on residents? Answer, the general fund is fully committed to public safety, maintenance, infrastructure, and essential public services. It is good fiscal practice for trash services to be paid by the users of the service and not the general fund. Question three, why are the landfill costs increased in the new organics recycling program costs bundled together rather than presented separately so residents can evaluate each one on its merits? Answer, each cost, landfill disposal, and the new organics program is explained separately in the staff report. Because landfill disposal is part of what residents put into their black carts or cans, it must be factored into the total service costs. Presenting them together ensures full transparency and an accurate all-in rate for the city-state mandated three container program. Last question, has a contract with Republic Services been reviewed for any cost efficiencies that could reduce the rate impact? Answer, the city conducted a thorough review of Republic Services cost proposal using both internal staff and our independent consultant that's here. Their analysis confirmed the proposal is consistent with industry standards and comparable cities with various haulers, not just Republic Services. And just as importantly, the city negotiated a three year phase in of the increases to cushion residents from a sudden rate jump. This ensures we met state requirements mandates while keeping the rate impact as manageable as possible. So I just wanted to share that with the residents to know that we're always fighting these state mandates that are unfunded, like I mentioned. My question, you brought it up, this was a big concern last year, In the key contract enhancements, you mentioned that there's a labor stoppage contingency plan. So what is that? Because labor disputes with the Republic cannot impact the residents. It's a big deal. We can't have work stoppages. So what did you guys, what were you able to do to enhance that with the labor stoppage contingency plan?

So essentially there's a plan that's been reviewed and developed together in collaboration of both the city and Republic, and that will be reviewed and updated annually. It includes public education and outreach on what's happening, timelines for when updates are necessary, contact information, emergency support, Republic's plan to bring in emergency support. And Debbie, do you wanna add anything?

Yeah, I mean, that was pretty thorough. It's a contingency plan of should it happen, what we are going to be working with the city to make sure that residents are communicated to and that we're doing the best we can to get roll-off boxes out there for people to get rid of their trash, to bringing in our blue crew to make sure that we have those essential services picked up. And the idea, too, is that when we know we're in negotiations, we're starting earlier and we're being more aggressive about making sure that we come to an agreement before it even reaches the possibility of a stoppage.

Just to clarify, the customers are not paying any additional rates for a stoppage, or I think you guys are picking that up yourselves? Yes.

Correct. Yeah. No, there's no additional right to the resident during that time.

Awesome. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Any other questions, comments? Andrew? I'm back.

So you're right, this is an unfunded mandate, as you state, and obviously we have to do this. So it's not a matter of whether we comply, it's a matter of how we comply. We comply with the basic mandates that are coming down from the state. My only concern here and why I'm bringing this up is this is our one opportunity to make sure that this doesn't become a program that turns into an out of control beast in which commercial businesses, retail, restaurants, et cetera, as well as residents, don't end up becoming piggy banks for future opportunities for revenue and cash flow. And I know I'm not implying profit center. I understand it doesn't go to profit, but it can still get lumped back in, especially on administration. So at this point, what decisions do we have in regards to policy versus mandate, right? Like what policy decisions are we making? Can we determine that we don't want to fine commercial and residential customers as Chad had asked? And you said that residential customers would not be fined. I'm just picturing this becoming a war where we got city employees going around which were paying for city employees looking under the lids looking into people's trash and then finding them commercial businesses I know we already get fined and it's gotten to the point now with some of the state mandated programs with commercial businesses where if we're not the ones educating our team members on how to properly dispose of waste then we get fined when here we are and it's being presented to us that it's the city and it's Republic who's gonna be educating, but how do we know that five years down the road that doesn't get passed on to the commercial consumers or the residents for that matter?

Do you want to answer? Go ahead.

I was going to say, I was going to offer that most of the fines are only if you're not compliant with having the three programs in place, not necessarily if you're not utilizing the container. That's the jurisdiction's discretion to go and how strict you're going to enforce that requirement. But with regard to having the program, Republic and the city team will be working with generators, and as long as that generator is on the enforcement pathway, received a notice of violation before any citation is issued, they can comply before any penalty is or would be issued. So it's essentially a doesn't have to be fined, but it's a END OF THE LINE IF THEY HAVE HAD SUBSTANTIAL REACH OUT BY BOTH THE CITY AND REPUBLIC AND STILL HAVE NOT COMPLIED WITH HAVING THE THREE CONTAINER PROGRAM IN PLACE.

SO FROM THE CITY SIDE, HAVE WE DEFINED WHAT SUBSTANTIAL REACH OUT MEANS? HAVE WE DEFINED THE POLICY, THE PROGRAM, WHO THE OFFICER IS GOING TO BE IN REGARDS TO ACTUALLY EDUCATING AND THEN ULTIMATELY HITTING SOMEBODY WITH THE VIOLATION?

So we already have the framework for this in place where we communicate with Republic monthly and they provide us a report of who they've outreached to, in the business case, who they've outreached to and what the result has been. And then the city's job would be to follow up. The first and most obvious is that it we would auto enroll them in the services if they don't have them so we're not going to wait for someone to subscribe voluntarily and the you know regulations say that we shouldn't so you know that would be the first step would be we're going to auto enroll you we're going to we're going to let you know why and we're going to give you warning but we're going to auto enroll you in those services and that will be added to your monthly bill from republic so that would be the part that the city would manage once we determine that you know they've had Generally, it goes three or more contacts. And in many cases, Republic's providing the contract and providing the opportunity for voluntary sign-up, and it's not being followed through by the customer. And in that case, we would auto-enroll them. And, you know, Council will be getting a memo prior to us, you know, enacting that auto-enrollment. I actually have a draft ready to go, depending on the outcome of tonight's actions, so.

Councilman gruel I do want to add to that too that these this outreach that we give to the city It's more than just leave a voicemail three times and call it a day. I mean these are quality outreach So we're trying to reach the business owner We're trying to reach the person making those decisions to make sure we can communicate with them what they need to be doing if there's contamination or they're in need of a specific type of container or You know, we don't just want to auto-enroll and drop things off that's not going to be work for their business. A good example may be, you know, a law office. They're not going to have a lot of organic waste, so we're going to work with them to put together a waiver, but they may have a lot of paper, and so we would have a recycling program for them. So does that help answer your question? Yeah, thank you.

Can I just ask one other question, too?

Yeah. You know, obviously dumping is illegal. I imagine a lot of these commercial businesses, though, any one of them at any time, you know, throughout the year have looked into their dumpster and kind of been like, that's not my stuff. You know, so how would we manage that if somebody illegally dumped into a bin that's supposed to be dedicated for this compost? And the reality is it's not their stuff, but somebody dumped it in there. I mean...

It's a... That is a... a worldwide problem. So the options we have in Huntington Beach, we already have them that exist. We have lock bars for the different bins. We encourage certain businesses, if they have room, to build an enclosure with a lock with a roof so that that kind of illegal dumping isn't interfering with their dumpsters or their carts and causing them to get the fines for the contamination or the overages or whatever else is causing the issues.

If it's not locked up and you guys find stuff in bins that shouldn't be in there, would that start counting as strikes and potentially fines against them?

Fortunately it is, because the businesses and residents are responsible for securing their own carts and bins.

Okay, thanks for clarifying that.

I just wanna point out, this is a perfect example of why some of us are so frustrated with Sacramento. and why it's so important to understand who you're sending out to Sacramento, because these are policies that are forced onto us, they're not funded, the taxpayers get stuck footing the bill for this, and we've received a lot of emails, a lot of them are from our senior community, we have a very large senior population in Huntington Beach on fixed incomes. And this is going to affect all of us here, but it seems to be affecting them the most. They're already just barely making it here in California. It's become one of the most unaffordable states to live in. So perfect example. Pay attention of who we send up to Sacramento to push these fees and pressures and burdens on the taxpayers.

All right. So at this time... One last question.

All right. Because, no, that's a great point that you bring up, Gracie. So will seniors on fixed income, low-income families, et cetera, are there any opportunities for them to be able to get some sort of relief on this, either from the city or the state?

So for low-income seniors, 62 and older, we already have a program. that they can apply for a 50% discount on their monthly trash fee. That is part of the city's utility user tax exemption. So they would apply if they qualify by income and age, then they no longer pay the utility user tax. on like their phone bill, gas and electric. And then in addition, if they're a residential trash rate payer, then they would get 50% discount.

Okay, that's great to know. So the 62 and older 50% discount on the utility user tax, which that can compound and add up to a lot of money. And they do that through the city website?

The information is on the city website, yes. And the applications are handled through our finance department.

Okay, thank you.

So yeah, and again, you would pay zero utility user tax and you get 50% discount on the trash.

Oh, okay. Good, good. Thank you.

Good.

All right, this time I would like to call for a motion to approve recommended actions A and B. So A is approved.

Case, Mayor, do you need to open the public hearing?

Well, it wasn't on the agenda like that, so apologies.

So it was my understanding, City Attorney, that...

Ryan, if there's no, I understood someone signed up to speak. That's why I mentioned it.

Well, it would be A and B only, I believe the mayor's calling for. And so then the public hearing would be item C. My bad. Thanks, Vic.

Appreciate that. At this time, I would like to call for a motion to approve recommended actions A and B. A is approve an authorized mayor and city clerk to execute the waste infrastructure system enterprise agreement between County of Orange and City of Huntington Beach effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2036. And B, approve for introduction ordinance number 4348, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach amending THE FRANCHISE TO COLLECT REFUSE GRANTED TO RAINBOW DISPOSAL AND RAINBOW TRANSFER AND RECYCLING COMPANIES. CITY CLERK TO READ THE ORDINANCE TITLE, PLEASE.

WE HAVE TO VOTE FIRST.

OK. CALL THE QUESTION, PLEASE. MAKE A MOTION.

SECOND.

OK. MOTION BY MAYOR PROTEM. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN BURNS.

Okay. Councilman Grewal.

Abstain.

Councilman Kennedy.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Twiney.

Yes.

Mayor McKeon.

Yes.

Councilman Burns. Aye. Councilman Vandermark. Abstain. Councilmember Williams. Okay. Motion still passes, 4-1-2. Okay. Now I will read the ordinance. ORDINANCE NUMBER 4348, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH AMENDING THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENT TO COLLECT REFUGE GRANTED TO RAINBOW DISPOSAL AND RAINBOW TRANSFER AND RECYCLING COMPANIES.

ALL RIGHT. NEXT IS A PUBLIC HEARING FOR THIS ITEM FOR CONSIDERATION OF ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION NUMBER 2026-11, quote, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach adjusting and ratifying residential trash rates by the formula established in the revised and restated refuse collection and disposal services franchise agreement. So I'm going to open the public hearing. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

Yes, we have one speaker.

Please call him up.

Dan Whitesell. Hello. Hello.

Can you hear me?

Yeah. All right, thank you. I appreciated the back and forth between the committee. It clarified a lot of things for me. I just came to, I support everything the company is trying to do, but I am opposed to the increase of the fees. In our household, we've used the smaller containers, the brown, the blue, and the green for decades. It seems to me that they could implement a two-tiered system, although I was glad to hear that as a senior, I could apply for the 50% discount on a fixed income. I realized that next time I think I need to fill out a pink form instead of a green form because that way I could have commented a couple hours ago. Anyway.

Thank you. All right, see no further speakers. I'm gonna close the public hearing. Public hearing is now closed. At this time, I would like to ask the city clerk to report on the percentage of protests received.

A majority of protests occurs when more than 50%, specifically 50% plus one of affected property owners submit valid written protests. Based on the property and municipal billing records compiled through March 25th, 2026, there are 48,299 residents receiving trash services at 46,513 properties. State law allows one protest per property. Therefore, the city must receive 23,257 valid protests to constitute a majority protest. As of the beginning of the public hearing, we have received 326 valid protest letters. That equates to less than 1% of the 46,513 affected properties.

Okay, so just a question because there were some abstentions and a no vote on the last vote. So what happens if we don't pass this rate increase? Can anyone answer that question? Someone want to come up and, thank you.

Okay, I'm back. So if we don't pass the rate increase, and we move forward with the services, then in order to keep a balanced refuse fund, because it's an enterprise fund, council would have to be asked to possibly approve a general fund subsidy of that so that we can pay to provide the services and pay the... How much do you think that would be? I don't have the numbers in front of me. I don't want to speak off the top of my head. It will be substantial. So I think in my staff report, I allude to 300 and something thousand a month.

A month. Okay, so the citizens of Huntington Beach and taxpayers would have to subsidize the trash collection services of Republic's customers to the amount of roughly $300,000 a month plus.

So it's the city's customers because we bill for the residential services. Sure. So yes, there are customers in our residence, but instead of just those users of the service paying for the cost, it would be everyone.

That's what I'm saying. So all the taxpayers of Huntington Beach would then pay for the Republic Trash Services to the tune of roughly $300,000 a month.

If I recall what's in my staff report correctly, yes, it's approximately $300,000.

Well, just using Lisa's number, 46,000 plus homes at $7, which is on the low side, that is $322,000 on a monthly basis.

Perfect. Yeah, I just want to be clear, because there were some, obviously, no votes and abstentions, so I just want to understand for the community what that means.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll stand by.

Okay.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. If I understand that right, then if we were to vote it down, the city would have to fund about, $300,000 a month, times 12. It would be a general fund hit of $3.6 million a year, correct? Correct. Okay, thank you.

However, I just have a question. Based on the compliance element, the previous motion that passed does put the city of Huntington Beach in compliance by virtue of 1383? Okay.

So we would be, if we then went ahead and implemented all the programs as proposed and as provided in the franchise amendment and with WISE, obviously with the WISE agreement, just to use the landfill, we know we have an increased cost. So if we enacted all those programs, yes, we would be compliant with CalRecycle. So that part of that piece of it would be covered.

I'll make the motion.

All right. Motion and a second? Second. Second by Mayor Pro Tem Butch Twining. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilman Grohl?

No.

Councilman Kennedy?

You know, voting, and just because we didn't have a chance to comment, voting on these state-mandated fees and services, we're in compliance. When I cast a vote, it doesn't mean I agree with it or like it. I do think there are some programs to protect the seniors with a 50% reduction at 62 and older. That's a plus. The bottom line is I'd like to make it all go away, but when you're mandated by the state, you know, And again, as the mayor said, the supermajority wants to continue to press on its citizens. We're forced to make these votes. So the other side of a no vote would be funding this through our general fund at $3.6 million. So knowing the seniors have some protection at 50% off. I'm a yes vote. I don't like this program from the standpoint. It's forced on us. I don't like being forced to do anything, but unfortunately, I can't cast a no vote because I don't want to fund it for $3.6 million. I'd rather protect the seniors on the downside with the 50% off, so it's a yes for me.

Yes. I echo Council Member Kennedy's points. I know that perfectly. I mean, strong leadership is your force to make tough decisions like this. We've touched on it several times. I mean, these are state unfunded mandates. And the only way to change is to change the leadership in Sacramento. And as a strong leader, we've got to weigh all these tough votes and be bold and do a yes or a no. And To Council Member Kennedy's point, I mean, we're protecting the seniors. There's a mechanism there that I read all the answers from Public Works Director Chow, how we were fighting for the repairs, dragging it out over three years, getting reductions in costs with our coalition. So just let the residents know we're fighting for you every single day, and especially on these state mandates, the housing mandates, the high density, refuse, et cetera. So just make that clear. So I'm a yes vote.

Councilman Burns.

Aye.

Councilwoman Vandermark. No. Council Member Williams.

While we're making remarks, while we're mandated by the state to do this, we're not mandated to increase the fees on our residents. And there's always ways to balance the budget. There's nearly 100 funded vacant positions that we have within the city right now. And so there's always a way to pull it off. The greater the need, the greater the result. I think we could have risen to the occasion. It's unfortunate we've gotten here. I'm a no vote.

Motion passes 4-3.

All right, up next is the City Manager's Report, which is a study session for the proposed budget review.

Yeah, Mayor, I have two items that I wanted to update the community and the council on right before the budget study sessions. One is I'm proud to announce the city's continued progress in reducing homelessness in Huntington Beach. The Orange County's Office of Care and Coordination just released their point in time count that they do every two years for all 34 Orange County cities. And this measures homeless statistics across the county. And the full report is available on the Orange County website on the Office of Care and Coordination. HERE'S A COPY OF IT. I JUST WANT TO RUN THROUGH A FEW OF THE STATS. HUNTINGTON BEACH REMAINS ONE OF ONLY TWO CITIES IN THE CENTRAL SPA CITY TO SHOW CONTINUED YEAR OVER YEAR DECREASES. or point in time count over point in time count increases on unsheltered homeless since 2022. The other city is Newport Beach. Huntington Beach unsheltered homelessness count in 2022 is 188. In 2024, it decreased down to 173, and in 2026, we're down to 143 on this count that was done. That's a 24% decrease since 2022, and in this, between the last count from 2024 is a 17% decrease. Huntington Beach also saw decreases in sheltered homelessness, allowing the city to reduce the number of PEOPLE IN OUR NAVIGATION CENTER. AND SINCE 2022, 214 INDIVIDUALS HAVE MOVED TO PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING THROUGH THE HUNTINGTON BEACH SYSTEM OF CARE. AND CURRENTLY THAT'S A 99% RETENTION RATE OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE MOVED INTO HOUSING. I would like to thank our city staff that have contributed to all these efforts. This includes the Huntington Beach Homeless Task Force and the Police Department, led by Lieutenant Roman Altenbach, and our Homeless and Behavioral Health Division, led by Jessica Kelly. This includes the Homeless Outreach Social Worker Team, the Navigation Center, and the HB Cares Volunteers.

Thanks, Travis. I don't think we can highlight it enough. This is now the fourth year in a row we've achieved the greatest homelessness reduction numbers in our city's history. When there's pushback on that, it was always, we'll look at the Orange County point in time count. Travis has touched on it, just came out. Another 17% reduction in homelessness. And to answer people's question, this is people getting them off the streets, into our shelter, into our services, oftentimes into sobriety, into employment, and into housing. So a reduction in unhoused individuals, unsheltered individuals, and sheltered individuals. Total team effort, you know, homeless task force, the police department, our faith-based network, our city staff, our city council, our volunteer network, our service providers, and the entire Huntington Beach community. Total team effort, something we should all be really proud of. I tell people all the time, I was in an Uber last week and a guy came down here, he's like, where am I? I'm like, Huntington Beach? He's like, I've never been down here. I'm from Simi Valley. He's like, it's so clean here. It's amazing. The beaches are clean. He's like, you guys don't seem to have a homeless problem. Well, we're working really hard at it. I didn't tell him who I was. Well, the city's focused on it. Crime's down 27%. We're really proud of our homeless reduction numbers. This is something that we should all be very proud of because it's very hard to do. We're showing in the state of California that policies are possible to reduce homelessness, and we've done it for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than previous councils. It's a huge victory, and we should all be proud of it. So thank you, everybody.

City Manager, real quick, who compiled that data?

So this data was done by the County of Orange, and they do a point-and-count time where they get a whole bunch of volunteers, many, and I think even... We had one of our council members there as well, go out and compile, count, Everybody that they can compile that statistics and the county puts everyone counts report out after each one of these.

And that's annually? Every two years. Every two years, okay. And then the top two cities in reduction were in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach?

In the central spot, those are the only two cities that have reductions over since 2022 to 2024, now to 2026. They have reductions.

You said in the central or the census?

Travis, explain what a SPA stands for.

So there's three SPAs. They're districts in the county. I believe it's North Spa, I know we're Central Spa, and a South Spa.

What does SPA stand for, Travis?

You're killing me now. I know, I'm sorry.

Chief, you know? McCoy, no? I think it's like service-provided area. Yeah, I think you're right. It's just like the county, yeah. This whole area, they provide services for homelessness, right? In that county.

For the Central Spa, there was two. We are the top two or the only two?

The only two that have reduced over the last three counts. Which is every two years, right? Yes, every two years. 22, 24, and 26. I mean, there is one...

layering common denominator, I have to point it out. I mean, between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, they are all conservative councils, so love us or hate us, I mean, those are factual statements.

Well done.

No, it's huge.

I'm just curious, do we have any information on where we stand compared to all 34 cities in the county, like per capita on homelessness?

That can be derived through this report. I don't have that for you tonight, yep.

Thanks, Travis. Good job, everybody.

One other item? Yep. All right. With the recent e-bikes, we provided an e-bike update in the last month, but I have Sergeant Mike Thomas here to give a short update for the community.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council, for having me back. Once again, Sergeant Mike Thomas with Huntington Beach PD. So as the city manager said, I want to give a quick e-bike, e-moto update. Namely, we're going to talk about education enforcement and also about our recent symposium that we had last Wednesday. So since we started keeping track stats back in 2022 e-bike crashes have risen every single year over the last three years it's risen 47 percent as you can see um so we obviously have an issue um at the symposium last week at any conference that i speak at where there's hundreds of law enforcement there i always ask if anyone has had more e-bike crashes than we have had in huntington beach um And I ask that because there's not really a central system currently by the state, but just the unofficial poll is we do lead the state of California in e-bike crashes. But at the same time, we have been keeping stats and we have adopted a plan, namely education enforcement, in order to address this issue. So we'll start with education. Really, our education program, if you had a chance to watch the symposium, see some of the highlights, or just hear about it, or were actually there, I've had dozens of emails, phone calls from law enforcement since the symposium just wanting to replicate our program, and really, With the chief on down the chain of command at our agency, of course, city council support has been great, as well as the community, and then particularly the riders that we train up and the parents that are there. The feedback that we get is amazing, and everyone is seeing that, and really our program is taking off, so I'm very proud of that. Our program, we like to do education first. When it comes to enforcement, we do offer them the diversion course. That's for under 18 riders, and they have to have a parent there with them. I mentioned before, too, that in the fall, the Huntington Beach Union High School District and the Huntington Beach City District have adopted our program. As mandatory, so we're going to go school by school rollout. We've been doing these trainings every month. We've done, I think it was about 19 of them or so since May of last year and training up over 750 riders along with their parents since then. On the enforcement side of things, we are going from the beach service road downtown Huntington Beach. I really like to focus our efforts at the schools themselves, mainly in middle school and high schools. And so this year alone, we've done 17 directed enforcement operations. That's where two or more officers are out. You may have seen the recent one on social media that we posted. We had several officers out there. We had our helicopter. We also had some drones that were assisting us, and that was phenomenal. We made like over 100 contacts. We had quite a bit of citations, impounds, with some of the electric motorcycles that are a real problem for us. So very successful, and we've issued 232 citations year-to-date as well. You could see there we've also impounded 18 e-motorcycles. Last year we had 11 total for the entire year. So this just tells you the proactive stance that we've been taking when it comes to enforcement. And on that note, I've mentioned it last time that I was here, but the right team, really to credit them, there are six officers and myself, the sergeant who leads the team. So this team has been exceptionally productive, particularly since the inception of it, towards the end of last year and then really beginning this year to start the stat collection new. And so we have a MyHB where we've got people reporting that way, obviously people calling in. And then just being proactive and knowing where those areas are where we're having crashes or we're getting complaints. The beach service road I mentioned, that is a very big focal point for us. And as I also mentioned last time that I was here, we have some officers that are radar or LIDAR trained that will be doing some enforcement, heavy enforcement on the beach service road. Lastly, I'll touch on the symposium that we had last week. We had over 200, not over, but close to 250 participants. We actually had a plan to just have 200, but someone brought a friend and we had quite a bit more. We had a great media presence there too. I watched a lot of the media coverage. I felt it was very positive for the city of Huntington Beach. And really in the wake of some of the things that have been reported in the news lately, I felt this was a great win for our city, for law enforcement in general. and those that attended from legislators' offices, with the Office of Traffic Safety, the director was there, and they had like eight or nine other representatives from the Office of Traffic Safety there, along with some of the manufacturers. And we had some representatives from Chalk Hospital. But namely, I want to point out that Casey Hayes was there, And Jesse Hayes, Jesse being the e-bike ambassador, they gave heartfelt speeches. I talked to them afterwards and they talked about how healing it was for them and the IPA family as well. So really it's their story and that's what motivates us to do what we do and really is kind of the fuel for our fire to really deal with these and we care. So people are noticing, people are taking note and people are having issues in other areas as well. It's not just Huntington. but they're coming here looking to us and seeing what they can do. We're helping them. So that wraps it up for me. Open it up for any questions if you have any.

Yes, Sergeant Thomas, just to touch on that symposium. I was there, Butch, and I believe Gracie as well. Really powerful. I mean we've touched on it so many times we got elected, you know talking to the chief in 22 He said e-bikes were the number one issue which I was surprised about But we've all worked so hard with you guys to you know Give you every you know policy you need ordinance you need tools you guys need to enforce and I used to say we were leading the county but after Your presentation a couple of meetings ago and then being at the symposium like we are leading the state in e-bike safety with our policies I mean you touched on we had 250 people there and We had policy makers, we had service providers, we had elected officials, state representatives from the state assembly, from the state senate. They're taking Huntington Beach's policies. finally, and then fusing them into state law. One of the things that we tried to push here was a license requirement, but you can't do that because people could come from outside our city. How do you enforce it? So we've worked through ways to really lean on the state legislators and the state senate to make that a statewide thing through the DMV. So there's a lot of great policies they shared with us, laws that are working their way through the assembly, working their way through the state senate, and they're all piggybacking on what we're doing here in Huntington Beach. Really proud of it. I wish more people could have gone. It was televised, like you said? Was it somewhere people could watch it?

So Cody Long, he recorded it. And we are going to be putting it out in segments. But really, every speaking block that we had, if we had five different segments, they've all been recorded. And they will eventually be available for viewing.

Amazing. Like you said, the IPA family, you know, Jesse Hayes, you touched on it. He's our e-bike ambassador for the youth, right? Just a, or just a gnarly story of, of him basically having to be resuscitated six times on site in a coma. And now he's about long ready recovery. So he's agreed to, you know, speak to the youth. So. The symposium was incredible. We're all really proud about it. And they all sang Sergeant Thomas's praises. Like he is leading the state from the public safety perspective, cracking down on e-bikes. And they all looked at him as the expert. So I appreciate it. I mean, is there anything else we can give you that you can think of to help you guys right now?

Yeah, your support's been great to us. So from my vantage point, You guys have always been supportive. We had a number of conversations, so we're just going to continue to get out there. Awesome. And the chief is really on board with being proactive with our education enforcement stance. So myself, I can't ask for more, but, of course, that's up for the chief and council.

Well, the fact, like you said earlier, the high school districts and the grade school districts all now require a registration safety class to bring their e-bikes on campus, which is huge. I don't know any other city that's done that. And then the challenge is when they leave campus, now they're on the streets, and we've seen the results there. So we just really appreciate it and keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Yeah, why don't you go ahead.

First off, I want to say thank you for everything you do. Sergeant Michael Thomas is a pretty famous person around California right now because he's been spearheading this e-bike safety, and I appreciate that, and I'm honored to know you and honored that Huntington Beach and Huntington Beach PD is at the forefront of e-bike education and safety and training. I was fortunate enough, alongside Mayor McKeon, to be able to give opening remarks at the symposium the other day. And first thing I said is this is probably the safest room, safest place to be in all of California because there was 225 gun-wielding law enforcement officers in there.

Besides Sergeant Thomas, give an example of where they all were coming from, just so the residents understand.

Every city, I could see.

Yeah, so heavy presence in Southern California, but we had... We have agencies from, like, Burlingame area up north that came down. I don't even know where that is. Where is that?

It's by San Francisco. Okay.

Yeah, and so, and the Office of Traffic Safety, they're based out of Sacramento or Elk Grove area. Yep. So they all flew out just to be there.

And like Butch touched on, it was just amazing seeing all these public safety officials and... professionals and service providers throughout the state coming to Huntington Beach as Ground Zero to challenge that they even called e-bikes anymore, right? Like e-vehicles or what was the term they were using? So e-devices is a catch-all. Catch-all. So e-devices. So that was something we learned. But just to see that Huntington Beach is Ground Zero for tackling this very challenging problem was, it just made us really proud.

I just want to just finish up, you know, in a few minutes we're going to be talking about, there's an H item on our agenda tonight. about establishing an ad hoc committee amongst the council members, and there's three of us, and I believe, you know, Council, it was, you know, Council Member Williams brought it up, and when he called me about it, said, well, that's ironic, because I just came from the symposium, and I mentioned to him that our ad hoc committee is gonna be established so that we can find ways that we can help you and help HBPD IN THEIR EFFORTS, AND I MENTIONED TO HIM THAT OUR COMMITTEE SHOULD DEFINITELY INCLUDE YOU BECAUSE YOU CAN TELL US, MAYBE YOU DON'T WANT TO TELL US TONIGHT, BUT YOU'LL HAVE TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT, WHAT WE CAN DO AS A LEGISLATIVE BODY TO HELP OUT. Ever since Councilman Williams brought that up, and Councilman Gruhl, I've been thinking about, in my own mind, what we can do to be even better than we are already. But I just want to thank you for everything you're doing, and we look forward to working with you and the PD. We can talk about that item when it comes up. Okay. I'm all done. I just told them it's coming.

Thank you. Okay.

It's coming. See you. Thank you for the kind words.

Thank you.

So once again, I want to thank you guys for holding that symposium. It was actually, I was very proud of our PD to have so many different officers from so many different agencies come out here. And one of the things that I thought was that this was a coastal issue. It turns out it's not. It's much larger. And when we were elected, the conversations became, well, what can we do to prevent a serious injury? And then we started having traumatic head injuries. We started having broken bones, people hospitalized. And then somebody was killed. So after, we were trying to prevent the serious injuries we said how do we stop somebody from being killed because of one of these e-bike accidents and now people have passed away. Now the conversation has evolved to how can we prevent more deaths and serious injuries. So I want to say that I'm very proud of our police department for being proactive in identifying this issue early on. you guys have taken steps from the beginning to collaborate with our local school districts to put our kids first and you guys have spearheaded all these efforts to find solutions to keep not just our kids safe but now we find out like the gentleman on lake forest who was actually a pedestrian who was hit by one of these e-bikes and passed away so we're just trying to keep our community safe this is just one other issue that our pd has to

figure out and grow with so thank you for taking this on and being an example for the rest of the country thank you yeah the last thing i wanted to hear was someone someone getting hurt or severely you know severely hurt or killed and us not doing enough and so uh chief par actually mentioned i think 2022 uh hey, we've got an e-bike problem, we've got to fix it. And so it's been a multifaceted approach with council support, with the chief support on down, the chain of command, officer support who are out there writing the citations, doing the education, and then really the support that we're getting from hospitals and from other partners that we didn't expect. The DA's office, we worked hand-in-hand with them, and as you see, they've created a task force just recently and all of that has these sidebar conversations where we're all talking, but that's what I figure. This is not just a police department issue. This is not just a Huntington Beach City issue. This is a statewide issue, and it's every agency in our state, and as you mentioned, Yeah, it started on the coast, and we were ground zero, really the perfect storm in just all the conditions that existed. But now you're seeing agencies from Palm Springs area and inland area that are coming and wanting to say, hey, we're starting to see issues now. You guys have been there. You've done that. What can we learn from you? And so those are the conversations we're having, but they're not going anywhere. They're only becoming more popular and more affordable, and they're cool, but we're really leading the way. So very proud of that, and thank you all.

Mayor, this isn't on the agenda, so I think we need to... Just a quick comment.

As they say, knowledge is power. I was not able to attend the symposium, but I did spend some time with Duke IPA this weekend, or this last weekend. And first off, he said it was so hard for Val to get up there and talk, but they felt like they had to do it. But my takeaway in speaking to Duke was the information is so important to get, yes, to the kids, but for the younger kids, to the parents. Like Duke said, after hearing everything, had he known all this stuff, And he had an athlete for a young man. He would have probably taken a completely different tact on... He basically said, I wouldn't even let him have one. So hearing that just resonates that we really have to get to the parents, especially of the younger kids, because if they realize these stats and the peril... Yeah, they're fun to have. I have three of them. My kids like to ride them. Me and my wife do too. But... these younger kids and stuff it's got to start with the parents they really have to understand you know the full scope of these bikes so i know you're focusing on that and the fact that people are emulating what you're doing speaks volumes for you guys so keep up the great work thank you thanks sergeant all right travis budget

All right, Mayor and City Council. Tonight's study session is for the proposed fiscal year 26-27 budget. This was introduced at the last meeting, May 5th, City Council meeting, and the budget was made available to the public at that time. The Finance Commission reviewed the budget last Wednesday, and the study session tonight will provide additional information and a chance for the Council to discuss the proposed budget. And then on June 2nd City Council meeting this budget will be brought forward for additional City Council discussion and consideration for adoption. This budget does provide a measured approach to address the ongoing economic impacts and aligns with this city resources and providing city services. I'd like to thank all of the departments. that did work to produce this budget and they were led by the finance department to complete this and have this prepared for the city council tonight. Our acting finance, our chief financial officer, Zach Zee, and our finance manager, Robert Zalagi, will provide the study session tonight.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. Tonight's presentation is a budget study session for the proposed budget fiscal year 26-27. And the purpose of this study session is to provide the city's financial plan for the upcoming fiscal year. The proposed budget before you tonight reflects significant effort from department across the city to balance current operational needs while keeping the long-term financial sustainability in mind. And with that, I'll begin with a brief overview of tonight's agenda. We'll begin with an overview of all funds budget and then transition into the general fund summary. From there we'll walk through the, sorry, didn't go. Thank you. From here we'll walk through the major revenues and expenditure variances driving the proposed budget and followed by reserves levels and staffing changes across departments. And then we will also cover the proposed capital improvement program by both funds and category. And then staff will present a proposed update to the city's fund balance policy intended to provide additional flexibility during periods of structural budget imbalances. And lastly, we'll open it up for questions. We also have department directors as well as staff to assist with answering those questions. If we are unable to provide an answer for you tonight, we'll make sure that the city council had those answers prior to the adoption of the budget. And let's start with the all funds budget summary.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, and residents of Huntington Beach. I'd like to begin with the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget all funds summary. SO THIS SLIDE SHOWS OUR TOTAL RESOURCES AND EXPENDITURES FOR ALL THE CITY FUNDS. WE'RE BALANCING APPROXIMATELY $590 MILLION OF EXPENDITURES BUDGET WITH RESOURCES OF $488 MILLION IN ONGOING REVENUE, 6 MILLION IN ONE-TIME REVENUE, 57 MILLION IN TRANSFERS IN, AND 39 MILLION IN FUND BALANCE. The department's expenditures have been strategically prioritized to maintain the high standard of living our residents expect. This discipline is why WalletHub currently ranks us as the number one best run city in America for quality of service. Our largest funded department of approximately 187 million is Public Works. This is comprised of five major service sections. the water division of $80 million, the refuse division of $20 million, the sewer division of $15 million, capital improvements project division of $46 million, and our general fund operations of $26 million. With all of these services, Public Works plays a vital role in maintaining the quality of life and infrastructure that our residents depend on every day. So now, let's focus on our largest and most important fund, the General Fund.

All right, so the general fund which supports core city services, total approximately $327 million in resource and expenditures. Personal cost makes up a majority of the overall general fund cost at $211 million, followed by our operating cost at $61 million and transfer out of $52 million, and principal and interest at $3 million. Now, public safety, which includes police and fire, continues to be our largest investment within the community of approximately $173 million. Additionally, the non-departmental category includes citywide obligations such as insurance, pension-related costs, transfers, and other centrally managed expenditures. NOW WHILE THE PROPOSED BUDGET IS BALANCED FOR FISCAL YEAR 26-27, WE CONTINUE TO MONITOR LONG-TERM STRUCTURE PRESSURES THAT CITY FACES. NOW LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT OUR GENERAL FUND REVENUES AND HOW THEY ARE CHANGING THIS YEAR.

OKAY. I'D LIKE TO WALK YOU THROUGH SOME VARIANCES OF OUR TAX REVENUES AND ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES THAT EXCEED A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE AMOUNT OF A MILLION DOLLARS. Property tax provides a steady revenue with a constant growth for the city year after year. The actuary report for the upcoming fiscal year shows approximately a $3 million increase over the last year's adopted budget. Our local tax has a minimal growth of $700,000. The standard average revenue growth rate of 3% is hindered by a decrease in sales tax and flat transient occupancy tax. These two taxes make up over 50% of the revenue in this category. The decrease of approximately 1.1 million in fines and forfeitures is primarily due to an expected shift of fines at the parking meters to revenue received for the parking. This trend is showing that people are paying the meters more and getting fined less. And this trend has been shown in the second half of our fiscal year. The increase in use of money and property for $3.6 million is a combination of the increase from the parking meter revenue, interest from our reserves, lease income, and beach concessions. Revenue from our other agencies is projected to increase $2 million. This increase is largely driven by the voluntary rate range program, which allows Cal Optima Health to secure additional Medi-Cal dollars for the city and other California public agencies. Other increases include the Fire Strike Team reimbursements, a county recycling repayment, and vehicle license fee revenues. Non-operating revenue is projected to increase by $17.2 million. The incorporation of identifying the use of fund balance accounts for $15.6 million and the other $1.6 million is primarily due to anticipating increased revenue from the waterfront settlement. On the other side of the ledger, here's how the expenditures are changing. The increase in the general fund expenditures is primarily driven by personnel costs, which accounts for $21 million. This growth is attributable mostly to approximately $8.8 million for increased in pension costs, $6.9 million in salaries from the removal of budgeted vacancies, $2.9 million in overtime to right-size the trend of actual overtime expense, and $1.2 million in additional costs for employee health benefits. The operating expense increase of 6.8 million is made up of 12 various categories. So let's walk through some of the variances of our categories that exceed a positive or negative amount of 500,000. The utilities variance increase for 800,000 is resulting from a reported 12% increase from the electric company and 8% increases from the water and gas. Equipment and supplies variance increase of 2.1 million is primarily due to expenses for the police Axiom body-worn cameras, USPS charges for the entire city, books, dues, membership fees, medical safety supplies, and several various objects with minimal increases. Professional services variance increase of $848,000 is largely due to investments in economic development initiatives, higher costs for contracted dispatch services, and psychological consultant services for our public safety personnel. Other contract variance increases of $1.2 million are mostly associated with animal control services, election costs, a 3% inflator to account for inflation, and several other various objects with minimal increases. Moving on to our financial health, here's where we stand on reserves.

Thank you. So this slide provides an overview of the city's reserves position. As a benchmark, the Government Finance Officers Association, or the GFOA, they recommend that the city maintains a minimum reserve of equivalent to two months of general fund operating costs, sorry, operating expenditures. Based on audited fiscal year 24-25 financial data, the city has available reserve of approximately $99 million. I'M USING THE PROPOSED GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURE BUDGET OF APPROXIMATELY $327 MILLION. THE CITY RESERVE RATIO IS CURRENTLY ESTIMATED AT APPROXIMATELY 3.64 TIMES OF A MONTH THAT THEY COULD COVER BASED ON RESERVE IF LET'S SAY NO REVENUES COME IN AT ALL. The city has built and maintained a strong reserve position over time. So this has been built over the course of the last, I don't know, like 10, 12 years, right? And so, however, while the reserves level remains healthy, it is important to keep reserve preservation in mind as we continue with the budget process. Reserves are generally intended to support one time or unforeseen cause and are not designed to fund ongoing operational expenditures on a long-term basis. Let's continue with the city staffing numbers.

Okay, we currently have 990.75 full-time equivalent positions. Police and fire remain the largest departments, followed by public works. These numbers reflect the resources needed to deliver essential services to our community. Let's look at the specific personnel changes we're proposing this year. This year, we're eliminating several vacant positions to help control costs. We're also unfunding 15 vacant positions. One new lieutenant position is being added along with some reclassifications and a new budgeting methodology based on actual payroll. So now, let's review our capital improvement program.

All right, our CIP totals 46 million this year. Distribution and funds include nine million in capital project funds, 21 million in enterprise funds, which include water and sewer, and the remainder in special revenue funds, totaling 15 million. So we're gonna jump into our CIP. We have 48 projects over seven categories, and I'm gonna proceed and highlight a few projects from each section. First, our water well 14 is a proposed new well in the city. A new well in the city reduces reliance on import water, thus saving residents and water costs in the long term. Cost of well water is 50% less than import. We are also continuing our age water main replacement program citywide. Our neighborhood projects include our residential paving. In this project we pave over 100 streets. The city currently has a pavement condition index of 82 out of 100, which is very good. We also continue to fund alley rehabs, install ADA compliant curb ramps in the neighborhoods. Going to our sewer improvements, this includes our sewer lining program. Two and a half million lines to existing pipes, extending the life of the sewer segment for another 50 years. Streets and transportation, our projects include upgrades to three traffic signals this year. We also have our arterial street program. So one segment in design is 17th from Palm to PCH. And then I also want to share that we received some grant funding from OCTA for another few segments. So we'll be going into design from Golden West from Warner to PCH and Garfield from Seapoint to Delaware. Parks and beaches, we continue funding to the Edison Park reconfiguration. We also have two playground replacements and upgrades in the CIP, Perry Park and Lakeview, and we continue to provide renovation funds for our beach restrooms, including Sunset Beach. Drainage projects, we continue to replace damaged concrete walls along our city-owned channels, and also we're gonna do some improvements at Greer Park. Finally, facilities projects include roof replacements at four buildings. There's some office remodels and HVAC replacement at outdated facilities. And with that, I'll hand it back to Robert. Thank you.

All right, so this slide summarizes the city's current fund balance allocation policy. And under the existing policy, audited unassigned general fund balance is automatically distributed among several categories, which includes the economic uncertainty reserves, THE INFRASTRUCTURE RESERVES, THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT RESERVES AND THE EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT RESERVES. SO HISTORICALLY THIS FRAMEWORK WAS DESIGNED TO STRENGTHEN THE CITY'S RESERVE AND OVERALL FUND BALANCE POSITION AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND FUNDING OF LONG-TERM LIABILITIES. HOWEVER, AS THE CITY CONTINUES TO EXPERIENCE STRUCTURAL BUDGET PRESSURES, STAFF BELIEVES THAT IT IS APPROPRIATE TO REVISIT THIS POLICY AND ENSURE THAT IT PROVIDES SUFFICIENT FLEXIBILITY TO ADDRESS CURRENT FINANCIAL CONDITIONS. Under the proposed change, temporary use of unassigned fund balance could be considered during periods of structural budget imbalance, subject to annual evaluation through the budget development process. So this would eliminate, this does not, I want to make it clear that this does not eliminate the city's commitment to reserves, infrastructure, or long-term liabilities. Rather, it would provide council with additional flexibility to strategize and manage financially and navigate challenges during the period of structural imbalances. And as part of the annual evaluation process, staff would consider several factors, including taking a look at city's overall financial condition, reserve levels, infrastructure and capital needs, long-term liabilities, and other financial obligations. And the intent of this recommendation is to provide a more balanced and practical approach to managing unrestricted funds year over year. And that concludes our presentation, so if you have any questions, please feel free to let us know. Questions, comments, anybody?

Yeah, go for it.

If you could just do us a quick favor. Explain for the people watching or for the record, the unfunded vacant. I know there's concern when somebody sees 15 law enforcement officers and one lieutenant, so 16 unfunded vacant. The perception may be, oh, we're cutting head count. But go ahead and explain unfunded vacant.

So it's only actually 15 the lieutenant is being added.

Okay, so the 15 unfunded.

Correct. So when we unfund positions, basically what we're doing, we ask the police department to identify vacant positions that they felt could be unfunded for a time period. So it's up to council's decision to unfund them or bring them back whenever needed. So safety of the city is not a jeopardy at all.

So to clarify, so they're vacant, but you allocate dollars to them that hit the budget. So they've been vacant, my recollection, and I checked with the assistant city manager, these are not even recent vacant. These have been vacant for quite some time. So it's not like we're reducing the actual headcount, and you worked and we've worked with the chief of police and said- What do you think? And they recommended taking the budget allocation towards those vacant headcount recs and said, let's pull them off the budget and free up those allocated dollars, correct? With the understanding that if they needed new headcount, they could put a new rec in if it was necessary. These were unnecessary as per the chief of police and whoever he consults with. But should the need arise for immediately fulfillment of wrecks for the Swarns or anybody in the police department, then that becomes immediately viable, correct? Correct. The positions are still there. They're just not being funded. Okay. Thank you for that. One question for this other gentleman. When you said the, I think it was on the paving, you referenced the 82 on the index. You know, we hear a lot of like, hey, fix the potholes. Can you just tell us what the 82 rating means on the index? And I think you were referring to paving and streets, correct?

Right.

So every two years we rate the pavement in the city of Huntington Beach. So from a scale from zero to 100, we have pavement consultant come out and rate all our streets. And the combination of our residential and our arterial streets are actually 82, which is a very good rating. I think Orange County in general is around the low 80s as well. So we're in line with most of the counties.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any questions, comments?

I'm not quite ready yet. Go ahead. A couple basic questions, a couple more detailed questions here. I'll try and move quickly. So on the three new traffic signals that we're investing in, are those new traffic signals or are those upgrades and rehabs?

They're existing traffic signals and we're just providing upgrades.

Providing upgrades, okay. Correct. And then in regards to the unfunded positions or actually the funded positions, we have 991 full-time employees right now with the city. How many are unfilled? approximately 85 85 unfilled positions just so people understand the 85 unfilled positions were which were currently in the process of hiring which is kind of dovetailing off what council member kennedy was saying is that we're still allocating the money towards the budget for those positions so at the end of the year in many cases when we true up the budget we look and we say okay we projected a deficit we had to pull from some reserves in order to balance but then at the end of the year we end up with A surplus as we reconcile that. And in some cases, or actually a large majority of that could be some positions that perhaps either fall off or go unfilled through the time frame. Have we ever been at 100% occupancy, if you will, or 100%?

Not at the time that I've been at the city of Huntington Beach. I've been here for about five years, and no, we have not been at 100%.

Okay. Or maybe even that's a question for Travis too. Like typically what are we running in regards to, if we have a hundred, let's call it a thousand positions that we running at a 10% open rate, 15, 25.

So those positions change over time. And, um, I mean, we've never been fully full. We have an attrition rate, people leaving, people retiring, and different things. So those positions move in and out. I don't have a percentage attrition rate that I could decide right now.

Okay, no problem. And then you mentioned, let me see here, in the other contract services, there was a $1.2 million increase. You specifically mentioned animal care in the election. I'm assuming the election is just because it's an election year, so obviously there's more expense that goes into that.

Correct.

Can you elaborate a little bit on the animal care aspect?

Sure. Our animal care contract increased, I believe, from approximately $1.3 million to about $1.7 million. So that's approximately $400,000 and the election is closer to the $400,000. That's the majority of it.

So roughly $400,000 when we run an election and then the rest was through the animal care. And then that's outsourced. That's to the county, correct? The animal care element? That's correct. Okay. And then... In terms of the capital improvement projects, I think that's a really good slide that people at home should review on page 13 by category, and then it goes into a lot more detail. On these capital improvement projects, is this 100% baked in stone right now, or do we have the opportunity over the next couple weeks to listen to a lot of the residents and to get some of their feedback and input on some of these capital improvement projects? Obviously, some of them are going to have a much higher priority. There are a few things I didn't see on there. that I've been talking to residents about. I'm curious about the flexibility in that regard.

So maybe I'll jump in here. So this is the proposed capital improvements, but definitely it's not approved. The council approves this along with the budget when they do. So it's at the council's discretion.

Okay, great. So once again, and I keep reiterating this, but so that residents can look at this and understand this thing, it's great that we're getting ahead of the ball this year, and really get, you know, with multiple meetings where we're addressing all of this, but a lot of the questions, if not the lion's share of questions I get are infrastructure related. So looking at the investments that we're projecting in regards to the capital improvement projects, I think is essential. So if anyone has any questions or concerns or specific projects, that they want to ask about that that perhaps could be buried in some of these general categories, definitely go forward and shoot us those emails. I think that that's really important. In regards to the 3.64 months in reserves, we use that two-month mandate based on the GFAO or the GOFAO. I got the four letters correct. Has that been... I know that we don't have necessarily a timeline we can look at, but has that been... We've never gone below the two months because I don't know when that mandate got put in place.

So it's not a mandate. It's more of a recommendation for cities across the board to have. I mean, generally, when you have more reserves, it's more for rainy day type deal. And so you have cities able to... have you know access funding and so the recommendation is two months typically we i think we've had it at two months for a number of years already and so it's kind of been building okay slowly over the years with the surplus that we have at the end of the year okay so that's good that's been an upward trend in regards to those reserves and just so i'm correct and i don't want to um i don't want to um you know misproject this in regards to the public who's watching but

3.64 months, three and a half months of reserves is as if we shut the city down and we didn't take a single penny in revenue in any capacity. we would survive for three and a half or three and a half plus months.

Correct.

Got it. Understood. And then my final question in regards to the potential change in the reserve policy. So at the end of the year, when we do run into that reserve, what we were doing, or that surplus, right? Let's call it $10 million. At the end of the year, when we true up, we run into that $10 million surplus. We put that hypothetically, right? Or it remains in reserves. And then that adds to the reserves. would, if we're gonna roll that surplus forward for the purposes of looking out a year or two on a budget, would that then, would that flatline the amount that we put into that 3.64, or would we still continue to put some back in so that we could try and increase that number?

So the number will continue to change as revenue grows, because it's based off of two months of revenue, budgeted revenues, right? So as our revenues grow, that two-month, is going to continue to grow as well. So it actually will reduce it slightly just because, you know, the reserve is going to stay stagnant and then the revenues requirement, well not requirement, the recommendation is going to continue to increase based on the adopted budget, right? So yes, it will potentially remain stagnant with a slight decrease.

SLIGHT DECREASE BECAUSE EXPENSES WILL STILL CONTINUE TO GO UP, RIGHT?

SO THE NUMBERS ARE BASED ON PROJECTED EXPENDITURES, RIGHT? AND SO IT WILL CONTINUE TO GROW, YES.

OKAY. ALL RIGHT. GOT IT. THANK YOU. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS?

GO AHEAD. SO MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT OUR FINANCE COMMISSION, THEY MET LAST WEEK AND THEY HAD SOME, YOU KNOW, RECOMMENDATIONS AND NOTES. JULIE, IF WE COULD GO INTO THE AGENDA, THERE'S AN ATTACHMENT. I THINK IT'S CALLED FINANCE COMMISSION NOTES. by a little bit of time while you're... Yeah, yeah, no problem. And so while you're looking that up, I'm curious about these vacant positions that we have. You said there's about 85 vacant positions in the city that are currently funded right now. I know a large portion of those are police and fire. Apart from police and fire, do you know approximately how many of those positions exist that are vacant and funded?

Approximately 55. 55.

And then considering this is just a study session, maybe something we could go back with. If we can get information on how long each of those positions have been vacant, I think that would be useful information to have because, I mean, let us just suppose there are some positions in there that have been vacant for, you know, a year or greater, or I don't know, 10 months or greater, we can start looking at asking whether or not we need to actually have these positions. So we wouldn't be letting anyone go because these aren't positions that are actually filled by anybody, but, you know, maybe there is a little bit of fat that we can cut into without cutting into the muscle. A couple of the different items that I want to bring up when we're able to pull up these slides and their recommendations, if I'm just kind of going off of memory, one of the things with batting cages is I know that's a great concern amongst the public. It's been raised many, many times in the sports complex. They want the batting cages. And my understanding is there's about $335,000 allocated from the parking fees that happen at the sports complex that they're proposed to go towards maintenance of the lighting. And I think this is a multi-year project that has been taking place. The lights that are being fixed, are they fixed? broken or are they just being upgraded with that $335,000?

So I'll point that question over to... Sure.

So our lighting over at the sports complex has a warranty to it up to 25 years. The remaining three phases of lighting that we have to upgrade is out of warranty. So for every light that goes out, it's an added cost. We intended to have a five-phased series project. Two of those phases were completed in earlier fiscal years and annually we have been asking for dollars to complete the remaining three phases. With council's approval of the parking split at the sports complex, that has given us enough money to fund the third of five phases of the project. So it isn't necessary because it will be an ongoing cost. If we can't have lights at the facility, then we are unable to operate the sports fields.

Understood. So they might be outside of warranty, but they are operating there. They're not actually broken right now We're just we do have a number of lights that are out. Okay, but with regards to the batting cages the The batting cages are broken essentially, correct? Okay And so one of the suggestions that that came to us from finance and you know We'll probably be able to get these slides up in just a moment here was a suggestion that we would take some of this money that's being proposed towards the lighting which SOUNDS LIKE MOST OF ALL LIKE IT'S MORE OF AN UPGRADE OR JUST KEEPING THINGS UP TO SPEED AND PRIORITIZING IT TOWARDS SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY IS BROKEN, THE BATTING CAGES. A LOT OF THE COMMUNITY WANTS THE BATTING CAGES BACK AND SO THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT IF WE COULD GET OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS ON BOARD, I KNOW THERE'S NO MOTION TONIGHT, BUT SOMETHING WORTH CONSIDERING PRIORITIZING THE FUNDS FROM THE PARKING, THIS $335,000 TOWARDS GETTING THESE BATTING CAGES UP AND RUNNING. That's something that personally I would like to see. Again, there's no vote tonight, so I don't know if you, yes.

Just so you know, there is no batting cages.

They are not broken. They are gone. Yeah, they took everything out. And we'll see just in a moment here on the slides. In fact, if you could go to, it would be slide number seven. So slide number seven. You might have gone a little far. Let's go back the other way. No, you know what?

That's it, right?

You had it, yeah. No, that's not the right slide that I have. So numbered-wise, so keep sliding down. Sorry, yeah. Keep going a little bit more. A little bit more. I'm sorry, we're going the wrong way.

That one was the batting cage one.

Okay, yeah, but I'm looking for specifically slide number seven. There's a few different slides that discuss it. RIGHT THERE. SO THIS IS, AGAIN, THIS IS FROM THE FINANCE COMMISSION. THIS IS PART OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS, YOU KNOW, THEY PUT IN THE TIME, YOU KNOW, TO THE CITY COUNCIL HERE. BUT ON PAGE 33 THERE, IF YOU LOOK AT NUMBER 13, IT MIGHT BE DIFFICULT FOR FOLKS TO READ BECAUSE IT'S FINE PRINT ON THE SCREEN, BUT I CAN READ IT FOR YOU ALL. IT SAYS THE CONTRACTOR WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF ALL EQUIPMENT, APPLIANCES, AND OTHER ITEMS RELATED TO THE BATTING CAGE AREA. You know, as you pointed out, Councilman Burns, essentially there are no more batting cages there. It's just an empty space. Unfortunately, the contractor is the one that completely cleared everything out. So they're supposed to be responsible for the maintenance and repair of all of the equipment. And so our finance commission is recommending to us take the funds from this parking that's going to go towards the lighting, towards improving lighting, and actually prioritize it towards something that's broken that the community greatly desires. And so, again, this is just a suggestion that came from finance that I find to be very agreeable. I'm very supportive of it, and I hope we can get other council members in support of it as well. And then the other item we'll bring up is going down to the Yacht Club, so we can slide down a little bit here. I'm on page number 10, which is just really the proposed change, but I can kind of give a high view of it. There's about... $400,000, is that what I see? Yeah, that's proposed to go towards a repair of the docks. The Yacht Club, the docks, are these open to the public? Can kids go down there tomorrow morning and start fishing off of the docks? I don't know if that's... Yes, they are public property. Got it. And so what the Finance Commission had suggested, their proposed change is to just validate that proper maintenance has been taking place, because my understanding is that the Yacht Club is responsible for the maintenance of those docks. So to make sure that that has been taking place and then actually evaluate the condition of the docks to determine if replacement actually is necessary for this fiscal year, because that's a pretty large ticket item right there. And, you know, if it's not absolutely necessary, there's a spot where we could save about $400,000 there. But I'll open it up, you know, with regards to that question, if any other council members are supportive of, go ahead. So to your question, is it our responsibility to repair? Sure, but they're responsible for taking care of maintaining. So I think the question from the Finance Commission was discover whether or not they actually have been doing any of that maintenance work to take care of it. But again, I'll open it up to fellow council members because again, we're not making a decision tonight, but we are giving a little bit of, I guess we can give some, provide some suggestions or direction. I would propose that we get these batting cages going again, prioritize fixing the batting cages before finishing out whatever we have planned for the lights.

So guys, just on questions on the budget, um, I guess if you really distill it down to what we're facing is, I've touched on it several times, we have a structural deficit where our expenses, our recurring expenses are exceeding our recurring revenues. If you look at that number, about 70% of that is our pension debt for our public employees. Every city deals with this.

We're no different.

expenses are increasing about 5% a year. Revenues are about two and a half to 3% a year. So you can just see how this number just starts to grow and grow and grow. And Robert, you touched on it last time. We've done a, I think a yeoman's work with other cities, right? Of like just the managed hiring process, looking at these positions. That's why there's 80 plus that are vacant because we've, we haven't filled them since we got in in 22 and said, let's put a, basically a hiring freeze to ascertain, you know, do we need these positions or not? Um, And we can try to keep cutting, but you mentioned at the last meeting, we've basically already cut as much as we can. So what we need to do, and we've touched on it, and we'll touch on it throughout the rest of the year, is to find new sources of revenue. And we need to find creative ideas to bring in revenue that isn't a sales tax increase, that isn't a hotel tax increase, that isn't destroying our city with high-density housing. So we need to take bold ideas to bring in new sorts of revenue. We need to optimize our leases, which we are doing, and we need to optimize our assets. We need to explore creative ideas. One of them is like the lifeguard project. Tower advertising we are you know that's been very successful We've got some big I don't talk to Chief McCoy about all the time some big sponsors that have utilized that space So we just need to keep continuing to bring forward ideas to bring in revenue That again is not a sales tax increase that is not a hotel tax increase But it's not destroying our city with high density housing And we gotta get serious about it, we are, but we need to bring a lot of ideas forward. People don't like the ideas being brought forward, fine, let's talk about other ideas. And I would request not to attack people personally that bring forward proposals, but we need to explore everything that has to be on the table if we're gonna get ahead of this. And we're no different with every city, as you mentioned, like sales tax is kind of stagnant across the state. And that's why we're seeing a big push from this council to support our businesses, to highlight our businesses, With the digital grant program, the men with the mayor series to let everyone know that these businesses exist so they keep their dollars here. Explore business investment. We have a lot of cutting edge businesses that are coming to Huntington Beach to locate their headquarters like TSC Conductors. Amazing cutting edge company that is located their founding in Huntington Beach. So we encourage that. Our streamline program, touched on it before. That process to cut the red tape at City Hall increased permits issued by 23% year over year. We need more of that. We need to entice more big business to come here and really get our city on a strong financial footing. So when you really distill down the budget, that's the issue. We need to get on top because on the pension debt, just so everyone understands, CalPERS, California Public Employees Retirement System, to meet their pension obligations, their fund that they invest needs to get a 6.7% annual return. When they don't achieve that, like they did, did several years ago when they got a negative 7% return. The city has to fund that gap. So we have to fund a 13% delta in order to make that 6.7% return. When you don't, you can imagine it starts to accrue an unfunded pension debt. And so that is always a moving target as well. Like I said, 70% of our structural deficit is unfunded pension liability debt. So just know that we're gonna have these conversations, we're having them. It's gonna continue to happen, but we need to bring in more revenue.

Thanks for that, Mayor. Back to Councilman Williams. I think everybody's on board with batting cages. It's my understanding that the operators, and Ashley, you can touch on this, I think they're bringing forth a much larger scale plan that would include not only batting cages, but an enclosed structure that would have multi-use, but... So rather than, and if that's true, please elaborate, but I saw plans six months ago and was wondering where the progress is, but it's my understanding, and you can elaborate, that yeah, they have some big plans if they were to get an approval to deploy this whole, what I would say a magnificent plan where it looks like they're willing to put millions and millions of dollars of their own capital in regards for some things that they want. But can you elaborate a little bit on specifically the batting cage portion, please?

Sure. So the previous batting cages were a seven-bayed system with a dedicated pitching machine. So if there was a slow pitch machine, there was only one type of that and everybody had to wait in line. What the sports complex operators are envisioning is an enclosed space where that would have functional maintaining seven lanes, the pitching machines would be a variety of pitching speeds, so you would just wait in line, push a button, the speed of choice would be what is pitched to you. With that flexibility of those machines being able to be moved around, they're also envisioning an opportunity for some group training space, agility training space, and a way to garner additional activity through different revenue streams that would come in and use that space.

So they're formulating a plan that they're gonna bring before council at some point where we can evaluate the plan, the amenities, the benefits, the potential cost, a holistic approach to the entire complex. Is that correct?

Correct. What we're seeing a trend in is outdoor batting cages are kind of going away and an indoor facility, especially in a marine environment will help preserve equipment. So it definitely is a proposal that's worth entertaining.

And do you know when they plan on bringing forth their entire holistic approach to the sports complex for review and study session, whatever it takes to determine the viability?

I don't have an exact answer on that, but we are continuing to meet weekly with them and hope to bring something forward soon.

Thank you.

batting cages. I'm just going to finalize that. Yes, many, many emails I've gotten. I think personally I probably spent $10,000 in coins myself at the previous batting cages, so I'll personally invest in that. I think that it is something that we should talk about sooner rather than later. I think the public wants it. We heard about it tonight, but If it's within the context of a grander plan, then I'm excited to see what that plan is. Two more quick questions, granular detail on a few of the public works projects. So we list millions of dollars here, $4 million in regards to residential overlay slurry slash paving. Is there an area in which the public can actually drill down to see what areas are getting paved?

Yes, so for residential, we have a 12-zone program. So the city is divided to 12 zones. We actually have a zone that we attack each year, so we could share that map. It's actually on the city website for Public Works, so that gives you an idea of when we're in town.

Okay, and do you know specifically if Bolsa is on that plan over the next year? Because a lot of people have been asking me about Bolsa.

Okay, so that's the residential network.

Okay.

The arterials are a little different. They're on a different planning program, but BOLSA is actually out to bid right now.

BOLSA is out to bid right now. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I think that it's important that everybody look at that report by the Finance Commission because I know that they did put a lot of time into this, and we do have a very, very intelligent group of finance commissioners who look at this very critically, and they really try and balance out the needs of the city as well as, obviously, the expenses. So I'm pretty sure that's a public document.

One thing on that, though, I believe one of their recommendations was get us off the CalPERS system. Was that right?

Yes.

Do you guys know what that would cost if that was possible to get the –

That would require extensive legwork and discussion with CalPERS as to calculate the liability that the city would end up coming out with. And so there's various things that go along with trying to leave CalPERS. One of the biggest things that we're going to experience if we do explore that route is that we'll have... Recruitment is always going to be one of the top priorities for the city, correct? And so we would not be able to compete with other cities that are, let's say, that continues to be in CalPERS because that's the type of benefits that are being offered, and it's... Helps level of the playing field with private businesses and it helps with the recruitment process. So that's a big factor there and then you know other areas where we would have to explore as well is the Typically employees will have vested interest in in the years of service that they have with CalPERS and so it would again it would be Extensive and time-consuming to calculate exactly how much that would be but you know staff works at the direction of Council So if you guys are if that's something that you want to explore we could totally we can certainly contact CalPERS and see I'll just like theoretically you'd have to Correct me if I'm wrong.

So you'd have to fund all those debt obligations to get it, right? The hundreds of millions of dollars on unfunded unfunded pension debt to then transition into a 401k structure. Correct. Okay

To mention one question or one point that I think is interesting is Casey talks about increasing revenue. You did mention that the TOT projections were flat if not down in the upcoming year. Flat. Flat, okay. so i mean and that's we've talked about this in the past you know that's definitely something that we as a council i think should lean into is you know the more we fill those beds and more tourism the more people come here the more more revenue we're going to bring in if we're projecting flat on tot we got to get heads and beds all right any other questions or comments okay

So just to understand, Travis, the recommended action is to receive the proposed budget and then set the date for the adoption of the city budget as June 2nd, 2026 with a meeting date of June 16th as an alternative should the city council require additional deliberation to approve the budget, correct?

Correct.

Okay. Do I have a motion?

Motion.

One second.

So are we voting to present an approved budget on June 2nd?

Yes, or the 16th if you guys want more time to deliberate. I would personally... and make some changes. Yeah.

I would like to have to the 16th because that's fine.

Okay. If that, if that's, I don't want to, I personally would like to have the opportunity to not be the final until the 16th because there is room to continue. They've done a great job consolidating the line items. And now I'd like to get with you guys, you know, it's been a while and drill into each line item and look for, you know, opportunity.

So, Don, on the agenda, so the recommended action would be, so A, the city council receives the proposed budget, which we just did, and then B, set the date for adoption. Instead of June 2nd, we can just make it June 16th.

Does that work for you?

Yeah.