City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Live from Burbank, the media capital of the world. 2 Heat up To participate in the general public

comment period, please call now at 818-2383335. For any scheduled public hearings, please call when prompted to speak if you want the comment to be part of the record. Speaking times will be determined by the total number of public comment cards and callers in the queue at the start of each public comment period. For 1 to 20 total speakers, each speaker will receive up to three minutes. For 21 to 39 total speakers, each speaker will receive up to two minutes. And for 40 plus total speakers, each speaker will receive up to 1 minute. No additional comment cards or calls will be accepted once the public comment period begins. Interpreters are available for assistance with in-person public comment. Please connect with them if you are in need of services. Good evening and welcome to a joint meeting of the Burbank City Council with the Successor Agency, Housing Authority, Parking Authority, Public Financing Authority, and Youth Endowment Services Fund Board on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026. Please join me for a moment of reflection. This moment is intended to begin our meeting with a positive and collective support for our beloved community. The city council welcomes everyone joining us tonight. We encourage you to take a moment to reflect on our community and the work we will be doing. Although each of us has our own unique reasons for being here,

we are united in our passion for our wonderful city. As we pause, let us consider our individual contributions and what they mean to those around us. Let us find solace in knowing that by working together with a shared spirit of community and partnership, we will always act responsibly for the betterment of Burbank. Thank you. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Ready? Begin 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.

Earlier today, we had a kindergarten class in here and we did the pledge. It was the cutest thing ever. You guys are just as cute as they are. All right, madame city clerk, please conduct the roll call. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Council member Anthony here. Council member Perez here. Council member Rosati, I am here. Vice Mayor Mullins here. And Mayor Tagahashi here. Thank you.

Yeah, we're all here. There will be six periods of public comment tonight. You do not have to use them all if you do not want to. Members of the public may comment in person or by telephone during the general public comment period and must submit cards or call before the general public comment period begins. The first public comment period is for general public comment on any matter concerning city business andor any agenda item. If you are here in person and wish to speak during general public comment, you should submit a yellow public comment card to address the council over at the city clerk's desk over here. If you would like to participate in the general public comment over the phone, please call now at 818-2383335. Callers will be placed in a queue until the general public comment period begins, at which time no additional calls will be taken. If you would like to participate in public comment for the public hearing over the phone, please call any time as well between now and the beginning of the public hearing at 8182383335. Callers will be placed in a queue until the public comment period begins at which time no additional calls will be taken. Additional public comment periods will be available following each report to council this evening in the agenda. A Spanish interpreter is available for assistance with the public comment. We do not have an Armenian interpreter tonight or we do. We do. No, just a Spanish. Okay. So, just a Spanish interpreter. This is available for assistance with public comment and will be sitting in the front row. Please connect with them if you are need of services. feel free to go over and walk over there and ask for assistance um on your own. And now we have four announcements this evening.

The following are announcements for April 7th, 2026. Did you know the city offers an e comment option for written public comment? To access this feature, visit the meetings agendas and minutes page on the city website. Once the agenda is posted, you can submit an e-comment directly from the page. E- comments may be submitted from the time the agenda is posted until 1 hour before the meeting begins. And all e-comments will be distributed to the city council in advance of the meeting. To learn more or submit an e-comment, visit burbankca.gov. Did you know that gas powered leaf blowers are no longer allowed in Burbank? Adopted by city council in December 2025, the ordinance aims to improve air quality, reduce noise, and support healthier neighborhoods while aligning with California's long-term goal of zero emission equipment by 2035. To support a smooth transition, the ordinance includes a one-year grace period, which will focus on outreach and education. Residents and landscapers are encouraged to switch to electronic alternatives with incentives, rebates, and buyback programs available. Learn more by scanning the QR code below or visit burbankca.gov. The city of Burbank is continuing community engagement for the potential new central library and public plaza through a series of community town halls. These meetings are intended to provide updates on the project timeline, design process, and potential construction impacts and mitigation measures, while also offering residents the opportunity to ask questions and share feedback. Each meeting will present the same information and include a presentation followed by time for questions and discussion. A virtual town hall will be held on Thursday, April 9th from 7 to 8:00 p.m., followed by an

in-person session on Saturday, April 11th from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Burbank Central Library. Additional details are available at new Burbank Library.com. The city of Burbank Earth Day Planning Committee is excited to announce the debut of We Rise Together, a community art piece created by artist Shioin Peters and attendees of the 2025 Earth Day event. This piece is currently on display at the City Hall Rotunda until May 5th during business hours. Created with the Bourban community on Earth Day, this piece brings together voices across generations into one shared story. Built from scraps and found materials, each contribution carries intention, showing how something whole and powerful can emerge when we create together. Come visit Shiwin's booth at the 2026 Earth Day event, Planet Power, on Saturday, April 25th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at McCambridge Park to help create another exciting and meaningful community art piece. For more information, please visit burbankca.gov/earthday. This concludes the announcements for this evening.

Good evening every Here we go. Good evening everyone. I see some of you are wearing your Alive Burring stickers. Yeah, I have more. If you want if you did not get one and you'd like one, we can get you one before you leave. All right. Tonight we have several um proclamations and presentations. Super excited about our presentations tonight. Our first one is a proclamation declaring April 1st to 30th, 2026 as arts, culture, and creativity month in the city of Burbank. Yeah. Although I do have take issue with that a little bit because every month is arts and creativity and culture month in Burbank. We are the media capital of the world. All right. So, please help me um in welcoming our members of the Burbank Culture Arts Commissions up in the podium. Come on up. Thank you for joining us. Okay. Oh, come on. Stand. All right. So, I'm I'm not going to read this whole thing, but I do have little tabs on the ones I am going to read. So, I'm going to read some of this to you. Okay. So, alt arts and culture and creativity month. Whereas the arts work to heal, build community, engage youth, advance justice, and create jobs. And whereas the city of Burbank celebrates the role that the arts and creativity play in building community, amplifying the need for racial equity and highlighting the power of the arts to change our lives for the better. And whereas the city of Burbank and Culture Arts Commission partner yearround with local nonprofit agencies and businesses to advance the arts and creativity in the city and encourage community pride as well as beautify the city through the Burbank Arts Beautifification Program. And whereas arts, culture, and comm creativity month in April is the sixth annual statewide awareness and advocacy event that recognized the crucial role of arts, culture, and creativity in the lives of everyone in California. And

whereas the city of Burbank recognizes that the arts and creativity support student success and lifelong learning, provide key job skills, especially here in Burbank, and bring joy to our community while strengthening our connections. Now, therefore, I, Tamila Takahashi, mayor of the city of Burbank, do hereby proclaim April 1st through 30th, 2026 as Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in the city of Burbank and encourage everyone to celebrate the power of the arts together. Yay. Did anyone want to say a very quick two words or just write to pictures? Cindy, I'll wait for comments. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Yeah. You're only limited to three minutes in comments. Okay. I know her very well. Who wants to hold it? Let me take my mask off. Sorry. It's wrapped around my glasses. Hold on a second. Trying not to get you guys trying not to get you guys sick, but just breathe on you for two minutes. Two seconds.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I was watching uh Oops. I was watching uh uh Law and Order the other night and they were in the season where they were wearing masks. I was like remembering that time and here I am back again when I'm sick. All right. Presentation of proclamation declaring April 1st through 30th, 2026 as autism and neurodeiversity celebration and acceptance months acceptance month in the city of Burbank. Please join me in welcoming Trey Mihal and Lucas Thornbury from Burbank Acing Autism to the podium. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being here. All right. All right. I have four tabs on this one. So, autism and neurodeiversity celebration and acceptance month. Whereas autistic individuals and all neurode divergent people contribute immeasurably to the richness, creativity, and strength of our communities. And whereas autism awareness has long serve to increase public understanding of autism, promote early support, and highlight the diverse experiences of autistic people across lifespan. And whereas embracing neurodeiversity strengthens our schools, workplaces, and communities by encouraging innovation, empathy, and a broader understanding of human potential. And whereas it is essential to uplift autistic voices, honor lived experiences, and promote policies and practices that support autonomy, accessibility, and meaningful inclusion. Now therefore, I, Tamila Takahashi, mayor of the city of Burbank, do hereby proclaim this month as Autism and Neurodeiversity Celebration and Acceptance Month, and encourage all residents to learn about autism and other neurodeivergent experiences from neurody divergent sources. Celebrate the strengths, talents, and perspectives of neurodeivergent individuals. Advocate for inclusive practices in education,

employment, healthcare, and community life. and commit to building a society where every mind is valued and every person belongs. Would you like to say something? Few words. A couple words.

Um first off, I just want to say thank you to the mayor, city council members, some of you I know. Nice to see you guys again. Um as well as anyone who has been supporting our program over the years. Um my name is Trey. I am one of the program directors for our program. I'm joined by Lucas Thornberry who is our acing autism ambassador. He is both a participant and one of our volunteers. We are so lucky to have him and seeing him grow over the few years has been amazing. Um Acing Autism is a national organization that um teaches kids uh teens and adults on the spectrum to play tennis. Um it's more than just a tennis organization. We are um improving physical fitness um creating opportunities for social connection. but most importantly allowing our participants, our athletes to be on the court and get to be themselves each weekend. Um, we're so grateful to the city for always uh being there and supporting our program. So, thank you to everyone once again.

Awesome. Thank you. You hold the proclamation. Amazing. Thank you so much for Okay. All right. Next up, let's see. Next up is our third presentation this evening is the presentation of a proclamation declaring April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week in the city of Burbank. Please join me in welcoming our team of our police department's telecommunications team. Come on up. We have Supervisor Bana Barage. Yep. Operator Brittney Larian and Operator Ashley Gastel. And before I read the proclamation, would you like to say a words and describe a little bit of what you do? And for the public who may not know what you do, any either of you willing to share that just very briefly.

Okay. Okay. So, um, on a day-to-day basis, we answer 911 calls. Um we dispatch police officers to any emergency or regular um call for service. Um we have lots of patients. Um and uh we just love serving the public in the city of Burbank. So that's something we do daily every day obviously. So Wonderful. Great. Thank you. May I say something? Yes, please.

She is being very humble. Last year they handled 181,000 calls and no not these three. A team a team mayor a team uh 181,000 calls ended up coming into the call center of which 38,000 were 911 calls. And if you think about what that means when someone is dealing with crisis, whatever it may be, these people right here maintain that level of professionalism and calmness that is necessary to make sure that the community feels supported and those people that are calling 911 are supported. They do a phenomenal job.

Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Definitely worth celebrating 100%. All right. National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. Whereas in 1991, Congress enacted a formal proclamation signed by President Clinton designating the second full week of April as National Public Safety Telecom telecom telecom communicators week. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the first and most critical contact in our community uh that our community members have with emergency services, which is true. Whereas public safety telecommunicators are the single va v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v vital link for our police officers by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them with information and ensuring their safety. And whereas public safety telecommunicators of the Burbank Police Department are an essential part of the city's public safety system and perform their job duties exhibiting compassion, professionalism, and dedication. I there now therefore I Tamila Takahashi, mayor of the city of Burbank, do hereby proclaim the week of April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week in the city of Burbank. The the council of the city of Burbank honors the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our city and our citizens safe. Thank you. Wonderful.

One, two, three. And one more.

Okay. Okay. Let's see. All right. So many cool presentations tonight. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, our next presentation, um, our fourth one. Yes, they're setting up. We're going to wait till they're set up. You give me the go-ahhead. You ready? Okay. So, our fourth presentation this evening is a presentation by the Burbank Tournament of Roses for receiving the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade Theme Award. Please join me in welcoming president of the Burbank Tournament of Roses, Linda Kasakos. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, good evening, Mayor Takahashi, council members, and other various city departments. I am Linda Kosakos, president of Tournament of Roses Association. On behalf of the association, we are so proud to unveil our awardwinning theme with the city of Burbank entry in the 2026 Rose Parade. This award is for most outstanding presentation of the Rose Parade theme. This and I we're going to unveil it in just a moment. This beautiful framed award will hang in the mayor's office and then given to the library to be displayed for everyone to see. I'd like to thank the city council, city manager, and a variety of city departments for your support, including Burbank Water and Power, Burbank Police, Public Works, Park and Wreck, along with other valuable departments. So, let's unveil this. Want you come over here with me.

This is the 2026 theme award from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses. All paws on deck. Couple very interesting facts. This dog right here we call cannon dog. His name was Scooby and we recognized him called him Spike. This was a tribute to Spike, the fallen K9 officer in the city of Burbank. Back here we have a sign. Um, actually it looks like it got Oh, I don't know what happened to it. It's a Burbank Animal Shelter. We did a tribute to the Burbank Animal Shelter. So, that was our uh tributes this year that we partnered with. Um we're so thankful for our many volunteers that construct, process material, and decorate our awarding award-winning float. I'd like to give a special thanks to John Reeves, our construction chair, Terry Kums, our decoration chair, Bob Hut, vice president administration, who's not here this evening, and Steven Edward, our vice president float, along with I have my uh manpower coordinator, Teresa Greens, here tonight, and my leazison with the city, Janet Deal. Um, let's bring them all up. Thank you guys. So, I had the distinct pleasure of attending their awards ceremony. Uh, it was a few weeks ago, I want to say now. And, uh, the room was full of people. Probably a couple hundred people in that room. And almost every single one of them was a volunteer. It's just amazing how many how many people are involved in making this happen and how many hours of volunteers it takes. So this is a great project and we they can always use more. So if you want to help them, please join them in. And also just really briefly,

can you explain the importance and significance of getting the theme award in case somebody may not know?

The theme award I believe is the second best award out there. What the importance of winning any award is is that there's only 24 awards and there's like uh close to 40 entries and Burbank is one of six self-built floats in the parade. That means ours is built with a whole lot of love where the commercial floats out there are built with a whole lot of money. So yes, we took the second place award as being a self-built on top of all six self-built award. uh floats won something this year including top honor went to Cal Poly Pomona. So give it up for the self-builts. We took we took those awards right out of the professionals mouth.

All right. Ready? Yep.

One more. Thank you. put the award in the box.

Yes. So, she was mentioning it's going to hang just inside. Actually, it's not in my office. It's actually in the kind of quasi lobby area right in front of all the council um offices, right in front of where our admin sits. So, if you ever come to visit one of us for a meeting or you come to the council offices or city manager's offices for any reason, you can see it hanging right there in our little waiting area. Super excited. I was actually asking about that. When are we going to get the the new picture? So, I'm excited it's going to be updated. Okay. I think this is our last one. Just double checking. Yes. So, our last presentation this evening is a presentation of a certificate of recognition to Roosevelt Elementary School for the Roosevelt Bike Bus Program. Woo! That's what I'm saying. So many cool things tonight. All right, this is the best part of the job. I could do this all night for all everybody in the community. All right, so uh I had the distinct pleasure as well to join them. them. Aren't any of these pictures of me, by the way?

I don't know.

Okay. Oh, well, maybe not. But I did join one of their bike buses, and it was such a blast. Even if you do not have kids that go to Roosevelt, please join them because it was super, super, super fun. All right. So, um, I'm going to read the little thing here and maybe somebody might want to speak a bit more. Okay. Um, so the Roosevelt bikes bike bike bus brings together students, parents, staff, and community members for a safe, fun, and eco-friendly commute to school every first Wednesday of the month during the school year. With predetermined stops and times just like a real bus route, the bike bus circles the school and picks up kids along the way. It starts on Clark, makes use of the Chandler bike path, and swings back down to Clark for the final stretch of Roosevelt. The goal of the bike bus is to foster community, reduce car dependency and traffic congestion, improve physical and mental health, increase children's confidence and independence, and demonstrate the need for safe streets. The bike bus is all is part of a greater initiative within the school community founded by the Roosevelt Sustainability Committee aka Planeteers. I love that. Dedicated to working towards thoughtful, creative, and responsible stewardship of a healthy and sustainable future. For their efforts, Roosevelt has been recognized by the California Department of Education as a California Green Ribbon School for the second year in a row. That's amazing.

Round of applause for that. And the bike bus aims to be an inclusive program holding annual bike clinics to educate kids on road safety and bike skills and build enough confidence in kids to comfortably join the bike bus. This is so cool. Who would like to say a few words about um Balor? Oh, Valer. Okay, wonderful. Yay. Wonderful. Great.

Um, when I say bike bus, people think, "What's a bike bus?" Um, and it's basically just a big group ride to school. We do it every first Wednesday of the month. Um, kids come out at 7:25 in the morning. Um, that is very early. If you're a parent, you know how hard it is to get kids out the door before 7:25. Um, but that is the magic of the bike bus. Um and together we build community, we build camaraderie and um we learn confidence.

Yeah. Skills, confidence, we empower the kids. We learn about road safety. We learn about etiquette on the road and on the bike path. Um and we hope to um just give kids the confidence to um you know know know that they are capable of getting themselves to school and self-sufficient. Um I I just wanted to say a couple a couple more things. Sorry. Um you know the the bike bus is not uh an original idea. It's a global movement. There are bike buses in Europe. There are bike buses all over the US. There are some in Pasadena and in other parts of LA. Um so the beautiful thing about bringing the bike bus to Burbank is just seeing how it has activated the community. Um the bike bus requires the participation of so many different people. Um not just the school, not just the parents and the teachers and the kids, but also um community members and drivers. Um it has been amazing to see drivers slow down and acknowledge the bike bus and um just elect to drive safely to keep our kids safe. Um so it's it's been really amazing to see how supportive the community has been towards a bike bus. Um I so the last thing I want to say we want to encourage other kids in other schools to maybe join the bike bus movement. Um we'd love to be a resource for them. Um and we we would like to see the rur community participate in creating safe streets for all. Um I want to quickly

acknowledge a few people. Um Matt Osmond is a principal at Roosevelt. He has been a supporter since day one. Um Karen Laauo and Melissa Hang uh were responsible for bringing the bike bus to Roosevelt last year. Um Alonso Dreto, Andreas her, Jessie Lenor, and um Craig Hample, where are you? Our biggest fan. Our biggest fan. Our biggest supporter.

And our honorary bike marshall. So, thank you, Mayor Takahashi. Thank you, council members. Thank you, everyone.

Wonderful. Yay. This is amazing. And I agree. I hope this is an inspiration to other schools to get involved. Um, and part of it is the education and the camaraderie. And for me, when I went, I ride alone and when I ride my bike. So, I learned how to ride in a group with others and how to ride with kids with me because when my kids were small, we didn't ride around town. We rode around just around our house and they when they became teenagers and they rode their bikes, they rode like adults. So, riding with kids, it's it's also a learning experience for me as well. So that was great. So in recognition of your innovative Roosevelt bike bus program where students, parents, and community members join a fun, eco-friendly commute to school. On behalf of the Burbank City Council, I thank you for supporting such a great program teaching us all how to make our journey to school earth friendly, safe, and fun.

All right, picture. Would you like to search? Everyone looking at one more. One, two, three.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Now, we have five more presentations. No, I'm just kidding. Just Just kidding. Just kidding. Um be here all night. We're going to be here all night anyway. No, we're not. No, we're not. We're not going to do that. All right. So, we're done with the presentations. Next up, city manager, do you have anything to report? Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh in the interest of time and trying not to uh follow the bike bus program, I do not have anything uh for tonight. Okay. Thank you.

So, Council Member Perez, that's inspire you to ride your bike with your baby on the back with the bike bus. You know, I don't know if with my baby in the back. We're still getting there, but I'm excited to push someone on training wheels and not too long. And I do have to say, go Rough Riders. Woohoo.

All right, I think we're good to move on. So, Mr. City Attorney, will you please report on close session? Yes, Madame Mayor, vice mayor, members of the city council, and for the benefit of the public, the city council uh convened a close session discussion of three items at 400 p.m. this afternoon. The first item was uh conference with legal counsel concerning existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1. In the case of uh Maryanne uh Bzanian versus city of Burbank uh which is a civil rights case, city council took no reportable action uh in that item. City council then met with the city's real property negotiator, Miss Simone McFarland, assistant community development director of business and economic development concerning potential acquisition of CS 6 West Burbank Boulevard. City council took no reportable action in that item. Finally, city council met in conference with the city's labor negotiator, Ms. Betsy McClinton, management services director. Pursuant to government code section 54957.6 concerning negotiations with the Burbank City Employees Association, city council took no reportable action. Um, I also want to report that city council in a special meeting on Friday, March 13th, um, met to discuss existing litigation uh, pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1 in the case of Nick Gutierrez versus City of Burbank, which is the uh, Voting Rights Act case. While city council took no reportable action on the 13th, the city has subsequently entered into a settlement agreement uh, with Mr. Gutierrez. Uh that settlement agreement is available uh upon request and the city did put out a press release this afternoon um summarizing uh relevant terms of that settlement agreement. So people can find that press release on

the city's website uh and again they can contact the city uh uh for terms of the settlement agreement at uh another time.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. Now is the time for general public comment. I'll be calling out the speaker's name as well as the person who is next in line to speak in order to keep public comment moving in a timely fashion. We have designated the seat in the front row for speakers who are next up over here. A timer is available on the podium. This is also the last call for anyone who needs an interpreter or those staff will be released for the evening. Persons may choose to use the first period of public comment to address the agenda report but will not be able to speak on that item following the segment. And when you speak, please state your name for the record. Have our interpreters had any requests. No. All right. Well, you're um free to go and enjoy the rest of your evening. The general public comment period is now beginning and no additional cards or calls will be accepted. Madam City Clerk, how many public comment cards do we have for general public comment? And how many callers do we have in the queue?

We have 23 cards and three callers. So 26 total. All right. So 26 total. So that means two minutes. Two minutes for both in person and callers. All right. Our first speaker is Ron Bax followed by Cynthia Peas. Thank you for letting me get back to being number one first. I mean, all right. Welcome. Oh, you're waiting for the

We have paperwork tonight. Yeah. I won't be able to finish. It's three and a half minutes. So, you have to read the last part by yourself. Okay. All right. Welcome. You have two minutes. Good evening, Madame Mayor, Madame Vice Mayors, council members.

I usually know how to do that. Sorry, I'm flustered, I guess. Um, runbacks. Let's change the narrative. This and previous city councils over the last three years have been oblivious to the present and potential near and long-term damage their actions have caused and have the potential to cause. I have steadfastly for more than 60 years planned to, and provided housing. I have endeavored to educate and train my children to carry on the mission of providing housing. With Prop 19 looming, my wife and I took steps to allow them to carry on with little financial impact at our passing. The consequence was a greater tax liability if they elect to sell. After three years of trying to convince city councils of the fallacy of believing rent control and other housing provider punishments will magically fix the rental housing market, I am considering abandoning the plan I have been executing for more than 60 years. My wife is six years younger than me that and her life expectancy is longer. I will train my son to ideally directly manage the portfolio through employing or employing a property management company which typically reduces the level of tenant satisfaction until my wife's passing at which point he and his co-rustee sister should liquidate the properties and divide the estate amongst themselves and their sister. This will result in the loss of 35 residential housing units home to 71 persons in the city. Imagine if I with 60 years plus of commitment have become disillusioned. What will other housing providers and more importantly their heirs who may not have been instilled with the desire to provide housing and see more lucrative investments for their inheritance do especially when federal law encourages liquidation. State law discourages retaining res estate and your actions and saber rattling only increase the motivation to walk away. Please read the rest.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cynthia Peas, followed by Jeff Ferguson. Welcome. You have two minutes.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and honorable city council members and Justin Hes and staff. Thank you. Um, very quickly, I will speak with elacrity. Um, the arts commission has been around now for 16 years. I will say this version of it. Thank you for that. Thank you for the support. You've got the budget coming up in a month. If you knew how important over the years, and I mean the past hundred years, parks and wreck has been to city, especially with all the challenges you're going through now. Having those services available to the people is one of the most important things you can do. So, I wanted to thank you for the money for the arts grants that you provide. Thank you for the future cultural arts affairs supervisor, which will help us find more money, which they can do. Um, oh, and then we're going to be doing something from a hundred years ago that involves the uh panel behind you here. We're doing a play called In Burbank. There's a table reading this weekend and it there's actually a song called In Burbank and we are resurrecting the artists and people who were here a hundred years ago um in this town. So, it'll kind of be kind of a documentary play, but it'll also bring up all the crazy issues that you are dealing with today. So, this will be something really big and important as it's coming down the pike. So, I just wanted to let you know about that. And then when you get a chance because of the budget and everything that's going on, it'd be great to get an update on the shade structure in Johnny Carson Park. Uh the George Z arts thing. And I know we're putting the library in front of that, which is absolutely fine, but you're making it all happen and you don't know how important it is. It's it's as important as everything else that's going on because it'll keep the city together. So, I just wanted to say thank you for all you do and uh we will we have a bunch of us that will help you make it really work. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Jeff Ferguson followed by Phil Booth. Welcome. You have two You have two minutes.

Uh good evening, mayor, members of the city council, and fellow residents of Burbank. Uh my name is Jeff Ferguson. I'm the local business owner, vice president of the Magnolia Park Merchants Association, and president of Magnolia Park Events. Uh the nonprofit behind Holiday in the Park, Food Truck Fridays, and the proposed Celebrate Burbank. Uh after months, uh I'm sorry, I'm here for a night to share an update and several and some important contexts on Celebrate Burbank. Uh after months of planning and strong early interest, we've made the difficult decision to postpone the event till 2027. Uh this wasn't due to lack of community support. Uh there is real demand for events like this. A parade, a street fair, something that brings this entire city together. Uh the challenge is structural. Uh events of this scale require coordination, long lead times, and financial predictability. Uh but after uh year after year, costs continue to rise uh from insurance to infrastructure to traffic control. Uh while the city's level of financial support has not meaningfully changed over two decades. Uh at the same time, our largest most complex events bringing tens of thousands of people uh into Burbank are often treated operationally no different than a pancake breakfast. Um those smaller events matter, but it's not the same. Uh what the difference is and reflected in planning or resources, it creates a graph a gap that becomes very difficult to overcome. And when key assumptions shift late, especially around infrastructure, uh that gap becomes insurmountable. In this case, losing access to city barricades at the very last minute added over $20,000 in costs uh to this budget. Um that wasn't the only nail in the coffin, but it was the last one. Uh this isn't about blame. We understood uh understand the city has constraints uh but a Burbank wants large scale high impent packed events uh that require a different level of support and consistency. Um the good news is uh we're not going anywhere. Holiday in the park is moving forward in November. Food truck Fridays continue this summer and Celebrate Burbank is postponed, not cancelled, uh, with a target of May

15th, 2027th. We're committed to doing the work. We just want a framework that makes it possible. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Phil Booth, followed by Debbie K. Welcome.

Uh, hello, Mayor, City Council. My name is Phil Booth. This is the first time I've ever been here. I live in Magnolia Park. Been here 29 years. my daughter went to uh Roosevelt and I moved here because of the police department and because of the fire department and because of the schools and uh what I want to talk about this evening is uh Catalina House which is a uh it's sort of a place where people who have uh been in prison or jail when they get out they're placed back into the community. But it's really what it is. It's a dormatory uh where 10 I think 10 uh excons are going to be. Now, the what I want to just talk about is not that I don't believe that when people pay their debt to society that they should be left alone, because I do, but be sure that we all know that over 90% of people that are convicted in Los Angeles County plea bargain. And it's not illegal to plea down from a violent crime to a nonviolent crime. And it's not illegal to plea down from a felony to a misdemeanor. And so being aware of that and oh and a sentence can be finished in half the sentence because of the point system. And I I'm hoping that you're all aware of that and I know the police department is aware of that. And so I just it's just a precautionary uh statement. Uh I did have an opportunity in the 90s to be a uh counselor at the uh VA uh uh domiciliary and I worked with excons and it took me week several as a counselor. It took me several weeks to get their confidence but just I can only got time to talk about one of the guys but one of the

guys once I got his confidence he literally he was basically a theft. A thief. Thank you for your comment. He said he that's what he was. Next up is Debbie K followed by Mark Scros. Welcome.

Hi. Thank you mayor, Vice May, Mayor, the city council members um for allowing me to speak. I'm here also on the issue of the property at 910 912 914 Catalina which was recently remodeled. It's such a beautiful remodel and according to Zillow, it's got six bedrooms, five bathrooms. There's ADUs on the property and apparently this is it sounds like it's a done deal and there was no notice to any of us. I really miss due process in this country. Um but uh just to indicate it is apparently being leased by anti-rescidivism coalition. I'm just going to call them ARC. They're an organization that houses formerly incarcerated individuals and they also employ a staff and um it provides services for these formerly incarcerated individuals. Um now I believe this is zoned R1 single family residential. I'm sure you guys can check up on that. Um I uh sent email. Thank you, Councilman Rosati, for uh responding so quickly. What Councilman Rosati said in his um and I'm just going to quote because it's so important. Our state has taken away our local control to enforce our zoning laws and we are forced to allow this issue. Again, I really miss due process. I missed notice. Now, apparently they're having an open house. I believe it's tomorrow. And I know several of the neighbors are going to want to meet uh these people because we really would like we have this is our neighborhood, our beautiful Magnolia Park where our May celebration is not going to happen. Um our Roosevelt children who walk along

this street, our high schoolers, our church across the way. Um you know, this is our beautiful neighborhood and I'd like it to be safe. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Mark Scrogs followed by Michael Stanley. Welcome. You have two minutes.

Okay. Good evening everyone. I'm Mark Scrogs. Yesterday, Assembly Member Nick Schultz announced AB2319, a tax incentive program to keep post-production work here and to help pay for that. Um, we are losing post-production work a lot here. A lot of the films in that are gone. A lot of the post work is leaving too. You can see the empty buildings now. You can see places that are just people are just leaving. Um so please encourage the state senators and others to support this bill. Go to www.shultz.asmdc.org for more information. It you know they they're going to need support with this like the tax incentives last year. Um, last week I was on a Zoom with other industry members and three state attorney generals, Rob Bont from California, William Tong of Connecticut, and Chris Maize of Arizona. They discussed with us how they're working together to fight the Paramount Warner Brothers merger, which is not a done deal and is not a good thing no matter what some people think. um Ticket Master and Live Nations merger, NextStar Intega, which has been slowed down already, and other questionable mur mergers. They want our community to be involved and aware. They're doing a lot of great work. They meet regularly, has success in fighting the Trump regime. Um I encourage everyone to go to www. I'm gonna keep websites all night. Weunited.net. Again, www.westandunited.net to check them out. It's a great group. Also, www.blockthemer merger.com. Like I said, this is not a done deal. And finally, I just want to say as a parent of an autistic adult, thank you for um announcing and bringing this up. It's it's a lot of work for people. A lot of people don't feel like they fit in. You you see them in the community, you don't realize it, and it's it's a long road. So, appreciate

it. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Michael Stanley, followed by Eric Hawk. Welcome.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, members of the city council. I come tonight with Tidings of Good News. We have a wonderful concert on Saturday, this Saturday, by the Burbank Community Band. And uh I'll introduce myself. I'm Michael Stanley. I'm the conductor of the Burbank Philarmonic Orchestra, which recently had a concert, which uh Mayor Takahashi attended, and we were so grateful to have you there. And now we're doing a concert with the community band. And this is a group made up of all volunteer musicians who come every Friday morning to rehearse and we have a great time together. And this concert is going to be uh celebrating America's 250th anniversary as well as the 175th anniversary of California statethood. So we have a whole slew of patriotic music. We have uh Mayor Takahashi is going to be reading narration from the Declaration of Independence on one of the pieces. So that's exciting. And we have a wonderful singer who will be singing songs ranging from the battle hymn of the republic to the state official state song which you might not know. It's called I Love You California. And it's a catchy tune. So come hear it. Um uh band president Eric Hawk's going to speak after me and talk more about the grant. But I just do want to uh convey our thanks from both the Philarmonic and from the community band how much those arts grants mean to us and how much they help us put on these free concerts for the community. So we just encourage everyone to come out on Saturday. It's at 2 p.m. at Dolores Wuerta Middle School Auditorium and it's going to be a great show. It's free. We also have partners there that'll um there's going to be an art show and there's going to be free cookies. So, come enjoy the concert. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Eric Hawk, followed by Diana Pulver. Welcome.

All right. Hey, hey, and a very pleasant good evening to the wonderful members of the Burbank City Council, terrific city staff, and others who've taken time out of their evening to participate in this evening's meeting. My name, for the record, is Eric Hawk. I'm the current president, board of directors of the Burbank Community Band. Uh, as Dr. Stanley has already spoken of the concert, I wanted to focus on the wonderful impact that has come from this city's community arts grant. Uh the band and I are incredibly grateful to have been selected as a recipient of funds and I'd like to share how the band is very different because of the city's support. Uh our volunteer band not too long ago had about 45 to 50 musicians. We played three shows a year, Memorial Day and Veterans Day for the city, but just one of our own standalone shows. We played at locations like the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn. Uh and we played there because it was free for nonprofits to perform at that location. We had about 100 people, mostly friends and family, who came to the shows and we collected a couple donations. What the grant did uh was we knew we were in competition. We focused on how we could make our concert better. We set aside funds to play at a at a venue. We're playing at the awesome Dolores Auditorium on Saturday. Uh we assigned funds to purchase new music. Once we got to the place where we are purchasing our own new music, a lot of the musicians started asking, well, wait a minute, what are we playing? And we set up a little round table uh in which like a third of the band decided to stay late on Friday afternoon to talk about all these different music uh pieces that we could play for the theme. Uh this year actually for this concert, almost all of the music that we're playing came up from the musicians who who made this. The band musicians then they're getting invested. They start printing off copies of the flyer. uh they start uh going to local haunts, restaurants, um uh parks, senior centers to pass out these flyers to get the word out there. And so this really uplifted our band. So please come out on Saturday so that we may give you

some uplifting music in gratitude there. So appreciate that very, very much all of y'all. There we go. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Diana Pulver, followed by Shelby Grim. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. My name is Diana Pulver. I'm a housing provider and a proud banker. Recently, my green waste cart was not picked up because my neighbor had a furniture delivery and the delivery truck was blocking access to my green waste cart. I called the public works department. My call was answered promptly and the person I spoke with was pleasant, knowledgeable, and told me they would send another truck to pick up the cart. The next morning, it was taken care of. I compare this experience with what Los Angeles residents have to deal with in similar situations. Wait times of several days, having to call their city representatives just to get a response. This is just another example of why small government works. Burbank has a reputation for excellent city services, but excellence comes at a cost. And imposing additional regulations and rent control will only serve to curtail the city's tax base even further, making it necessary to reduce city services, making it more like LA. So again, I say AB1482 is sufficient and don't la my Burbank. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Shelby Grim, followed by Michael Graves. Welcome.

Hello. I'm Shelby Grim. Uh 926 North Catalina Street. Been here since 1993. And uh Madame Mayor, vice mayor, council members, appreciate your time and especially the halls that you gave me a a cough drop because I was coughing in the back. I appreciate that kindness and I'm going to ask each of you to impart some kindness to what's happening with us in this neighborhood of Catalina and Magnolia Park. You've already heard two people uh expressing worry and what I'm wanting to impart to you is my worry as well and my feeling of being blindsided about this. I know Mr. Rosati you say your your hands are tied but I respectfully disagree with that. I think that compassion and kindness and respect should be delivered to your city and you are the ones who can do that and figure out a way to make it happen. I met you during the Aleppo Pines uh situation and I sadly still watched those pine trees disappear. I remember back when this mural was covered, I believe it was covered for many years. Is that correct? And then it was uh revealed again. So, I know good things can happen here, too. I just implore you to look into this and see what's going on. We need more information. We've been blindsided. We have no idea what's going on. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Michael Graves, followed by Jim Festante.

Good evening, council. I'm Mike Graves. I live on Catalina Street, a few houses away from 914 Catalina, a home recently sold and leased to the anti-rescetivism coalition. I understand that Ark will be housing the recent recently incarcerated. I visited the home the next morning to ascertain whether information given to me was accurate, and I had prepared some questions. Recidivism is real, and my questions are out of regard for our community. I know these questions do not fill the scope of what is possible when dropping in a group home of 12 or more people on a lot in an R1 zone block of homes. My questions were, is this temporary housing? What is exactly transitional? Is it permanent? Are the residents here serving after serving a full term or is it a commuted ter sentence? Are the residents duly and legally in pro and legally in probation? Is it different for subjects of the juvenile justice system? Has Arc commun uh conducted community meetings? Has Ark telegraphed or corresponded with the city of Burbank and our city council? Some consider work of this kind even by a nonprofit akin to operating a business rather than a resident since the services rendered in the home can occur during any hour with paid staff. Is the homeowner's insurance policy coverage commen commensurate with the number of people living there? the risk selection and classification process that insurance companies use and will will change the risk factors and shall likely raise the cost of insurance not for one home but for every insured property in the area. Are you concerned that the significant change in use will be a concern to local residents? Somehow I got the idea that residents will have no right to know who lives there, nor will my neighbors have a right to know the nature of criminal activities resulting in incarceration. Does this concern you? Is there the possibility that there could be residents who have been convicted convicted of crimes against children? What about persons convicted of aggravated sexual assaults or any

kind of aggravated assault? How about crimes against the elderly? How will we know or who should Thank you for your comment. Next up is Jim Festante followed by Daniel Cronin. Did I pronounce your name correctly?

Uh good evening, Mayor Takahashi, members of the council. Hello, my name is Jim Fante. I'm a Burbank resident, parent, PTA chair, and media literacy educator. Uh, Burbank is globally recognized as the media capital of the world, but our greatest export isn't content. It's the creative and technical talent that produces it. Today, that talent pool is facing a quiet systemic crisis. I'm here to talk about the fundamental shift in how we prepare our youth for adulthood. Our students are entering a world that demands deep focus, complex problem solving, nuanced communication. Yet, they're being raised in a digital environment that rewards the exact opposite. A brain that is constantly siphoned of its dopamine is a brain that physically cannot achieve the deep work required to innovate, lead, or participate as a productive member of our society. Last year, the state passed AB873 requiring media literacy education. And this past February, Assemblyman Josh Hoover introduced AB2071 to mandate digital wellness instruction in health class. But the state isn't scheduled to provide a formal roadmap or curriculum until 2028. That is why we are building a Burbank first model. Uh this isn't about spotting fake news. This is about ensuring that a young adult in Burbank can sit in a room, solve a complex problem, and sustain the focus required to lead a productive life. Uh because our city is known globally as the media capital of the world, we are uniquely positioned to step up and become the media literacy capital of the world. I'm asking for this council's support in recognizing our media literacy pilot as a vital civic priority. Let's not just follow the law in 2028, let's lead the nation in 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Daniel Cronin. Cronin, followed by Dan K. Daniel, then Dan. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, members of council and staff. My name is Dan Cronin. I've lived on North Catalina Street as a homeowner for 15 and a half years. My kids went to Roosevelt as well. We know this isn't a Q&A, but obviously you're getting a lot of questions. We would love to hear back from you uh from members of the council, city planning, whoever can can talk to us. Obviously, we have some concerns. A man who owns 30,000 properties across LA to the tune of $5 billion with a B bought this house. Mr. Jason Post, I wonder if he would ever let something like this on his block in Beverly Hills or Bair. I wonder I wonder if he even knows he owns this place. But he bought this house that's been broken up into three units. He's now leasing these units to ARC, the anti-resetivism coalition. For the record, I am pro- anti-rescetivism. I I don't believe in mass buildings that are storage facilities with revolving doors on them for human beings. I believe in rehabilitation 100%. But this house right on the on our block will apparently house formerly incarcerated people. How many people? We don't know. That's one of our questions obviously. And what sounds like some sort of a halfway house, some sort of a transitionary living facility. Um on a otherwise residential block where small children, elderly people are have lived peacefully for years. State law says we are to treat such a house as if it were any other single family home. And I can't quite wrap my head around how ridiculous that is. My questions to the city of Burbank, why not any warning? Will these people be supervised? What crimes did they commit? How many people will be living there? Is there a limit on that? What about our block makes it a wise choice for formerly incarcerated people? And can you please help us out and talk to

us? Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next up is Dan K, followed by Janet Deal. Welcome. We have two minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, city council, city staff, fellow Burbank residents. Um, for three years, I've been organizing with Burbank Tenants Union to bring housing justice and community stability to the city. Um, for 3 years, we've been fighting for things like rent stabilization and tenant protections. And throughout that time, um, you've been listening to us. Uh, city staff has been working tirelessly, um, and really impressively um, on a lot of these policies. And as I understand it, a lot of these issues that were supposed to come back in April are now being delayed until May, June, July. Um, and I'm wondering if we have any sort of update on where when these tenant protections are actually going to come back. It's it's also been frustrating for us seeing these problems in our community and and us volunteers in this community fighting tirelessly um to bring the justice that we all deserve. Um and it and it keeps getting delayed and and it's delayed this time because of the city council member who's supposed to be recusing on these issues because of his financial conflicts of interest um now at the last minute has um has has challenged what that the state and the city attorney have asked him to recuse. Um who's actually facing a recall because he hasn't been properly recusing and also because of his atrocious actions and statements and behavior on the dis. Um, and it all just seems very very Trumpian. Um, so I I hope that we can get some updates on on when this comes up and I hope that it can come up soon. Um, and yeah, additionally, um, I hope we can maintain the current size of our commissions, more civil engagement, not less. Um, really upsetting to hear about the homeless solutions center. Um, that that's not going to be happening. And I'm wonder if there's any plans to to maybe have have something else. um on a smaller scale happen. Um and yeah, that's about it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Janet Deal, followed by Forest Childers. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Mayor. Um good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager, and all of the staff and all the people at home, too. We forget about those. Um, I'm Janet Do. Um, been around for 40ome years, so I'm a newbie still in Burbank. Burbank Tournament of Roses Association works tirelessly all year long. Linda forgot to say that. We work every weekend and on a Saturday. You're welcome to come down. They are working now on the float for the 2027 parade and the theme for the parade is welcome. So it'll be very interesting. Our float will be um what do they call them? Lighthouse welcoming ships and people coming from around the world. Okay. As to the bike events, my husband was a bike angel and my son and they worked so hard refurbishing and refreshing bikes and making sure they were ready for bike events. My daughter was a spokesperson for Safe Moves here in Burbank and went from school to school reminding kids that bikes are fantastic to get around town. Remember to wear your helmet. It saved her life. I'm down to 25 seconds, so I'll talk fast. The advisory council on disabilities is always in my heart. The fourth Thursday online, contact BACOD for Burbank Advisory Council on Disabilities 16 atgmail.com.

It's an on Zoom um event and we talk about everything in Burbank. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Forest Childers followed by Julian Crump. Welcome.

Hello. Good evening, guys. Um, so my name is Forest Childers. I was recently given a warning notice by Burbank Animal Control stating that according to municipal code, my 15 backyard chickens are too close to an inhabited structure and I should rehome them within 30 days. Uh deadline is 421-26. The code says that no person shall keep any animal other than horses, dogs, cats, pigs, fish, white mice, rats, turtles, canaries, or parrots within 35 ft of any inhabited structure. And my neighbor Angela lives within that radius at my house. According to animal control and BPD, this code seeks to balance the needs of pet owners with the comfort and welfare of surrounding neighbors, protecting them from offensive noise and smell. It assumes that her proximity, my neighbor, to the hens is problematic for her comfort and welfare, and seeks to protect her. Uh, but according to her herself, uh, quote, "They do not negatively impact my comfort or quality of life in any way. I've never noticed any smell and noise is also not an issue." Um, a quote from Officer Craft at Burbank Animal Control upon her visit. The hens appeared happy and healthy and there was no strong odor. Noise levels were minimal," unquote. So, that's every day. Um, and the same can't be said for some of the exempt animals above. I'm seeking an exemption to the 35 ft restriction for my 15 backyard hens so that I may keep them as long as they're not bothering anyone. I have many more reasons, evidence, pictures, and commentary to support my case, but I limited what I'm saying here because I only had two minutes. So, in this case, um the BMC does not protect the residents that the resident that it was intended to serve and instead damages my comfort and welfare, enforcing relocations of our beloved hens who are not harming anyone. Uh, I hope to hear

some kind of uh answers and work out something uh because it's just an unfair situation. And thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Julianne Crump, followed by Alonso Direto Jr. Welcome.

Hello uh uh Mayor Takahashi, uh Vice Mayor, City Council, city staff. Thank you for uh taking your time this evening to honor the Roosevelt bike bus. Um it's so great to see biking being uplifted these days. Um I approach it as a I came to this from the sustainability side from gardening and um I was just I'm a hesitant biker. I'm not brave but um I see these kids doing it and gosh darn it I can do it. So, um, when I finally went on the bike bus, I was like, "This is such a joyous thing to do. It's a different view of the city." And I think in the entire time we've been doing it, maybe there's been we've gotten honked at once or twice in the whole time. And we're not going fast. We're taking up space, but there's room for us because we live in an incredibly bikable city. Um, it expands your radius. As my kids are getting older, they get to go farther and be independent and confident. And it's also really a good way to, you know, touch on climate change with kids who can't understand. They know stuff is up and they can't understand what to do, but here are concrete steps they can do and they can call their parents to task about it, too, because a lot of times the kids are ready are down with those kinds of changes. I really appreciate the recent ways that the city has been uplifting bikes recently. Um, I'm really excited that Chandler extension is going is going ahead. I mean, I haven't read anything recently, but the last thing I heard on it, it was going forward, and I'm excited. Um, and I just biking is a win-win these days. Um, it is a zero carbon way to get around town and goodness knows we need more of that. I

just want to bring up two uh events coming up soon. April 18th, bike rodeo with the Boy Scouts and the community development organization. And April 25th, thank you for your first day at the park, Bike Angels. Sorry. Alfonso direto direto Jr. is next, followed by Joe Pimeient. Welcome. Good evening. I'm going have my kids start off. This is Xavier. Hi. Go to Roosevelt Elementary. Hi, my name is Xavier and I go to Roosevelt Elementary and I'm in second grade. And my favorite thing about the bike bus is that you get energy out of your legs and that it's fun to bike. And this is my other son, Damian.

Hi, my name is Damian. I'm 6 years old and I am inside kindergarten. My favorite thing about biking is that you get a lot of fresh air.

Yes. Thank you, Damian and Xavier. Um, yes. So, my name is Alfonso Direto. I'm their dad, uh, parent volunteer at Roosevelt and really appreciate the recognition today, uh, and the support of the mayor, council members, the the principles, uh, our principal. Um, unfortunately, our street designs are just too often, uh, make riding unsafe and unpleasant to ride. And I I organize with the bike bus because it's motivating to me and to see our community come together uh to provide that safety and that healthy safe transportation that we would like to see more of. Ultimately, we need physical infrastructure, separate and protected bus and bike lanes to make streets safe for all ages and abilities at all time of day. And that includes on Olive with the uh bus rapid transit. So until then, the bike bus is really a moment that we come together every month to provide that safe and healthy biking experience. And we invite you to join us on May 6, which will be our last one for this school year. And it'll happen every first Wednesday of the month starting next year. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Joe Pina followed by Elizabeth Bax. Welcome.

How do you follow that? I mean just that should have been the end of the evening. Uh good evening mayor, vice mayor, council members, staff and everybody present in the chamber. Um Joe Pimenta Pas them. As you all know, I'm a participant with the Burbank Tenant Union. And as a per as a participant with the Burbank Tenant Union, we got a lot of input and we get a we get a lot of intake forms and we get a lot of people coming up to us asking for help and solutions. Uh and the thing with that is that every no matter how many times we try to provide them to the to the resources the city has. The end the problem is that a lot of these end up being a a simple situation where they are just being displaced because of high rent increases to which everything that is being happening to them is within the conference of the law which again this is how we end up losing a lot of neighbors is not because of there aren't any resources available by the city but rather but rather because the situation is permissible by what is up above. Now this is again where we start having the conversation of like what about the mom and pops have to do with this? Well, just remember that they represent a very small percentage. It's less than 10% of the is 10 less than 10% of the landlords that actually that are actually acting within the city. So even though they are the most vocal, they are not an accurate picture of to what into what is the opposite argument to providing affordable and sustainable housing. Now this is another reason why we need us why we need a rental registry because that that can be available to every single resident whether present or future of the city without any barriers. Um, so again, this is just something that I think is very, you know, something that continues to happen. We've all know that this is a situation that we all keep discussing. Um, and I just really want you to be aware that the longer this conversation drags, the more neighbors we keep losing. And we at the Burton Union actually believe that it is it it is our neighbors what makes the community. So once again, um, in just because I have some time left, uh, yeah, more bike lanes, more better infrastructure for public transit. That's what makes the streets safer. Um also yeah I also do think that we should not limit the amount of um commission members because again the more people come in the more solutions we can find the more people participate and as always thank you for your time. Enjoy the rest of your evening but yes uh please let's keep our neighbors house. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Elizabeth Bax followed by Nathan Adare. Welcome.

Don't start me. I have to take a deep breath after that. Okay. Okay. Uh, council members and city staff, um, I'd like to speak about the housing solutions center on Front Street. So far, about a million dollars has been spent on this project, which I think will just be wasted. A million dollars. And I work in film and television. And as many here know, the past three years have been very difficult for the people in my industry, including myself. That amount of money is significant, a million dollars, especially at a time when Burbank is facing potential deficits, something that many of us anticipated. I also understand that the piano store, previously at that location, lost its lease as part of the process of building this center. And then months ago, council member Anthony sat at this dis and told people looking for help for homeless looking for help for homeless people. In November, it will be 10 years since I first ran for city council. And he asked, "Why didn't um why didn't we have a 24/7 homeless shelter in Burbank?" He said, "We're close." Referring to Front Street. He said, "Front Street, it's coming." And then you asked for a timeline. I'm guessing that this is something that you've been paying close attention to since it's was the first thing you were reaching out about. I would like to know what close is. Of course, I'm just guessing you were referring to the homeless solution center that was supposed to be built in the on Front Street. A million dollars. I'd like to respectfully ask for some clarity on that. What does close mean? and specifically what is planned for Front Street that will directly help people experience homelessness. And as far as dragging the rent control and the tenant protections out, these people aren't dragging it out. These

people aren't dragging it out. The people that started with all the stuff that's dragging it out are the people that keep asking for you guys to bring it back so fast. They are the one that initiated the slowdown. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Nathan Adair, followed by Craig Hamble. Welcome.

Hi folks. Uh my name is Nathan. I live in the city of Burbank and as weird as it may sound, I'm here tonight to talk about beds. Uh the 2022 5-year homeless action plan included the need to build 27 to 50 beds. I got really excited when I saw this. I have actually employed three homeless people over the course of my career. The first one was a guy named Mark. After one and a half years, he came to me and he said, "Listen, I've been in a shelter all this time. I'm now going to leave. I've gotten enough money. I'm moving to Colorado. I have some family. They're going to help me get back on my feet." The second person was Earl. He wasn't in a shelter. I actually had to fire him after a couple of months because some ladies came into work early one time and they found out that he was using our conference room as a shelter. The third person was Jennifer. Um, she was in a shelter and after a short period of time, she was able to find an apartment and she moved in there with her two children. I hope you notice a pattern. When people don't have to worry about whether or not they're going to eat dinner tonight, when they don't have to worry about where they're going to sleep tonight, they're able to take that energy and focus on the bigger and more important things in their life. That's why it's so important that we build beds. It's great that Burbank has a multi-pronged approach to homelessness and it's great that we're seeing results, but I promise you those results are going to hit a brick wall if we don't create beds. So, I think you owe myself and everybody else that voted for the council that approved that action plan. You owe us an explanation. How are you going to build 27 to 50 beds if the building that you were going to put them into never gets made? Also, uh, exconvicts, they serve their time. They deserve beds, too. Crazy people are people. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Craig Hample, followed by David Donahghue. And that's my last card. Welcome.

Good evening, council. Um, I'd like to give a lot of thanks to people tonight. Um, first of all, everyone from Roosevelt School who's put in hundreds, possibly thousands of hours into this program. One of the things that they didn't mention was that they've also put together bike clinics teaching kids how to ride. This last one, there were over a hundred people that attended. Kids were having a blast. Um, also I want to thank the drivers. This was mentioned tonight, but that bike bus is only going about 4 miles an hour and drivers behind it have been driving at the same speed. This is one of the best traffic calming programs in the city. No one can resist cute kids on the street. I want to thank our transportation planners for all the hard work they've done. Um, we have great bicycle plans. Unfortunately, we have a lot of resistance to those plans and I'd like to see a lot more things go in and this is uh there's never been a better time. I mean, there's never been a bad time for it. But I want to tell you that I think we're in a very tight squeeze right now with fuels and resources in the world. And this is crazym and we're going to need some very simple approaches to life, including biking and walking and public transportation. So, um, I want to thank bike commuters. I want to thank restaurant workers who go home at 2 in the morning after cleaning up and ride their bikes home. I want to thank all the uh, kids and parents who do ride to school outside of the Roosevelt bike bus. I want to thank the members of the Burbank Council on Disabilities for looking at the way that people need access and to remove barriers. I want to thank Glenn and Marilyn Gregos for supporting the accessible sports

programs. I want to thank the Bike Angels. They were mentioned tonight. And I want to thank Metro Riders. All right. Thank you for your comments. I hope we can get that BRT going. Next up is David Donahghue. And that's my last card. Welcome.

Good evening, council. My name is David Donahghue. One of the things a couple of people spoke today about rising costs. The gentleman who puts on uh the Magnolia Park events talked about just just how expensive things are getting. Another person also brought it up. And what is often not sort of taken into consideration when it comes to housing providers, even though we've mentioned it time after time after time, is how our costs go up. There's been zero consideration given for an analysis of what those percentages are when you have some of the most talented staff sitting next to you. It'd be an easy number to look at. I also find extremely disingenuous that members of the Burbank Tennis Union spout lies and disinformation. And I'm going to keep my language as professional as I can because of the children in the room. But what they have been saying is absolutely false. There is a 03% of the entire rental population that has made a complaint that has actually gone to something where uh the city's attorneys are going to get involved. 03 I think that's maybe eight people. Mayor Tagahashi, you look at the data, you have the data, share the data, show the actual numbers. In your comments, you were concerned about displacement. What displacement? Where is it happening? Where's the data? Where's the information? It's not happening. And if it is, guess what? You can come to one of the the number of meetings here at the city where you can actually talk to attorneys for free. Who is being displaced? Who's not being represented? And who is being taken advantage of? Oh. Oh, yeah. The housing providers. They are Burbank Fair Housing just initiated and I want to come here and look you all in the face and say that we have a campaign against certain members of this body that we feel are acting against the interest of the community as a whole and acting against

the community the the housing provider community. So thank you. Thank you for your comment. And that was my last inerson comment. Do we have any callers on the line? We We're down to two of the three. One gentleman dropped. If he calls back quickly, he can get back in. But so far, we're we just have two. All right, let's put him through. The first caller is Jonathan Wilder. Welcome. Thank you for calling into council. You have two minutes.

Hello, city council. I have a lot to say on this item, so I'm going to try to speed through what I wrote and hopefully I can pick up some spare things at the end. Um, my name is Jonathan Wilder. I'm calling in tonight to comment on the update on homelessness programs and the homeless solution center. I've made connections with unhoused people here in Burbank and cared deeply about helping meet their urgent needs. While I'm well aware of the steps that Burbank has taken towards addressing some of those needs, I think now is the perfect time for the city to reflect on what is working and what needs improvement. Regarding the plan for the front street site, I would like to see the city allocate funding from the $6 million of measure A funds as well as annual general funds to build permanent supportive housing. This is the most effective long-term solution to address homelessness and it is also an eligible use of measure A funds. In the short term, I've been pleased to hear about the social worker program at the library. I would like to see the city expand on this program through the measure A local solutions fund. As staff suggested, you could have uh enhanced case management services to promote long-term housing stability and self-sufficiency. I also think that expanding from connections uh to services to comprehensive case management would build more lines of communication with unhoused individuals to better understand their pressing needs. In the staff report on this agenda item, appears that the only references to the primary stakeholders, unsheltered people seems to be a survey about acceptance of future housing and or safe parking, which indicates that the city needs more channels for direct feedback about services provided by the city and its partners. It's not enough for services to merely exist. The city should be investing in making them accessible and convenient with considerations of people's basic needs. For example, the shower services need to be greatly

expanded and could also be helped by having a mobile shower service offered at the library branches. Thank you for your comment. That's your two minutes. Thank you. Next caller, please.

The next caller is it's Corey Mening. I just wanted to call in and congratulate the graduates of Job Connect Plus's seventh cohort this past Friday. These individ individuals committed to their goals, put in the work, and took meaningful steps toward their careers. So, as you enter budget season, I want to thank you for the continued support of this program. And right now, programs like this are more needed than ever. Uh, if you were there on Friday, I did see a few of you. You saw the impact of this firsthand. And if you're listening tonight and need support navity navigating a career, applications are now open through April 19th for the next cohort which starts in May. Uh so you can find information and apply through the Burbank Public Library website. I am not a paid spokesperson. I'm not an unpaid spokesperson. Actually, nobody asked me to speak on this tonight. Um I'm calling in as an alumni and I'm still talking about this program more than a year later because I'm still so grateful for that opportunity. Um, so thank you for the time and congratulations again to the recent graduates.

Thank you for your call. Uh, is that our last caller? Okay. There being no further public comment, I now declare the general public comment closed. Now is a time for a brief response from city council, city manager, city attorney. City manager, city attorney staff, do we have any responses?

Uh, yes. Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I have three items. Uh first off, uh AB2319, the film tax credit. Um uh we we had already we had already submitted a letter of support. So we're on it. So as soon as that came out, we've been in constant uh contact with uh uh both Assembly Member uh Schultz as long as well as menar's office. So uh so we're already on record for that. And then uh in addition uh we had on the hens uh which um I'm a little I I'm not fully uh um up to speed on, but we had our park and recck director reach out to um uh Mr. Childers and uh they're going to discuss and hopefully we could come to some resolution. Uh again, uh we'll provide you an update uh once we know more. Um that's a new one for me.

You don't want to count your chickens before you Okay. I knew there was a lot there, so I'll leave it. Um, and then, uh, I I do want to, uh, bring up our assistant, uh, community development director, uh, Fred Ramirez, uh, to talk briefly about the situation, uh, related to Catalina. Um, so there he is. Welcome, Mr. Ramirez.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Uh, I had an opportunity to catch some of the neighbors from Catalina outside. I gave them my business card. Um I'm the assistant director in planning and um told them to reach out to me because they had a lot of questions or I heard a lot of questions regarding a potential community care facility at 910 Catalina. Um as I think it was mentioned earlier certain facilities are permitted by right uh in the R1 zone including community care facilities, supportive housing and transitional but uh I think there's a lot to unpack and a lot of the questions that they had. So I asked them to reach out to us uh via email uh give us all the questions that they have and then that we would kind of parcel out and identify those that were uh relevant to the zoning code, those that are um related to state requirements and then also identifying the uh state agency that oversees uh licensed and and unlicensed facilities. So we'll follow up with them. I've already made contact with some of the residents and I had them actually share ask them to share my email address with other members of the community so that we could get all this information and then kind of parcel out um the facts from uh other information that they may be hearing out there. So, we've reached out and we'll we'll follow up and we'll let you know the outcome of that. Okay.

Uh did you have a follow-up question for me? Sure. I I'd like to ask a quick question. Is it possible that some of the information or the general information regarding not so particular that house but the law itself that allows them to uh house individuals in there? Can we put some information on the website so if these issues come up and there's confusion to why the city's doing it that could help? Um, well, I I would just clarify, we're not the ones doing it, but that the assumption is the city's allowing it or we're in control of allowing this. So, I just was wondering if we can get some information.

We will put that up there. I think we'll be helpful to clarify frequently asked questions is once I receive uh all their questions, we'll be able to identify those that are relevant to this is what the law is, this is how it applies locally, and then we'll uh put together something that we can put online for the public. Okay. Okay. Any more responses from staff, city attorney? No. Okay. Who would like to start with the responses to uh vice mayor? Sorry. I I do would like if um staff can quickly give us an update uh regarding the event um the parade on uh Magnolia. if we can just give a real brief update or we can't get into it too much.

Uh the people that uh would be able to provide the update are not here. So uh I could get you a email update uh tomorrow. Um what I would like to find out myself. I I I'm not aware, but it would be good to um uh kind of break that down to see if there's any possibility there. So um I I just don't know. I don't have the background. uh and the people that have been working on that are not present. Okay. So, if we can just get a detailed email and perhaps we can also include um the um committee that was in charge of putting it together, include him in an email. Oh, we we'll let me find out what

this is starting to sound like an additional agenda item and a non brief response. just an an email since they're here and we're answering public comment. I wanted to see if we can get something an update on that. We will provide anformational Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. All right. Council member Rosado, you had your hand up. All right. Yes. Yeah. Oh, thank sorry.

Uh to the acing autism folks, I think you guys do just awesome work in our community. Um thank you for all the work you do. Um to the uh public safety personnel who work uh in our department um in our community, thank you for for your work. Um to the Rose Parade uh staff and and team for providing a winning float every year. Uh every year you you come out with a winner. So uh you make us proud. Thank you. Um Roosevelt 72 through 1978. Congrats to uh being innovative. Uh I I think it's a great program and uh if Mr. Ferguson's here, I am really sorry to hear about the parade being postponed. Uh I know it takes an army to do something like that. So, um we'll see if we can't work out the kinks on that. And then um to all the people that I I spoke to this week, it's been hours on the phone about the transitional housing. Um the first transitional house that went into Burbank was 20 years ago on the corner of Beachwood and Clark and I live four doors from there. So I completely understand the shock. Um, I've spent over a decade fighting against uh uh businesses operating in a residential neighborhood and this council member I would be willing to sign something to our local elected to to change these laws. So, we'll see if that comes up on u for a discussion. To Mr. Hawk and Mr. Stanley, thank you for always coming and uh inviting us to your concerts. Uh it's a lot of fun. you guys do great work. And uh to the folks uh about the the homeless shelter, we're

going to talk about that later on tonight and we'll have a robust discussion. So, thank you for everyone for coming, for calling, and for your concerns. Um appreciate it, Madame Mayor. Thank you. Who wants to go next? Council member Perez. Okay. All right. You're next.

Okay. Um so uh thank you councils for talking about the celebrate Burbank issue. I think I think seeing the surprise faces my colleagues none of us were really aware that it was cancelled. So I really also am looking forward to an update and and and a breakdown of why what's going on because these are the things we want to do. We want to have these kind of events in our community. Um, I'm glad that the folks who came talking about the house on Catalina Street are talking with staff and having that addressed and I look forward to updates to council. And um, Mr. Child uh, Childers with the Hens, I'm also glad he had um, that answered. I'm sorry I missed your joke. And let's see. Um there were a few comments and questions about the uh the homeless solutions center. I really invite all of those folks who have questions about that to stick around for the staff report because the it'll be enlightening in in a way that it was to all of us here at the city. So I think you should definitely stick around. Um, and then the last thing I would say is congrats to Roosevelt 2000 through 2004. So, you got two Roosevelt lums up here. We're not biased at all, but um, but yeah, congrats to you all for for doing the bike bus. That's awesome. I love that you do that. Um, I love that you have students coming to advocate for all of that. That's the neighborhood I grew up in. And I'm so glad to see that you're creating a safe and walkable environment because it's a beautiful place to walk. I remember walking to school with my mom in the mornings. So, thank you all. Um, and yeah, thank you everybody else for coming and calling in. Appreciate all of you. Oh, and of course, the tournament of roses.

I appreciate all of you every year and you're always winners both to me and quite literally. Thank you. All right. Uh, Council Member Anthony. Uh, thanks everyone for, uh, coming down. Um, I love that proclamation for for the acing autism is is expanded. It's now, uh, it's now autism and neurode divergent aware acceptance and celebration and celebration month.

It's getting it's getting bigger. Uh, that's great. That's great. I love it. Um, I uh I wanted to just I know we're we're not talking about it, but there's been uh a lot of discussion around uh the ARC, the anti-rescetivism coalition. Uh they're not here. Um I do know them um previously to tonight. I have seen their work. Uh they do turn out a a quality product. Uh what they do is beneficial to the community. I am interested in attending the open house and uh figuring out more about what's going on and talking to the residents. Um, Council Rosado, you are correct. It is it is frustrating and difficult and albeit even shocking to some people when things happen in your neighborhood where you know everybody, you know who your neighbors are and that suddenly changes on a dime. I I completely understand that. Um I uh I'm going to uh reserve my comments for later if this does have to come back and if we do have to talk about it. Uh but I do uh I will I will tell people uh many of us will be looking into this and I personally am going to go down there and and uh check out the place. Um I wanted to just with my last few seconds um wish uh Patrick Prescott well. He was feeling a little under the weather today. our director of community development and hope he feels better. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, did you have more to add? Okay, go ahead.

Okay. Well, first of all, I'd like to congratulate all um those who received the um proclamation tonight. the arts and culture. Great job as usual and thanks to the parks and recreation staff for always supporting um and always having great quality work that the um the commission does. Um the autism celebration congratulation and this is truly an um city where it ex it includes everyone does not exclude anyone. So I'm glad that we were able to do the whole month. uh the national public safety. I can't forget our telecommunications staff. They were very humble saying, "Well, you know, we just answer calls." They have such a pressure job like the chief said. Um really, they're the eyes and ears of our police officers and they make things happen before our officers get to the site be they rescue lives. They're just amazing folks and I do applaud them. Uh, Tournament of Roses as usual. Great job. Thank you. And I love the new theme. Welcome. Um, that's Burbank. Welcome everyone here to come to Burbank. The Roosevelt School. I saw Alonso left with the two little cutest um kids, uh, Xavier and Damian. They're so adorable and I think they did a great job. So, thank you for being encouraged and coming here and speaking before council. um a lot of the items that was mentioned earlier about the homelessness in the center and some of the items we're going to talk about when we get to um these items on the agenda. I am glad the city manager already mentioned that uh AB2319, thank you Mark, for bringing this up. I had it down and um he's on top of it. We're we're always looking for that support. So, thank you uh Mr. City

Manager, uh Dr. Stanley and Eric as usual. Um, one day I make that band, but you're in competition with somebody else on that day, which is this chamber of commerce. The chili cookoff is happening at the same time on Saturday. So, um, I'm sure the mayor is going to be there representing us. I would have loved to attend if you were singing part of the band, but you know, I'm until until you do it, then I will be there. Um, and what else? Uh, the chicken hens. I'm sure that's going to be an interesting conversation. I haven't heard that one yet at a council meeting. So, it's always amazing um for our job what we get to hear, but I'm glad you're able. I know staff will be working with you and also u Mr. Ferguson and Ross, thank you for being here and talking about the parade and we'll find some solution hopefully soon. Um, I think I got everyone again the rest of the items we will be talking about um soon here. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you. Oh yeah, one more comment. I was remiss and and it skipped my memory. I also definitely I know everybody's thinking acing autism. I want to shout out Trey specifically. Trey has been so dedicated above and beyond and works so closely with the kids who he coaches in tennis. And I just want to give you a shout out. I had the absolute privilege and pleasure of during my mayorship going and watching lessons, participating in lessons with him. And that's somebody who gives 110%. So, thank you for everything that you do when I hope you watch this later. Thank you.

He's pretty amazing. All right. Um Yeah. So yes, thank you all for coming tonight. Uh those of you who left and are watching from home, thank you for coming in and spending your time with us this evening. I know a lot going on in your lives and so appreciate you spending time tonight and sharing with us what your questions and thoughts are and concerns um and those who called in as well as those who reached out to us since our last meeting, met with us, etc. Um several speakers addressed issue uh items that will be later on in the meeting. So, we'll discuss it then. Um, but I have to say between the kids this morning that came in and the bike bike bike bus and the public comment, this is like maximum level cute I think we have achieved tonight. It was absolutely adorable. Don't think we can get much cuter than this. Um, and then let's see. So, I wanted to thank Miss Peas is not here, but I wanted to thank Miss Peas for highlighting the a play in Burbank. I am really looking forward to that to see how it reminded me. you mentioned the chickens um because when he was talking about the chickens, I remember looking at back when I was looking at the minutes from the 1940s that there was a lot of chicken talk during that time about how many chickens you could have in your backyard and where could they be and all this and stuff. I was just it's interesting what goes around comes around, right? It's the same same thing over and over again. And then uh Mr. Ferguson, thank you for sharing with us what's going on uh with um with the parade. like my uh colleagues have mentioned, I hope we can find a way through this um moving forward. I think that it would be a major loss not to have that parade this year. So, so much hope to have it. And then let's see. Um with the Catalina House, I too am interested in seeing the answers to the questions that the folks are asking. Looking forward to that. I I think we have one on end of our street, too. I'm pretty sure. um haven't had any problems with them, but it's still important to know to know the rules and

what's going on. Um to Mr. Stanley, Mr. Hawk, um I'm I think to my left. I am so looking forward to this. Um to reading and narrating it and thank goodness I'm not singing or it would be an empty room or it' be empty room after about 2 minutes. I enjoy singing but not everybody else enjoys my singing. Um and that's fine. Um so I'm looking forward to that. And then there'll be cookies. So, you come for the concert, stay for the cookies. It's going to be awesome. But the chili cookoff is happening at the same time. So, hopefully maybe you can deliver me some chili after, you know, and there'll be an ice cream truck. They're giving out free ice cream, too. So, there's a competition.

Cookies, chili, and ice cream. I don't know. It's hard. It's hard to to decide. I might swing by early in the chili cookoff right before the concert if I can. Um, to Mr. Fistante, thank you for mentioning media literacy and particularly um uh the media literacy program that you're looking to start here. I'm looking forward to hearing more about that if you haven't already, if you're listening, if you're not here anymore. Oh, there you are. Hi. Uh please send us the information about it. We'd love to hear more about the what you're proposing. And then um Dan, thank you for asking the question about the timeline. I wanted to ask actually ask staff about u Dan asked about the question of when the topic of rental um rental ordinances will come back. Um I know we had mentioned uh Mr. City attorney you had mentioned something about the FPPPC and waiting for that but could you share a little bit about when you expect to see those topics come back to council?

Uh it's only been a couple of weeks. I I hadn't yet followed up with the FPPC. I haven't seen a response um to the attorney who requested it. Uh there are also multiple pending complaints that we had uh I think they call them need further time letters from the FPPPC. I think it was concerning three separate complaints all regarding um council deliberations in tenant protection matters. So um I can call them back uh but uh this is within their normal response time still. Okay. So no new information and at this time we can't really make a prediction of when that's going to be.

Uh no but we can follow up with them. Their typical response to requests for opinion have been about five weeks. Uh these complaints admittedly have been uh pending for longer than that. Okay. So uh we'll follow up with them and and then we'll have to make some decisions about how we move forward. Okay. Right. Thank you. We have direction. Uh the question is how many council members get to participate. Right. Okay. Thank you.

And then uh Miss Deal, thank you for um highlighting Backhod. It's always important to remember that we do have that advisory committee for anyone in the community with disabilities who'd like to participate and be a part of that. It's a great group. I I participate from time to time. I jump in and and and uh visit y'all. Um and then uh oh, and then highlighting too, Miss Steel highlighting that even now you're already working on the next float. So even now is that you can volunteer. Great. And then let's see. I think that was covered. That was covered. Oh, to Mr. Hample, I don't if he's still here or not, but he mentioned it's a great time to get out on a bike because gas prices are going up. And I totally agree. And if you need a recommendation on an ebike or how to ride an ebike around town, please let me know. Um I'm love to ride my ebike around town. Love to have you join me. And then lastly, one of the callers, the last caller, Mr. Mensing, mentioned the Jobs Connects Plus program. I had the pleasure of attending their graduation. It's still ongoing. I'm so glad we were able to continue that program. So many folks benefit from it. So, thank you, Mr. Mensing, for mentioning the jobs connects plus program. All right, that's all I've got. All right, next up is the consent calendar, which may be enacted in one motion. Madam City Clerk, please read the consent calendar.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have six items tonight on the consent calendar. Item one is approval of the city council minutes of the regular meeting of March 24th, 2026, the special meeting of March 30th, 2026, and the dark meeting of March 31st, 2026. Item two is approval of the successor agency minutes of the joint meeting of January 13, 2026. Item three is approval of the housing authority minutes of the joint meeting of January 13, 2026. Item four is approval of the parking authority minutes of the joint meeting of March 10th, 2026. Item five is approval of the public financing authority minutes of the joint meeting of September 9th, 2025. And item six is approval of the youth endowment services fund board minutes of the joint meeting of January 13, 2026. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? I'll move to make a motion to approve the consent calendar. Second. All right. We have a first and a second. First by Vice Mayor. Second by Council Member Perez. Can we get a roll call, please? Council member Anthony. Yes. Council member Perez. Yes. Council member Rosati. Yes. Vice Mayor Mullins? Yes. And Mayor Tagahashi? Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. This is the time and place for the public hearing of the Burbank Housing Authority to consider the public housing agency annual plan for fiscal year 2026 2027 and propose amendments to the housing authority administrative plan. If you wish to comment on this item in person, please present a salmon public hearing card to the city clerk. If you wish to speak over the phone, please call now at 818-238-3335. You will be placed in a queue until the public hearing comment period begins. Before we begin, are there any disclosures relating to this hearing from council? Okay. Madame city clerk, have the notices as required by law been given? Yes, they have.

And do we have the complete file of exhibits, correspondent, and other documents? You do. Okay. And has the city received any written communications on this matter? And have they been provided to all city council members? We received no correspondences. Thank you. Will the representative of the community development department please introduce yourself and summarize the matter for us? Welcome.

Good evening. Good evening, Mrs. Mayor, vice mayor, and members of the city council. My name is Odet Ibasian, housing development manager, and I'm here before you this evening to present to you the fiscal year 2026 2027 annual plan and the required documents that the federal department of housing and urban development, HUD, requires to be submitted by a housing authority for the administration of the section 8 program. Is it working? One more. Thank you. The purpose of this presentation is to give an update on the activities of the Burbank Housing Authority in the last year and to present documents and information as required by HUD for the Burbank Housing Authority to continue to receive funding for the Section 8 rental assistance program. I'll provide more details later in the presentation, but in summary, the goal of the program is to assist the most needy and vulnerable households in the city who, if not for this rent subsidy, would be at risk of becoming homeless. Program participants utilize the section 8 rent subsidy to lease a unit in the private market and pay only a portion of the contract rent with their household income, making the unit affordable to the participant household. The section 8 program meets the city council goal of providing affordable housing in the community. I'll discuss council goals and objectives more. In the next slide, at the end of my presentation, I will end with an update on estimated funding and next steps. First, a brief overview of the housing authority. The mission of the Burbank Housing Authority is working together for a safe, beautiful, and thriving community. The goals and objectives outlined in these documents continue to meet the requirements of the section 8 program tailored to the Burbank community within the funding allocation provided each year.

In order to continue to receive section 8 program funding, HUD requires housing authorities to develop an annual plan and administrative plan. These documents outline the mission of the city and housing authority and the goals for achieving its mission serving the city's most needy and vulnerable households in the upcoming year. These documents include the annual plan for fiscal year 2026 2027 which provides a program report of the 5-year plan and the administrative plan which establishes local policies and procedures for administering the section 8 program. Each document is explained in more detail in the next couple of slides. HUD requires housing authorities to submit revisions to the administrative plan if necessary. The administrative plan establishes local policies and procedures for administering the program in compliance with regulations and requirements. The proposed changes this year are clarifying processes and procedures that come up during the day-to-day implementation of the section 8 program of which are summarized in your materials, including applicant waiting list. A new preference was added to prioritize Burbank housing authority special purpose voucher households at risk of losing rental assistance along with the addition of preference points for this category. Housing quality stand Housing Quality Standard Inspections, excuse me, HQS. This chapter expanded on HQS compliance requirements, timelines, and enforcement processes for owners and families. Having covered the administrative plan revisions, I'll now move into updates on our special purpose voucher programs, the foster youth to independence vouchers. I'd like to highlight this evening the foster youth to independence vouchers. The BHA was allocated five FYI vouchers under the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023.

All five vouchers have been issued and voucher recipients are in search of a unit. Voucher recipients are also working with service providers to assist in their search for a unit. Furthermore, staff has updates on two additional special use voucher programs the BHA administers. First, the Emergency Housing Voucher Program, EHV. Council may recall that late last year, we were notified that funding for EHV vouchers were projected to sunset by October 2026. The BHA notified all 51 EHV participants and landlords regarding this update in the fall of 2025 and provided information on BHA goals to assist households during the transition. In preparation for this transition, HUDA has approved our waiver request allowing all EHV families to be placed directly on the BHA's section 8 waiting list without requiring individual application submission or public notice of the weight list opening. HUD determined that good cause exists to wave applicable federal regulations in order to prevent administrative delays and reduce the risk of termination. Selection from the weight list will depend on available HCV funding and is not guaranteed. Staff will continue to communicate with remaining EHV participants during this transition process to the HCV section 8 program. The second program is the permanent supportive housing voucher program PSH which provides rental assistance for 19 households. The current grant term ends on October 31st, 2026 and at this time renewal funding is still unknown. In November 2025, HUD released a funding notice that proposed major policy changes and reduced funding levels for PSH renewal projections nationwide. Once we have more information from HUD, we will notify participants and landlords. At this time, staff will

continue to work with HUD to explore all options to transition or maintain housing assistance to PSH participants. The section 8 program is only one piece of the city council council's excuse me larger housing strategy and goals for providing affordable housing in the community by implementing this federal funded program and maximizing the utilization of vouchers available. The housing authority has taken existing housing units in the community and provides rent subsidies to make those units more affordable for extremely low and very lowincome households. In the first year of the five-year plan, the Burbank Housing Authority assisted 838 extremely low and very lowincome households. This figure includes nine of the 15 veteran affairs supportive housing vouchers or VASH vouchers that the BHA was allocated. Staff continues to work with the VA to receive referrals for VASH voucher participants. Furthermore, the BHA was allocated five FA foster youth independence vouchers under the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023. Of the five allocated vouchers, all five vouchers were issued and voucher recipients are in search of housing. Finally, housing authority staff has been monitoring expenses on a monthly basis utilizing available reserve funds and if necessary will request additional funds from HUD. The proposed program documents were presented as required to the resident advisory board made up of current tenants on the program. A public meeting was held on February 18th. The meeting was advertised on the city's website, published in the Burbank leader, and 900 postcards were mailed in English, Spanish, and Armenian. Approximately 60 people attended the meeting. The resident advisory board did not have any questions, comments, or changes to the documents. There were, however, a few general questions from meeting attendees regarding special purpose vouchers,

which staff responded to during the meeting. Furthermore, no comments have been received on the draft documents that have been posted on the city website and are and are available on the first floor of the community services building. The Burbank Housing Authority has not yet received the final program budget for housing assistance payments for fiscal year 2026 2027. However, based on last year last year's expenses, staff is budgeting for an estimated total of 14 million to administer the program. With this level of funding, it is expected that Burbank will fund all current 820 voucher holders on the program. Unfortunately, the high costs of the Burbank rental market precludes the housing authority from utilizing all,047 vouchers allocated with the funding HUD provides. Staff will continue to closely monitor voucher utilization, turnover, and funding. Staff will also continue to advocate for more vouchers from HUD if approved. If approved this evening, the updated admin plan and annual plan will be submitted to HUD by the deadline of April 17th to continue to receive federal funding. This concludes staff's presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you. We will now open the public hearing to hear from any persons who wish to speak on this matter. Each person may address the council on this public hearing hearing item only. The public comment period is now beginning and no additional cards will be accepted. Madam city clerk, how many public comment cards do we have and how many callers do we have in the queue?

None. None for either. Okay. Um so being that there's no public comment, the public uh comment period is closed and um since there's no public comment to respond to, I'll move on to the council. Does the council have any questions for staff on this matter? Yes, vice mayor.

Thank you. Um question. The total number of um vouchers, emergency vouchers, the ones that you mentioned does it is it 51 less than it's total 51. Um so with 51 losing their vouchers, have we um already identified where can we get funding to help place them in section 8 because they they are going to be going to section 8 list as you've indicated in the report. Correct. Correct.

Okay. Yes. Correct. So knowing that section 8 people have been waiting for a long time to be called in. So if you can help me let me know how did staff or is staff identify where are we going to get funding not to displace those individuals so they become homeless basically

you're you're speaking directly um pertaining to the EHV household correct yes so staff does have a temporary plan and that plan includes um placing all the EHV um current household participants on the waiting list due to the um HUD waiver request that we were granted. And so once they are on the waiting list, once we monthly once we monitor our um funding, we will then slowly but surely place um the applicants onto the section 8 program. In the meantime, we do have a temporary plan and that would be through the measure A funds which we have staff that's going to be speaking on on on that topic later tonight. But that that is the plan for now. So, there will be a temporary assistance and then in the meantime, housing authority um how's what am I trying to say? Housing authority will be um making sure that we have enough funding to start slowly but surely um putting those EHV participants onto the section 8 program. Okay. So um putting them on section 8 I understand there's temporary um solution but long-term solution. How much can we rely on measure? Well, it's it's it's H now it's A funds. Are we using H? The previous funds that we have now it has moved to to become measure A. Correct.

Uh the temporary funds that will be utilized temporarily until they get onto the section 8 program is through the measure A funds. Okay. So ex walk me through putting them on section 8 list again going to section 8. Those uh individuals that have been on the list have been on there for many years and it's probably going to take some time before some of their names are called in. Um from what I read in your report and what you mentioned that the 51 or the emergency vouchers will be giving priority put on that list.

Correct. In your own anticipation, how long can that take and what will happen to those individuals in the meantime if there you're not able to fund them through section 8? So we do you see what I'm saying? I don't want an individual being homeless and not being housed because of the funding uh situation. May Yes, please. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, for the question. Thank you, Miss Ivasian. As Miss Ivasian mentioned, you will be hearing the council will be hearing another report on a proposed um spending plan for measure A, which is the former measure H. and allow me to introduce myself. Marbel Eeland, assistant community development director for housing and homelessness. So that will be a presentation a little later in the evening. Now granted, this is a proposal by staff and that'll be more information later. Um to answer the question about I understand people have been on the waiting list. Part of what Miss Ibazian mentioned is with this waiver and allowing to these uh put the households on the section 8 waiting list we will still follow the same procedures which are the pointed system at risk of homelessness all of those so that when there is a selection from the waiting list these are the folks that are that are we expect to be selected and my team can correct me if if if I'm wrong so that is what will happen so today when we have an opportunity to select from the waiting list. We still follow the procedures that the city council the housing authority board has already established. So that is all the preferences homeless preference and we have shared that emergency housing voucher holders we do not want them to be back out on the street. So that would be the preference. So you go through all the the different preferences and so that is the expectation that is the funding is available and we're able to select let's say there is section 8 funding once missian gets the funding request and we can pull five or two over the next several months we do still um will continue to that monitor that funding and then when eventually emergency housing balance chain funding is completely um utilized then should the council uh agree to that proposed plan of measure A funding, then that temporary plan could be utilized uh for for a

minimum period until we could hopefully then transition um the rest of the EHV voucher holders to a section 8 voucher.

Thank you for explaining that. Um so you anticipate the um allocation of those 51 uh or or the emergency housing vouchers move on to section 8. But does that then expand the time of the section 8 applicants who have been waiting to be called? I know we haven't had an opening in quite some time. When was the last one? Like uh 2016.

I was going to say it's been a long time since I recall having that. And and by the way, since I'm asking the question, is there any plan on opening this? It's it's going to be 10 years. It's actually 10 years this year. Any plan on opening it again anytime soon or

That's also pardon me, Vice Mayor. That's also outlined in our ad administrative plan. So, we still have a long waiting list. Um, so I I don't think we've we've analyzed the waiting list to see if it's going to be opening anytime soon. My guess is probably not quite yet. Not in the short term. The that is the challenging part and that is the balancing act is is how do you utilize this limited funding source to meet the needs of the most needy and vulnerable, including those who may be homeless. So because the city council, some of you who may have been on the council for a little while now and you looked at the preferences, that has been a preference is a homeless preference or at risk of homelessness. So to the answer to the question, vice mayor, that that is a um a balancing act and and we still go back to the administrative plan and so the uh participants who have an AHV voucher will be categorized with the different preferences. we'll still follow that very objective um review of are you what are following the preferences and I I will say that that is the expectation that those folks with an EHV will be the ones that are selected because currently we've already selected from the waiting list from 20 2016 anybody who met those criteria um disabled at risk of homelessness all the different criteria so we've essentially gotten now to maybe non-residents or some of the other households that don't meet that preference criteria.

Thank you. Question in regards to does anybody ever graduates from the program? Meaning they walk away, they leave, they're successful, and they're able to afford and what if you know off the top of your head, what kind of the percentage or how many people actually can say I don't I I don't need the assistance anymore. Um the number is not that high uh um council member Mullins um and and the reason being the the demographic that we serve are mainly um seniors on fixed income. So um had the demographic been a bit different, I'm sure that we would have more successful um withdrawals of of program participation.

Um what is the percentage? I it's really not that high of a number. I can tell you the the attrition rate is about 3.4% 4% for the Burbank Housing Authority. And so, um, one thing I also wanted to, um, clarify is that in 2023, pertaining to your questions pertaining to the, uh, waiting list applicants, I just wanted to clarify the last waiting list pull where we pulled applicants from the waiting list was in 2023 and we had pulled 300 applicants from our waiting list. And so, um, I just wanted to also clarify that, um, for you. Um and so um that's hopefully answers your question.

And and those 300 individuals were able to be placed under section 8.

Not all 300. They went through the um eligibility process to see if they were deemed to be eligible to receive a voucher. Um but that was back in 2023 and I do not have the statistics. U my apologies. I had it last year but not this year. Okay. So, um, just that we're clear and and speaking from, you know, this individual up here on council that, um, it it is I know it's a critical situation where we ran out of funds or we're running out of funds in October and what do we do and how do we place those funds and how do we allocate uh funds to to ensure that the individuals who are currently utilizing the vouchers will not be left homeless. Um, and it is very important for me personally because the last thing I want is to see additional people being placed out of their homes and um, whatever we can do as far as sec measure A and you said later on we going to talk about it. This is in another report but uh, do you kind of want directions when we get to deliberation and directions? Do you want directions about whether to take use the money from measure A or not or that's something going to happen automatically?

Not for this item. Not for this item. Okay. So, we'll talk about it in the in the second report that's coming up. Correct. Okay. Um I'll hold my questions for right now, let others ask and then Thank you. Okay. Council member Rosati, you have questions? Thank you, Madam Mayor. So vouchers money, right? What happens? Is there a chance that we will not have someone covered? Um, what do you mean to pay the rent? Recovered meaning um we'll get less funding from we're running out of money, right? The vouchers

for the EHV program specifically. Yes, there will be no more funding. Correct. So is there a chance that we won't have the money to cover individuals?

Yes, that's so that's what's going to be happening that we will not be receiving any more funding for the EHV program. And so that's why we have the plan to um put all the EHV uh voucher participants onto the section 8 waiting list. And as funding is available for the section 8 program, we will slowly but surely put those uh participants onto the section 8 program. But in the meantime, as a temporary assistance, um they will still receive um uh vouchers, not voucher, excuse me, um housing um housing assistance payment assistance through the measure A funds until they get Is there a chance that all these funds could be exhausted where there won't be any funds

for the section A program? I don't see that happening. Uh for the emergency housing program, yes, all funds will be exhausted. And we just discussed that the uh section 8 is the waiting list is long. Correct. It takes So is there a chance that somebody is not going to be able to be covered is my question. It's all dependent on the funding that we receive from the federal um government. It's all going to depend on the total amount of funding that we will be allocated this coming 2026. And then what happens mechanically? Let's say we're out of funds. They can't get the section 8 because nothing's opened up. mechanically what happens to that person? Are they evicted? Are they what happens?

It's all going to depend on the household. It's going to depend on their financial stability and and you know where they lie at that time. Um hopefully that we the housing authority will be assisting them with as we have notified them with other housing resources and so hopefully by then they will be able to to um navigate and get some other assistance. Um but so is there a possibility that some might be homeless? That's not the plan, but that's we there's only so much that's within our control. And so um there there is a possibility. And did I see the assistance was is it 97%.

Something like that. What's the what's the level of assistance? The payment standard is at a total of 97% correct.

Council member Rosati, if if I could also add. Thank you to what Miss Ivasian mentioned that that is maybe a likelihood that is not something that staff hopes happens. But in the meantime with that notice that happened last fall, giving folks an opportunity to get advanced notice, that was the intent as Miss Ivasian mentioned, giving resources, giving information if they have opportunities elsewhere, if they have opportunities to go somewhere else, that is what something that and um also with Miss Ivasian is is Mr. Alejandra Mendoza who's the particular person who works with the emergency housing voucher, all the special housing vouchers. So there is that connection and that regular communication about other resources. So if there is an opportunity for our emergency housing vouchers or any of our special use voucher participants um to look at other fun um housing opportunities, that's something that we certainly encourage because that is a likelihood, not not the goal, not the plan. And as they um move from to the section 8 waiting list and there is funding available whether it be through section 8 or if the council um approves this in the later conversation on measure A spending plan then there will be that temporary measure for rental assistance while one maybe they get a section 8 voucher or two they find another housing situation. So, at the same time, we're not solely banking on it's going to be you're going to get a section 8 voucher. It that's the goal and we're going to plan on that. It depends on the funding and so that's something we'll continue to work with each household to see what other available sources there are and maybe other opportunities so that they can move on as well.

Okay. Thank you. I have um a question regarding do we have uh the wait time. Do we have to actually wait till October when this um expires before we can take action and start looking at placing individuals? Can we start doing it now if we find an opportunity? My apologies. I didn't mean to cut you off. No. No. As soon as the plan gets approved, we will start this process ASAP. Okay. So that would be also some directions we're giving staff or this was your plan all along is to move forward as long as an opportunity comes up for individuals to be placed. Yes, correct. So

okay, thank you. Okay, good question. Council member, do you have questions? Yeah, I I just I just wanted just some clarification on some language that we're using. Um, we've said tonight that we're running out of money, but we didn't mishandle funds or misplace the dollars. We are not running out of money. We're being allocated less money. Correct. So, it's not that it's not we, it's the federal government no longer funding the EHV program.

Thank you. I wanted to be very clear about that. I appreciate that. followup quick. How long have we known that this is going to be the end of the program in October? Have we known for some time now? We were notified last year in fall. Am I correct? Yes. Last year and fall. And so once we received notice from HUD, we then notified our um participants and our landlords, participating EHV landlords. Okay. Thank you. Of course. And you said this is a federal funding, right? So is this the same situation that cities across the entire country are facing at the same time? Yes, correct. This is nationwide.

Okay. So, this uh ability to transfer to section 8 is a nationwide approach to it as a a way to to help transition folks out of the EHV2. Yes, it is a nationwide approach, but it's all dependent on the housing authority should they wish to or if they are able to do it and if they are granted the um waiver request. Okay. And we were granted that. Correct. Okay, great. Um and uh so for the emergency housing vouchers, they're not intended to be permanently funded, right? They're emergency housing vouchers for emergency housing. There were never intended to be in perpetuity, right?

Correct. So the the the the um administration when the this was the Biden administration when they did the emergency housing vouchers um it was only for 10 years. I see. Okay. Um, yes. All right. And then they're different than the permanent supportive housing vouchers, which is also federally funded, too. Correct. Correct. Okay. And the permanent supportive housing f vouchers, those are intended to be well in when they were created, they were intended to be funded in per perpetuity to help folks permanently. Correct.

Okay. But we because of the situation, we don't know if they're going to be continued to be funded. Correct. At this time, so far as we know, there hasn't been any indication otherwise. We haven't had any information that they aren't going to be funded. That's correct. Met on the air. Okay. Um, and when will we Let's see. The current grant program ends also in October. Same time. Um, and it's part of waiting on the on the federal budget before we know. Is that the is that when we will know when they will be funded or not for the next year? We still do not know. Um, we have not received any updates on when we will receive notice as to if there will be continuation of program funding for the permanent supportive housing vouchers.

Okay. So, I'm glad that we have a plan for EHV um that there is another option that there's also a search for um different ways to help folks in the situation and not just assume that they're going to get section 8, but look at other ways as well. Um, do we also have a plan in case eh a ph is not funded?

Yes, it's very similar to the EHV. Um, we're pretty much mirroring that same approach. And so we will um once we receive notice from HUD um once we know you know where where the um housing authorities stand with the permanent supportive housing program we will then move forward with notifying the participants the landlords and then um the temporary rental assistance um through uh measure A and then we'll move forward from there. Okay. And how many of the PSH vouchers do we have? We have 19 uh current uh participants. Not as many. Okay. allocation of 20 but we have 19 active participants.

Okay. Okay. Great. All right. Those were my questions. Any other questions? And I'm not sure who can answer this question, but um you know we talk about affordable housing and we talk about a lack of affordable housing and finding places for individuals with vouchers and um we have a brand new building on Empire with 144 units 143 I forget sometime it's 146 and um believe it's 147. seven. Thank you. I I seem to always drop it down to 143. I have no idea.

So, that building Mhm.

still stands vacant and we don't have anyone occupying that building yet. We do need and we're in desperate need of affordable housing and maybe we can use it for some of our vouchers. And I know staff had given us updates and this is not on staff because the city's not in control of obviously the developer, but please help me understand and help the public to hear what are we doing with this location? What can we do as council or staff to expedite this process um to have people start using the building as it was meant to be? And mind you, I want to remind everybody this had only seven parking spaces and it's not the city's fault. Thank you to the state and the folks that make the law for us. But can you help me figure out why aren't we filling this building so we can use the vouchers there?

Thank you, Vice Mayor, for for the question in the comments. Yes, that the uh that building over on Empire. Um Miss Ivasian may have mentioned I think last year also that voucher holders could go into that building. what we're doing at the housing level. We um construction is complete as you have have mentioned. The developer has asked for a temporary certificate of occupancy. There are several items that the developer is still working through to get the final certificate of occupancy, whether it be easements or working with fire or working with public works. For the temporary certificate of occupancy, which is for the housing office, we have to finalize with the developer the affordable housing agreement that calls out the appropriate rents. There has been some discussion in the last several months about the appropriate rents because of the fact it was u as as the council knows streamline SB35. They also utilize density bonus and there's also different income levels and so staff has been working with a developer to finalize what the actual rent schedules should be for this property. So it has taken some working with the city attorney's office, their attorney, our development team, there's a development team and our housing staff to finalize that. We've finalized what the rent schedule should be so that we could finalize the affordable housing agreement, get that executed and recorded. At the same time, we've asked for their marketing and tenant selection plan. Staff has learned how they're planning to market, how they're planning to tenant select. Several of the units will um are considered permanent supportive housing. Um we're where we we we learned recently that they will have a service provider to work with the permanent supportive housing participants. that would be our service provider home again LA is what we've recently learned. So that's the information that we need vice mayor in order for then issue the cert the temporary certificate of occupancy and then have um start the process of marketing and tenant selection. So

that's where we are. We've asked the um development team to return with the the changes to the affordable housing agreement in the next couple of weeks. We want to wrap that up this month and we hope to wrap up that marketing and tenant selection plan so we can start that process um here in the next several weeks cuz that would thank you for the update. That would definitely help us. Yes. Hopefully we can place some of those individuals in in the absolutely vice

and that the problem will go away meaning like we find housing for them. And so I think the public is anxious. They ask why aren't you filling this? Is it the city delaying it? Is the developer uh given that it's not our property. It's understandable because they can drag this on. But whatever you can do uh to expedite and push the process through, I think it's in our own benefit because 147 units are a lot that can be filled easily. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Any more questions? Okay, then we will move on to deliberation. What is the council's pleasure? Any comments, thoughts? Yes, Council Member Anthony.

Uh, can we get a new uh HUD secretary? Is that possible? Can we? God, I don't think it's under our purview. No, it's not. Um, yeah. Um, yeah, everybody's going through this. I mean, this is it's it's absolutely ridiculous what is happening with with the voucher. Biden wasn't even president 10 years ago. How it's already ran out like that. It was supposed to last 10 years. I know everything's the price has gone up, but it's just inflation and it's called living in California. Well, it's not just us. It's everywhere. Well, that's California.

I know. I know. Um, I mean, if I would have written it, I would have had it scale for cost, but that's that's beside the point. Uh, look, it's it's it's a it's a good solution for a a very difficult problem. So, I I don't see any reason uh not to move forward with those changes. Um, yeah, and it's administrative. It's all, you know, is that a motion or Yeah, I mean, I'll move if we're done deliberating, I'll go right to a motion. I mean, it's pretty obvious. I guess we do have to deliberate first. That's right. It's a public hearing. Um deliberation before we move on to a motion.

No, I I agree. I mean, had we predicted we're going to be here 10 years ago, I guess we were all looked at doing something different. I am glad though that we are looking for solutions. Um and that I'm I'm also very hopeful that we will find replacement for those vouchers and we will continue to support those families. uh definitely not in my book to get the families out on the street or not to be able to assist it. Even though I agree with you, Madame Mayor, this was temporary emergency housing. Um but working with the families are really important working with those individuals and I would love to see that building filled with 147 units with part seven parking spaces. So, let's make that happen and yes, it's it's something that we need to adopt. Thank you. Yeah. Council member,

I think very simply we're we're hoping for the best and we're planning for the worst. So that's all we can do. Um so it's I think the writing's on the wall as you said. So yeah.

Yeah. Some folks, you know, we heard from some folks in public comment that we're we're getting the notification that they were going to lose their vouchers. And so really appreciate staff doing everything you can to help these individuals to both help kind of uh as it came up and also proactively look at solutions ahead of how we can move forward with it. Um, and hopefully, um, there's 51 EHVS, 19 PSH's, everyone's going to need a little bit of a different solution, a little bit different approach. And, um, it's going to take time and effort to kind of work with each family and or an individual one one at a time. So, really appreciate staff putting in the effort and time necessary to do that for each of them. Um, because each of them will probably need some support. and we and you mentioned reaching out to other housing resources. We have partners in the community so we can really work with everybody to to help these folks. So appreciate you doing that. I am concerned with the PH PSH voucher funding. I'm really hoping that that gets funded. Um even though the 19 is a smaller number than 51. If 19 can continue having their housing vouchers and that's 19 folks who continue to be housed, we don't have to scrge around trying to find a way to support them. I'm a little cons I'm maybe more than a little concerned using measure A funds for this when we could be using it for other things. It's really unfortunate that we have to go in that direction to fund this and we can talk more about that in the next item. But hopefully that will be a minimum amount of time we'd need to do that for a small number of people if we have to um because we really would like to use those funds for other things. And then um and I'm glad that I'm really glad that we're we're even though section 8 is there. It's on the list. it is still a slow drip to get folks housed through that. So, I'm really glad that we're looking at other solutions, other ways to to work through

this that um is not relying on section 8, although that is good to have as well as part of the part of the puzzle. So, so yeah, um did you want to make a motion on moving forward? Um, yeah. And before I do that, I just want to say studies have shown that section 8, the program, has been one of the most successful anti-homeless measures this country has ever put together. It is wildly successful, man. Um,

all right. Um, I move that we adopt a resolution of the housing authority of the city of Burbank approving one the public housing agency annual plan for fiscal year 2627 updates sorry two updates to the section 8 administrative plan and three authorizing the executive director to execute the certifications required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Second. Second. All right. Could we get a vote, please? Madam City Clerk. Thank you. Council member Anthony, yes. Council member Rosati, yes. Vice Mayor Mullins, yes. And Mayor Tagahashi? Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have four reports to council this evening. After staff's presentation, the city council will proceed with in-person public comment only. Speakers will be allowed to speak on the item at the conclusion of the presentation as long as a speaker has not spoken on that item during the first period of public public comment. Please be sure to submit your public comment card now as no additional public comment cards will be accepted once the comment period commences following the staff presentation. So the first report is the introduction of an ordinance amending and restating title 2 chapter 1 article 4 boards commissions and committees of the Burbank municipal code. Welcome, Madam City Clerk, Kimberly Clark, to please present the report.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Tagahashi, members of the city council, Kimberly Clark, city clerk. I will now present reports to council item number one, introduction of an ordinance amending and restating title 2, chapter 1, article 4 of the Burbank Municipal Code, relating to the composition and functions of boards, commissions, and committees, also known as BCC's. On August 26th, 2025, council adopted ordinance number 25-432 with changes to the requirements, attendance, and terms of the city's 23 BCC's. During discussion, council chose to postpone all but some of the membership reductions and directed staff to return within 6 months with a report to reconsider member composition. Tonight, the council is being asked to consider changes to the member composition of three of the six remaining seven member BCC's with the other three to follow at a later date. Council previously voted to reduce the community development block goals committee from 9 to 7 block grant sorry committee from 9 to 7 members. Um vacancies and absences continue to be an issue for BCC's since the new term commenced on August 1st, 2025. There have been 61 absences, 13 second absence warnings issued, and eight unscheduled vacancies. Um, the staff report contains a comparison of larger BCC's to the five member BCC's. Most of the city's BCC's have five members. Art and Public Places Committee, Board of Building and Fire Code Appeals, Charter Review Committee, Civil Service Board, Heritage Commission, Landlord Tenant Commission, Park Recreation and Community Services Board, and the Planning Commission. Staff recommends that to achieve council's direction with regard to member composition, a consideration be made to reduce the senior citizen board,

the board of library trustees, and the transportation commission from 7 to five members to bring their membership in line with other BCC's with the other three seven member bodies, Burbank Water and Power Board, Infrastructure Oversight Board, and Police Commission to be considered at a later date. It is noteworthy that the membership of the city's BCC's has fluctuated throughout the history of the city. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I I thought I didn't think there was enough of you there. I

I'll start over that sentence. It's noteworthy that the membership of the city's BCC's has fluctuated throughout the history of the city. For example, the board of library trustees was established with five members in 1950 and increased to seven members in 2005. The transportation commission was established with five members in 1986 and increased to seven members in 1993. The Senior Citizen Board was established with six members in 1973 and increased to seven members in 1988. The Burbank Water and Power Board was established with nine members in 1977. It was subsequently reduced to five members in 1987 and then increased to seven members in 1996. The infrastructure oversight board, our newest BCC, was established with seven members in 2019. And the police commission was established with five members in 1952, increased to seven members in 2007, and just to keep everyone on their toes, it was reduced to five members in 2019 and then reincreased to seven members in 2021. So, there is a history of us bouncing back and forth depending on who's up there on council. If approved, these membership composition changes will be implemented in the 2026 recruitment cycle with the commencement of incoming members terms on August 1st, 2026. This report is more than 6 months coming back to you. So bearing that in mind, um council alternatively may wish to implement these changes during the 2027 recruitment cycle with the commencement of incoming members terms on August 1st, 2027 to allow the community time to adjust to the changes and keeping in mind that we have the Mattie Act changeover coming soon. So there's not really a lot of time to implement this for 2026, but it's your it's absolutely your pleasure. No currently serving members. It's important to emphasize no currently serving members will be

removed from any BCC during the annual recruitment. So either July 2026 or July 2027. Members would have the opportunity to reapply under the newly established member composition guidelines. Any unscheduled vacancies created by members who leave their position during the year would remain vacant and be eliminated through attrition. Uh, quickly I will address the administrative changes to youth board. The existing ordinance indicates that youth board members assume their term of office on September 1st, but schools typically do not select members to serve well until after September 1st. Thus, we recommend deleting the date of September 1st and replacing it with the following text. The term of office for each board member shall commence on the first Wednesday in November and continue for the school year in which they were appointed. Next, I will address administrative changes to senior citizen board. The existing ordinance indicates that a council appointed evaluation committee will interview applicants to the senior citizen board. As this practice is not being implemented, we recommend removing this reference. And lastly, future BCC's that council has requested. The changes council are considering this evening do not include the consolidation of the art and public places committee with the Burbank Cultural Arts Commission. nor does it include consideration of changing the name of the landlord tenant commission or clarification on how special meetings may be called. These items will be brought to council separately by the relevant departments. At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Do we have any public comment, Madam City Clerk, for this item?

We do not. We do not. Okay. Since we do not have any public comment, uh declare the public comment period closed. And do we have any questions for staff council? Council member Anthony.

Uh thank you uh madam city clerk. Here we go. Okay. Um you mentioned absences and we've got a bunch of absences here. Um, every year around July, we do a bunch of appointments and that's a lot of staff time. Um, what kind of staff time goes into uh monitoring absences and then removing somebody for absences and then replacing them in the middle of their term? Can you just give us a quick overview of that process?

Yeah, thank you for the question, Council Member Anthony. It involves it's a whole city effort because the departments and the department directors many of whom attend the meetings the count the BCC liaison who is the staff member tasked with keeping the meetings running and handling attendance and whatnot have to communicate with the members regarding the absence. Then they communicate those absences to the city clerk's office. We have that big spreadsheet that you get a few times a year quarterly showing all the different absences. warning emails have to be sent out every time there's uh two absences and so far we've got 13 of those. Um when it gets to the third absence that triggers another staff report. The staff report is presented to first the the commission themselves deliberate then they give us a recommendation. Then I create the staff report for that. The council gets the staff report. You consider whether to excuse or to the absences or remove the member. the fourth absence triggers a potentially permanent removal, just removal. Um it's a lot of back and forth with the member, with my staff, with the various city departments. For example, um our parks and recck director uh overseas six boards and commissions. So for her, it's the biggest heavy lift, I would say. Um, this may be beyond your purview, but I wanted to ask you a little bit about the psychology of serving on a board. If there's seven or nine members and you know your attendance is being recorded, but you don't really have to be there for every single meeting. Do you think or in your experience uh uh having dealt with many commissioners, do you feel as though it is more likely for somebody to take an absence if they don't really need to if the board is

larger and they can simply tell themselves I'm not exactly needed here?

Well, it's hard for me to opine on that, but I would think that most people know that with a five member body, you need three for a quorum. For example, all of you, to your credit, are almost never absent. Um, I've attended many planning commission meetings and watched them at home and it seems like they move pretty briskly. They're a five member body. I I haven't seen any absences, not very many absences on planning commission. It's it's hard to say, but if you know that you've got a body of seven, you might be tempted to say, "Well, my kids got a soccer game. They're still going to have a quorum." But then if Jean or Joe also decides to take the night off, then it starts to become problematic. It's It's hard to say though.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm done. Questions?

Yeah, I have I have questions, but I think my questions are more for my colleagues because if you look at the date on this report, I had no discussion or participation here. I was actually at the hospital giving birth. So, um, yeah. So, I have no real I I guess I would love to hear from you guys like how did you come to to this decision and the conclusion and and just informative for me what the discussion felt like that night to get there cuz I think it's really different, you know, to be here up here doing the deliberation with you all than to be absent, you know. Um, I have a question. So you weren't watching live in the hospital?

I was not watching while in labor. You know, it was boring. Labor's boring, right? You got to do something. Um I don't know the I mean the discussion we didn't have much discussion because it was a new item. Um I think a lot of the the request was come back in six months, bring us attendance records. Um let's hear from the community. Um, I think that was most of what we talked about that night. If I may, there was a there was another thought that the new attendance policy would help improve our attendance figures and it that hasn't really borne out. Yeah, we did say in fact the attendance has slid. Yeah.

Yeah. We did say we wanted to see the impact because we were making a lot of changes at once. We wanted to see I remember you and I actually talked about that the impact of the attendance policy first before tackling this particular issue. And so we um also there was many uh boards at once that we were talking about and so we did ask to get them whittle at a time. Roll the tape. Do we have right that's what I

very easy the date just press re rewind and uh play it. Um just to chime in on the discussion as well. It was um there were some members here from boards and commissions that felt they're more effective to have seven members versus five members. And there was a lot of dialogues about um are really seven members are more effective than five because we have five members on council and I think we do a damn good job. But um there's also uh the planning and parks, you know, they they have five members. So that was kind of like no, we needed more members so we can do more or were more effective, more ideas, more input. And this is basically um what we heard at the time during the meeting and in some of the emails that we received after. Um and then I know um with recently and I well not recently just within this week uh there we we probably all of us received it because I think it went to the entire council. Um just a couple of emails we received saying that the attendance policy really doesn't play a factor to five or seven that why are we tying the attendance policy to the number of boards and commissions serving? And I I I believe I forwarded that email on to Madame City Clerk. So, can you help explain? I know you just did kind of overview of what the attendance have been looking like, but reading that particular email because obviously boards and commissions are not feeling that reduction is going to help uh being more effective.

So, if you chime in on that email that I sent you today, thank Yeah, the um the the table that is in your staff report does show that the larger bodies have almost exactly double the number of absences. I mean, it's just a pure numbers game. So, every time there's an eight, so we have the we have 13 second absence warnings and that involves quite a bit of back and forth emails. Then the member has to be warned, then they have to agend, you know, it it gets to it's it's a lot of work administratively. Mostly it falls on the liaison and and the city the department heads, right? But um there is a higher degree of absenteeism among the the higher bodies. If you look at the ones that are five, we have numbers like um six on art and public places, only one on board of building and fire code appeals, but in truth they don't meet as often. Burbank housing had zero, civil service board had four, heritage had two, landlord tenant had two, park recreation had one. That's incredible. Uh planning commission had five for a total of 21. For BCC's with seven or more members, we had uh four absences among board of library trustees. Burbank Cultural Arts Commission had nine absences. Burbank water and power board had four. Community development block grant had three. Infrastructure oversight board had two. Police commission had only one. Again, very commendable. Senior citizen board had seven. Sustainable Burbank um which is a body of nine. So you expect to have a little bit more absenteeism. They had six and transportation commission had four. So they had 40 total absences.

So I just want to point out to go from five to seven that's a 40% increase. But to go from 21 to 40 is a 95% increase. So it is not the same. I would expect a 40% increase in absences, but it's not. It's almost double that from 40 to 95%. Basically, what you're looking at is an exponential increase in the absences simply by adding two and sometimes even four members. So the reason I I asked about the attendance is having somebody miss is not necessarily a problem, but to replace somebody, which is the consequence of missing too many, that really does start to add up uh staff time.

I will say the eight unscheduled vacancies, I I mean, Council Member, sorry, Vice Mayor Mullins can speak to this with her past city clerk experience. eight unscheduled vacancies and we're not even we're threearters through the year. That's a lot. Each one of those is a staff report. Each one of those is a tally sheet. Each one of those are multiple emails inviting all the applicants to come down, redacting all the applications. It is a I don't even have one full-time staff member to handle this from my office. We get it done without complaint, but it it's it's a lot. It is a lot of work. I I'm not going to lie. It's a lot of work. If I may, Madame Mayor, and and not to stop you, uh, Madame City Clerk, I I just would love to hear from my colleagues, too, kind of like your your reasonings as to why you voted for that. I appreciate both of you. I don't know if um, Council Mazat, you had like a reason as to why why we came to like this conclusion. I'm just trying to get kind of where you all were at 6 months ago. I think it was just the just witnessing the output of effort uh with the amount of commissions that we have um participating as liaison again witnessing it you could see the numbers are the numbers um um to me it was pretty obvious early on but actually looking at these numbers now it just kind of cements the fact that it's a lot of output a lot of effort and I think for the most part um five people like us like planning board like all the other ones that have five are kind of streamlined and do an effective job.

So any more questions of staff or any more questions question? No.

Okay. Um yeah you know I to answer your question council member Perez. So um at least from my perspective my concern was and I I voiced this during the meeting was that each commission each board and commission has a diff there are varying like purposes of the boards and what they do and also there is potentially a varying need for representation from the community and how much that matters. And so I had asked at the time that we look at each individual one to see whether each one would benefit from having seven or five. And maybe that on some of these some of these boards it could go either way. It's really kind of coin toss depending on how you look at it. But I do think it's valuable to look at what the benefit of having seven or five or the pros and cons of having seven or five is. For example, um I served on the infrastructure oversight board and I can tell you that it was great to have seven, but I'm pretty confident that that work can be done with five people because it's it's pretty straightforward. There's not it's it's looking over the numbers. It's it's not um necessarily needing a wide array of opinions of different perspectives where another board say like um the I'm looking at these maybe the the cultural arts commission which is one that I'm a leazison for having people from all different kinds of arts and also because they do work outside the meetings as well that benefits from having more members. So if you only had five they wouldn't be able to produce the work that they do and they wouldn't represent the entire community of arts. So I think that it depends on the on the each of the commissions. That was my argument that I wanted to look at and I I feel I feel it's worthwhile to have that discussion. Um and looking at the three that we have tonight, citizen senior citizen board, board of library trustees and transportation commission. Um I

think it's worth discussing whether or not having that is five people enough of a a representation from the community. Is it enough to do the work that they do? Is it enough to represent and um um be able to basically look through the material and and respond to the material and act and do the work that they need to do um or seven necessary? And I think that that was what I really wanted to look at for each board. Where we land is where we land, but I I think that's valuable to look at in addition to the absences in addition to the um the level of participation. I did notice that transportation and library trustees only has four absences and senior citizen board has seven and I'm wondering too like depending on each board like with the IOB I think the IOB had just a couple two um there's something about certain kinds of work folks show up they just show up and show up and show up there's no absences where other maybe feel more casual or feel like you don't really have to be there so I'm wondering too if that's also the type of work they do would be vibe but look at as well

and thank you I appreciate that in kind of the thought process of what to teach thing cuz I know as you all know I could watch the video but it's not the same as here as being up here. I can see the wheels turning. I know how we all think and how we generally get to a consensus. And no, I was not going to be watching it during labor. I invite you to try something of the like. Maybe stub your toe really hard like 10 times and then try watching a video and focus. But thank you all. I appreciate that. that that helps me kind of get a wrap around to I did have one more question for for our city clerk this time. Um what is the rationale for splitting it into um first these three boards and then at a later date uh looking at the other three

it was completely random um in it was too big a nut to crack to take all six of them in one evening. So I split them up three and three. Okay. I'm just wondering if that might create like confusion for folks on that. Was this just random picking or I mean it wasn't like we were targeting certain ones? Absolutely not. It was random. Right. And if you read the staff report, I clearly spell out that the other three are coming if something happens on depending on what you decide to not the other three will come right away.

Yeah. I know I read the staff report. I'm just thinking about folks watching tonight and then you know we we always get confusion regardless. So I was wondering why not consolidate and and make the decision alto together but

you know I think there's also a precedent for like the discussion around the purpose of the board because you mentioned that the police commission has moved a different number of members and the reason why it went to seven was because the ch it it changed its purpose it changed its reason for like kind of razon detra and so that was when the council at the time added two more members because that work that they wanted them to do what they on representation. So I think I think there is precedent for that. I mean obviously if if you don't don't want to look at that it's I understand but I think for me that that's something to consider for each one. Okay. All right. So questions are done? Questions? All right. So further discussion moving forward.

Excuse me, Madam Mayor. The only thing I would agree is uh starting in 2027 because we're so we're so late in the in the six months. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's that's wise.

Yeah. I I agree. I I think doing anything um in this year it it would be difficult to implement even though you have um in May coming up you're going to have the largest you know pool that would you have to um open the vacancies and and advertise for that. But I think it's as you mentioned I believe in the report with with time and people getting off or leaving um reducing the number not posting it to open it up that would be a way of doing it cuz you know um and I know we had a lot of conversation back then when we were discussing it um it really isn't about we weren't looking about um not wanting ing those who are serving our city to eliminate them from volunteering. I mean, it was taken in that content like they're volunteers. They're they want to serve their city. They're doing a great job. It was just it's it's a nightmare really for the city clerk, speaking, you know, from experience being in her shoes. It's a lot of work that goes into it and cost and the staffing issues and accuracy and you know reports. So, um, it, you know, it it's not because we I back in the discussion, uh, council member Perez, we we were looking at, you know, what can we do to streamline the process and and allow efficiency to happen during the discussions for each one of the commissions, committees, um, and giving them the opportunity to be able to serve. This is not about eliminating them. It's not about we don't like a certain person on there. So, how do we get rid of them? Because we don't have to appoint them if we

don't like them. Obviously, we appoint all these members because there is a reason why they qualify. They want to serve and we do a good job in trying to appoint the right folks to the right um boards and commissions. So, I've appointed people I don't like. So, I mean, you don't appoint them. I know. You flat ass said, "No, I don't like you." But no, no. And and then I still appoint them. So,

yeah, I know. I mean look, we all end up saying even if we don't vote for the individual, we all end up saying let's make it unanimous, right? That means it's a sign of support because they are uh appreciated by us for doing a good job and for volunteering. So um it is it's a very tough situation because we're trying to streamline, we're trying to be efficient, we're trying to cut cost. Um but in the same time, yes, it eventually some people uh with time like in 2027 may not be back. And so this is this is why I guess the city clerk wanted us to have that dialogue again.

Yes.

Um I was I was on the fence for this for a while. Uh what really changed my mind was two meetings last month at the transportation commission. Um, there was about half a dozen members of the public who showed up. They just showed up. It's a public meeting. You can go to these meetings. Everyone at home, if you're watching, they're all public meetings. You can always attend. And then the treasur subcommittee meeting, another half dozen people from the public just showed up. And I thought to myself, why aren't we encouraging people to come to these meetings more? It's like we only tell them you're only viable if you get appointed to the commission. And I think that's a narrative that we need to do away with. I think we need to start telling people it doesn't matter if you're on the commission or not. If something is important to you, if there's something on the agenda, if there's an issue that you find important in the city, come to the meetings. Don't just come here every Tuesday. There's other meetings happening all month long. Uh and so people can get involved and participate in a myriad of different ways. So that that's what really uh changed my mind.

Okay.

Now that you heard this all Yeah. Did you want to Oh, me. I thought we were going to talk about Are we going to go into the We could Are you all amendable to talking about them one by one or do you not? Yeah. I I actually thought that was great. That was Okay. Let's start with senior citizen board. What do you guys think? You're now you're the leazison. You're uh who's you're the leazison?

I am the leazison on me and uh council member Anthony. And um you know they're they're all wonderful people. It's really difficult to say they're not doing uh a good job for the community. However, the question is, can they be still effective with five members? I believe because of the limited programs, I mean, you know, they it's more of having meetings to pass on information. So, the information gets passed on to other people. Um, so can it be done with five members? I would say absolutely. Um, I think it's different. There's no programming. There's no, you know, you need um a group of people to go out, look for grants or put on a show or do stuff like that. And and council member Anthony, you attend those meetings as well.

It's just it's asking the questions of staff. People come senior board is is unique. There's a lot of presentations. There's a lot of new information. um programs that I never thought to address seniors ends up there and gives a presentation to the seniors and I think oh wow they have a different perspective on what's happening and changing in the city. Um, but a lot of that is simply for information dissemination. And you know, I I'm I'm uh um hesitant to comment on any of these boards with uh referencing the current members because that's not what we're doing. Right. Right.

What we're saying is in the future, could a makeup of that board do the same job effectively with five instead of seven? And when I look at the current board, any five of those members, I think could effectively take care of the job of what senior board was designed to do, which is ask questions of staff pertaining to the seniors in the community, receive the information from the new programs, and disseminate that throughout the uh uh senior uh population. So, yeah.

When you say disseminate, you mean like the the board members actually take the information that's presented at the boards and pass it along to their network, but they also give information to staff about where they should go and who they should talk to. And they say, "Well, here's what the community is doing. Make sure you put it up at the Joslyn Center. Make sure there's uh uh pamphlets in the the Burbank bus. Make sure you give a presentation uh at this place and this place and this place." So like a lot of that is simply getting a senior citizens perspective because I've seen the staff and the staff are not senior citizens and they don't you know they don't think in that way and live in that space and that's not their fault. It's the reason we have the board is so that they can come with their issues and changes and the stuff that's happening in the city and present it to a body of folks who live in that space who who are dealing with those issues and they can give feedback. I mean that's the basics. And to add to that, Council Member Anthony, I think what could happen to help um disseminate the information and getting it out to the rest of the seniors is to encourage um the the day of the meeting, for example, have the members stand outside in the in Join Center saying, "Hey, come on in. You know, we're going to talk about our our Burbank bus. we're going to talk about, you know, the utilities and what's happening in the in the utility cost. I think if they do that more often, then there's more participation from the seniors and that would help them to get the information out. But currently, you only see, you know, the leazison and the staff members who are giving the reports are the one in attendance. Nobody else is there. We're in the middle of the Joslyn Center where we have the seniors all, you know, outside. They might be um playing

pingpong or pool, but we we can try to encourage them to come and sit down and listen to some of the presentation. So, you know, I think that would be another way to help them get the information out. Right. Uh Council Member Zat, you had a comment or a question?

Just going to agree. I mean I'm 14 years in this so um all these can operate on five and I think you can have robust conversations um great participation um I I think all of these can can operate in a streamlined version and and people participate when something hits their their neighborhood their whatever whatever it is if it's you know transitional housing or potholes when it hits their radar, they're going to come. So, okay, I hear what you're saying.

So, um my experience with boards is that for the most part, they're not really attended much and we I think maybe we You mean by the public? By the public. Yeah. By outside. Um there are some exceptions. I think like the um I think police commission gets some attendance sometimes, right? Okay. They certainly get watched online because I hear about people watching it. Okay. Maybe because it's on on YouTube, folks don't have to go.

Okay. Um, culture arts usually gets about 20 25 people at least at every meeting. Um, doing public comment, very robust. Sustainability usually gets at least a few folks every time. Um, and the times I've been to senior board has pretty pretty good audience, but I've only been a few times. And um I think that maybe we could do a better job as a city of like encouraging folks, but there's a lot of meetings going on in the city. So we can only do so much to to get folks to to come in there. A lot of them in the middle of the day and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. He's our regular. We need to hire him to Why did you attend a senior citizen meeting? But he's he's there.

Madam Mayor, also just to interject, I think it also is interesting because it varies. You just got me thinking. I don't know if you remember when you or I sat on library board crickets maybe once or twice. I started to see the change when we started to talk about the library. Yeah, that's true.

People started showing up and actually this last library board meeting we had public comment coming through and and I actually I was proven wrong. And I thought a lot of the public comment was going to be the library the and of course there were like five people who were like the library but there were a couple folks who were there to talk about their school projects and it was like a mom with her two kids. Yeah. So I I don't know if it's just that these es and flows in time like a project breeds more attendance even if they're not going to talk about that. But I just wanted to add add to that and I appreciate that we're also sharing from the lelayison on perspective because I have to tell you I feel a little maybe uncomfortable commenting on senior citizen board since I've never been you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's another bit too is if we haven't been regularly, it's hard to kind of know. And I but I think that um whatever the board's purview is, what the board's topic is, unless it's a board that does get regular input from the public, that um the discussion that the board has around these issues, the people on the board are the ones who are talking about it. And so if there is fewer pe if there are fewer people on the board then those are the few people who get the same this the staff gets the input from the same people same five people um and which is fine we chose them for that that's what we chose them for but I think that I don't know the question is the the things that are brought to the senior citizen board and the other two as well do they benefit from having a a larger amount of feedback is there a different way to approach it potentially this is an opportunity here if we do decide as a body to reduce one or all of these to five. Maybe these it's an opportunity to also rethink about the value and the purpose of the boards to make sure that they're really we're really the work that they're doing is really meaningful, right? And that it comes it when when they go and they come out, they really feel like they made a difference and that we know what's going on with them and that they impact in a way that's positive and safe. Madame Mayor, I think that that part of it is what we've been doing for the last few years. I think that we have gotten to the point where we are now giving direction to the boards where we are now really honing in on the resumes and the experiences of the people who we are appointing. We've gone through not just the attendance policy but the expectations and the responsibilities of the board members. I think we've done that component and so now we are at a point where we have asked and frankly demanded that the participation and the

work that the board members do is robust. And so at a certain point, I think this is why we're looking at the attendance going, "Wait a minute. We've done all the things necessary to make the members of these boards appreciate the work, engage with the work, and feel like they have ownership of it, and yet we still have all of these absences." You're not even a board member. You got better absences than all these people. Better attendance. Yeah. Um,

but I am concerned that's where I'm at. To your point, the the senior citizen board, the fact that council member Perez has not been to a senior citizen board and doesn't know what they do. I think that's something to notice. Or I mean, I know what they do, but mind you, I've never been. I'm like 30 and I have a full-time job during the day. You know, I'm not exactly the target audience,

right? We don't hear we could you say top of your head like what they talked about the last two meetings because we would know, right? I mean, unless you like read the minutes and even that then. So, I'm just I'm just thinking that maybe there's an opportunity here for whatever happens tonight for all these boards that are we're talking about to maybe an invitation we can offer them an invitation to really engage with us even more like to say, "Hey, this is what we talked about. This is what we decided. This is who we are as well as, you know, um the the discussion they have with staff." So, just just putting it out there.

I'm um just want some clarification. Are you suggesting that we attend each and every one of those board meetings as council member to figure out exactly what they do so we can make that decision? No. Cuz I know it's going to be very difficult.

Yeah, it will be almost impossible to do it. I just uh know I mean I've been on and on on the boards long enough to remember a time when the boards they there was discussion on the boards but it it didn't feel like it came back to council didn't feel like it how did it get back to the impact on the city. How do they get back to the council? Like we had talked about the boards um working on issues at the coun council's direction or council's goals and so just ensuring that they're what they're talking about is maybe it is just a matter of like giving staff input and the staff it themselves that's where it ends and then the staff gets the input and then they move forward with the programs. But I think that there's opportunity for the the members of the senior citizen board, the members of the library board, just like we have the the um the uh cultural arts sometimes coming and just saying, "Hey, this is what we're working on. This is what's important to us. This is thank you for doing this. Thank you for this is what we're talking about and this is what's important to us."

I I I mean, I hear you, but I mean, I've never been to the water and power board once. I've been 10 years and I know what they do and I get their reports come to us. We get the stuff from we get material from them on the regular our weekly report even that like meetings themselves like whenever we get reports from all of them you get the reports so like we get the minutes we get the minutes but anyway don't want to divert this too much but um just a thought as we're looking

well but but you do bring an interesting point though um like the culture arts they come in here and say oh we're working on this we have a program Um, and so we know obviously they're working on something that benefits the entire community and with their involvement, but I don't think um so yes, I agree with you. We don't get to hear from all of them even in public comments like when was the last time we had someone from any most of the boards and commission saying oh you know we discussed this topic today and we are telling you you know we told staff to come to council or recommend it and or come out and visit you know our boards and commission meetings uh we don't have that engagement right so most of us as liaons we attend those meetings we get to hear what's going on. Um, we report out on it if something's significant. If it's not, then we just attended. We reported that we attended. So, our jobs is to be there in the eyes and ears to know what's going on and bring it back to report on it. But I I agree in the same breath that yeah it'll be nice to hear from um you know transportation or water and power or or um I don't know looking infrastructure no to come in in public comment and saying oh you know we

they can they're able to send a rep but we don't hear from them. We should encourage them to do that. I mean, but I don't think that has really much significant of the size itself, more of the work that they do.

And you know, look, 6 months ago, and again, I was on the fence and I didn't agree with you at the time, but council member Rosati, you said that there's no reason why any of these boards can't operate a maximum efficiency with five members. I was hesitant to agree with you and I wanted to do some digging and I talked to folks and I looked at the attendance and I went to some meetings. I agree with you. I think five is a solid number when we look at the amount of staff time it takes to replace people. When we look at the fact that our budget isn't really great right now, I don't want to be spending all that extra time and money. I personally would prefer them to be working on the stuff that we're working on rather than spending how many hours in a day trying to replace people. So I I've been convinced I've been convinced that five is a magic number. I I think we can move forward with these three and bring back the other three. And I'm more than happy to start taking a look at sustainable and CDBG. I don't know if we need do we need seven on CDBG. Is that a requirement?

I don't know. was recently reduced from nine at the time you adopted the last ordinance. So you're you said you're five for three. You're five for three. Sounds like you might be five for three.

I mean I'm obviously talking about it. I mean I I we talked about it last meeting and we we all heard our boards and members when they came to us and said well the you know some of the members that came to us and said why are you reducing me uh because it was it it's targeted personally it looked like we want to eliminate you know Chris or Zazette or or you know Nikki and and no that's not what we're trying to do right now and we tried to explain that to them. So, I think having this conversation to say, "No, we're not targeting specific people,

as you said, council member Anthony, that this is not about the current makeup. This is something we're looking maybe to do in the future. As people leave, we can start cutting down. We can start adjusting what we're doing." I think that would be a lot more healthy to do because then we're not looking at specific individuals to get rid of them. That's not what we want to do because we do appreciate their work. And the people who are engaged like that, they're probably going to be the ones who are reappointed. I mean, that's just I'm just saying if they know what's going on and they attend and they're here all the time, those are the typically the people we keep. So, Council Member Perez, where do you sit on this?

I mean, obviously, I'm going to be blunt. I'm outnumbered, but um I'm coming from the perspective, we're all going to come from the perspective of the boards are listening to and you all have made excellent points about the boards you hear. The board that's on here that I leaz is the board of library trustees who we all received their letter in in opposition. And I got to be in the room and hear firsthand their discussion about the why. And I have to admit, and then it's something I guess I I didn't admit to them in the room because it's their discussion, not not mine. I'm just there to listen. But but now here, I have to admit I wasn't thinking about it that way until they said it. And then I realized that when I was appointed to the library board, I was thinking about it that way. They mentioned the fact that the seven of them and and for starters and I see this every every month when I go. I know they have four absences. Those haven't been like the situations that were described where oh there's no quorum or it's one person's missing this meeting and it's oh Brian's sick or not to call people individually but so and so is sick or um I one board member one time was like I'm sorry I have to meet miss next meeting because I'm literally in between flights for my job. And one thing I'm noticing is some of these boards, for example, some of these boards like library trustees, it's a lot of folks, it's a varied degree of folks. I actually really like the fact that when I served, it was one of the only boards that I saw a increased amount of diversity. When the three of us joined the council, one of the issues that both you and Nick brought up to us were the fact that we did not have diverse boards and commissions. And again, I'm going to be really blunt. When I walked into the room at the boards and commissions dinner, I was like, "Oh, I am one of the like three people of color in this room."

It was not lost on me. And as we built up that diversity, I think that's why the conversation about numbers went away. Now when I look at the library board and this is some of the things they talked about. You have somebody who is a senior using library services. You have somebody who is the mom of adult children who is you know a person of color using library services. You have somebody who is a teacher. You have somebody who is in the arts, somebody who's a parent of little kids. And when they are appointed themselves or when they have recommended who they would like to see appointed and and I remember when I was asked as a member of that body who would I like to see appointed I always went to that I always thought okay I'm here and I'm a single person wow at the time who doesn't have any kids I would love to see a parent

who is interested in that aspect of library services. um I would love to see somebody who is interested in jobs connect and then who brings kind of those different facets. So when they started talking about that it really jolted me back to when I was serving on the board and why I thought it was important to have a broader amount of people. So that's where it's really hard for me to then, you know, see the see the flip side of that and think, okay, when when we go down in numbers, who doesn't come back or are we missing out on another good appointee who just wants to serve the city? And like I said, in that board, what I've seen, and again, it's it's very myopic because I can only speak to one board at the time because of of the three that are up here, it's the only one that I have vast experience with. What I have seen in absences is I I have a work thing today and it's one person and and that's how it goes around the circle, you know, and and I can only speak again to the board that I sit on, not to any of the other ones, you know.

Yeah. But um but that's what I see. And I I I can't fault people for missing one day here and there when they are unpaid volunteers who have jobs and other responsibilities and in fact jobs and responsibilities that we want them to have because that's what gives them the information to serve on those bodies. That's what makes them a good pick I think. Okay. Can I ask what year did you join library? Oh gosh.

Oh no. Justin came back. I got the fiveyear thing like not too long ago. I want to say I can look back. Oh, it was it was No, no, no. It was 2020 because uh Council Member Mullins and City Clerk Mullen swore me in via Zoom. Okay. Oh. So, okay. So, then let me ask this. In 2020, were all of these boards and commissions the same exact size? I'd have to do some research on that. I'd have to look back.

Okay. And so here's here's the reason I asked those two questions. When we talk about diversity, we had the same number, if I'm not mistaken, I believe it's true, we had the same number of people serving in 2020 than we do today. and the the diversity of those members has drastically shifted not because we changed the numbers but because the five people sitting here decided to make that change and so for me the number is immaterial. It's the choices we make on this dis on the people we decide. When we look at the qualifications we're making a choice on the kinds of people we want to serve, their background, their experience, what they bring to the table. For me, that is paramount. Simply increasing the numbers didn't produce the results more than four years, five, six years ago. It was active choices made by the elected leadership that to me is what increased the participation of more diverse voices. So I I'm still not convinced that we can't be more efficient. Um I think it's now if we do move forward it is more incumbent upon us to dig in and find the qualified people to serve on this. And I think it will help us because yes in recent years we have had a lot of very qualified people uh apply for these positions. But I have been in this room when that wasn't the case and it was hard to fill a seven member board with qualified people. Um, and that was

council and I applied. What are you saying? I'm saying before I got on council, I saw I would sit here and I'd see people pointed. I'm like, really? Uh, but that's neither here nor there. But we've also implemented changes on term limits, right? So we uh move forward with you only get to serve three terms. So that in and of itself is also going to help rotate people out. So I go back to my original argument u madame mayor that I think we have made the changes necessary to finally come to this conclusion.

Yeah. I have a question for the city clerk and and something that you just said, council member Anthony, about um can you tell how many times have you um put out a an a a press release post for a position that's open and you don't get it filled and you have to extend it and go out again? Um we we do have a really involved uh residence here. So thankfully it doesn't happen often. Since I was elected in 2022, I'd like to say it's happened about five times. And what I usually do is I send you all an email since you know everyone in the city and say put your feelers out.

I also, you know, connect with on Facebook through our city clerk's page and we say, "Look, we we just don't have any applicants." The tough one has always been IOB, uh, infrastructure oversight board, but we always get there in the end thanks to you guys digging deep and helping us.

Yeah. So it it does happen and and it creates um a problem again with more vacancies, more members. It it does happen and so when it happens you have to extend it and then in our code we have to fill it in with a certain time otherwise it you know we would have to extend that time ourself and thankfully within 60 days from the original day vacancy we were able to fill it. But yes, um it does happen which creates um you know we all have to dig in in our pockets and figure out okay who do we know can we call we start posting like the city clerk said we start reaching out to members of the community and asking do you want to serve? So it does create somewhat of an issue and it's maybe some boards and commissions more than others that not a lot of people apply. I I've said it a million times. If we rename it public works board, you'll get more applicants. That's I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm putting that out there again.

Instead of instead of Okay. Oh my god. I agree with that. That's true. I I just some of the I feel like meeting at a different time. I know. I feel like that's And I know I know I won't go into like the merits of it, but I feel like that feels like the discussion I would rather be having right now, quite frankly, because they're like, what is the name of that commission? on the one that was uh the community block grant. Like come on. Yeah. Yeah. Although I know a lot of people in town who when I explained it to them, they were like, "Wait, that's really cool. I work in the nonprofit field. I'd love to like, you know, so it is a lot more leg work. We we have to rebrand a little bit." Okay, that's all I say on that.

Yeah. So, I'm I'm leaning more I'm leaning in the direction that you are, council member Pres. And then, you know, just it's important to me and and I'm probably the only council member here who's been to every single board or commission at some point in the city. You've been to building and fire code appeals. I have. No, she has. I know this.

I've been to every single commission or board at some point in my life here in the city. Um I was actually this gentleman was me before I was on council. I was like at every single So, you've replaced me. So um and um I now this is over the course of years so things have kind of changed as you know I haven't gone to all of them consistently but I have attended a lot of them and what I do appreciate especially now to your point council member Anthony is the diversity of thought really really makes a difference when there's a room when there's a board that has a lot of different opinions from different points of view any of them actually does really help um get questions asked just like us. I think the five of us represent quite a diverse set of opinions and we cover a lot. Um and I think that um that helps. So in some boards it helps more than others I think. Um again though I mean we haven't all been to every single one long enough to know exactly how much that would help. But I do overall feel like if I had to choose between five or seven just to have the ability to have more diverse thought, I would choose seven over five. But I can see an argument for you could still get the work done with five. So I would prefer seven, especially for transportation and library because transportation, there's so many different points of view on transportation and library because of the library, new library coming out and having multiple viewpoints. senior citizen board. I just I think that there the diversity of view could views could be done in with five people. I could be wrong about that, but I get the sense that the the things that they work on could probably be covered with five and get that diversity that would be necessary to cover those things, but I could be wrong on that point, too.

And and the only thing I just want to add, I know I'm not on there and now I'm like the alternate for sustainability. Lo and behold, my my job I can't make it, you know, because it's right at five. Um, but one of the things I remember for the sustainable board because listen, I was a doubter when I got there. I was like, nine people, do you really need nine people? And then they started doing events and they started doing going out and doing community

Yeah. um work and and you could see that they really started to break out and I and I hope you know I haven't been recently but I hope it it has kept its consistency of well these five folks are really focused on Earth Day and these five folks are really focused on this workshop to the community about water conservation and that has been an asset and a value and um one of the things that we did when I was on a library board a while back was we we were assigned like community uh groups to go to like I would take on a lot of the youth, you know, and go talk to them about the new library. Another person would take on other folks and and it really helped to have that amount of people to go out and tackle this. And that is unrelated to this, but that's one of the things they started to talk about at the last meeting, going out to do that again.

Um, now that there's actual library concept plans, so it it to your point, I think it does vary by commission. There are some that are not as active and it also varies by where we are as a city. Like there are going to be times where, you know, certain boards are more active and certain are just not. Yeah. So, my preference would be to lean towards seven, but I'm we can have a split vote. We can we don't have to necessarily all agree. Um and I think that if we were to vote for five, if that's where the the majority goes for all the three boards, I think that I agree with you all about the timing the timing rolling out. Yeah, you Yeah.

So, for me personally, either way, I'm fine. Um, you know, again, we're just city clerk has come to us and asked that, you know, hey, take a look at it after 6 months. We're looking at it. Um, but I hate that we say, you know, um, transportation should be seven because they do more work. Sustainability, they're more effective. They do events. Well, you know, the senior citizens, they really don't do much. So, I think maybe they should be five. That's not going to work for me. We either leave it as it is or change everybody because it really sends a negative message that you're more valuable and you're not valuable. And to me, everyone is valuable. So I am not gonna sit here and honestly pick and choose which one does more work, which one is valuable. It's a policy decision. Either we going to make it and and live with it or we going to say no, we don't want it. Sorry, madame city clerk. Um, no, not to put it, you know, on you literally, but um, we we I, you know, I can't sit here and justify who's more valuable and who does more work and who does more programming. Everyone is valuable. We either do it all or we leave it alone. That's it.

You make a great point about par. I It's It's really hard. I can't go back to the senior citizen board sitting there as their leazison and saying, "Well, you know, sorry guys. we decided you're not as valuable as sustainable. So, we going to cut you. And I have to just stop for a second there because I just don't I want to make sure it's really clear that in my assessment of like the number that I am not saying that a board is more valuable or other boards are more valuable. If you've got a team in your job and you've got one department doing this and one department doing that, some departments need five, some departments need seven. And it's not because one department's more valuable than other. It's about what they're doing. I agree with you, but that's so I'm not saying that they're valuable,

but your comment here is not what's going to get disseminated around town. All they're going to find out is well, one board is better than the other. That's a fair point. That's

not Yeah, it's not what you said, Madame Mayor. It's the action that we're we're taking and discussing. Well, they're doing programs. Are you doing anything? Are they doing anything? What what's going to what they going to hear back is they didn't think we were really that important. And that's why they were talking about our work. Like for example, we asked what the senior citizen they do and well, you know, they get a lot of information and then we're talking about sustainability where they have a lot of programs. Oh, so because they're doing programs, we going to keep them at seven, but now the others are going to be cut because they're not as valuable or they don't do as much. So, I don't want that message to be sent for all of us to boards and commissions cuz that was not the intent.

Catch the senior citizen board tableabling outside. Yeah. So, to that point, actually, I'd like to ask a procedural question to the city attorney. Um, the recommendation just says an ordinance restating uh title 2, chapter 1, article 4. It doesn't say three versus three. Technically, could we vote tonight to change all six or not change or not change anything other than if we're talking about saving time? Why would we do three and then have her come back with another three? I mean, I'm Yeah.

Also, I don't like saying, "Well, these three are the ones on the chopping block first and then we'll get to the other ones." To your point about parody, I I don't see any reason why we can't. They're all three are in the report. All six are in the report is what I'm saying. Yeah. So it's pro it's agendaized. All six are agenda. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's if that's the direction we're going. So you either do it all and it meaning you're going to cut across the board. You're going to cut all six of them. That's what I'm saying. Or we say no, we're not cutting anybody and we're going to leave it as it is. That's basically

um Okay. I would like to move that we introduce an ordinance to the council of the city of Bourbon amending and restating title 2 chapter 1 article 4 boards commissions and committees of the Burbank municipal code relating to composition and functions of boards commissions and committees with the explic expressed intent to reduce the board member composition of senior citizen board of library trustees transportation commission Burbank water and power board Infrastructure Oversight Board and the Police Commission from 7 to 5.

Starting in 2027. Second. All right. Take the vote. Council member Anthony, yes. Council member Perez, no. Council member Rosati, yes. Coun Vice Mayor Mullins, no. And Mayor Tagahashi, no. Keep them all at seven. Interesting. Okay, there you go. I'm okay with that fails. I like that discussion though.

And here's and here's the reason. If this council is not united and we don't have to be because we we've had a lot of, you know, we don't always have to agree and we don't always have to vote the same. on this topic and there is a reason I said no is the message that we're sending out to our boards and commissions and the message that we're sending out to the city clerk. Um and you know it for me personally again it's not about I like somebody or dislike somebody I want to get rid of somebody. It's about exactly parody being being um equal across the board. It's a policy decision this council has to make once and for all. And I don't want to go out there divided saying, "Oh, these two voted for it. I didn't vote." Well, I'm sorry, but she didn't vote. That's not what we want to do. And and for that reason, because it really doesn't matter. I appreciate everybody.

I'm voting no. And sorry, you're going to have to be doing more of the work. Please, please don't apologize to me. I was not driving this. I was just fulfilling your directive to bring these back for consistent membership composition. We We did save you having to come back, but I was just going to say thank you. I will not You just saved me on yet another staff report and that's research. Thank you. And I believe that's our first two, three and thank you to all our commissioners because they do amazing work. So, thank you to them. Yeah, I have to say I'm so relieved. I'm so I was like, okay, completely unrelated to what the item was. It was kind of felt like power lady hour to be like no unrelated to the item. Sorry guys.

I surprised you didn't.

Yes, you did. You did what I expected. Surprised. All right. So, that is it for that one. Moving on. I'm so glad. So happy. Um, okay. Let's see. Next up, let's see. Next up is a review of city treasur's investment portfolio report for December um 20 30 31st 2025. I welcome madam city treasurer Crystal Palmer to please present the report. Good evening. Um, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, Council Member Anthony, Council Member Rosati, Council Member Perez, and my fellow Burbank residents. My name is Crystal Palmer, and I'm your Burbank City Treasurer. Tonight, I will be going over the treasurer's report for December 31st, 2025. Uh before I proceed, I wanted to note that this report was discussed by both the fiscal and treasures review group and the treasures oversight review committee last week. On the fiscal and treasures review group, we have council member Anthony, council member Rosotti, city manager Justin Hes, assistant city manager Courtney Padet, financial services director Jennifer Becker, and CFO of BWP Joe Lilio. On the treasures oversight review committee, we have Darren Guggenheimimer, CEO of Gain Federal Credit Union, Norland Kuras, former CEO of Cedar Sinai Federal Credit Union, Richard Martin, CPA, and Scott Reefe, s retired senior vice president of Boston Private Bank and Trust. Uh, with their expertise and years of experience, I just wanted to thank them for their input and val invaluable advice on the best strategy for the city's portfolio. The city's portfolio as it currently stands is $727 million at the end of 2025.

This pie shows how it's broken down by asset class with the biggest holding at corporate and corporate with corporate medium-term notes at 23% US agencies at 22% uh joint powers authority pool or camp at 19% Lif at 13% municipal bonds at 10% super nationals at 5% CDs at 4% treasuries at 3% and the money market fund at.5%. This table shows how our portfolio is in compliance with both our investment policy and our California state code. The average portfolio duration is 1.4 years. The current yield for the portfolio is 3.48%. This is in line with other cities. Glendale, for example, came in at 3.28%. This shows our income summary from the coupons we receive every month. In December, we received $1.9 million in income from our portfolio. I also wanted to highlight a recent investment would make we made in a Dartmouth college bond in 2025. Just as a brief background, our US colleges issued $34 billion in debt, the most since 2014 in light of federal funding uncertainty and threats to tax benefits. With that, we have been buying highquality bonds issued by top universities in the country to support their educational mission. Late last year, the city of Burbank invested in a five-year non-callable Dartmouth bond yielding 4.08%. As a member of the Ivy League, Dartmouth has a $9 billion endowment rated double A1 by Moody's and AAA by S&P. Bond proceeds are to be used for general purposes including capital expenses pl in renewing and building residence halls energy transition investments and title 9 projects. What we like about this is their commitment to affordability. There's expected zero parent

contribution and no loans for families with annual incomes below $125,000. It is also deemed as the Ivy League Switzerland but a New Yorker citing in its institutional neutrality and restraint and commitment to free expression. Looking at the job market overall we all seem still seem to be in a low higher low fire environment. Jobs continue to fluctuate with five of the last 12 months showing the economy losing jobs. On the upside, March numbers exceeded expectations with addition of 178,000 jobs. The unemployment rate also dropped slightly from 4.4% to 4.3%. While layoffs have remained low, the balance of power has definitely shifted to employers in the past year. In a recent survey, only 12% of business owners say they plan to hire someone in the next 3 months. for those who are hiring has become a lot easier than before with companies receiving hundreds of job applications for just one position. The number of people who have been un unemployed for 27 weeks and over now is is at its highest level since the pandemic. Young graduates have been particularly impacted with the loss of entry-level jobs as companies incre increasingly use AI to save costs. On the bright side, health care remains a strong point in the job market, accounting for 77% of new jobs in the last two years. With an aging population and expanded insurance access, it is anticipated there will be need for more healthare workers in the future. A recent headline by the Wall Street Journal even announced that nursing is a surefire new path to American prosperity with a potential to earn six figure incomes. People are also starting to realize that there is job security in healthcare since it's a type of labor that cannot be easily replaced by AI. Looking at inflation, the big question

is really how war how the war in the Middle East will impact prices in the next several months. Inflation has now exceeded the Fed's 2% target for 5 years. And even before the war, we seem to have been stuck in the 2.5% range. With oil prices higher, it costs even more money now for businesses to transport and produce goods. And these costs are eventually passed on to their consumers, raising prices even more. Even before the war, for example, we've seen certain certain commodities become more expensive with supply and demand disruptions. For example, with extreme weather around the world, the average US retail price for a pound of ground coffee is now over $9, up from just over $4 in 2020. Okay, so maybe you're thinking you cut back on the coffee and get a matcha latte instead. But matcha is even worse, though, because prices increase 170% in Japan in 2025 with increased global demand. So even if you skip that $8 matcha latte from your favorite coffee shop and just make it at home, you're still paying around $1 a gram for about half a teaspoon of matcha powder. With a US cattle herd at its lowest level in 75 years, ground beef has also gotten very expensive with average price now at about $7 a pound. No wonder restaurants have been pushing us to eat smash burgers in recent years since each smash burger patty uses only 2 to 4 ounces of meat versus traditional burgers that use 6 to 8 ounces of ground meat. Not a good value, especially if you're trying to increase your protein intake. Oil prices have surged with the war in the Middle East and the average gas price in the California is now $5.93 a gallon. How high oil prices will go really depends on how long this war takes. There have been offers and rejections of ceasefires, but no one knows how long the supply disruption will really last. Even more than just

the temporary supply disruption, though, there risks that the impact will be even more long-term as there could be permanent damages to infrastructure. For some of these refineries and factories, depending on the extent of the destruction from bombings, it could take years to repair the facility and bring capacity back up. On the upside, with the US becoming more energy efficient and less energy intensive, with the impact on the US, now also the world's largest oil and gas producer should be less noticeable. Other countries that are completely reliant on Middle East oil, for example, have seen governments having to declare national emergencies with people not being able to afford gas to drive their car or even cook their food. So, with a standstill in a job market, inflation, and gas prices, you wonder, who are all these people still eating out at these fancy restaurants and spending $2,000 for Olympics tickets? The answer is there's a lot more upper middle class and rich people nowadays in this country. According to recent economic analysis, the core middle class defined as households with incomes from 250% to under 500% of the poverty line, which is about 67,000 to $130,000 shrank from 36% of families in 1979 to 31% in 2024. The shrinking of the middle class, however, is not because Americans are getting poorer. In fact, Americans who are poor or near poor um about $40,000 in income also dropped from 30% to 19% over the same time period. The percentage of lower middle class families about 150 to 250% of the poverty line dropped as well from 24% to 16%. So what's happening here? The thing is at the same time the share of upper middle class and rich Americans have really increased dramatically. So the percent of families now in the upper

middle class which is around 133,000 to $400,000 depending on where you are in this country increased from 10% in 1979 to 31% in 2024. And the percentage of rich people, so those who make about $400,000 or more went from just.3% to 3.7%. According to the Wall Street Journal, the top 10% of earners, households earning about 250,000 or more now account for almost 50% of all spending. And there are a lot of rich people. I was actually pretty surprised at these numbers. There are now 430,000 US households worth at least $30 million and 74,000 households worth at least $100 million. And those are households. So there's a lot of more actual people uh than those numbers. So, just like the job market, the housing market is pretty much at a standstill. With mortgage rates still pretty high, buyers have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for rates and home prices to go down. In February, there was an estimated 46% more home sellers than buyers in the housing market, the largest gap in records dating back to 2013 and up from just 30% a year earlier. Even in an LA metro area, there are 53% more sellers than buyers. With more sellers than buyers, do you think prices would drop? But the median home sale price was still up.9% nationwide from a year earlier. Although it's slightly down by 1.5% in the LA metro area. Even as there are more sellers and buyers nowadays, though, it is worth noting there's still not enough inventory in the market, especially for younger people who are looking to buy a home. For the first time, all the oldest Americans, those aged 70 and up, now hold a larger share of real estate wealth than even the middle-aged Americans, who are those in their 40 to 54 years old. People are also not really moving with the average homeowner tenure now at 12 years nationwide and 20 years

in the LA area, especially with the tax benefits of Prop 13. So with a conflict in the Middle East, asset prices including the S&P 500 and even gold have pulled back from their recent historic highs. Despite the war though in a survey of 50 economists, they still put the probability of a recession in the next 12 months at just 32% just slightly up from 27% in January. When asked how high crude oil would need to climb to tip the recession probability above 50%, economists gave a range of responses with an average of $138. As a point of reference, the recent average was about $110. So when with uncertainty surrounding the war, inflation, and interest rates, we expect Treasury yields to continue to be volatile in the next few months. With the onset of the war and concerns about inflation, it is now unclear what the Federal Reserve will do this year and the probably probability of a rate cut has now decreased. While most Fed officials still believe that there will be at least one rate cut by the end of the year, markets now not ruling out a possible rate hike if inflation gets worse. Based on the IMF world economic outlook, global growth is expected to moderate and remain stable in the next few years. While this report was published before the war started and there is now an expectation of higher global inflation this year, most believe inflation will subside by 2027. As mandated by our state code and our own investment policy, our ongo ongoing strategy and focus remains safety, liquidity, and yield in that order. Under safety, we continue to emphasize buying highquality names and monitoring the credit quality of our current investments. We also continue to diversify our investments across different asset classes. Under liquidity, we continue to invest our operating funds in liquid assets that we can access easily. We also continue to match maturities with our cash flow needs. And finally, under yield, we

continue to allocate strategically by targeting investments with higher spreads relative to the market, always making sure we negotiate the best prices for each purchase and locking in rates for future investment income. Uh this concludes my presentation. I believe this is a note and file, but I would be happy to answer any questions you have. Great. Thank you for the presentation. Um madam city clerk, do we have any public comment? We do not. We do not. Okay. Uh council, any questions, comments? We can go straight to mix it all up. Yes, vice mayor.

Thank you. I think it was those glasses that I didn't get to see. I can read, but I can't see you doing. Um, thank you. Uh, now I know when I invite people over, instead of making a burger, I'll make a smash burger because it gives me less beef. Saves you money. Oh my god. Smash anything smash is has less beef. Yeah.

Thank you. I never really looked at it that way. I thought, well, it tastes good. Um, no, honestly, thank you for the report because you're always um presented in a fun, exciting way that it's not so stuffy. We can figure out exactly what's going on in the market. I do want uh if possible for you to talk to us a little bit about um on page 423 of the staff report and a very very tiny type that you can see through there and it and it and it talks about the actual housing market and mostly um it says I'm interested in this is on the on the side note the housing and rental market have improved Can you um if you look at that page cuz you're talking about stability, you're talking about

the home buyers. Um I know in your presentation you touched a little bit about there is more sellers than buyers, but actually in this section here it does say there was 60 62% of the buyers home buyers bought a home below the original price. Also, you talked about um the rents, the stability of the rent and where we at in the Los Angeles area. So, if you can share that publicly, so we we know what's happening in that market.

Okay. So, just as a point of reference, this uh report was originally written in February of 2026. Uh so, just a a month ago. Yeah, just a one month month and a half ago. So, market's pretty pretty similar. Um but yeah, in that report I was trying to point out that um it's definitely um because like as I mentioned in my report, there's a lot more sellers now than home buyers. So those who are actually able to buy something are getting much better discounts than they would have even like a year or two ago, right? When there was a buyer market and we were overpaying for everything. So now we could actually if a seller is motivated um you could actually negotiate a good discount. And it's the same with the rental market. Uh when you talk to people nowadays, a lot of landlords are saying um there's a lot of vacancies and and they're having to start lowering rents to attract tenants. People are trying to save money, so they're not necessarily going out and renting uh an apartment by themselves, right? They're like, "Hey, maybe I'll just stay home with my parents for a while instead of like going out and renting this studio or onebedroom by myself." So, I think we're seeing uh a decrease in demand for renters. And because of that, there's also um lower prices. So So landlords are having to look for uh more tenants to fill their vacancies.

Um does this have anything also to do with our um the media industry? The fact that we lost a lot of jobs because I'm I'm assuming we're also looking at Burbank um

in this market that they left maybe Burbank, they left California. Does that was that taken in consideration? Yeah, that's also definitely impacting demand. So, there's people who have no jobs and if you don't do not have a job, you will not go out and rent a $2, $3,000 apartment, right? Maybe they'll they move back home with their parents um back in Ohio or or some other state or maybe they're just, you know, sharing an apartment with a roommate or a friend. So, I think like you said, you are correct. um the weakness in the entertainment industry has also impacted um other industries within Burbank.

Okay. So that really justifies because I've noticed um on my many walks in different neighborhoods that I see more now a lot for rent signs where in the past I mean I've lived here since 1982. It would be very rare to see it. You know, once in a while you see for rent, but I see a lot more signs and and this is the demand, supply and demand. Yeah. Which is good for people looking for something now. At least now we have options. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah, but I I'm also concerned about prices if they've actually adjusted to

uh allow individuals to find with options uh a a unit, an apartment or a house within a reasonable amount of money. Yeah, I I think it's going to adjust. It's already in the process of adjusting, right? You see articles not just in Burbank um but about LA in general, people are renewing their leases and suddenly it's lower than what their current lease is and they're surprised. They didn't even ask for it, but landlords are just, you know, taking the initiative and and they want to keep the tenant who pays regularly, so they're like, "Hey, I'm I know this is the new market rate. I'm going to offer $200 less than than their current lease."

Interesting. Okay. Um that was just my question. Thank you. Council member, thanks for the report on the Olympic tickets. It's very timely. I was on the preferred weight list and when I saw the prices, I was like, "Well, thank you." LA got the shaft, I think. Same for me. I was on the preferred list. I went logged in online on Sunday. I was like, "Well, you know, I cannot buy five. We need five tickets. So, I cannot buy five of $100, five $100, five $200 tickets. $700. Yeah. $700. Yeah. We don't even know what this sport is. I had to Google what hockey is. So, yeah.

Well, you can both come watch the games at the LA Fan Zone here in the city of Burbank. That's where it's going to be reduced. Yes. Yes. Yep. That's where we're going. That's your offering. Your place is coming. I'm like, really? Do you want us all to come? Hopefully, there's a beer. Council member Press. Yeah. back in the backyard. The TV's going out.

So, I just wanted to to comment on the whole lease thing is what's happening is when when there's a vacancy in a building and let's say the rent is 2,300, they signed the the deal at 2,300. All the tenants know in the building that they just signed the deal for 2,300. And if they're paying 2500 and their lease renews, guess what? it better be 2,300 or you sent your your your tenants packing. So that's exactly what's happening is as new leases come on the market, they're taking less money, but as the renewals come on the market, they want them to honor the new price, and that's that's kind of what's uh happening in the marketplace. So just wanted to Thank you.

Yeah. Well, that's good. Oh, I'm glad. Thank you. Um, well, I learned I will not be buying matcha. I was wrong. Coffee it is. Yeah, we'll get coffee and and smash bers. Bring a tea bag and just ask for hot water. That's my tip. Oh my god.

But in all seriousness, uh, I just want to say looking at I think it's page uh 10, I really think that's a great investment. Thank you for looking at at the Dartmouth Investment. And I know a while back every every year when we look at this we always ask like what are good things we can invest in positive things that are helpful for our country for for the world really and and you really find them so I appreciate that any anything else keep them coming like that. Oh thank you. Yeah, I mean it's the little things that count, right? Even though we feel like we are powerless sometimes, just the little things make us feel like we're at least trying.

And it makes us feel good, I think, to know that our investments are in good places that are that are helpful to the economy and helpful to job creation, economic growth, and at the same time helping students, helping, you know, create create knowledge in this country. And I think that that's a good feeling knowing that we're not investing in oil or investing in like war. Yeah. So, thank you for for keeping our portfolio squeaky clean. Yeah, you're welcome. Yes. Anthony, anything?

Um, just uh keep an eye on some of those uh shoe companies that you invest in. So, we we had an interesting subcommittee meeting and I just would actually I was going to say I really appreciated um the three or four people that came out and uh we had a robust How many people on the committee? Five, by the way. Uh yes, about five. It was a really robust conversation which I enjoyed and um so yeah, thank you.

I'll keep an eye out for your favorite shoe. Yeah, thank you so much for the report. Always uh well presented and entertaining. Um to vice mayor's point of making the can be dry material interesting. And I was lucky enough to get archery tickets and beach volleyball. And did you get any? Yeah. Yeah. Not too. I think the beach volleyball was 100, but the archery was like 60. So Oh, wow. Yeah, we were lucky. Wow. Uh Long Beach. Long Beach. Yeah. Yeah. Well, apparently there are future drops, so we might still have a chance. Yes. Yeah. No, no, no. Future drops apparently might be even cheaper. So, yes, that's what they're saying.

Well, archery is cheaper because it naturally comes with a a danger component. Yeah, it's it's the seats that are behind the target. You get the first. Yeah. Apparently, you can also volunteer so you can watch for free. So, we are thinking of just doing that. Okay. That'll be in your next report. Yeah. Okay. Good. Okay. opportunities for volunteering. Great. Thank you again. Wonderful report. All right. I'm getting the stink guy. Want a motion? Uh, are we at Are we at the place? Uh, on file. On file.

Yes, that's what I thought. Okay. Next report to council. I'm going to be confused for a second. The next report to council tonight is the discussion and update on measure A, LA County Report Housing Solutions Agency financing. I welcome Miss Casey Lee, Housing Development Manager, to please rep present the report. Welcome. Madame Mayor, if I could and sorry um Casey um Council Member Anthony requested a copy of Measure A uh for probably this and the last item on the agenda. Uh council has received a copy of Measure A. staff has some copies and there's uh I believe five copies uh in the entrance to council chambers for anybody who wants to make reference to that.

Okay. And is it available potentially online as well to be to be clicked for those watching from home or will be added later? No, this was a late late item. Okay. You can Google it. Perfect. Okay, great. Thank you. Find it. Okay. Oh, may I have the presentation, please?

Okay, thank you. My apologies. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, members of the city council. Casey Lee, housing development manager. Tonight's presentation provides an overview of the Measure A Lassa funds. Staff requests council's feedback regarding the programming of these funds. In November 2024, Los Angeles County voters approved measure A, which repealed and replaced Measure H. Measure H established a quarter cent sales tax to fund homeless services and Measure A doubled this to a half cent sales tax to support expanded services. Measure H expired on June 30th, 2025 and Measure A took effect on July 1st, 2025. Measure A does not have a sunset date and there is no direct local return for these funds. The estimated sales tax generated for the city of Burbank under Measure A is estimated at approximately $20 million. However, the city only receives about 3.5 million total under measure H and continued under measure A. The city received approximately $100,000 per year in homeless incentive program funds and approximately $350,000 per year in local solutions funds for homeless services. Homeless incentive fund programs are used for security deposits and move in assistance for Burbank housing authority voucher holders. And local solutions funds are used for motel vouchers, reunification expenses, rental assistance, case management, excuse me, and case management and operations expenses for the Safe Navigation Center. In fiscal year 2026-27, homeless incentive program funds will conclude, but local solutions funds will continue. Additionally, under measure A, beginning in the current fiscal year, a new funding source was created. This funding source is administered by the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, otherwise known as LCASa.

We are here tonight to discuss programming for LCASa funds. The annual allocation for Lacassa funds is approximately $3 million and these funds can be used for affordable housing production and preservation, renter protection and homeless prevention. Before discussing discussing measure A Lassa funds, I would like to first highlight the existing homeless programs and services that will continue to be supported through local solutions funds and general funds. The core programs that are continuing using using local solutions funds and general funds include the safe navigation center which includes the storage and shower program, hotel and motel vouchers, rental assistance, security deposit assistance, reunification services, case management, and outreach and engagement with the city's current vendor, Allied Universal. Additionally, staff will be proposing additional enhancements, including expanded case management services and improvements to the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, including the addition of a computer lab, which will provide individuals with critical access to housing searches, job applications, public benefits, teleaalth appointments, email communication, and digital lit literacy support. All of which are increasingly necessary to secure services and move forward with stabil towards stability. Through strong partnerships and careful use of available resources, the city will sustain current services while expanding where we see the most need. Excuse me. As mentioned, we are here this evening to discuss measure A Lassa funding. Lacassa funding will not be used cannot be used for projects, programs, or services for people currently experiencing homelessness. This includes construction or rehabilitation of facilities supporting homelessness such as the homeless solution center or safe parking operations, programming or staffing

expenses related to homeless facilities such as the homeless solution center and safe parking or programs and services supporting homelessness, including encampment resolution or cleanup, outreach staffing, hotel motel vouchers, CA and case management for homeless. To reiterate, Lacassa funds cannot be used for projects, programs, or services for people who are currently experiencing homelessness. The narrow scope of eligible uses for these funds is a notable concern. There are two main buckets under the measure AASA funds. One is production, preservation, and ownership, otherwise known as PO, and the other is renter protection and homeless prevention, otherwise known as RPHP. Eligible uses under this category PO include direct project investments to support the development and preservation of affordable housing such as facilitating projects currently in the pipeline including GAP financing for new rental and homeless and home ownership projects, rent and operating subsidies for extremely low income households with development partners. ownership assistance programs, including down payment assistance and housing preservation activities such as rehabilitation and accessibility improvements, including partnerships on city-owned and non-vacant sites. Following council's feedback on the use of measure a laassa funds, staff will return to council with specific projects or programs for approval. Under the renter protection and homeless prevention or RPHP category, Lacassa funds can be used for several current city programs that advance current city policies and council goals. Many of these programs are currently funded with general fund dollars and can be supplanted with LASA funds. For this bucket, there is a a legal assistance requirement that I will address later in the presentation. Eligible uses include legal assistance and renter education, which can include

programs such as Lifting People Up, which provides financial literacy, home ownership workshops and case management. Housing Rights Center, which provides guidance and legal advice for tenants and landlords, and provides workshops and clinics. Lowincome legal grants, which provide financial assistance for legal services. also emergency rental and flexible financial assistance which includes rental rental assistance which is currently administered utilizing local solutions funds and relocation expenses. Of note with relocation expenses, funding for relocation expenses does have parameters and limitations with it. Under temporary rental assistance, LASA funds can support rental assistance and utility assistance programs. Earlier this evening, you heard that there may be a need for temporary rental assistance for households transitioning from EHV or PSH vouchers. These households would qualify for this bucket of funds. It is important to note that there are restrictions for spending under each category. For instance, under the RPHP bucket, 20% of the funds must be spent on legal assistance and tenant outreach and 40% must be spent in the financial assistance category. There is also a techn technical assistance bucket of funds which can be used for administrative expenses including consultant contracts and other administrative resources. The need for these funds is vast. However, we do do have limited funds each year in each category. The total fisc year 2526 Burbank allocation for measure a laassa funds is $3,16,686. Of this approximately $75,000 is committed to the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Regional Housing Trust, which is the pass through entity administering the funds for the city. This leaves $2,941,269 for city programming and administration.

The amount of funds for each category is determined by Lassa and the city does not have the authority to move funds between buckets. The total fiscal year 2526 allocation for PO is $1,829,112 and the total for RPHP allocation is $953,277 and the total technical assistance allocation is $158,880 which is used for administrative resources. Staff is expecting a similar allocation for for fiscal year 2627 since program since programming and expenditure of funds will not start until the 2627 fiscal year. Revenues will include the accumulation of funds for two years. As previously mentioned, it is important to note that there are restrictions for spending under each category. For instance, under the RPHP bucket, 20% of funds must be spent on legal assistance and tenant outreach and 40% must be spent in the financial assistance category. In addition to funding for programs and projects, there is approximately $600,000 available for program administration. Staff has budgeted approximately $265,000 to add two new city positions, which are essential for the successful implementation and management of these funds. Council will see these new positions budgeted in the 2627 budget. Additionally, administrative funds must be allocated amongst partnering agencies that are also responsible for administering the LCASa funds. Following council's feedback on the use of measure A Lassa funds, staff will return to council with specific projects and programs for approval. We are excited to continue our existing programs and services and look forward to enhancing these efforts with the use of measure A funds. Staff requests council's direction and feedback on the CASA eligible uses based on council's

direction. Staff will return which with each proposed project and program for council's consideration. We want to point out that the council in your packet has uh in the an attachment to your staff report included an amendment. Uh this is just an amendment to theou and a fullou is available as well. That concludes my presentation. Staff is available for feedback and questions. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Madam city clerk, do we have any public comment? We do not. We do not. Okay. All right. Council, do you have any questions for staff? Council member Anthony.

Uh yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um we we're looking at 350,000 that we get from the local solutions fund. Now the 100,000 from the homeless incentive program. Where does that also comes? Was that also measure H? Yes, that was measure H as well as measure A. Okay. Oh, Measure A does have a homeless incentive program. Yes, it does. current year measure A um took place began current year and that program is operational current year. Okay.

However, it will conclude this year as the final year of that fund. Wait, what? Oh, it's left over from measure H because I'm looking at measure A and there's no homeless incentive program. Like sorry we were I'm reading measure A right now and I'm trying to find the homeless incentive program and it's not there. So you're telling me at the end of this year homeless incentive program is gone. Correct. Okay. And I'm not sure what document you're looking at but just the actual measure A ordinance that it would it was handed out at the beginning of this item. Okay. Not part of your packet. Okay.

Right. Um I see. So that's so we won't get so that 100,000 is one time and then that's gone and then under the local but the local solutions fund does continue and do we get more of that?

We are current allocation is 380,000 and we recently heard that our fiscal year 2627 allocation is 460,000. So an increase of 80,000. Oh, okay. 460,000. Okay. And that's under the local solutions fund. Okay. So, I asked staff to bring us a copy of measure A as it's written. And under measure A, 60% of the tax that is collected is supposed to go to comprehensive homeless services, local solutions fund, and homeless solutions. If you have measure A, it's on page three, section section 3, letter B. Um 15% is local solutions and then 1.65% 65% of the funds goes to something called Homeless Solutions Innovations. Have we ever applied or are we thinking of applying for the Homeless Solutions Innovations? It's uh it's a fund allocated for new strategies demonstrating projects designed to achieve the goals stated in paragraph A, section 4 of this ordinance, prevent homelessness, keep people off the streets. It may be used for to incubate and test new ideas for future largescale spending and other sections of this ordinance. Have we looked into the homeless solutions innovations fund uh for possible funding of our have we looked at

if I could I want to give a little bit of structural guidelines for reading measure A. M so measure A is the law adopted uh that created the funding mechanism. Um but we don't just interpret measure A by itself. So the money for measure A goes to the regional housing trust. Mhm. The regional housing trust has anou with LCASa.

Right. Um and then Lacassa promulgates guidelines and as a recipient we're bound by the LCASa guidelines. So Lacassa has separate requirements um funding guidelines which we're required by virtue of theou to follow. And so at page 451 of your agenda packet

are ineligible uses which are worded differently than the eligible uh or permissible expenditure categories under subsection C1 that you were browsing. And I'm not sure what section you just quoted from.

And so there's a very specific list. This is from Lacassa's uh web page. uh the uh LCASa transitional guidelines September 2025 which is 3 years more current than measure A. So we have to interpret them together. Okay. Okay. And I think the reason why I was asking that specifically is because it seemed like there was this small section of funding under measure A that hasn't been set up yet is what I'm seeing. And I and and so the the the question I'm asking is has this separate sort of innovation uh funding been set up or have we seen it? Is it applicable for maybe you know

I can answer that. Yeah. Okay. So basically the 1.65% is going directly to the county. Only the county sees that. They are not distributing that to the cities. It's being spent on projects that they deem like innovation projects for the county. the parts that are being split staff has laid out very nicely in I mean I'm glad they made the chart because the this is mind you may I know where there have been meetings after meetings after meetings on what are the program guidelines going to be and this is a great great example of how policy then translates into program and it's always different than what you thought you were going to get so we really measure A is very broad it says you can get anything from preventative monies all the way to homeless services monies. But it really has boiled down to how the county has decided to distribute that per um granting authority and then per city.

That is where really the cookie crumbles. And so things like that 1.65% are for the county but they are not being distributed to cities. what's being distributed to cities for folks in the public and everybody else here is on uh slide three where they have measure A and they have the homeless incentive program as one bucket, the local solutions fund and then the LCASa bucket. And I think for us as a city where we felt a little like rats is because our local solution fund which is what can fund a lot of our homeless services projects would have been nice to see that number look a lot bigger so that we could fund the homeless uh solutions center. Instead number practically stayed the same and funds only the services that we provide. And then where we actually received a much higher lumpsum allocation is the new program laassa funds. That's like three million. That sounds great until you start looking at all the restrictions and the things we can and can't use it on. So that's in a nutshell and is very frustrating. We are in that boat. A lot of cities in the county are in that boat. And this is all being decided by the measure aid teams in at the county level, not by the cities, which could go into a whole lesson on how that's frustrating, but but to your point about looking at specific items there, that's not how how it's being broken down, right?

That's how the policy would like them would that's how the policy has been set up for the money to be spent. The actual programmatic expenditure per jurisdiction looks like this. Well, let me ask you this. You may know this answer. Um the money that is being spent by the county on the county programs, they can use that for a whole host of other things. So, they're not limited by their own uh Lassa restrictions. They are. It's just they've also limited us to a greater degree because the county decides what money the county gets. They also decide what money we as cities get.

Sure. But they're also saying what it can be used for. Exactly. Which we're we're frustrated about.

Well, so my my issue and this has been going on for a while. Measure A, the voters read this plainly and it's listed in many, many parts of Measure A that we use this funding for emergency housing, comprehensive care, rapid rehousing, interimm and bridge housing, case management, outreach services, counseling services, homelessness delivery system. I'm reading a number of parts of measure A that we don't have access to. But I'm trying to understand, is the county even using these services as well? Cuz if they're not, I feel like they're in violation of their own ordinance.

Oh, Contrer, we do have access to them. The problem is they've told us exactly how much money we get to have access to them. You have exactly $380,000 of access to outreach to homeless solutions center type things. That's all you get. But that's only under the local solutions fund which is only 15% of the total. The comprehensive homeless services is 60% of that tax. So there seems to be a large chunk of money, 45% of the entire annual tax proceed that is not being used for what they said it was going to be used for.

That's what I'm telling you. It's the difference between policy and actual programming. And that's the problem. The problem is the voters of LA County, including all of us in this room, were fed homeless money. More homeless money is coming your way. And that's arguably true. We're getting more money, but we are being told exactly what buckets that money falls into, which for a city like Burbank, where we wanted to use the largest sump of the money we received from the county, which by the way is our sales tax money, right? We wanted to use that for the homeless solution center. The county is now telling us, "No, no."

Yeah. You get three million for production, preservation, ownership, renter protection, prevention, and technical assistance. And you get $380,000 for things like your homeless solution center. Well, we can't use that because we're already using that on the measures that we're doing, and it is a very puny amount. Here's my issue. I I appreciate that those are the buckets being used. I feel like there's a whole ton of other buckets that aren't being used that you and I and as a county resident voted for.

And if we did that at the city, if we passed Measure P and then didn't use it to fund uh if if we said police and fire and security services and all we did was buy one fire truck and be like uh not nothing else, I think that would be uh uh thumbming our nose to the voters. I think you would be right and I think the county is thumping their nose at the voters and here we are now trying to decide how to use this money for in ways that are restricted by

and and I'm rarely that blunt and critical of another jurisdiction but I think it's very fair and I and I and I appreciate the position that staff is in where they are just trying to get us the facts but I think it's very worthy of us to think critically and be very critical of this decision because now we have like today residents that came to this podium and said, "Why are you not building the homeless shelter? Why are you stepping back when the reality is we are not being given the sales tax allocation back that we would have 100% used for that homeless center and I'll get off my pulpit now."

Yes. No, no, thank you for that explanation. And I think um to simplify it, Council Member Anthony, because um I first I'm going to ask the question, how much were we getting under me measure H? How much money were we getting back from the county of Los Angeles a year? It would be the local solutions fund and the homeless incentive funds. So I would say approximately 300 to 400,000 a year. Okay. So here's Can I note that the uh uh the uh taxpayers of Burbank were providing the county 10 million and we were getting back. Thank you.

And now we're providing 20 million.

Yes. And then so what they've done is they really increased the amount of money we're getting back even though we're putting more money in the probably up and more $30 million plus because it it went from 25 cents to 50 cents on the tax. um we were getting 300,000 but we were using the 300,000 towards homeless um incentives program and you know helping the staff and outreach and we were doing that with a little $300,000 that we should have gotten more but now they said okay we're going to give you $2.94 million which is a lot more but you can only use it on direct programs Right. So, it it is it is good and bad in the same time because now we have more money that we should have had a long time ago and then I think it's the maximum.

But, Vice Mayor, the stuff we've been spending on has been wildly successful. We are one of the most successful cities in the county with the little bit that we've been using. Absolutely.

Because we've been using it on the programming that works, not what they're telling us to. So completely agree and I think I share the same frustration about the county. I share frustration about the state when they approve these things and they put measures on the ballot and who do we blame? You know, our voters, they they don't read the the fine prints because it's very misleading. As soon as you see homeless, everybody has a soft heart. Yes, we want to resolve the problem. we going to vote for it because we're hoping we're going to end homelessness, right? But on the contrary, what we're doing is we're redirecting the the money that we have now that we can spend on incentives to do the homeless outreach and all that. Now, they want us to focus um on building on keeping people housed. And this is what we were talking about earlier in the other report. we can use some of those m the funds to pay for the emergency vouchers in order for us to keep those people housed. Right. So, it's kind of a tradeoff which is still frustrating.

Great stuff, but to not allow us to do the thing that we've been successful at is ridiculous. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, we have to pivot and and figure out now where do we want to spend that $2.94 million.

And to the vice mayor's point, I do want to be fair to the voters though. I I do think it it was a little blindsiding because I I read the measure myself. I I've voted for it myself, right? It it didn't go into this kind of programmatic detail. If any of us, I think, would have seen, especially all of us here who are lawmakers, understand how it works, would have seen something like, well, you get a bunch of prevention money, but you get like near next to nothing in homeless services money. We would have complained. We you just got told here's money for homelessness and it's going to be better than measure H because it's going to allow more things

in the fine print there was never oh by the way we're also going to just give you a bunch more money for this and take out you know I think I was very skept skeptical I can't say the word right now yes that's it

um knowing what they did to us with measure H right so knowing that we should have received close to even half of the $20 million even, you know, $23 million. We know they only gave us $300,000. I'm like, uh, I don't really trust. I'd rather had our own measure on the ballot where the money comes directly in our pocket where we have control in this council to know what we're going to spend the money on. But obviously, they beat us to it and they put it on the ballot. I will tell you from the complaints that were levied against Measure H, that's why Measure A came forward. It was supposed to fix those problems. And I'll be honest with you, I read it

and it looked like on paper they did fix the problems. But the people who wrote I I mean, from my understanding, uh uh the United Way had a big hand in crafting this and they do a really good job of providing homeless services. But the United Way did not create Lacassa. They were not part of that bureaucracy. And so to your point, what's on paper is not what is not what they've implemented in front of us. And that is a huge problem. Yeah. And the point of all this conversation is really to say and for the community to understand that,

you know, what we're deciding on tonight, both this item and the next item is a big shift in many ways because of the way that measure A is being implemented and what what's happening on, you know, with the distribution of money. And it's and it's not just us. It's not just this, not just Burbank, it's it's cities all over LA County. So um I think that this then forces us to rec you know think about where to spend our money and that's the topic of tonight is how do we given the new constraints how do we direct staff to re redirect money to the places then when measure 8 money comes in where is it going to go now um so to that end do we have any other questions of staff about that

well you know what I'd like to ask and I don't know if we know the answer or not but it's also Also, in the same um conversation that council member Anthony uh was talking about, how do we know where they're spending the money countywide? Like the rest of the money they're collecting, all the millions of dollars. Do they have programs? And if they do, what city benefits out of those programs? Because in LA County, we have what, 82, 88 cities. So, where is this money going beside paying the salaries for the new unit that they created?

The information I have on that is that 35.75% of the sales tax revenue goes to LCASa. Um and then Lacassa um from there uh they have different buckets of funding that they use and um 5% of the their funding goes to admin and 95% of their funding uh gets divvied up through notice of funding availabilities or RFPs and various cities or local entities can submit um for funding can submit proposals for funding. Um they also um have their RFPs open to developers. Um and they also have a requirement for legal. They have to have spend some funding on legal services as well.

So is our 2.9 million that we're getting as part of the 95% that they divvy up among agencies? That's separate. So ah a portion of the funds goes to what's called EJ's eligible jurisdictions like the city of Burbank and then a portion right stays with Lassa and they um send out NAS they or um RFPs for

for various things whatever their whatever they deem is important or urgent at the time like their first RFP was for an affordable housing development that was ready to break ground. Um, so we didn't qualify for that at the time. Um, so I'm not sure how they determine what is important or what they're going to RFP for. Um, but they're saying that 95% of their funding does go back out into the community.

So the reason I'm asking this question is to see what we can do to dig into that fund that part of the 95%. So meaning if we have a project and like affordable housing project uh if we have plans already and and we're ready to break ground like you said can we go and and apply for some of that funding and would we get it in addition to the 2.9 million that we're receiving?

May I Casey? Yes, Vice Mayor. Thank you so much for the question. That is an option. So in addition to the direct allocation through the trust for Burbank and Pasadena in that NA um Casey was mentioning we did reach out to our partner for example the Burbank housing corporation you have a development and title the council will hear more about that in a in a later the month um you have an opportunity to apply directly to this NA for other funding sources. So that is an option we do and we will continue to look for that information. So, as there's something that becomes available, we can see how it can benefit the community because it is in addition to the amount that um we were just we're sharing in this presentation this evening.

Thank you. I I I just hoping that we keep an eye on whatever funding is out there and whatever projects that we want to make happen here for our city. Yeah. So, in addition Oh, go ahead. Yes. Sorry. Thank you, man.

Uh yeah. Yeah. So, what what's frustrating about that is one, we're begging for our money back uh again, and then two, more than likely that's onetime grant monies. Maybe we could get a few years out of it. So, again, there is still no local return that we could count on other than the 2.9, which you know, if we're giving 20 million and that grows based on our sales tax, we get the 2.9 back, but it's pretty limited. So, it's just frustrating to be able to figure out how to do ongoing programs with one-time monies or monies that we got to, you know, apply for and go through a whole process and spend a lot of time to try to get that, you know, we can't always count on. So, so I I just wanted to from a staff perspective, that is always a a challenge for us.

So, thank you uh for that explanation. So with tax sales tax declining because we've noticed some declining of sales tax at least for our city not significantly but it has declined. Does that amount declines with it too the 12.9 so we can't really count on a fixed number we fluctuate. Yeah, I mean it it adjusts and remember this is a um what we provide to them is our number other cities are providing you know there's about 80 yeah 80 plus cities that are providing there. So they're still getting a lot of money um even even on a downturn of of sales tax. So but but it is uh fluid. So we have to be careful with that money to be exact because it could come in sales tax revenues could be lower you know next year or the year after so we can't always count on that amount to be there all the time also yeah council member Anthony you have a follow-up question so follow-up question about the one-time grant looking for onetime grants versus the ongoing ing funding which may or may not be consistent. Um when we're looking at, you know, giving staff direction as a council, um would it be prudent to look at how we can focus mainly on the ongoing um uh programming for our recurring funds? And then when we have projects that are coming up like BHC or other affordable housing to to look at the one-time grants versus trying to use our ongoing funds for those kind of improvement programs.

Yes. Thank thank you mayor and I would like to clarify I was answering the vice mayor's question regarding the separate LCASa part of bucket of funds and any NAS that they put out whether it be for new development. they they still have to follow the same guidelines. So, I don't want to give the impression, please, I don't want to correct and give the impression that there's um separate money that may help with the homeless services that we've been implementing. My my intent with that information is that separate from the direct allocation we're getting through the trust for these ongoing funds until the measure is repealed pretty much we're restricted to what these now theou is between the trust and LASA and also we're restricted by the implementing procedures. So, Lacassa also has the the separate part of funding that that Lacassa has, they also have their own restrictions. And so, whatever they put out in terms of ANOA likely to be for new development, likely to be for firsttime mortgage, you know, different things. So, I just wanted to clarify that um mayor if I if I may. Now, back to the direction for our ongoing. This is really we're expecting this to be ongoing um funds to the community that fluctuating whether on a annual basis is it really going to be 3 million maybe it's a little bit less maybe it's a little bit more but again restricted to the different uh parameters that uh Miss Lee mentioned in the presentation. So that's the direction we're looking on it looking at is that ongoing to the city from the trust as the as the um entity that's going to be funding that money to us.

Okay. Yes. Council member Anthony.

So so under under measure A 35% of this tax goes to LCASa. Um the biggest chunk goes to the local solutions fund and the comprehensive homeless services. So we can apply for affordable housing to get from Lacassa. That's our funding mechanism, right? To go through Lacassa. They have a pool and goes to the affordable housing trust and that comes to us. But the local solutions fund, we apply for that directly and that's allocated based on our point in time homeless count. That's automatically set. We don't like tell them what we're doing. We just say this is how many the local solutions fund direct allocation, right? Based on our need, on the number of people who are unhoused. Is that correct?

Yes, it's a direct allocation. I'm not sure exactly how they calculate Okay. the amount. Um, but from what I'm reading, the largest chunk is something called the comprehensive homeless services. Is that just the money that goes to the county that they can use and they don't give that to any of the cities through any funding program? The vast majority of the money goes to the county. They hold on to it. To uh the vice mayor's point, we don't know what they're doing with it. They don't dole it out to grants. They don't like create individual programming with that big chunk more than half of this whole thing.

Council member Anthony, that that is what Lacassa is administering and that those are the different NAS or RFPs or requests for apply to our funding. That's what Miss Lee was mentioning that they So, Lacassa. Okay. So, Lacassa not only h does all of the affordable housing grants, but it also administers all of the other things that you mentioned as well. They have their own and this is the piece that u Miss Lee was mentioning. They have that other pot of money that they're administering that is separate from our direct allocation. Right. I think I'm asking two different questions.

Okay. So that pot there's a big pot there's a 35% of all the taxes come in goes to LCASa and Lacassa doss that out to the with theou to the trust and that comes to us right laassa has that pot of money separate from that there's a big chunk of local solutions fund and comprehensive homeless services meaning the other 60% what's not going to LCASa goes to county directly and part of portion of that is the local services fund which is automatically allocated based on our need but I'm looking at 40 45% of the entire tax that they get billions of dollars that goes to the county and there's no allocation of that they don't have a program set up or is some of that money or all of that money also funneled through Lacassa or is it separate and sitting being in a tank somewhere and they're not spending it. Like

I do not know the answer to that question, but we're happy to look into that for you. We're curious as well and we'll get back to you on that. It is supposed to be spent in between programs and services that the county already provides. So services that are currently provided by your friends at Lassa and and things like like like you know what I mean? Like like I'm not going to tell you what they actually are are doing with it. telling you where it should be going because that's supposed to be the same way we get our portion which we don't like the way it's been split up. They get their portion for their county services cuz this is supposed to replace measure H and they're supposed to fund that.

But where is the I know they spent a lot of time setting up Lacassa and getting all that ready to go and they've got the money set up and it's doing out and then they've got the local solutions fund and that's set up and it's the money's being doled out. My question is what are they doing with this other 40% of the entire tax? Have they have you heard anything about them creating a fund where individual cities can apply for grants and get I think that's a current argument at the board of supervisors level that it this is being like peacemeal like together

and then I will say these are a lot of the questions that council is asking right now are the questions that and and I'm sorry to Marville cuz she watched me get frustrated at the housing trust asking the Lassa a representative and I think the last question I asked him was so what do you know what can you tell me what what is you know the guidance here do you think that knowing how that would be spent would change the direction we're giving to staff on this this funding that's exactly where I'm getting at that's what you're getting at I see I just would behoove us and to the mayor's point to return to the like conversation at hand not count on that money when we're splitting this one that I just would not

assume we don't have access to it and then if we do if we do end up having access to it later, we can adjust how this goes. But for now, I think probably the best assumption is we don't. And to how do we best um use this $3 million given the restrictions we have, right? And and and that that's my question. So today, right in front of us, item number three is Yeah. We have some money coming in that we thought was going to be for one thing. Yeah. That we can't use it for. Exactly. So what do we spend it on?

Exactly. So this conversation's been great, I think, for like really clarifying about what's happening so the community can understand. But this item is exactly what you just said. This is what this item is for tonight to to direct staff at least preliminar preliminarily.

You know, I I do have a question um for staff in looking at the slide seven with eligible uses actually think six and seven mentioned. Are you is staff looking to us to give direction on which of these suggested on these two slides six and seven of which one of these you're asking us to prioritize or how how is the best way to convey the information to you and how can we best um you know just have the discussion because you know looking at these two slides basically my answer is yes

right for both slides it seems like these are good options all of them and And without knowing maybe more guidance, it's hard to for me at least to kind of conceptualize what feedback you're looking for um for how to you allocate the funds. Thank you, mayor. I'll start and Miss Lee may may add additional. So certainly for the production, preservation and ownership as was presented that would be if there's a direction on any sort of program for example, I'll start with a slide six here. um if there is any any direction on a on a particular program we could look into, we we can certainly do that. And then the flip side is if there's a particular development um that comes forward and and requires or asks for um assistance for with gap financing for a project, we would come back to um the council and and present that project for example for for possible financing. The one that that one area that we is more related to some of the current programming that we've talked about is on the slide seven related to renter protection homeless prevention. Um it was identified in the presentation that there are current programs that are currently funded through the general fund that do qualify under the RPH bucket. So if there is a direction from the council to do that that we can um continue those programs under um it would be on slide seven. No, no. What programs?

So, uh, council funded $100,000, kind of two different buckets. Uh, CDD had funding that they were using for housing rights center to come and do clinics and council gave us funding two years ago. We've carried the funds over and spread them $100,000 to do mediation, of which we've had a number. Uh low income legal assistance grants, which I think we've done five or six. Uh and um uh a couple other programs, but um we're running out of funds and we didn't request more money in the budget. Uh I don't think because we were looking at this being an eligible source.

I see. So So the programs have been uh successful. Um the staffing that you with $650,000 funded across both departments. My department alone has handled over 89 tenant assistant requests specifically in addition to coordinating the mediation. So, it's funding for mediation um and for uh grants and more um landlord tenant information workshops. Uh is are those correct? The housing rights clinics. Correct. Housing clinics. Yeah.

So, my question that would take it um that would relieve the general fund and it relieves the liability from paying for the salaries in the general fund. Yeah. Okay. That seems reasonable. No, not the salaries. No, the program, not the not our full-time employees. Okay. Um the uh operating costs for the mediators are all outside attorneys.

The um for the $5,000 low-income legal assistance grants, they find an attorney and then they apply and we reimburse up to $5,000. So they're private attorneys that the tenants select and then the information clinics have been provided by a local nonprofit, the housing rights center and Holla is Holla is managing the assist the grants for the low-income folks. Am I missing something?

No, those are the ones. Housing rights clinic, low-inccome legal grant and the mediation program. Is there restriction to why we can't have the salaries paid out of this fund as well? You you are looking at funding too uh uh positions uh with within that to administer to help administer that. So yeah, so we would like to shift it from shift any of the programs that we are currently using general fund money over to absolutely uh the measure A. Yeah, that seems reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. that and and mind you, these are like incredibly restricted funds, so that's what we should be using. Might as well use it and that helps our general fund. Is that would that use all of it or we still have some left over? Oh, yeah. It's $2.9 million.

Can I offer something? Going to add one suggestion. I had staff print this out because if you all remember when we were talking about the budget white papers last year and staff brought forward um the budget white paper on on rental assistance on um was it for I mean you all can pass this around for it's for increasing home LA's

yes for the rental assistance and council sat here like well do we want to fund that do we want to fund that and I remember if you all remember I said no let's not do that because I knew knew that measure A was going to have a pot of money specifically allocated to that. And from the preliminary discussions that we had had with Lassa coming to the housing trust, they had been very clear. Now, they hadn't said how much, which is the annoyance here, but they had been very clear that there was going to be a portion of the funding that was going to be restricted to programs like that to to um I'm losing the word to to rental assistance type programs that were preventative from falling pe from uh people falling into homelessness. and they said these would be very restricted funds when we were asking the questions, which is why I wanted to hold off using our general fund dollars and being more fiscally responsible and using these funds that would be incredibly restrictive for what they were meant to to assist. So, I think now's the time if we wanted to look at that to add it on

to reintroduce our white paper. Okay. Yes. Yeah, Madame Mayor, it is that time. We haven't been here in a while. It's been a long time. I have been waiting for this. So, yeah. So, uh, so I'm hoping we're we're getting close to the end on this one. We do have one more item that is really related. So, we would like to, uh, continue, uh, and finish with the last report as well. One last thing. Yeah. And if that works, you I think you guys have to vote. Well, it's 11, so you need a motion and a second or this meeting's over. That's right. But the city manager is like saying he thinks it's okay. We can keep going on it. Okay. Everyone in agreement. We're good. I make a motion to pass 11:00. Let's get this done. Sorry, staff.

Do we need a city clerk to do a vote for all five of us? Just raise hands. Raise your hand. Council member Anthony Perez, Rosani Mullins, Tagashi. Thank you.

Um, I wanted to just put one thing and see how you guys feel about this. On page three of the staff report for at the very top, production preservation ownership funds. The third bullet point, developing ownership assistance programs, including down payment assistance. I want to see what your feelings are for putting aside some of this money to help convert some of our apartments into co-ops so that people or possibly condos. I know there's no no to buy the whole thing. It's assistance program. So, like we don't pay the down payment, we give them a little bit extra.

Like what's a little bit extra? We'll figure how much money we got. You know, Madame Mayor, for for the sake of time and also what we're doing right now since we're we're not allocating we're not telling staff like spend this much here and this much here. We're just telling them the things we would like for them to bring back. I know that the housing trust actually is looking at a program specifically right now for complimentary home loans. Okay. So, this may be a way to have that come back. Okay. So, maybe we just leave it open to see if we can get something back on that.

But I I I do agree with you that we do need to look at ownership because that's what we want to do is encourage more people to be in have ownership in our condominiums or town homes or whatever. But I don't know with the amount of funds that we have. They're they're 2.9. I'm going to just do the assistance program. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe an in we've had a significant increase in single family homes that are now rentals in Burbank. So I would like to see about helping those.

Okay. So so keep in mind uh having discretionary funds to create or continue programs that the city can control is one thing. Um, we had a history from about 2007 to maybe 2009, maybe because people had applied of owners converting apartments to condos. A co-op is a different process, right? Sure.

And that's a process I don't think we've had a single co-op project in over 20 years, if ever. So, I want to just be careful of you thinking you're earmarking money for something we don't know. That's actually never happened. Oh, sure. I So, that's a kind of a subject you'd really need to bring back. I was just throwing stuff out there. If we want to just stick with condo stuff, that's fine. Well, to Yeah, I mean to all of your three 2.9 is not a lot of money. when it was affordable to assist BHC in converting existing units to affordable. It was costing us half a million per unit and that was quite a while ago. Oh boy. So,

2.9 doesn't get you very far. And you'll hear more about that later this month. Madame Mayor, may I Is this something that perhaps we can carry over to our next report? I wish we had like all the discussion at one time so we could see is this something that we can talk about our homeless center what we can do with projects in there um affordable housing da da da da there's a lot of other things that we can do. So can we leave some of that conversation or we can talk about it in the next report?

How about this? So, um, so we're looking for direction from you. Um, and we're not necessarily, uh, voting. Uh, so what what I'm hearing though is that I think what we want to do where I I hear agreement is that we want to take, uh, um, whatever we have right now that's being funded by uh, existing general fund and move that over to uh, um, to the measure a restricted funds. And I think that that will help us as we look to refine the budget that we're going to bring back to you uh, um, uh, next month. Uh so so that that's a great starting point and fills most of these buckets as well. So I think uh with that um I think we could uh uh lean into the uh um kind of leave that that first uh uh bucket related to housing production. We could leave that uh um uh um untouched right now and leave and and just uh uh you know give this direction and then I think the next item will kind of take care of the rest of the money.

Okay. And we'll have more opportunity to discuss this when the budget comes. You will get the budget. We will refine this based on this item, next item. And we will refine that and you will have you will be presented a new fund. What 110. You're going to get a whole new fund. Okay. uh fund 110, which that will have a whole line item budget that you're you're going to be able to see kind of a more refined uh um itemized list of of uh what you guys are going to be spending on uh um next month as part of the budget. And Council Member Anthony, that's a good time too for you to look more specifically at I think the opportunities of what how measure A is being.

Yeah. And madam mayor, I just want to say so with the clarification that the only thing we're we're adding to this is the white paper that we had wanted to fund originally and and adding that piece into it. A and also what we talked about earlier with the emergency vouchers.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I if I may, may I chime in just to make sure staff understands um because those are are are newer. So, I've um um as our city manager was mentioning the current programming that you see on slide seven, we're talking about our PHP current programming shifting it from the general fund to measure A. So, lifting people up, the housing rights clinic, any of the low-inccome legal grant mediation. Uh then we even are looking at rental assistance a current program that um we have through local solutions fund putting it here as well because that gives other opportunity for local solutions fund to be utilized for other areas and then that's what I wanted to make sure under temporary rental assistance if that's the direction of the council looking at providing that to our emergency housing vouchers and and permanent supportive housing vouchers. Great. And then we have the note about a uh white paper budget paper on the enhanced relocation program. So those would be the different the two new ones the vouchers and the enhanced relocation um that we could look at to to come back. Uh the one thing also that you will see as um Mr. Hess was mentioning is in the budget there is the two uh two new staff persons. Miss Lee mentioned it as well because this $3 million a year is a big pot of money. So, we're looking at those positions to be uh new positions that you'll be looking at in next year's budget to be able to administer the programs, create new programs, bring that forward. So, I wanted to mention that as well because that um Mr. McDougall was mentioning that the the shifting of the money is not necessarily for the salaries and benefits for of the people. It's the programming because we are looking at and you'll see this in the in the budget is at information about staffing resources, administrative resources to be able to carry out this new in this

new pot of money. So that'll be part of the budget process that you will be seeing in the next few months. Okay. All right. Ready to move on? Okay. So that's this is a direction, not a vote on this one, right? Okay. Great. So, we're going to move on right to the the next and final four. So, so just to be clear, yeah, that's five nods. Yes, Miss Leland, that sounds great. Please proceed. And Mr. Hess. Okay. Yes. I I just want to make sure I'm clear.

See? Yes. No, there's no objection to what she just said. All right. Fourth and final report to council tonight is an update on the homelessness programs and the homeless solutions center, which is kind of part B or part but part two. uh approval to withdraw the request for grant funding for the Burbank Glendel Pasadena Regional Housing Trust Joint Power Authority and discussion of potential options for property previously slated for homeless solution center. Welcome Miss Simone Far McFarland, assistant community development director to please present the report. Welcome. Thank you very much. And thank you for staying late to do this presentation for us. Although I get a little bunky after 11. So

yeah, same. Um, can I have the presentation, please? Thank you.

So, uh, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council. As the mayor indicated, I'm Simone McFarland, assistant community development director for, um, community development. And tonight I'm joined by Casey Lee uh who is our housing development manager who oversees our homeless programs and Bob Newman who is our in charge of our homeless outreach. Tonight we'll be covering two main topics. First I'll walk you through the proposed homeless solution center project located at the old Hollywood Piano Store building um at 233 and 333 Front Street. And then Casey's going to provide you an update on the current status of the homeless programs. As a preview, I um will tell you that thanks to your leadership and staff's continued efforts, we're seeing strong progress in the homeless arena. Um and then at the end, I will close the pre presentation with a request for your direction and a proposed motion. So, let's begin. Tonight, staff is asking council to consider options for the Front Street project. We'll walk you through each of these options and the reason behind them as we move through the presentation. At the same time, staff is requesting that council withdraw the previously requested funding requests submitted to the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Housing Trust, which will allow those funds to be redirected uh to support other housing projects. As you know, at council's direction, staff has been advancing the design of the proposed homeless solution center at Front Street. And the project currently includes 52 tiny home suites, 17 safe parking stalls, and facility improvements for the delivery of homeless services. In parallel, our homeless programs have continued to make meaningful progress. With your support, we've expanded outreach efforts, enhanced service

deliveries, and strengthened partnerships, resulting in a more robust and responsive system overall. As staff has worked through the entitlement process for Front Street, funding has re uh continued to be a consistent challenge. We had anticipated as you know in the last discussion that measure A would provide both one-time funding con for construction and a reliable ongoing revenue source for operations. However, um from the previous discussion, you know that that has not materialized. Don't still have three. Okay. Um, at this time the project faces a funding gap of more than $8 million with operational uh ongoing operational cost estimated at $1.6 million annually. In addition, as presented last month, the city is projecting a structural budget deficit over the next five years. And this is an issue the council will be addressing in the next budget process. Simply put, unfortunately, the funding needed to move this project forward is currently not available. Staff has actively pursued grant opportunities, but we have not been able to identify any ongoing operational support grants, and many of these are not aligned with this type of project. At this point in time, I'm going to turn the presentation back over to Casey Lee, who's going to update you on our homeless programs, and then I'll be back at the end. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and members of the city council. Casey Lee, housing development manager. Thank you. Before we discuss the city's current homeless programming, it is important to recognize the shift in the region's

policy and funding landscape. For many years, local juris jurisdictions looked to the county as an important partner in supporting homeless programs and services. However, over the past few years, the city has requested assistance or partnership with the county and those requests have been denied. Council, you you heard in the earlier presentation that measure a Lacassa funds do not provide the kind of flexible funding needed for the proposed homeless solution center as originally envisioned. Those funds cannot be relied upon for ongoing program services, operational expenses, or direct support for people who are currently experiencing homelessness in the way that this project would require. At the same time, Los Angeles County is facing an estimated reduction of rough roughly 200 million in homelessness services service dollars. This means that competition for limited resources will only intensify and cities like Burbank must be realistic about what outside funding can and cannot do. Although the landscape of homelessness is changing, the city continues to provide robust and effective homeless programming with local solutions funds and general funds. This starts with the city's outreach teams. Our work is not limited to a single team or department. It is a coordinated network that includes our homeless outreach team, park patrol program, library ambassador program, library social work services, the Burbank Police Department, and the Burbank Police Department's mental health evaluation team, and internal city staff who help coordinate responses across departments. What council has helped support over time is a layered response combined with a practice practical system that allows staff and partners to engage people in the field, assess needs, connect services, and continue re-engagement until we are successful in meeting the unsheltered needs. That coordinated approach is one of the reasons the city has been able to make meaningful progress. In addition to field outreach, Burbank

has expanded the physical service infrastructure to support people in crisis and help them move towards stability. Construction for the Burbank home again Los Angeles access center is underway. This project will offer four transitional suites and strengthen services for families experiencing homelessness. The Burbank Tempor Aid Center has expanded its hours and services. It now offers broader access, additional shower hours, increased laundry capacity, Saturday availability, and expanded support, not only for families, but soon for indivi individuals as well. The safe navigation and storage center provides several essential services that often help people take first steps toward towards stabilization. These include shower access, storage availability, and case management. Together, these facilities along with others show Burbank is building a targeted, scalable service capacity that meets many important needs. Beyond outreach teams and facilities, the city uses flexible service tools to address homelessness on an individual basis. These include motel vouchers, reunification funds, and rent and utility assistance. The city also utilizes Caseworthy, a data management software that promotes better oversight and reporting of homeless data. These programs are funded with local solutions funds and general funds. Importantly, these efforts occur alongside measurable progress. Although we are still waiting for the final numbers, preliminary data from the annual point in time count suggests an overall decrease of 29%. Which reflects the value of continued outreach, targeted services, and coordination. This shows the council's investment in practical programming are working. The robust outreach assistance provided by outreach staff and homeless service providers has allowed the city to transition 228 people out of homelessness since we started counting in April 2019. This includes 51 in the

2025 calendar year. The categories shown here were created by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority or Lassa and are used throughout the county to track homeless transitions. The transition numbers remain strong and relatively consistent over time. This shows that the city and its partners are continuing to help people make real exits from homelessness into more stable living situations. This slide outlines how outreach work works in practice. The process you usually begins by identifying either an individual or location that that can happen through direct outreach observation, community reports, 311 requests, partner referrals, or monitoring of highfrequency areas. From there, outreach staff engage in a respectful and non-confrontational manner. The goal is to begin building rapport and understand what is happening. Staff then assesses immediate needs that may include food, hygiene, health concerns, mental health issues, interest in shelter, transportation barriers, missing identification, or urgent crisis concerns. Once needs are assessed, services are offered based on what is available and what the person is willing to consider at that time. Outreach also coordinates referrals to appropriate partners, providers, county teams, medical resources, behavioral health teams, or internal city departments. Staff then documents each interaction and the next steps so individuals can be re-engaged consistently over time. As mentioned in the previous slide, the outreach team, which consists of one city staff coordinator, Bob Newman, and five contracted outreach workers through Allied Universal. They provide a consistent, coordinated, and thoughtful approach to engagement. In 2025, the outreach team recorded 705 total engagements, 562 ongoing follow-ups and re-engagement contacts, and 422 unique people engaged. The high number of follow-up and re-engagement contacts shows that this work is not

transactional and staff are going back repeatedly building trust, checking in and continuing to offer offer a pathway to help. When engaging individuals, outreach staff offer many services. This slide shows the number of services offered in the 2025 calendar year. The largest categories were document and benefit assistance, shelter and housing referrals, and basic needs support like food, clothing, and hygiene. These categories are significant because they demonstrate the practical barriers people encounter as they move off the streets. Success stories. This slide demonstrates what success looks like when recognizing the work's complexity. For example, one person experienced chronic street homeless for about 20 years. Through consistent collaboration between the mental health department, the county's home team, and the Burbank mental health evaluation team, as well as allied outreach staff, this person now receives mental health treatment and shows measurable progress. In another case, a chronically homeless veteran remained resistant to services for two years. He came to Burbank seeking to reconnect with his daughter, but did not find her and was unwilling to leave. After persistent outreach and steady relationship building, he ultimately accepted placement in a veteran housing program where he continues to live today. Each of these individuals was engaged by outreach staff and offered services over 200 times. Outreach staff has also fostered reunifications, helping unsheltered people in Burbank reconnect with family or support systems elsewhere. These outcomes may not always be the most visible, but they are significant and transformative. It is important to point out that not every case resolves quickly. Some individuals decline services even after extensive outreach. In those cases, staff continues to show up, engage, and leave the door open. This ongoing perseverance reflects the realities of homelessness work. We offer support, practical resources, and coordinated interventions. However, outcomes

ultimately depend on readiness, willingness, and sometimes circumstances beyond our control. The homeless services team, outreach staff, city partners, and nonprofit providers have delivered exceptional support to individuals experiencing homelessness in our community. Their collective efforts have produced meaningful results as reflected in the outcomes highlighted in the previous slides. The team is also working on enhancements to existing services in the future. These include an increase in local solutions funds for homeless programs from current year of 380,000 to $460,000 for fiscal year 2627. An increase of $80,000 allowing for expanded funding for the motel voucher program, security deposits, reunification services, and case management. Lacassa funding will provide funds for affordable housing development and preservation and funding for renter protections and homeless prevention. As discussed earlier this evening, as proposed programs utilizing general funds consist of int intensive case management and facility improvements at the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, including a new computer lab to allow for a safe and inviting location for homeless to access computers and case management services. These projects and services will be brought to council as part of the annual budget cycle. We are excited about the continuation of our current programs and we we look forward to the enhanced and new programs and services in the future. And now I will turn it back over to Simone for continued discussion on the front street property. Thank you, Casey. Can I have the Thank you. When when we originally bought Front Street um and it was acquired, we had several potential uses that were evaluated at that time and that was uh

possibly a transitional shelter, a reuse store, expanded Metroink parking, the sale or the sale of the property and affordable housing. At that time, council selected a transitional housing as a preferred option. However, as discussed this evening, a transitional shelter is not financially feasible as proposed and under the current conditions. As a result, staff is asking council to consider an alternative viable use for the site. Based on our analysis, staff believes that the affordable housing represents a strong and practical path forward, another way to succeed. There are several compelling reason reasons why affordable housing represents a strong alternative for this site. First, expanding the housing supply is clearly a clearly stated council priority, including a focus on encouraging incentivizing mixeduse development. Advancing affordable housing at this location would directly support that goal. Secondly, affordable housing, particularly at low income levels or lower income levels, typically requires some type of financial assistance to be feasible. In this case, the city has a unique opportunity to contribute the land as part of the solution and significantly significantly strengthening the project's viability. If the city proceeds in that way, under the surplus land act, the council could initiate a process similar to an RFQ or an RFP process to identify a qualified developer as a partner. This approach would allow the city to establish key terms upfront, including the type of housing, the targeted income levels, and ensuring that the project aligns with community priorities. Finally, there are ex existing funding sources available to support this type

of development, including major A and housing trust funds, both of which could be leveraged to bring this project to fruition. And in the housing trust funds, the original allocation was a little less than 7 million, $6.9 million for housing development in Burbank. So in closing, this represents a strategic opportunity to turn a challenging situation into a meaningful community investment. By pivoting to afford h affordable housing, the council can align this site with its data priorities, leverage available funding, and deliver a project that has lasting benefit to the community. Rather than allowing financial constraints to stall progress, this m this approach positions the city to move forward with purpose, creating a muchneeded housing, strengthening partnerships, and maximizing the value of a city-owned asset. staff respectively recommends that the council take this step and in set a clear achievable path forward by considering affordable housing on the site and withdrawing the request from the Burbank Glendale Pasadena housing trust funds. That is the end of our presentation and we are all here for questions.

Great. Thank you for the presentation. Madame city clerk, do we have any cards? We do. Okay. So, the public comment period for this report to council is now beginning and no additional cards will be accepted. We have uh looks like two public comments. So, you'll get three minutes each. We'll start with MJ Kenny followed by Ron Bax. Welcome. You're tenacious staying this late. Thank you for staying. Someone told me we would get to this agenda item at 7:30. Oh my goodness. I was I was optimistic.

It wasn't anyone here. It was someone well-meaning, you know. But yeah, I maybe I should second guess that now that I think about it. Welcome. You have three minutes.

Three minutes. Okay. Good evening. My name is MJ Kenny. I am a Burbank resident and for the past year, I have worked directly with the unhoused outside Burbank Central Library. Not as a city contractor nor a nonprofit employee, but as a neighbor who can't look away. According to the city's own 2025 point in time count, there are 214 homeless people in Burbank. Tonight, staff is asking this council to formally abandon the one project that would have provided them direct shelter, the homeless solutions center, and replace it with effectively nothing. Nearly every resource the city touts is designed for unhoused families, not individuals. We have one library social worker and one BET social worker, both available only during standard business hours. BTAC requires documentation, limits visits to once per month, and despite staff reporting expanded hours, neither their website nor Google listing reflects this. There are two shower stalls at the safe site on Front Street. Two for a population of over 200 people. There is no reliable free food outside 10:30 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday. On the 3rd and fourth Saturdays, there are zero options. Until ordinary people of this community stepped in, there was nothing available on Sundays. Staff would prefer you to focus on their preliminary street count of just 51 people, a number that doesn't account for vehicle dwellers or sheltered homeless and one that won't be verified until May or June. What the city is offering is taxpayer funded meetings that don't resolve homelessness and a private security company retrofitted to double as outreach. This is not a strategy. This is negligence with a budget line. Please do not abandon this project without something real to replace it. To be clear, the recommendation to research alternative options without a timeline and without first addressing the gaps I've outlined is effectively nothing. There are people here in Burbank that are sleeping on

cement in dark parking lots by dumpsters in the meantime. What will the city do to address these gaps? Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment. Next up and my last card is Ronbacks, first speaker and last speaker of the day.

Well, now I have something to put on my resume. I guess you get me ac cappella tonight. That means in this context without preparation. I was pleased to learn of the plan to put the homeless center in a few years ago because I thought Burbank was going to solve a problem the other community our neighboring cities have not been able to. It's a great uh location because it's away from the residential areas. It's close to transportation and I didn't know that 10 East Verdugo was part of it although it's not shown on the slide three here. So, I'm a little confused. I'm disappointed that it appeared that you were walking away from that vision. And with this previous presentation, I realized my IR shouldn't shouldn't be directed at you guys. Should be directed to the county because getting 300,000 back on 20 million. I think you use those numbers. Uh, says that I'm sorry, Councilwoman Mal. Whatever. It's late.

It's late. Need to get you a nickname, I guess, for now. But then it's 20 million uh 3 million out of um 30 million, which means that the county is char charging a 90% processing fee on your money. That's depressing. I wish we had them here to scold them. Anyway, I wanted to stay here to express the first part of that. Like I said, with the other presentation that preceded it, I go home thinking. So, thank you. And I'm not going to stay back for your deliberation. It's late. I got to get up at u I got a contractor showing up at 8.

All right. Thank you for your comments and sleep well. Good luck. Okay. So, uh, does staff have any feedback or reflection on after the public comment? Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Um, members of the city council. There is I I I think Miss McFarland has additional feedback. I do want to start with one thing that when we um did meet with the affordable housing subcommittee on the homeless solutions center, one of the things that we talked about was having a frequently asked questions. there was a member of the public about stating about some of the gaps, some of the needs and and so this information has been put together. My understanding it is not maybe has not gotten out to the council members yet but we are have developed that it's um chalk full of information by categories what we provide what we don't provide and the reasons that we do have some areas that members of the public may seem um maybe are gaps and the reasons why whether it be for safety reasons or just there's other um entities in our community that we connect folks to that could better provide some of those services. So, I did want to mention that mayor and and council members that that has been developed and and we will be getting out that to the council members to have that FAQ and also be make it available to members of the public. Thank you.

Okay. Yeah, you're you're going to see that this week. So, you'll get it and then we will do all our usual media and post that out and get that as much as we can to everybody. So, that that's our goal. Okay. Any other staff response? No. Okay. All right. Council questions, comments. Uh, council member Zadi, Vice Mayor, you guys do get out. Who wants to go first?

So, uh, regarding the the affordable housing element, is that being proposed through like a land lease or what? How is that being proposed? You mean to do affordable housing at that location? Yes, ma'am. We would do a land lease. That was what staff would recommend is a land lease and then we find a developer to work with us to build it out. And I'm just asking, has there ever been or is there a project that includes affordable housing and a shelter? Is it possible? You know, of any Bob? I'm gonna ask Mr. Newman if he knows of any.

That's a great question. Uh Bob Newman, uh community development department. Nice to be here with you. Um I'm not aware of any that have it on on the roof. I mean, there are some mixed use, but uh not to that degree that I'm aware of, but we could research it. And I I think part of the consideration of that is that if you're doing housing, affordable housing, and a shelter at the same time, you're mixing some demographics that you may not want to mix because if you're doing the shelter, you're going to probably have mostly single men or women that have been living on the street and you're mixing them in with affordable housing that may have children or that. Yeah, I think that that's probably the

I was just wondering if there's a configuration that could give us Sorry, can I jump in? It does exist. Does it? Yeah. So, we have like the Weine Guard Tower downtown in LA. We also have um in Vanise the panel. They That's what they're working on with um uh LA family housing.

Does it work? Some of the considerations that Simone brought up are very true and it's one of the I don't want to call it workarounds because if anybody at the county is watching this, we're not trying to work around. We are trying to fund something that works for the city. But it it's some of the considerations that more places are looking at now because you can use those LCASa funds and you can use your um your other like regular pool of funds, your um what are they called? The local solution funds. I just think something we should look at.

Um, we should look at all aspects. That's one thing we should look at. If if there's a way to build that project with the affordable housing element and the homeless shelter, we should at least look at it and and and weigh those options. And and the other thing I just wanted to say is, you know, we we we we own this property. It's sitting there vacant for years. um we should consider maybe doing something with that property temporarily and maybe that's a safe park zone. Um what does that look like? What does that cost? And um I think should be a discussion because it's again it's property for me property sitting there vacant uh is is terrible.

Can can I ask didn't we have a discussion about safe parking in that space a while back? We did. And what what came of that? It wasn't the we didn't have enough room for it or what was it? Well, right now it's configured for 17 safe parking spaces. It could those parking spaces could remain. The the question that staff would ask council if we were to do something like that and leave say we leave 16 spaces for safe parking and then we try to develop some type of affordable housing units there. The that the safe parking would be temporary, right? It's temporary.

And so what would be our long-term plan for that safe parking? Will we want to move it when we build the affordable housing out? You council's very much aware of when we make decisions and then they have long-term ramifications when we have to move people around. So our uh staff's perspective would be we would want to answer that question before we just jump into a temporary use. And just as a followup, one of the questions I would love to see answered in that conversation just because in this field, a lot of agencies and and and mind you, I would be saying something very different four years ago when we were three year three and three and change when we were sitting here very early into our tenure talking about safe parking. At that moment, it was kind of the hot commodity. There were a lot of vehicles on the road. Our number of vehicles has decreased and the county at large, the numbers have decreased. And I I've just seen some of the partners that I work out with um in in the valley have reduced their numbers of safe parking or or canceled their programs. And of course, some of that is funding constraints, but a good chunk of it is usage. If you don't have utilization for whatever reason, it could be that folks just don't want to go, but it could also be that there's less people in their cars.

What What was the number that was in the report? The number that would was it 30 people in the number that said they would use safe parking? Yeah. 17 17 17 and there's a consideration for that because we can't use major A funds for that either. So we'd have to use general fund. And then the question becomes and staff needs to do some more research if council decides to do this on how much does that safe parking cost because if we're only doing 17, what's the per space cost? It's going to be quite high and can we afford that? And if we do larger to lower the cost per space, then we probably won't fill it with disper banking. We'll have to fill it with other people.

Can I ask you guys, that was your first meeting, right? The safe parking. Uh I think uh Nick Schultz was on council at the time. I think that was his item that he wanted. The first meeting, the the first full meeting after the reorg. Yeah, it was really I remember. So I think council member Schultz brought that up because they were looking at airport parking at that time. LA County was doing um a safe parking facility at LAX and so he asked had asked if we could do safe parking at our airports but our airport parking lots are full so that wasn't

I I I agree with council member Perez in the sense of um I'd really rather use the 17 spaces to go towards lowincome housing because that space is going to be needed to provide the low-income housing instead of taking it for parking spaces. And yes, looking at it long-term, um once you put somebody in there and you take it away from them, it it's very difficult. So, for me personally, I I I see what you're saying and I I appreciate that you're looking ahead to see the the issues that can arise from taking away the parking. Um, so what do we do about it now and to avoid that from the future? So having having the units or even adding the shelter, I don't know how you can work it, but there is a lot of concerns about mixing the type of uh uses in there with shelter and then also um the lowincome housing. it it it might not work for us, but maybe the the long long-term low-income housing could work for us with a partnership. The um I I I was concerned and I have a question. Couple of things. one the money that we receive from um the housing the joint um agreement on the surface the question comes up what is it you guys are giving them money back uh once you take that money you can't get it back from them can you talk a little bit also about the money and why do we need to give it back and how are we going to ask for it again so so when we were doing the architectural um plans and also the environmental

studies. Part of the money that we were using is PHA funds uh permanent lo permanent housing local allocation allocation. Um these are funds that we get for the state and they only can be used for for housing. So, if we were to do a project that was not used for housing, then we would have to pay those funds back and it's about $750,000. If we were to do a housing project there, those funds would not be have have to be paid back. So, I'm talking about the $3 million that was allocate that was given to us from

Oh, you're talking about the trust funds. I'm sorry, I misunderstood you. 3 million. So the the trust funds we had requested 3 $3,450,000 uh for this project the trust approved that. Um however if if we do a different type of project then we need to go back to the trust and request those funds if we want to use those funds for the new project. So we would return those funds and then say council wanted to do a new affordable housing project. we would go back to the trust and request those funds back for the new project.

Can I ask a followup on that? So, when we requested that money, it was still under the old program. So, we could use it for a homeless shelter. The housing trust money that we're talking about is the original allocation that created the housing trust. There was not I see. We would have to give it back if we don't use it for a homeless shelter because it was originally allocated to us for a homeless shelter. And then we will we'd have to we could re-request it for a different affordable housing project. But technically right now we still have the money but only for a shelter. It it's set aside well I'll let Miss Leland do it because she should probably do it clear but it it is set aside for Burbank housing.

You want to add Miss McFarland did an excellent job of explaining. I just wanted to add a little bit to to what she was mentioning is through the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Regional Housing Trust. The original allocation of that we received the 21 million or so was divided through a funding policy through the trust. Um Miss McFarland mentioned 6.9 to each community Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank. In that original 6.9, the funding policy states a project that is approved by the council um then can go to the regional housing trust and for an application of that pot of money of that 6.9. Miss McFarland took the homeless solution center after the council approved that project and said yes, we give the authorization to apply for that funding. So that trust uh approved that this project only homeless solutions center. So what needs to happen is going back and say because that was only approved for homeless solution center that's not moving forward. We're not going to proceed. Should then the council proceed with another affordable housing project as mentioned this evening. That would be the proposal. Again it's authorizing um staff to apply to the trust for the a new project whether it be permanent supportive housing or whatnot. And I did want to have an opportunity to mention permanent supportive housing because that would be the option of working with our homeless households. So I um council member Rosati was mentioning homeless households and affordable housing. permanent supportive housing is really what we've seen and um could work because these are formally h homeless households going now into affordable housing units and they have the full support of all the services they need on site to be successful in a unit. So that's I think maybe a combination of what I've heard council member asking about homeless shelter on site with housing. So that would be a good blend of having a permanent supportive housing project. Um, just to clarify one thing

on the funding because I get why the question I get the concern from council because we're giving money back. Don't worry about it because the the Tri Housing Trust, we voted from the beginning to allocate p pots of money per city. So that's 6.9 million. That's for us. Glendale can't come in and say, "Well, if you're not going to build this and I'm taking from they can't. Every city has their own allocation already. So we would just be putting it back in our pot saying, "Hey, this project didn't work out. we'll pull it out again or we'll come back and request funding when we have a new project that fits the bill.

On the surface, when um some members of the public read the report saying you're giving back the money, you know how difficult it is to get $3 million, I'm like, we're not we're giving it back. We're we're going to get it back. So, I think it it's just talking about it and assuring that like you said, that money is going to come back to us. was allocated for Burbank, not Glendale. And that's state funds that were allocated by Senator Portantino way back when. So, so definitely I think if if anybody from the public is worried and watching this, maybe not right now, maybe tomorrow morning,

um those funds are are reserved for the city of Burbank. We just need to bring a project forward that meets the requirements, which is building housing. And I just want to throw a plug in because Marbel said the thing I've been thinking here this whole time. How do you get around the stupid restrictions permanent supportive housing because that is going to be the only type of housing that bridges the gap where you can actually bring people off the streets and provide services. Um and and and you don't have to go into like low-income housing. The concern there is we have low-income housing, affordable housing. We have affordable housing. what we are missing and staff had a beautiful presentation by the way when they went forward to the trust with the homeless solution center beautiful presentation where they showed we have affordable housing we have that we have services on the street the thing we're missing is that bridge and permanent supportive housing can also be that bridge in fact in many ways it's kind of bringing us full circle and building a nicer space because it's not going to be the little tiny home type units. It's going to be a brick and mortar, but it is housing that still comes with the supportive services still in that same location and can still be utilized by someone immediately getting off the street, which is the concern that we have because right now to the to the speaker's point, we only have that kind of service for families. I I have a question there because my understanding is that permanent supportive housing requires uh uh case management and some sort of application process or filtration system meaning uh you have to you have to meet certain requirements to getting into there. And so from my understanding it's not directly off the street and into the housing. It's

they've been on the street, they've been assessed multiple times, we've got a program in place for them, and then we find them a space open and move them in. So, it could take anywhere from 72 hours to maybe a week. Is that not correct?

Uh, arguably the same would apply for shelter. What I'm saying is if we originally went with the plan that we wanted, there's a theory that we could have created an immediate rehousing, meaning less than 12 hours from street to shelter, which is what originally when people hear homeless shelter, that's what they think. You're on the street, you go there and get services. And and I'm not saying that that's a reason not to do it. Um well, I think you might want to ask staff about your uh timeline

because as indicated in this in the presentation, some of these people took over 200 contacts. So, um it may be very rare that they speak to someone and that same day they actually show up. It's it I believe it's actually a much more protracted process to encourage someone to even accept shelter housing depending upon the rules and terms that apply to their unique circumstances. Yeah, I'm sure.

So I guess I guess Yeah. All right. And that that really brings a good point to um a lot of the emails and the public that have been coming to speak about um the homeless individuals and particularly at the library. I think the perception is that um they are have not perhaps been approached at times like over 40 50 times contact and Mr. Newman, please help me or correct me if I'm wrong because you do offer shelter when you approach someone um and ask them if they would want to go to a shelter or if they want some services. And this is why you repeat over and over to go and contact them. Is that correct?

Uh yes, thank you for the question, council member. Yes, that's correct. We have a progressive engagement model and even when people don't want to take the uh housing or the shelter uh we keep working with them and in the case of the central library over the course of several months some uh we people that were at the library frequently uh been uh we've done reunifications with uh uh two of which have uh returned back home out of state um as well as uh one has also uh gone to a bridge housing program uh and a couple of the tiny homes, but um there are some obviously that we've uh reached out to uh and and and some that are remaining small group of great people. We compassionately reach out to them. I would say at least uh 30 enga 30 engagements uh with each one of those individuals. Uh and you know, we'll continue to do the best we can. Um but so uh to the point is it's yes some people will jump on opportunity to get into uh shelter to get off the streets uh and get the services improve the quality of life and then there's some it's going are going to take a uh it's a long much longer process and so or and some don't take it at all. Yeah.

Um, as um was mentioned in the uh the housing development manager, Miss Lee, uh mentioned that there was somebody on the streets uh that's been here, you know, on the streets, probably the longest chronically homeless person for over 20 years and he's finally finally getting the help that that he needs. So, uh it you just never know. Everybody's different, but we don't give up. We'll keep trying.

Okay. Thank you. And I think it's it for us to discuss this and I know we're going to have to remind individuals who come here and say um that you know we need to do a better job. We need to have the shelter. Even at times if we had the shelter, it's still sometime difficult to get those individuals into the shelter because of choices that they make not wanting to be in the shelter. So it's just the reality that we have to deal with. Um, but so I wanted just to touch on based on what the city attorney said. Um, I I I have a question in regards to the $1 million that we have already spent. Um, there was a speaker earlier that and then also some of the emails that we received that talked about was that a waste of money. So what what can we say and talk about what happens to that million dollars to all the work that we've done and spend that million dollars on and how are we going to utilize that money for our future project and what we decide on doing. So some of that money we spent on archite architectural drawings that money would not apply to a new project because obviously we would want to build something totally different. But another part of that money we've spent on studies. So uh phase one environmental studies, we finished our environmental reports for that project and they could give us a baseline for a new project. So we wouldn't have to repeat the whole process. We could we would have like a step up before we um before we did affordable housing or some other type of project. And then the studies that we've learned about the existing building. uh if we were to demo that building, those studies would apply towards the demolition of understanding what we would have to do. So the money that we spent towards the studies, some of that

would apply for a new project, but the architectural portion would not. Thank you. But what can we do to ensure not to have this happen again in the future? Like we can talk about low-income housing. We can talk about um the transitional we can so obviously are we going to have to spend more money on another architectural project? Uh and what can we do?

So the the council, the planning commission, uh for as long as the city has existed has had property owners proposed projects. Not all of them get approved. Not all of them get funded. We have some very large developers who are still trying to figure out if projects approved uh seven years ago are still feasible to build and um they have millions of dollars invested. So in some regard, right, we bought the site, but we're the city, so that money is not wasted. We've done assessments um uh on the existing improvements. that money is not wasted. But every time uh the city investigates a new project, there's a potential that if we can't get funding or there's not community support that those some of the investigative costs um they're opportunity costs and we won't get reimbursed. So, I think this this process of uh and we can uh do a a good job of putting together an RFQ where perhaps uh potential developer, affordable housing developers um do some of the investigation and make proposals. So, maybe we're not spending money on architectural before we have a partner. Um, but there's always that risk if we um float an idea and ultimately it it doesn't pencil out or some of the funding isn't available.

Additionally, I mean, we were under the impression that we're doubling the tax measure A, right? That we could use actual homeless measure A funding for homeless activities. That was an assumption that I guess lesson learned and now we have to pivot.

Yeah. And and and if you can mention the one important factor too in this decision uh is the $1.6 million that it takes in in the operation to run the facility which is yes we can find onetime money and we can you know put another eight $8 million but what are we going to do to sustain that facility year after year with the highrise you know expense of running the operations. So, it's the ongoing money that we also have to look at and be careful what we're spending it on.

So, there are operators uh one in particular that spoke at a conference uh last year that manage supportive service projects that they build statewide. Uh one in particular mentioned that they uh own and operate some 6,000 units uh many of which have wraparound services. So they understand the financing of their projects. Uh and uh you know our hope would be that we could devise a request for qualifications that could attract people that can tell us how they would operate on the property. I think the best example just so we can get a visual because like again for me it's easy living in that world but if you've been on Lancer by the LA family housing building that's permanent supportive housing so there's staffing it is there on on the corner and and that's where to your point it is very similar to coming off the street and I can tell you at that building people get in within well depends who's your case manager and who's helping you but you can get in same day that is very much done

to to that point I'm wondering you know as we're looking at how to use a space and being kind of agile moving forward if there's a way to look at this kind of as a flex potentially a flexible use depending on um if it's possible to have a buildout that the units can be either uh affordable housing they could be permanent uh supportive housing or transition housing depending on what the need is in that moment, but it's still all going to have the same basic functionality. So, it's going to have a place to sleep, a place to go to the bathroom, place to cook, but it's not going to be this unit is specifically for affordable housing. This unit is specifically for supportive housing. This spec specifically transition. It's all still units, but they're can be used in different ways depending on what depending on what uh the need is. I wonder if there's a way to approach it that way. Um, so that way it's not necessarily a buildout specifically for a certain kind of housing numbers. Is that possible?

I think uh I'm going to defer to Councilman Rosati and then I'll answer your question. I was just going to simply say I mean these I think this is the direction that staff is asking us is just with these ideas what can you bring back that with with with everything that's being said um

and and what's what's a possibility on this site. So, so what I would suggest is that we go back, we do some research, we talk to to some affordable uh builders, developers, and also permanent supportive developers that do that type of work. Kind of get some input from them. And then when we do an RFP or an RFQ, um, we have to go through the HCD website because it's under surplus land regulations. What happens is we put out what we want to see. So, we want to see permanent supportive housing, we want to see this, we want to see that, we want to see this affordable um levels. Um and then we'll give them some kind of indication how many units we're looking at. We'll work with planning on that. But we put all of that in the requirements and then whoever answers we have the opportunity to vet through those uh respondents, the developers respondents and kind of get um their opinions on what would work and what not. and then we select whoever we want out of that to to basically be in partnership to move forward. So my suggestion would be that we go back, we do some research, we go to uh I was just telling Casey we should go to Lancers and go take a tour over there.

I work down the street so I'm happy to go with you guys. Oh, you can go with us. you can go introduce us so we can do some more research and then come back to you and make suggestions of what we would think is appropriate to put in the RFP RFQ and then you can chime in. Yeah. Yay or nay or change it up.

Can I offer one suggestion though? I I will say because council Rosati asked a very good question earlier like can you do this and then he asked would you recommend doing it? Does it work? I in my experience or at least for what we as a city need, I would personally recommend that we look at just the permanent supportive housing site. Once you start mixing affordable housing units or this one's this level, this level, you do get into the issue that councilor Anthony was worried about with well now because this is an affordable housing unit where somebody that's very settled lives. You can't you have new restrictions where you have to be I don't know I'm just giving you random things like you have to have been off the street for 12 days completely sober to be in in in this specific location, right? it starts to get a little tricky and when you mix populations which I think Simone was saying earlier it it may not have the desired outcome and it is permanent supportive housing is something we don't have we just don't have that for individuals and it is the closest thing to a shelter that we were looking at we have affordable housing and in fact we have folks like BHRC building more affordable housing in in our community, but we don't have permanent supportive housing. We don't have that one bridge that helps somebody get off the street and into a brick and mortar. And I think if we're getting the opportunity to build it, what what a what an opportunity to take. As frustrating as some of the funding issues have been and as frustrated as you are, cuz I hear you cuz it is all wording. Um, what an opportunity to actually build a brickandmortar building where folks can get the services they need and come off the streets.

Would you say that the uh the permanent supportive housing is is pretty close to what we were originally con conceiving of having the tiny homes? Would you say that's a pretty close like parallel?

Yeah, I mean it might even be better because it's it's in it's actually indoors, you know? I I think if you remember at the beginning of the tiny homes, we went back and forth. I went back and forth with staff and I was a little finicky and picky because I had seen different projects. No offense to our friends on that side of North Hollywood, but you all have seen the tiny homes by the freeway. There was a big issue with those being empty for a long time because they look like sheds. Nobody wants to live in a shed. You know, whenever I would have individual clients and and offer something like the tiny home, the push back I got was, "Do you have any motel vouchers?" People would rather be in a motel than in those tiny homes. I don't blame them. If I found myself on the street, I would rather be in a motel than one of those little sheds. So, my push to staff was, let's make something that's closer to being indoors. And now we have an opportunity to do that. I just think it behooves us to direct staff to make sure it's permanent supportive housing. So, it does fill the need that we were looking at before, which is that it is for people that are getting off the street, not just, oh, I need an affordable housing unit and maybe I can afford to go somewhere else. No, this is for folks who need that first step, who need that support on site.

Uh let's see. I think it was council member, everyone has their hand up. I think council member Anthony, then vice mayor, then council member.

So, so a traditional classic shelter is typically referred to as either interimm housing or rapid rehousing. Um, how how what are the what are the structural differences the fundamental differences between a shelter and permanent supportive housing? like how do we differentiate that? How would any uh housing authority giving us grant money differentiate that? Like what is the criteria there? Cuz um if it's so close, then why just can't we do what we want and say it's something else?

But I and I need to jump in on this because with that is there's a tie of running the operation of the $1.6 $6 million that they're talking about. So, I want to know with and if Marbel can answer that, I want to know with that housing that you just um talked about in recommending, does that have also a tie in to operation cost? And if if it does, how much is that operation cost? Because if it's all going to come down to what we were going to do originally or maybe we do this better to what we were going to do and what is that operation cost? Thank you. I will will start and maybe um um council member Perez may add in with her experience, but I will start from my knowledge and my experience with permanent supportive housing different than emergency shelter because that's what it is. It's affordable housing units. So, it's it's a it's a building. It's an affordable housing complex. It's a multif family residential building. The difference though is that you now have onsite, we would have on site a service provider. So, uh the the residents would have um somebody there to work with them, have the the counseling, the services that they need, and that's all provided to the folks on site. There there are some projects where I've seen that only some of the units are permanent supportive housing units, for example, because maybe those folks need a voucher. Um, and so there there's the operation cost would be less to provide services for less folks that do need that ongoing case management or service. There are some um the council member mentioned that are completely 100% permanent supportive housing vouchers. And so like Mr. McDougall mentioned though, when we and Miss McFarland, when we put something together that the council would like to put out to the community, the development community, it would be on the development community to respond to

our request for qualifications. They may say not doable, not going to pencil. I can't make that work for you. Or they may and they may say and come back, you want a 100 units, we could make 20 permanent supportive housing. We could make 30 permanent supportive because they will look at all the operation costs and see if that pencils for them because no developer is going to do something that doesn't benefit them or pencil for them either. um it's likely that they may come back and say housing authority, do you have um project based vouchers available? So they they may request that. So there's certain things that we'll look at as we develop that scope for a request for proposals, request for qualifications, and then see what the development community responds to. That sounds great. Okay. And council member Rosati, do you have a followup?

Well, sorry. Could I just follow up on that? There's every time I go to Asencia, they have all of the programs, but they're in communal uh shared space. Uh and some of the spaces are more secluded than others. In permanent supportive housing, is it furnished housing? Like do they come in off the street and it's already furnished and it's provided and they just bring whatever they have and maybe some clothes like is that the difference that it's just you get a unit instead of communal housing but everything else is still provided like it doesn't seem very different. That is what um council member Perez was mentioning is it really is is and the example I'm not familiar so I would like to visit but it really comes down to what our community need is and what we would like to see in my experience and we have seen there are developers that will do again they are multifamily residential units the only thing that differentiates them to be permanent supportive housing is the services so it's not the the asensia I know which one you're council member you're talking about the 40 bed. It's communal living. That's that's really transitional emergency housing. That's not the permanent supportive housing that housing staff or or staff would suggest. It would be a residential development with whatever the type of units like we would with any affordable housing. But what makes it permanent supportive housing is that onsite wraparound services for for the household. What's the length of time of stay? If if if it's if it's transitional and emergency,

it's they're there what 5 6 weeks, but if it's permanent supportive housing, they're what, six, eight months? Permanent. It's permanent supportive housing. This is a that's why I mentioned, council member, it's a multif family residential development. The only thing that differentiates it is that there's on-site service. So, what happens when it's full? It's a it's a there's no vacancy for this development. And I I I we've mentioned um Yeah, we've mentioned the per

Can I Can I chime in there? There no one is in temporary shelter for five six weeks. That's That's not I've never seen that length of stay. What What is a typical length of stay honestly in today's climate? A year. Years. Okay. It's but at a certain point they transition out. Honestly, they are forced to transition out. Often it is this thing where it's like, "Hey, you've reached your time limit. We need your bed. You got to go." And it's this kind of push out to go where? Great question.

That's part of why we have a homelessness crisis. If I may add one one item um council member to to your concern that I'm hearing. There is one um we do have the veteran bungalow. You have maybe seen an invitation from the Burbank housing corporation for June. That is our example in Burbank of permanent supportive housing because we have many folks um although we don't call it that but because we have many folks with the VASH voucher. So those VASH voucher holders, formerly home, formerly homeless, have a VASH voucher. Now in the veteran bungalows, they have um VHC provides services. So there's case managers that come and support our veterans at the site. So our closest example really is is that veteran bungalow. Excellent example of that. They've stayed there for several years, but several have moved out as well. So there is some turnover even in the veteran bungalow.

I have a very strange question then. How come we haven't been talking about that this whole time? Why is it in 2020 when we bought when we bought the property, we had a bunch of options and council at that time said, "No, homeless shelter." And then in 2022 when we had the homelessness plan and we were all here and we had a bunch of options, we said, "No, no, interim shelter." And then 2024 again we came back and said what are we doing with this space? What are we doing with tennis for Dugo? And we all sat here and said shelter. So why isn't permanent supportive housing the option we chose at any of those points?

Okay. So when we bought the property, we had a city manager that said, "I don't want a housing project right next to the railroad tracks, between the freeway and the railroad tracks." So the city manager was very adamant about that position. He wasn't wrong. That was his position. Now we have 200 units on one side of I5 and 500 units market rate between the railroad tracks and I5. market rate developers are building in that same area. But at the time there was not housing there. Those projects weren't built and it I I I can only say my impression at that time when we bought the property was that we didn't want to appear like it was a castaway site. The market has come in and built premium housing units on the same street in the same address range. But we had already put in the safe storage. We bought the building. Uh the leases, there were people there performing the leases. And as we looked at it and we looked at our continuum of care, which is something we've been developing for over 20 years, we used to have zero points on the continuum of care. And now we have the continuum like mostly fleshed out, but we're missing big pieces. So we committed to a project which was a more temporary project in an existing building because at the time it looked like a no it appeared to your top uh administrator your city manager that it was not a good look to put housing in that spot and now our development community has shown those are good marketable spots. So, I don't think it has the same impression, but that was, you know, that was the shaping. I can't speak to what discussions council had

with the city manager, but I think it was clear um we we didn't want to give the impression we were going to put people in an undesirable place, which has now become desirable based upon the private market investing hundreds of millions of dollars at Burbank and the I5 freeway. But there was always what I'm saying is there was always this discussion we were going to put some people there whether or not it was a housing project or an interim shelter,

right? And now you can't afford to build and run a shelter, right? No, I get that. I get that. And so what I'm trying to point out is we're pivoting from the thing we want to deal with because of the funding. Well, we're telling you that we've discovered you can't afford what what you want, but we and and so but you may be able to afford it with a private industry that specializes in this space to do it. I get that.

But we still have to investigate the feasibility. They may want us to subsidize units uh that, you know, we don't know what the deal looks like until we put it out there. Could we afford it in 2020? Could we afford it in 2024? Well, the discussion was that you thought you could. There was never any funding though. At every they were counting on they were counting on the I understand that. Okay. Let me But at no point in any of those three other time periods did we look at it and say what can we afford? We said what do we want and then we said go.

Actually that's not true. I have to push back on that because quite frankly I sat here and asked Patrick until he was blew in the face for a brick and mortar space. I asked for this three and a half years ago and Patrick said we don't have the money and he was absolutely right at the time because we did not have the money to build a building there and the county has changed the funding formula. I understand that. So sit here again and ask for brick and mortar space. Have them say no and we'll stick with it until we get the funding again. Here's my issue. Well, if we can get the if we can get a project going that provides permanent supportive housing, why would we sit on it and do nothing until we get the funding for something else?

Not saying sit on it and do nothing. Well, we don't have the funding to do uh tiny homes anymore. Not Well, I I never That's that's what we that's what the plan was was tiny homes. It wasn't a I mean, you're using the word shelter. Sure. And I'm I'm I'm as you're saying it, I'm translating into my head you mean the tiny homes because the tiny homes is what we had proposed for this project. And to me that's not a shelter, but I I was looking at it as like a temporary housing system. I mean I was never a fan of the tiny homes to be well that's what we decided to do. So that's where we landed. We never were looking at that site as a traditional shelter site. We're always looking at least from my experience. Maybe before my time it was but not since I've been on council.

All right. If the reason I only bring that up is cuz I have never seen MJ and Ron backs on the same side of a single issue and they both stayed till the end here. When I read this, you know, I get the packet on Thursdays and I go through and I read it and it's so weird because it says update on homeless program and then, you know, discuss potential options for property previously slated for homeless solution center. It doesn't say we're not building a homeless solution center, which would have really stuck out. It does. It says options for site.

It doesn't say no homeless shelter. And I get that council member. And so I was shocked. What do we do with this site in today knowing what you know right now? No, no, no. I'm fine. We got to figure something out. I was never going to I mean I that's why I threw out let's do a combo or something. I like I'm trying to think outside the box. I'm not saying we don't do that cuz I I wanted this I wanted this in our community, but it's so disappointing that it's not happening. And once people hear about it and they're not going to get the thing that we promised them, that's going to be an issue. Hold on. Hold on. But are you saying we promised them a shelter? Because we did we didn't this site has never been at least since I've been on council. It has not been a traditional shelter site.

No. But the the permanent supportive housing permanent supportive housing is as close as we could possibly get to the original plan. I get that we having. So what is it exactly? But even even today, multiple people have come up and said, "Wait, are we getting rid of the shelter?" So in their mind what we've been talking about. No, it hasn't been penciled out for them. But maybe you've been talking about it that way, but that's not how we as talking. We've literally had public commenters come up and said, "Don't get rid of the shelter." Never was a shelter. But but things change. I I know. I'm not I think you guys are misunderstanding me.

Well, then what's what is the issue? What I'm saying is what we decide tonight has to We're not deciding anything tonight. I mean, the direction the direction we're giving staff tonight, okay, has to options,

right? And so what I'm saying is I get that whatever traditional shelters we had, I'm just trying to get all the information out. Whatever traditional idea we had originally for a shelter, that's off the table. And I'm fine with that because we can't afford it. What I'm trying to whittle down is to understand two things. One is a permanent supportive housing project.

The thing that the public when they see it and it's built and it's done and we're putting people in it, is that what they were expecting from us as a city to provide to people who are unhoused? and two, if we build it in the way that the people want it, will it qualify for the dollars that we're asking for? So, those are the two things that I'm trying to sus out right now. Are we giving the people what they want and can we get the funding for that project?

So, back to your original question of what is the difference? Transitional housing is temporary, permanent supportive housing is more permanent. The reason I went to that one is because to the speaker's point and and I know MJ are very involved with with um the homeless population, the point is to get somebody housed. And this is why I push back against just affordable housing because if there's somebody coming in from the street, I want them to have the services that we originally wanted to have on this site. And the way to do that right now because funding formulas have changed is through permanent supportive housing on site. So the goal is in that setting we can have somebody come from the street into a brickandmortar receiving those supportive services which frankly I have no problem sitting down with any member of the community that wants to sit with me and ask why did you change the composition. I have no problem saying I think this is even better.

Yeah. Because it's a brickandmortar place and I'm not offering somebody a shed quite frankly. C may I ask a question about that to help maybe this the situation and what you're saying? Our goal is to take somebody who was sleeping on the sidewalk, offer them housing and said yes, I'm going to go with you. We put him, you know, take him to the shelter. Under the supportive housing, we can still do the same thing. Somebody's on the street, but it's permanent though.

That's the difference. It's permanent, meaning they can live there for 20 years with a shelter, you know, six, seven, eight months and they get to move on to hopefully find permanent housing or affordable or get a job or something else. So I think we're accomplishing our goal by providing that. My main concern still what are we going to pay for that service? I need for staff to go figure it out to come back before we say oh this is what we want. And then we're under assumption again that we can do this and we can build it. but they come back and say, "Well, this is going to cost us another million or two millions, but how are we going to pay for that?" Because we're running into the same issue. So, we can provide that direction for you to go and figure out how are we going to make it work and how do we partner with somebody in the private sector, but who's going to be running it? How much is going to cost us? Can we afford it

before we all sit here and decide, oh, this is what we're doing now? because that's what we did with shelters. Yeah. We thought we can afford it, but we can't. Okay. So, I think that's that's the direction staff is looking for. The one other thing I I would add just because it's been in the back of my mind is what I again when you come back because the uh measure A funding is wonky. What portion of the funding can we use for ongoing supportive services on site? Because we should be able to use a portion of, you know, that funding. I don't know. I thought I heard earlier we can't I don't think we can use any of it, but we need to go back and make sure.

Could we possibly use our um one of those other pots? You know what I'm saying? Local solutions fund we could probably use. And so we would have to look at what we're funding with that right now and if we could move the programs that we're funding with that move it to somewhere else. That that's that's my question. like I can staff take a look at that cuz I know and and I feel for them cuz they have taken the funding formula and gone and then played like the cups game with it. So now they are basically trying to find where everything that we we provide fits. We've been doing that for 10 years.

Yeah. And and again in this model right here uh with the permittive supportive housing we would ask if we went out for our QRP we would ask the developer for what services they're going to provide. And at that point then it becomes a little bit of a negotiation. So we're not going to pay that 1.6 million. That's going to be all our burden. But maybe, you know, we got to figure out what they're going to provide to how many that that's what we want to know where we can make it work and not have to rely on general fund or or or even the

and that's why I want to start with the permanent supportive housing question because if we can get you if we can ask for everything we want, I want to know what that costs, what that looks like on the table before we start saying, um, okay, maybe some of it will be affordable. If that's where we land, fine. I mean, look at the library project. it just didn't pencil out the way we wanted originally. But I'd like us to start from the place of we want the best possible option for for us and for our population. One one last thing. I mean this this ain't going to get off the ground for three to five years. So you don't No. No. It won't turn off. Chris, we bought the thing back in 2020. I mean it's been

So what are we going to do with this property? I'd like to know what options we can do with this property for the next five years. Could we store something there? Could we lease it out? What is it that we can do to make make it useful and make make everyone feel a little bit better about acquiring something that that basically just sitting there vacant. We still have a lease there though, right? Don't we? Or we don't have leases leases on the property. But what we do have is we have a couple of consultants. Allied for one.

That's right. Um, and Allied is actually in that building right now in the office side. So, they're in there. Uh, the Allied that does the outreach services because we have two contracts with Allied. The other Allied that does the parking enforcement with, it's not all Laz, sorry, Laz that does parking enforcement is going to be moving in there also. And then we have Laz that is doing the collections for the parking meters is in that building. So we looked at doing leases with them but the contracts are with us. So we would be paying h charging a consultant who would then come back and charge the city and we thought this is ridiculous right so we'd be paying for we actually be paying more because they would add a premium on top of that. So we are using portion at the downstairs portion of that office building. The upstairs portion there is no uh elevator in that building. So we would have problems with ADA accessible if we had something somebody in there that had visitors that needed that ADA requirements. We couldn't do something like that. On the other side, the old piano store side, there are um concerns with that. the building actually is when it rains the water is seeping in through the walls and so uh staff wouldn't feel comfortable putting anybody in that building until that was solved. And at this point we're thinking that it may not be worth fixing that because if we're going to demo it what

it's a waste of money. So, okay.

And I'd be curious with the permanent supportive housing tour that you do, um, finding out how that pencils out for them, getting more information on that and how they're adjusting to the if they're if they are using any measure H funds or not and how that would work and or what what kind of funding mechanism they're using to get that to pencil out um or any other um developments that do do have it pencled out. I don't know that I would look at that for funding because they're nonprofit and so their their funding is like grants, private donor events, like it's it's a nonprofit structure, but there are other permanent supportive housing sites like different home key sites that exist or others around the valley that that are cityowned or stateowned or something like that that might be a little bit more closer in funding structure to to us since it's government entity.

Okay. because I was under the impression that we were looking at another nonprofit to potentially P3 with, but maybe I misunderstood that part. It would be a developer. Developer. I see. So, my last question, if we want to go permanent supportive housing, we still have to give back the money and then reapply. Yeah. Whatever we do, we have to It's not actually giving back the money. It's withdrawing our request for the money because we never have the money yet. We don't We've never received the money. No, I think I explained it to you when when you were in the bathroom. So the 6.9 million is still allocated to us as a city. So like even if we give it back, we're just putting it back in our own pot. Oh, we just have to explain what we're using it for.

Yeah. We just have to come back and be like, "Just kidding. We're going to use it for this instead." I remember that. I'll make our case. Okay. Did you have one more thing? No. I just want to wrap it up and see what what do you guys need from us? Did we give you enough direction?

We have our direction. So, we're going to go back. We'll do some more research. We'll meet with some developers. We'll talk about what permanent supportive housing looks like. We'll reach out to some other people that already have permanent supportive housing projects. See how they funded it, see how they everything's layered with funding, so what type of funding they used and how they layered it all. And then what the ongoing cost are. And then we'll come back to council and we'll make some recommendations of maybe what a RFP, RFQ could look like. Um and we'll probably have some more information from you of exactly what the SLA process looks like because we have to follow those guidelines. You need a motion on this.

Yes. Okay. Uh so I would include what she said plus these uh number one and number two as far as recommendation.

Uh okay. So, I'll move that we uh direct the city manager or his designate to withdraw the grant funding request made to the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Regional Housing Trust in the amount of 3,450,000 and uh bring back the alternate options for the city-owned site located at 211 323 and 333 South Front Street, 10 East Verdugo Avenue and a portion of the adjacent downtown Metro Link parking lot in Burbank previously proposed for the homeless center solutions um specifically with uh permanent supportive housing in mind and the um suggestions from staff

second for it. I think Nikki was by the middle. Okay. All right. We have a first and a second. Get a vote. Council member Anthony, 10 years on this thing. Yes. Council member Perez, yes. Council member Rosati, yes. Vice Mayor Mullins, yes. And Mayor Tagahashi, yes. Thank you. Thank you, ladies.

And Madame Mayor, just real quick, I just want to say Mr. Newman, I thank you for being here. Uh, we've corresponded through email before I was a council member. As a council member, I just want to say you guys do just great work. Every time I email you, you respond within an hour and you're out to the site in minutes. So, um, I really appreciate it. He responds to me within 15 minutes. What's wrong with you? You look better than me. So, I just want to say we really appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, I echo that. Thank you. Bob's a star.

He is a star. Anyone in the community wants to know what's going on in this space, talk to Bob. He knows it all and he knows everybody. He knows everybody in the city that's that's in the space. So, by name by name and the history and everything. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have a couple. You know, before I got on council, I applied for a job with Bob. Oh, thank you.

I did. Yeah. He wouldn't hire me. He said it was a conflict of interest. Oh, okay. All before you were on. Yeah. All right. So, we have a couple more things then we're ready to wrap up. So, let's hear council comments and including reporting and we can just kind of roll through it. Who wants to go first?

First, I want to be done. Um, March 26, I attended Burbank ribbon cutting for tailored space, shared workspace um on I can't think right now, San Anita. It's the old uh Keller's Keller Williams building. Uh same evening I attended and spoke at the leadership bank fundraising event and 27th I attend I went to the ranch ribbon cutting for the new studios. On Saturday 28th, I attended Lucinet Collective uh grand opening relocation on San Fernando and then on Monday with council attended AMC Walkway PO project and the rest of it is just a whole bunch of meetings. Thank you.

All right, who's next?

All right, Catherine. Um, on Thursday, March 26th, I attended a Victory Institute LGBTQ elected officials group. Um, on Friday, March 27th, I attended the WB Ranch ribbon cutting with all of you. Um, and the film commission. And then on Monday, March 30th, also the PO project walking tour. That was a really cool way to have a meeting. We should do that again sometime. Um, and then today I met with um the new executive director for the YMCA, Natalyia Diaz, and she would love to meet with all of you on council.

Wonderful. Next up, Council Member Anthony. Uh, yes. Um, oh boy, I did a bunch of stuff. Uh, let's see. Uh I I attend Oh, that was fun. We went to um Adam Schiff and and Laura Freiedman uh used our seats and uh did a little presentation, lights, camera competition. That was uh interesting talking about film production and the future Yeah. of filming.

Uh went to the uh WB uh ranch ribbon cutting. Uh, I gave a certificate to Kenneth Strickley for his 102nd birthday at Ivy Park. Um, the next day I spoke at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for three Burbank Eagle Scouts. Three of them all got the award at the same time. Nice. Uh, we all went to the walking tour, fiscal and treasures review. uh was at the job connect ceremony and then I attended a grand opening ribbon cutting for Cynthia Brooks Catering and they definitely brought a bunch of food to the Chamber of Commerce and it was amazing. Nice.

They knew I needed to eat all the extra. So, all right, Council Member Rosati, you ready? Yes, ma'am. On Wednesday the 25th, I went to the Muse Expo dinner award ceremony. And on the 30th, I went to the AMC Walkway Paso Project with all of y'all. And then on the 31st, I met with a member of the public. On Wednesday the 1st, um we had the treasures review group. And on the second, I again I met with a member of the public. And then on Sunday, Easter, I had the honor and the privilege of officiating a wedding between a Burbank resident and a Ukrainian refugee. And that was quite an amazing experience. Uh

please tell me you said by the power vested in me by the city of Burbank. So that was uh and it just a a a beautiful ceremony and um it was very very moving uh for all the reasons involved. And then today uh I went to the ribbon cutting with um the mayor at Via Scalabbrini. That was quite a a history lesson we got.

Yes, it was. Yes, it was. So I attended that with the council member on the 25th. I went to the Muse Expo dinner and awards ceremony as well as uh presented at the RISE uh civic engagement seminar and the 26th I went to the Valley Economic Alliance board meeting and a little bit later Cal City's community services policy committee meeting

and then the 27th Warner Brother Ranch ribbon cutting which we were all at and then the 30th AMC Walkway PO tour we were all at. On the 1st, I went to the grand opening of the pharmacy retail program at Burbank Adult School, which is so awesome. Um, hopefully we'll be seeing some information about that coming up on the 3rd, which just a couple days ago, I guess, I went to the job connect job connect plus graduation ceremony for cohort number seven. And then today, this morning, in addition to the ribbon cutting, I also, as I mentioned earlier, hosted a kindergarten class from Roosevelt and we did the pledge of allegiance together. And we we fistbumped on the way out. I gave them stickers. And one of the little kids said to Bri, she said, "Oh my gosh, I fist bump fistbumped the mayor. It was so cute. These guys were so cute." And they all had stickers that when they left. So that's my list of things and plus of a million a million meetings with people as well as everybody else does. All right, our last thing is the introduction of additional agenda items. Now's the time for introduction of additional agenda items. Did anyone have anything?

I just wanted quickly to ask um um I had a couple months ago now. I requested to come back with um with a report on the process that we use for um community events, especially with insurance, and we haven't had that come back yet. So, I'm just curious when that might be coming back. It was mentioned today. Um yeah, we'll follow up. Great. I I don't know off the top of my head, but we'll we'll get you and we'll put it on the forecast.

Thank you very much. Okay, now we adjourn. Thank goodness the meeting it's tomorrow. Sorry guys, it's Oh my gosh, it's very tomorrow. We now adjourn the meeting to Tuesday, April 21st, 2026 for a joint meeting in the council chamber 275 East Olive, second floor. Thank you and good night.