City Council - Regular Meeting

naming of a portion of the Sinti Terrace to Silas White Street was a great opportunity for us to continue our restorative justice work and to take a moment to honor the legacy that Silas White had here in our community, gathering with members of his family and all of the others that have been part of this important work. We're also getting ready to launch all of our Restorative Justice Commission activities later this week with more to come over the course of the next couple of months. Last note we wanted to share with everyone is that our first round of our new renter's aid program is set to close on August 20th. So make sure to apply for assistance by the deadline on our city website where you can find more information, again, on SantaMonica.gov. last item of today we have typically um had um a practice now where we bring the adoptable pet of the week um or meeting into the council chambers to meet everyone but did you know that as we were planning for that today our adoptable pets arthur who is a five-year-old terrier mix Arthur was at National Night Out last week, met some lovely Santa Monicans. And wouldn't you know it, before we could bring him to the council meeting tonight, Arthur's been adopted. This is our first adoption success story. before a council meeting where we're going to meet our adoptable pets. But rest assured and do not fret if you're looking for a new member of your family. We are looking at you, Mayor Pro Tem Zwick. You can contact the Animal Shelter to meet all of our furry friends. And as always, you can visit the Santa Monica Animal Shelter Foundation website to make a donation or shop the Chewy Wish List. With that, Madam Mayor, we'll turn it back to you.

So we are now going to move on to the mayor's highlight. We're highlighting our public works team, which we have here today, and we're so glad host crew leader rego haro host maintenance workers anthony rivera um lazaro lalo pina jesus fajardo and jaylen gregory and i'm just going to read um i don't know mr dishlip are you the one that came up with this writing because this is a very long um and great we're very excited to read it okay the one samoa values of humility integrity motivation and care are reflected in the work of our public works that our public works department does every day while every team within public works exemplifies these values tonight we are specifically recognizing our downtown maintenance division homeless support team host for demonstrating them in extraordinary ways and rising above the challenge with compassion, professionalism, and dedication. Their resilience, unwavering commitment, and tireless service to our city have made a lasting impact on the community. We are proud to recognize and celebrate their exceptional contributions and the difference they make every day. The city created a specialized team whose sole mission it is to help keep our spaces clean while supporting the Santa Monica Police Department's Homeless Liaison Program, HLP, with the removal of homeless encampments and the restoration of public spaces. The homeless support team host first commenced operations in late September 2023 with contracted staff. while the city works to recruit and onboard its permanent team. In May 2024, the city's permanent host team officially began operations. Since then, the team has become an integral part of the city's success in addressing homeless encampments and maintaining clean, safe, and welcoming public spaces. To date, the host team has removed an astonishing 1,345.1 tons of debris from more than 11,000 locations throughout the city. Thank you so much. I'm sure that is not easy work. Their work not only includes responding to homeless encampments, but also taking a proactive approach to prevent encampments from becoming established. The team has been led in the field by house crew leader Rigoberto Rigoharo since its inception. Rigoh, raise your hand. Yay. Rigoh has been instrumental in developing and maintaining operational data, coordinating field activities, and fostering an outstanding working relationship with the Santa Monica Police Department's HLP team. He exemplifies the city's core value of humility through his willingness to listen to others mentor his coworkers, and consistently give credit to the team rather than seeking recognition for himself. Maintenance worker Anthony Rivera, who has also been a member of the team since its creation, embodies integrity, Anthony consistently follows city policies and procedures does what is right even when faced with difficult situations and holds himself accountable in every aspect of his work. His professionalism and ethical conduct have earned the trust and respect of both his peers and partner agencies. Maintenance worker Lazaro Lalo Pena exemplifies motivation. He consistently takes the initiative to improve operations and has been instrumental in implementing the team's recent operational realignment. His drive to improve efficiency and effectiveness has contributed significantly to the team's continued success. More recently, Jesus Fajardo and Jalen Gregory, or we only have one. Okay. All right. Got it. Join the host team and have quickly demonstrated the same level of professionalism, dedication, and commitment. They have embraced the team's mission and consistently display the characteristics that make hosts such a successful and respected program. Together, these five employees embody the City of Santa Monica's core values of humility, integrity, motivation, and care. Every day, they encounter challenging and often often humbling situations while serving the city's unsheltered population. They treat every individual they encounter with dignity, compassion, and respect, recognizing that every person deserves to be treated with humanity regardless of their circumstances. Their integrity is above reproach, their motivation to improve the community is unwavering, and the care they demonstrate for the city, their coworkers, and the people they serve is evident in every interaction. Their professionalism has strengthened partnerships with the Santa Monica Police Department, enhanced the cleanliness and safety of our public spaces, and positively impacted the quality of life for residents, businesses, and visitors alike. The host team exemplifies the very best of public service. Their commitment, compassion, teamwork, and dedication make them truly deserving of recognition. To say that the Public Works Department and the Downtown Maintenance Division are proud of this team would once again be an understatement. So congratulations, and we're going to ask you to come up, and we're going to give some certificates. Thank you all for all of your hard work. Does anyone want to say anything? Chris, did you want to say anything? No? OK, all right.

Can I just add real quick? I got to know Matthew Wells through my work at the Urban Forest task force a while ago.

the the dedication that you bring to your work is just completely unmatched and i'm so impressed by the work all you do i hear such great things just on the street so great work everyone yeah matthew wells was not in our program but if he wants to raise his hand uh no you don't want to raise your hand okay all right thank you all for welcoming our residents and visitors alike to the most amazing place on earth and keeping it beautiful so thank you thank you

Mayor May also know that Matthew Wells is tie in J is wearing a coat, both of which are very unique for interfaces with us, but they're looking lovely tonight.

Thank you. Thank you.

And then let's get them there.

Okay, we are so lucky to have such amazing team members here, we are now going to move on to general public input and comment on special agenda items we have. looks like 15 speakers plus five on the phone so 20 okay great so everyone has two minutes and if you're here now, we have 16 just registered so everyone after Lewis want to not be would be late. All right, Johan, I'm going to call up several names as we normally do. Johan Torraledo, Jonathan Foster, Clarence McDowell, Jerry Rubin, Kelly Strader. And if I called your name, you can just come up and say who you are so we can check you off the list. Johan Torraledo. Amazing.

Hi. Good evening, everyone. My name is Johan Torraledo. I'm here on behalf of Ace Holden Incorporated. I'm the director of program management. I'm here to follow up on a proposal that was presented back in May of 2026 of this year with the concept of developing a Santa Monica Sports City proposal. Some of you haven't heard of that proposal before, so I want to provide a quick update as to what it is. First of all, who are we? We're a group of athletes, engineers, professionals. Some of us are local that are here to basically take advantage of the engagement opportunities that have been made for the airport facility to be able to come up with a proposal that creates a private public funding partnership to be able to look at those ideas and to create a reality. Our mission is really to support and expand the use of the spaces for community engagement and to support the delivery of Measure LC mandate for parks and open space through developing a venue that is not necessarily funded through the general fund, but really through a public-private partnership. A great park that stays great and where trails, open spaces, and fields that are for Santa Monica are guided through the Sasaki process to be able to establish something new, something that's going to generate lots of benefits for Santa Monica. Again, our vision was to convert the findings of the airport conversion engagement into an operation reality. We're aiming to take all the input to adopt PASIC after active recreation and really to develop a venue that's going to be able to finance itself for the capital and long-term operation and maintenance to be able to convert this vision into something that's a reality. If we look at the scope of what had been previously proposed in plan terms, we're looking to develop a facility that has multi-use recreation, adaptive reuse, opportunities for stormwater capture, and multi-model access plant built around the Metro E line and not around parking. We want to make sure that we mitigate community impacts as much as possible. Here's how the majority of this site delivers. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Jonathan Foster, not seeing him. Clarence McDowell.

Good evening, Council. My name is Clarence McDowell. My family has lived at 1011 Pico Boulevard, Unit 7, for over 20 years. We have been displaced now for almost a year, come September 3rd, but 173 days since Order HD-11536 was recorded against our landlord. And now the city has only grown stronger. In the last so many weeks and days, um. Director gene, you confirmed in writing on August 6 that no order lifting HD 1, 1, 5, 3, 6 has been issued. And the city could not confirm which unit was actually provided to us. Then on June, 15th, relocation documents that cut off our per diem was confirmed by building safety division as never ever being submitted or approved. The city didn't call that a fraud. They just called it inaccurate. Permit to 6. 0578 failed an inspection on June 24th, 105 days after picking up the permit, and still our unit remains unrepaired. On July 22nd, we filed a formal appeal of the comparability determination to cut off our per diem. Under Municipal Code Section 4.36.100 , a tenant may request a hearing within five days of the notice. We filed one on day one. The City accepted it. Then on July 27, the Deputy City Attorney declared comparability not subject to administrative appeal, with no legal citation as to why. Four months earlier, prosecuting Goldie and Drake, your deputies...

Thank you so much, Mr. Raquel. Sorry, your two minutes are up. Jonathan Foster.

Jonathan Foster, thank you, Mayor. I'm going to start with this one.

So what I was going to say about that was it could you give

David Siegel, a three year in a financial support system that allows him to move his businesses and then get the same foot traffic in. So he's not harmed when you do the meeting. Here's the next one.

Our general fund is structurally balanced for the coming fiscal year ahead of schedule, but it is the one that makes everything else possible. A balanced budget. We all do it together. We couldn't do it without without each of us.

And that's a good thing. I think this is the only municipality in the United States of America has a balanced budget problem is for you 9 would go to jail for putting beer on the sidewalk in Santa Monica. It's reprehensible. It doesn't matter if you balanced the budget. So, it's just 48 seconds left at the last meeting. When I talked about my drum set, there was this somebody over here clapping and I don't know if that's. Supporting me or hating me. There's a Jewish guy on Third Street Promenade that came up to me who cannot know that my drum set was stolen. He came up to me and goes, oh, you got to get a new drum set. How does he know? That's why I said a 501c3, the entourage around this 501c3 is who did this. I heard something about somebody doesn't like Steve Miller, maybe you don't like my drum set being stolen, or maybe you like that. I wouldn't really know what somebody really thinks. But there are a lot of people that don't like Roundup and Deport, and my drum set was Roundup and Deporting. Maybe it's a political hit to me.

Thank you, Mr. Foster. So we have Jerry Rubin, Kelly Strader, and then Elizabeth Vandenberg, Bruce Brown.

Thank you very, very much. Mayor, council members, city staff, fellow Santa Monicans, Jerry Rubin, member of the Urban Forest Commission. But just speaking for myself, I, like many, want to really talk about the wonderful work our landscape team is doing and our urban forester and all the other good people in the seven member commission. And I want to invite everyone, if you're concerned about our trees and you have any questions, feel free to come to our meetings. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 9th, 6 p.m. We meet every other month on the second floor of the Santa Monica Main Library in the community room. We'd love to have you attend. And I know how everybody really loves the trees, but it's good to get out and hear what's happening and to participate. The next thing I'd like to talk about is how important it is that everybody vote, not just in our important local election, but the state election, the national election. It's really, really crucial. It's our right and our responsibility. So please do it. I know these are frustrating times and some people say, what's the use? Why should I even vote? Please do it. And thank you very, very much.

Thank you, Mr. Rubin. Kelly Schrader.

Hi, my name is Kelly Strader, and I'm here on behalf of Unique Surgery Center, located next door to the proposed 1323 Fifth Street development. Let me be clear from the beginning. We support affordable housing. We support Santa Monica's commitment to provide housing for people of all income levels. Our concern isn't who will be living in the building. Our concern is whether this particular project can safely coexist with an active medical and surgical facility immediately next door. We're not the typical commercial business. This is an extremely immense project on a constraint lot. The parcel is only about 7,400 square feet, yet the proposed is a five-story building, approximately 54 feet high. The project also requests significant concessions, including a waiver for a required building setback. Second, construction next door represents immediate patient safety concerns. We're concerned about noise, vibration, dust, airborne particles, construction traffic deliveries, staging, pedestrian safety and emergency access. A patient recovering from surgery cannot simply relocate because of construction being too loud, nor can a surgeon pause mid-procedure because of a construction noise. An emergency vehicle cannot wait because construction or service vehicle is blocking access. Third, we ask the City to fully examine how daily building operations will affect our patients. Where will deliveries occur and where will vehicles wait? How will emergency access be protected? Fourth, there are significant privacy and security concerns. We're not asking the City to abandon its affordable housing goals. We're asking the City to balance these goals with patient safeties. We respectfully request the City require the applicant to provide a plan that addresses construction noise and vibration, dust and air quality, patient emergency access, construction staging and deliveries, loading and trucking.

Thank you so much, Ms. Vandenberg. We then have Bruce Brown. We have Mohamed Sharifi and Denise Barton.

Elizabeth Vandenberg, Wilmot Chair. Last September, you adopted an aging and disability action plan called the Wise Diner at the Reed Park, a community asset promoting food security and social participation. Reed Park sits across the street from Westminster Tower, a 17-story senior building, with the daily diners activating the park during the week. 10 MONTHS LATER, THE DINER WAS GONE. THIS IS NOT IMPLEMENTATION, IT IS ELIMINATION. THE PUBLIC STILL HAS NO ANSWERS ON COST, ATTENDANCE OR ALTERNATIVES. I ASKED WIVES AND THE CITY HUMAN SERVICES AND GOT NONE. SENIORS WERE TOLD TO MAKE THE SHORT TRIP TO FOURTH STREET. FOR OLDER ADULTS WITH MOBILITY LIMITATIONS, GEOGRAPHY MATTERS. TONIGHT, DIRECT STAFF TO RETURN WITH COST AND OPTIONS TO RESTORE A FIVE-DAY MEAL PROGRAM AT REED PARK AND MAKE NEIGHBORHOOD CONGREGATE MEALS AN EXPLICIT PRIORITY UNDER ITEM 11A. THANK YOU.

Okay. Ms. Vandenberg, I'm not supposed to respond to you, but we might have an update on that. Thank you. Bruce Brown.

My name is Bruce Brown, and I came to Santa Monica 20 years ago. My son got hired by Santa Monica as a police officer, and he said I should come here because in case there's an emergency. He was here. And now I've been going to Wise in Reed Park for years. And it's helped people not only to have a meal, but you people don't know what it's like to be in your 80s. You can't walk. Most people can't walk. They can't remember their name half the time. Coming there gives you a chance to not only eat, but to get out and to meet other people, which is a primary thing is supposed to sitting in your house. So they closed it down. I got a donor who's willing to put up money to keep this thing going. And so far, wise is telling us that you that the city is the one that's holding back. Oh, I saw a green light going on. The holding back, us keeping wives opened in the diner there. On top of everything else, since it's closed on July 10th, we go from 1030 to noon. I've been there almost every day, Monday to Friday, and that building has not been used at all. It's closed and it's dark inside there. So I'm asking you people to help senior citizens because you people are eventually going to become senior citizens and you're going to appreciate what you're going to do for us now going forward. Thank you very much for listening.

Thank you. I think our staff might be able to give you all an update, I've been told. Mohamed Sharifi.

Good evening, Madam Mayor Taurosis, council members. My name is Mohammed Sharif, and I'm here today to thank you for considering my application to the Architectural Review Board to become a member. The ARB is a body whose processes and outcomes require thoughtful evaluation, sound judgment, and a sensitive understanding of architecture's role in shaping our evolving city. Hearing quite a few of the people coming up to the lectern tonight, even more so at so many levels. If appointed, I would bring more than 30 years of the kind of experience necessary for this kind of synthetic endeavour. As the co-founding principal of a 10-year-old small practice based here in Santa Monica, my commitment to design excellence has earned us many awards. Concurrently, my extensive catalogue of writing and editing has underlined my dedication. to architecture and urbanism, the discourses surrounding them and the clear communication of those topics, those areas. As a 15-year-plus full-time member of the UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Department and a director of the undergrad program there, I've taught hundreds of students with as non-dogmatic, as open-minded and as objective an approach as possible. to a public research education in order to equip and energize them with the acumen, integrity and skills necessary to be engaged professionals and citizens. As past president of the LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, and more recently the co-chair of the AIA Wildfire Disaster Task Force, with liaison to the Palisades community, and being a member of County Supervisor Horvath's Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery, my civic leadership roles have strengthened my ability

Thank you. Denise Barton, and then we have Wade Kelly, John Berry, Karen Milik, Jim Kahn.

Good evening. First, isn't it telling that all of you voted yes for Council Member Snell to go to Austria for a program pushing social, socialist housing, let's call it what it is. I also hope Council Member Snell has a nice vacation on the taxpayers, considering he has no official duties there. I'm also very disheartened but not surprised that the change in rules for the public speaking time is not included in tonight's agenda. We all know that you don't want to hear from the public by the mayor's action on limiting speakers to one minute if there's over 25 speakers, although one does have to wonder if a speaker is speaking more than once if the mayor is counting each of those in her tabulation of 25 speakers, because the city attorney said that the 25-speaker limitation should be for each item, not the total number of speakers for all items. Thank you. Thank you. Wade Cully.

Hello. I want to start tonight by thanking Councilmember Raskin, Zwick, Snell, and Zernitskaya for voting not to close the Santa Monica Sam O'Shell shelter until there are some places for those people living in that shelter to go. And I do hope that we find places for these people here in Santa Monica instead of shipping people out of town. We don't have to follow Trump's plan of action towards poor people. We can't say, these people come from all over the world, they send us their worst and deport all the poor people out of Santa Monica. That's not the right way to go. We need to stand up for human rights and stand up for the right of every human being to have the basics here in California. The California democratic platform says, housing is a human right. Say it with me. Housing is a human right. Housing is a human right. Housing is a human right. Housing is a human right. We'll work on it, OK? But we need to be moving in a better direction. And as Santa Monica is taking more control over the programs, I can't find a shelter bed tonight. Nowhere in Santa Monica. And I went to check my mail today at the 503 Annenberg Access Center, run by the people concerned here in Santa Monica, 503 Olympic Boulevard. And they will be ending the mail program for the homeless people there on the 21st of August. So where am I going to get my ballot? I'm running for office. These people are maybe the only people voting for me may not be able to vote anymore because they don't have a place. So Santa Monica, we need to work for human rights.

Thank you. MS. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. John Berry.

My name is John Berry. Thank you for having me. It's been a while since I've been in here, so I'm here as a personal citizen today. And despite the negativity of my post, I think you guys are doing a great job. This city has a predator working the area, and the city is aware of this individual, Zoe Montanar. This person goes from building to building, wreaking havoc and destroying people's lives. Most recently, she drove a man off of his rent-controlled home of over 15 years. He will never get a deal like that again. Does she get a year of free rent for this? Does she get the $30,000 payout from the building owners, a figure she has thrown out there as some legal precedents? Maybe she has done it before. This is far from the first time Zoe Montanar has moved into a building and wreaked havoc on the community. Every inquiry about this bad faith actor brings up more and more actual dirt. At what point does this nonstop pattern of exploitation cross the line into criminal activity? At what point does the city of Santa Monica step up and take action to protect its citizenry from this malignant bad actor? There has been a lot of this civil matter. This is a civil matter, and no doubt it is. But at what point does the repeated nature cross the line into something the city will protect its citizens from? You all probably have a better idea of what it costs for one of us private citizens to hire necessary lawyers to oppose these attacks. Tens of thousands of dollars, without a doubt. There have been three minor assaults and a grand felony from this individual in my building alone. This person threw garbage with what appeared to be bloody feminine products and feces on me. And I have heard the tale of other attacks this incident's perpetrated by this person. These are crimes that should be prosecuted. Why are they unprosecuted? Yet this criminal stomps around loudly above me every day. In closing, on the day that Zoe drove off the person most affected by a recent play, she shouted at me from the window that I was next, a threat that she leveled at me before. She did it in front of several people as they were loading up the U-Haul in the driveway. This coming from a person seeking public office. Santa Monica voters should ask themselves what Zoe Montaner would do

Thank you. Karen Mielek, Jim Kahn, Eve Lopez, Christine Parra.

I'm Karen Mielek, and I support restarting the Wise Lunch program. But I'm here to ask that the election code be applied appropriately and equally, and that the three individuals signing the argument against the partial tax have their titles included in the voter information pamphlet. Last Thursday, the City Clerk wrote that based on discussions with the City Attorney's Office, both of whom report to the Council, Election Code 9170 would be applied to both the ballot label and the voter information pamphlet. So our individuals would not have titles in the pamphlet. 9170 started when the state added supporters and opposers on the ballot with the description of the measure and the area to say yes or no. 9170 does not apply to the voter information ballot with the arguments for and against the measures. For the recent school bond measure, two of our individuals had the same titles we submitted and they were printed in the pamphlet. Our title should be in the pamphlet. The clerk is wrongly applying code that hurts the opponents but allowed the proponents to modify their documentation after the July 28 deadline. They had two people who did not comply with the qualifications to sign and one organization which was a PAC that can't support a measure. We believe their changes still do not comply with the election code, yet their organizations will be on the ballot level. This is unequal treatment that enhances the measure's chances of approval. The measure wording is misleading. It says it benefits Santa Monica schools, while not mentioning Malibu schools, which will also benefit, without Malibu residents paying this tax. This should be amended. Thank you.

Thank you. Reverend Jim Kahn, former mayor, Reverend Jim Kahn.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, council members. I'm Reverend Jim Kahn, and I'm here with Cloverfield Commons and CLU. There are at least three issues on your ballot tonight that on your agenda tonight that relate to homeless policy and the need for below market rate housing. Housing and how to get more of it for low wage and working people is critical. It helps people get off the street and it keeps them from falling into the street. as staff T-shirts at the Venice Family Housing say, yes, bridge housing, supportive housing, affordable housing. We need all three, and we need all three in a related network here in our city. Thank you for keeping these three on your minds as you discuss these other issues tonight. Thank you, Reverend Kahn. Eve Lopez.

I have a PowerPoint. Okay. Good evening. 97 years ago this month, Santa Monica made history. On August 18, 1929, Amelia Earhart and 19 other women pilots gathered at Santa Monica Airport for the first Women's Air Derby, forever establishing Santa Monica as the birthplace of women in aviation. Thousands of spectators lined the airport to watch these pioneering women launch on a remarkable 2,800 mile journey to Cleveland, beginning what became one of the most significant milestones in aviation history. At that time, women pilots were not widely respected. They were often dismissed and stereotyped. Advertisements even suggested that flying was so easy that if this little lady can fly our airplanes, then you can too. The Women's Air Derby changed that. For the first time, women aviators found a community built on encouragement instead of exclusion and opportunity instead of skepticism. What began here in Santa Monica inspired generations of women to pursue aviation and demonstrated the power of supporting one another in breaking down barriers. Inspired by the friendships and camaraderie formed during the air race, Amelia Earhart formed the 99s, an international organization dedicated to advancing, mentoring, and supporting women in aviation. The Santa Monica-based 99s proudly continue that legacy by preserving the tradition of an all-women multi-state air race that begins at Santa Monica Airport. This Friday, August 14, at 9 a.m., 35 women pilots, including myself, will once again depart for this historic race. Please join us. Come out and cheer for all of the 35 racers, but especially for racer number nine, and we hope to see you there. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that invitation. Oh, Councilmember Christine Parra. And then we have Louis Wantanabe, Zoe Moutonair, and Erica Leslie.

Okay, so my comments are regarding your decision last week regarding SB 79. I recognize there's a population of renters in Santa Monica who are vulnerable and absolutely deserve protection. Over 70% of the city rents and I understand where your energy goes. But 30% of us own property here. People who have worked their entire lives to make the biggest purchase of their lives, a first condo, a townhouse, a single family home. But at what point do we matter to this council? with the exception of Council Member Negrete, and thank you. At what point do our concerns, our fears, our quality of life carry any weight with you? Last week, you showed us all the answer to that. We wrote to you, we showed up. I ran for City Council myself because I knew this neighborhood was already ripe for speculation and underrepresented at this table, and I was right. Before this decision, developers were already outbidding everyone by at least $100,000. My neighbors organized, they advocated, and everything asked of engaged residents, and none of it mattered. Again, now your decision has created a frenzy. We are getting calls and cards from realtors daily. My neighborhood will never look at the same again. One of you invoked affirmatively furthering fair housing. Do you know what that actually requires? It means distributing affordable housing across the entire city, not continually concentrating it in my neighborhood, one that's already carried the burden. do you think a 12 unit building going up on the same block on multiple locks of north of montana is going to happen it won't because as we hear over and over and over again it doesn't pencil out you are more responsive to what pencils out for developers than to what your decisions do to the people who actually have lived here for years and years you've sold us out you sold out a historically minority

Thank you. Louis Watanabe.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Louis Watanabe and my mother was born here in 1927 and And so my family has had about a century of history with Santa Monica. So I'm here basically just to say that I am very much in favor of affordable housing. And, of course, I have supported the Cloverfield Commons project. And so the items that you have relating to the homeless is, I think, a very critical issue before you today. And I just wanted to say that anything that you can do to make that more of a dream, make that dream happen, would be would be a really great thing. So thank you.

Thank you, Zoe Moutonier and Erica Leslie.

I have some images that I submitted to the city clerk earlier today before 12. In the meantime, I don't know if I was late for city manager announcements, but tomorrow is the last summer picnic at the Annenberg Beach House. Not tomorrow, Thursday. So I invite everybody to go because no, that's not it. That's my grandfather was a policeman in New York is the ones that I sent today. Do I have to talk about closed sessions right now as well? No. This is what I have for you. No, I sent other images. Can you go to the next one? The next one, that's my former apartment. The next one. Okay, can you stay there? I sent other pictures, but this is my mother and my dad. And I mentioned Lana Negrete last meeting because Lana wrote something about her dad and how he taught her about civic engagement. And my parents... also did the same. Since I was a little girl, I was taken to political rallies and political discussions were part of the dinner table. Bad Bunny famously wrote in La Mudanza, And what that translates is an applause for my mom and my dad because they really killed it. And killed it meaning a slang of they did a great job. I have a bunch of documents here of the harassment that was evidenced by my downstairs neighbor and the manager who came here to harass me. The evidence that they lied to the court, that they have been committing fraud, is heavy. This is evidence. Mayor, you said that this is not a place of...

Thank you so much. Erica Leslie. Yeah, because you were late. Yeah.

Good evening, Council. I've just come to give my regards for the block event from last weekend. However, I was very excited for the block event. However, I was kind of upset to see that some of the restaurants weren't including in their planning. A few of them said they had no idea what was coming to their block. They were blocked off by construction, and it affected their businesses tremendously. The foot traffic died down a whole lot maybe like one or two people in their restaurants, because they were blocked off. i'm here to speak on their behalf, not so much if they asked me to I just thought that was morally wrong for what we're trying to do for the city and how we're trying to generate revenue for the third street promenade. As anyone knows, I was a former downtown Santa Monica board member. They're near and dear to my heart. So I was very upset to see that their business was impacted by our blockbust.

Okay, thank you. And I believe that was put on by downtown Santa Monica. But I could be wrong.

okay we have six five uh phone callers so i'll uh defer to our madam clerk to call them in okay we're ready for the callers our first speaker is morgan hunter gross morgan you can press star six to unmute yourself and your time will begin when you begin speaking hello my name is morgan hunter gross i just arrived in new york after an incredible week at the darpa lift challenge in ohio i want to take a moment to remember ryan adams rp adams a santa monica film editor artist photographer sailor scuba diver and one of the people behind the people behind the lens ryan passed away last week ryan and i friends and work side by side for more than 15 years we shared offices edit bays and possible deadlines directors and projects we spent years around subtractive in the hangar at santa monica airport we walked cloverfield park rode bikes through santa monica and along the beach and sailed out of marina del rey ryan was a cinema a cinephile a waterman a underwater photographer a relentless experimenter he believed editors could become central creative hubs in an ai age because editors already have to understand story image sound music effects performance technology Losing Ryan is not only the loss of a friend, it's the loss of Santa Monica's creative memory, someone who carried years of projects, people, places, and shared history. Ryan lived near Berkeley and Wilshire and loved Santa Monica. Many of us in post-production built our lives and careers here, often invisible behind the work people watch. He was there for me in October 2022 when I became medically retired from editing. Artists like Ryan shape what the world sees. Their work, friendships, mentorship, and knowledge become part of the city's behind-the-scenes culture. Santa Monica lost one of those people. I lost my battle buddy and one of the closest creative collaborators of my life.

All right, the next speaker is Samantha Pearl. Samantha, you can press star six to unmute yourself and your time will begin.

Good evening, Council. My name is Samantha Pearl, and I'm calling on behalf of my husband, John, a 30-year resident of Santa Monica. I'm calling in tonight because we have a serious concern about transparency and the public's right to participate in civic discussion. In preparation for this meeting, I also reached out to all council members through Instagram to raise these concerns directly. The only responses we received were from council members Ellis Raskin and Lana Negrete. Mayor Carolyn Terosis uses her official social media account to discuss city business, public policy, and council actions. Yet, my husband was blocked from her page after posting comments critical of her positions and supportive of her political opponents. His comments have also been hidden or removed, preventing other residents from seeing those viewpoints. My comments have been hidden as well, and we have documentation to support these claims. Other residents have told me that they are being blocked or having their comments hidden too, which tells you this is not an isolated incident. This is the norm for Carolyn. Let me be clear. This is not about whether you agree with John or myself. It's about whether an elected official should be able to silence constituents simply because they disagree with her. Democracy requires open debate. You cannot claim to represent the public while selectively deciding which members of that public are allowed to speak. With an elected official using an official public-facing account to communicate about government business, selectively restricting opposing viewpoints can raise serious First Amendment concerns and undermine public trust. So, we are asking this council to establish clear, transparent rules for official social media accounts Rules that apply equally to everyone, regardless of their political views. Residents should not have to agree with their elected officials to be heard by them. Our community deserves transparency, accountability, and a government that welcomes public participation, even when that participation is critical. Thank you.

All right. The next caller is Aaron Kelly. Aaron Kelly, you can unmute yourself by pressing star six and your time will begin.

Hello. So, Jesse, I'm glad to see that you finally showed up because I'm going to spend the next two minutes talking about you. Council Members Wick won his seat as a pro housing vote, but he is also paid to lobby for the Housing Action Coalition. a pro-development group whose positions come before this very council, a paid role he took on while serving on this body. After a complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission, he is now required to recuse from the city's housing votes. That recusal is the right outcome, but understand what it does and does not do. It removes his vote. It does not remove him from office. He remains a sitting council member who can speak with staff work as colleagues, and shape which issues move and how. Influence no recusal reaches. And development industry money still flows to his group at his own direction. On December 5th, 2025, Councilmember Zwick disclosed on his Form 803, the form an official files when he directs a third party to give to a group he's tied to, a $5,500 payment from Ottinger Architects to the Housing Action Coalition. Ottinger is the architect of record on at least eight Santa Monica projects, including 2501 Wilshire, 1527 Lincoln, and 1925 Broadway. A firm with active projects before this city funded the council members group at his request. And this is not one payment. Seven have routed $57,750 into this circle. It is all in the public record. I ask this council and this city attorney to ensure the recusal is fully honored and that behest payments from firms with business before the city are disclosed and scrutinized in the open. And the least you can do, Jesse, for this community is show up for your job on time.

Thank you.

Sarah Young Shepherd is not present, so we'll move on to Mike Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery, your time will begin when you unmute. Press star six.

Good evening. I'm here because Santa Monica needs leadership that deals with problems directly, and Mayor Carolyn Taurosis hasn't been doing that. Residents keep hearing polished speeches about progress, but that's not what people see in their daily lives. You can list crime numbers and cleanup totals, but those don't match the conditions in our parks, on our streets, or around our homes. When the message from City Hall doesn't line up with what the community is experiencing, people stop trusting the message. We've also watched major decisions roll out with almost no real public involvement. New facilities, new partnerships, new supportive housing for severely mentally ill, new programs They show up already decided, and then residents get told why we're supposed to accept them.

And that's not transparency.

It just leaves people feeling shut out of decisions that affect their neighborhoods, our neighborhoods. A mayor should face problems head on, communicate honestly, and treat residents as partners. That's the job. And right now, that's not what we're getting from Mayor Tarosis. Santa Monica deserves leadership that's straightforward with people and willing to engage the community before decisions are made.

not after thank you thank you we will now move on to uh public input on items under the consent calendar and closed session only uh and i will call up our names denise barton karen milic jonathan foster and zoe montaner

Good evening. On item 4H, here we are again declaring a homeless emergency, which we created by not enforcing the Supreme Court's Grants Pass decision. Why does Mayor Tarosa and the rest of the City Council put housing for people, including criminals, who are not even from here, before the people who live here, own businesses here, or come here? Although allowing many to become victims of the homeless and physical attacks, shoplifting and robberies considering the police don't seem to be available to these people because 72% of police calls involve the homeless. So the city is not safe since you made it a homeless sanctuary. Next, if you're going to make the city, especially downtown a homeless sanctuary, you really need to do more about cleanliness. Because having the ambassadors power washing the sidewalks except for the promenade, which the city does, is really not working. And isn't it interesting that again, this year the city of Santa Monica has been having a typhus outbreak. since April, which is due to a bacterial infection spread by fleas carried by rats, stray, and un-flea protected animals. So how many homeless people have animals with no flea protection? Do you even know? And the city's attitude, downtown has rats, is also not helping the situation. So I hope you can see why the city should be cleaning more, because where the homeless are concerned, you really are failing in providing safety and a clean city for the public. Thank you.

Thank you, Caramula. Yeah.

Good evening again. I'm Karen Mielek, the Vice Chair of the Recreation and Parks Commission, speaking for myself as we have not had a chance to discuss this topic at a Commission meeting. I'm here to talk about Item 5E, the negotiations between the City and the Santa Monica Trapeze School for the price in terms of payment of a license at Clover Park. The pier was the perfect place for the trapeze school. It's too bad the city and the city council decided against it staying there. I don't understand why the city appears to be responsible for finding another place for this commercial business that lost its lease. Clover Park is not the place for this business, even temporarily. The city should not give or lease to a commercial business with limited clientele the equivalent of three tennis courts of space in a very busy park when park space in our city is so limited. That sets a very bad precedent of taking away our park space for commercial use. I've heard that the space it may go is where the trailers are. The RPC has been trying for years to free up the trailer space at Clover Park so it can be returned to an amphitheater. That hasn't happened for the public, but you'd free up that space for a commercial business? Who's going to pay for the cost to remove the trailers? this space is directly adjacent to the two reservable group barbecue areas having this business in that space would be very disruptive to events at those locations we just had the fosp annual meeting picnic there and thank you to manager chi and a few of you council members for attending Please do not move forward with the agreement for the Santa Monica Trapeze School to move their operation to Clover Park. Thank you.

Jonathan Foster.

Hello, Jonathan Foster. You know, I'm good at complaining. I haven't done a lot to help the city except for having caused too many crimes and stuff like that. Definitely have appreciated the police department. And just to clear up any vague, I want to say I do support Lana Negrete. I do support all nine of you. I love you very much. It's just when I want to complain about policy is different than who you are. I think you all are amazing people from what I've learned. All of you. You couldn't get up there if you weren't. And so I want to talk about homelessness for now and again, I've said a few times, where can they go? You said you can't go there can't go there can't go here. Can't have a tent can't have an encampment. Where can they go? And then I commented, I said, I saw something in the discussions that talked about, you're going to allow them to stay on city property. That's not being used for short periods of time or something at night. And I still wonder now. Aside from all of that, what I was speaking about, I'm talking about the people that are homeless a little bit like me. They don't want to deal with the city. They don't want to talk to you people. They don't want to talk to the police. They don't want to talk to an outreach worker. They don't want to go on City Pride. It has nothing to do with the city. They just want to sleep on the sidewalk somewhere. So I'm going to ask again, where can the homeless sleep in Santa Monica? And I see them on, you know, randomly now on the sidewalk all by themselves, just one person there, one person there. It's not encampments. Personally, I haven't seen, I've seen a little bit of a reduction in homeless. So I just keep asking that question because they are coming here. And it's not this, Mayor, it's not that this is the most amazing place. This is the greatest place on earth. The word great is above amazing. And that's why they come here, because the people are so great. So they're looking for really good handouts. And I just, where can they?

Thank you. Zoe Mugener.

Do I have two minutes now?

Mm-hmm.

Great.

I don't have my timer here, so I don't know. You tell me when I can start. Hi, my name is Zoe Montaner. Good evening, Council. I'm sorry that I arrived late, but the person who was speaking here about me has been harassing me for months because it's part of the effort of James W. Neal, who is in violation of his own lease.

City Attorney, is this pertaining to an item on the consent calendar closed session?

Yes. Item 5C, that is initiation of litigation.

Well, without revealing any attorney-client privilege information, this does not appear to be the item 5C, be related to item 5C. Thank you. 5C.

5C is Conference with Legal Counsel Potential Initiation of Litigation. Government Code 5-4.

Ms. Mugener, if you have an item pertaining to a closed session or consent calendar, feel free to keep talking. You have a minute and 39 seconds. Okay.

I would like to note as an accommodation, because I revealed my diagnosis, I beg of you to stop interrupting me every time I come here to speak. It is not right and it's in violation of ADA. I wish and I expect that this is the last time you do that. And I'm serious. Let me get my thoughts. You are unbelievable. And you are for reelection. Are you sure you want to do that to yourself and to the city? your gross behavior in the dais. I was going to talk about something, and you do this every time I come here to speak. I have to use my time for this. It needs to stop. You're in violation of my rights. And we are on Disability Pride Month, and you did a proclamation for that. It is obscene, your behavior, obscene. you're exposing the city to litigation here in front of the city again this this item is i have to speak about this because she continues to do this every time i come to city council this is this is not okay of the of the agenda okay you do that on purpose lawyers do that it's a strategy I'M GOING TO HAVE MY ATTORNEY WRITE A LETTER TO THE CITY ATTORNEY TO START A COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO STOP.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE DO SO OUTSIDE OF THIS PARTICULAR SECTION. NEW SPEAKER OKAY, THANK YOU.

WE HAVE NO FURTHER, GREAT. SO I UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE, SO WE'RE GOING TO NOW MOVE ON TO THE CONSENT CALENDAR. There was a request from council members during its guide within our council rules to pull item 4B from the consent calendar.

And Madam Mayor, I'm going to have to recuse from item 4B.

Sure. And then I have recusal as well. Do you want to say why you're recusing?

Yeah, for item 4B, Gillig LLC is a client of my law firm, Hanson Bridget LLP. Neither I nor my law firm have any financial interest at all in the matter before the City Council tonight, but as out of an abundance of caution and to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I will be recusing.

Thank you. I will also be recusing myself from item 4G, which is an agreement with LA County out of an abundance of caution. I also have no financial interest in this, and it does not affect my salary or employment, but I will recuse out of an abundance of caution to avoid the appearance of a conflict. So yes, go ahead.

One more, Mayor. I'll be recusing myself from item 4F due to my employment as Southern California Director of the Housing Action Coalition, which advocates for housing production, including the use of SB 9.

Great. So I will then move that we approve the consent calendar items for A, C, D, E, And H. Second. Great. Thank you.

And I'm sorry, who did the second? Was that?

Negrete. All right.

Councilmember Zarniskaya?

Yes.

Councilmember Snell? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Swick? Yes. Council Member Raskin? Yes. Council Member Negrete? Yes. And Mayor DeRosa?

Yes. That carries. So for B, we will wait for Council Member Raskin to leave, and I believe that Council Member Zerneske wanted to pull that item.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I don't need a staff report. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions about this because I understand that this is a an amendment to our prior authorization to purchase electric buses. So this is to purchase 10 additional on top of the 30 that we previously authorized in December 2024. Oh, I see there's only three slides. So if you want to run through that, that's Yeah, good evening, Mayor Truss and council members.

My name is David Nanjo. I'm the transit maintenance administrator for the Department of Transportation. And let me just move to the next slide. So, I only have 2 slides. This 1st, 1 is just a summary of the cost increase for the existing order from the 2024 council meeting to where we are today. So, the cost increases came from 3 places. There's our producer price index. That's based into the contract that Gillick has with the state of Washington to produce these vehicles. Um, there have been 4 increases over the course of their agreement with the state of Washington. Um, 3 and 4 are what impacted the order we're talking about tonight. Um, the total increase from 2024 for this order was 65,400. There are also some inflationary cost increases from the components that we spec on the bus. So the way the contract is structured is a base price that Washington bids. And then we can also spec out our own equipment. Those are usually things like our. CAD AVL, which is our computer-aided dispatch and automated vehicle locator system that lets us track the buses in service and talk to the operators, our destination signs, video surveillance system, and other Santa Monica-specific equipment. That was a $32,000 increase. That's from the subcomponent manufacturers. So the PPI only covers the production of the bus. It's actually for the steel and aluminum used in the manufacturer. And this is the subcomponent manufacturers' cost escalation over the last year. And then sales tax, there was a sales tax partial exemption that expired, which also added $62,000 to the cost. And then just to address the funding source for these vehicles, 80% of them are funded by the federal government through the Section 5307 funds. These are allocated to the Department of Transportation based on a formula. They may only be used on capital investments in buses and bus facilities. They generally cannot be used for operating expenses. and they're reimbursement based. So we have to spend the money and then we get reimbursed on a dollar for dollar basis. Historically, SMDOT has used these funds exclusively for bus replacements. And then 20% of that funding is coming from the state of California's transit industry rail capital program. It's a competitive grant that we applied for over the last few years, we did get successfully awarded two different rounds of funding for that. One of those was in 2024 for $53 million. And a portion of that was to fund these buses. And a larger portion of that was to fund our electric bus charging infrastructure. So that's the end of the slides. And I'm happy to answer your questions.

Thank you. So you mentioned the producer price index based on Gillig's contract with the state of Washington. So and you noted that we were impacted by number three and number four. So at what point does the unit price lock in? Because it looked like it was somewhere around an additional 160 ish 160-ish thousand per bus, based on the increases.

Yeah, so the price gets locked in when we establish a build date with the manufacturer. Until then, The Gillig doesn't know when they'll be building the buses, so they won't know how to price that. There's a process called a pre-production meeting where the department meets with the manufacturer to go over the final build of the bus, everything from the paint scheme, all the equipment on board, the seating layout. Once that's locked in, there are no changes able to be made to the bus build, and that's when the price is finalized.

Okay.

And how were those producer price index escalations and clauses actually triggered? And are we notified when any amendments or increases happen?

Yeah, Gillig does notify us. The trigger points are negotiated between Gillig and the State of Washington when they go through the bid process.

And can you please clarify why? And you know, understanding that these the funds for these buses, it appears are not actually coming from city coffers, it's coming from federal and state funding. And we're just we're getting the benefit of that. Is there any? Are there any particular reasons why we weren't able to lock in the prices earlier?

Yeah, so our bus build was delayed partially due to the timing on our electrification infrastructure. So today we've got 34 electric buses and 20 bus chargers, which means we are having to do some shuffling over the night. If we had received these on the on the initial timeline, we'd be receiving an additional 30 buses this year without any additional chargers, which we decided as a department, we would not be able to support operationally. So unfortunately, because of some delays in the infrastructure construction, we have had to delay it. That's why we're fairly confident now that we have broken ground and we have construction underway that we'll be able to receive these buses next year.

Okay. So it sounds like based on what you just said, we shouldn't expect to see any additional It increases in the price come before for come before us for authorization for more funding.

Yeah, that's correct. We had our pre production meeting with Gillick earlier this month. So we the build in the price is finalized as of now.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. I'll yield if anybody else has any.

You'll move the item? Yep.

I'm happy to move the item.

I'll second it. Great.

okay yes yes yes yes yes thank you

Okay. We are now moving on to 4F.

4F is adoption of a resolution approving final parcel map for a subdivision at 2423 18th Street to create two residential parcels.

Okay. We will just wait for Councilmember Zwick to exit the room. I assume you're here for that. Okay. Does anyone have questions?

I'll be happy to move this item.

Okay.

Second.

Great.

Okay. Councilmember Negrete?

Yes.

Councilmember Raskin? Yes. Councilmember Snell? Yes. Councilmember Zarniskaya? Yes. And Mayor Ter-Roses?

Yes.

Councilmember Zwick, please return.

And then I will recuse myself from foreshadowing.

I think we should just be allowed to put a paper bag over our head or something and stay in place.

Okay, so 4G is approval to increase contract authority for the agreement with Los Angeles County for lifeguard services on Santa Monica State Beach.

Are there any questions on this item?

I'd like to move this item.

I would like to second it.

Great. Moved by Councilmember McGrette, seconded by Councilmember Snell. Okay.

Councilmember Zarnes-Gaia? Yes. Councilmember Snell? Yes. Councilmember Raskin? Yes. Councilmember Negrete? yes yes that passes Carolyn can come back okay so while we're waiting for the mayor to return I'll go ahead and read the closed sessions 5a is existing litigation and this is with several John does 5b is another existing litigation and it's the city versus I 5C is a potential litigation. It's one case. 5D is a real estate negotiation. The property is 2900 and 3000 Airport Avenue, 3011 and 3021 Airport Avenue. The city manager is the city negotiator. Persons to be negotiated with are Larry Sirota, executive managing, Managing Director, Transwestern, under negotiation price and terms and payment of lease. 5E is another real estate. It's for 2800 Airport and 2801 25th Street. this is clover park again the city manager is the city's negotiator and it's with kenna stevens ceo of santa monica trapeze school under negotiation price in terms of payment of license finally 5f is a i'm sorry significant exposure to litigation and it's one case santa monica trapeze school and i turn to the city attorney to find out what time you think you'll return

We anticipate 90 minutes, so no earlier than 820. 815?

815.

Great.

We'll see everyone no earlier than 815. Thanks.

recording in progress

Okay, city attorney, I'm going to call on you in one moment. Hi everyone, it's 825. We are returning from closed session and all of the items were heard and I would just ask if our city attorney has a report out of closed session.

Yes, as the mayor reported out, all matters were heard with one reportable action taken. With respect to Item 5C, direction was given to initiate litigation on a vote of six to zero with Councilmember Hall absent, and the action defendants and other particulars shall, once formally commenced, be disclosed upon inquiry consistent with Section 54957.1 of the Brown Act.

Thank you. So we are now going to move on to our travel announcement. Do any members of the Council have items to report on travel? I'll just say over the weekend, I attended the Young Elected Officials Conference in Marina del Rey. We discussed turning policy into actual results, how you measure that, communicating that back out to the community. We met with other similarly situated local elected officials from across the country. We had the opportunity to meet with former Vice President Kamala Harris and several of our Congress members. uh and just appreciated the time to uh learn best practices from other jurisdictions across the country it was at no cost to the city i paid for it myself um okay moving on uh we have public oh you have oh i'm sorry you sorry you're there's no ability to do the request to speak on on our um panels tonight just fyi so i haven't been able to see anyone in the queue yeah okay go ahead sorry no i just i just wanted to note that i went to the uh installation dinner

for the LA County Board of the Cal Cities. So we welcomed our new chair of the LA County Board of Cal Cities, Ana Maria Quintana, from the City of Bell, and thanked our outgoing chair, Britt Huff, from My brain is freezing. I believe it's rolling out. Yeah.

Fantastic. Thank you. So we will move on to public input on the remaining items. I see that we have 32, 30, 31 speakers. Madam City Attorney, there seems to be some discrepancy as to how many minutes everyone gets. Can you just please refresh our recollection how many minutes everyone will get?

Yes, under subsection E under the rules of order of item 15, I believe it is, but it is one minute per speaker during the section. So it is not one minute per item, it is one minute during for the whole section for all the remaining items except for the item 12, which is the public hearing. Great.

So for those who haven't been here, I will call up your name. Just please come up, let us know who you are so we can check you off the list. And I'll continue to call names so we can do this as efficiently as possible. Thank you all so much for being here. So Denise Barton, Maria Miranda, Zoanda Parks, Sally Young, Brittany de Guzman.

And when you come up, could you tell me what item you're speaking on?

Thank you.

Good evening on item 11a. You expect anyone to believe that the Housing and Human Services Department will be able to rate organizations when the Social Services, aka Human Services Department, has a history of taking over 200 days to post funds received and don't check the math and grant funding fiscal reports, resulting in $50,000 or more of funding to be unaccounted for, such as both fiscal reports for the people concerned housing retention, or that in 2024-25, $210 went to client services out of the $300,000 in grant funding. And all the things for the seniors and the disabled sound nice. We'll see how many come to fruition, but I'm not holding my breath considering how you discriminate against seniors and the disabled at in-person city council meetings. Next, item 12A, the issuance of eligibility of 80 to 90- Madam City Attorney, 12A is not being heard right now.

12A, those are required to be held during the public hearing. 12A is a public hearing? No, there's a separate- Not for public hearings.

Everything except the public hearing is being heard right now. Apologies if that was unclear. Mari Morenda?

Hi, thank you. I'm here for 11C and I'm here to urge the City Council to reconsider exclusive negotiations with AEG that will see them compete with eight other venues that AEG operates within 20 miles of downtown Santa Monica. Having only access to certain shows really is detrimental in the long run instead of building an open facility that allows for filming for a sound stage for more than just live music to be held in the area or in the facilities. Over 56% of the city's total payroll is in creative information, tech, arts, entertainment, and sports. And one of the sole reasons that Film Santa Monica was created was so that money does stay in Santa Monica. And a separate arm could be built where Phil and Santa Monica can oversee the negotiations with venues or other companies like Live Nation, Another Planet, to implement the technologies and other refurbished facilities across California. I urge you to just reconsider what's best for...

Thank you. And Mayor, before we go any further, there are four minors I just realized.

Oh well, if you are a minor and you're here to make a comment, please come up, so we can prioritize you, I know the hour is late it's 830 we try to prioritize minors. If you wouldn't mind coming up and telling us your name because i'm not sure who they are what their names are.

My name's Joshua, guess what? I'm here for YRG. Oh, yeah, my case manager's there already. I don't know where he's at.

Yeah.

And then... The program's good. They take us on a lot of field trips and help us with school stuff and check on us every week. And they help us with housing, tutoring, and whatever we need. And they take us on field trips. and get us stuff. I think that's it.

Thank you, Joshua. I know it takes a lot of bravery to come up here.

We appreciate you.

Especially because your friends made you go first.

Hi, my name is Emilio Vela. I'm about to enter 12th grade. And the only thing I got to say is that this program is really, really good. Youth Resource Center. It's really, really good. It helps us a lot. with housing and stuff. And with food, every single once a week, they give us food. That's kind of good. That's good. Last Christmas, they were able to purchase a desk for me, a gaming desk for me. That benefited me a lot. So yeah, that's kind of good. And well, there's like 20 seconds left, but that's the only thing I'm going to say. This program is really good.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Matthew Gaspar, and I'm also part of YRT. I wanted to say that the program is great. They help us out with a lot of school stuff, and they take us on field trips. They also care a lot about us. So, yeah, that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

My name is Diego, and I go to YRTC. The other programs, they feel like extra school time. And this one feels more like they want to help you out at advancing in school. And they feel human. They don't feel like other random people who want to teach you random stuff. They really care about you. And that's why I feel that it's really good. So yeah, that's all I have to say about that. Awesome.

Thank you all. Do we have more? Thank you all so much for being here on. That was four? Okay, we got four. I know that coming to a city council meeting at 830 at night on a Tuesday might be scary for many, but appreciate you being here. Okay, so we have Zoenda Parks. Great.

Yeah, hard act to follow. Hi, I'm Zoanda Parks, speaking on 11A. Good evening, everyone. I'm a teacher, a social worker, and because of the Human Services Grant, I'm a provider of mental health services through the City of Santa Monica, through the Social and Emotional Wellness Initiative, or SUI. So as a claimed researcher, Dr. Dan Siegel says, When we give children the space to feel their emotions, we help them build the inner tools to manage them. So my organization in Santa Monica helps the youth feel safe serving the families and our district's educators and the entire community through events that we have at the park. So when they have access to these supports, the entire community becomes more connected and more resilient. So as in years past, we're hoping that will be considered for the HSG grant. So we wanted to agree with the staff's recommendation to get that RFP out so we can continue our partnership. So thank you so much.

Thank you. So we have Sally Young, and then Brittany de Guzman, and then Diana Flores, Freddie Luis, Ashley Olson.

Good evening. My name is Sally Young, and I'm a founding member of the Social and Emotional Wellness Initiative, or SUI. I've had the privilege of seeing firsthand how important the social and emotional wellness is to our young people in our community. This past year alone, SUI has supported 1,000 youth in Santa Monica, helping youth build skills, confidence, and resilience that they need to thrive. These are not simply programs. They are investments in healthier, more connected young people, and ultimately a stronger community. Continuing to fund the Human Services Grant Program means continuing to make these resources accessible to the youth and the families who need them the most. I strongly encourage the Council to continue to this critical investment in social and emotional wellness and thank you for your past support.

Thank you.

Hi. Before my time starts, are we able to give you our written speeches since the time is cut down? Yeah, absolutely.

Madam Clerk, I think we can definitely take them and distribute them here, or we can email them to us as well.

OK.

Thank you.

Good evening, council members. My name is Brittany, and I'm speaking on item 11B. On behalf of Generations of Virginia Avenue, we want to thank Council Member Lana Negrete for bringing forward the 16 item back in May. And thank you to the entire Council for voting yes on that. That vote helped create a bridge between the residents of Virginia Avenue and city staff. It gave us an opportunity to tour the property, meet with and make sure residents have a voice in what happens to our homes and our community. We also want to thank City Manager Oliver Chee and Housing Director Eileen Reynolds and their teams for staying involved and keeping an eye on this project. As residents, we know our apartments and their conditions better than anyone. We believe the original estimate did not fully reflect those conditions, which contributed to the project costs being much higher than expected. Virginia Avenue is more than a project to us. It's our home, and for many of us, it's been home for generations. Thank you for listening to us for giving us a voice and continuing.

Thank you. I'm speaking on agenda item 11 B, and just to let you know, I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm going to get right into the meat and potatoes with the woman. Okay. Good evening tonight. We are taking the 1st steps in the right direction for accountability and transparency and public trust. But 1st, our concern is that claims that major construction expenditures were unforeseen and this is causing them to go over budget. But between 2023 and 2025 conducted multiple inspections, documenting the water intrusion mold, wood rot termites and natural deterioration in every unit. CCSM was also given independent mold inspections paid for by residents as well as the original building inspection upon purchase of the building that also documented some of these very serious concerns, including the need to replace the main sewer lines. These are the exact same items CCSM now claims were unforeseen and have caused them to go over budget. I personally contacted two contractors who bid the project, and they told me that they never received these reports from CCSM to help them bid more accurately. One of those contractors is the one who's actually doing this job. Second, residents have serious concerns about the project.

Thank you. And I know that you all emailed us, so thank you.

Good evening, Freddie speaking on 11 B. Uh, we're here again budget issues and we know that most construction jobs will have additional costs, but. There should be accountability line for line for any projects and this is this project here. Could be a blueprint for how you move forward for any other projects going forward. This city report shows that there's a $1.5 million developer overhead profit fees. Some of that money should go towards the overage that they're now claiming. I don't understand why the city should be used as a piggy bank by them. They need to be held accountable for not doing things correctly from the beginning. This project is very personal to us, but it is a chance to overhaul and create a blueprint for the future.

um perhaps we need other non-profits to handle projects like this so it's not monopolized by one company throughout the city thank you thank you um and as miss olsen comes up we also have i'll call up some more names doug tressler christine para joe de rosa sheila small and i'm speaking on 11b as well

Council should begin by asking one very simple question. Let's see the records. Either the conditions were known to CCSM or CCSM failed to review the information. Neither explanation should be acceptable. And this project exposes a much larger problem. CCSM has longstanding relationships with Santa Monica for renters' rights. When CCSM is so deeply intertwined with SMR and residents speak out about alleged negligence by CCSM, SMR appears to defend CCSM rather than defend renters' rights. This is a serious conflict that can leave renters without the advocacy they deserve. SMUR should be looking into this project, scrutinizing the budget and project costs, and holding CCSM accountable for its mistakes. SMUR should be standing here tonight with these residents. The influence SMUR has in Santa Monica is significant, respected, well-known, and decades old. That influence reaches throughout our city from the lowest to the highest levels. It's time for everyone involved.

Thank you. Mr. Tressler.

Good evening. 11B. I'm here to support affordable housing and to protect the city's ability to finance it for years to come. Let me start with what matters most. The families of Virginia Avenue have endured six years of uncertainty, relocation, and construction. We owe them a finished project, and nothing I say tonight changes that. In 2020, the City committed $15.2 million to acquire the property before a viable financing plan exists. Then came the requests. More money in 21, more money in 22, when investment tax credits were at risk, and in 2024, CCSM finally applied for the tax credit, the standard tool for funding projects like this in California. The application failed, and at every step of the way, the answer was the same. The Housing Trust Fund would cover it. So I'm asking the Council to direct two things. First, before we buy anything, let's figure out a workable capital stack before a commitment is made. And second, competition. Transparency and competition bidding are how projects get finished on time, on budget, and in compliance, whoever the developer is. Affordable housing and fiscal responsibility are not competing goals. Manage the money better, and we don't get less affordable housing.

Thank you. Christine Parra.

I am going to finish reading what Diana Flores was trying to convey. So our question is simple. Why were known conditions not included in the original project planning and bids when CCSM had the documentation? That proves negligence. Second, residents have serious concerns about project expenditures and change orders. Our review of available construction documents and a list of change orders have raised questions about several expenditures, including approximately $103,000 for a trash area, More than 100,000 for a new laundry room while existing one laundry will be used for CCSM storage. Happy they made storage for themselves while taking away ours. Approximately 40,000 for signage. Nearly 14,000 for an intercom system despite the property having no gates or plan to enclose. Residents are not claiming that every expenditure is improper. We are asking for clear justification, supporting documentation, especially as residents are simultaneously losing approximately 30% of their in-unit storage spaces, parking garages, or original unit layouts.

Thank you, former Council Member Parra. We have Joe DeRosa, Sheila Small, Zoe Moutonier, Jessica Reynaga, Angel Morales.

Yeah, hey, I'm here to vote against the NA for AEG. I think the process has not been open. Apparently, you guys approached AEG about this. There was no open RFP, even though I was told there should be. You can see by the first email here, over here, I was told there was going to be an RFP after introducing an idea about a global conference center. There's three or four more emails here showing that over the last six weeks you guys have been operating under a de facto ENA by blocking anybody else who had an idea from participating. um you know uh the city did not put it on the surplus land i mean on their the available land it did not open a procurement um there is uh just so much wrong and the oaks initiative disclosure is wrong since you guys did just lease them 1.34 million dollars worth of real property for the festival so there was the oaks initiative disclosure

Sheila Small.

This is item 11c. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Sheila Small. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Revitalization Partner Group. Our group is comprised of Live Nation Entertainment, Oak View Group, the Azoff Company, and Make Good Group. We saw the staff report and tonight's agenda regarding the future of the Civic Auditorium, and I wanted to make one thing very clear. Our group remains very interested in the Civic. there seems to be a perception that rpg is no longer interested in pursuing the project that is simply not the case our group brings decades of experience developing restoring programming and operating live entertainment venues These are complex buildings and complicated projects, and this is exactly the type of work that our companies do. Over the past year, we've devoted considerable time, capital, and resources to understanding the civic and what it will take to bring the historic venue back online. Boy, a minute goes fast, doesn't it? The bottom line is we ask that you consider not just...

Thank you. Thank you. Zoe do not see. Oh, great. Thank you.

Good evening council. Thank you so much for your work tonight. Um, and September 23 of 2013, the city council sign to. Be part of the charter for compassion and become a compassionate city. I'm referencing that because when I come here and I listen to the comments of the people from Virginia park. It breaks my heart that this is not a compassionate city where people that belong to a particular demographic are abused publicly and privately at their homes. We need to do better. this month is latina month on august 20 is latina day i asked the city manager to declare a proclamation for latina day most of the residents are latina here today tonight this is an insult to their well-being we have to uh jessica reinaga angel morales uh melody v karen morales

Hi, this is Jess Reynaga speaking to 11A. Council members and Mayor, on behalf of Connections for Children, a current HSGP recipient, thank you for your longstanding commitment to Santa Monica's children and families. Affordable child care is foundational to housing stability and financial security. In fiscal year 24-25, Connections for Children provided childcare subsidies to 186 Santa Monica families and 247 children, helping parents remain employed and housed. More than $3 million in public childcare subsidies is also flowing directly to the SM economy through local childcare providers. But the need is growing. In fiscal year 25-26, licensed child care in Santa Monica averages $1,755 per child per month, up 4% from last year. For families currently using CFC subsidies, the average monthly gross income for a two-person household, so a single parent, is just $2,190. Yeah, thank you.

Hello, I'll be speaking on item 11a. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Angel Morales, and I'm here on behalf of Haven Services. Through our work in Santa Monica, Haven is increasingly responding to needs beyond our funded services, particularly among families facing housing instability and homelessness. As HSGP expands services without a corresponding increase in funding, Haven respectfully offers three recommendations. First, double HSGP funding from $9.2 million to $18.4 million so expanded services do not come at the expense of existing problems. Second, address critical gaps for families experiencing homelessness. There is currently no local family shelter and extremely limited resources for these families. Haven is already stepping in to provide emergency assistance, housing navigation, and case management without dedicated funding. Third, increase Haven's HSGP funding to reflect our growing role and the services our community increasingly relies on us to provide. Thank you.

Thank you. Melody V., Karen Morales, Alonzo Gonzalez, Ricardo Alfaro.

Good evening. I'm speaking on 11 a, my name is melody that induced and I'm speaking on behalf of housing specialist. I am the lead case manager with the youth resource team program and she wrote this letter that I'm going to read. I want to bring to an attention an issue that has become increasingly difficult to navigate in my role. The lack of shelters, interim housing and services for homeless families, many of whom have very young children. my role is to assist support and help connect young people and families to resources especially during times of crisis however it becomes extremely challenging to fulfill that role and responsibility when there are very few to no housing opportunities available to refer them to this summer alone we have currently approximately 10 unhoused families who are in need of immediate housing support and services behind each of those numbers is a family experiencing uncertainty stress and fear about where they will sleep and whether they will have a safe place to call home What concerns me most is what happens when this problem continues without a clear plan. As a housing specialist, I want youth and families to know when they reach out for help, there is somewhere we can direct them. And I worry that when we repeatedly have to tell someone there are no available resources or places to refer them, we risk creating a disconnect between youth and the support systems that are supposed to help them. After reviewing the current situation, it is extremely concerning to see that there is not a clear plan in place for unhoused families. We cannot expect youth and families to overcome homelessness without having the resources and infrastructure necessary to support them. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Karen, and I would like to reiterate the points on 11A brought up by Angel Morales. First, double the HHCP funding from approximately $9.2 to $18.4 million, allowing new family case management services to be funded without taking resources away from existing programs. Second, provide dedicated funding for critical gaps in Santa Monica safety net, including family shelter, immigrant and undocumented support, transitional housing, and housing navigation for families and transition-aged youth. Third, provide haven with funding that better reflects our growing role and the services the city residents and community partners increasingly rely on us to provide. A stronger investment in HSGP means a stronger safety net for Santa Monica's families. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening City Council members. My name is Alonzo Gonzalez, born and raised here in the Pico neighborhood. I'm a youth development consultant contracted through St. Joseph Center working with the YRT team. The kids that we serve are the at most risk and highest needed families here in Santa Monica. Through this, um, I'd like to take this opportunity for y'all to look at the current budget, um, projected at about 9Million out of an operating budget of over 830Million dollars. Um, that's roughly 1% towards the community violence intervention while law enforcement see 17%. Let us stop. Let's prevent a problem. Preventing a problem is always cost less than paying to solve one. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I just want to call a few more names as Ricardo is coming up. Erica Bell, Irma Carranza, Macarena Garcia, Alicia Mignano.

Good evening, Council. My name is Ricardo and I'm the Director of Chrysalis Santa Monica. Just this past year, Chrysalis served over 1,000 individuals through our Santa Monica office. These are residents and community members facing significant barriers to employment, including mental health, housing instability, gap in work history, and challenges in a rapid change in job market. Today, finding a job looks very different than it did a few years ago. Artificial intelligence is transforming how employers recruit and how job seekers apply for positions. We recently launched an AI-focused workforce workshop and partnered with TechUp at UCLA to help participants build the digital and technology skills needed to complete in today's job market. At the same time, many of our clients are experiencing heightened uncertainty due to immigration enforcement actions and related fears. that can create additional barriers to seeking employment and accessing services. However, Chrysalis has taken the initiative to create a safe and welcoming space for everyone, making our services more important than ever. Stable employment helps people meet their basic needs, sense of dignity, and contributes to safer .

Thank you.

Good evening, Council Members. Erica Bell speaking to Item 11A on behalf of Early Childhood Task Force in support of City staff's recommendation to approve HSGP funding guidelines. I'm also here to emphasize the reality of the situation. Current funding is not enough to keep up with the growing needs of families in Santa Monica. When parents can't find childcare they can afford, they can't reliably go to work. And when a paycheck becomes unpredictable, rent becomes unpredictable too. Childcare costs are one of the biggest financial pressures families in the city are dealing with. And that's especially true in the Pico neighborhood, where it was found that families with young children are not being reached by current programs. This is also about the small businesses providing that care and education. Many providers are barely holding on, even as they provide that essential care. We're asking council to prioritize a real increase in child care subsidies, increasing the total funding available, raising subsidy amounts to reflect the true cost of quality care, expanding income eligibility to reach more working families.

Thank you. Irma. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Irma Carranza. So I selected four minutes. I know now I have one minute, but there's three other members that would also sign up for a minute. So to make a total of four minutes. Is that okay? Okay, great. just say your name just say if you could say your name so we could check you off yeah okay so it's um or when you come up it's okay okay so but i'm going to read the four minutes oh instead of so they signed up for a minute each to allow me to do that i don't believe under the current rules of order that donation of speaker time is is permitted so can they eat you could in chain you could in tandem do

before but not one person for four minutes it's one per it's one minute per can they each come up and read after you well um it's in english yeah spanish speakers uh do we have okay so how do we well i can also

have them read in Spanish, but then who's going to do the translating?

So I would move to suspend the rules so that we can allow you to give four minutes. We can have the three other speakers let us know their names and we can have Irma give the four minutes. Does anyone?

Thank you. Second.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? No. Okay. Maybe just tell us your names so that Denise can check them off really quickly.

Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. So I'll go ahead and start off. Good evening, mayor and council members. We are members of Familia Latinas Unidas. known as FLU, a group of immigrants, mothers, and families rooted in a deep sense of belonging and shared purpose. While our mission begins with addressing the unique struggles of Latino families, the fruit of our labor strengthens the social fabric for everyone. By fostering equity and resilience within our community, we help build a safer, stronger, and more vibrant city that honors the shared humanity of all its residents. We stand before you this evening to advocate for an adequate grant and RFP cycle that truly reflects the urgent realities facing our most vulnerable residents. The data and the direct testimonies from our community are clear. There are significant gaps that we can no longer afford to ignore. The current funding for the Human Services Grant Program is insufficient to address critical gaps. We must invest in a strong safety net as our current system is leaving behind our most vulnerable residents, including those who are illiterate, not tech savvy, facing economic instability, and those struggling with poverty and hateful actions by the current federal administration. To create a safe, vibrant, and equitable city, we must commit to adequate investment now. First, we must emphasize urgency in supporting our immigrant families in the current climate. Our immigrant neighbors are asking for more than just abstract support. They need a physical one-stop location for resources and information. FLU has been holding immigration forums since February 2017. They continue to be very well attended and provide accurate and important information to the community. We have partnered with many organizations like CHEER, La Ligual Aid, Haven, Venice Family Clinic, and others to provide support to our Spanish-speaking immigrants. Our experience is that when ice is spotted in the city, it impacts people going to work, parents taking their children to school, students' anxiety over worrying about their parents' safety, and hits Santa Monica's economy. All this just from a report of an ice sighting in the city. When a family member is taken into custody, it impacts every aspect of their family's life, loss of income, housing instability, excessive legal fees, and so forth. Therefore, we need to ensure there is adequate funding to be able to respond to these needs. Similarly, we cannot ignore the one third of children in the Pico neighborhood who EDI data shows are not kindergarten ready. The data shows there are gaps in kindergarten readiness and therefore we must increase funding for early childhood. Our support must also extend to those left behind by existing age limits. We are hearing from parents of young men who still require guidance and support. We appreciate and believe in the work that Youth Resource Team is doing, but we must extend the age limits or create a next step initiatives to provide older youth with a path forward. Remember that we were able to rid youth violence years back. We did this only when the Cradle to Career Initiative came to fruition. The YRT came out of the C2C. The fact that SMPD had received millions of dollars over the years to address youth violence, created a gang unit, had a police substation in Virginia Park, it wasn't until the city invested in a safety net that at-risk youth provided support to families, invested in the community by addressing the root cause, that lives were saved. We must learn from this experience and invest in a strong safety net that does not allow vulnerable groups to fall through the cracks. An increase in funding will save millions of dollars later on. Therefore, we're here to ask you to please increase the funding for this next cycle.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to all the members of FLU for being here. There's one more speaker? Okay, Macrina Garcia. Great.

mayor and council members my name is macrina garcia i am one of the leaders for familias latinas unidas i will be speaking on item 11a the human services grant program funds the essential social services in our community that many families rely on programs such as yrt haven family services wise and others are able to do the work they do thanks to the funding they received through this program. Currently, immigrant support services do not receive funding through the program, but they should. These services have been essential during raids, closures caused by raids, and sheltering in place due to ICE sightings. Situations that have profoundly affected families in our community. In order to fund these and other equally important services, the Council must increase the funds to the program budget. Otherwise, we run the risk of agencies having to compete with one another for limited resources for people falling through the cracks. This should not happen.

Thank you so much. I'll call up a few more names. We have Alicia Mignano, Jennifer Smith, Michael Graff-Wisner, Laura Hernandez. SMMUSD Board President Alicia Mignano.

Hello, good evening, Mayor Carolyn Tauroses and City Council members, City Manager. I'm Alicia Mignano and I'm the President of the School Board, but I am here as a resident of Santa Monica. I've seen up close how HSGP funded programs provide critical services to our young people and families. The Youth Resource Team supports some of the most vulnerable youth, beginning in middle school and continuing through age 25. HSGP also supports childcare and subsidies for families, while organizations like SUI and Family Services of Santa Monica provide mental health services. Together, these programs create a continuum of care from early childhood through young adulthood. but the demand is high and many families face long wait lists i hope the city will explore increasing its investment in hsgp so these organizations have the resources to meet the needs of our children and families and i also want to say that i've heard about the families oh cliffhanger okay jennifer smith

Jennifer Smith speaking on 11a Jennifer Smith I'm serving on the SMUSC school board but speaking as a community member for 27 years I'm here to advocate for the Human Services grants that are so critical to families in Santa Monica a great appreciation for the city and its belief in this work I would also like to emphasize our programs are still lacking for services to our homeless student population specifically housing while case management is important The solutions interim or shelter housing is not funded. Also critical are mental health needs of our youth, which will take more resources than our district has. Each year, the services at school fills up quickly and kids are put on wait lists. I'm happy to hear that we as a city are heading in a good direction for economic recovery and would urge you to consider future spending on these programs. While the school district puts forth many resources to help our schools with many social needs, we are grateful to live in a city where collaboration is robust and the bottom line is how we can lift up our youth and make sure we can create good outcomes for their future. Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Teresas and Council Members. My name is Michael Graff-Wisner and I work as Vice President of Strategy and External Relations at Chrysalis. Uh, we are currently funded through the city's human service grant program, where we offer employment services to low income residents and individuals experiencing homelessness. In addition crystals operates what's known as an employment social enterprise where essentially we employ individuals. We serve giving them a chance to prove that they can work and build skills. First, I want to thank all of you on the Council for your ongoing support of the Human Services Grant Program. These investments make our city stronger, safer, and a place where everyone can thrive. But in addition, I'm thanking you. I'm also asking you to consider a meaningful increase in the funding going to human services. Given disinvestments in the safety net at the federal level, this is the time to be bold locally and invest in services for those most vulnerable. So again, thank you for your ongoing support of the programs and the human service grant program.

Thanks Michael. Laura Hernandez and then Ralph Metcher.

Hi, my name is Laura Hernandez. Thank you for your time. I'm here to support the YRT. Like the kids say, this program, they help a lot of the kids to be good on the community and with the families. This program is not supporting only the kids. It's supporting the family. They help to be all together like familia that we are. And we like to be these programs more on Santa Monica. because, like I said, it's not just giving the support to the kids. They help with food, with home, with a lot of good research. So we really want to keep all these programs on Virginia Park. And I have my kids in another program, but they don't work really good. But this program in specific, they help a lot my kids to have more friends and to be more herself. And I am Good, we really have.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm an architect, 45, 46 years working on housing projects for the unhoused, for families. I've been on the board of Community Corporation now for about 10 years. As well, and I'm really proud of the work that we do. And I know this, the Virginia Avenue project had its ups and downs as it got started. But it is just over there early this week and walked in with the contractor and it really looks great. It's going to be a project that we. all are proud of that the community will be proud of that everybody will look at is how you can renovate older buildings and have the people who've lived there for generations you know continue to live there so there are things that happen during construction you know i can guarantee you that um i've lived it many times and we're just asking for a little help to while we look look for other funds and to complete this project we've been completed on time and the residents would be moved moved

Thank you. I believe we also have a, is the phone caller? Okay, so that concludes public input unless, I mean, I hope I called everyone. I believe that I did. So we will move on to 11A, which is the HHSG program.

Mayor?

Yes, are you recusing?

I'm recusing myself from 11A because I am chair and president of Santa Monica Black Empowerment Association, and my wife is CEO. nonprofit organization that may be eligible to apply for and receive grant through the Human Services grant program.

Okay, great. So we'll just wait for Councilmember Snell to leave the room and we'll get started.

All right, good evening council. I'm Nicole liner. I'm the fiscal administrator for the human services division, and I'm here tonight to talk about the proposed funding guidelines for the human services grants program for the twenty, twenty seven, thirty one funding cycle. Before I get into that, I want to acknowledge both our human services and homelessness prevention and intervention divisions. This. This effort is a huge collaboration between those teams and their work has gone into the guidelines. I'll be sharing with you tonight and into this program that you've heard so much about from our public comment. So the provides high quality, accessible, culturally competent social services. The program has been operating for over 50 years and has become the largest single source of city funds granted to local agencies from the city of Santa Monica. We're currently in the 2023-27 grant cycle, and the program has a budget of about $11 million and funds 18 agencies and 21 programs. The grants program is intended to be a social safety net that supports people at all stages of life, from infants to older adults, and it addresses a variety of needs, including poverty, social isolation, housing instability, poor mental and physical health, illegal injustice, and aims to improve quality of life so everyone in our community can thrive. A couple examples of recent impacts of the grants program include Meals on Wheels West, which Home delivered over 110,000 meals last year. That's over 300 meals a day. Of the residents that received those meals, 98% reported that the meals helped them remain in their homes because they didn't have to choose between paying for food and paying rent or utilities. Another example is the Youth Resource Team, or YRT, which provided assertive case management services to over 100 at-risk youth and their families, matching each youth with a caring and skilled case manager who supported them from crisis to stabilization and into a place of well-being. The HSGP has a set of guiding principles intended to establish a framework and values for the program. The program prioritizes funding for programs whose proposals document strong evidence of meeting critical local needs in order to provide effective services to the populations they serve. Programs must utilize best and evidence-based practices to deliver high impact services, which helps ensure community members are served effectively and efficiently. Programs must demonstrate their ability to collaborate and coordinate with other agencies and programs. And finally, they must prioritize people. And by this, we mean balancing high quality client care and employee well-being. So over the past several years, our department has developed a number of key reports and initiatives to help direct city priorities and investments. The Homelessness Strategic Plan, Renters Protection Report, Behavioral Health Study, Local Aging and Disability Action Plan, and Cradle to Career all involve significant community engagement efforts to identify the needs and priorities of vulnerable populations in Santa Monica. And the findings from these efforts have informed the funding guidelines for the upcoming HSGP RFP. We also engaged in a series of community engagement efforts specific to the HSGP. We held three community meetings where the public was encouraged to provide feedback on the funding guidelines and identify key needs and gaps in care. You can see here in these kind of blurry photos images from a gallery walk activity where community members responded to questions about health and wellness, housing and homelessness prevention, and financial stability. Questions like, what does a healthy neighborhood look and feel like to you? In addition to these meetings over the past year, our team went with a variety of stakeholders to further understand local needs. Staff then synthesized the findings and recommendations that came out of all of these efforts to develop the key programmatic areas for the next funding cycle, which you'll see in just a minute. In addition to the specific service needs, one of the other common themes we heard throughout the community is that social service programs and the clients they serve are facing new and unique challenges. Inflation and the cost of running programs is extremely high. There have been regional and federal funding cuts. There is a growing demand for services and people's needs to continue to be increasingly complex. Some current HSGP programs are on waitlist, some of them for the very first time ever. And we anticipate seeing an increase in funding requests with this next cycle to help meet this unprecedented need. So with that, I'm going to share our proposed funding guidelines for the next cycle. One of the biggest changes from the current funding cycle to the upcoming one is that we are proposing to fund a specific set of services. So in the past, we've had a more open call for proposals, but this time we're being more prescriptive. HSGP funds are limited, and like I just mentioned, service demand and the cost of doing business have both increased pretty significantly. So we're in a place where we need to continue to be thoughtful about how we allocate our limited dollars. Through our community engagement efforts, we identified the priorities most important to the community to develop a list of eligible services. All proposals will need to demonstrate a program that provides one or more of these services. I have the service categories listed here on this slide, and the specific services are in the staff report under attachment I. There are 19 services in total, so although it is a finite list, it's also quite broad. Some of the services are things we currently fund, and others are meant to address new needs that have come up in the last few years. And new services include domestic violence, expanded immigration services, community violence or gang intervention, expanded case management for people who recently lost their housing, expanded support for caregivers of older or dependent adults, dental care, and intergenerational programming that connects adults and youth. So this is the proposed eligibility criteria for Santa Monica program participants or SMPP. This is essentially who the program will serve. City funds must be used to serve individuals who meet this criteria. And we have this requirement in place because city funds are limited and we just don't have enough funding to meet everybody's needs. So this is a way to prioritize individuals with the strongest ties to Santa Monica. We do ask the providers that have a referral system to direct people that don't meet SMPP criteria to appropriate services. So the general smpp eligibility criteria is that an individual or household must have a permanent address in Santa Monica or for school based services, they must be enrolled in a Santa Monica public school. For individuals or households experiencing homelessness, they must meet one of the criteria listed here. And both the general criteria and the criteria for people experiencing homelessness is what's in place for the current grant cycle and we're not proposing any changes. For agencies applying for funding, they must be a nonprofit or a hospital, healthcare, or educational institution with a governing board. They must currently be located in Santa Monica, or they must have a robust plan to locate here or provide services locally. Allowing agencies not currently located here to apply for funds is an adjustment we made in the last cycle to make the HSGP more broadly accessible to new programs that didn't previously receive funding, and we recommend keeping this in place to continue to keep the door open for new agencies and programs. There's also several other administrative and fiscal requirements that are outlined in the staff report. The other big change to the upcoming funding cycle is allowing greater flexibility to how agencies can organize their funds. So throughout the current grant cycle, we've continued to hear that frontline workers and social services staff, such as case managers and outreach workers, can be paid low, sometimes unlivable wages. Some of these staff are even in the difficult position of being participants themselves in the social services that we fund, while also being the providers of those services. This leads to low quality of life, burnout, frequent turnover in those positions. So with this new cycle, we're proposing to introduce a new opportunity that can make it potentially more feasible for programs to increase compensation for frontline workers. Applying agencies will select from two options. Option one is to provide a 30% cash match and pay staff at a rate set by the agency. This is what we've historically required of our grantees. And then option two is for a program to agree to meet the city's minimum wage rate for all staff billed to the program at 90% or more. So these are typically the people that are most essential to run the program. And then in exchange for ensuring that those people are paid a living wage, those programs will not be required to provide the 30% match. This can free up funding previously used for a match that the agency can potentially use to increase frontline salaries. For programs choosing option two, city staff will work closely with each program to ensure their budget accurately reflects the true staffing structure of that program, and the ultimate decision of whether they can move forward with that option will be subject to review and approval by city staff. We really see this as an opportunity to further value the essential frontline staff that run these programs and make them possible. And then in terms of program evaluation, HSGP programs are intended to be data driven and have lasting impacts on the lives of participants. They're required to report on program performance twice during the fiscal year at mid year and at year end programs must submit a program report, which includes a qualitative description of strengths, challenges, achievements, changes, basically an overview of what has happened during the reporting period. Then they must also report on quantitative indicators, including outputs that describe the units of a service provided and outcomes that describe the long term impact of those services and changes in participants lives. These reporting tools help paint a picture of a program's performance and can identify what is working well and also where adjustments are needed. In addition to biannual reporting, city staff will conduct in person site visits, and we also hire an external auditor to monitor each program. And then in terms of how we share the findings out from these reviews, our performance indicators will be shared on the department's public data dashboard once it's up and running, and the external audit reports will be posted publicly on the Human Services Grants Program website as they have been historically. If a program is underperforming or experiencing challenges, we have a series of progressive actions that we take. Our team will set up more regular meetings with program staff to check in on the issue. They review policies and procedures to see where we can make improvements. We can ask programs to adjust their model. We can withhold a portion of a program's funding or we can, in extreme cases, choose to entirely stop funding a program. And then in terms of how responses to the RFP will be evaluated, proposals will be scored under program and fiscal categories. Program components will be worth 70 points and will be based on the description of the proposed program, past programmatic monitoring reports, organizational capacity, policies and procedures, and proposed participant outcomes. Fiscal components will be worth 30 points and will be based on the program budget, audited financial statements, and recent fiscal monitoring reports. Proposals will be scored by a review panel made up of city staff and external subject matter experts. Here you can see the timeline. If all goes according to plan, in September we will release the RFP. It will remain open for three months and close in December. We will return to you all in the spring to present the funding recommendations. Funding amounts will be formally approved in June with the biennial budget adoption, and then the new four-year grant cycle will begin July 1, 2027. So tonight, staff is recommending that Council approve the proposed funding guidelines and authorize the release of the RFP. We have a few members of our team here tonight to answer questions. And with that, I will hand it back over to you, Mayor Terosis and Council.

Wow, what an efficient presentation. Super appreciate it. I was just asking our city manager a question, which I can ask publicly, but I will wait. Council Member Negrete is in the queue. I'll wait. It's OK. Go ahead.

Thank you for the presentation and for all the folks that came out tonight to speak on it as well. I might have to get back in the queue depending on how the conversation goes, but I just wanted to ask a couple of questions because I didn't have this in my original questions when you went back to the point system. Not to get too in the weeds about stuff, but program summaries has some, I have a nonprofit, like that tells a story of, you know, the premise of what your program does and the hoped expectancy of like what your, you know, the outcomes. I'm just curious because that's such a large amount of the point system as opposed to like some of the data that actually tells the results story that. I mean, I'm trying to say respectfully and understand maybe there's a reason behind that, but I would think that if by program summary, is it beyond just the words that say what the program does? Is there some meat in there?

Yeah, so the program summary is their program plan. It's what is the program going to do? Who do they serve? How do you, what is your intake process? How do you serve those people? What is the intended outcome of that program? There's, it says program summary, but there's a lot rolled up into that.

Okay, that's what I wanted to understand because some of the other things seemed like lesser points, but more important just based on their title. So some of my questions are obviously we don't want to just go back and continue to do what we did for the past four years. We have to respond to what's happening now. I just want to make sure that the product next of of vendors that are out there that we're constantly looking first locally, because I think local-based programs know our constituents and the issues closely. But how are we handling the RFP process any different in terms of how we outreach so that we're not just continuing to fund the same nonprofits? I'm not saying that there are nonprofits that shouldn't continue to be funded or that disbursements, as we've heard tonight, are maybe reallocated differently.

Yeah, I mean, so we have thousands of vendors that are registered through OpenGov, the city's procurement site that will be notified when the RFP opens. We have a list of agencies that have reached out to us expressing interest in the program. We'll send it out over the city's social media and various email lists that we have. And then any local organizations that bring nonprofits together, we'll share the information with them as well. So we try to cast a wide net and then see what comes back.

And then as far as engagement, like we heard a lot about, I mean, I've been a part of Cradle to Career for a long time, and I do believe holistically, like, if you address some of these issues really early on with our youth, it saves you on the back end. Are we, is this city, I know they're participating heavily in the cradle to career conversations. Beyond that, with some of the more recent stuff that we've found that we need more support, especially with everything that happened with ICE and our immigrant population, are those conversations not just sort of reflective on, oh, we know what happened, but are there deeper conversations as to what's needed going forward so that we can reevaluate the RFP process and how it goes out and what we're asking for and the funds that would be allocated?

Yeah, I let me know if this answers your question. So the way we get at that is the list of eligible services that we're procuring for. And so with that, we have, like I said, expanded the services that we're requesting proposals for the immigration is on there. It wasn't on there in the past. So that's being expanded. There are different needs in our community. community violence interventions. That's like gang intervention programs for youth. That's a new thing. That's youth focused. So there are new programs that we are procuring for that aren't currently funded by the grants program or that are but in a lesser way, a less intentional way, let's say. So we are really being responsive to the needs that we're hearing in our community that have come up in the past several years in order to expand services or bring in new services to address those things.

And then obviously tonight we're not allocating funds, correct? Okay. Back, just my last question is about the part about salaries and I think it's on one of those slides back there. Yes, it says no minimum thresholds for staff salaries. Obviously, I'm not trying to opine on what nonprofits should pay their staff, but is there going to be real public facing disclosure or at least to the city as to like what administrators are paid? You referenced staff, but does that include like executives and executive directors and whatnot?

So anyone that's on the HSGP budget, their fiscal reports are publicly posted, at least in our current grant cycle, and that includes all the staff that are built to the program. So if they're including their EDs, like they're on there, it's whoever's on there. You won't see their names, but you will see what people, what positions are being paid.

And we don't have any requirements as to how much of that, besides this right here, just this 70% of the service costs. How much of that specifically then is salaries?

I don't have that off the top of my head. And we don't have specific requirements around what our programs can allocate because there's such variety among our programs. Some programs are case management and all the funding goes to staff because the staff are the program. Some are much more focused on different kinds of services where funding goes to buy food, for example. So there's a lot of variety across our programs in terms of how they use those funds. And I would say that flexibility is something that makes our grants program unique and a resource for the programs that we do fund.

But those are scrutinized, right? I would imagine you staff gets, I see nodding heads. Yes. Those things back if 90% of it was supposed to be going to resources that are physical and they weren't. Okay. Yes. Okay. Are we going to get consistent outcome reporting across all the grantees as a council?

Yes. What do you mean by consistent?

Well, just, I mean, coming back and more reporting. I think everybody wants transparency around all these programs, especially when we're talking about everything countywide about homelessness and all these different programs. People want to know that their tax dollars are going to work. I mean, it's like we can provide services, but are we providing an outcome? So are we going to have more outcome-driven reporting back more consistently than we have now? Yeah. Sure.

Go ahead.

Natasha Kingsco, Human Services Division Manager. I just wanted to add, we post all of our agencies' reports. Of course, you have to go through those. So we're going to add outcomes from our grantee agencies to our data dashboard or scoreboard that we're, scorecard that we're working on sort of citywide. So you'll be able to easily see.

the outcomes from the agencies taxpayer money put in this program here's the outcome we'll be able to see it easily without digging through thousands of pages exactly okay um i think that was all my questions i have a feeling some will be asked i might have more thanks council members thank you for um

bringing this to us, and thanks for all the good that our human services grants program recipients do in our community. I wanted to kind of understand some more about how we're changing the program from the prior cycles to this one. So going back to the RFP scoring, for example, how does that change from the last cycle?

So let me go back to that slide. Our fee scoring is quite similar to the last grant cycle, I would say, actually. We've looked at how the points are allocated. And to us, it made a lot of sense to keep things pretty similar. The one new category that we do have is employee retention. So this goes along with our investment in making sure that these staff members that are frontline workers are paid a living wage. And so we're allocating additional points to employee retention efforts that the agencies have. So that could be wages, but it can also be other benefits and things that they do to support their employees.

So we're looking at what are the methods that they use to retain employees, or are we looking at their turnover rates?

We're looking at what are the methods that they use to retain employees.

Would we consider also including looking at staff turnover as just another portion of how we review prospective grant recipients?

Yeah, that's not something that's currently in the criteria, but it's certainly something that if you want to give direction for us to include, we can. I will say some of our programs are new programs. I anticipate that we will get new programs, summer programs that have either been in existence here in Santa Monica or in the broader area. So we would think about how to how to weigh that. But, you know, we can certainly accept direction on that if you'd like to give it. Thank you.

And then so on the proposed guidelines for housing retention, and I apologize that this is too specific. How long do case management services last, and how much flexibility do human services grant program recipients have for providing help through case management services?

I'm going to look to one of our team members.

It varies by program, how long somebody is in case management, what they need. Sorry, do you want to repeat your question? So there's a second part of that that I missed.

And how much flexibility do human services grant program recipients have for providing folks with help? So if they're, and this might kind of bleed over into one of my other questions about the intersectionality of the services and the programs that we fund, because a lot of the times it feels like things that help people stay housed, help families stay housed, also help support youth and also help support people in other areas that we've identified here. So, you know, how do we look at that overlap? And you know, how does it depend on the type of services or maybe what buckets they fall into how long they're looking at?

Yeah, it depends. I think there's, it's a hard question to answer. It's a good question. But there's so much complexity to everybody's situation, how long they may have been in crisis. You know, the do they just have, not just have, but is it a housing issue and perhaps a legal issue that they need assistance with? Is it also childcare, food, employment on top of that? Those are all things that are going to be more complicated or, you know, nuance for a case manager to be able to connect with resources. So that's probably going to take just longer and more frequent interaction between case manager and their clients, yeah.

So if someone, you know, gets into a period of stability where they're good, they don't need additional kind of interventions, but then something happens and they require additional support, are they able to... Re-enter the program? Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's this case managers that are in our programs could answer this better than I could. But there's, there's a, you know, there's a balance between you're stable enough and I need to be able to bring in somebody else to help, but I'm always around if you need me, come back. We would love to be able to, to your example, fund aftercare services. So once somebody's housed, they often need a lot of support just staying housed, right? It's not like, okay, you've moved in and you're great. But there's not always the resources necessarily to continue to just check in on people. That takes time. That takes more case managers. The more you do that, the less you can, the less new clients you can intake. So it's really, I think, it varies between programs and is, you know, really dependent upon each client or household that's served? That's not a great answer, but it's such a good question to really complicated, complex situations that our residents find themselves in.

When we're considering or, you know, under these guidelines when we would be considering potentially funding a new or existing program recipient, bless you, How do we look at it through that intersectional lens? So, for example, I noticed that under financial stability, we have workforce development and post secondary education for adults. But that's separate from case management for form for formerly homeless individuals and families with city issue tenant based vouchers and there could be.

A lot of 100% right and if somebody so that's why we work so closely together with our colleagues on the housing division side is, you know. everybody's lives are complex and you're getting, you know, no matter what. And so being able to, this is what's so great about case managers, being able to weave a network of care, not just within their agency, but within each other. And then we do the same on the city side. So if somebody has a voucher and they also need workforce development assistance, it's how do we work together to create a holistic plan to serve this person?

And do we provide opportunities for the different program recipients? Or would we provide different opportunities for program recipients to collaborate with each other? So let's say somebody needs some sort of financial, financial education, but also they need help staying housed, they need help with this, this and this, for example, I know not not to call out anyone by specifically, but I do notice one of our recipients who provide financial education to people and families here. Yeah, they're great.

Let's use Haven as an example and YRT as well. They are both placed at VAP. So Angel can walk across the hall and talk to Natalie or one of the case managers at YRT if they share a recipient or refer and, you know, again, not one agency has to supply all of the services. They're going to connect that household to various agencies. but work in a way that's not siloed, but really communicating together so that family feels supported and not like go over there and then go over here. And it feels like a connected again, a knitted network of care for them.

There's a, it sounds like there's a, what you're saying is there's a warm handoff between different services providers when people need different types of assistance.

And I'd say that's the uniqueness of Santa Monica and how small we are. It speaks to how well the creative career initiative is. It's like everybody's at the same table together.

Yeah. And then a question just about the money, because you all know I'm a numbers person. So the staff report notes that the current cycle that we're in began with a budget of about 10.14 million for fiscal year 23-24, and it's ending with 11.17 million for fiscal year 26-27. And the staff report also contemplates beginning the first year of this new cycle for 27-28 at a little over 9 million, 9.2 million, let's say. But it also says that staff anticipates recommending an increase to the budget for that cycle. So how does that all fit together? Because it sounds like, yeah, we want to fund it at a higher level, but we're starting it with this. But then we're also going to ask for more money. And to be clear, given our CPI increases year over year, I would not to get into comments. But yeah, so can you just kind of explain the thinking behind that?

Yeah, excellent question. It is not super clear what's happening because the funding does jump all over. So we did start the grants program at around $10 million in fiscal year 23-24. And then staff came back to Council midway through the grant cycle and requested additional funding for youth behavioral health services. So we received about, I want to say like about a million dollars for youth behavioral health services that increased the budget. And then we also got a little bit of funding for limited immigration services that was also Council approved. And so that is what brought us up to over $11 million. The biggest change that's happening this next cycle is that funding for interim housing, which is historically gone to Sam Michelle is no longer being a part of the grants program. Interim housing is going to be funded outside of the grants program. And so that two million reduction is going with interim housing outside of the grants program, but still supporting that need.

Okay, so still supporting that need, but doing it through something that is not reflected in this figure. But you're, but the staff report does still say recommending an increase. So like, what does that increase look like? Do we have an idea of the potential range or scale or scope of what we might be looking for? And

Yeah, I think that's really hard to say at this time because we don't know the proposals that we're going to receive. I will say in past years, or in past cycles, we have historically received a greater funding request than we've been able to fulfill. In the last cycle, we were able to fund programs at about 85% of their grant ask, and that was with the $10 million. Like we've heard from a lot of folks that gave public comment tonight, we know that the need has increased, the cost of doing business has increased, so we really do expect to get higher funding requests than we have in the past, and we expect it to exceed that 9 million. We won't know exactly what that looks like until we come back to you in the spring with our funding recommendations and see what proposals come in once the RFP closes.

But there is a, what I'm hearing, and please confirm if I'm wrong, what I'm hearing is that the actual ask, when it does come back to us, is likely to be higher than that 9 million figure that's quoted in the staff report.

And Councilman Skye, maybe I'll jump in real quick. As we get through the RFP process for the grants program, we'll start identifying the needs via the responses to the requests that we put out. All of that will get packaged as part of our fiscal year 27-29 budget development cycle. And as you know, obviously, there's a lot of different considerations. We'll certainly be looking for non general fund revenue sources to add to the human services grants program. But we'll also be looking at this the lens of the city's overall budget development process. A lot of moving parts on that front. The goal, though, obviously, is see how much of the need we can fund. And there's a lot of moving parts as relates to the city's overall financial position, but we're hoping as we move towards 27, our current projections are there's a pathway to achieving a balanced budget. How do we do that while also funding this program to its full potential? We'll be looking at obviously all the different funding sources available, including the general fund options as we develop the overall budget. Thank you.

And apologies, last question. Have we done the analysis or have we considered doing an analysis of how much money we save in the long run by investing in these services now?

We don't have a number for that.

It might, but I would say a lot. Yeah, it might be an interesting analysis that could, yeah, okay, cool. I'll reserve my comments.

Thank you. Mayor Chris Hemsworth.

Heather, thank you for this presentation. I'm excited to kick off another cycle. Forgive me if this was covered. I know you mentioned that there was a long process to determine need and what may have changed. And you mentioned these categories. Did you point out exactly what the new ones are? Yeah.

So the new services that we're procuring for, they're not listed here because these are sort of the high level categories, but they are domestic violence, expanded immigration services, community violence or gang intervention, expanded case management for people who recently lost housing, expanded support services for caregivers of older or dependent adults, dental care, and intergenerational programming that connects youth and older adults. And I'll say when I say expanded, these are programs that might have a small component in things that we currently fund but are not a focus of a program. And now we're seeing that they need a real focus.

And then on the question of staff salaries and retention and living wage, the living wage, is that a definition that we have for other things across the city? And if so, what is it?

Yeah, the city has a living wage ordinance. And what is it? Are you saying, like, how much is it? Yeah, it's $25 an hour for fiscal year 26-27. Okay. And then

The fiscal implications there, that's sort of for the nonprofit to determine. It's not like it would change what we pay out in the award. It would just be whether they want to pay that higher salary and receive a higher portion of funding for it.

Yep, that's right.

It wouldn't necessarily impact the total amount of, I guess, if they were to elect to do so, would that mean a higher allocation to that grantee and therefore less money for others? Or is it not in that way related?

I mean, they could come back and ask for more funding to help increase staff salaries, but they could also come back and ask for more funding for other reasons. Like, we won't really know. We'll just be able to see their total request.

And what they want to do. And that's just one thing that they could ask for.

Yes.

Okay. That's all for me. Thank you.

Okay, I just have one question. So I think the staff report details, first of all, I don't think you guys mentioned it, but that you did community input on this. And that also, in case people haven't been paying attention, there's this thing called HR1. and that there's been approximately $180 billion in SNAP reductions this year, the proposed elimination of the Older Americans Act programs, a $303 million deficit at the County Homeless Services Department, and forced cuts to prevention and housing navigation with no new state funding for child care subsidies in a county where only 18% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized child care. So I'm just going to put a finer point on it. Can you find at least $2 million somewhere to add to this program so that we can start finding additional money because we have to hold the line at the local level?

This is a team effort today. I just want to explicitly say we are collaborating with the Measure GS Committee to allocate eligible Measure GS funds for our housing and homelessness prevention programs to supplement the HSGP budget. So right now we are not, the $9 million does not account for any Measure GS contribution and we anticipate that probably significant, but at least a portion of our future applicant stages GP will be measure GS eligible, and that would be able to bridge that gap.

Great. So by the time you come, I would just ask that by the time you come back with the proposed awardees that you have a plan with significant additional dollars for this.

Sounds great.

Great. Thank you. That's it. I don't see any additional comments. or sorry, sorry, any additional questions. So we'll move into comments. And if you have comments, put yourself in the queue. Council member Negrete.

I don't know why it feels later, but it's not. I just think I want to go to sleep. First of all, obviously this is huge. It's everything from the homelessness programs, which, you know, there's a whole subset of issues around there and I hope that when it pertains to that, that we look at nonprofits that are doing good work and that we don't just continue to fund things because and that we really have a point system where we're reflecting on those that are making those reports on time and that if folks aren't turning in those reports on time that they're not continuing to access funding dollars. Something near and dear to my heart, I always say what got me sitting up here was sitting at the tables of PTAs. I have kids that now range from 31 to 16 years old, and I've served in every position in every PTA, which feels like every school. and my nonprofit as well serves some of the most marginalized youth. I cannot express how important it is to fund everything from an after-school program to kindergarten, preschool services, and everything in between. The mental health that these kids need more than ever today is it just keeps multiplying every year. And it's not just because I have teenage kids, I walk on campus and I see what's happening from all the imagery that kids are seeing and all the pressure they're under. So I really hope that as we go into this, that we look at this, all these issues around homelessness and drug addiction and mental health, that we start Our little babies at the beginning, because it seems like that's doesn't need the money. And for some reason, it feels like, when it comes to our youth, we just feel like some other program will pick up the tab or pick up the pieces. What we end up dealing with in the end is so much heavier when we don't address it. at that level and that's every level it's not starting in elementary school and not just waiting till they're in high school so I just my comments are just thank you for tonight I thank you for everybody who stood up here the comments I want to invest in all things but I just want to put an emphasis on on our young people because they grow up to be the humans that we sometimes walk past on the street and say I wonder who their parents are, you know, I wonder who that person is that's struggling on the street today. So hopefully we can really make sure that we're not missing out on those those after school community programs and everything in between.

Thank you. Councilman returns. Okay.

Thank you again. I just wanted to speak to the support for in terms of when we're doing the RFPs and scoring them, if there is some way to fairly include the turnover numbers or just account for them in some way, because I feel like obviously there is employee turnover for all sorts of reasons, and it's not necessarily always an indicator of the culture or work environment or that kind of thing because folks leave for all sorts of reasons but if there is some fair way to include that i think that would be helpful i strongly support helping helping families get back into housing as we heard from one of our commenters earlier there's multiple families who are experiencing homelessness in Santa Monica who desperately need housing and recognizing that it is a key part of keeping our community whole. I also support kind of longer term case management as, you know, wherever possible and allowing flexibility in the application of assistance and helping maybe provide some more of a conduit. I also just, I agree with Council Member Negrete that investing in our youth is really important. I think that when we invest in our youth and when we allocate real dollars to making sure that our young people have safe places to be, have opportunities to learn who they are and do that in a safe place, in a safe environment, They thrive and that comes back to us tenfold or more. I actually don't know the numbers. That's gonna be my next point. Because when we invest in our youth, we are investing in our future. It is an investment and I think we should look at it that way. And speaking of numbers, you know, wherever possible, I would love to see some numbers on our return on investment on this, because, you know, by keeping, you know, for example, by keeping folks safely housed. We know we're saving money down the line on having to rehouse them if that comes up, on other things that come with experiencing homelessness, because experiencing homelessness is not cheap. It costs a lot to be homeless. And we know that it's more cost effective to keep somebody housed than it is to get somebody back into housing once they've already lost it. So in that kind of way of thinking, If it's feasible, understanding that we have limited resources that we have at our disposal and there may be more pressing things, I would love to be able to show our community this is what we're investing and this is what we're getting back. We're seeing this many students continue on to college or continue on to trade schools or succeed in other ways. That kind of thing. So that's that's what I've gotten. Thank you guys again.

Thank you. Councilman Ruskin.

Yeah, thank you. I echo the sentiments of my colleagues up here. I mean, this truly is a city of contrasts, you know, in a place of such affluence. We are still met with extreme need. My only two sentences, I hope, you know, when we heard from the chair of our school board here, another school board member here, I hope we can partner with the school board to also meet the youth need and potentially target folks who are about to age out of youth-focused social services and fellows gaps. But of course, it'll be through the RFP process. But with that being said, I'm going to move the staff recommended actions. And thank you, everyone, for your hard work on this.

Second.

Yes. Oh, sorry.

Any other comments? All right. Council Member DeGratte?

Yes.

Council Member Raskin? Yes. Mayor Patem-Swick?

Yes.

Council Member Zarniskaya?

Yes.

Mayor DeRosa?

Yes. Thank you. With great appreciation. Appreciate you all for being here. More to come. OK. We are now moving on to 11b. which is the report back regarding oversight for the Virginia Avenue apartment project. Apologies. We're all back. We're ready to go.

Good evening, Council Members. My name is Ayala Scott, and I'm a Senior Development Analyst in the Housing Division. I'm joined tonight by our Director of Housing and Human Services, Aileen Reynolds, as well as representatives from Community Corporation of Santa Monica and its architect on the Virginia Avenue Apartments. Tonight I'll be providing the project background and a recap of the 16 item for which we're reporting back today. My presentation will focus on the city's role as lender as well as updates we're planning on making to the Housing Trust Fund's website. I'll then hand it over to CCSM to present information about the project scope, schedule, tenant outreach, funding sources, expenditures, drivers of the project budget gap, and potential sources to bridge the gap. By way of background, 2033 to 2101 Virginia Avenue consists of 40 rent-controlled units that were constructed between 1947 and 1948. In January 2020, CCSM acquired the property with a $15 million city loan. As described in the staff report in more detail, the city committed funds for the rehabilitation in 2021 and again in 2024. In August, 2025, the city council authorized a loan of up to 35,650,000 for the rehabilitation and this loan amount includes the acquisition loan amount. And construction began in November, 2025. On May 26 2026 Council directed the following engage with CCSM and provide a presentation to the City Council, which is why we are here today. Have staff provide a full accounting of all city funds allocated committed or extended to date on the project, which is included in the staff report and will be addressed in our presentation today. An explanation regarding the recent notification from CCSM that the Virginia Avenue apartment project is approximately 3 million over budget, which will also be addressed in CCSM's presentation. Coordinate a meeting for CCSM and the City to hear resident concerns about the Virginia Avenue project. This meeting was conducted on June 18th, 2026 at Virginia Avenue Park, which I know that some of you attended. Have city staff provide details regarding our role as the lender, which I will address now. So for all projects receiving housing trust funds for construction, staff monitor and approve expenditures, conduct site visits, and meet regularly with the development team. What this looks like for Virginia Avenue are weekly meetings with the development team, which includes CCSM, their architect, general contractor, and construction manager. During the weekly meetings, housing staff and the development team review completed and upcoming work, the contractor's applications for payment, change order requests, discuss permitting and inspection, and review other items pertaining to project delivery in conformance with city loan requirements. Twice monthly site visits to review the work completed and potential change orders, review of monthly loan draw requests, including documentation of expenditures and budget reallocations, A WEEKLY MEETING WITH CCSM'S PROJECT MANAGER TO DISCUSS LOAN DRAW REQUESTS, POTENTIAL OTHER FUNDING SOURCES, OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATION AND ANY OTHER PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATTERS. THESE MEETINGS ARE COLLABORATIVE IN NATURE AND SERVE AS A WAY FOR THE CITY TO SUPPORT THE SUCCESS OF THE PROJECT. FOR EXAMPLE, DISCUSSING POTENTIAL OUTSIDE FUNDING SOURCES. Monthly site visits review of change orders and review of the general contractors applications for payment by a third party lenders representative with construction expertise hired by the city. The name of the company is professional associates construction services, also known as packs. So this is what the housing division does in terms of oversight as a lender separately, the building and safety division issues permits and inspects the construction at various stages to ensure that the work conforms to approve plans and complies with code building and safety signs off that the units are habitable before tenants can move back in. It would be helpful in framing this discussion to clarify areas that are not part of the city's role as lender. The city does not directly build and operate affordable housing. Rather, the city loans housing trust funds to experienced developers with expertise in building and operating affordable housing. SO IN TERMS OF PROJECT DESIGN, THE CITY DOES NOT DESIGN THE PROJECT OR HIRE THE ARCHITECT. DEVELOPERS HIRE ARCHITECTS TO DESIGN THE PROJECT AND IN THE CASE OF REHABILITATING AN EXISTING BUILDING, THE DEVELOPER CONDUCTS DUE DILIGENCE TO ASSESS THE REHABILITATION NEEDS. CCSM WILL DISCUSS MORE HOW THE SCOPE WAS DETERMINED FOR THE VIRGINIA AVENUE PROJECT. Line item budgeting developers create their budgets based on contractor estimates, prior experience, developing similar projects and actual costs incurred during the development phase. When developers submit requests to the city to draw on the loan, housing staff review backup documentation for all the expenses incurred in the loan draw before authorizing release of funds. Construction management developers hire their own construction manager, which is separate from the general contractor. The construction manager is a construction professional who monitors progress of construction helps with validating costs and work completed and generally ensures that the terms of the contract between the general contractor and the developer are being followed. Contracting. The City does not solicit construction bids or hire the general contractor or subcontractors. Housing staff do review the construction contract to ensure that it complies with the requirements of the City loan. The City's Housing Division has a long-standing Housing Trust Fund webpage, which is www.santamonica.gov housing-trust-funds, which shares funding commitment letters, public meetings, and reasonings for the City's approval or denial of HTF loans for affordable housing. FOR ADDITIONAL TRANSPARENCY INTO HTF LOANS AFTER CITY COMMITMENT, THE HOUSING DIVISION WILL ADD AN HTF DASHBOARD TO THIS WEB PAGE. THE HTF DASHBOARD WILL CLEARLY SHOW THE AMOUNT OF HTF FUNDS COMMITTED FOR EACH DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRE-DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION PHASE, AS WELL AS THE AMOUNT OF HTF FUNDS DISPERSED. WE ANTICIPATE TO HAVE THIS LAUNCHED BY THE END OF THE YEAR. AND NOW I WILL HAND IT OFF TO THE CCSM TEAM.

Hi. Good evening, Council. My name is Andrew Yick. I'm the new project manager for Virginia Avenue Apartments. I've been working on the project for the past two months. And so as I've been trying to catch up, bring myself up to speed regarding the project, I've realized that there's a lot of history to this project. But at the same time, I want to make sure that I focus on the future, making sure that the project is brought to completion successfully. because there's really nothing i could do to change the past all i could do is to acknowledge the lessons that can be learned but also make sure that we keep our eyes focused on the future and looking ahead So before I delve into the presentation, I just want to quickly present the project teams. As you know, Community Corp is the developer, the general contractor is Marms Construction. The architect is Egan Simon. As Ayla may have mentioned, we have Egan Simon with us. Rene Rodriguez is here. He's a director and John Egan is the principal of Egan-Sinan. So thank you for their time. The construction manager is AMJ Construction. He's not able to be here today. And the property condition report was completed by a firm called Partner Engineering. And I'm going to just quickly go down the remaining members of the project team. So Monument is a relocation consultant. And they are working closely with us on managing tenant relations. And obviously Chipman is the mover. Twining is the deputy inspector. And of course, in my opinion, I also think that the City of Santa Monica is a member of the project team. You know, Isla Scott, who I've been working with for the past two months, has been incredibly helpful in getting her feedback. You know, not accepting things quickly questioning things and so i do appreciate her collaboration so this presentation is broken up into two main sections the first one is to give you an update on the the status of the renovation so that it will include how we define the scope of work when we think will be completed with the project and finally to talk about how we are reaching out to the residents of the property and then the second section of the presentation will be about the budget as i'm sure you've already heard we are projecting to be over budget So I'll be looking at discussing what's driving the cost overruns, looking for ways to bridge the gap. And then we could close out our discussion with your questions and comments. So as you know, back in 2020, we acquired the site, but right before then, a couple of months or maybe a year before we officially acquired the site, we commissioned a third party firm to complete the project condition report. And that costs about $3,700 to commission it. And so the inspector goes out to the site. He or she does a visual inspection. And they suggest improvements we can make to the site, to the structural frame and building envelope, the mechanical electrical systems. They look at the interior units and how we can comply with accessibility requirements. And as the saying goes, you just don't know what's behind the walls. It's a little of a cliche, but it's kind of true. And so the inspector is constrained by what he or she can't see behind the walls. And with the Virginia property, as you know, it was occupied, and with occupants, the units are obstructed with furniture, so the inspector does his or her best to essentially suggest what those improvements to the property should be, and they opine on what the opinion of cost will be. Again, they make their educated guess. And so in addition to the project condition report, we define the scope of work considering fire and life safety, other things like ADA compliance, specific things specific to the city, you know, ARB has made their suggestions and their requests and community corporation also wants to make this building all electric in order to be environmentally sustainable. So that is also framed as scope of work. And of course, obviously the cost, the budget, and what's available funding-wise will really define the scope of work as well. So this isn't a complete, it's not a comprehensive list of what we're doing, but it's going to highlight some of the key things that we are working on. So we know we need to remediate the mold and asbestos. There's a lot of termite damage we know we have to remediate. We are installing an AC system, installing new plumbing, putting a new framing, obviously updating the kitchen, putting a new laundry facility, and doing repairs to the sidewalk. So we started construction back in November 2025. It's amazing that nine months have gone by. Time does fly by. And in that time, we demolished the units, put in the new framing, put in new plumbing, insulation, and the drywall insulation. Right now, we're at the stage of installing the new windows, painting the interior units and the exterior of the building. Obviously, there's more work to be done in the kitchen and the common areas, but the main takeaway from the slide is that we're targeting to be done with the project in June, 2027. We are targeting to be done sooner if all the stars align and things continue to go well but i think that it we are happy to know that we expect to be done in june 2027 if not earlier So we do want to do the right thing. So as requested by Council, we are conducting a series of in-person quarterly meetings to update the residents. So we had our first one in June. We plan to have our next one in October. The date is TBD, but we plan to have one in October. January and April and that will be around the time when we'll almost be done with the project a couple months prior assuming everything goes well and of course in the interim we're going to provide monthly email updates and the tenants have my email address and so if there are any questions at all they're more than welcome to email me at any point in time And in addition, we conducted two residence site tours. Both of them were in July. I think we'll probably have another one closer to when we finish construction. I think right now I don't want to take the GC's time and attention away from really focusing on completing this project as quickly as possible. I think we're done, so to speak, with the resident tours for now. Then we'll have another one closer to the end so that the residents can hopefully feel excited about what they'll be moving back into. So just to give you a couple of photos to share with you what the project is currently looking like. So this is a slide showing what some of the units look like before the renovation. And we installed new framing. we as you can see installed new plumbing as well electric the insulation the drywall and then this we're still working on the launcher room And then we are currently in the process of painting the exterior. So on the left, that has been painted. The photo on the right shows the building that's in the process of being prepped for painting. So things are moving along. so the key takeaways from this first section of this presentation regarding the progress update is that we are on track to be done on time again we are projecting to be complete with the project in june 2027 if not earlier so the next section i'll talk about the budget and as you know we are projecting to be over budget by approximately $2.4 million. We closed a construction loan closing of $36 million, and we think we'll be at 38 million. I do want to emphasize that this projection, and I emphasize that we're projected because this is essentially a snapshot in time. It's based upon a lot of assumptions. So it's based upon the assumption that we'll be done with the project in June, 2027. So if we're done much later because of unexpected construction events, obviously that can increase our budget. If we are done earlier with the project, then we can have people moved in earlier and our relocation expenses can be lower. So again, I want to emphasize that this is projected as a snapshot in time, making a lot of assumptions. Again, one of them is that we're done with the project in June 2027, and that we aren't hit with any other unexpected construction overruns. And so we've identified two major drivers behind the cost overruns. It's due to the hard costs and to the relocation. So we'll be over budget, again, projected, and relocation by $1.6 million, and a hard cost by $2.7 million. And of course, it's offset by lower than expected soft costs. So net, we are projecting to be over budget by $2.4 million. The hard costs are driven largely by two things. Obviously, you'll have some change orders that are relatively small in scope and in cost. But what's really driving the cost overruns of $2.7 million are attributed to the fact that we had to do extensive reframing, plumbing repair work. And as I mentioned earlier before, you just don't know what you're going to have to face until you start knocking down the walls. One thing I forgot to mention in the scope of work is that the inspector, again, did a visual inspection. There were, I think, two to three units that were vacant at the time of inspection. that allowed an inspector to essentially you know poke a couple holes in the walls to sort of see what was behind there what he saw I'm not sure it was a woman or a man so what the inspector saw um wasn't anything unexpected things were in um as expected, bad condition, but they weren't as bad as we thought it would be. And again, it was a small sample. And so when we started to demolish the walls, we realized that the damage was much more extensive than the inspector had suspected and what was mentioned in the report. And so again, it was close to a million dollars and having to reframe and put a new plumbing that alone so far has eaten up practically the majority of our hard cost contingency. So we have already approved 1.4 million in change orders. We're expecting another projecting to have another 1.3 million change orders. And just to give you a really quick process of what that is like, we get a change order from the GC, and then it's reviewed by the developer, it's reviewed by the construction manager and the architect, and we analyze it to see is it warranted? If it's warranted, is the price, does it sound reasonable? And if everyone is in agreement that what needs to be done truly needs to be done because it wasn't factored into the original contractor's scope of work, then the change order is approved. So the hard costs are, again, just to repeat, are going to be expected to be over budget by $2.7 million. The other area that's driving the cost overrun is associated with relocation expenses. and so it's going to be attributed to the fact that we're going to be spending more on temporary relocation rent i.e market rate rent in Santa Monica from what I understand back in 2023 the prod we were originally assuming that we would renovate each building one at a time so it would be phased in four phases But due to the fact that that turned out to be not possible due to safety reasons, you can't remediate the molds and asbestos when you have people living on site. And two, the existing infrastructure didn't allow it. So there isn't one utility connection point. I'm sorry, there is only one utility connection point. There are multiple. So you can't really have a multi-phase development where if you turn off the water, you know other buildings or residents will have access to water and other utilities so in 2025 we realized we had to do a single phase relocation plan and that meant that a relocation timeline increased from nine months to a construction period of 18 months when unfortunately it didn't happen when we decided to switch to a single phase relocation was that that original budget that was based upon a multi-phase plan wasn't updated. I don't know the history. I don't know the reasons why. All I know is that that budget amount, the original budget amount of $1.7 million, wasn't updated and reflected in the pro forma. So here we are now today where we have a single phase relocation. We're spending more on market rate rent. by an additional nine months. And each month we are spending approximately, I would say a little under $200,000 on temporary rent, paying their utilities, paying for temporary storage. So all of this adds up to say the least. And again, just to kind of mention the fact that, you know, we have a couple of soft costs where we have some savings, but net, we are projecting a gap of $2.4 million. To summarize again, it's driven by hard costs and relocation cost overruns. So the next slide might be a little difficult to read, but it shows in the second column the original budget that we had, and obviously now that we're in the middle of construction, we have to kind of reallocate money. we don't think we'll be spending as much money in one light item so we can move it to another line item that needs a little more resources or we expect to be spending more so the third column shows the current budget the second to last column shows and so far we've only drawn down on the city loan so the the second to last column shows you know net we've drawn down 26.6 million dollars of the city's 34.8 million dollar loan 35 million dollar loan to round it up and then what remains um what what the remaining funds amount is and that's a little over nine million So this is just to give you a visual of how the city's loan has been spent to date. A large portion of it has been spent on acquisition and construction, understandably. And then, obviously, we've spent money on soft costs, and that includes architecture fees, permit fees, legal insurance, et cetera. There are a lot of other costs that fall within soft costs, but that just gives you an idea of what soft costs are, but I'm sure you know that. And then 8% of the total amount has been spent on relocation. So we are looking to bridge the gap. And as I mentioned, I think that my primary goal is to not only make sure that the project is completed successfully and on time, But i'm looking at the clock and realizing that I have so much time to bridge the gap. So these are some of the sources that we've identified. It doesn't mean that this is an exhaustive list. There are other possibilities, but these are the ones that I focused on so far. The first one are congressional funds. I know the city staff has applied for that, and the amount remains TBD if the city has allocated an award through that bucket. The second source that we're looking at is called the Build Incentive Grant. That's from the California Energy Commission. We had a meeting with them about a week and a half, two weeks ago maybe. And what I thought was originally 1.1 million that we could secure from this grant, it turns out that most likely will just be up to $200,000. So a little bit of a disappointment there, but the application has been submitted. And so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to secure funds there, again, up to $200,000. The third thing we're looking at is, as I'm sure you know, the city has awarded the project up to 20 project-based vouchers. And in order to make this attractive to a lender to extend to us at least a million-dollar PERM loan, we need at least 14 households to express interest, and not only express interest, but to be qualified. So we're working with the relocation consultant. Again, the name is Monument Relocation. They are working with us to identify who those households might be who are interested, but more importantly, will qualify as well. So I sent them an email that all the tenants about two weeks ago and we've gotten responses from people who are interested. We're going to have a virtual meeting with them to better explain the program and what is needed. So that's still kind of a work in progress, but something that I'm hopeful that will yield funds to help bridge the gap. Another thing that we're obviously is up for grabs is the developer fee. that the developer fee for an affordable housing developer is really kind of like the lifeblood. It keeps the lights on, it pays the staff, it pays a lot of other organizational expenses. That's how we stay alive, so to speak. and because we've already tapped 500 000 at constructional and closing we have up to 1.5 million dollars remaining developer fee that can go towards bridging the gap the goal is not to do that obviously because as an organization we want to be able to you know continue our mission the mission of providing affordable housing to not only members of the santa monica community but also to other parts of la that we are branching out into but again it's up for grabs and as stated in the loan agreement the developer fee is up for grabs we also have the opportunity again per the loan agreement to look for other sources of funding before we tap into the developer fee I do want to wrap up this slide by emphasizing that Community Corporation Santa Monica is committed to completing the project successfully. There is no intention to not complete the project, to leave the building empty and not have the people move back in. That is not even on our radar screen. We are committed from the board of directors to senior management and obviously to me as the project manager to make sure that the project is completed by june 2027 if not sooner So on that note, I wanna end the meeting and also reiterate that I acknowledge that there are lessons to be learned from what's happened in the past, but being the new project manager for the past two months, I've been thinking a lot about how to get this project across the finish line successfully and not focus too much on the past. So thank you very much. And I'll leave it open now for questions and comments.

Council Member Negrete.

But I think if I'm not mistaken, this is a report from our staff. So I just want to make sure we're directing our questions to the right folks. Yeah, great.

Thank you for sharing all the details. I sat through the meeting as well. So, um, obviously the question about the, the funding gap. Well, just to take it back. I know you're just here now for 2 months. So it's not directed at you personally. I don't know if I'm talking to staff, but, um, this idea that the mold and the termites is was a surprise is, I think the most frustrating part for the residents and everyone involved because. The building was built in 1947. There was visible mold before anything even started. Tenants had shown folks that you could just stick your hand right through the wall. Obstruction or no obstruction, it was pretty clear that there was going to be mold remediation insurance. This had been going on for years. At one point there was even another company brought in that came in much lower, millions of dollars lower. The company that you guys are using now somehow matched that. But yet now there's these unforeseen costs. I think that's the frustrating part. Of course, in construction it's never perfect. There's unforeseen costs. Everyone understands that. But I think around this mold termite issue. That was kind of what started. This is why they were in there in the first place. So just to start from there, that's kind of the most frustrating part, I think, about it all. Yes, the question is this 1.5 million. I hear you that this is the lifeline to how the organization as a whole continues its work. But isn't there profit built into all of this at every, I mean, in the job itself? The developer fee, I realize, is a flat fee, and you explained that's the, you know, for the organization overall overhead to continue its mission beyond Santa Monica. But it's paid out of this project dollars. And TAKING THAT DEVELOPER FEE OUT, ISN'T THERE A PROFIT MARGIN WITHIN THE WORK THAT COVERS THE OVERHEAD OF STAFF AT CCSM PER THIS PROJECT?

Yes. I mean, the developer fee, the way I look at it, is considered profit, right? It helps us to pursue another affordable housing development project. The developer fee to what percentage contributes to paying, let's say, specifically my salary or paying the utility bills at the office. I don't know what the amount is. Obviously, there are other sources, the other streams of cash flow that help contribute to Other organizational expenses. So it's not just the developer fee that pays for all of the organization's expenses. It's a part of the overall source of funds that help the organization continue to grow and pursue to execute on its mission. I'm not sure if that fully answers your question. But to go back to your original comment, your question that you started off with about the mold and the term, I've been trying to honestly wrap my head around that. I've been reading through the property condition report a couple times, talking to other project team members. And what I am personally understanding is that they did obviously know that there was mold, termite damage, therefore framing and new plumbing needed to happen. When it comes to determining well, how much is that going to cost again it's based on an educated decision educated. customer. And you only really know how much it's really going to cost once you see the full extent of it was all the walls have been demolished. So again, we only saw two or three units, like a couple of peaks beyond the wall to kind of get a sense of what the damage was. It wasn't a full assessment of every single unit. And yes, we did hear from tenants based upon observations they've made, written feedback that they had experienced or observed certain things in their units. But then it comes down to, in my opinion, how do you then estimate what really will the cost be at the end of the day? You know, someone may say it will cost in the land dollars. Someone may say, well, we think to be more conservative, let's just add another $500,000. That is the tricky part of doing rehabs is that you do your best to try to estimate. And then basically cross your fingers at the end that you essentially estimated well. In the case of the Virginia Abbey Project, that didn't happen, obviously. Our overruns related to work associated with termite and mold remediation turned out to be much more than what the consultant had estimated and what we also on our side estimated it to be. So I don't know if the architect has a more educated comment to provide. If so, feel free to come up, but if not, no big deal.

Yeah, I mean, so I guess just I understand that things are beyond we don't need to get into the details of it. I just think that building everybody knew it was for years we've been talking about it. It was an ultimate almost to the point where it was almost a tear down. And that's that was not a surprise that it was going to be an intense rehab. And I just think that's the frustrating part is this is not like community corp is new to this or the contractors are new to this. And I think, you know, the surprise part of it when you've been doing this work for a long time is where I would say that going back to that developer fee, it seems only most appropriate given the fact that these families have gone through so much that the City has continually been giving more and more and more as the price has increased, you know, came back in and said, okay, match this competing offer and actually come in lower and now it's coming back up. It only seems right that that would be the first thing that's thrown at it to close the funding gap because waiting any longer or assuming we can come back to the well for more here or waiting for other opportunities only extends paying more out of pocket for rents where they're at now and extending their opportunity to come back in. So as much as we would like to be paving the way forward to help build the projects, as you mentioned across Los Angeles, I think this is taxpayer dollars from Santa Monica. So I would just hope that that is something that's considered just because this has been going on for so long. So I hope that's a consideration and I don't know when you guys are making that decision. I didn't see timelines on some of this stuff. Do you know when Is there any timelines on when you're going to find out, um, on these other opportunities to fill that gap outside of that?

Yeah, for obviously the credit congressional funds, I don't know what the timing would be on that for the build incentive grant. My guess is that we should have a better idea if we'll get that $200,000 probably in the next month and a half. We've had initial conversations with the California Energy Commission about roughly two weeks ago. and they feel like the project is qualified um so we're just going through the steps to kind of like uh confirm that that is the case so i'm hopeful that we'll find out out of all these options whether the building center grant will be coming in or not the next one that i think um we'll be able to find out sooner rather than later is the Section A project-based vouchers. So again, we reached out to the tenants to find out how many are interested, and then once we determine what the interest list is, then we vet them to make sure that they qualify. So the goal is to get at least, well, we need 14 households to apply the project-based vouchers to. at renovation completion we'll already have five vacant units from those households that are permanently relocated so essentially we need to find out of the the current tenant pool nine households who again are interested and um will qualify so we can get more than nine households That's even better. But our goal is to get the remaining households at least nine who will be qualified for vouchers. And if that is the case, once we determine that, which probably my hope is that within a month and a half, two months, we'll be able to know decide or know if that this option is viable or not um so that that is the rough timeline in terms of like for these options you know whether they're viable or not again i i agree with you if if none of these options work out Obviously the developer fee is up for grabs. We internally don't want that to happen for reasons I mentioned. I'm sure council would understand whether you agree with or not. That is something that we're hoping to not have to tap into.

Yeah, okay. So you didn't really say a timeline, but I, in terms of weeks, states, I'm just hoping that this doesn't lock up what you guys are doing. It sounds like you're moving forward. And as far as vouchers are concerned, I just want to be aware that those come with different requirements that then puts those requirements on the tenants that they didn't have before. And my concern is that with everything that's happening, as we just aforementioned in the previous items with our federal government and whatnot, I would hate to put tenants then at risk of Right, right, right opportunity to stay there. So hopefully that doesn't become something. Yeah, pressure that's then put on the 10.

Yeah, we're, we're not forcing households supply. We're asking households who is interested. So the people who have come forward. They've expressed interest and I think once we share with them more details of what the program. are and if they could back out if they want to. We're not going to force them. So for those who are interested and want to proceed to the next step and if they qualify, then we're hopeful that that will be the case. But again, we're not forcing anyone to participate in the program.

My last question was just that you mentioned about the cost overrun on moving people out because you couldn't do it by section because I guess nobody knew all over all these years that there was one source to get electricity water that was a that wasn't something that anyone knew when they were first looking at the property it seems like that would be yeah I I can't speak to that because I don't know the history I don't know if anyone on the project team has more information okay perfect

Good evening. I'm Rene Rodriguez. I'm the director of Indian Simon Architecture. I've been involved in the project from the beginning. So the issue of the facing of the project, there were many, many things that were identified. So yes, we knew there was one line of, point of connection. But obviously, through the project, and I've been involved in the project for 7 years now, we looked at different alternatives in order to keep the budget down. So it's not that we didn't know that there was it's like, what are the realities and the specifics and the logistics of being able to accomplish that? So once we were getting into trying to do the phases and working with the contractor, the contractor had to be selected to do the way that they could work it out and then analyze what the sections of the building could be worked out. So we have a phasing plan that was worked out with the architect and contractor in order to be able to identify how it could work. Then we started triggering the issue of that potentially could have more cost because Edison also required that we upgrade the electrical system. So we have now a new sort of power line that had to come into the site, which is different than what we had originally. How do you then phase the project getting new electrical lines, getting new plumbing lines, and then being able to turn things on and off. So that would have a cost. Working with the residents, because we had committee meetings early on, And also, we had the abatement. As you mentioned, we knew that there was some mold. There was asbestos in the site as well. And so the abatement and sort of the logistics of the SQAMD and working that was with the contractor. So doing that phasing plan, it became clear that that phasing process wouldn't be feasible. It's not that we didn't know that one system. It's like we came at it with the best intentions of figuring out how to phase this thing. to do it the easiest way possible. But challenges to the budget, even from the beginning of the project, there were many different scenarios that were studied. So doing the logistics to the plan, getting a relocation consultant, what was actually feasible that could be done as well. So getting that whole team together, that was part of the process within the past three, four years. So it wasn't like from the beginnings and obviously we entered the project thinking the first intention was to do it all at once because that would be the simplest and the least impact. Then, you know, as the project evolves, can we do it phasing? Can we phase one building? Can we phase, you know, per each of the entries? So there will be four units, six units. At some point, even the logistics of getting The six units didn't quite work out because of all these things that need to happen with the new electrical service, new plumbing lines, plus the abatement requirements with SQMD.

Thank you. I can hear restlessness and frustration. I just want to note to my colleagues, this is important. It's 40 families, and I think they've waited a long time to hear this. So for anyone who's frustrated at the line of questioning and the length of the answers, I just want to remind us that I know it's late, but I do think it's an important item. And I see that council members are in the skies in here, and I want to make sure she has her opportunity. Um, I just want to reiterate that when I asked you the timeline, I was more looking for, like, weeks if you just had it. Just simply in the next 60 days, 180 days, we're going to find out and then to confirm that regardless of what happens here, because you did mention the work is not being halted by that.

Right, so I mentioned that I'm hopeful that we'll find out within a month and a half to two months.

There's not deadlines on these that are public?

Well, no, there aren't deadlines. So for the Build Incentive Grant, it's, for lack of a better term, it's kind of like rolling emissions until the funds are tough. And so we've already submitted the application, and it's in the process of being looked through. So we should, I'm hopeful, find out within a month and a half. I can't speak to how quickly the Build Incentive Grant Department will be working.

I wasn't sure if there was just like a grant deadline. Like they give the grant by this amount. I hear you though. But it's not going to halt the work that's happening.

No, the work will not be halted with any of this work that we're doing.

Or the communication with the residents and the continuous work. Not at all.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for asking some of the questions I was going to ask, so I don't have to ask them. But to kind of build on a little bit of Council Member Negrete's questions about what was known when and who should have known, and I do hope that as we're discussing all of this, we take it as an opportunity to learn how to do better rather than seeing it as a way to assign any blame or anything like that, because I think that's that's the goal is trying to make sure that we do this better next time or this happens better. So I believe you had mentioned a property condition report that was performed prior to the work on the rehabilitation work commencing. So I just wanted to clarify, was that property condition report shared with City staff or residents or any outside parties, um, other than within.

I don't know if you could respond to that. I don't know the. Definitive answers that.

Yes, so back in 2019, uh, yes, the property condition report was shared with city city staff at that time. Um.

yes that was from 2019 we they there was not a an updated property condition report or property condition assessment performed closer to when the work began there was so ccsm conducted another one um in 2024 yes and would it be possible to to provide that to the residents upon request just so that there's there's additional transparency of sure you know okay thank you yeah yeah obviously it depends on what they would like to see but I just want to make sure that that is an available resource if if that would be helpful for folks And then 2 things on some concerns we did receive an email from some of the residents earlier a couple of emails, I guess, but. Regarding some of the concerns, so 1 of them was about changes to the apartment layouts and. uh some of the comments were around a reduction of storage space within the uh the different apartments so understanding as a lender we are limited over you know what control we have over these types of changes i just wanted to get some clarification about how would ccsm work with the residents to address some of these storage space related and apartment layout related concerns

Ray, maybe this could be like a joint response effort. I don't think we would be able to redesign the plans right now. One, because we want to be done sooner. But I think also, as you know, we have cost overruns. So redesigning things would just contribute to the cost overruns. And so in terms of how we offset what was lost, I think Renee can speak to what the real conditions are with respect to that.

Well, to the question, I can definitely speak to the question about the idea of loss of storage. When we did the tour, we clarified what happened. The only units that we actually revised the layout were the units that are accessible. This building had no accessible units. This building was built in 1946. There was no ADA, there was no UFOs, there was no fair housing. So there were no accessible units. As a requirement of the investment, as I understood, and complying with code, we needed to provide 5% of the units needed to be mobility, 2% of the units needed to be for audiovisually challenged individuals. At the point with the design of the project, it was shared with me that the city had an interest in matching what was being done in LA, because LA, I don't know if you guys are aware, but the city of LA got sued because of accessibility issues. And so we actually increased that code required 5% to 10% or 11%. Those units, because you can You can't really make the building bigger. Those units, actually, we enlarged the bathrooms and we enlarged the kitchens. We ended up being some of the closets that had in hallways, those were removed. The kitchens became bigger, so they actually have more cabinet space than they used to have. So those units, they'd indeed lose some of the closet spaces that they had in those hallways. They also, because of the change, they had gas heaters in the units. We also introduced, the moment that we're switching to electric building, electric sort of power everywhere, no gas in the units. We also, there was a small, I'm gonna say about 18 by 30 inch sort of box in the balconies. That space was used now for a condenser for air conditioning that they actually have in the units, providing heating to the units. So that storage was also, that was lost in most of the units. But in reference to the other units, so that was five units that were doing mobility units. Those are the only units that actually lost that closet space on the interior. The rest of the units did not lose any storage inside.

Okay.

So sorry, perhaps we could set up like a meeting time to discuss this.

But unfortunately, now is I'll be happy to, I'll be happy to meet with them. But they have the layout of the units on the units are not being sort of upgraded for mobility. Those units have the exactly the same layout. There are some softwares with distribution for for sort of ventilation, and the kitchen and the bathrooms, the ceilings have been lowered, but they had no storage in those locations. That's sort of in reference to the layout. In reference to what can be done to address that, that is, you know, something that you would have to discuss with the citizen.

Okay, or I think maybe CCSM could discuss with the residents about Yeah, but then the other one of the other concerns that that I read in the email was related to how the different costs have been allocated for each separate building because I understand there's multiple buildings on the site. So what kind of breakdown will be provided on budget versus actual costs for each separate building? Because I assume that each of the buildings had kind of different severities of issues that needed to be remediated or abated or just repaired.

Right. I don't think that we're looking at the Virginia Avenue project as four discrete budgets or projects. It's one project that consists of four buildings. And so to answer your question, we're not going to have because each building is different obviously based upon like the level of amount of work that needs to be done we're not going to at this point in time know how much it's going to cost for building a b c and d for example we're going to have like an overall project budget and so obviously any funding gap we're able financing gap we're able to secure it's going to go towards meeting that overall budget gap versus say One building is having more of a cost overrun than another, so we'll then allocate accordingly. We're looking at it holistically.

So if they, you know, some folks noticed, oh, it seems like the same amount is being shown as a cost, like for each building, but different buildings have different issues. It's because it's

looked at as one entire project rather than than four is that correct okay right right so so the scope of work um covers the entire project uh you know maybe you might have had more framing work or damage in one building than another but in terms of like how much we spent on new framing we're looking at as an overall project cost okay right thank you very much that's one of the questions i see councilmember raskin

Yeah, thank you. And I mean, just to be clear, my discomfort here is not about your line of questions, it's about the circumstances that were in here. And, you know, that's not a comment to you or city staff or anyone in particular. I just got two questions here. So I know you had referenced the channels of communication that are available to people, including email and opportunities for site visits. I'm curious, are, well, you'd said something along the lines, maybe we can go back to that slide, that you didn't want to slow down construction by site visits? Or something along those lines?

Yeah.

So what I said was that we conducted two site tours so far. Both of them were in July. And my goal is to make sure that we meet our project completion target date of June 2027, if not earlier. Because if we're able to complete the project sooner than June 2027 and have people moved in, that means we're spending less money on relocation costs. And if we are projecting currently a project completion of June of 2027 being over budget and relocation by $1.6 million, I would like to see that cost overrun on relocation to be less than $1.6 million. So the net, what our gap is, is much less than 2.4. So my comment about not wanting to have another resident tour until later in the construction cycle, closer to the end, is because I don't want to divert, because the president of MARMS is the one really spearheading the construction effort. Of course, he has his team. I don't want to distract him too much, take too much time and attention away from him, really focusing on what he needs to do on a day-to-day basis to help us complete construction on time, again, more importantly, earlier if possible. That is really my wish, is that it will be done sooner than June 2027 because, again, As I mentioned, what's driving our cost overruns are not only hard costs, but it's relocation expenses. We are 1.6 million projected to be over budget on relocation. If we are done with construction in June 2027, if we're done much sooner than that, that $1.6 million projected relocation deficit will be less. And the goal is not going to be to finish this project on time, but to reduce the gap and not eliminate that gap by finding other sources. So that's why I said I really want to limit the amount of resident site tours we have because it's only going to take time and attention away that our GC can focus instead on what's at hand for them. That is my mission. that were done sooner.

Okay, I'll just editorialize. I found the site visit to be very informative, and I found it was a very collaborative process with the residents that were in there. But the second question I was going to ask is, the construction estimate was originally rebid back in 2025. Do you have to know off the top of your head, and sorry, I'm just asking you on the fly, what the delta is between the original bid and what it was rebid at?

I do not know that off the top of my head. I could get back to you about that, but I don't know what the original, unless Egan Simon knows that, but I don't know what the original bid was construction-wise versus what it is now. I know that from what I've heard because the project has been an active project for Community Corporation for the past six seven years approximately that construction costs have increased a lot over time and so having had the project delayed for the time that it did we were just chasing after that containing that cost the the later we waited the more expensive it came and it you know i think it's just i'm gonna i'm going to say probably that it's based on what you might read and In the media, everyone kind of knows that construction costs have increased a lot over the past six, seven years, especially with interest rates remaining high. If the project were to be bid out today, it would be much more expensive than what it was bid out even two years ago.

I have two questions in a statement. One is to the staff. Do we know, I think we talked about it at the last council meeting, when the dashboard will go live?

Yeah, so we'll have it live before the end of the year, and we're also going to integrate it into scorecard updates that are also that'll update the community with what's going on with this particular project. Also, this project will be on there will be on it.

So that will be helpful. And then, um. And I guess it's more of a statement comment than a question. But Councilman Raskin had asked, I mean, what have we learned from this project? I mean, 2027 years ago, you know, I'm a finance guy, I'm sure increased by 30%, based on just the time from 2020 to 27. What did we learn with respect to this project? And as to maybe some things that we might think about going forward with some of our housing trust fund type projects?

I can take a picture. um that's a great question and absolutely i mean i think we should acknowledge the reality of the acquisition of this project happened in january of 2020 right like it was a really horrible time to be working in this you know making any major moves so that certainly impacted it um i think with the exuberant costs of creating housing when we're talking about rehabilitations i think we want to be thinking about the trade-offs between a rehab project and a new construction project, right? I think there's been dialogue here about, you know, that this project essentially costs the same of what a new construction project could have been and could have been more potentially efficient if we had done it that way. So I think thinking about that, and of course, you know, overwhelmingly lessons learned on resident communication and feedback and transparency. I mean, I think that the city can continue to have a heavier hand on the community and tenant engagement aspect of the work. I think we have a pretty internal like heavy hand and how we collaborate with our developer partners. But understandably, if the community does not see that they're not in our meetings every week, they'll understand that. So thinking about how we can increase transparency as well to maintain the trust of our residents, which is of our utmost priority. And we don't, you know, we don't want people to make assumptions because we have the information to build it in.

And I guess it's more of a statement than anything. You know, the city's committed close to $40 million on this project. I think you've heard statements from all of our council members. We've all taken tours of the project, the care that we have with respect to these residents. Is this a question? Okay, well, I'm finished, Mike. No, it's more of a statement, so I'll stop. Okay, well, we're not at statements. All right.

Thank you. Okay, I have a couple of questions. Yeah. First of all, this has been an extremely frustrating presentation for me. I'm just going to be completely transparent. We've sat here for an hour and I don't know that we've had good information. So the hard cost contingency is fully spent from what I saw in the staff report and the soft cost contingency is down to $3,000 and the project's only 70% done. So what's the plan?

You know, in the slide that I had about pursuing gap financing, you know, that's something that I'm working on. That's, you know, on my radar screen is really thinking of ways to bridge the gap.

Okay, so we don't, there isn't a plan right now. We need to raise additional money. If there are any cost overruns, we don't have money for that. Okay. And on the project based vouchers, this path assumes that at least 14 vouchers can be used. But as I calculated it, it vouchers only that helpful if it helps a returning household. And no, no, I'm nodding my head. Are we doing naturally occurring affordable housing here?

no sorry but the vacant units when we can put project based vouchers on vacant units we are benefiting from right so i mean are you are you doing the project like a noaa project where you're just waiting for people to move out so you can get a new another voucher for someone who moves in no the benefit to raising the million dollars in the perm loan requires there to be 14 vouchers at the time of right so have we assessed all the households in the development That's currently what CSN is working on with the tenants. Okay. Because we need tenant cooperation to know their eligibility and their willingness to participate in the program.

Okay. So I think that that that's an iffy path at best.

I mean, the city has set aside 20 project based vouchers, which I think is very important because those are hard to come by. Absolutely. It's a limited resource that would otherwise be allocated to another project. And so, you know, we and the city is open and available to explain the benefits of having a project based voucher attendance as well for people who are questioning that.

so can we set up a time where it's not just ccsm talking to the residents but that we actually have the city coming in and talking about how that process works yeah absolutely okay i think that that would be helpful um okay i don't have any more questions um and councilmember negrete

sorry one last question is will the tenants actually be able to just a short answer be able to actually see because they were promised to see their units and i want to just go back i'm i was on one of the walks i think councilmember raskin and snow were there um city managers um we there was ada units that were just sort of randomly selected and they weren't because they were they weren't selected because someone needed ada access beforehand So units were completely changed. I understand that, you know, kitchens are bigger and bathrooms are bigger, but it was not by request and other things were lost. Back doors that created airflow are completely gone. Outdoor storage is gone. So you are here and I know it was just two months ago, but because you're standing here and the executive director is not here. I'm asking that you continue as much as possible to do these tenant walkthroughs so that you can create less of a headache for yourself and maybe cure some of these issues ahead of time. Is something as small as putting an outside storage could potentially make up for what was lost? And just to your point, the air conditioning units across all of them took everybody's above storage out. Those old 1950s closets have A CLOSET AND THEN ABOVE STORAGE, THAT'S WHERE I LIVE IN AN APARTMENT, I GET IT, IT'S LIKE TETRIS, IT'S WHERE YOU PUT YOUR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS AND WHATNOT. SO I THINK PEOPLE LOST A LOT OF AMPLE STORAGE BOTH OUTSIDE AND INSIDE. AND I THINK THOSE TENANT WALK THROUGHS ARE IMPORTANT. SO I HOPE, I REALIZE YOU'RE SAYING THAT, I MEAN, THERE'S A DAY WHERE THERE'S TIME, I HEAR YOU SAYING THAT MAYBE THIS IS GOING TO HALT CONSTRUCTION FOR A DAY MAYBE TO DO IT, BUT I WOULD HOPE THAT THERE'S A TIME THAT'S APPROPRIATE TO DO IT WHERE IT DOESN'T DELAY THE PROJECT. because that was really important to the tenants. Not that there's going to be re architect, you know, redos, but there's probably some solves for these issues that if they just can get a walkthrough would be important. And then I just want to say that this was frustrating to sit through. It was hard to get here. Nobody wanted me to bring this item forward and I spent months discussing this issue between CCSM before you were here. Um, and the tenants and going back and forth, and they had spent ample time prior to that discussing their concerns and going back and forth. And the cost, yes, has been increasing over time, but there was an opportunity when someone else came in and came in. About 7.2Million dollars lower and then this construction company came and. Miraculously match that amount and then now we're creeping back up so you can see that the more transparency that you can provide the better because then people feel frustrated with the years upon years of. Being promised something and it not happening. So I know you're sitting in this role now. I know we're catching up I just would really like if we could stick to the consistent communication Combined with on-site Access and I agree I was asking you about the vouchers because I don't think people fully understand what is attached to being in a voucher program and it's really important because That could end up being in the long run, maybe detrimental. Maybe it's better. I don't know. But people need to be able to make that decision for themselves fully informed. So I hope that we can be more consistent and clear and concise with the information we give the tenants and give them the opportunity to see their units as often as possible to give feedback and just know that they've been waiting for years for this. So if it's a day here and a day there to walk them through

hopefully you guys will make those accommodations to do it okay um point well taken we'll consider that um so this comment is not to push back i don't want it to come across that way but i don't know renee if if we calculated how much storage space actually is lost because i'm hearing from tenants that a lot of storage space has been eliminated but a lot i don't know what that means in terms like square footage like if it is it like several hundreds of square feet or is it like a lot less and so i don't think it's i think it's a hallway of closets i think it's above i don't think anyone's counting square footage who can provide information

So we, I mean, we can look at the units and we have the images and the as built. So we can definitely provide information. One of the things is there's a real storage and there's the perception of that. And I hear very well what you're saying about potential alternatives. So that's something that, you know, definitely CCSM should be looking into.

To your point, some storage is already lost. I think now we're on the let's resolve the issue and gain some of that square footage back. And that may be as simple as adding those outdoor store. I don't know. You'll have to talk to the tenants to see what makes sense for them.

Okay and in terms of the project-based vouchers and I'm um I don't know where it alien is so when we do have a meeting with the tenants along with Monument the relocation consultant do you want me to include city staff in that meeting okay all right okay I I was just gonna suggest um I don't know if

The Council's requests are being understood properly based on the feedback we're hearing. I think the request from Council is not necessarily a who's right or who's wrong regarding data to tell the residents you only lost 50 square feet of storage. I think the issue is, it would be helpful if you could bring the residents along. You can schedule walkthroughs after hours. Contractors usually end the day at two or three. More regular communication, bringing the residents along as part of the development project, I think, is the request that's being made of CCSM moving forward.

Okay, understood.

Thank you, Councilman. But I would like to add that we don't want to... Sorry, are you ready to comment? Okay, great. Comments, I mean, I want, you know, this project... And we care so much about this project, obviously, putting $40 million into it. On the other hand, I don't want us to see any more escalation costs with respect to it. I heard you say today that you're trying to get the project done by June 2027, if not earlier. And when I look at a $40 million project for tenants that are coming back, I want them back in their homes. Additional escalated costs with respect to this project. If it comes back to us, I'm going to be quite concerned if we can't get these tenants back into their, their homes in a reasonable period of time. So, I don't know what we're. Do we need to move this item or anything? This is more of just a... No, I think we're just hearing an update. Just hearing an update.

Yeah.

But I appreciate the update. I understand, you know, you're still new with respect to the project. Once again, a seven-year project, keeping tenants out of their home over six years is a very difficult thing. And from my standpoint, I want to see that they get back and so they can begin their lives again because this is such a disruption. So that's my statement.

Council members look.

yeah thank you for the presentation and the update it's obviously been a long complicated process I think there's alignment on wanting it to be done fast and as fast as possible as cheap as possible as good as possible and we're trying here we've allocated 35 million dollars as was mentioned there's looking at an overrun of two and a half million I guess that's a seven percent overrun The relocation costs not being adjusted to meet the new construction plan seems like a big boo boo but the hard cost overrun seem totally reasonable for a construction project like this, and I think we. Decided collectively that we would spend over 35Million dollars on a renovation and we're now. Really going crazy over a small, hard cost overrun. And, you know, I think if we didn't want to spend 40Million dollars, we shouldn't have decided to do that. But we did. And for now, I think the issue is just to finish the project as quick as possible and get the residents back in their homes. Um, so that's my thought. Thank you.

Okay, I don't see any other requests in the queue. Your report is received and filed. Appreciate it. Thank you.

We need a motion to receive and file.

I don't believe so. It's an information item.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you all for being here for so so late and for your dedication to this. Appreciate it. We're now going to move on to 11 C. Which is the ENA with Golden Voice. And hopefully we have a really succinct staff presentation, right?

We do have a very succinct staff presentation. Be possible to bring the presentation up?

Thank you.

No worries. That's it. And if the team could help me steer. Madam Mayor, members of the Council, we have the item before you tonight requesting authorization to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with AEG Presents Golden Voice for an assessment of the revitalization of the Civic Auditorium. We go to the first slide. As the Council knows, we have been We've been working for the past 17 plus years to identify a viable pathway forward to get the Civic turned back on. It's such an iconic facility and live entertainment being such a difficult arena to reactivate the venue of this scale. We have in 2009, 2017, again in 2023, We also coordinated separate processes, soliciting proposals. Each of those efforts ended without identifying a viable pathway to bring the Civic Auditorium back online. Our most recent project concluded back in October 2025 when our negotiations and assessment with RPG concluded. The Council at that point in time asked the staff to explore alternatives as it relates to possible ways to utilize the Civic and what the long-term redevelopment potential might look like. If we go to the next slide. Since that time, the staff has been coordinating an overall evaluation and assessing various options for how this civic site could be utilized. One of the pathways that presented itself was coordination with We have been working with one of AEG Worldwide's business entities, Golden Voice, on a large-scale music festival in town in discussing the potential option to look at the Civic We did a live entertainment venue, AEG, which is the world's second largest presenter of live music and entertainment events. Did some cursory review. That review has resulted in the potential that we could partner with AEG to do another assessment If we had the opportunity to bring the Civic back online as a live entertainment site, that assessment would really help add value to the City's overall assessment on how to think about the Civic on a move-forward basis. If we go to the next slide, we met with the Council in closed session back in July. At that point in time, the conversation moved forward with authorization to bring an ENA forward for formal Council approval. What we're looking to do through this assessment is, for a six-month period, work with AEG to evaluate the Civic's potential to be reactivated as a live entertainment venue. AEG would be paying to retain all the technical experts and consultants to assess the viability of this project and ultimately would present their findings to the City. If the assessment proves to have a path forward for a viable project, we certainly come back and engage with the Council and community on how that project might be moved forward as everything unfolds. We go to the next slide. One additional point for the Council. As the Council knows, we have completed all of our state-required Surplus Land Act requirements. We received HCD certification clearing the Civic site back in 2023. That does facilitate the City Council having the authority to enter into an ENA with any entity of the Council's choosing. We'd also note that an E&A doesn't constitute a disposition of property or commit to any future transaction. It's really to identify with a partner that has experience in the space. AEG currently operates over 100 entertainment venues. They promote over 12,000 shows annually. That background, that skill set that they bring can certainly help us assess is there a pathway forward for bringing the civic back to life. In addition, we note for the council that all of our rules and regulations, there is no prescribed required process for entering into an ENA. an option for the Council this evening and an option that the staff would recommend moving forward with. With that, our recommendation tonight is to authorize staff to enter into the E&A with AEG under the terms outlined in the staff report. If there are any questions the Council has, staff is here and available.

I have a question since no one's in the queue. Oh, Councilor, okay. Can we put a requirement in here that at any sort of presentation or at the end of the ENA period or at a decision point for council that we see a full pro forma of the project with a financial analysis? Because I think that was the concern that we previously had on these other endeavors, that there's never been any sort of real there there. If we enter into an ENA, I would like some requirement of a detailed financial accounting of how this would be possible. Otherwise, I think we're going to be wasting our time.

Yeah. That's already been built into the entire conversation with AEG Presents and is one of the expected outcomes of the assessment if the Council decides to move forward.

Okay. And since we ended the ENA negotiations with RPG, because I did notice there was a comment on that today, what subsequent actions did the City take, i.e., did we meet with them? Did we invite them to submit anything to us? Did anything happen? Did we get anything? What's been happening?

Thank you. Subsequent to the ENA with RPG expiring, we had an additional conversation, a couple of conversations after the expiration of the ENA. After that, we haven't heard anything from the, any representative from the RPG group until yesterday. We did hear reports that they had ceased engagement in the issue yesterday. A representative that was part of that RPG group continue to assess the project.

And have we seen any financials from that assessment? No, we have not. Okay, thanks. Councillor Nazaria.

Thank you. So two questions. So in terms of the terms of six months with two optional mutually agreed upon 90 day extensions, are those similar terms to what we previously had with RPG for that DNA?

Yes.

And then second question, I noticed in the Surplus Lands Act disposition documentation, there was a note that the City had provided a summary of negotiations and enclosed the appropriate draft affordability covenant requiring 15% affordable housing to be recorded against the property. How does that potentially come into play for the purposes of this ENA, if at all?

It doesn't. That requirement would be in effect if the property were redeveloped for a housing project, but it does, because the property has been cleared out of SLA, it's really up to the Council to determine what use you'd like to pursue on the site. The SLA clearance means that it's really ultimately up to the City now on how we'd like to choose to dispose of the property moving ahead. And so if we were to move forward with a live entertainment venue, which is authorized via the SLA clearance, there wouldn't be a housing requirement, obviously, with that type of project.

And thus, we wouldn't be subject to that 15% affordable covenant?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

Any other questions? Any comments?

If there's no comments, I'd like to move this item.

Great. With excitement, I will second that.

Okay. Councilmember DeGratte? Yes. Yes. Mr. Baraskin?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Temswick? Yes. Councilmember Snell? Yes. Councilmember Zarniskaya? Yes. Mayor DeRosa?

Yes. Great. Thank you all for being here.

sorry to our friends who waited all night long for this through our public hearing and adoption of resolution approving the california municipal financial finance authority and issue revenue bonds for the benefit of 1318 fourth street um and just as per our usual convention we're going to hear the staff report and then we have one public comment

And you need to recuse yourself.

And I'll be recusing myself from this item as it relates to the production of housing, which is what my employee advocates for. Thank you.

Okay, great.

Agustin Aleman Good evening, Mayor, Council members. My name is Agustin Aleman. I am a senior development analyst with the Housing and Human Services Department, and I'm here to present the 1318 4th Street TEFRA hearing. 1318 4th Street, just as a reminder, is a 122-unit, 100% affordable development located in downtown Santa Monica. This is inclusive of 50 residences for permanent supportive housing as well. The developer partner is EAH Inc. Upcoming milestones, final quarter of 2026, we're looking at construction closing and construction commencement. The tougher hearing is a requirement under the IRS and the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act for tax exempt bonds. This hearing will allow for the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue up to $80 million in revenue bonds. The city's approval is procedural and there will be no financial obligation or liability to the city. The bonds are the sole responsibility of the borrower. With that said, staff recommends, um, city council hold a public hearing, which we are currently doing, uh, determine that the development of affordable housing at 1384 street was previously analyzed in the 6 cycle housing element, environmental impact report. And there will be, um. No possibility of impact with the issuance of the bonds pursuant to sequel. Thirdly, we ask that you would adopt a resolution approving the issuance of the bonds by the CMFA in an amount not to exceed $80 million.

Thank you. We do have one public comment. Denise Barton.

Next item 12A, the issues of $80 to $90 million in bonds for 1318 Forest Street housing project. I'm curious, are these bonds anything like the $15 million in bonds in 2017 for the renovation of the step-up on second location on Second Street? because that road renovation was never done. And was the $15 million in bonds paid back, or did the state include them in that $114 million lawsuit involving Step Up on Second's developer for contractual fraud and other things in 2024? Or does the state not even know these bonds exist? So with the record of endorsement by the Santa Monica City Council of organizations like Step Up on Second that haven't yet fulfilled their bond obligation,

renovating the location on Second Street why would the state not give that fact weight in their decision on this item thank you thank you I do not see any comments questions or speakers in the queue so seeing none I will go ahead and move the item great Council Member Negrete

Yes.

Councilmember Raskin?

Yes.

Councilmember Snell? Yes. Councilmember Zonaskaya? Yes. Emerita Rosas?

Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. Great. We will now move on to 16 items. Just remind me, Madam Clerk, can we do them as a- 16 A and B together. We can, but then C separately. Okay. Councilmember Zwick? Mayor Pro Temswick. He's coming back. So 16A is a recommendation to accept Bradley Ewing's resignation from Rec and Parks and City Clerk to publish the vacancy and 16B is a recommendation to accept Hajar McTassett St. Clair's resignation from the Housing Authority Board and authorize City Clerk to publish the vacancy. I'll go ahead and move both those items. I'll second it. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Any opposed, any abstentions? No. Seeing none, okay. 16c, did Mayor Pro Tem Zwick want to say anything about this?

Only that this was a request that came before the Council in a previous meeting. It's in support of the Santa Monica College Women's Soccer Program, managed by the College Foundation to support excellence in student athletics, specifically related to the women's soccer team, and something that I wanted to use a portion of my discretionary funds to support, and I was happy to be joined by Councilmember Hall and Zornitzkaya in meeting the gap in what their fundraising goal was for this particular program.

Do they need any more money?

I'm pretty sure that this was what staff had advised was the sort of gap that they had identified between what they were trying to raise and what they had raised thus far. And that's how the funds were allocated.

We love women's sports.

So happy to support this. Thank my colleagues for joining me and would appreciate your support on this vote.

Councilmember Zwick, are you making a motion?

Yes, I'd love to move the item.

All right, and I'll second.

I know, I was trying to put my mic on.

Okay, let's vote. Okay. Councilmember Zarniskaya? Yes. Councilmember Snell? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Zwick? Yes. Councilmember Raskin? Yes. Councilmember Noguete? Yes. Mayor DeRosa? Yes. Great. Do we have any adjournments?

we don't but I would like to adjourn the meeting in honor of my grandmother who turned 99 on Sunday so we'll just say as opposed to a memory we'll honor her okay um our meeting is adjourned we are on recess for the next meeting in August and we'll see everyone in September thank you