Regular City Council and Housing Authority* - Regular Meeting

Uh, good evening everybody. I now call to order the regular meeting of the city council and housing authority for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. Let's please stand and and uh sing together the national anthem as a video plays and then remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. By the dawn proud Twilight stripes and I saw through the sight for the gall through the flag still free of Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one

nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, now's the time for our moment of solemn expression. And we're pleased to have uh Pastor Phil Ice Iskins from the Lighthouse Church. Pastor Phil, you have the floor.

You ever had a bad day? I'm not all myself today. I had lunch with some friends at church and on the way out, I was kind of cleaning my teeth and my implant that I paid $2,700 for fell out. And on top of that, my dentist is out of town until Saturday. So, I say amen. Anyhow, Mr. Mayor, city manager, esteemed city council, I always consider it an honor to be here uh in my capacity as a man as a pastor and I just am always uh honored to uh uh be the lowly pastor of the lighthouse to be able to come and pray before you guys. Uh our 28th president uh Woodro Wilson he said this. A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a feudal thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about. I would say we are in some times that demand prayer and concentration and wisdom. wisdom from us all. So, let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you so much uh for this city council. We thank you so much for the city of Costa Mesa, Lord, and the people that you have uh raised up into leadership, Lord, to uh make it one of the best cities around. Lord, I thank you for the police department uh and uh keeping us safe and uh for their diligence, Lord, and the fire department. And Lord, help us to do our part to pray for the leaders that have the rule over us uh to ask for wisdom. Uh because Lord, we could sure use some. So, Father, help us tonight. Be with us. Be with the city council as they make decisions on the behalf of the

citizens of this great community. And we pray these things in Jesus name. And everybody said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you. Thank you, pastor. Thank you very much. Clap for the prayer. Let's clap for the clap for the prayer. We're looking for things to clap about. All right. Uh, city clerk, will you please do the roll call? Uh, Mr. Mayor, the record will reflect that all council is present except for Council Member Buley.

And just so everybody knows, Council Member Buy may come to the meeting. He's doing his best. He's got a um what did he wanted me to tell you? A minor medical emergency. And so that's all I can say about that. Um uh city attorney, uh do you have a closed session report?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I do want to take uh point out that we had one reportable action in close session uh and that was with respect to um close session item number two. uh potential initiation of litigation uh on motion by council member Maher, seconded by council member Gomeros and approved on a 5 to zero vote with the mayor absent. Um in that moment um the council authorized us to initiate litigation. I am withholding information about the party against whom that litigation will be initiated in order to preserve our ability to properly serve those parties. That is all. Thank you.

Okay. And for the record, I want to be um on the support for that. So, please make it a 60 vote. Okay. Um we have no presentations tonight, so we'll jump right into public comments. Uh you can talk about anything on the consent calendar or anything else that's not on one of our numbered agenda items. You have three minutes uh to speak and you're at at two minutes, you're going to hear a sound and you're going to see a light and please wrap up. At that point in time, we'll go to people in the chambers first, then on Zoom. Flo, you have the floor.

Uh, Flo Martin, 59-year resident of Costa Mesa. Uh, I had a flashback while we were singing the national anthem. I served as an interpreter for the 1984 Olympics at the swim venue where Greg Luganis won bunches of medals and we heard that national anthem on a regular basis. I want to thank you city council for your support and for your extension and upgrading of the ride circuit program. two additional cars, extended hours of service, and a lifesaver for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh thanks to a stroke that I sustained while driving and crashing. I no longer have a car and I no longer drive. I walk a lot. And the free shuttle, the service has helped me go to Hogue Hospital. I would have uh have the driver take me to Superior and East West 16th and I would walk the rest of the way. Now I can get to Hogue with the shuttle completely. On another note, I have read that the California Senate passed a bill number 720 that deals with red light traffic cameras. I remember the day when we did have such red light traffic cameras. My son Todd lives just one block away from 19th in Newport and he tells me even now there are crashes there on a regular basis. I also get monthly reports thanks to the hard work of the Costa Mesa PD uh with statistics about crashes

involving drivers uh pedestrians and drivers, cyclists and drivers and their location and Newport Boulevard is the worst of the worst. Uh, the new law states that the cameras will not capture faces, only license plate numbers. A violation will be considered a civil infraction and the violations will not appear on driving records. I recommend that you support installing and and operating and getting some funds for that four new light new red light cameras at 19th and Newport just for a start. That intersection is the most dangerous one in town. Thank you.

Thank you, Flo. Yes, sir.

Hi, uh, city council. My name is, uh, Steve Smith. I missed my previous opportunity to uh uh offer a couple words up on the Fair View Park master plan. I want to uh quickly make now uh uh for decades people have been using a Fairview Park as a place for recreation enjoyment. Uh they've behaved, you know, pretty acceptably by any standard. Yet, uh groups like the Harbor Saring Society are being squeezed out year after year by the ever tightening boa constrictor we call Sacramento and its rules and regulations. Many people have spoken against it. 155 people spoke out against it here, but uh it's not clear to me given the current direction of the city council that uh that uh feedback has been heard. Uh we all support and protecting endangered species, but the the park was purchased uh for the people of Costa Mesa and uh it's supposed to be a park for um our use and enjoyment. Um the current park is already permitted and uh these activities have been limited before um before we displace uh groups like the uh Harbor Soaring Society who have been respectful stewards in their uh use of the park. Uh let's see some real data showing the the actual uh decrease in endangered species uh specifically from before and uh subsequently to their use and after. um overall demonstrating uh you know real harm, not just theoretical concerns from Sacramento. Uh Fairview Park is meant to be for the people of Costa Mesa and uh her environs as well, not for the birds. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir.

Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, thank you so much for your time. Um my name is Dr. TV and I'm the owner of a 46 unit property here in Costa Mesa that the city was kind enough to already approve for conversion into an affordable housing center. Um I've invested a sign significant amount into this project acquisition, design, permitting, and construction with the goal of delivering safe, dignified, affordable housing that aligns directly with the city's housing priorities. I am now in the final stretch. The project is entitled. It's substantially completed and close to being brought online in less than six months. Actually, what stands between the delay and the delivery is targeted city assistance, whether that's uh gap funding or coordinated support to resolve the remaining items efficiently. I want to be clear, I'm not asking to change the project and I'm not asking the the city to to take on risk. I'm asking for a partnership to help complete a readyto- deliver project the city has already approved and the community urgently needs. Uh with modest modest support, this project can be completed quickly and begin serving residents who need housing stability now, not years from now. Uh I respectfully ask the city to uh just uh direct staff to engage with me uh to identify how we can potentially work together and bring this uh project that's been approved and really at the very within 6 months uh bring it to fruition. I appreciate your time and thank you for hearing me out.

Thank you. Um, okay. Is there nobody else in the chambers? Any anybody on Zoom? No, Mr. Mayor. Oh, wow. It's a record. Okay. Close public comments. Um, it's interesting. All right. Okay. So, first, so now we're going to do good do a council member committee reports, comments, and suggestions. Uh, and the first one is from district three, uh, council member Andrea Mer. Mr. Mayor, can you come back to me? Sure. Thank you. No problem. Uh then from district five, council member Arlo Reynolds.

The short public comment period caught us all off guard.

Usually it's 20 30 minutes of that. Um okay. Well, um hi everyone. I'm back. Um apologies for missing last meeting. Uh I was here um in spirit for a while and was out sick. Um so so catching up on a number of things. If you have a outstanding email to me, I'm um I'm getting to it. Um so um I want to address just one of the the comments from the public related to CALR or Newport Boulevard. Very much still a focus for the city. Um, you may remember that last year our city council adopted a resolution formally requesting that CALR take Newport Boulevard seriously and the safety issues on Newport Boulevard seriously. Um, there's been a lot of communication um between the agencies over the last several months. Um, and some really important meetings coming up. So, um, we are focused on it. Um, uh, I was disappointed we didn't get on the, um, list to be a pilot city for red light cameras. Um, and uh, I'll share with staff who focus on that that I' I'd still love to get on that list. I do think it would be um, of good value to our city in these areas where there's daily excessive speeding and um, very compelling data on um, the safety issue. Um, other than that, I just have some requests from staff on updates that I' I'd like to get, not necessarily this meeting. Um, some of these things I think may be beneficial to both the council and the public, too. So, um, uh, an update on the two ballot initiatives that we gave direction to look into. Um, I really want to make sure that, you know, time's going to pass fast, that we're, um, up to date on the discussions there that I believe are happening in FIPAC. Um, we started uh, I think a couple years ago discussions on investments in um, our bus shelters. So, I'm very curious the status of that, like an update on um, what we're doing

there. both um improving conditions of our best shelters, but also um uh when we're going to get out the shelters that we funded. Um I think we had about 300 $300,000 for additional best shelter funding. I'd love to see those out before the hot season comes. Um we have a I know our parks commission got a um really great assessment on our um urban canopy and tree cover. Um, and so I'm I'm and we've had some discussions with staff about, you know, the with the um 250 year anniversary of the United States of America this year, there might be some nice um uh uh goals to set with that in terms of trees planted this year. So, I'd appreciate an update from staff on our plan um and next steps related to the urban canopy assessment. And finally, um I know we've uh finished the last year of our arts and culture master plan. My understanding is there's a little bit of a a gap in funding between the close of that plan and creating a new one. Um so I'd appreciate an update um you know and even on on what the arts commission is discussing related to um how the five years of the master plan went and what the plans are um and recommendations from that commission are going forward. Um so sorry putting a lot on your plate because I've been out for a while. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, next up from district six, council member Jeff Pettis.

Yeah, I'm gonna keep it brief tonight. Thank you, Mayor, council members. Uh, so when I was running for council that the or currently even the what I see to be the the biggest priorities for myself are are maintaining our infrastructure in the city, um, promoting small business and economic growth and and public safety. And on the on the infrastructure part, uh for me it it starts with the individual resident. And and one thing I I've mentioned this before, I try to do is is respond to all um comments, no matter how small or requests on my behalf from residents in my district especially. and um the success in which I can engage them with a city is dependent upon the success I find in staff's responsiveness. And just a couple couple of note uh Charlie from um Costa Mesa for better streets tonight had an issue with some lights in the street at Kaiser and uh kudos I can't remember the exact staff it was Roger I'm sure you could pass it along for me have have met with him I'm not sure if we've completed it or not where we're at but they met with the resident and uh are addressing the concern and and that's uh that's that's all I need and I appreciate that very much and secondly ly there was a a woman last uh council meeting, Jan, who had some uh was having an issue with it turned out to be more of a code enforcement issue with a patio on our back fence and I had some communications with her on the uh over over uh email and uh staff is is working with her. So, hey, that's what it's all about. Uh the most important thing to me is is the individual resident. And on the public safety uh side, uh got some great information from chief and deputy chief today. Really appreciated that talk. Learned a lot. And we have great police and fire here. So that's all I have tonight. Thanks.

All right. Thank you, Council Member. Uh well, let's see. Next up would be uh Council Member Buy, but he's still not here. So, let's go to District 2. Council member Lauren Gomero.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to be brief as well. Well, I wanted to start off by uh congratulating uh interimm fire chief Jason Pile on his appointment. I do wish the best for you and I congratulate you on your appointment. I know we're in good hands. Um I do want to also address uh public safety just on a couple of fronts. Um, we did meet in close session today and we had a great chance to uh speak with our police department in regards to how public safety is handled and different things. And what I want to just say is if anyone wants to reach out to me, anyone in the community to talk about how they feel about public safety or how we're engaging the community, I'm always here and willing to speak with anyone. And one of the priorities uh that we heard tonight from both chiefs is that the priority is public safety, right? So that's what we're here for. We're here for that. Um and along with that, I also want to comment. I remember a few years ago uh we were talking about um speeding and the corridors in our community. And once again, I find myself challenged. I have an 11-year-old daughter now who wants to go and ride her scooter down Harbor Boulevard to visit a friend. And then when I looked on the map, it's from all the way from Baker and Harbor to basically where the Fair View um rehabilitation center is where the new uh emergency operations center is going to be, the EOC. And I'm literally losing sleep over the thought of my 11-year-old on a scooter cruising down Harbor Boulevard. So, all I can say is when when everyone comes up here and says, uh, traffic safety is such an important issue, I can tell you what, if you're not listening, you will be when your 11-year-old comes up to you and says, "Dad, I want to start visiting friends and I'm going to take Harbor Boulevard." That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay, so um, going back to Council Member Mar from District Three.

Thank you. Sorry, I really wasn't ready. Usually I have longer to get my thoughts together. Um I got some questions recently about community gardens in the city and so for staff Brian was somewhere I I'd just like an update. I've heard um a number of times that the line is really long for the couple of community gardens that we have. I'm curious about how long how long people are waiting on that. Are the plots so big that we might reconsider the size of some of our plots? Um is it time this it's budget planning season. is a time to think about other um options moving forward. It's a relatively, you know, lowcost, low lift thing for us to do when we're talking about large capital projects. So, would love to get an update on the community garden front. Um secondly, I've received some complaints about uh some conflict at Wilson Park between bikes, jumping hills, and folks trying to walk on sidewalks. I'm going to walk it with a resident who lives right by Wilson to get a better sense of what's happening there, but wanted to make sure I was flagging that for um public works. Um and then the thing that I wanted to make sure I got right during my comments, uh if there's a there's a move right now to expand the marine protected area um off the coast of Lagona. So, for any of you who spend any time in the water surfing or snorkeling or diving, um it's a really important area along our coast where we actually allow um you know, native uh fish uh and fauna to to thrive. Um and there was a move by the city by some folks in the city of Lagona to expand the marine protected area to match the boundaries of the city of Laguna Beach. And so that would extend it by about a mile and a half, which when you're in the ocean and seeing kelp forest, a mile and a half of kelp forest is a lot. Um, and so if you go to lagonablt.org, you can find some more information on how you can support that effort. That includes lobbying the city of Laguna Beach in order to make sure we can expand those boundaries and then also staying on track on top of what is

happening from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So that is very near and dear to my heart as many of you know and wanted to make sure I was getting information out in this forum. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is uh Mayor Prom Manuel Chavez from district 4.

Thank you Mayor Stevens. Thank you everyone for joining us today. In particular the students from Kush High School. Thank you for joining us today for your homework assignment. And again congrats to Chief Pile on the on the uh the new role. Just three quick comments. Um I had the chance to play mayor. The mayor may share he was at a mayor's conference for the past good part of last week had a chance to go to two amazing ribbon cutings on city's behalf. The first our neighbors at the OC fairgrounds and event center have a brand new admin building. So it's really cool to see them uh finally finish that project. I did tease them. I'm going to miss their Lego block building they had for a while, but I know they're happier with their new facility. Um second, we have a new restaurant in town, Pacific Pearl at the Met. Um, wonderful, wonderful ery. Um, inspired by a chef that that actually works at the Loft in the Montage in Luna Beach, which is a really cool restaurant that my girlfriend loves to go visit at least once a year. So happy they're coming to Costa Mesa, bringing their good food culture to our wonderful city. Um, and finally, I want to just thank everyone that was out protesting on Harbor and Wilson on Sunday. It was a very peaceful demonstration. Um, a lot of students of where I work were very happily pleased to see people supporting them. So, thank you to everyone that was out there doing the peaceful protesting. That's all my comments for today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Wow. So, thank you, Mayor Prom. I missed two really good ribbon cutings, but I had to do what I had to do. Uh, especially the one at the Pearl that used to be where my office was. Um, so that's uh I'll have to go by there. Um, congratulations uh uh chief of interim chief pile for taking over. Thank you to uh of course to chief Stefano for everything he did and we had a a very nice on the 23rd of January really nice sendoff for uh Chief Pile. Sorry, not for Pete, Chief Pile. That's you're here for Chief Stefano. And uh so that was wonderful to participate in. Um, I do want to spend the rest of my time giving you an update on um on the mayor's conference. And so, uh, the city manager and I went uh last week to the to to the mayor's conference in Washington DC. Um, I'm going to give you some some of the stuff that we did. Um, I took a lot of notes. She took a lot of notes. We're going to prepare a memo. We're going to send it around to the council. It's going to be available to the public. And if anybody has any questions about what I say now or what's in the memo, I'd be happy to answer the questions for you. But so it was very busy. So we uh it's it was last Wednesday and Thursday all day. We started at 8:00 with plenary sessions. We had over the two days we and it was so Wednesday through Friday we had four plenary sessions and eight breakout sessions. It's pretty amazing. There's a lot of staff there, but also so many mayors from all over the country. Basically, you name the city, they were there. Mom Dami, Mom Donnie wasn't there. Uh, but other than that, Karen Bass was there. Uh, Brandon Johnson from Chicago was there. Uh, the mayor from Miami, Seattle, San Antonio, de my favorite, Denver, I'll talk about him later. Uh, um, Mike Johnston was there. Uh, on and on. and and they are

so impressive um and very uh open to uh sharing ideas and and uh it's a real um it's it it it's a real good community of mayors uh very bipartisan. Uh the mayor Hol from uh uh uh Oklahoma City is the head of the M conference of mayors and he did a really good job facilitating. So anyway, um just some of the things I I took these I'm just going to go through my notes real quick and cover some things and some in more depth than others. So uh one of the planner sorry one of the breakout sessions was about the creator economy and how we should engage more with influencers and we've seen that with some of our businesses and that's a real opportunity. Um there was a a behavioral health panel that uh I went to. Um you know they talked about different uh strategies for addressing behavioral health including uh dealing with the epidemic of loneliness and how uh the arts can help with uh the uh the the epidemic of loneliness. and and I my greatest contribution to the mayor's uh uh conference is I I brought up my idea which I'm going to execute in the spring called sing along with the mayor. So, you know, some of the mayors like that, some of them said it was ridiculous, but it's okay. We're going to give it a whirl. Uh we'll talk more about that in the months to come. Um uh we had an infrastructure hub breakout. A lot of talk about safe streets, which was good. very interesting town uh Carmel, Indiana, which has more roundabouts than any city in the United States. And it's a fairly small city. It's a only 150 residents, but they've got roundabouts on virtually all of their intersections. So, it's something to consider. Uh we had a there

was a big discussion there about AI and the use of AI in in the city. So, uh, the city manager and I and the council, I think, as we move forward with the budget are going to be talking about ways to responsibly implement AI to improve our processes here. Uh, cities around the um around the country are doing that and I don't think we want to be left behind in that regard. Uh, there was a breakout session on mayor's safety and we had, of course, issues that we've implemented in uh in in the city of Costa Mesa, including our metal detectors. And so the mayors are um are concerned about their own safety and the safety of the people like you that are part of the public at our meetings. Um let's see. I think the most uh impactful and interesting there was a couple that were really interesting, but I I was very uh impressed by this. There was a crisis leadership breakout and the mayors that ran it were the Baltimore mayor, uh, Mayor Scott, the um, Asheville mayor and the, um, Providence mayor. And of course, um, Asheville had hurricane Helen. Uh, Baltimore had the Francis Key Bridge uh, uh, collapse and Brown and and Providence had the Brown shooting. they um they gave a lot of pointers about what to do in the time of a crisis both in terms of communication and preparation and I'll tell you that that is the most important thing that I think we brought back uh and we're already you should know that we're already implementing that in Costa Mesa some of the lessons learned in that breakout session um there was a oh I I gotta go want to go back and say something so in the um in in the infrastructure hub breakout, we had representatives from the

department of tre the treasury and they were talking about grants and treasury grants and how it's going and different things that they're doing. One thing that's quite clear uh is that to get those grants now, you have to uh be compliant with the new administration's position on various social policies such as uh DEI and and we're going to talk later about climate change and immigration. So, I don't know where that leaves us with uh transportation grants, but I suffice it to say I wasn't all that encouraged. I don't think a lot of money is going to come to California um in this area at least as much as did under the prior administration. Um then we talked about um had a breakout in im in uh for immigration. It was very very interesting. Oh, I'm sorry. We we also had a um a a breakout session on homelessness that I went to. It was led by Karen Bass. Uh the mayor of Portland spoke extensively about the improvements that they've made. The mayor of Portland within one year has brought uh 1,500 emergency shelter beds um online and they've really uh addressed homelessness in a very uh aggressive and effective way in Portland and it's improved the community quite a bit. the the just to give you a sense of like where we are compared to other cities that you would know. The mayor of uh Albuquerque spoke and he said when he took office, I think it was a few years ago, he says there was not one employee in Albuquerque, New Mexico that was addressing homelessness at all. So, if some of you went to our town hall um that that we had uh recently where Nate Robbins spoke about all the things we're doing, we had uh

the PD speak and and we we talked as a council. And so, we're pretty far along. I mean, we can always do better, but I was I felt like we were on the right track in terms of the homelessness panel. And then we talked about the breakouts. Oh, sorry. I I buried the lead. So we so we when we had our our our lunch meeting on Thursday. First of all, the the mayor of Philadelphia spoke and the mayor of Philadelphia is is an amazing speaker. I was sitting with the mayor of Elsa Gundo and when she was done talking about Philadelphia, we both wanted to resign and move to Philadelphia. I mean she she is pretty pretty impressive. And uh then after that uh uh the mayor Holt uh got up and he says we have one other person who wants to speak and he said we have a message from we we we want to hear from the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry. And I figured that it would be a videotape, but I'll be darned if Jacob Fry didn't come right out on the stage and address those mayors that were assembled there. and he got three uh um uh standing ovations from all from all of the mayors on a bipartisan basis. And I can tell you that what's going on in Minneapolis with um Operation Metro Surge is not wellreceived by any mayor irrespective of their party. And so, um, it was interesting to hear his comments and he was very powerful. Then we got to the immigration, uh, breakout session and there was a a a neighboring mayor from in in Minnesota who gave a nice, you know, very powerful speech touching on some of the same themes that Mayor Fry did. Uh we also had the mayor as I said

from Portland before who's uh had some uh you know im immigration enforcement issues and you know uh discussions by the federal government about whether they're going to go into Portland and he did discuss that and then we had my favorite mayor um mayor um Johnston from uh from Denver and uh great guy. I even spoke with them, you know, and my admiration of Mayor Johnston is maybe a little bit unhealthy. I mean, I really I really u I I I really I really admire him. I follow him on Instagram and it was just a wonderful opportunity just to talk with him. But he did said something interesting that I think is applicable at least it kind of uh got me thinking. He said, you know, with all the things like I mentioned infrastructure before and he said um he was talking about uh actually invoking a speech by Martin Luther King uh that was the um the mountaintop speech that he gave right the day before he was assassinated and how um he said uh he in the middle of the speech he talked about the um good Samaritan uh the story of the good Samaritan, the parallel of a good Samaritan. And as I'm sure you guys know, if you know your Bible, the story is from Jerusalem to Jericho, a man was walking and he was beaten and and uh he uh was left half dead and a priest and a Levite walked by um the uh good Samaritan. And then the sorry the man on on on the road and and and a Samaritan came over and came to his aid and uh so this is what uh let me see if I can find it. This is what Martin Luther King said about that. I just think it's appropriate.

He said regarding the the priest, he says, this is quoting from that speech. And by the way, it's important to know he was there, Martin Luther King was in Memphis giving that speech because he was there for sanitation strike, sanitation worker strike, he says. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, if I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? But then the good Samaritan came by and he reversed the question. If I do not if I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? That's the question before you tonight. Not if I stop to help the sanitation workers. What will happen to my job? Not if I stop to help the sanitation workers. what will happen to all the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor. The question is not if I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me? The question is if I stop to help the sanitary sanitation workers, what will happen to them? Or sorry, if I do not stop that's the question. So, um, I'll leave you with this. So, it got me thinking. It got me reading about the Good Samaritan. And do you all know what question was asked of Jesus that prompted him to tell the Good Samaritan story? The question was, who is my neighbor? Um, that's my report. Um there's been a request and and I I

know this gentleman and so I um support uh this uh uh to adjourn the meeting on behalf of Tony Pekka. Tony was a 40-year resident of the city of Costa Mesa and a retired Anaheim firefighter. Um and uh I knew Tony. He was actually um the uncle of a friend of mine. So, uh, rest in peace, Tony, and we will will, um, adjourn the meeting on his, uh, in his honor and memory. And with that, um, I'm going to turn it over for the city manager report by Cecilia Gallardo Daly.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, everyone. I do have a few announcements as you've heard tonight, um, regarding the promotion of Assistant Fire Chief Jason Pile. Assistant Fire Chief Jason Pile has been appointed as the interim chief of the city's Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue Department. So, we want to congratulate um Chief Pile. He's a longtime and dedicated city employee with extensive experience, institutional knowledge, and a deep understanding of the community of Costa Mesa and the fire and rescue department operations. Chief Pile is wellprepared to continue the department's mission and uphold the department's high standards. We look forward to the continued strength and stability of the fire department under the interim chief's leadership. The role has a special meaning to Chief Pile as Costa Mesa is a deep part of his roots. He grew up in the Newport Mesa community, attended Newport Elementary, Enson Middle School, and Newport Harbor High. As he started his fire service career, it was always his goal to return to Costa Mesa. So, congratulations, Chief. I also want to congratulate the police department who recently celebrated 11 promotions that included the chief, the deputy chief, uh, captain, lieutenants, and sergeants. Also, thanks to the outstanding recruitment efforts of our police, department, and human resources teams, we've achieved a record officer, we've achieved record officer staffing levels. Their hard work and collaboration are helping to ensure a strong wellstaffed department ready to serve our community. So thanks to uh Chief Le Point and our human resources manager Kasam Lee and your teams for helping us to achieve this important milestone. I also want to acknowledge our transportation services team manager Paul Martin and active transportation

coordinator Brett Atensio who put on another successful bike skills workshop at city hall. We had about 50 kids who took part in the workshop and learned some great safety tips. So thanks to all those who made it happen. And finally, I'd like to recognize our transportation team who oversaw the expansion of the Let's Go Costa Mesa ride service. Due to strong writership and positive community response, the program was expanded in three important ways. As you heard here earlier tonight, a fourth electric vehicle has been added to the existing fleet, which increases the availability and reduces weight time for riders. In addition, the weekday service hours have been extended by two hours per day. So, it now operates Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And then the ride share boundaries have also been expanded to include the east side of Newport Boulevard from 18th Street to Santa Isabel Avenue as well as Hogue Hospital in Newport Beach. So, thank you everyone for all your efforts.

That's all I have.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Okay. So, now we're going to go to the city attorney, Miss Kimberly Hall Barlo. Do you have a report? Uh I do have one item to report. I was uh learned two actually. I learned today that uh one of the cases that we have been uh dealing with for some time Becker versus um Costa Mesa. We reached an agreement for that case to be dismissed for a waiver of costs. Um that was a case involving um alleged conduct about from about 30 years ago. So, uh, it's it's nice, uh, that that will be behind us. Um, and then I want to just make a a comment, if I may, on a on a kind of a personal note. Um, my, uh, partner had, uh, triple bypass surgery in October. He spent the night in the hospital last night. He had a cardiac incident of some kind yesterday. And I just wanted to say I I've never seen the ER so busy. Apparently the the Kaiser strike um is causing impacts on all the other hospitals um around uh but in the many many days that I and hours I've spent with different personnel in in that hospital, I have encountered people from I think pretty much every country in the world. It has been an an extraordinary um extraordinarily eyeopening experience to uh to see that the the people that take care of us from the people that mop the floors to the doctors and the nurses and the physicians assistants and come from everywhere. Um not just America but uh many of our our satellite countries if you will. um but all over the world

and it it it was just amazing to me to be on the other end of all of that caring. Um and I just want to say thank you to medical personnel everywhere. Um you're you're you save lives and you make people's feel better even when things are bad. So thank you very much.

Amen. Um, thank you. So, um, we're going to go on to the consent calendar. The consent calendar items are considered to be routine and will be voted on in one motion unless somebody pulls uh either on the uh pulls an item either from the council or the staff or the public. And uh so um we we have council member Gomero is going to abstain from consent calendar item number three. That's the warrant re resolution because his wife works at Priceless Pets. They're included in that. And uh Council Member Buley has pulled consent calendar on item number six uh regarding designation of city negotiators, but he's not here.

So, no. No pulley. No. Okay. Good. All right. Then I'll entertain a motion for the for the consent calendar. Move to approve. Second consent calendar. Okay, good. Any comments? Let's get consent. Consented. Consented. Good stuff. All right, let's call for the question. Motion carry 6. All right, good stuff. Okay, so we have 10 minutes before we're going to get to seven. City attorney, do you think that there's any problem why we can't do uh public hearing number one, which is just moving to a continuence 10 minutes before seven?

Is that right? I think we can do that, but I do think if anyone comes in to speak on it at 7 or after, we would need to allow them to speak. All right. So, at 7 perhaps you would you could announce that if anybody is now here that wanted to speak to that item, now would be the time. Okay. Good stuff. Don't let me forget. Okay. So, um so uh then we're going to go for a public hearing item number uh one. Uh Madame Clerk, please read the title.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is continuation request of an appeal of the planning commission's decision to uphold the economic and development services director's decision to deny a reasonable accommodation request to deviate from certain requirements of the zoning code to operate a sober living home operated by the Ohio House at 115 East Wilson Street units A through E. Staff recommends tonight the city council open the public hearing and continue the item to the April 21st, 2026 meeting pursuant to staff's request. Thank you. All right, let's do that. Let's open it up the hearing. Uh, does anybody want to speak to the item? Okay. Now, do we have to keep the hearing open or what? Okay.

Yes, we're keeping it open. We're just continuing to take Do any Do any council members have any comments on this? Okay. So, can I get a can I get a motion for the continuence, please? Motion by Mayor Prom Chavez. Uh seconded by um council or council member Pettis. Um okay. Any comments on anything anything from you council member? Okay. Let's call for the question. Motion carries 6. Okay. Moving along. We can move to old business item number one. Madame clerk, would you please read read the title?

Thank you. This is adoption of ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city council of the city of Costa Mesa, California amending title 13 of the Costa Mesa municipal code planning zoning and development to allow for ministerial processing of two unit small lot ordinance projects. Code amendment PCTY-2025-00007. Mr. Joerger, senior planner is available to answer your questions. Uh Mr. Joerger, you have the floor.

Um well, I'll keep this very brief. uh council, you conducted first reading of the ordinance at the last meeting. Um and uh nothing has changed since then. So um at this point I am open for questions. Um but the recommendation is to uh adopt the ordinance and find it is uh exempt from SQA. All right, that's the staff report of the year. Okay, so um any questions of Mr. Joerger? Okay, let's open it up for public comments. All right, sir, you have the floor.

The only thing I can pretty much bring out to you guys is you guys are going to impact a lot of people by doing this and the fact that notification needs to occur to the surrounding neighbors as part of this, that's bad. That's not helpful for your constituents or as a community. You know, at least give people a chance to have a say or a vote about what's going to happen to their property, whether it's better or worse or indifferent. But by adopting this and anybody can build anything without notifying their neighbors, that's not right. There's no other way to say it. It's just not right. So that's my two cents worth, but it's it's going to open a bunch of problems for the city as well because people are going to start attacking it. So you're going to do what you're going to do, but thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, council. Jay Humphrey, Costa Mesa resident, ditto what was just said. Uh the reality is is that you should include a notification requirement in this ordinance. uh not just put it up that may have may not happen. The truth is is that if somebody was buys a house and they're they know that the guy next door might make two stories out of their house because they know what the entitlements are. But this is a whole new set of entitlements on a piece of property next door to somebody. So, I would urge you strongly to add to this ordinance a a notification requirement specifically to the neighbors immediately surrounding uh that property that could have just those changes. They don't just find out when the trucks pull up and start tearing down and rebuilding. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. Um, anyone on Zoom? No, Mr. Mayor. All right. Close public comment. Does anybody wish to make a motion? C council member Maher move to approve the item. Okay. Second. Seconded by Mayor Prom Chavez. Do you have anything to say?

Yeah, just to clarify for members of the public. So, this was brief and seemed probably a little bit rushed. We did talk about this during the last council meeting. Um to clarify, this narrowly applies to a very small subset of projects that um frankly had mostly ministerial approval anyway and that we thought were a little bit of um a performative art to come before the council and to go through the planning commission process. So um this is an attempt to streamline some of the things that are frankly holding us back from building more housing. Thank you. Thanks. Well said. Okay. Wonderful. Any other Anybody else want to be here? Council

member Pettis. I'm I'm a no on this on this ordinance uh for the it it was built mostly as a way to speed up the process or help housing get done quicker. And my view is there's two ways to do that. Uh take away uh take away the vote or the the eyeballs of the public or kind of get our act together more on on the permitting and and uh staff side of things. And ever since I've uh started watching this this city council stuff, not just when I got elected, but years prior to that, when I was considering running, I've seen more and more efforts um for the for the public to be less and less involved. I know there's a lot of complicating issues right now with the housing element and some of our challenges on that end. But I I think that is not an excuse uh to uh remove the the will of the folks to be notified when things are changing in their backyard. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. Um Okay, that's good. If there's nothing else, then let's call for the question. Council member Reynolds, please. Motion carries 51 with Council Member P is voting no. Okay, so we've made it made a lot of progress. Yes. Oh, sure. Yeah, let's do let's do a 10-minute break. Um, and then we'll come back at uh uh or let's just do let's do 15 minutes. We'll come back at 710.

Hi everybody. We're uh we're back. We're back on the record everybody. Hey, please please come to order. We're back on the record. Old business item number two. Madame clerk, please read the title. Adoption of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the city council of city of Costa Mesa, California, adding article 7 to chapter 2 of title nine of the Costa Mesa municipal code relating to grocery and drugtore staffing standards for self-service checkout stations. Presentation by Mr. Barkman, government affairs manager. Mr. Barkman, you have the floor.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I do have a little bit of a presentation just to recap some of the discussions we had two weeks ago and some of the changes. Um, as you recall, Long Beach adopted an ordinance in August. Uh, and then on November 4th, the council here uh directed staff to do a preliminary analysis and then the return with a draft ordinance. Uh, we discussed that uh ordinance, that proposed ordinance two weeks ago on January 20th, 2026. and the council made a motion to adopt an ordinance similar to the city of Long Beach with modifications. Um during the January 20th, 2026 city council meeting, we had public comment and we've received a number of remarks from u employees and members of the United Food and Commercial Workers uh that pointed out that store policies to understaff selfch checkckout are diverting employees from assisting customers, that language barriers or other errors with the machine are leading to negative customer experiences that employees have to deal with. and that they asked uh for support uh for adopting the Long Beach version with no revisions. uh grocerers and retailers provided comments also at the meeting uh clarifying that in their view retail theft had been addressed by Proposition 36 and 2024 state legislative package of bills and that selfchow is addressed in their colle excuse me collective bargaining agreement and that the state legislation currently pending Senate Bill 442 uh includes discussions with UFCW at the table and that their concern was that the private right of action enforcement in the ordinance place liability on stores and employees to enforce the 15 item limit and the prohibition on secure or locked items from selfchalkout was also a concern that they raised. The city council uh moved uh for modifications to be made the proposed ordinance to maintain the 7-day right to cure that was included in the Costa Mesa ordinance uh but not in the Long Beach

language. Uh to eliminate the alternative compliant language that had been proposed by staff um to restore language from the Long Beach ordinance that uh covered stores over 85,000 square feet with 10% of their floor space dedicated to non-t taxable goods. So that is in the ordinance before you tonight and that the uh requirement to make notice also include local store management in addition to any contact designated by stores. And additionally we were requested to return in a year with an update. Uh the proposed Costa Mesa ordinance applies to food and retail establishments establishments over 15,000 square feet including the 85,000 square foot language with a 10% of sale floor dedicated to non-t taxable merchandise. Applies to all drug retail establishments. It requires one employee per three selfch checkckout stations. It limits selfch checkckout to 15 items and prohibits items locked or with self with theft deterrent measures attached. and it is enforced through private right of action. Again, with the seven days a cure, uh the penalties of $100 per day and $1,000 maximum are similar to the Long Beach. And the attorney's fees and costs are also carried over. Again, these are the stores we indicated two weeks ago. Um no change here. Under drug retail, it would be both the Target and the three CVS stores that have selfch checkckout stations would be impacted by the ordinance subject to it. And under food retail, the stores listed here again highlighted are the same stores that would be uh affected by the ordinance. Again, as the staff report uh points out, the city council may adopt the ordinance as proposed or not adopt the ordinance. Uh the council may modify the ordinance. U albeit substantive amendments will trigger a new first reading and uh for an example, extending implementation on the normal 30 days

would not be considered substantive. So that was a question posed to us before the meeting. Our recommendation is to adopt the ordinance adding article 7 of chapter 2 of title 9 to the Costa Mesa Municipal Code. With that, I'll close and take any questions. Council, do you have any questions for Mr. Barkman? Uh, Council Member Reynolds.

Yeah, I mean, is this the place to So I um missed the previous discussion. have had many conversations and certainly reviewed um the the discussion and vote from council. Then um I'd like to propose some um changes for discussion. Is this the time or should I wait until after public comment because I would like to get hear public comment on the proposed changes and I think um I think that's probably better for um when you make a motion. Um, but uh if you wanna I don't know, Mr. Mayor.

I'm not I mean, listen, if I you weren't you weren't here before, so I mean I it it's it I'm not I'm not really interested in standing on ceremony. If the rest of the council members are okay with it, I'm sure cool with you um uh making your uh points about, you know, here, let me thoughts are. I will ask Mr. Barkman to explain this. What a great question. Or can I'm sorry. Can you explain this? What is it and how can can you explain it? Well, I Yes, I know the council member posed some questions yesterday and today about uh differences between state law and and let me pull it up here for Yeah, let's pull it up so that so that the public can see it what we're talking about.

And I think uh the clerk is posting this. Oh, it's already been posted. Okay, great. This is posted on the website and we're putting it up on the screen and that's this uh document which you can you can you can discuss.

I'll walk through it. Um the council woman asked me to kind of compare various policy issues in state legislation, the collective bargaining agreements, the Long Beach ordinance, the Costa Mesa ordinance, uh and some amendments that she wanted to present for discussion. Um so under uh in comparing uh all those measures I'll kind of maybe highlight the differences here and this is what I kind of have in in in orange color and then also in yellow text. Um when it comes to requiring selfch checkout be staffed. Um all those policies um yes we require and then require that no other duties be allowed. The collective bargaining agreements do require selfch checkckout be staffed but allow for maybe more flexible uh policy in other duties other duties being allowed. Uh staffing ratio is not required in state the proposed state legislation that's pending consideration. Um it's not in the collective bargaining agreements. The language that they indicated to us was is used that it's one employee per bank with no specifics on what constitutes a a bank of machines. And again on the Long Beach Coast tom ordinance and then what's being proposed would be continuing with a 1:3 ratio. Um in terms of staffing stations always being open that would be required um across all policies. The collective bargaining agreement my understanding is specifies that that's required from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Um I'll skip there's no nothing kind of difference in the selfch checkckout for 15 items or less in the signage and notification requirements. state legislation requires that signage simply inform customers of an item limit and that it's the state legislation doesn't require the stores to enforce it necessarily. Um under the collective bargaining agreements again it's also informing

customers of an item limit. In the both ordinances, it would be a notification uh posted for customers customers that the informing them of the ordinance with a link to city website and explaining the enforcement options under both the Long Beach and proposed Costa Mesa ordinance. in the amendments um that I was asked about. Um the concept was what about mirroring state legislation where you simply required that signage be posted informing customers of the limit and that the signage I'll still include a link to the city website with information on the ordinance and that we maintain the amendment that was proposed two weeks ago of local store contact uh being included in a notice of violations. Um, in terms of a workforce policy, that's not required under the state or that is sorry, required under the state legislation. Uh, my understanding it's not required under the collective bargaining agreements, but I presume the stores have their own policies and processes for um dealing with workforce issues. And then that would be required against across the Long Beach and the proposed ordinance and not required in the proposed amendments. Um, in terms of items requiring ID, that would be prohibited from selfch checkckout under state legislation. I can't speak to what the collective partying agreement says on this and continue to be prohibited across all the other ordinances and the proposed amendments. Uh, moving to locked items. Um, those are allowed in selfch checkout under state legislation being proposed and would be prohibited in both the ordinances and the proposed amendments. In terms of enforcement and palentities, that would generally remain the same. I mean, I speaking to the CBA. Again, I'm speculating here. I presume they have a store policies for how they handle employee complaints and potentially the labor commission or another state agency might be involved if it's a violation of

a collective bargaining agreement. Um, again, we would include the seven days to cure in the Costa Mesa ordinance. Uh the question that's been posed tonight is what about expanding that to 15 days to cure? And then in terms of effective date, uh you can see here state legislation if passed and signed would go effect next year. Um the CBA has been in effect as uh as of last year, early 2025. And the Long Beach ordinance was 31 days after passage, so it's already in effect. The Costa Mesa ordinance, if passed as is, would be 30 days after passage. And again, the question posed tonight was extending that to 60 days after passage. So that was the extent of the conversations we had.

Mr. Hold on one second. You still have the floor. Council member Reynolds, do you have anything further?

Um uh sure. Sure. I mean, I could uh I' I'd rather um hear. So, Jay pres Mr. Burkman presented this as some of the um sort of qu questions and suggestions I I had for him and have had many conversations about for the last uh few days since I've been out of bed. Um uh I'm I'm curious um council's input and feedback. Again, acknowledging that I missed the previous discussion um and eager for public um input on these suggestions. Okay, thanks. Council member Mar, is there any particular reason for 15 days to cure?

Yeah. Um, I thought that you know there was some discussion about um the you know potential um uh you know um potential confusion when there is a notification. Um, and I thought that that 7 to 15 is a little bit more of a sort of release valve that allows some opportunity to to um to get something cured. I just thought it was a a helpful buffer if there's communication lost. Okay. All right. That's it. Anyone else have any questions? Yes. Yeah. Uh, Council Member Gomero.

So, thank you, uh, Mr. Barkman for your presentation. I want to go to the second the second page I think we're on right now. As far as effective date, can you just kind of define basically January 1st, 2027 if passed and signed that is what was what is that normally for state legislation? Sorry, I should have put the that's okay at the top of the heading. This this is for the uh the bill. It was SB 442.

If that bill were to be passed this year, we're in the second year of the legislative session, so they'll adjourn in September, I believe. And then if it weren't passed this year, typically statutes go into effect January 1st of the following year, unless there's an urgency attached, in which case it can go into effect sooner. This is not a bill I see urgency being attached to because it's it's not a an issue of I think statewide significance that's trying to be addressed right now. So,

okay. And then my second question is we're not going to modify the update. We're going to keep it at uh the ordinance in place for one year. Is that correct? I I I understood the motion from two weeks ago was just to come back for staff to come back and just report an update on an update, not to not a sunset or a No problem. But yeah, exactly. All right. Thank you. That's all I have.

I have a couple questions. So, um the SB uh 42, uh where where is that out at in the process? legislative process and you know what's your sense of the likelihood that it's going to pass in 2026? It it needs to have a hearing I think within the next month or two. I'd have to check back on the date. It was made a two-year bill at the end of last year and so it's pending. So if action's not taken um in the next couple months, I believe it without some extraordinary other measures or waiverss taken, it would

it would die. It would die. Okay. So, and then the other question I have I think it's for probably for council member Reynolds. So, um and the the just to be clear, I mean just everybody the proposed amendments on this chart that's um suggestions by council member Reynolds, right? Correct. Okay, good. So my question is I had a constituent tell me that there was a proposal that was going to be made to basically sunset the Costa Mesa ordinance if a state ordinance is passed, but I don't see that in the in the amendments. What What's the story with that um that item?

I can comment on that. Um I've I've had a um discussions on a lot of different potential levers just trying to really understand like what's um more and less difficult, more and less acceptable given the scenarios folks are concerned about, right? And so I had um I had thought of that. Um then I remembered that that the previous um vote included this one-year check-in. And so I think the the my thought process was the one-year check-in sort of suffices for that. Um having a a state law preeemption when we don't know what the state law is like, you know, might as well just have a one-year check-in at council and if a law has passed, you want to adopt that instead, the council can do that at that time. Just seemed more straightforward.

And for for the city attorney, then I've got a question. So if the state does pass um a a law that um occupies this field like SB 442 or is it AB or SB SB 442 or something else would that preempt our ordinance? The the issue will be whether the legislature expresses an intent to preempt any local regulation and I believe Mr. Barkman has some information on that. So So actually

Mr. Barkman, you're at the floor. The bill does actually include language that it would not preempt uh local any local regulation that was equal to or greater. So that's that is included in the state bill. Those are all my questions. Uh let's open it up to the public.

Anybody? You have the floor.

Hi guys. I don't think that you should probably move forward with this prior to the state. I think it's just going to open up a can of worms. I understand you got union members here and probably some of the executive from the grocery stores. Not to mention that you're only only going after grocery stores, which then causes a problem because you're not going after other stores. So you're going to the your action might open up legal problems for the city which then is going to cost more money to the constituents when it's just a very small demographic that this is impacting where the finances might cause a much greater distress to the city on that demographic. So again, it's your decision. Your decision do impact a lot of people. So being we trust you, hopefully you'll make the right decision. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Whoever's next over here, you want to yield your time? That's go right ahead. Go right ahead.

Okay. Thank you, city council members, and thank you for your service actually to the community. My name is Ryan Cullenber. I am the associate pastor of Harbor Christian Church. And I just wanted to uh say that I support this ordinance because our workers are asking for very reasonable requests. One worker per three kiosk seems very reasonable. Makes these workers jobs a little easier, a little less stressful instead of having to manage multiple customers at the same time, which makes the customer experience worse, which causes longer wait times and more frustration. And I think we as a city should set an example to other cities not to encourage businesses to squeeze every last penny out of our workers. These are human beings. They're our friends and our neighbors and they deserve respect and we should not subject to them to work in conditions where they could burn out or overwork in order just to promote more profits. And another thing is those profits when they go to shareholders and to executives, they don't stay in the city of Costa Mesa. they are gone. Whereas workers as they earn ra wages in the city tend to spend that money in the city supporting other businesses and workers. So I'll just end with I think workers deserve dignity and sanity and health in their workplace and that is why I support this ordinance. Thank you for your time.

Thank you sir.

All right. Good evening council members. I'm here to urge caution around the proposed selfch checkout regulations. As written, these mandates are so heavy-handed, they effectively amount to a ban on selfch checkouts rather than reasonable oversight. Regulating selfch checkout to address retail theft provides little to no value. Modern selfch checkout areas already use si s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s sophisticated technologies designed to prevent theft and there is no evidence that these rules would meaningfully reduce employees. Uh uh employees are already trained and required not to intervene in theft or disruptions. A selfch checkout is actually one of the uh least likely areas of customer uh for customer conflict or violence. mandating additional uh staffing there does not improve safety. Finally, many cons many consumers actively prefer selfch checkout for speed, convenience, and for limited interaction. Overregulating it will push shoppers to uh to neighboring cities or to online retailers for click and deliver uh which ultimately uh harms local brickandmortar grocery stores. I encourage the council to reconsider this approach and seek balanced solutions that support both consumers and local businesses. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Uh thank you councel and uh mayor for allowing me to speak. I also want to thank those who took time to meet with uh me and my association. Uh my name is Ryan Elaine. I'm director of government affairs with the California Retailers Association. Uh here to raise concerns with the proposed ordinance. Uh, broadly, retailers have concerns with restrictions on business operations like this, especially with the restrictive 3:1 ratio at selfch checkckout stations. Limiting employees to monitoring selfch checkckout takes them away from other parts in the store, like assisting customers in the aisles for things such as unlocking locked cabinets to get um items out or helping locate certain items. We also have significant concerns with the private right of action included in this ordinance. This raises raises the liability of lawsuits that many retailers will avert by simply closing selfch checkckout stations. As we've seen in Long Beach, this is not what retailers want to do as it limits customer choice. But with the risk of liability uh with the liability of uh lawsuits, uh many will take this step. Uh we also have significant concerns with the item limitation and the language regarding theft deterrent measures. Uh both these provisions uh require employees to police the number of items and whether or not an item was behind a locked cabinet. uh as we worked on statewide legislation as mentioned SB 442 over the last two years regarding selfch checkckout uh and we're currently continuing that work. Uh these two issues were more or less ironed out. For example, the item limitation the uh the Senate bill um requires signage and is the items itself are not subject to the private right of action. Additionally, theft deterrent measures uh in the uh the Senate bill only apply to items that require employee assistance at checkout. So, for example, an item behind a lock cabinet requiring employee assistance prior to checkout are allowed to go through selfch checkckout cuz it's hard to essentially police and determine what is behind a cabinet or if a cabinet there is a cabinet and it happens to be unlocked or is there how would that fit

into this ordinance as well. Um, thank you. Uh, always w always welcome uh talking and continuing to work on this. Um, I just ask you reconsider the draft ordinance or at the very least amend the ordinance to make it uh somewhat implementable. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, council and staff. Um, I went to church this weekend and my pastor talked about leadership and he offered a question that all leaders should ask when someone brings them a concern, which is, is this a problem to solve or a tension to manage? And here's one tension to manage. Um, I watched last week and the justifications for this ordinance offered by the mover in the second last meeting were a little different. Council member Gomero's uh motion to approve because he believes it will require stores to increase staffing to keep selfch checkckout lanes open. His second council member Maher expressed doubts that consumers really love selfch checkckout. But if that's true, isn't it logical that stores would rather eliminate that than hire new workers? If she's right, then this ordinance may cause stores to close their selfch checkckout lanes instead of hiring. So, which is it? Will this ordinance increase staffing or doom selfch checkout? I'm not sure we know, but we could know. Without relying on tangential or outdated studies, you have a live experiment in Long Beach going on right now. They passed an identical ordinance. Instead of rushing our own ordinance, we could revisit their results in a year. If grocerers hire more workers and keep selfch checkckout, perhaps this ordinance won't reveal as much about consumer preferences as we might hope. But if they close selfch checkckout and cut hours, maybe the ordinance isn't as proworker as you thought. Waiting is obviously wiser, so why rush? Here's something that's odd that I've noticed. Many stores aren't with selfch checkckout aren't covered by this ordinance. IKEA, Unilo, Michaels, and Home Depot all use it, for example, and they all represent significant shoplifting risks. yet they're excluded. That doesn't make sense if this is about public safety, especially since the CMPD did not request this ordinance. You did. So, what do the covered stores have in common? They have unionized workers. The excluded stores do not. And maybe that's why this is being rushed. UFCW wants it now. Maybe to win concessions through municipal law that it did not win at the bargaining table. But if you pass this

ordinance, what does it say about everyone else? If it's about workers safety, are you telling Michaels or Home Depot workers they deserve less protection because they aren't unionized? And if it's about customer experience, are you saying that you don't care about IKEA or Unique shoppers the way you care about people who shop at Ralphs or Vaults? If you pass this as written, I think that is you're saying exactly that and I know that's not your intention. So you might say we have to start somewhere. We should try these stores first and then move to the others. But first, one, you don't have to. And second, if you do, it actually makes the asymmetry worse, not better. You'd be imposing significant regulations on unionized workplaces and only unionized workplaces while non-unized businesses do as they please. Even if helping unionized workers were an appropriate city goal, which I don't think it is, why single out their businesses for more ownorous rules? Don't pass this yet. At least wait and watch Long Beach. Think about what you're actually trying to accomplish. If you act in haste as as neither the staff nor the CMPD has is urging you to do this, you may hurt the people you're trying to help.

That was very well timed. Yes.

Council members Tim James, California Grocerers Association. Uh we greatly appreciate the conversations we were able to have with most of you. Both data and real world experience shows the Long Beach policy model is a failure. Its intended purpose is to make selfch checkckout so difficult to operate it would be abandoned. And it worked. But its biggest failure is yet to come. Currently, most of the top sellers of grocery items are either exiting or diminishing their brick-andmortar presence. Their push is to keep consumers at home on their couch to click and deliver their goods. As of today, 20% of all grocery item sales by volume is sold through click and deliver, and it is increasing fast. This reality is not debatable. Recent data and corporate announcements in the past week have verified this is true. With consumers demanding quick and timely groceries, Costa Mesa brick and mortar grocerers can only push back with the experience and by offering convenience. This means selfch checkckout options. If you pass a Long Beach style ordinance, your hometown grocerers will be denied a critical competitive advantage. Simply put, grocery workers need grocery stores and grocery stores need customers. But if our primary tool to compete with click and deliver is taken away, as it will with this ordinance, you are risking the future of your own grocerers. To question the impacts of the Long Beach ordinance and to not believe the same would happen in Costa Mesa or to reject the threat of brickandmortar grocerers to brick and mortar grocerers is a clear indication you did either not speak with grocerers, you did not review the data or both. We are asking you to avoid this mistake. Reject the Long Beach model. Instead, look to the recently ratified collective bargaining agreement which employees and

employers have agreed to. Do not leave your brickandmortar grocerers and grocery workers stranded. Allow us to compete in the future of grocery openly. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else from the chambers? Anybody on Zoom? No, Mr. Mayor. Close public comment. Uh, Council Member Reynolds, you have a motion. Yeah. So, I'm going to um make a motion to um would it be um do a new first reading? Do I need to specify that, Kim?

Yeah, it would be a new first reading.

Okay. um a new first reading um for an ordinance that reflects um the ordinance in our staff report with um four changes. Um and the four changes would be extending the cure period from 7 to 15 days. Um extending the effective date from 30 to 60 days. um adjusting the language on the 15 item limit which is uh section A um to I'm going to start at the shell. So instead of the existing language shall establish, implement and advertise limits um replace that with the language um shall have signage that states that selfch check should be limited to purchase purchases of about 15 items and for reference that's um the exact language from the um bargaining agreement that was shared with us. Uh and then the fourth change um in section C just a simplification of the um public noticing requirement. Um so uh strike the language I'm I'm just going to read the the existing languages. Drug retail establishments and food retail establishments shall notify the public of this ordinance by prominently posting signage in a location accessible to customers which includes either a link or QR code to the city of Costa Mesa website regarding this ordinance. So keep all that. Um strike the piece that is a summary of the public's rights under this ordinance. Keep a physical andor email address to which notifications of violations of this ordinance may be delivered. um and then strike the rest of the sentence and

the enforcement options available to the public pursuant um to this article. That's my motion.

Okay. Um is there did the mayor protect for discussion? Pardon me. The mayor prom already clicked some buttons. So I'm asking if he's seconding for discussion. Yeah, I was correct. Okay. Second for discussion. Okay. So now, do you wish to be heard on the motion?

Um, yeah. Thanks. I didn't hear I thought I thought it died. We didn't hear the click. Um, okay. So, yeah. Um, um, again, my apologies um for not being here in the last discussion. Really would have really tried. Um, and I know that that could potentially make this process more cumbersome um than it always it already is. Um, but I I really have um spent a lot of time thinking about this as as I know many of you have. Um, uh, both before last meeting and since last meeting, I've had um lots of conversations with um, both member representatives of UFCW, grocerers, retailers, their constituents. Um and um my proposed adjustments are um an attempt at at at what I um believe is a um still achieving the goals um of the ordinance um providing a little bit more flexibility that reduces the um kind of the reduces the risk management um uh reaction. Right? So, by extending the cure period, by taking away the um uh kind of the the punitive potential of having 16 items instead of 15 and just having signage um still requiring signage for 15, it just kind of takes away a little bit of the the risk if you don't comply exactly all the time. Um and in my discussions I felt like these were um and I I got positive feedback um that these are um the appropriate balanced approach that um is reasonable um and still um achieves my goals of um supporting jobs as I've said in the past um uh but maintaining a a reasonable reasonable approach to selfch checkckout.

Okay. Second.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Member Reynolds, for um for making your suggestions and your comments. I'm not one to typically be okay with changing second readings. I find that sometimes that just leads to a lot more confusion down the line, but I'm mindful that you were sick at the last meeting and you still made effort to attend. So, I appreciate you bringing your perspective that we probably would have included in the motion otherwise. Um for me, I'll I'll just keep my my my comments brief. Thank you for everyone for speaking today in the last meeting and sharing your perspectives. What makes me comfortable moving forward with this is the fact that in one year we're going to bring it back. That to me is very important. Um I said it last time, I'll say it this time, if it doesn't work out, then we'll just get rid of it. But if it does work out, it's something I do want to try. I mentioned last time how in my in my district, it really came down to to two reasons why I support this ordinance. And it was different constituencies in my district. The senior the senior tower mentioned that they preferred having someone help them out. Their grocery store that's nearest to them is Martin and Final and they do have a large selfch checkckout component and they do push people to do selfch checkckout and that was something they feel comfortable with. And for the young people in my community, the folks that are having to work because the parents may not work as much as they used to. I want to make sure they have a a good safe working environment. And I will just be blunt. I remember hearing kids tell me they got let go when there was a dispute with Stater Brothers because they were cur um they were like courtesy clerks. And that to me was I didn't not like to hear the kids in my community who are working their parents pay the bills lose their job for essentially contract negotiations. So that's why I'm supporting this motion again. Um and yeah, those are my comments.

Yes, of course. So, um I was prepared to come here with both guns blazing and and emphatically vote no, but uh I'm inclined to uh agree with council member Arus Reynolds on one condition. This will be marked 23 2026 that Arless and I got together on something and and and agreed and but it's

Yeah, I'm going to hold my nose and vote for a little bit because sometimes in this in this business of of of local governance, you have to look at the whole situation and and you can't always get everything you want. Um I I hate the Long Beach ordinance, but I do feel and thank you uh Council Member Marus for look at looking at the amendments carefully that she's making. Um that I do think we get close enough to the state law that could or could not come about and the one year I agree with uh Council Member Mavez, the one-year uh checkup helps me. we get close enough to the state law that uh and far enough away from the the ownerous Long Beach law that that there's enough here for both sides uh for me to agree. I I'm I'm uh the reason I'm hesitant is just because the local business and I agree with um with uh Tim who talked about the click uh the Instacart. You know, we're our grocery stores are in real jeopardy and we need them and we need local business brick and mortar to thrive. if it's a priority for me. I believe this ordinance is is a uh a compromise that um that at at very least we'll be able in a year. Uh Jen Tanaka, maybe we may making the wrong decision, maybe not. I think the amendments are enough to get me over the line, so I'm going to be in support. Thank you. Okay. Okay, great. Um any other comments? Okay. So then I think we're ready to call for the question.

Motion carries 6. All right. Good job. Pettis, did you call her council member Marus? No, but that would be super funny. I think I just Can I do that? I thought I don't want to get nuke. We're having a moment already. Don't Don't mess. He just supported emotions. One of my emotions. All right, let's move on to new business item number one. Good job, everybody. Thank Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Mr. Mayor. Yes.

Could I ask that we advance new business item number two ahead of new business item number one given we've got the operator here and Oh, sure. I mean, it's fine with me. Does any council member object? No, it's good. Okay, let's move. Let's move. Can I just uh can we just ask if anybody is Oh, yeah. Did anybody want to speak on public hearing? Public hearing item number one. No. Okay, good. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, so we're going to switch up to public hearing item number one. You want to speak on one? Sure, we'll give it a shot. Well, you were here anyway. Go ahead.

Well, I thought somebody else was going to speak, but why we keep prolonging this? It's just a dumb question. I mean, you guys are in a legal This is about the Ohio House, right? Yeah.

Okay. So, it's been in violation. You guys are still spending legal money on this thing and you keep prolonging it. There's five houses. There's five bedrooms per house. There's two to three kids in each room. At least $1,000 a month for each one of those kids to stay there. Every month you guys are extending this. These guys are making a ton of money milking the system and then they're dumping these kids. They still these kids are still coming out and are on the street, you know, and and with all due respect, the Vista is not working either. So, it's a problem. Keep pushing it down the road is not solving the problem. You know, I drove through the alley today and two vans were there and over 15 kids came out of it because they went to the grocery store. So, I I don't know why you guys are prolonging this. It's either you either operate correctly or you don't, right? I mean, aren't we kind of trying to figure this thing out here? But you keep pushing it along the line and every month it's additional income for the operator. They might say they care for the kids. Everybody's got a problem. We all need therapy at some point, but you got to stop sometime. And this has been going on for years. And you guys had Dr. Honey thing going on for eight years. How many millions of dollars were spent on legal on that? At some point, enough. Just make a decision. You made a decision for this tonight. Why can't you make a decision for the Ohio House as well? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Now, new business item number two.

Thank you.

Operation agreement for Lions Park Cafe. Presentation by Mr. Gruner, parks and community services director. All right. Good evening. Thank you, honorary mayor, council members, and members of the community. Um, just uploading my presentation here. What's it

full screen? It's not the full screen.

Okay. Sorry about that. Okay. Um, so the parks and community services department is looking for council's approval in the operations agreement for the Lions Park Cafe. Uh, this has been a project that has been in the in the works for quite some time. Um, just to give you a little background, phase three of the Lions Park project included the construction of the CA cafe kiosk located at 1845 Park Avenue. Uh the construction of the new 1100 foot cafe kiosk was funded by supervisor Foley at 1.2 million and the city's capital improvement fund at 1.1 million. The city entered into aou with the county for share revenue with the Orange County Public Libraries and thatou was entered into an agreement on February 2nd, 2023 and has a 50% of net revenue uh goes to the public libraries and 50% of the net revenue goes to the Mesa Verde or Dun Donald Dunan Library. Um in addition to that the the other 50% will actually go to the maintenance of the Mesa Verde and Donald Duncan Library. Uh which this was included in the RFP process and the city is seeking a viable experience operator to provide services at the cafe kiosk. The RFP process was entered into into on October 2nd, 2025. And we actually did a lot of outreach where we contacted over 25 local coffee vendors or vendors with a similar type of uh platform where they're serving coffee and and pastries and different things like that. Um out of those 25

plus that we contacted directly, uh we had two applicants. Uh one is need coffee and the other one is every table. Uh the proposals were scored on the following qualitative factors. Qualifications of the proposer, organization and key personnel, approach to providing the requested scope of services and the cost sharing element. Uh we conducted the interviews on December 10th, 2025 with the two applicants. Interviews were scored by panelists in the following categories. grasp of the project approach, qualifications and experience, communication, quality of presentation. And based on the proposal and interview scores, it was determined that Ne coffee Coffee is the most qualified and experienced vendor for the cafe operations. And the summary of the scoring is right below in that chart. Um, every table, the proposal score was 1,50. The interview scores was 11 1,160 for a total of 2210. Ne coffee had the proposal score at 1,070 and the interview score at 1,240 for a total of 2310. N Coffee is a locallyowned coffee business from Costa Mesa since 2015. Um they have high quality multi-roasting shop uh community oriented business. Um I will say that they have a very strong following um among you know community constituents. Um in addition to that um yeah the the quality of the product that they serve is at at a very high level um with a very customer service focused um business model. The vendor will serve Monday through Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and offer certain type of discounts such as for seniors. Um library patrons discounted um uh

discounted products during our you know city events. Um in addition to that, they will be actually selling some of the products at at below market rate currently. Um, so that is a nice incentive for for our community to really enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy some good coffee out at Lions Park. So our recommendation is to award an operation agreement to need coffee for the management operation of the Lions Park Cafe. Authorize the city manager or her designate to negotiate the terms and conditions for the fi financial share between the city and need coffee. Authorize the city manager and the city clerk to execute the operating agreement and future amendments to the agreement within city council authorized limits appropriate net revenues as received by the city that comply with the agreement of 50% net revenue to the Orange County Public Library for net neutral impact. Um I do want to mention we do have the operator here uh in case council has any specific questions um to the operator of knee coffee. Um I do want to also quickly mention that the agreement that is attached is a draft um to the uh staff report here um and the final negotiations would be conducted after the award of contract um to need coffee and that's concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Okay. Um, any questions? Council member Mark, I think Council Member Reynolds has some good ones that I'm excited for. I think the the one question I had is the the applicant requested um a couple of capital improvements or infrastructure improvements rather. Um, are we comfortable adopting those and or will that be negotiated during the operating agreement phase? That will be negotiated. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Council Reynolds.

Um yeah, I uh um maybe I'll start with a general question, then I I can ask a number of specific ones um if needed. I um as usual, read every line of the uh draft agreement. I had a number of questions that I shared with staff. Um and um you know, I actually posed some questions to the um proposed operator as well and shared feedback that I I think you've received. Can you um uh I think it would be helpful if you can um you know comment on those see if there's anything um especially among the specific um notes from um the applicant proposed operator whatever neat um uh if there's anything there that you think is is for any reason unacceptable.

So yeah that's a good question. I did have a a discussion with the um potential operator and uh she did have a few points that she wanted to address in regards to um the number of special events that she could um coordinate on the on the on the park area. Um another example is a minimum of 30 days notice for city events which is acceptable. Um there is also in in section 14 for example uh noted hard cop copy letters for all requests would email be acceptable yes we can certainly you know accommodate that um you know if there's something that is that needs a signature for example then obviously we would request that person to you know come in or do a certified you know mail or something like that. So, a lot of these points that were, you know, um, provided or or provide some clarification in the agreement itself can certainly be accommodated. There's really nothing that's out of the ordinary that's really, you know, not appropriate. I think these are all very good discussion points and and I I think those can be all worked out.

Okay. And then um what what would be the process? I was under the impression, you know, the the recommendation in the staff report is, you know, authorize um authorization to execute the operating agreement. It doesn't say negotiate, right? So, that's why I I wanted to pull out a number of these um uh concerns or potential adjustments. So, can you just talk through sort of process if we move this forward tonight? Um how does that work? Because I'm also interested in um starting that three-month period of getting things open and people starting to get their first coffees as soon as possible.

Yeah. No, of course. Um so basically after the council would award the contract or the agreement um we would you know reach out to the to the vendor we would meet with them have those you know discussions on all the different uh you know discussion points that are pointed out um and we would have that dialogue and and that negotiation um along with the finance department and legal of course and finalize the agreement um and then we would move forward with the operation.

Okay. Um and and just one specific thing I want to note. So the um you know there were well there were there were several parts of the proposal um by neat that I didn't see reflected like hosting um 12 events which I is a huge benefit to the community. Um I think we would all agree but certainly my perspective um I didn't see um that in the operating agreement for example. um my interest there. I don't you know I don't know that it needs to be um but I I do think that part of the agreement um you know one thing that we've talked about before in special events in general is you know it can be a cumbersome process. There's a pretty big fee. Um you know in in this unique partnership my expectation would be that you know we're waving the fees for those events because they are you know directly community serving events in partnership with the city. Um is there do you see any issue with with that?

No. Again, I mean, I I think Lions Park is is certainly a park we want to activate as much as possible. And I think that's really the key um to, you know, dealing with some of those issues that we have at Lions Park in in regards to like transients and different things like that. But we definitely want to activate, we definitely want to work with the vendor. Um even the hours of operation there, there has to be some flexibility not knowing what the um what the consumer uh behavior is going to be and also what the community needs are going to be. So we want to be flexible and make sure that we really you know kick things off on the right foot and get the whole you know operation in the in the right direction uh right from the beginning.

Okay. Um uh the operating the draft operating agreement specifies operating hours. The proposal talks about um you know potential outside of hours events supporting evening events in the city for example. Um, what I'm hearing you saying is yes, that flexibility would be built in, so they're not restricted to the the daytime hours. Okay. Um, another thing in the proposal, which I really liked. Um, and what I I know Neat does at at their other locations are um collaborations with other small businesses, right? Doing sort of popup events. Um, that flexibility would be considered in the agreement.

Yes. Yes, it would. Yeah. Again, we really want to try to emphasize the activation of the park and, you know, I think we'll we'll definitely, you know, work closely with the operator and and make sure that we offer um, you know, programs and activities that really benefit the community. And if that includes other businesses, we'll definitely, you know, do that. Great. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. So, as usually, I didn't read every line of the uh contract. Um, but I just want to see if I just understand the economic flow of this. Okay. So, u somebody buys a cup of coffee. When they buy that cup of coffee, 3% of the gross revenue, so let's say they buy it for a $150, 3% of that goes to the city, right? And then uh Neat Neat Coffee then, you know, keeps the rest. They run the the u the business out of it. They're responsible for all the expenses and so forth and employees. Then they get whatever's left. They get profit.

Right. Right. And of that 3% that we get, we share 50% of that 3% with the OC public library. Okay. And then the one per 1.5% of the gross that we that we received um then are there any restrictions on that? Yeah, that would go to the uh maintenance of the Duncan the Donald Duncan Library or the Mesa Verie Library. I see. Okay. And so and and and is that true with the counties 1.5% as well? It goes to the maintenance. Um, I believe that goes straight to the actual county. That goes to the county.

Yeah. For for the Orange County libraries. Okay. Yeah. All right. I think I understand the waterfall. Everybody's good. Got it. Okay. I don't have anything else. Let's um open open it up to uh the public public hearing. Yes, sir.

Good evening, council. Happy New Year. Um, the mayor's question just prompted something in my mind. um the the one and a half points that the city's receiving and sharing or not sharing um maintenance for Donald Duncan and Mesa Verie libraries. Is the city currently paying to maintain or paying a portion of maintenance on those two libraries? I wonder if staff could answer that question. And is just is this or if they're not if the city's not currently paying any um maintenance then apparently this is a new process or a new um expense for the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening again, city council and staff. Um much cheerier public comment this time. Um I am just so thrilled to see this coming forward. Um, and first of all, I want to thank um the potential concessionire at Neat Coffee um for taking this risk. I mean, this is a huge risk to take this on. It's our first opportunity to do a public um installment of a of a cafe in a park in Costa Mesa. It's something actually really rare in the United States. It's less rare elsewhere. Um, but incredible things can come out of these sorts of opportunities. I would remind everyone that the original location of Shake Shack was actually in Madison Square Park in New York City. So, who knows? Um, but I I'm I was I was also a member of the FIPAC when this originally the the idea of the cafe came back because there was money from the um county of Orange to actually make this into a reality. And uh I was happy to support it at the time in part because I do think that putting concessions in parks is a risk worth taking. Um it's something that will not only activate this park, I could promise you will activate the park because if you have kids, they are like the most excited thing they can possibly do is go buy something at the concession stands. like that is like literally the best thing in the world for six-year-olds is to walk up with their own money and say I would like that. Um so I I'm really I'm very confident that there will be a lot of really happy kids from this. Um but there will be also a lot of happy adults. Um I will be one of them. I'm a big fan of neat coffee and um you know there was a great podcast actually was just released today um by Ezra Klene. uh he was interviewing Priya Parker who is the art of or the author of the art of gathering and they talked in length

about how important it is for people to gather together for whatever reason uh even for the dumbest reason um and a big problem that we have in the city is that we just don't have a lot of places um to do that. I mean, I am on the board of a nonprofit, as you guys know. We are constantly looking around for places to just hang out with everybody, and it can be very difficult. We often navigate to coffee shops because they have big open spaces where you can actually have a conversation. So, this is incredibly important work. I know it sounds strange to say that. Um, NEAT is the perfect vehicle for this. They have been so community oriented for so long. They've tried so hard to try to activate their own space. I mean, they call their after their evening service third space for goodness sakes. I mean, they're really trying. So, I'm thrilled by this and uh congratulations to me. I hope that this goes forward. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

All right. Um thank you, Mayor Stevens and council members. I'm Robbie Leount with Supervisor Katrina Foley's office. Um Supervisor Foley is proud to support this partnership uh with Costa Mesa and commends the city council for bringing the Lions Park Cafe to fruition. Um, this cafe represents exactly the kind of regional collaboration that strengthens our communities. Uh, when the county provided $1.2 million uh in funding for this project, we envisioned a vibrant community uh gathering space that would serve the entire Lions Park campus from the families at the playground to students at Donald Duncan Library. Uh the selection of Neat Coffee, a locallyowned business with deep roots in Costa Mesa in um Mayor Prom Chavez's district, uh demonstrates the city's commitment to supporting local entrepreneurs while ensuring quality service for residents. Um their proposal of discounts for library card holders um shows they understand uh this cafe serves a public purpose beyond profit. Uh, Supervisor Foley's vision of revenue sharing agreement with Orange County Public Libraries ensures this amenity directly benefits the very facilities it serves, uh, which creates sustainable funding for library services while activating public spaces. Uh, Supervisor Foley looks forward to seeing this cafe become a cornerstone of community life in Costa Mesa, where neighbors connect, student study, and families gather. We're grateful for the city's partnership in making this vision a reality. Uh, thank you for your leadership on this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Robbie. Yes. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. Um, this feels so surreal. I have lived in Costa Mesa for 20 years and um Lions Park has been in my life ever since, which sounds funny, but I went to college right here next door and um worked for worked with like an after school program at the rec center and um have since then had a family and a baby and taken my daughter to her first swim lessons at the part at the pool there and um take her the the library and story time so often. And um yeah, that feels like our backyard and I'm really really excited to breathe a lot of life into that space. I imagine that field, that grassy area, just covered with people having picnics and it kind of gives people permission to hang out there longer and to have a drink and a snack. And um I've been one of those parents at that park that just would really love a coffee to just keep me going. So um yeah, I'm really excited. I'm a little bit Yeah, it does feel like a risk for sure, but I um am grateful for this opportunity and um yeah, really excited to be um working with the city in this way. So thank you.

Anybody on Zoom? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Um, Fisher, please. Fisher, you have the floor. Fisher. Fisher. Cut bait. What? Nobody. He's He's not unmuting himself. Okay. Anybody else on Zoom?

No, Mr. Mayor. Okay, Mr. Mayor. Hold on one second. I just want to make sure.

Nope. Okay. Going once, going twice. Do you have something about closing the public comment? No, you can do that. I can do that. I may. Thank you very much. I'll close public comment. Looks like we have some really fast fingers here. We have council member Maher that wants to make a motion and and uh Council Member Reynolds might just second it. So, you have the floor.

Thank you. I'd like to approve the staff recommendation with two modifications. One is that the operating agreement shall exempt Neat Coffee from any special use permit fees for activating Lions Park. And two, that the operating agreement shall not restrict neat coffee hours of operations for events that activate Lions Park and that are coordinated with city staff. Second. Okay, it's your motion. So, um, you have the floor.

Okay, Ally talking just now got me a little emotional, so hopefully I can make it through this. Um, and we are talking about ethics later on the agenda and so I did have to question myself a little bit like am I too biased because I love neat coffee too much but I think I'm able to make an impartial decision and not have to recuse myself from this. Um, to council member Reynolds point uh I will admit I was not going to read Nik Copy's proposal. I got through the operating agreement and the staff report and then Council Member Reynolds um said, "You really need to actually read what um Muscarin wrote." And so I'm going to read to you two paragraphs that to me just embody why this is the right decision for the city. This is from her proposal. This opportunity feels like a natural extension of everything neat coffee stands for. Our mission has always been to create spaces for human connection and the Lions Park campus with its library, recreation center, pool, park, and event line is already a vibrant hub where our community gathers daily. We're excited about the prospect of serving the diverse visitors to this campus. Families attending story time, students on study breaks, seniors completing their lap swim. Someday that will be me. Um, children playing at Airplane Park, and attendees of the many city hosted events throughout the year. Um, we offer carefully sourced coffee, very important, a welcoming atmosphere, which I really appreciate, and pricing deliverably deliberately set below market rate to ensure accessibility within this publicly funded space. How often do we get proposals where the vendors said, "Actually, I'm going to lower my prices for the sake of this community." That kind of never happens, right? Um, so anyway, proud to support this. Um, yes, I had my finger on the button the second I could to make the motion. Um, and congratulations.

Thank you. Uh, does the second wish to be heard?

Yes. Um, yeah, I did I did send a note to council member Mara saying, "You have to read this. It made me cry." Um, in a in a really really special way and um I I really do encourage you to read it. And I um uh you know want to highlight for staff like as we're going out for proposals on different partnerships um throughout the city like we this is the kind of proposal we want to attract, right? It's a unique situation, but I'm um we talked about February 3rd being a momentous day, right? like this this could be also the start of a um of a um sort of a new approach to public private partnerships and um I I'm glad council member Mar read um excerpt from the um proposal I'm going to read uh just share a couple of my notes um in the section on innovative and creative approaches. So, this is beyond meeting all RFP requirements. They proposed some things. Um, after the first paragraph, my comment, yes, two exclamation points. After the second, yes, three exclamation points. Yes, three exclamation points. Cool. Two exclamation points. Yes, three exclamation points. I got excited about this proposal. It's um uh in terms of the agreement and um working on adjustments to the agreement. My interest is in um making sure that the operating agreement enables the concessionaire NE in this case to um realize the vision in that proposal um and to have the flexibility to to be creative with them, right, with our amazing parks and community services team to really work together on the shared goals of creating safe spaces, all of the values that are posted outside, right? um attracting uh um supporting everyone from the young kids going to the library to seniors strolling through and and everyone in

between. Um we want this to be a great if this is a great experience for neat they will create a great experience for our residents. Um and we know that because they do that. Um, and so, you know, I think that means having clear points of contact for them as they're, you know, working through um this this um uh as they're working through all of their operations and the public benefits part of it. Um, quick turnaround, quick response time, waving the event fees. I think that's all um really really important. This is a a very exciting day. I'm exciting to see excited to see what they can do. Thanks, uh, Mayor Promp.

Thank you, Mr. mayor and thank you members Reynolds and Amar for your nice comments. I'm I too am very excited to see this partnership come together. Um no secret to most I do like going to any coffee. It's a block from my house so I am there often. But what excites me most about this apart from it being a great partner like any coffee is the highlighting of the importance of local partnerships. Um I'm very pleased we went on to bid more than once to make sure we got a local small business in our community to partner with us. I'm very pleased that we worked on this project in conjunction with the county of Orange Foley to make sure we got this this part of the full vision of Lions Park completed because to me this is the last piece of that project. This is the piece that kind of invites the community to stay a bit longer despite not having the community events that they need as excuse. Um, and having seen how often NE coffee has community events like this past Friday, um, and in multiple times with with our fire association, I know they bring that that community partnership mentality to the park. So, this is a great partnership. I'm excited to vote for this and I'm happy you cho chose to make a a leap to go out to bid for this.

Okay, I've got a few I've got a few comments. Congr I think you we've got enough votes. Congratulations to Nate. Um I know you'll do a great job and thank you for everything you do with the to the community and uh um you know we have two very enthusiastic council members and they've got every reason to be every reason to be enthusiastic. So but I want to say a couple of other things um so that they're not lost at this moment. Number one, the staff report, the oral staff report was excellent in terms of very transparently um and directly explaining the procurement process. That's something that we've been trying to work on for a while and I think it was a very respectful presentation to both Nate and and the other and the other uh applicants. So, thank you for that. Thank you to our um public works department for all the work that you've done on this and and uh um you know it's pretty amazing. I I I go back though to like way way back in 2017 which seems like a lifetime ago when Katrina uh Foley and I I guess can't remember what we were she maybe she was the mayor at the time. I can't even remember. And we went into Tammy Lerno's uh uh presentation up on uh five in 5A and they she they laid out the Lions Park project and the cafe wasn't on it and we're like what happened to the cafe? What happened to the cafe? We were both very crestfallen about that and Katrina um Supervisor Foley uh to her credit uh remembered that and and when she got in a position to uh direct some funds from the county to us, she did. And so thank you and credit to Supervisor Foley for

that. Also, as Mr. Tanaka said, um, when we had some money, some surplus, and the thack went through and looked at, and Mr. Dabot is here, he'll remember, looked at what we should spend the money on. This was the highest rated uh, item. And so, thank you to FIPAC and thank you to the council who made that decision to put the other $1.1 million into it. So it I can't I'm not even sure when NE coffee opened but this culmination that we're seeing right now which is quite beautiful uh started a long time ago and it's a culmination of a lot of decisions a lot of money a lot of of of commitment and I'll say one thing just to reinforce something that uh Mak has said so I've been um uh having you know events that I attend at schools lately. Uh just the other day I was at Killybrook um speaking to some students and last week I was at St. show them and you know it's like what do they you know what do they care about with the city right so what are the things I talk about I talk about Brentwood Park I talk about uh the skate park uh the basketball courts at Boleric and I talk about this cafe and you could hear from the children to reinforce her point an audible sense of excitement when I mentioned this cafe so it's going to be a gathering place for families it's beautiful so thank Thank you to everyone who was involved in that. Congratulations. You're doing going to do a great job. So, anybody else wish to be heard. Let's call for the question.

Okay, you can vote now. Thank you. Motion carries 6. All right. New business item number one. This is climate action adaptation plan status and outreach update presentation by Miss Greg, planning consultant and Miss McIll, planning manager.

Yeah. Okay. All right, Miss Greg and Miguel, you have the floor.

Thank you so much. Let me just bring up our PowerPoint for everyone. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Amber Greg. I'm a uh planning contract consultant for the city. As always, it's an honor to be here before you tonight. Along with me is Anna McIll, our advanced planning manager, as well as Jennifer Reid, who is our project manager as part of the DUDK team who is developing the CAP for the city. So tonight, we'd like to present you with the status update on the CAP as well as our outreach update. And um just for clarification, CAP stands for climate action and adaptation plan for those following along. So, a little bit of background. Uh, the CAP supports the city's goals to advance um environmental sustainability and climate resiliency. In addition, it aligns with state mandates and best practices for local climate planning. Uh, the CAP development contract was approved in October of 2024 and it kicked off in December of 2024. The cap does have a number of benefits including protecting our environment by helping reduce greenhouse gas and conserve natural resources, safeguard our community by preparing for climate related hazards. It also supports economic growth to promote sustainable businesses and job creation as well as helps us plan for our future by aligning with state and federal climate goals and provide access to state grants. So, where are we at in the process of the CAP? Well, the following tasks have been completed or in the process of being near completion. So, uh the first endeavor that we went on was data collection. So, as part of a cap, we have to create a baseline. So, we collected uh utility information for the years of 2022 through 2023 in order to develop that and we received that data from um our utility partners as well as our own records. In addition to that, we review the city's existing plans, policies, and programs that are

currently in effect. Uh we completed a greenhouse gas emissions inventory as well as completed future projections um for the city's buildout. We have also developed a climate vulnerability and risk assessment and that was done through interdep departmental coordination against city departments including our emergency services and our public works department. And then we've also um been completing community outreach as well as stakeholder engagement. So to dive a little bit on the public outreach portion of it. So, we kicked off our public outreach on our Earth Day event on 2025. And although it was a cold and wet, rainy day, we had an amazing turnout with very excited uh residents and community members that took part. And we had um a great amount of engagement and education. Uh the bottom photo there is taken on that very wet, cold, rainy day. And then we also did a concert in the park over the summer that was incredibly well attended. Uh lots of questions and engagement there. And then we also had engagement activities at uh both of those engagements. The top picture is a tree where residents could write their ideas for more green sustainable Costa Mesa. Um that generated a lot of ideas that we've been able to compile together. In addition, we had a table specifically for the youth to draw their version of a greener Costa Mesa. And we have over 150 um pages from very talented kiddos in our community. We also have a project website for the CAP. We've done outreach and pop-up events from uh coffee chats to uh back to school night. We've done social media posts. We've conducted two surveys, one for residents and one for city employees. Uh the city employee was was to look at um travel habits currently and then we've also had stakeholder meetings. Those stakeholder meetings uh are the internal stakeholders are city staff from various departments and then the external stakeholders are community

partners. So what have we learned from all of this? Well, based on Costa Mesa's community inventory, 63% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our cars that we drive to and from every day. 31% comes from building energy. So those two are the lion share. 4% come from off-road equipment. These are things like landscape um uh landscape materials or uh equipment sorry such as uh lawnmowers and leaf blowers as well as construction equipment. Um 1% comes from solid waste and 1% comes from water and wastewater. And then what did we hear from the community? Well, many participants shared a vision for a more sustainable Costa Mesa that included uh increased renewable energy sources such as solar, expanded access to green spaces such as parks, playgrounds, and community gardens including trees, which is not on the list, but we did get a lot of comments for trees, improved transportation options, um alternate alternatives to car travels, such as biking, walking, and public transit, as well as efforts, um to increase compost, and recycling to help reduce waste within our community. So, what we looked at was where we're currently at as far as our greenhouse gas emissions and then if we change nothing. So, that top line is business as usual and what those greenhouse gas emissions might look like. And then on top of that, um overlaid what the emission reductions are from statewide actions that are currently in place and that reduces our greenhouse gases by quite a bit. And then we looked at uh state alignment targets in order to get to the 2030 2020 or 2045 legislative requirements. And then the difference between that is our local gap that we're working on to help reduce greenhouse gas um emissions further to get to that 20 uh 40 requirement. So the next process or the next step in

this process is to start developing um our policies. In order to do that, first we have to look at the sectors that have the biggest influence on um being able to address greenhouse gas. Some of which we've already gone over the um onroad transportation, energy, water, uh solid waste, off-road equipment, but we're also looking at people in the community in terms of adaptation, natural and urban lands, as well as our municipal uh usage on energy and how we're stewarding that. So to help develop the framework for these policies, first we'll start with the sectors that I just mentioned and then develop the objectives. That's another way of saying the goals for what we are wishing to achieve in that. And then finally we'll develop the actions and those are the um goals uh that look like programs, policies and how we're going to be able to achieve uh the goals within there, the objectives within there. So to kind of elaborate on that a little bit further, here's examples of um what that breakdown kind of looks like. So if we take the first one for transportation, that's the sector. The primary objective in this case for the top one is cleaner transportation. And how might we achieve that? What actions might we take? Um we'd be looking at increasing electric vehicle use or expanding charging infrastructure, reducing reliance on single occupancy vehicle trips, in other words, car pooling. And then you can see various different examples all the way down for each of those and that's included in the staff report as well. So what types of policies are there and what will we be looking at to developing? Well, there's a number of different ones and it can be a standalone or it can be a blend of these as well. But the first is education and marketing materials and this is increases awareness and knowledge for the community. Um this is uh done through marketing efforts as well as technical assistance or informationals. Um we'll also be looking at partnerships. This is coordinated

efforts with the cities as well as our um collaborating parties such as the school district. So if we're supporting them in their school bus operations um or supporting corporate van shares for our business partners. Then there's incentives and these are tools to help pro um promote voluntary behavior change. A lot of these are seen in subsidies um opportunities for permit streamlining in some cases as well as recognition. Another one is regulation. This is um to enforce uh required behavioral change and this is what typically looks like for ordinances or rules. Then we have investment funding and this is to secure allocated financial resources to implement the CAP including pursuing grant funding and our ability to do so. And then lastly, our infrastructure actions. And these might be upgrades to our existing infrastructure or also installing new infrastructure in order to help achieve our goals in that. So lastly, when we're looking at policy development, we're looking at what type of um how for how much are stringent is this policy? Is it a prescriptive policy or is it a more flexible policy? And so a more prescriptive policy would establish um clear goals and those are typically done uh through ordinances or policies. Um and then you have more uh flexible policies which can be done through incentives, voluntary programs, partnerships and education. And this slide is just meant to say you know depending on what type of policy it is, some have uh different impacts and uh requirements than others. But at the end of the day, no matter what our policies are, just have by having a cap, we are in a much better position for uh grants and obtaining uh grant funding and being competitive when it comes to grants. So what are the next steps after this? Well, um the next word in the process of drafting the CAP objectives and strategy. So those are the policies um

and goals and actions that we'll be looking at. Uh once those are drafted, those draft action items will be vetted and reviewed by our internal stakeholder group. Those are our internal city groups to just make sure that those are feasible and implementable and if not, what needs to happen in order to make them feasible and implementable. Once that's done, um uh the draft policies will be presented at a public workshop. We're anticipating spring for that. And then we'll have additional opportunities for public to comment um and review those prior to uh council um review and consideration which we're anticipating for the end of summer. So that completes staff's uh presentation. Staff and the um consultant are available to answer any questions. Council, Council Member Reynolds, can't see your light, but I think you have a go. Yeah. Um,

okay. Uh, high big picture, high level. So, next up is sounded like is this public workshop in the spring? Do we have a better estimate of is that March, April, May, April, April? Yes. Oh, Earth, Earth Day, Earth month. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Good. Thank you. So, um, a couple months, uh, leading up to that, um, can you go describe a little bit more? Um, I know my colleagues are probably on edge knowing that I would have lots of detailed detailed comments and I I want to avoid that tonight for everyone's sake. Um, what are the next steps in terms of um, getting information on how like how would you recommend prioritizing some of these? Obviously, there's some we might say this is my favorite, I don't want this, but otherwise, right, these are all going to have um different impacts in terms of the the various goals, um different costs and so on. So, so just can you just describe that process and what kind of information might be available when we do have the public workshop?

Um yes, I'll be happy to start and then we'll have uh Jennifer jump in for due deck too for any follow-up. So, first we're going to be looking at what are the um items that are going to have the biggest impact, right? and seeing, you know, what are the cost implications of those, but um that have the biggest bang for our buck basically, so to say, uh on there. And then also our ability to implement those will be another one. So things that, um might be really easy to do and are really cost-effective, it's great to hit the ground running with those, but those that are a big investment that we know are going to have to look um for other ways to achieve them, uh we'll have to identify what those next steps are to achieve those items. Thank you, council member uh Reynolds. That's a wonderful question. So, um for the CAP, we are looking at two milestones. We have a 2030 milestone, which is we likely consider near-term, and a 2045 milestone. Now, to achieve our goals, we're going to have to do a lot, but we understand that staff has limited resources. So part of the after we develop the actions, we will have a phasing so we can look at things that you're doing now that you will continue to do. We want to recognize that. We want to make sure that the cap supports and builds momentum on those. The other ones that are really big priorities are ones we like to call foundational or unlocking. And these are ones that you have to do first before you can do the next thing. So a lot of the near-term focuses will be on things that unlock the potential to do more. The other focus in the near term is getting in motion things that will make the biggest impact for the city. So, some actions more than others result in larger greenhouse gas reductions or a real near-term benefit to uh prepare the community for climate hazards. And those are things that we would recommend staff to be doing in their first year, like

your first best next steps. Now looking in the future, there are some actions that maybe um need more funding uh technological considerations for those those ones we may put off to post 2030 if they're not needed to meet your goals for 2030 and we will identify those as a later phase just so staff can use their resources in the most effective manner.

Got it. Okay. Yeah, that's help that's helpful. Um I'm curious if there's because you've sort of complete generally completed the inventory data collection phase to build these models to do the estimates. Was there um uh was there were there any like pieces of data that you couldn't find that you wish you had or would normally have? I'm just curious what the like big data gaps if there were any. There's always some.

I like that question as well. Thank you uh Council Member Reynolds. Um we're all kind of data nerds over here with CAPS. Um we always do our best and we spent staff spent a lot of time collecting the data. Now there are going to be some things that you have to scale uh make your best estimate for. But we spent a lot of resources refining our what we call vehicle miles traveled. That's VMT. It's one of the it's one of the two biggest pieces in estimating emissions from your transportation sector is how much vehicle miles are traveled and then of course it's the activi the intensity factor of the activity is another big piece and that's pretty much the same for a lot of the sources and that can change over time. So, one thing to know about inventories is they do change over time and not necessarily because of um the activity. It could be the intensity, but it's good to understand both of those variables because we craft our actions to address both both. So, for example, you can reduce vehicle miles travel, but you also can electrify vehicles. Um, so it's good to look at both those inputs. Um I will say that um in comparison to other inventories out there especially in you know the local ones we didn't have any critical data gaps nothing that we couldn't uh resolve and so we feel very confident that this inventory followed best practices existing protocols and we had the correct data to support it and I would note that the inventory results are very similar to other cities in Orange County as well as cities in in California in general. So there was no surprises there.

Thank you. That's good to hear. Um I didn't mean to hit that motion button. Okay. Um and then bills. So as I was reading through some of the strategies here, like we know there's lots of active bills in the state that might be doing the same thing, restricting from doing the same thing. Um or I'm assuming there's coordination with um Mr. Burkeman and following that. So we know like let's not craft an ordinance for something that like might become a law anyways. Is that coordination happening? Uh yes, we've been uh in speaking with Jay. He's been very helpful um in that as well as in uh looking for grant opportunities for us as well.

Okay. Good, good, good. Um uh one I'm going to just send like detailed unless you want me to go through now. also detailed comments on things. But at a high level, um there were a couple times in the staff report where um you know, we note that we want to make sure policy directions are sort of aligned with existing general plans and existing city policies. And I just want to I I I I think um I think I understand what you mean, but I want to make sure that I say out loud that I like I don't want if there's existing policy that constrains a a recommendation you might have in terms of climate action goals. Um let's talk about it. Don't say oops because this code is here that was put in 25 years ago, right? It's still part of our general plan. We can't do those things. So I just want to be very very clear about that. like don't let our existing codes hold us back from good recommendations because we have lots of parallel efforts where we're trying to modernize and update our codes. Okay, I know you know that just had to say it out loud because it happens. Um in terms of the the recommendations um uh in organizing them um I think it would be helpful to indicate um whether it's segregating them all together but just indicate which of the um uh different recommendations are for like municipal operations things that you know are on us as city hall and totally in our power at city hall versus you know incentives or requirements or things that would affect um the public. I think that separation would be um

helpful. Council member, so um maybe we're like way beyond this, but Oh, I know. Giving comments. Okay. I know. Can we get do the question? I just want to be respectful of public hearing and stuff like that. So, you have any more questions? No. Okay. So, um do we have any other questions? Council member Mahar, I didn't I didn't see this in this staff report. Was this like where did this come from? Answer that. Um it's part of uh some of the visual aids from um public outreach efforts that we've done that we had. So it was not included in the stack report. It was just meant as part of the verbal report.

Got it. Okay. So have you already published what the current baseline is then for carbon emissions? Is that something we can see? Not tonight.

Thank you for that question, Council Member Maher. Right now we have a draft or a preliminary inventory in forecasting um that is subject to change. We are refining some of our inputs um specifically vehicle miles traveled. So while we have preliminary um it is subject to change. Uh that final will be part of the draft cap plan for the community to review. It is a little technically in the weeds so it ends up in an appendix but it is available to help. Um, and that's why that visual is put together because it kind of takes all the concepts and puts it together. Yeah. Got it. Okay. And then, um, what is our line? What is the baseline 2025?

Thank you, Council Member Maher. Our baseline is 2023. Okay. We picked that. So, you have to look backwards to find good data, right? The 2024 and 2025 was not available at the time. So, we use the best available data. Okay. So, are we are we retroactively going to take credit for bike lanes we've opened in the last year? Then,

that's a really good question. Um, I hope to not go too far into the weeds with this. Um, you usually have two options to take credit for things that happen in tandem. Um, one option is to take it into account in your forecasted admissions as a discount. The other option which is usually more likely is to include it as an action. Yeah. And then take credit for that and that really that way it really highlights the importance of it and it keeps it on staff's um target to ensure that it's implemented and you build from it. So that's usually what we would recommend.

Okay. I mean part I for those of you who can't read my mind like part of where I'm going with this is like we're already doing a lot of things that have a climate impact. It would be interesting to put them in context as you think about what those action items are. I mean if the thing that we are doing i.e. building a lot more bike lanes is having a noticeable impact on total vehicle miles traveled across the city then that's a good signal for us as policy makers to kind of double down on some of the things that we're already doing as opposed to to Council Member Reynolds point like creating a brand new policy or trying to revise something that's been on the books for 25 years. like

there's a lot that I think we are already doing that is very much in line with the overall goals of what we're trying to accomplish here that I want to make sure like makes it into the plan and that we kind of get credit for and that we are able to share with the public that we're already making a a dent.

Right. So, one of our first steps was a comprehensive review of all the existing and relevant policies related to climate mitigation and adaptation. And our goal is to build off the great efforts from the city and highlight that. you'll see many actions that will say continue to or build on or move forward. Um again, so they're highlighted and they're accounted for. The CAP really brings together a lot of the actions that you're currently doing and puts it into one framework for um you know quicker and more efficient coordination in a clearer direction on the path moving forward.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you. I had a I had a couple questions. Um I'm trying to remember the second one. So, uh the first one was so you know I don't know if you were here for my um summary of the mayor's conference, but uh the in terms of the climate and grants, it looks pretty bleak at the federal level. Would you agree? Yeah. under this current administration, not as good as the past administration.

So, what about the state level? Are are we are we still humming along uh on the state level? I know we've have some budgetary issues that uh Sacramento is dealing with, but at least philosophically, is Sacramento still behind providing grant funding for implementation of um of of these programs?

Thank you, Mayor Stevens. Um I would agree that at the federal level those grants are more limited than before. Um the cap has such a long horizon things could change and that's why the cap is a living document and you always keep track of those when they do have opportunities. The state has um not shown signs that they are you know giving up on addressing climate change. uh their scoping plan is very strong and um while funding at the state level may have diminished a little bit especially if it was tied to federal funding um there still are some grants available.

Okay. Well, I can't remember my second question so it must not have been a very good one. So that's good. All right. Let's open it up to the public mayor. in just as as an example. Um you know that Andrea and I I work in this space. Um I'll actually be up in Sacramento on on um Monday

um talking on the on this very issue with folks. Um but I I I know that there's there's a lot of discussion in in Sacramento on energy stuff, but uh um you know, so a lot of the posturing is actually how do um you know, recognizing the the critical importance of of climate attention because of the wildfire risk, because of the health risk and all of these things, how do we adjust in response to this the you know huge step backs at the federal steps back at the federal level. So California in some ways is actually stepping forward. Um, for example, it was just announced today, I think, um, uh, California is going to, um, kind of supplement some of the tax incentives on electric vehicles that were rescended by the federal government. So, just an example, there's there's a lot of activity and opportunity still through the state.

That's good. That's good. Okay. I don't I've got another question. And I'm not sure if it was my second one and I'm it's definitely not as good as my first one. But um not that that was even that good. But uh remember when I was talking about how there's certain um uh policies I mentioned DEI and obviously immigration and some of the um LGBTQ stuff that that uh jeopardizes federal grants, you know, and I hate to ask this question, but I'm just I mean I'm interested just for information. Um, is is this CAP program something that might jeopardize federal grants in other areas? Anybody can answer that question. I hope the answer is no.

We haven't heard anything for the CAP. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you for answering the question. Let's open it up for the public. All right. There you have it in the uh Anybody on Zoom? Yes, Mr. Mayor Craig, please. Greg, you have the floor.

Hello. Um, Mayor Stevens and Vice Mayor Chavez and Council Craig Preston, member resident of Costa Mesa since 2007. I'm very passionate about climate change and studying it daily. And uh, I know it's an invisible problem in some ways that this atmosphere is warming and it warms the whole planet. So, it seems like, oh, that's a problem somewhere else. But we know what we need everybody to pitch in. And uh I'll just speak to how Ronald Reagan years ago recognized that the ozone layer was a problem. Now we're putting all this sunscreen all over ourselves and yet he recognized we needed a worldwide solution and it was the largest international treaty ever to uh lower the ozone problem so that we now have a healing ozone problem. I'm hoping Costa Mesa will join as the mayors probably had a lot of enthusiasm um where you went um Mayor Stevens to act big and uh I'm hoping you'll go big and that we'll uh have a measurable cap that we'll actually have some teeth to it that will show that we are serious. We want to be a good example to the other cities of Orange County uh as well as the state and the federal and the world. So, uh, thank you for taking this up. I know tonight's not necessary a big vote on it, but it's a big move towards having the staff present this and, uh, there's work involved, but I just want you to know as a resident, I'm very excited about this and hoping that our young people will recognize that we, the adults, are taking this seriously and want to provide a future that will be thriving for them. Um, thank you for your efforts. I just want to mention one thing about those fires that hit a year ago. They were very expensive, $250 billion. uh the insurance companies know that the risks are going way up and so they left and they stopped insuring a lot of people and so they know there's a problem with climate change and I think we should uh recognize it too and the

more we can do the quicker the better. Thanks for taking us up. Thank you Craig. No further speakers Mr. Mayor close close public comments. Now, um, we don't have have any motion. Are we going to make probably a motion to receive and file, but this is the time for council to share their feedback with, uh, with the consultant and staff. So, Council Member Reynolds, I cut you off. Did you want to finish your thought on that that you were talking about before?

Um, sure. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm going to stay at a high level and I'll I'll share some details by by email. Um uh one of the things I um I want to make sure that we're including the fire hazard severity zone map that was put into place this year. Um one thing that's also come up recently um was a um a recognition that we do actually have forget the technical term but AQMD like watch zones over on the west side um an air quality issue and I um like to to consider that being included. I think I think there's a place for it to fit in. Um uh in general uh as I was reading the list of potential policies um in general, you know, I I I I would lean towards for municipal actions really trying to do um uh not necessarily everything we can, but basically all all cost-effective actions just incorporating that into our normal processes in terms of um you know businesses and residents and and non-municipal operations. I would tend to lean towards really trying to um create an environment that encourages um the actions we want to see as opposed to to mandates, you know, as as an example, you know, we're creating bike, we're not forcing people to get on bikes, right? We're creating bike lanes and the better infrastructure we get, we're seeing more and more people ride. So, that that's my um sort of posture in general in terms of the um kind of the the policy development. Um, I didn't see electrifying our fleet on there. So, I I think there's a place to to fit that in. Also, in table one, um, there's a a maybe a whole other category um related to just people and workforce. Um I saw that acknowledged in the staff report but uh um there may be policies related to sort of you know training and supporting um training programs to support the workforce to um uh support

the policies that we want. So um I think that I think the people aspect needs to be here as well. Um I think that's it at a at a high level. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, and I I'll just say I agree um with Council Member Mar's um uh sort of assertions earlier that we've been doing a lot of this stuff already and we've we've been doing it intentionally for many benefits, but because we know these are part of the practices and so we should get credit.

Yeah. And just to reiterate on that, we have been working really closely with the um transportation manager Paul Martin in all of his efforts and making sure that that's included particularly on the VMT analysis and um so you'll see that when when we're actually have some draft policies.

Yeah. Um one other thing um the climate action campaign and I'll I'll send you this email um has a really nice they've done a um climate action plan scorecard um if you're not familiar with it. They actually have a a scoring rubric that I thought was really um thoughtful. Um they you know it's and it's based on their analysis of how do you make sure that these climate action plans are effective and not just another plan on a piece of paper. So um yeah looking at that um and you know setting up our plan so that it would it would get a high score not for the purpose of high score but because that's based on uh being effective. Thank you. So, so I look at it kind of uh in sort of in two ways, right? So, there's the stuff that we do, the city municipal stuff, and then there's stuff that the private sector does and that we can influence. And so as to the stuff that we do, I agree with uh Council Member Maher and Council Member Reynolds that for years it seems seems like forever I've been voting on things that promote uh you know good uh climate responsible climate decisions. Anything from you know building a a project a facility to a legal standard to um uh you know improving the tree canopies. were a tree city uh to you know Earth Day to uh to the EV charging stations at city hall. I think we've got nine charging stations to the way that the the fire um the the fire um uh training facility is built to recapture water, you know, and and I think that other other agencies are doing that as well. you know, the solar panels in the schools, local agencies, uh the the some of the things that the sanitary district is doing both voluntarily and mandatory and and then

Mesa waters reclamation things that they're doing and we talk about those things frequently at our meetings. Um also, you know, all of the bike lanes, everything we've done to try to get people out of their cars and into bikes and ebikes and things like that. So, I think that we should continue to do all that stuff and really go hard on that, right? I mean, that's that I think is full steam ahead. Um, you know, we could probably even do more of it within our budgetary constraints which are more substantial lately. Um, as to the private sector, I'm more of an incentive guy, right? I I think that you know it there's a while um uh climate change is very important and everything like that so is our tax base and so is um the the uh not to put too many uh undo mandates on our local businesses that we rely on to to do all the stuff that we that I just mentioned. So, um, when I was asked to talk about this topic, believe it or not, I talked about it. I don't know why. Maybe maybe council member Reynolds and and Mah were busy that day and I got dragged up to the to to the county and talked about it. I remember Salem told me about the green business program that we have for incentives and that was, you know, not everybody not every city has that. So, I think that was that's a good thing that we do and we should continue to do that. So, I'm more of an incentive rather than a mandate person. If you're looking at those two columns, count me in on the incentives. Okay, that's it. That's all I got. Anybody else? All right. Let's Let's just make a motion to receive and file. I can do that. I haven't made a motion today. Seconded by Council Member Mer. Let's call for the question.

Mayor Stevens, please. Oh, I didn't. I thought I voted. Motion carries 6. Feel like you make a motion. Thank you, mayor and council members. That was very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, good stuff. All right, let's do our last item. Uh, new business item number three. Madame Clerk, could you please please read the title? Thank you. This is approval of a code of ethics and conduct and presentation by Miss Hall Barlo, city attorney. Miss Hall Barlo, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um members of the council, uh we previously considered um potential adoption of a code of ethics. Uh when I say we, I mean you. Um on July the 8th, uh we had presented to you several um models of of or examples of ethics including the city of Gardina and the city of Irvine. Uh there was uh considerable discussion about what the such a code of conduct should include. Uh and uh thank goodness the city clerk took very copious notes uh which we reviewed and uh what we did was we sort of set it up like the Gardina code because its structure was seemed to be a good one. Um and that was sort of our basis. We added several provisions that were specifically requested from the Irvine code, modifying them uh as appropriate for Costa Mesa. Um the objectives of the code would be to ensure public confidence in the integrity of the local government and its elected and appointed officials. Uh it would establish an ethics code to provide to promote honest, effective and accountable sorry um city government encouraging high standards of behavior by public officials and assisting with decision- making and the intent would be to achieve fair ethical and accountable local government for the city of Costa Mesa. There are uh key components of the proposed code of ethics and conduct uh summarized here. uh act in the public interest, comply with the law, uh how

members should conduct themselves, respecting the process, uh conduct of public meetings, decisions being based on merit, communication, conflicts of interest, gifts and favors, confidential information, typically from close session, use of public resources, representation of private interests, advocacy, The policy role of members, independence of boards, commissions and committees, positive workplace environment, implementation, compliance and enforcement, and statement of commitment. The proposed code of ethics that we have presented to you would include some key items like prohibiting paid lobbying and I've uh included some of the definition uh for you um on behalf of clients um before any other agencies in Orange or Los Angeles County. It would prohibit uh any commissioner or council member or member of the um executive staff which are defined as covered positions from having financial interest in any contract with the city. Uh the proposed code does go beyond existing state laws on some financial and other conflicts. uh it emphasizes the policy role of council and commissions versus the administrative functions of the city manager and subordinate employees. It addresses relations between council and commission members with staff uh the public and each other uh particularly requiring civility and professionalism in communications and dealings especially during public meetings. Uh it also includes provisions regarding

reporting, investigation and enforcement mechanisms. I I was re asked uh to include in the report and I did uh some specific information relating to existing uh state and local laws. uh and as I pointed out in the agenda report uh many of the uh portions or portions of the code of conduct are addressed by existing laws which are found in various constitutional provisions, case law, statutory provisions both federal, state and local. Um they are not collected in one place anywhere. Uh so um that would be one benefit of having uh some specific code here is it would be one place where somebody could look. Um but the primary things that are in the code of conduct which are not currently addressed by either state, local or federal law, uh have to do with civility, professionalism, and communications between staff, the public, and uh elected and appointed officials. And with that, I'm here to answer any questions.

Any questions? Yes. Yes.

Um all right. I'm struggling with the punctuation in 7A. Because of their uniquely important, visible, and elevated status and responsibilities, the mayor and members of the city council shall not engage in compensated employment or service for the purpose of lobbying for any private person or organization before any local public agency. So is that is it compensated employment or service? Is lobbying the point or is compensated employment the point? Is it only if you're compensated and it's considered employment and you're lobbying?

It's compensated lobbying essentially. So if it whether it's for your it this particular provision I believe came from um the Irvine code um but it um it was extended from just Orange County to Orange and Los Angeles County. The um lobbying um would be you know arguing on behalf of someone else for compensation. it happens whether it's an employment or under a contract. I would treat that as the very same thing. So the point is lobbying for money. If uh in other words, it would allow someone to lobby if they weren't.

What if I just wanted to get hired as the public works director of Orange County? Would I be allowed to be doing doing that? It's composite employment, but it's not lobbying. Well, can I go work for one of these agencies as a consultant? Um, you could at least under existing law because you would be doing their work. You wouldn't be lobbying on behalf of anyone.

Okay. So, do we need compensated employment and that I in my mind these are two separate things, right? like are we ruling out that you can be compensated for employment by another agency in Orange County or are we ruling out the lobbying portion of it? In my mind, they're different and we can have a discussion about whether they should or should not both be included.

Yeah. Yeah, we can certainly make that um make that clear. I think the point was um not that you would be prohibited from working for another public agency uh but that you would be prohibited from lobbying other public agencies as uh uh being paid for for doing that whether it's for a private or a public employer or anyone else.

Okay. And so the seven uh I think all of seven applies to when we are serving in this capacity. And then if I get down to 11 B after I leave office, now we're just talking about formal versus formal or informal appearances. We drop the reference to lobbying here and we limit this to just the city of Costa Mesa. Yes. And that is uh that language is actually taken from the California government code. Okay. So with all right. So why limit it to lobbying in seven but in 11 call it formal or informal appearances?

Um we we took what we had and we I mean it's something of a Frankenstein's monster frankly when you take a bunch of different codes and you try to put them together with the comments. We did the best we could. Okay. But if you wanted to um it would be very easy to uh have one um definition that would apply to both sections.

All right. Thank you. Um so back to 7B uh interest in city contracts. Individuals in covered positions shall not have a personal investment or monetary interest in any contract made by the city. I your answer is probably going to be the same on like contract but I that to my in my mind is different than potentially influencing cities for which there is excuse me decisions for which there is not necessarily a city contract. I'm thinking about planning decisions for example, right? Like we have applicants come before us. We don't necessarily sign a contract with them.

Yes. But I think paragraph um 7 A2 would would cover that. That's the the point. If if what you're concerned about is that um paragraph 7A um doesn't include Costa Mesa. It it does. Uh it would be any local agency including Costa Mesa.

No, no, no. I'm arguing with the interest in city contracts. So defining our personal investment or monetary interest as being limited to only something that for which there was a contract with the city. I think that's there's plenty of scenarios I can think of where we would have a personal interest or a monetary interest, excuse me, personal investment or monetary interest when there wasn't necessarily a contract with the city like in a planning decision for example, that would be covered already by um the conflict of the political reform act. Um but if it's a license entitlement um anything like that that's covered by the political reform act. So it would pre preclude um a council member, commissioner or or executive staff who are obligated to report from having uh any reportable financial interest that would be affected by those decisions. So, it's it's generally speaking it would not be legislative decisions, but instead it would be decisions like on a cup, a license, a lot line, uh decisions affecting real property within 500 or 1,000 ft of yours, that type of thing. Okay. Um, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to continue this item to a the next meeting. I I feel like I've got a bunch of suggested changes. This is probably not the right form to do them. I'd rather work directly with the city attorney on some of my proposed revisions.

Second. I would support that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Everybody, chill, chill out here. Okay, let's start with Do we have any questions? more questions. You'll get it. I'm That was the motion I was going to make. So, you'll get your chance. Um there's any more questions?

Let Let me Um I I I am going to ask this question because it's a it's a similar to what council member I was just asking and I I want to try to sort it out, but um I also support the idea of continuing. So, um I'm trying to also tease out this uh in 7A um in one the what the restrictions would be for different lobbying activity. For example, I just shared that I you know I go to Sacramento and support bills and not um but I that's as an in in-house employee and it's a part of my job. I want to make sure that that that wouldn't conflict.

Um so um yes. So, I guess we'll just I'll just go through scenarios. Um, I mean, we go up with uh ACCOC, for example, and are specifically supporting different bills. We're signing different bills. Um, I guess that's with a council member hat on, but with my um professional work hat on, I might be um going to Sacramento with other colleagues. Um, you know, talking to legislators about pros and cons of different bills, encouraging them to support or oppose a bill. Is that considered?

I do. I would not conclude that this language would preclude anybody from engaging in lobbying for legislation in Sacramento. Okay. Uh at AQMD, that is a local agency that would um that has an office in Los Angeles County and therefore would be covered by this. Okay. Uh meaning prohibited. it would be prohibited unless you were um lobbying on behalf of your employer as opposed to a client of your employer. Okay. And so that's the key difference then I'm doing it as part of my regular employment. I'm not getting hired to lobby on behalf of another individual or organization. Correct.

Okay. Um and then I see the language includes our executive assistants. Do we I I don't think I have one. Um that we should strike that. Right. You all have one. Well, as an employee of the city, yeah, because this covers commissioners and um the basically the executive team. Yeah. Um we all have executive assistance. So, it would cover them as well. I can strike that if you like.

Okay. It it seems odd. I know. I think if this language came from Irvine, I think those council members do like get their own staff. So, it's a little bit different. We're not selecting those folks. So, so, um, my understanding is you didn't put this in here intentionally. This is language copy from Irvine, right? Yeah. We understand why we we we did our best to try and take out what was inapplicable, but

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So then um a similar question a uh commissioner for example um you know as we know we have an active um uh wonderful active community that's doing advocacy at all levels um uh we know that rules that um a CTA makes impact our work right so if if a commissioner for example is um uh uh advocating ing for certain actions at OCTA, for example. Um they they can do that on their own. They can do that if if it's part of their normal employment, but they couldn't do that if they're hired by an individual organization to do that.

Correct. Correct. Okay. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. All right. If there's no further questions, let's open up for public comment. I I don't Is anybody want to speak in the chambers? Any Anybody on Zoom? Yes, Cynthia, please. Cynthia, you have the floor.

Uh, good evening, mayor and city council members. Well, I'm so glad to see this policy document before the council. Uh, many of us in the community have been requesting a clear and comprehensive ethics policy for well over a decade. So at its core, the purpose of an ethics code is to ensure that residents can have confidence in the integrity and transparency in their local government. Costa Mesa deserves to know that city officials are working toward the common good, acting above reproach and avoiding even the hint of impropriy. In reviewing ethics codes from other cities, several important elements appear to be missing from the proposed policy. One, a nepotism clause. Most cities prohibit the hiring or supervision of relatives to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure fairness in employment practices. Including such a clause would strengthen the public trust and protect both staff and the elected officials. Uh two, the disclosure of outside information in exparte communications. Any relevant information received from outside sources regarding a matter before the council should be shared with all council members and the public. This includes meetings or communications with applicants, opponents, or any party with a personal or financial interest in an item, whether through emails, texts, direct messages, or other channels. The public has a right to know when decision makers are engaging in private communications related to city business, whether it involves development projects or city-led efforts such as the Fairview Park master plan update. Three, mandatory reporting of corruption or misconduct. The policy should require

officials and employees to report suspected corruption to appropriate authorities immediately upon discovering it once an investigation concludes. The findings which are paid for with public funds should be disclosed in a timely manner. For example, the investigation initiated by the former city manager has never been publicly released despite taxpayer funding. Residents deserve transparency in these matters. Finally, I encourage the city council to readopt the ethics policy and code of conduct annually at its first meeting of the year. Doing so would demonstrate an ongoing commitment to honesty, transparency, and adherence to the law. Thank you.

Thank you, Jay. Wait, we have another speaker. No, no, hold on. We're going to go with Jay. Okay, go ahead, Jay.

Good evening, Council Jay Humphrey, Coast Mason resident. Um, thank you. I'm glad to see the code of ethics has finally come to some fruition at some point and I appreciate it's a good start. It's an excellent start and thank you for that. I would add a couple of things things the most important to me is actually what uh Andrea Maher brought up and that's actually where do we actually start talking about what's compensation and everything remember that everything you vote on usually had a life of longer than a year uh the the coffee shop the cafe you made the comment Mr. about how long it's taken to get there. So from the moment of its inception till the time it happens, you need to think about that kind of a thing. So a contract, very few of our contracts are a month. They don't even come to fruition for a year after you go through everything. The same thing with a development of some sort in the city. And I would ask that you add to the um ethics code an admonition to not vote on any item that you've received a contribution from anybody with a vested interest in anything to do with that issue for some amount of time but for your entire time on council. Not because not because a year is a reasonable time, but because the things you actually vote on are much older than a year before it even gets to you. So that's an important issue from the time you get elected. And you can set an amount that's reasonable. $1,000 says that you're nobody's going to get quote unquote bought for $1,000.

you can set a a thing which avoids any issue about impropriety. So, I'd look to ask you to add that to this this issue to help make sure that the public sees the city as taking action to say, "Hey, we recognize that long-term things have a way of living with us, and I think it's important that we don't have that happen to us." Um, uh, so I appreciate the fact this has come forward. I would like you to add those things and it's a working document like the plan we just talked about. If it only sits on the shelf and nobody pays attention to it, so what? So, I appreciate that fact and I expect that over time there will be changes and those changes will be forthright and for the public good. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Craig, please. Craig.

Yes. Mayor Stevens, Mayor Proan Chavez, and city council. Thank you for doing this. I'm uh aware that the county has an ethics commission as like a city uh citizen action commission, and I'm uh I was going to volunteer to be on it. I've been working on becoming part of the the commissions here in the city. And glad to see this being picked up and moved forward. Um, I want to say that uh even tonight it was honorable. I think that one of the members recused themselves on something that their their wife would be involved with. I'm glad to see that it's a very honorable thing to recuse yourself when you realize that and um and and not make a vote where it could look like a bias or you just have a bias. So um I think our federal government at points where the cabinet members or the Supreme Court uh gets themselves in trouble when they have made actions and they haven't in put a ethics policy on themselves and so it would do a lot of good here in the city I think for us to be a good example to uh people all across the country that this is a great thing to have and I like the idea of course Cynthia McDonald said even if it's annual first thing up front it gets reaffirmed that the city council is is aware of these Um, sunlight is a wonderful thing for transparency and that we the people then have greater trust in our elected officials. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom? No, Mr. Mayor. Right. Close public comment. You want to make your motion? Go ahead. Yeah. I'll move to continue this item to the second meeting in February. Second. Uh, okay. Can Can we do a friendly amendment? I'm going to need more time. I think I' I agree with you that um we need more time, but I've got a lot of comments. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get all of them in and get them in in a in a place where like maybe we're busy in really busy on March 3rd. So, I was thinking the second meeting of March. Look, it's taking us seven months to get here. I don't want to keep punting this.

Well, you don't have to accept my friendly amendment. We do um get the agenda out a week before the scheduled date. So if it was moved to the 17th, that would give us a week from today. And it's not enough time for me. March 17th. Okay. I'll Yeah, that's good. Thank you. March 17th. But um I would encourage council members to get any of their comments to staff in the next two weeks so that you have time to actually deal with it. So that by February 17th, council members, please get your comments on. Okay. And can this item be early in the agenda? It would be, right? Is what's that? Put the item early in the agenda. It It'll be old business. It'll be earlier in the agenda.

Old business. So it'll be earlier in the meeting. Yeah. Do you Do you have anything else?

I I mean I do. I think that some of the things that the public mentioned are particularly important and I appreciate. I think the thing that I would tack on is um this is not there's a balancing act in my mind between prohibiting all of these things and disclosing them for the public. I think Cynthia McDonald covered this pretty well. I have no problem with some of these things happening. I just want them to be public and disclosed and transparent about what is going on. And so I think, you know, that's one of the things that I'd like to try to strike a balance. And um two, I do think the definition of lobbying is a little confusing and comes loaded with other things about registering as a lobbyist, etc. And so I think we need to um clean that up. Three, um the city of San Diego actually provides examples in their ethics ordinance of um ways in which uh the the ordinance would be violated. for example, um you leave council and you go to work for a developer that had something pending with the development department for the last two years. Is that okay or not? Right? And so, just we were talking about tabletop exercises earlier tonight. I think providing some examples of what it is that we're trying to get at might be a helpful way of solidifying this conversation. Um, and then the the last thing I had, um, I, you know, I I do I think we've done a lot to in some ways make council more accessible for people to participate in. This was part of the conversation around pay and benefits and other things. Um, with that comes the fact that most of us are working full-time and most of us will leave council and continue to work full-time. and that has its own implications that we probably haven't had to wrestle with quite as much with past councils. Um, so we need to address that head on. Um, but thanks. I appreciate my colleagues supporting giving us more time on this.

Um, council member Reynolds, anything to add? So is anybody else?

Um, if I may, mayor, just because I know looking you you you have some good comments. I know you you've come prepared. Um, I think I just want to follow up on Mar's point because I do think this has the potential to really impact me the most because I'm the youngest and I did join council in my early 20s. Um, I would just like clarity on like what necessarily constitutes us leveraging this this role for our future employment because I think it's very safe to say most of my opportunities have come because folks know I'm a council member because I'm 23 years old and like before I got on city council I was a salesman. Um, so that to me is very interesting thing to consider and talk about. Um, also the mechanism how we would even like enforce someone who leaves the city coast to Mesa doing that. One of the things that's unique for me is I'm also not a boards. Um, and I do my best to always recruit myself from set of boards anytime something comes up on that body that that ties to Costa Mesa and vice versa. If ever there's an item that conflicts with with me on a board, I I might step out like I've done a couple times on OCTA and I will cover that for the county office of Swoley. So, I think that clarity for me would be very important. And I think just again if if we're trying to daylight and sunlight connections, that probably be more accurate and appropriate than I think trying to limit um especially folks that are leaving the city. Um, but again, I'm very open to see this competition develops, but I just wanted to put those things out there because we do have younger commissioners. We do have younger people getting involved in city governance, and I think it'd be really sad for us to damage anyone for their whole lives

because we have a very strict policy that may not be helpful to a young person. Okay. So, I don't have a ton of comments. I I I support the motion. I think every council member should have get receive a word version of this so we can we can have a series of uh you know uh comments and and uh compare rights and red lines that we can include and then share with one another uh for who made the comments and things of that nature. Um 7A is sorry. You mean share with me or share with you and then and then you know and then and then publicly when

publicly share it you know where is it coming from? But 7A is a deal breakaker for me. if it's in, I'm not gonna vote for it. And this because it basically I mean like uh somebody like Jeff Harland, who I think has been a really good uh was a really good council member and is is chairman of um our planning commission would have to resign the next day. This is what he does for a living. And so you don't have to comment on that. It that's what he does for a living. Okay. I've sued cities, right? There's no reason why I can't sue cities. I su sued Buena Park and in suing a city and and um or defending a case for one of my clients that's brought by a city, there is what you would consider lobbying involved in that. Right? There is absolutely no reason if it's not Costa Mesa why I shouldn't be free to do that. Or by the way, it's not me. We're legislating for not just us, but legislating for um uh councils, committee members, commissioners in the in the future. There there there's um you know, num number of other things. I I think one of my comments is going to be I think the idea of you called it the Frankenstein's monster, which kind of scares me because I'm kind of scared of Frankenstein, but the idea that we're going to take um a bunch of state laws and a bunch of federal laws and then a bunch of language that is neither in state nor federal law and we're going to cobble it into a a code of ethics, I don't think, is the best way to do it. So, preview of coming attractions. What I think would be better is to have a whole series of

of of um references to the law that covers it with a an attachment that has the law, the statute, and any guidance, right? but not to paraphrase or try to cover it in in a in a code because um it's not um what if we get it wrong, what what prevails? We know that the state law prevails. So why put something in a code? Why put something in a code of conduct that is superseded by a state law or even a municipal code? If some of this is covered by the municipal code and some of it clearly is, rather than rewrite or paraphrase or summarize the municipal code in a separate code of conduct, reference the municipal code. And if we don't like the municipal code, unlike the state law or the federal law, whether it be the government code or the business and professions code or whatever, we have the ability to amend that code. Okay. But I don't like the idea of creating, you know, a kind of cobbled together code that that attempts to paraphrase state law and and not in any particular complete way, just kind of like whatever state law fits into the sections that are included in this. Um and then it would also be quite clear, crystal clear, uh that um what we're adding, what is our creation here as a legislative body with this document. That has to be crystal clear as opposed to items that have already been legislated that we're referring to. These are all the things that I'm going to say and and I need to have these. I

mean, these are these are my needs, not my wants. Okay. Um the other thing that is more of a knit but you know in some places you appear to include we appear to include committees. In some places we don't. In some places we use this defined term uh covered positions. In other places we say I think it's elected and appointed officials. Uh there's some so there's some definitional inconsistency throughout the document that needs to be cleaned up. So I mean this is a good start. It's a long way from being something that I would be willing to vote for. But uh you know I think it's it's a worthy effort. I'm pro ethics. I like in favor of ethics and I'm pro good cont conduct. But this document needs a lot of work and I I can't commit, you know, depending on what happens how I'm going to vote on St. Patrick's Day other than the comment I made about 7A. Okay,

we're ready to call for the question.

Motion carry 6. Okay, we're done with our business. So, let's adjourn the meeting uh in honor and memory of Tony Pekka, a Costa Mesa resident, former firefighter in Anaheim, and the uncle of a friend of mine. So, may he rest in peace.