City Council - Regular Meeting

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Calabasas City Council meeting of September 9th, 2026. It is 7.02 p.m. I'm going to call the meeting to order. And tonight I'm joined by Councilmember Alicia Weintraub, Mayor Pro Tem Ed Albrecht. Councilmembers Kraut and Shapiro are absent and they are excused from the meeting tonight. Um, we'll now, um, go to the Pledge of Allegiance. Uh, Eric Meso, can you, our Assistant City Clerk, can you please lead us? 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.

We'll now go to report from closed session. Oh, well, let's do an approval of the agenda first.

So moved.

Do we have any changes to the agenda, Kenan?

Mayor, with the absences of two of our council members, we thought it might be prudent to table or continue item number nine, direction on establishing the Calabasas Community Grant Program. So if the council is inclined to do that, we would bring that item back at a future agenda.

OK. And with that change, which has been suggested, does someone have a motion to approve the rest of the agenda?

So moved.

OK. All those in favor, please state aye.

Aye.

It's unanimous. All right. We're going to move on to a report from closed session. Pam, do you have a report for us?

Thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. We did meet in closed session to discuss the public employee evaluation of the City Manager, as well as existing litigation for MRT versus the City of Calabasas. No reportable action was taken on either item.

OK. Moving on to public comment. Now is the time for public comment. During public comment, you may have three minutes or less to address the council on any item within the council's subject matter jurisdiction and as long as the item is not otherwise agendized. So I have some cards here. And I will ask first the city. Well, let me take the in-person comments first. Mark Levinson.

Mayor, Councilman, thank you very much. Mark Levinson. I reside in Los Angeles. I'm the immediate past chair of the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce. I have three things to report tonight. One, of course, is United Chambers is holding a mayor's lunch on September 29. And our own mayor, James Pisagian, will be one of the speakers. So that's an opportunity to hear what the mayor of Los Angeles and the mayor of Calabasas has to say. I know tickets are going, but there are still some available. The next thing is the Chamber's Women's Committee has a speaker scheduled for Salon Nouveau coming up. And that will be an exchange of ideas. We have a great speaker who has just written a book that will also be appearing. And then we have a dinner mixer on September 24 at Cambry Hotel. Anyone that's interested, please call the office and make reservations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark. And I forgot to say that when you speak, just please state your name and city of residence. I have another card here from Tony Stryker.

Hello. Hello. My name is Tony Stryker. I'm a resident of West Calabasas. I'm speaking today to formally request a joint traffic safety review and investigation of the intersection at Paxton Place and Las Virginas Road. Anyone who's traveled this stretch knows that merging onto Las Virginas Road from Paxton Place has become increasingly hazardous. With higher traffic volumes, commuters heading toward the 101, and drivers navigating this corridor, residents face limited sight lines and high vehicle speeds. Near misses have become a daily reality, and we need action before a minor conflict turns into a severe tragedy. I urge the Planning Commission and Public Safety Commission to collaborate on a comprehensive safety assessment. Specifically, this review should include a historic accident analysis, a thorough review of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department incident reports and traffic collision data at this intersection over the past five to ten years. peak hour traffic studies and evaluation of vehicle speeds, queue lengths, and turning counts during morning and evening rush hours, targeted improvements, recommendations for physical and operational upgrades, such as enhanced high visibility signage, speed calming measures, sight line clearing, or evaluating signals and turn lanes. Our local commissions exist to protect community, well-being, and guide responsible. Infrastructure growth, addressing the hazards of Paxton Place and Las Virgins Road are a critical public safety priority for our neighborhood. Thank you for the time, your leadership, and commitment to keeping Calabasas streets safe for everyone.

Thank you. And as you know, we cannot address public comment at this time, but we have heard your comments, and staff was taking notes while you were commenting. All right. Thank you. Do we have any remote participation?

We do not currently have any hands raised to speak.

Okay. So we are going to move on to the next item, which is a sheriff's report from July 2026. Deputy Cienfuegos is here.

Hello, I'm Deputy Cienfuegos, Lost Hills Sheriff's Station, here to provide the crime report for July of 2026. There was a total of 32 Part 1 crimes in July. Part 1 crimes were up 6.7% in comparison to July of 2025. The crime lists are as follows. We had one aggravated assault. The aggravated assault took place at a residence in the Oaks community. That suspect was arrested on scene and charged accordingly for that. We did have one robbery. This incident occurred at the Albertsons on Agora Road. This suspect was apprehended on scene. She was ultimately charged with three felonies and booked at Lost Hill Sheriff Station. We did have one burglary to report. It was a residential burglary. The burglary occurred at an apartment complex along C&O at this place. The resident was not home at the time of that incident. Our biggest problem continues to be larceny thefts. We did have 28 larceny thefts in that month of July. They consisted of nine grand thefts. One incident occurred along Commons Way. That suspect was located by patrol deputies and arrested. Other incidents occurred along Las Virginas Road, Calabasas Road, and Poppy Seed. Detectives are working these cases. There were two additional incidents that happened on Helmond and along Ruthwood and Mulholland Highway. In these cases, the station detectives are working on those. We have been able to identify some suspects, but they are not in custody as of yet. We did have five vehicle burglaries. These vehicle burglaries happened along, again, C&O at this place, the Park Streets, and Elysia Canyon Drive. We were able to identify some of these suspects as well, and we did arrest two of those suspects as of today. We did have seven unlocked vehicle thefts. These crimes happened along Ruthwood Drive, Mulholland Highway, Park Sorrento, and Hot Springs Place. We did have seven petty thefts. These petty thefts occurred along Agora Road, Commons Way, Old Topanga, Lupine Lane, Dante's View, and along Las Virginas. Lastly, we did have one grand theft. This theft occurred along Hot Springs Place. However, that vehicle was recovered, and the suspect was apprehended. He is being charged with those crimes at this time, according to the detectives at Lost Hill Station. This completes my monthly report for the month of July. I thank you for your time, and are there any questions?

Okay. Ed, do you have any questions? Not a question, just a comment. You know, it's been trending in a great direction, you know, really great. All the pressure from all different sides, it's showing up, it's very, very evident. And you did answer my question about the grand auto theft where they, where they're located. So it's spread out. There's not one particular area of concentration. So let's just keep up the good work. It's not you. It's not someone else. It's everybody. The whole station is doing it. It's in high gear. So thank you.

Thank you.

Alicia? Thank you so much for everything that you're doing. I just had a question. When it says conducted 290 residential verifications for sex registrants, what does that mean? That those people live within the city or how does that work?

Yeah, so the way that works is we have a detective that specifically handles that type of clerical work on that. And what that consists of is anyone that lives within our jurisdiction of Lost Hills, they check in with that detective at Lost Hills Sheriff Station. They confirm the address that they have registered with through their court system of where they are staying, and it's just consisting that they're abiding by all the rules that they're supposed to be doing.

So that's not just Calabasas, because when you look up, like, Megan's Law for Calabasas, it's only a few people.

Right, yeah, that's going to be through Malibu, Westlake, Agora, Calabasas, the unincorporated areas, Topanga, Chatsworth, things of that nature. Oh, okay. Yeah, but we could probably try to identify Calabasas-specific.

Right, because I think the rest are just Calabasas. Right. So that was just staggering, or at least maybe we can just say the entire Lost Hills. Got it. I'll make a note of that. Okay, thank you. And have that addressed, yeah.

I don't have anything else. Thank you very much for your report. Yes, sir. OK. Item number four is the County of Los Angeles legislative updates from Daniel Vicente.

Good evening, honorable mayor, council, city staff. My name is Daniel Vicente, proud to be here on behalf of LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's office with a legislative update. Supervisor Horvath introduced a motion to explore establishing an LA County Department of Gender Equity. The office would build on existing county programs. and provide centralized leadership to identify and address gender disparities across county departments, programs, and services. Supervisor Horvath and Supervisor Barger introduced a motion reaffirming the county's commitment to a unified regional continuum of care. More than 10,000 people are currently housed through a continuum of care rental subsidies. And the county is working with the city of Los Angeles and regional partners to protect critical federal funding and ensure a continuity of services. Following an August 11 motion by Supervisor Horvath, Los Angeles County emergency officials outlined at the September 1 meeting how Los Angeles County is preparing for the 26-27 storm season. and what residents can do now. El Nino could bring heavier rain and increased risk of flooding, landslides, and debris flow across Los Angeles County. Sign up for emergency alerts at alert.lacounty.gov. Know the risks where you live. Make an evacuation plan. Have supplies ready. Prepare your home. Consider flood insurance. And if you need help with mud or debris flow risk, you can contact LA County Public Works at 1-800-933-0930 to speak with an engineer. And if you know someone who's experiencing homelessness who might need help with a voucher, you can visit the county's homelessness department website at homeless.lacounty.gov. Our office will also be hosting a Know Before the Storm Town Hall event on Zoom. It will be September 28. And it'll be from 6 PM to 7.30 PM. You can find the link to that registration on our website, lindsayhorvath.lacounty.gov. And it's the El Nino Know Before the Storm Town Hall. You can also go to bit.ly slash El Nino Town Hall as well to register for that. And finally, Los Angeles County has sued State Farm, alleging unfair business practices in the company's handling of insurance claims filed by policyholders affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires. The lawsuit follows County Council's investigation of State Farm's alleged violations of California's unfair competition law relating to delays under payments. and a denial of wildfire claims from its policyholders affected by the wildfires. Supervisor Horvath stated that Los Angeles County residents have paid State Farm millions in premiums over many years, and the company has an obligation to honor its policies in full. And finally, our office has recently closed one of our grant cycles. And we were proud to announce that we have provided $5,000 to the Calabasas Chamber for their networking dinner on September 24. We provided $12,500 to the Foundation for Las Virginas Schools. And our office will be attending the Leonis Adobe Museum's anniversary this month, where we also provided $7,500 for the critical work that they do. We are proud to be a partner of the city. If you ever need anything, we are here for you. I recently had the opportunity to meet with the city manager and thank him for giving me some time so we can talk about the partnership between the city and county. We have an election coming up in the third district. We will have 25 11-day, 106 4-day vote centers, totaling 131. And we will have at least 87 drop boxes in our district. If you do have any questions or concern with regard to the Registrar-Recorder County Clerk's Office, or you need help with a liaison, please feel free to reach out to me. And that's all I have. And I'm happy to take any questions if you have any. Alicia, do you have any questions or comments?

Yeah. Thank you very much for everything that you're doing and for taking my calls on a very frequent basis. I appreciate all the help. I just wanted to know more about the voucher for homelessness. Once someone receives that voucher, where are they able to go?

The county contracts with a multitude of different hotels, motels, or different shelters across the area. So if we don't have the availability of a voucher, we will find a shelter space for them. But there's a certain pot of money that's under the county's HSH where we can provide a voucher to them. And these are particularly set aside for the storm. So we can make sure that folks aren't sleeping in an area that might be unsafe or that they are at risk of drowning or anything. Unfortunately, there's folks who will go to the LA River and they'll sleep in the culverts, things like that. So we have public work staff who go to inspect those areas. And if there is someone who you see who's unhoused, there are contracted hotels and motels. But I think it's pretty open.

But it's just for during the storms?

This particular one, where I was speaking about, is yes, just for the storm. Yes. But we do have that program continuously, where if someone, you know, we had someone about two years ago, she came a few times to our Calabasas field office. She had several kids with her, and we were able to help her. She hasn't been back in about a year, so we see that as a good sign. We put her in touch with LA Family Housing. We provided accommodations to her for the weekends. She would show up on Fridays to get that help. And last I checked in, I believe that she was helped into permanent housing. Great.

Okay. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Ed?

Thank you. Daniel, thanks so much. Not much else to comment on except the grants. Thank you very, very much for them. They're welcome, and they're really necessary and useful. And we really appreciate it very, very much.

Absolutely. Thank you.

OK. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you very much. We will move on to the next item, which is our council announcements. Alicia, do you have any council announcements?

I do. My announcement is my continued frustration regarding the power outages impacting our community. On August 31st, there was a huge power outage impacting most of the MOLWOOD AREA INCLUDING THE GILSON SHOPPING CENTER. WE HAD A HUGE MEETING WITH SCE THAT FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY THAT WAS ATTENDED BY MYSELF AND JAMES AND KINDEN AND SCOTT AND CURTIS AND WE HAD A VERY PRODUCTIVE MEETING AND SINCE THAT MEETING WE'VE HAD TWO MORE OUTAGES. I DID NOT EXPECT THAT THAT MEETING WOULD STOP THE OUTAGES BUT THE AMOUNT OF OUTAGES IMPACTING OUR COMMUNITY is inexcusable. And the responses that we continue to get from SCE is they can never find the cause for the outage. Today, on this past Sunday, there was a huge outage in our community impacting both the east side and the west side. And today there was a huge, huge outage impacting Mulwood, Calabasas High School, and Viewpoint School. So students for a few hours were in the dark with the heat. And these conditions are just not OK. And we reached out today to Assemblymember Jackie Irwin, Supervisor Horvath, spoke to Daniel. We need all hands on deck to help us, because these issues are not happening in Westlake. They're not happening in Agora. They're not happening in comparable areas in the city of Los Angeles. that are under ledwp and the fact that we have outages in our community at least once a week there's no more excuses and we just need everyone's help all our elected officials to come together and help bring reliable electricity to calabasas the fact that a squirrel or dirt or whatever it is can knock down our system is just not acceptable that's all thank you ed

Thank you, Mayor. Well, first, I want to hope everybody had a great holiday, with the exception of the power outage. And I also want to wish a happy and healthy Rosh Hashanah to our Jewish population and families. And I also enjoyed the lunch with the history quiz by our mayor. It was a table effort that was quite different and very cool. And lastly, I had the pleasure of attending the Valley Economic Alliance Annual Patron Appreciation Breakfast, thanking their many supporters. Just for those of you that might want to know, Valley Economic Alliance is a large nonprofit that encompasses five cities, Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Los Angeles, and San Fernando. And it also has a great effort in helping the businesses and the government and businesses cooperating in groups for their economy. And just as an example, one of the sponsors is Van Nuys Airport. And the sponsorship is endless. So if you ever have an interest in learning more about it, please contact me. And they're always looking for good members. And it's a great organization to be a part of. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Ed. And Alicia, your comments were very well-spoken. I appreciate them and agree with them on the power outage issue. Okay, so now we're on to the consent calendar. Items five and six, do we have any? Well, let me take the comment in the chamber first. Matthew Shebby has a comment on item six.

Hi there. Matthew Shebby, city of Calabasas. I know you can't respond to me. Point of information, I don't know if you're just doing a second reading or you're going to be voting tonight as well. But I don't see a need to rush into a loss of local autonomy and local control. I saw that the state passed a law that says that local municipalities have to accept ADUs I don't actually know if there's a stick to go with that. If they just said you have to, I don't know if there's a punishment or some kind of penalty if cities don't do that. So I guess addressing the city attorney. If we have to lose like 10 years of property tax revenue, I get it. It's a big deal. If, on the other hand, the only penalty is that you guys are going to get cranky emails every once in a while from a California housing unelected bureaucrat, I think it's worth getting the occasional cranky email rather than abdicating a loss of local control. I know that the state of California thumbs its nose at the federal government when the federal government does something it doesn't like. The county of Los Angeles does the same when the federal government does something it doesn't like. So if the state of California passed something and Sacramento in its wisdom did not pass a penalty, for municipalities that didn't realign their laws, I would urge you guys to vote against the resolution and keep our local codes the way that they are. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Christy, do we have any comments from the public on consent online? We do not. Actually, Matthew, we can address what you said, because this is not public comment of a general nature. But I'm going to turn to my colleagues first. Oh, wait. Actually, I want to take item six off the consent. I was going to do that anyways. And then we can vote on both of them at the same time, and I can just dissent on that one, correct?

Yes, you could. Or you don't like that? You could, or you can continue it for the full council. This is a second reading. I think we should continue that one.

I don't know if there's enough to pass it.

You would need three votes because it's an ordinance. Oh, there's not going to be enough votes to pass it. Right. Yeah.

But I can comment on it. You can. So let me take it off just to comment on it. Well, Matthew, four council members, a city attorney, and probably most of the staff think that the state has the power to enforce these rules against the city's will. One of the council members thinks, and has pointed out numerous times, that the state illegally interfered in our 2020 special election on Measure N and thereby forfeited their right to intervene in local affairs. But that one council member gets outvoted consistently because no one agrees with his theories. So therefore, we are going to have to continue it because there will not be three votes tonight for this. Let's see, on item five, may I just have a motion?

Second.

All those in favor, please state aye. Aye. And that is the minutes. That's unanimous. On item six, since there aren't going to be three votes, we need to continue it?

Yes, it would be continued to the next regular council meeting.

OK. So is there a motion to continue?

So moved. All those in favor, please state aye. Aye.

Okay, that's unanimous, too. There's not three votes either way, in other words. Okay, item number seven is, moving on to new business, is the establishment of Measure K Independent Citizens Advisory Committee. You have a report. that was authored by the city manager, assistant city manager, deputy city manager, and there's also a PowerPoint presentation. Michael, are you giving the PowerPoint?

Yes, Mayor, I am.

Okay, so why don't we go to the PowerPoint? Measure K, as the public might remember, is the sales tax measure that was approved, along with the requirement that we have a Citizens Advisory Committee.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Council Members. So as you stated, Measure K, amongst many items, comes with some accountability measures. One of the most obvious ones is the Citizens Advisory Committee. So what we're talking about tonight, the discussion for tonight, is really focused on this this committee and not about the spending plan, not about spending any Measure K dollars. And so the goal of recommendation of staff and as called out in the ordinance is that the committee needs to be established first, right, before we start coming up with ways to spend those Measure K funds. And so just please keep that in mind as we continue this. The primary purpose of tonight's meeting is to seek direction on the composition of that committee. So this is not a board that we or it's not a commission that we already have dealt with. It's something new. It is. already called out in the ordinance for the Measure K sales tax measure. So there are already some parameters. But again, the purpose of tonight is to receive direction from council. We will then return and memorialize that direction to formally compose the oversight committee. All right, so real quick, measure K at a glance. This was a 1% transaction and use tax measure. It passed by 63.29% on May 5, 2026, and it's estimated to provide the city in $5.3 million annually in general purpose funds so that the city can maintain essential city services. Again, one component of Measure K, per ordinance 2026-422, was the creation of a citizen's advisory committee. And in that ordinance, there was three primary responsibilities for this committee. One, meeting at least twice per year. Two, reviewing Measure K revenues, expenditures, and the annual audit. And then three, providing the city council with a written annual report based on those meetings and that review. So then the question is, how do we form this committee? And staff reviewed a variety of different public agencies, small, local, LA County, some larger at the state of California. And one of the most relevant models actually was LVUSD's Measure G and S Committee, right? Again, that was a bond oversight committee, but an oversight committee nonetheless. And what really stuck out to staff was the fact that they formed a committee that had different subject matter or background expertise in the committee members and so provided for a manageable representation and yet balanced broad perspectives. And so in that vein, that's what city staff is presenting tonight or recommending tonight, rather. All right, so the big reveal, what are staff recommending? We're recommending a five-committee board or advisory committee focused on two different areas. Two, finance-focused residents. So this is really demonstrated or professional experience in finance, budgeting, accounting, auditing, or fiscal oversight. And then the other three, or the remaining three, are going to be residents with demonstrated experience or involvement in municipal government operations, or manage or own a business in Calabasas, or experience with capital improvement projects. And why that focus? Well, just like maintaining essential services such as... paving the streets and ensuring 911 response times are maintained. There's also a significant amount of capital projects that the city needs to invest in to maintain the facilities in the first-class city that we have, amongst other items. So when we talk about what the board is going to look like and how it's composed, here's the recruitment and appointment timeline before you. So really what we're trying to do is just piggyback off of the upcoming commission recruitments. So when staff receives and memorializes the committee and appointment process, the advisory resolution, we'll open it up just like the other commissions for a 30-day recruitment period. Staff will review. those applications and recommend five to be appointed by the council in January. This would be an at-large appointment. It's a little different than what the council is used to, but again, this is mirroring the LVUSD policy that we mentioned a little earlier. So just a summary of the decision and some of the choices and direction that we have to receive tonight. One, the committee composition. So the formation is required. That's not a choice. We are recommending five members. Two, member background and experience. Staff is recommending two with finance experience and three with municipal, local business, or CIP experience. Three, the duties. Again, those are called out in the ordinance already. But biannual meetings, review of Measure K financials, and annual report to the council. And then finally, the committee appointment. So in terms of the recruitment process in which staff is recommending the recruitment start in November, we review in December, and the council appoints those five at large in January, much like the other commissions. So again, recommended action tonight is to receive the direction so staff can memorialize at a future meeting the resolution, which will then formally outline the process to recruit the Measure K Advisory Committee. And with that, I'm available for questions, but also would like to receive your direction.

Okay. Well, let's go to public comment. I have one speaker card from Joe Chilko.

Good evening. I'm Joe Chilko, Calabasas resident. So you have my written comments. You can see from them I'm not happy. The proposed structure and functionality of the Oversight Advisory Committee is not what was implied and isn't what a reasonable person would infer from that implication. It's not what was sold. It's not what we want. The list of public safety actions that Measure K funds would be spent on is the same list that appeared in a Valley News article. It's the same list that appeared in all the city's outreach materials on Measure K. I'm not mistaken about this. So this can be taken with a grain of humility, but for the record, this is what I've been doing to help the city. I helped get Peter and Ed elected. They're the budget ad hoc, so I guess that was a good thing. I helped James win the No On End campaign. We got back local control and lowered fire risk. I simultaneously became a very active member of EPIC and a public safety commissioner. Now over 700 residents have the city's emergency radios. I assisted Chief Dyer in making significant progress on the city's public safety efforts. And I personally got the city $5.3 million a year. That's right, I'm taking all the credit for that because I'm taking all the heat for it from my friends. I would appreciate some cooperation on the Measure K expenditures with regards to public safety actions. I take public safety very seriously, and I would like my city to do the same. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. And I'm getting handed another card. This is from Matthew Chevy.

Matthew Chevy, City of Calabasas. I was going to say I partially agree with Joe here. The breakdown of all five being budgetary and finance people seems a little insular. When Measure K was being pitched, and we have a history, city council and me about this tax, I guess implied, but not promised, was that it was going to be like a CAPRA every man type of person was going to sit in K. I agree, probably help to have someone who understands finance to make sure money is not getting spent on field trips to Tahiti. Yeah, I don't necessarily know that five people having experience with finance and capital projects is really the every man that I was expecting to sit on this Measure K commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Turning to the city clerk, do we have any comments? OK, no comments from the remote world. And now we will move on to the council. Alicia, do you?

I'm sorry to interrupt you. We just had a hand raised from Mark Citron.

OK, why don't we? Norma Citron, OK. Sorry, Mark Citron. Mark Citron, OK. We'll turn to that.

Hi, I'm Mark Citron, and I've lived in Calabasas for 37 years. I believe that everybody would be all for transparency in government. The city council should say what it means and mean what it says. so with that in mind i'm having a lot of trouble understanding how the title of this committee specifically using the keyword advisory says exactly what the committee's charge is advisory is a proactive term and it happens prior to expenditures being made based strictly on the staff report the committee appears to be primarily reactive not proactive the report says that the committee will review measure k revenues and expenditures review the annual independent audit reports, and provide annual written report to the city council with its findings and recommendations. That is it. There's nothing in the report that says that the committee must, should, or even may review and advise on a proposed expenditure before the city spends the money. The practical distinction is important for transparency. Proactive oversight would look like the city proposes a spending of X amount of Measure K money. The committee reviews it. The committee advises the council before the expenditure is approved. What the staff report describes is closer to the city spends Measure K money. The committee reviews revenues and expenditures and the audit. And the committee makes findings and recommendations afterward. The fact that the committee is required to meet only at least twice a year also reinforces the reactive nature of the structure. The staff report doesn't give the committee an explicit, proactive review report role. That is very an important distinction for me as a citizen. I'm sure that your intent was not to confuse citizens as to what you are asking the proposed committee to accomplish. But the role of the committee is not self-evident, so I am confused. Now, my question to the council is, does the committee have any role in reviewing or advising on proposed Measure K expenditures before the money is spent? Or is its role limited to reviewing expenditures after they have occurred? If the answer is after, then the committee should be correctly called the Citizens Post-Expenditure Oversight Committee, not the Independent Citizens Advisory Committee. This is an important question that citizens need to have an answer to during your own discussion. I know that they cannot be answered in this public comments section. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else out there? Not at this time. That's it. OK, Ed, why don't you start with the questions and comments?

Well, my first comment is we're very, very lucky to have this measure passed, and the residents realize the importance of it, the value of it, and why it was put forth. We have been transparent as much as we can possibly be with public budget committees. We're a small city. We're open to listening, and I don't expect there's going to be anything that's been decided that the public won't be aware of. Should, you know, my feeling on having it decided with the committee, what the name of the committee is and should they be involved before the money is spent, we don't even know what we're going to spend it on yet in a priority sense. We kind of know in general because we've made it clear. We have buildings that need repair. We've got tennis and swim. It's got plumbing issues and sewer issues. we can go down the list. So we have some emergency items that are going to take the most of the attention. But I think later on, once those are cared for, you know, we're going to have ongoing, pay attention to ongoing needs. So that's my thought. I'd like to know myself when we get together, you know, how we're going to handle it, what we need. And I would like to see things done ahead of time. I think a good point has been made and it's appropriate. So if we're going to have a committee, let the committee be involved, maybe not necessarily in selecting what we need to get done, but see it ahead of time, make some arrangement out. That's yet to be determined, but I'm supportive of that. I also want to make a note about the five people that are being considered. To me, I really don't want to be here and select from five people that staff is going to recommend just five. Maybe there's one or two that one of us don't think is appropriate. I'd like to know it's going to come from a pool of people somehow. because it's gonna be uncomfortable to deny someone a seat if we don't feel that that person's qualified or is the right person to sit on that advisory group. So we don't want on-the-job training through it. We need people that are professionals that have lived through it, as stated in the video, in the screen. that has experience on a lot of levels, this is a very valuable and an important committee. So those are the two things that I'd like to see happen. I would like to have a handle for what we're going to decide, the priority, and have that before any money is spent, get the committee involved. I think we owe it to them. And I also want to know how we're going to make the selection on the members of that committee. So it's not just brought to council at the last minute. This is what we have. You like it or you don't like it.

So to be clear, there will be an open application period for committee members. We'll receive it. Staff will review based on the direction received by council tonight. And then staff will make a recommendation for the five to be appointed at large in January with the rest of the commissions.

That's what I'm referring to. So those recommendations, those five, is that going to be done at a council meeting? Or is that going to be done in closed session? How is that going to take place?

Yeah, so that would be, so our nomination period or open application period for commission starts in November. We would also accept applications at the same time for the committee members. And so when the council makes its appointment for the commissions, they would also be voting on the five members of the committee. advisory committee. Now, to your question of if the council is not in favor of one or two of those, then we would go back to the pool of applicants who had already submitted applications to that.

Well, if the council is not in favor of one or two of those, would that take place at a council meeting? Maybe we could have an ad hoc committee to review that before we have to come to a council meeting to expedite it.

We're looking for direction from the council on that. Again, that creates another layer if the council wants to do that.

I think it will be a much smoother process. It could be between council meetings. We don't have to go from council meeting to the next council meeting. That ad hoc committee could make recommendations, and at least it would be a safer pool that we feel comfortable with. Probably an agreement, and maybe I'm not saying we would disagree with suggestions, but it would be nice to have.

Well, is staff, are you saying staff's going to pick? Why would staff pick?

That's the current recommendation, again, based off of the Measure S and Measure G bond format. Okay.

Well, I have some additional comments. We'll go to Alicia next.

So the way I read this is not all five members need to have financial background. I read it as two with finance focus, and then the other three are residents with either community, municipal, business, or capital project experience. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Because I was actually on the Measure G Oversight Committee. And I don't have a finance background. I have, I guess, municipal finance. And it was a very broad subsection of people which made it a successful oversight committee. So I want to make sure that we have that as well. And I'm actually just, I know we can't engage with the public, but I'm just curious how that both members of the public tonight interpreted it to be five members of the public with a finance background. You can share that with me later. I was just curious about that so we can correct that moving forward, since that's not the intention. And then I feel like we have to come up with possibly a different way for the applicants to be chosen. Because there might be something that the five council members might know people on the list that staff might not. I don't know. I want to hear what the rest of the council says.

Well, I have some comments.

Do you think it should be one each? Yes. I knew you were going to say that. I was thinking that too, so I figured you were.

So let me go through some of the stuff that was said, because I listened to Mark Citron's comment, and I think I understand what he's saying. But the reason I disagree with his conclusion is because this is an advisory committee that's going to be evaluating ongoing expenditures so it's not like we're gonna make any decision and then there's never going to be another decision made this constant decisions being made as the revenues collected from month to month so the advisory committee might not be making the very first decision, but they're going to be advising us going forward for years and years before we make future decisions. And I think that's definitely sufficient to satisfy his concerns. I have two issues with the staff report. First of all, I believe that these citizen committees should be just citizens. I don't think they need to have expertise. We'll look at this and we will see who is best suited to do this. I would rather have somebody who's engaged in the community, has shown they care about the community, has volunteered their time, than somebody who's done nothing but just happens to have a background as an accountant or something. That to me is an inferior person for the position. So I do not want to have these rigid categories. I think that we can decide whether someone's qualified or not based on our individual perceptions. Which brings me to my last point, is in order to get a diversity of opinion on these committees, we need to have individual appointments. In the past, when we've had at-large appointments, and when I first started getting involved in Calabasas right after cityhood on a commission, committee commission appointments were at large and what you'd often get is if the council had a split of opinion or um i don't want to say ideology but it's just a different makeup and didn't agree on things instead of getting a diversity of opinion on the commissions you would have divided votes and you would have the same mindset of each commissioner because the majority would always do that. And I don't think you get value in that. I think you get much more value in having each council member put their own perceptions and opinions on these commissions from their appointments. So two things. I do not like having these strict categories, and I do not like the at-large. Aside from that, I'm okay with the report. So those are my opinions if anybody wants to add anything. Because this is coming back.

When I was referring to not having on-the-job training, it was just someone who has a reasonable approach to problem solving. It's somewhat analytical, but not necessary. So using that as a floor or a foundation is a screening process. You don't have to have a license necessarily. It wouldn't be bad. There are many CPAs and professionals that are very, very interested in their city and care about it, but it's not necessarily necessary on a total level, but I don't want to exclude typical residents because a lot of them come and sit on this council four or five years from now. They have worked very hard and they feel strongly about the city. So we want to encourage that, but we just got to be careful about this particular committee and make appointments that are necessary and perceived accurate.

Do you have an opinion on the at-large versus individual appointments?

Do I have an opinion on the at-large?

I would like to do it. Either or. Do you have an opinion on whether you'd like each of us to appoint one person or five people to get a majority vote?

I would like to have the opportunity to select a particular candidate, yes.

OK. Alicia?

I think each council member should pick one person.

OK. So there you have three people who said that. So hopefully it'll come back like that. In light of that, I don't mind if the ordinance or the guidelines are among the considerations should be financial experience, municipal government experience, community involvement. But because each of us looks like we're going to be appointing an individual, we can't obviously say two of this and three of that, because that binds people to certain appointments that we can't enforce. So it could be an advisory to an advisory committee. No, go ahead. I mean, if you have a different opinion.

No, no, no, no, no. I was just going to say the Measure G Oversight Committee had people with all different backgrounds, but there were finance people. So I think that... I mean, that should be one of the many criteria. But even people without a finance background who are engaged in the community and have sat through budget hearings and know how to deal with the city budget, I mean, that can qualify in a way. So I don't think we need, it shouldn't, I think we will all make good judgment with who we're appointing.

Further question, residency. Is residency a requirement?

Yes.

OK. So is everyone comfortable with that, too? Yes. Because I know in one of our architectural review panel, That does not have a residency requirement, per se, for every appointment. And the same thing with some of our commissions in the past, like SERP or the historical society rep. They didn't have to be residents. But these all have to be residents, correct? That's correct. That's what's being proposed tonight. Is that going to be written in there? Yes. OK.

Well, there was a requirement for one of the three selected that are non-finance, and it said Calabasas residents with demonstrated experience, but I guess those who manage their own business would also have to be residents, whether or not the business is in Calabasas.

Okay. That's fine. I just want to make sure we get all the things set.

Any further comments from the council? I was going to ask a clarification with respect to your desire for individual appointments. Would you still like the application process to move forward and you pick from among applicants that have submitted an application? Yes. Correct. Okay. And I do want to clarify the questions that the commenters brought up with respect to only being able to review and audit prior decisions for Measure K expenditures. It does allow for recommended actions as stated in the ordinance, and that would include how expenditures would be spent in the coming fiscal year or beyond. So it does include prospective recommendations rather than just a review of whether or not the expenditures were correct or aligned with the budget. So I wanted to make that clarification, which you had already alluded to.

Well, yours was much more articulate than mine was, so I appreciate that.

I just had one question for staff. Did you consider having council make their individual appointments? And what was the reason against that?

I think there was a couple reasons. One, we looked at the Measure G, Measure S, and it went through that same process where it was recommended by the staff and then presented to the board and then approved by the board. The second reason is we didn't want this to be like our commissions. It's not a commission. It's a committee. And so our commissions are appointed committees. You know with the commissioners are appointed individually by the council members. So we wanted to create that distinction that it wasn't The same or like unto a commission and so again, this is a committee it's very different than what we've done in the past so it's not a commission and so those were the two main reasons and

I feel like Peter and David are also going to want to weigh in on this one.

Well, it's coming back for a first reading or for approval.

For a resolution.

But they can provide their thoughts at the time.

Right, but I'm saying if it comes back where we each appoint one and they have a different opinion, have we lost the opportunity for them to weigh in?

Not at all, because they could provide their opinion, and then it would just depend on one of the three of you changing your mind and providing additional direction to counsel to change that resolution.

So when it comes back, I think that should be the one issue that they should be allowed to weigh in on. I mean, they should weigh in on everything, but we should have this discussion again.

Yes, I agree with that.

And with you providing the feedback that you just did, I think is important.

Yeah. One other question for the council, and this came up from members of the community that we met with, is whether or not A committee member could also be a commissioner. And I think if you're moving in the direction where it's a council member appointee, they should not be able to sit on a commission, meaning that would be their appointment. And so we just want clarification on that from the three of you.

I'm happy to insert that in there.

If we go this route. So if they were appointed by staff and then approved by the city council, would they be able to be on commissions?

I'd have to discuss that with the city attorney a little bit more. There's not a conflict, so they could. What it does is it diminishes opportunities for people to serve.

So, OK. Okay.

I also have one point of clarification. So in terms of the background experience, the only requirement for a committee member is to be a resident? Is that true?

I think we have a – doesn't it read for most of our – all of our commissions and committees that they be an elector? Mm-hmm. Right, but this is completely separate from those because... Well, I think it should be that, where they're registered to vote here, indicating that they live here and have a stake in the community.

And I think we should list relevant experience. I mean, you have that here.

Right, so the question is, is the floor just residency with nice-to-haves, or is it an actual requirement of having a background or professional experience?

No, it's not a requirement. It's encouraged.

Like Alicia said, it should be listed as these are categories we're looking for.

But I think also they should be registered to vote here.

Yeah, definitely registered to vote. No, definitely. It's a resident.

It's a resident.

But I think you have, wait, where can I not find the page? Right here, how you have residents with community, municipal, business, or capital project experience.

Perfect.

That covers everyone. Right here.

This was a requirement. This is more of a recommendation now is what it sounds like.

But I'm saying if someone doesn't have any community experience or municipal business or capital project, I can't see them being appointed.

Yeah, they're not going to get appointed.

It can't just be someone coming in who's never done anything in this community or been involved or has a business background. You have to have one or the other.

Right, I agree. We're just trying to draft the resolution, so we just want to be as precise as possible.

Yeah, I think you have it nicely.

You have it. I don't even mind making that some kind of... I mean, the language there should be included in the final. We've already discussed that.

Okay, thank you.

All right, let's move on to the council-appointed commissions and the ordinance amendments. So we have... Several things here. Who's giving this report?

I am, sir. OK. Do we have to do anything?

No.

The other one we don't.

It's just discussion.

Just waiting for a PowerPoint to be brought up. All right. Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, staff is presenting proposed amendments to the municipal code governing council appointed commissions. Next slide, please. The commission ordinance has not undergone a comprehensive update in more than a decade. Since that time, the city's organizational structure, program, commission responsibilities have evolved, leaving several provisions outdated, duplicative, or inconsistent with current practices. The proposed amendments would modernize the code, create greater consistency among commissions, clarify membership and attendance requirements, and consolidate common provisions. The ordinance has been reviewed by our council ad hoc committee comprised of the mayor and council member crowd. I want to thank them for their hard work helping bring staff's recommendations forward. Next slide, please. The proposed amendments also include several commission-specific updates, as seen on the chart before you. Among these includes formalizing student commissioner appointments, removing outdated ex-officio and representative positions, updating the Parks, Recreation, and Education Commission name, and updating the Planning Commission compensation. Additionally, the council is being asked to consider whether to dissolve the Communications and Technology Commission, whose responsibilities and workload have diminished, and there are currently insufficient policy matters requiring a dedicated advisory commission in this area, as well as determine whether to modify the current number of student commissioners appointed to each commission, as the ad hoc committee did not reach a consensus on this issue. Next slide, please. There are three primary matters for the council's consideration tonight, which include the introduction of the proposed ordinance, discuss and consider dissolving the Communications and Technology Commission, and discuss and determine whether to modify the number of student commissioners. The ordinance is just the first step of many coming to update our boards and commission program. And this concludes my report. Let me know if you have any questions.

We have a public comment card from Matthew Chevy.

So when I showed up tonight, I actually had no idea this was on the agenda. I had brought a copy of the commission application form for the Communications and Technology Council. Now look at my bald spot. Very distracting. If you guys want to get rid of it, c'est la vie. I would agree that film shoots probably does not belong with a telecom subcommittee. But something that I'm interested in as a Calabasas resident is the fiber optic in Calabasas. And that seems like something that would be in the telecom subcommittees purview. Also, going back to the Measure K thing, I don't know how much radical transparency you want to have. But in theory, that group could spin up a Measure K revenues and expenditures thing up on the city of Calabasas website. So I don't I don't know how active the committee currently is, and I'm told that there are currently no openings. So I don't want to denigrate any work that they're doing. But there's stuff that I see I could talk sort of outside of my remaining 100 seconds to pitch ideas that maybe this group could offer the city of Calabasas. Thank you.

OK. Joe Chilko.

Hi, I'm Joe Chilko, Calabasas resident. I forgot this one was on the agenda too. I'm okay with getting rid of something, but it must have had a need to begin with. And I know that when I sit in my house, my AT&T lack of fiber optic Wi-Fi is awful. And Telecommunications and wireless is important. I know that Peter Kraut ran on that particular issue, saying he was going to do something about it. So I don't know exactly what this commission does, but I do know that EPIC has a rather robust radio communications side. And I'm wondering if... You want something to replace what you have as opposed to just saying, oh, no, this really isn't something that we need to be concerned with because you definitely need to be concerned with it. So I would encourage you to think about it in those terms, not just to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but what are you going to do about the problem to begin with? And how might you approach it as far as that goes? And I am very much in support of getting more student commissioners because I see students as the future of this city. And anybody who wants to step up and take time to get involved is something that we should be encouraging. So I definitely want to see that happen. That would be great. I know that there is a change on public safety because the CERC program has been folded into something else, but the representative in this case is Norma Citron, and Norma Citron is a fabulous person to have on a commission and has been instrumental in making public safety efforts. I'm a little concerned about that as well. I really don't want to see that happen. Thanks very much.

OK. Christy, do we have comments? OK. So why don't we turn to council questions and comments.

Alicia, do you have any of those?

Do you want to go through each one? Yeah. I think, should we go individually? However you want.

Like one, two, three? On item number one, the introduction of the ordinance itself and the changes that were made in those chapters, does anybody have any issues? Alicia, do you have any?

I was going through this. I was looking at this. So wait, what page are you on? Because I was going through this chart.

Under recommendations, item number one is the introduction of the ordinance and the changes in the amendments.

Are you on page 65?

58. Well, 65 is where it's affected, but I mean, In general, the general changes, which are basically consolidating the ordinances. Yeah, the one that sheet you're looking at right now. Do you want to go through this? Can we put that on the screen, by the way?

That one blue, yeah, that thing.

There we go. So all except the CTC and the student commissioners, all of those changes. The other changes. Are you okay with those? Yes. Ed?

As well.

Okay. And I'm okay with them, too. So going on to the CTC, Alicia, issues on how do you feel about eliminating CTC? Which, by the way, just so the public knows, my understanding is that the CTC, whatever they're doing, will be covered mostly by the Planning Commission.

Mm-hmm.

And so I would also point out that the legislature has taken away a significant amount of authority. CTC used to have its own authority to do things, and now the statutes have all changed, and there's very little control that a CTC would have.

So oh did you my issue is our poor cell phone service unfortunately cannot be solved at the Commission level it's something that we need to continue working on citywide I mean that's my one issue but I don't think. I THINK THE WORK OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION IS GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORK THAT THE CTC WAS DOING. SO I DON'T HAVE ANY ISSUE WITH THAT. THE ISSUE OF IMPROVED CELL PHONE SERVICE IS SOMETHING THAT WE NEED TO KEEP WORKING ON AS A CITY. SO I WANT THAT. I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT THAT ACTUALLY FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS BUT I WANT THAT TO BE SOMETHING THAT'S ELEVATED AND UNFORTUNATELY I THINK THAT THOSE ARE THAT'S GETTING INVOLVED CONTINUING OUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES AND PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF City Hall, but something we need to keep working on. So I don't really have an issue with it.

OK. Ed?

Yeah, I completely agree with that.

I mean, I don't mind that. i agree with that i don't think i think adding it to planning commission is fine but it's going to require a lot more than just sending it down to planning it's going to take a supervisory level state level at least to move things around and improve it we haven't really moved the needle at all and it's been on the top priority list for years but we haven't made a dent so somehow we'll have to figure out a new dance or something that we can improve this. I remember I had mentioned years ago, I attended, I mentioned this to our city manager, a golf tournament when Tiger had the tournament at Sherwood and they didn't have any cell power. I wanted to call my mom. She was in New York and I think we were about to be on TV. I was with my son and I went to call and I didn't have any cell. So the next year we went to the tournament and had a helium balloon up there about 400 feet with an antenna and that worked. It worked really well. I've always wanted to try to try that. It is a problem with helicopters and what the height is because they had, but anyway, we need to do this and we need to really, capital letters soon.

Yeah, I did have a couple questions about the elimination of CTC. So one thing when I was going over this with Peter was, or Council Member Kraut, I had asked that the commissioners, that they not just be hearing about it like at a pink slip or something. Have they been talked to? Have you discussed this with them?

All of the commissioners were advised about this meeting and the discussion that would be happening immediately after our ad hoc committee meeting.

And was there anything said or done that would be relevant to this discussion, like please don't fire me or whatever?

No, there wasn't any expression like that. Again, we invited those to come to the meeting if they wanted to voice any concern about that decision.

OK, well, you know, I'm fine with this. I think the Planning Commission can do this. I mean, I'm sorry that this is happening, because historically, the CTC Commission was very prominent. It was one of our first commissions. And then the legislature took over control of the cable so that we don't have power over the franchises anymore. They took control over, you know, cell tower placement and things like that. So we have no control over that. And basically, the way it works is the utility companies are very powerful, and they have a lot of money. And they use it lavishly on campaigns. They donate to the state legislature and the governor. The governor appoints. appointees to the California Public Utilities Commission. They're confirmed by the legislature. And if you look at their biographies like I have, they're all from the industry. So the consumer just gets screwed every time. And that's just the way it goes in California. So unfortunately, unless we want to have our own utilities, which would be impossible for a city of our size, that's why we've been depowered. We're like it went from a stallion to a gelding. Okay, so. We'll move on to the next item.

Mayor, could I speak to the fiber optic, just for a minute since that was brought up? That's a good point. Transitioning from the other conversation. And Council Member Weintraub, I think this goes to your question about a future agenda item. As many of you are aware, and especially the Council, the COG, the Council of Governments, the five cities that make up Malibu, Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, and Westlake Village, The COG is currently working on a fiber optic project to bring broadband to our area. This is a very big project and probably the biggest project that the COG has undertaken in its history. It'll be about a $12 million project that connects, again, all five cities with broadband, $12 plus million. And what that backbone will do then is there's a second group that will come in once that fiber is laid throughout the cities that will expand fiber then into the neighborhoods beyond that backbone. So that will be the next step with taking it from the backbone into the neighborhood and closer proximity to the schools. Council Member Weintraub, to your point on cell phone coverage, a lot of that will be solved with a fiber optic, meaning as that network expands, they will have the capabilities of putting for lack of better terms, hotspots that will relay cell service based on the fiber optic. So what I'd like to do, if we could, and this was already something we were planning to do, is have our COG representatives come back in October with a presentation on the fiber project, and that way we could talk about the backbone, CitySide's efforts then to expand that, and then the benefits that we'll see from that project, both in fiber optic and cell phone coverage. I think it covers both. But I think that, again, going back to the point of the CTC, again, that is outside of our hands because it is a project being done by the COG. So even the commission wouldn't be able to oversee that because it's a COG-owned fiber optic. It's not a city-owned fiber optic per se. But again, I'd like to come back and answer that question about cell phone coverage but also the other potential benefits of the fiber optic running through our communities in October, if I could do that.

OK, the last item to be discussed is the student commissions. We didn't know until today that Peter would be unavailable for the council meeting, so I thought he would be here. But to present the difference in a nutshell, I felt that having the an alternate student commissioner would be beneficial because it would involve a greater number of students in learning about their government and taking that extra role. And Peter felt that it would be cumbersome for the commissions to have an extra person and that it would be unnecessary to do so. So I hope I'm representing his thoughts accurately. I wish he were here to do it himself. But that was the difference, and that's the only thing that we differed on in the entire discussion here. We reached consensus on every other item. So it's up to the council. I don't know. We could wait until he's here. I don't know what to say. I have some comments.

Yeah, go ahead. The bigger issue to me is not whether or not we modify the current number of student commissioners. It's making sure that all the student commissioners are appointed in the same fashion. And right now, some commissions have the same commissioner for three years. Some commissioners had to apply in front of the whole commission. Others had to work with a subcommittee. The rules were just not clear to everyone. So I think for student commissioners, it should be the length of term. how you're interviewed, and everything should be consistent so it's fair to all the students applying. Some commissions have the student's name and bio in their agenda packets. Others don't. It wasn't fair, and it was a really difficult process for a lot of students this past year. So I want to change that for them so that it's a more fair process to begin with.

The consistency can sometimes be difficult depending on the amount of applications. I'll take Environmental Commission, for example. They typically get a wider range of applications. So it's harder to narrow those down. So they opted to do PowerPoint presentations and kind of have the students do a little bit more versus just reviewing the applications. So it's not always a one-two-fits-all. Some commissions only get one student applying. Others will get students that check all the boxes. So it is more difficult.

I just know the pre-commission had two subcommittee interview student commissioners. Others had to give presentations. And I think it really should be, even if it's one student versus 20, it should be the same process. And is one commission allowing students to stay on for one year? Is another for three years? I just want it to be streamlined so everyone has the same expectations.

Thank you for that feedback.

Yeah. And especially in the agenda packets, some commissions had all the information on the student and some didn't. So yeah. If we can fix that, I think.

And Councilmember, if I could add to that. So one of the things that we are working on with the ad hoc committee as well is a commissioner handbook. And I'm gonna turn to our legal counsel on this in just a minute, but I think we can address that in the handbook, the commission handbook, instead of the ordinance itself. So there's uniformity in the application process and in the selection process for the student commissioners. And that way it's not embedded in the ordinance.

Well, for some commissions, it's the staff interviewing the students. On others, it's the commissioners. I think it just needs to be streamlined.

And we can make that consistent in the handbook. And again, that handbook will come back to the council and be approved by the council. But I just wanted to check with Pam on that. Is that a better fit for the handbook? Or is that uniformity better situated to live inside the ordinance itself?

the ordinance really should speak to the term the number and any potential requirements and any procedural issues related to the process of appointment that should be included in the handbook okay and qualifications as well my question is with the student commissioners if it's i think it needs to be all the commissions not just one

Yeah, and you repeat that you mean that all Commission's have the same same number of students got you.

Okay, so That's my take and that would be in the ordinance, right? So it can't just be one Commission's like we want.

Oh, yeah two students and another Commission That was not an issue between me and Peter the issue was whether it's one or or one and an alternate right and I so

So is the question here tonight, is it one and an alternate?

Well, I was going to propose something, because I think Peter would like to be heard on this. And David, I'm sure, would want to weigh in, too. Can we pass everything but that? Or is it easier just to continue the whole thing?

I think with it being an ordinance, let's do it all at once. That would be the simplest. And so what we can do is continue this discussion to the October 14th meeting. And then that would be the first reading of the ordinance at that time.

OK, and Ed, you didn't get a chance to say anything.

It's relative to what you're bringing up. I think one of the things that we want is having students engaged. And take one commission, for example, and that's the Environmental Commission. We've got so many kids that want to be a part of that on so many levels. It's a wonderful commission. They can't have enough seats. So I want to see if we could find some way where we could not turn those children, those students down, but maybe they can play a role in a committee or some movement, something that they're planning, not necessarily in the meeting substance itself, but yet there be connected in a way where they feel their future potential for being on that commission as an assigned person.

And I also want to stress the Mayor's Youth Council is a great opportunity for students to apply to get involved. And within the Mayor's Youth Council, students can form their own subcommittees. So someone can join the Mayor's Youth Council and present that they want to work on environmental issues. So there's lots of ways for students to get involved and make a meaningful difference.

And those students become something in the future. The future could be right here. The future could be in their careers. While they're there, they make friendships. They talk at school. They have lunch together. It's a group that I don't want to disband.

Mayor Pro Tem, if I could add to that, as Council Member Weidentra mentioned, the Mayor's Youth Council is actually the better vehicle for greater youth involvement because there's a cap on the number of students, but there is not a cap on how many students participate in an activity. So, for example, if they create an environmental subcommittee and they decide to do a creek cleanup or they decide to do an environmental project, they can invite their friends to participate in that activity. They can invite colleagues and other students from the school to participate.

So that would serve its purpose.

Correct. And so the mayor's youth council has that ability to draw in a greater number of students to participate in an event or an activity or a project, whereas the commission doesn't. We would be limited on that.

But in a commission, you're not getting a lot of students in all the commissions. The two most popular are Mayor's Youth Council and the Environmental.

I think this year we had tons of applicants.

We have a student on every commission.

And kids were turned away from every commission this year.

Well, this will satisfy that. If we could apply that same approach to other commissions, if students want to get involved in an activity, they're allowed to do that.

Yeah, for example, with the Environmental Commission, again, if students wanted to participate on the Environmental Commission's forum, they could serve as volunteers on that commission without having a seat on the commission as an alternate or as a student commissioner.

I like the language of the forum. I like that language, and I hope we can put that in the handbook.

We always encourage, you know, adults and students to participate in our activities and our events and serve in volunteers in those capacities, but they may not necessarily have a commissioner title with that.

Okay, so we'll decide this issue next time. Let us have a motion to continue. Is the next meeting getting too crowded or not?

Move. Second.

Okay, motion to continue to the next meeting. All those in favor? Aye. 3-0. OK, so we are now at verbal reports. And Alicia, I know you had a future agenda item as well.

Yeah, at our meeting with SCE, one of the things that came up was that Charter and AT&T were supposed to have their own backup plans so that when the power goes down, they're able to still provide services. And they had mentioned in the meeting that Malibu had an all-hands meeting with, I think it was AT&T and Charter. But I was just wondering if we could look at who Malibu met with and replicate that meeting.

Yes, if there's direction from two or more council members, we can look into that.

Yes, fine.

Okay.

I'm for that. Great.

Oh, that's it. Sorry.

Ed? Yes. A verbal report. Anything you want to say?

Yeah, I was just daydreaming for a minute because I was thinking about when you mentioned AT&T and Charter. It seems like all these years we've lived here, whenever it rains hard, when they went to fiber optic, fiber optics gets wet, and they were down today, and AT&T was down. It was the heavy rain that caused that. Yeah. Anyway, my announcements and verbal report, just a few. I attended the Clean Power Alliance Board of Directors meeting and we are also gonna be having our annual retreat and this year it's gonna be at USC. And also with Clean Power Alliance, we really have enjoyed having them in our city and the benefits are so much. They've also entered into a battery energy storage system, which is a widespread growth that's really reduced pressure on the grid. There's so many batteries that are being used now in residential and in commercial that the grid's getting less pressure, not because of what happened with greater mole width in that. That's a circuit problem. But just in general, it's really great. We haven't had rolling blackouts as much, and it's been as hot as we can remember in a long time on top of it. So these battery storage systems are also going to be helping single family homes with cooling assistance, multi-family with cooling partners and limited EV charging in apartments case by case. So it's spreading its wings all over this area in the region. I also attended Rotary. Always nice to see what the good work that they do and keep up on it. And then I attended the Chamber Community Education Forum just yesterday with Dr. Stefanosky and learned a little bit more about what's going on with our wonderful school district where the grades are through the roof. That's my report.

Okay. I will tell you that we will not be having a second regular meeting in September because the council will be attending the League of California Cities Convention. Most of us will be in Anaheim, so that's why we had to cancel it. However, our next meeting is actually going to be a special meeting on September 30th. Okay. That will be a special meeting here, and I believe it's 7 o'clock. Six o'clock, okay. It's devoted solely to the appeal regarding the Avalon Bay expansion. There's no other agenda item on there.

Okay.

With that, city manager's report.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple items. We're excited to report that our new chief financial officer and our new city librarian will start on Monday. So we look forward to introducing those two individuals to you. Very talented, very experienced hires. We're excited to have them join the team. Also, just recently, our city staff participated in an emergency operation center training. We spent almost the entire day simulating a fire here in our community and then working through that process of injects and other drills that would help us hone our skills and prepare ourselves in the event of a real emergency. We appreciate those who participated and also a nod to Epic who has been able to assist us in our EOC with their echo and their outreach on the shortwave radios. And also, I just want to acknowledge just all the work that our staff is doing. We talked about the storms. Daniel mentioned the upcoming El Nino. We already are participating in different trainings and webinars and other events to prepare for those storms. I know our public works is very active and mindful of our areas that are prone to flooding and looking at ways to prepare for that through cleaning out the storm drains and other things as we look at a very wet winter coming ahead.

Okay, so we have no other agenda items in front of us, so I will adjourn the meeting and it is 8.30 p.m.