Council - Regular Meeting

Good. Good afternoon everyone. On this bright and early afternoon at 100 p.m. we are going to be calling the Anaheim City Council meeting to order. Clerk, could you please call roll? Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bis present. Council member Leon, present. Council member Palva, present. Council member Curts, present. Council member Ma, present. Mayor Prom Meeks, present. Mayor Aken, here. Let the record show we have all seven members present. The first item on our agenda is the workshop on the strategic plan. At this time, we're going to accept public comments on the workshop. Clerk, do we have any inerson speakers addressing the workshop?

Mayor, we do. We have one inerson um speaker or we had a card from Dwayne Roberts. And the time limit is three minutes. Welcome, Mr. Roberts.

Dwayne Roberts, editor and publisher, anaheiminvestigator.com. Uh, I'm here before you this afternoon to briefly address an item that was touched upon at last year's workshop on the strategic plan. Though I don't know if it will come up today, it's something I find intriguing given my knowledge of local law enforcement. The item in question, which was listed under public safety, dealt with the potential of establishing a police training facility in Anaheim. My question is this. Why? Orange County already has a robust infrastructure in place to offer recruits all of the training they need to become police officers. For example, the Orange County Sheriff's Department operates two majormies, one of which is located not far from Angel Stadium. In addition, Golden West College hosts the criminal justice training center offering both basic and advanced law enforcement education. These regional facilities are not only very modern and upto-date, but have the capacity of graduating upwards of 950 officers annually. Building another police training facility really doesn't make any sense. It just duplicates existing resources and wastes taxpayer money. I thank you very much for your time,

mayor and city council. That concludes our in-person speakers and we did not receive any electronic comments on the workshop. Thank you. So, we'll close the public comment portion of the workshop and turn it over to city manager. Can you please present our workshop? Thank you, Mayor, members of the council and public. I'd like to ask uh Deputy City Manager Ted White to make a presentation on our strategic plan.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. Ted White, deputy city manager. With me today is assistant city manager Greg Garcia and budget manager Deian Lee. We're supported by the city's executive team who are also here and available to answer any questions. Today's workshop will serve as an update to the city's 10-year strategic plan which was adopted in April 2024. And as a reminder, the strategic plan established six thematic goals. ensuring fiscal responsibility, enhancing livability, expanding infrastructure and amenities, fostering a high performing organization, promoting public safety, and encouraging development and tourism. The discussion today is intended to kick off a conversation with council regarding two of the strategies included in the goal of maintaining fiscal responsibility. The strategies are identify potential new funding sources and revenue to increase city revenues to maintain and enhance city services as well as create a plan for the responsible use of LPMR um also known as the resort improvement bonds. Before we jump into the list of ambitious projects we hope to accomplish in the future, I thought it'd be helpful to briefly set the stage to recognize the thriving city we enjoy today. Anaheim is an extraordinary place and a industry-leading organization. Anaheim is the 10th largest city in California by population. It's the largest and oldest city in Orange County. We are a fullervice city with historic and high-erforming police and fire rescue departments. And we proudly operate one of Southern California's most respected public utilities. Our public works department maintains 50 square miles of infrastructure and 580 miles of roadway. And our parks department has built and maintain 68 parks, seven libraries, and 12 community senators centers. I highlight some of

these basic building blocks of the community because it's important to recognize what has been accomplished as a community and as an organization. In light of the fact that Anaheim's residents enjoy the lowest tax burden of any large city in California, we have of course been able to accomplish this unique feat because of the visionary decisions of city leadership over many decades to invest in and grow a worldclass tourism economy that today provides over 140 million in net surplus revenue to the city through the 26 million plus visitors to Anaheim's theme parks and entertainment attractions. Okay, we've got a lot to cover this afternoon, so uh we're going to get right into it. I will I will briefly provide an update to the strategic plan top priorities, then go over a list of strategies that have significant capital or operational expenses associated with them so that you can get a sense of the costs associated with these projects or programs. We will take a look at the budget forecast and turn our attention to a review of potential revenue policy options and strategies you may wish to consider. We'll then turn the item over to council for discussion and uh questions. For reference, this slide shows the council's top priorities established in the strategic plan and memorial and it's as well as memorialized on the wall to your right. Uh as mentioned, we're discussing two of these priorities today. I would also highlight um ongoing investments on Beach Boulevard is making significant progress on addressing blight and improving major street corridors. The economic development strategy plan is underway with stakeholder engagement and council consideration both scheduled for first quarter 2026. Fire station number 12 is nearing completion. The ATID modernization project which expands affordable housing and home ownership opportunities was or is also being considered and will be

finalized tonight. Um, and our recently revamped district community meetings as well as our new and improved community calendar will launch in early 2026. Our expanding community engagement, communication, and outreach. We can revisit this slide at the end of the presentation. Should you wish to dig into these prior priorities further, we'll now turn our attention to an overview of strategies and and associated costs that can be used by council to help discuss prioritization of strategies. We've focused on the priorities in the first five years uh buckets one one and two and three to five. Um and just quickly responding to the previous um uh speaker the police training facility which is in the five to 10 year bucket is not part of this discussion. In any conversation regarding the prioritization of strategies, it's important to note the the strategy related to an appropriate general fund and reserve balances to ensure sufficient reserves for for future catastrophic events. Given the reliance on tourism is the main driver of our city's revenue, a strong reserve balance is more important to our city's financial strategy than other cities that rely on property tax and sales tax as their main sources of revenue. Current city policy is to maintain a minimum reserve balance of 7 to 10%. However, best practice for a city like Anaheim would be to maintain a reserve balance of closer to 20%. In order to do this, we would need to build up the city's reserves by approximately 50 to 75 million over a period of time beginning in 2028 and following LPMR payoff. There are three strategies related to supporting public safety that would be that would require significant capital and/or operational costs. A new police headquarters is expected to cost somewhere between 250 and 350 million to construct. A new fire station will cost

approximately 25 to 30 million. And in order to reduce police and fire response times, additional officers and/or fire personnel would be required. As an example for budgeting perspective, 10 officers, police officers would cost approximately 3.2 million per year. There are two strategies in the goal of enhancing livability that could require significant capital or operational expenditures to address neighborhood blight. Council may wish to consider uh strategic acquisitions of certain derelic commercial properties, including potentially blightinducing motel. Council has also expressed an interest in potentially supporting affordable housing programs with general fund resources. The slide is here for reference as the implementation of the classification and compensation study is already underway which will bring various employee classifications to competitive um compensation ranges in line with council direction. The longest list of strategies that require uh capital or operational resources are in the goal of infrastructure and amenities. These include new senior centers which would be8 to$15 million each to construct. A new sports complex uh we would need initial funding of of approximately 200,000 to study but could cost upwards of hundred million or more to construct. a downtown civic center uh which could potentially include a new city hall and or library which has a broad range um but could be anywhere from 100 to 500 million depending on scope and approach. uh improving and beautifying major corridors, which could be 10 uh to 20 million a year uh in ongoing uh um resources to make a meaningful dent. And a mobility plan to connect our major attractions, which again is highly dependent on technology and approach, but could be um hundred million dollars or more.

Investing in the maintenance of our uh streets as as measured by the street paving index uh and a score of 75 plus could require uh five to 30 million per year to make meaningful progress. New parks on Edison easements would likely need to be budgeted at approximately 5 million uh per acre for improvements. A public pool would be budgeted at approximately 30 million. deferred maintenance of city facilities as as an as an approximately $5 million per year for a period of 20 years. OC Riverwalk is another major capital expense and importantly potential to resort 2.0 investments. They they're unknown at this time, but it is an important strategy to keep in mind as a priority as we look to ensure that the resort continues to grow as the economic engine of the city. It's important to note that we're not saying that the full cost of these strategies will fall on the general fund. Uh grant funding and other tools and partnerships will need to play a significant role in order to accomplish many of these strategies. But before we jump in the into the budget, I I'd take a pause here and just see if there were any questions on the strategies or I can keep on cranking.

I have a question. Thank you, Ted. If um you could pause one moment, Council Member Rubikala, can you just give some clarity on what Resort 2.0 reinvestment is?

Sure. Yes. And and so, you know, some of that is to is to be determined. However, there are um you know, we do have an ad hoc committee that is meeting to talk about um potential um reinvestment in the resort and that could be anything from um pedestrian improvements to planning that needs to be done for allowing the next kind of generation of of growth and and private investment. Um but also placemaking um improvements, making sure that we're really kind of positioning the resort to be um uh you know, viable and actually uh continue the economic engine for the next 30 40 years and facilitate the additional millions of uh visitors that we'd like to have

because that was the intention of the resort from the beginning to be the economic engine for the city. That's correct. Yes. Thank you. Um can you tell me how much we invested in resort 1.0?

Yeah. So the you know what resort 1.0 I know, right? Is is an interesting I like the framing um of obviously there was the 1950s um you know version of the resort right with the original Disneyland. Um but you know given that we're we're talking about sort of the 1990s sort of reimagining of the resort which um which led to the the original bonding I believe was 500. Yeah. Uh 510 million was the resort improvement bonds that uh we were able to make the improvements to the uh to the resort that kickstarted our our latest generation of investments.

And what kind of improvements did was did it were included? And I I'm asking for public um I think it's important for the public to understand how much investment the city has made into the resort as well. We know that toot is not it's kind of a young thing that we've had in our city for less than 25 30 years. So um I think it's important for everybody to understand the investment that our taxpayer dollars have gone to generate or create this economic engine that we have so gratefully in Anaheim.

Sure. Yeah. that. So that did include the um the the Disney parking structure as well. That was part of it. Um but as well as other improvements, the beautifification improvements that you um see along Harbor and Catella sign uh rebate programs, various infrastructure problem um projects, partnerships with Calrans, um bridges, um you know, a very an entire litany of of improvements that went into those um went into to that uh investment. Okay, thank you. And I'll probably have follow-up questions on that, but for now, you can move on. Thank you, Council Member Bis, and then Council Member Meeks, or sorry, Mayor Prom Meeks.

Thank you. I'm not sure if this is I know there's still more to go, so if you're going to cover this in the future slides, just tell me to be quiet for a second. But when I look up here and look at this, I see some costs that are on here. And I don't know, uh, did we do some due diligence on these costs? Are we taking them from other measures? And for example, I see two things that stick out to me. First off, we going to create a new park on an Edison easement. A lot of those easements already have grass on them. And I know we've got uh what is I think it's Boison Park roughly 30 million at 17 acres. That's one, let's call it 2 million an acre. I see we we've dumped it to five for here. And then my second question is I have to imagine when I see the deferred maintenance at $5 million a year for 20 years. I have parks that have deferred maintenance that I think I can suck up more than your $5 million uh per year. And so I'm wondering how did that number come about? And is is is that a legitimate number or we have we underestimated that number at all?

Thank you. Thank you. And it's a it's a really great question. I think it gives us the opportunity to kind of talk about a little bit about this. You know, I think the best way to look at these numbers is really sort of order of magnitude um as you're considering sort of which things fall into the um you know, hundred million dollar range versus the $5 million range. Um this is not intended to be, you know, there's some spec specificity. We have recent examples of around a fire station of what that would would cost, but some of these ranges, as you'll see, you know, can vary very widely. Um, and it's really intended to just sort of start the conversation. We would need to then get into details on any of these as you prioritize um which um you which items you and strategies you'd like to see move forward. Um, we did obviously talk with our with our team to try to get realistic numbers around that and to be a and for example on deferred maintenance. That doesn't necessarily mean that covers all of things and we bring everything up to brand new, you know, with every city facility by any means. Um rather that's just sort of looking at what that would take to mean to make meaningful progress with um with with putting specific funding around deferred maintenance.

I guess I appreciate that. I guess I just if we're using this as a tool to come up with strategy, I think it's important to have a number that's uh I I just want to make sure that there's value in that number, I guess, because it's important for us to understand is 5 million what it is or is it 25 million? And when I look out there and see it, I I I see more than five. But that that's fair. And I think that's accurate to say, council member, that, you know, again, to bring everything up to, you know, like new standards, right, to replace all of the, for example, to just as an example, right, to replace all the um bathrooms in every one of our parks, clearly going to take more than five million a year in order to do something like that.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. I just wanted to add a little more um clarity to the cost of the resort improvements. And just to be clear, we I mean the bonds paid for those improvements and it was improvements like infrastructure. Yes, there was the parking structure, but there was storm drains and sewers and street widenings and placemaking which included a lot of the landscaping and the signage and the directional signage and things like that. And uh just so everybody understands, the U toot was paid for those bonds. So none of that money, none of that 500 million came out of the city's general fund at any point in time. And that and that was guaranteed by the agreement with Disney that it would never go into eat into the city's general fund. So I think that's an important um piece that it was always an upside for the city. Okay. I think um Oh, council member um did Bis and then council member Rubakala.

Oh, thank you. I was just going to say but the TOT did pay it down but it would have gone to the general fund but it was diverted from the general fund to pay down the bonds. So just for purpose of clarity, but it would never would have existed. Yeah, but it would but still Okay, let's not have a back and forth right now. I we can talking. Well, yes, but that is well, you don't know how to run a meeting. Um, so what I would like is um if you have I know we're going to probably deep do a little bit deeper dive into um whether future bonds are going to be a potential revenue stream as part of a larger way to pay for some of the ideas people have. So, we can get to it there. Council member Bis, thank you for your patience.

No problem. This again might not be the right place, but we've we've listed the costs on here. I notice that for some of these it's also going to be an increased cost in terms of operational but I didn't see that listed here. So do we talk about that in other locations or are we also considering operational costs along with the uh static costs of the building?

No, thank you and another great question there. So there are certain um types of these that would require additional so for a public pool for example, right? maintenance ongoing as well as staffing. Um would be additional expenses. All right. Uh we're going to get into kind of budget overview at this point. So uh we've talked about kind of what we'd like to accomplish. Uh let's turn our attention to the city's budget to see what we're working with. Uh we will quickly go over the adopted uh 20 2526 budget. As a refresher, our big three revenues uh toot, sales tax, and property taxes make up 74% of the general fund revenue sources. The largest piece is uh toot at 39%. Sales and use taxes make up 18% and property taxes make up 17%. Anticipated revenue from TOOT this year is 247 million. The resort area accounts for 97% um of all toot revenue. Anticipated revenue from sales and use taxes this year is 115 million. Uh the resort area accounts for 28% or 32 million of that sales tax revenue. The tax rate in Anaheim is 7.7 u 7.7% of retail sales. The city receives 1 cent of every dollar spent in Anaheim. About 30% of our retail sales sales tax comes from general retail and the remaining 70% is shared among uh food, transportation, construction and business to all business categories. Pretty diverse economy. Uh anticipated revenue from property taxes this year is approximately 111 million. The resort area accounts for about 15% of all property taxes received. Now that we've seen where the revenue

comes from, let's look at where the money goes. The pie chart on the left shows general fund expenditures by service group. Um, over 64% of our expenditures go to keeping us safe, which includes police and fire, and is typical of local government. Labor expenditures of 371 million make up nearly 70% of our general fund budget, as indicated on the chart on the right. I'm going to pivot to talk about the some of that aforementioned debt obligations as well. So in 1997, the Anaheim Public Financing Authority issued lease revenue bonds to finance the construction of improvements in the resort. That was the 510 million mentioned. To pay off the bonds, the city uses revenue from increases to resort revenue sources as outlined in the slide. The slide also shows the remaining LPMR payoffs. 114 million in 2026 and 119 million in 2027, which assumes a payoff in spring of 2027. It's important to note the resort has been so successful that thanks in part to the resort improvement um funded by these bonds that the LPMR will be retired nearly 10 years ahead of the original anticipated schedule. In addition to resort improvement bonds, the city has other bonds and borrowing debt on the books. In 2020, in response to COVID, the city borrowed money from internal funds to keep operations going. Anticipated outstanding principle on this borrowing is expected to be 27 million in 2029 with an annual debt service of 2 million. In 20 in 2021, the public uh utility financing authority issued, excuse me, not just public financing authority, issued 138 million in working capital bonds to minimize the impacts of the pandemic and preserve city services. The working capital bonds

are still being used today to bridge an ongoing structural deficit or gap in city revenues and expenses, approximately uh 69 million in fiscal year 2526. Also in 2021, the financing authority issued 250 million in refunding bonds for the Anaheim Convention Center expansions and other capital improvements related to convention center expansion. The slide shows the total anticipated outstanding principle on on this borrowing in July of 2029, which is expected to be approximately 357 million with an annual debt service approximately 24 million. Paying down this debt um early to free up long-term resources is a potential strategy council may wish to prioritize.

And can may I ask a question on the last slide, please? We refinance the convention center debt and does that get paid the 13.2 million a year? Where does that come from? That's paid from the general fund. It is from the general fund. So, um why is So, I guess is there I know there's an enterprise fund for the convention center that does not go for the bond repayment.

So, I think the intention with the the expansion to the convention center was that it would drive increases to toot revenue and would benefit the city. So, decisions at that point in time were made to fund those those improvements. Thank you very much. This slide is a review of the current amended general fund forecast for with council approved changes. As a reminder, we're balancing uh with the use of one-time money, including the balance of the working capital bond proceeds, the 10 million previously set aside for repayment of debt, and the proceeds from the Hilton parking structure sale. We're still estimating that LPMR will be paid off in April of 2027. Um, I would note that this plan does not include any labor agreements beyond those that have already been approved by council. So, you've seen this slide before, but we wanted to provide it for reference and we can um kind of revisit it as we go. Um, while the while the five-year forecast is balanced with the use of reserves, it does not contemplate the threat of recession or other risks that could cause the deficit to grow and fund balances to drop. Any revenue loss associated with a recession could also compromise the projected payoff of the LPMR revenue bonds. For illustrative purposes, the first table is an estimate of what the of what the impacts of the big three revenues could be if there is a recession. We're not predicting a recession, but just providing this as an example to demonstrate the magnitude of potential losses. The table includes the projected loss of budget revenue growth as well as the amount of each 1% contraction should a recession uh occur. The 1% amount can be factored into estimate lesser or greater declines or even potential gains that that we could realize. the citywide class and comp study an expiring memorandum of

understanding with several labor group labor groups being added risk to the five uh adds risk excuse me to the five-year forecast. Just like the revenues, 1% is provided to demonstrate the magnitude and can be used to factor the impact of different scenarios. The five-year forecast does not include any salary adjustments beyond what is contractually obligated in the current agreements. Salary amounts negotiated more than 1% would have a proportionately greater effect. On the positive side of the ledger, ongoing development investments portend significant new revenues to the city in forthcoming years. Disney's commitment to invest a minimum of $2 billion in visitor inducing uh experiences such as new theme park attractions and hospitality offerings is expected to generate approximately 30 million per year and an on in ongoing revenue by 2034. In addition, OC Vibes $5 billion plus investment in new hotels, entertainment venues, office and residential is expected to generate approximately 10 million annually um to the general fund. We also expect other new hotels to be constructed in the resort over the next 5 to 10 years as well as commercial developments such as the new Porsche auto dealership. Um that will also bring new revenues to the city. To summarize the budget landscape, LPMR will be paid off as soon as 2027. The city is bridging a $69 million structural deficit this year using working capital bonds. This will and continue and grow until LPMR is paid off. The general fund will receive will receive approximately 57 million per year net new revenue in 2028 assuming retirement of the LPMR debt and eliminating the structural budget deficit. However, city operational costs, primarily labor, are a significant rest to the availability of

these future um LPMR generated funds. and that that surplus that we'll have um and then concluding but new revenue from development is expected in the next 5 to 10 years. So we've uh we've looked at the budget and the forecast. Wanted to to briefly kind of look at some different tools and options that we have for um funding. Um the first is a review of some basic kind of funding approaches that we currently use or could potentially use to fund various projects. Pay as you go is our normal approach to for annual budgets. Simply put, this approach pays for projects directly from available annual revenues. This type of funding is great for small projects and maintenance of ongoing programs. It's not typically a practical tool for paying for large capital projects. With pay as you go, there's no debt or interest, and it provides the greatest flexibility in spending. Looking at bonds, here are some characteristics of bond finance projects. They're usually long-term, and the project should last at least as long as the bond payment repayment period. That's typically about 20 to 30 years. And projects paid by bonds need to have a public benefit, or you want them to have a public benefit, meaning the project should serve a broad um public need. Bonding helps manage the upfront cost of something that's essential but too expensive to fund out of an annual budget or pay as you go. Also with bonds they spread the cost across multiple generations that will benefit from the project. So there's uh you know potential for a view of equitable cost distribution there. Um here are now some examples of risky bonds though to consider. You wouldn't want to use bonds for routine maintenance, programs with high operational costs like staffing and projects that are speculative or unproven technologies. Public private partnerships as another funding uh tool is what we call P3s or

public private partnerships. These are contractual agreements where private entities will finance, build, and or operate public projects. It's best for revenue generating assets such as parking structures or cutting edge mobility systems for examples. But several pro um jurisdictions have also used P3s to to build new civic center complexes such as the county of Orange and the city of Long Beach. Uh an advantage of P3 P3s is the risk shifts somewhat to the private sector and leverages private capital. The other slide uh the other side of it is it can be complex and there's always a need to make sure that the public benefit is protected and prioritized. Moving on to grant funding. Grants go to uh to go to specific projects or programs that can be funded by federal, state, or regional private funds or private funds, excuse me. Grants are great for one-time um improvement projects such as parks or or other uh one-time projects. They're also good for pilot programs and projects that can sunset if and when the grant expires. Grants help reduce the local burden of funding these projects and programs. However, they are highly competitive and typically come with requirements that we have to mold then the project around less flexibility. Uh sometimes the grant funding can also require matching local funds. So lastly, we're going to turn uh to look at revenue policy options. Um this is not a list intended to be exhaustive but to highlight and provide context in terms of the impact um again kind of order of magnitude that various policy options could have on the city's general fund revenues. As I mentioned earlier, Anaheim has the lowest tax burden of any large city in California. Tourism and and visitors pay our bills as we do not have a local sales tax measure. So, a local sales tax measure could generate and could be

something the council wishes to consider anywhere from 25 to 100 million a year to our general fund. Um, it would be a reliable locally controlled option that does not require um voter approval. Um, and while it may impact um businesses and residents, it also diversifies city revenue streams and creates general fund dollars, which in turn could serve our community. As we have with our own uh municipal not for-profit utility, our our rates are much lower than many uh neighboring cities and for-profit providers. So, there is an option to consider a utility user fee. That would also require voter approval as it would impact our rateayers and revenues may decrease with conservation um efforts over time. But it does provide us a broad it would provide us a broad base of reliable and locally controlled revenue. An option to look at as well is to raise our existing transit occupancy taxes, also called the hotel stay tax or TOT. A 1% increase from 15% of rate to 16% would result in approximately a $15 million increase to the general fund. Monies are primarily funded by visitors and tourism with the low impact on residents and businesses. However, we are already at or near the top of the market with a 15% toot rate and this could impact our competitiveness in the market. In addition, we've seen that as a destination city, we cannot rely solely on toot as it is vulnerable to uh closures and catastrophic events such as the COVID pandemic. An item that we've discussed recently um but wanted to make sure that we're presenting them all is the tourism or

admissions tax that was uh considered by council um in October. This would be um separate from toot but still funded primarily by visitors and tourism. This could apply to admission into privately owned or operated theme parks, sports and entertainment events or venues across our city that have a high capacity. Um associated with that with that item as well was the parking tax. A parking tax could generate roughly 20 to$30 million a year. We don't currently have a parking tax uh on on large um uh structures and this could apply to parking facilities that have that again have that higher capacity in in the resort and at our large um entertainment venues. We would likely see an in an increase in revenue associated with this over time with new parking structures and and additional development. Next up would be a a documentary real estate transfer tax. maybe just a real estate transfer tax, also called a DTT in the industry. Um, it's essentially a one-time fee when real estate is sold or transferred based on the market. Um, this is a it can be an unpredictable uh revenue source and it and it is typically a a tiered tax, meaning more expensive properties sold. There are higher rates um lower taxes and and rates uh for lower um properties. Um, this works best as a supplemental or strategic funding, not for core operating expenses because it can drop slow um sharply in slow markets where there aren't a lot of transactions occurring onto uh Angel Stadium. So potential revenue from the sale or lease of of Angel Stadium and the surrounding property is is of course, you know, unknown at at this time and will require a lengthy and complex process and set of

considerations. Staff would, however, like to get council direction on the potential first steps in this discussion. We believe the time is right to engage in preliminary conversations with the state regarding the surplus land act process and other state level considerations to move a project forward that could positively impact the Southern California economy and see the development of muchneeded affordable and market rate housing and other community benefits. Staff suggests the following next steps and would like direction from council. engage with the state department of housing and community development regarding an appropriate surplus land act process and with our state representatives regarding an approach. Number two, finalize the stadium assessment which is expected to be completed in in Q2 of 2026. And then um and then embark on a community um input pro in input process to capture uh the community's priorities and ideas around um any potential future um development agreement or or or approach. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna now cover quickly a number of of um less impactful potential programs. Um I'll touch on these briefly to kind of get us to the to the end zone here. Um a billboard program is something that council could also consider. Potential revenues of maybe one to$2 million a year. uh revenue might be limited if we wanted to do a billboard exchange program where we saw the the removal of billboards um in exchange for new billboards on freeways. This would be general fund revenue. It is passive income. Um oh, thank you very much. Sorry. Um and uh but you know on balance may be considered you know more billboards could be considered as visual um blight on the community.

I was putting the wrong button the whole time. Thank you. Um, development impact fees. Um, again, somewhat smaller revenue. This is actually coming to council for consideration. Um, updated development impact fees in January. So, I won't spend too much time on this one because we are going to be modernizing those development impact fees here and that will be forthcoming to you. Downtown parking fees again potentially um something to offset the uh cost of maintaining uh our downtown parking assets. However, fairly limited income um start on the low side of you know maybe half a million dollars a year. Um, and you know, while this could generate revenue to the city, there are potential downsides of of um, you know, maybe incentivizing people to not park in our structures and and impact potentially local communities as well as um, you know, our our business community um, may have some impacts depending if people choose to go elsewhere because they don't want to pay for for parking. So, tradeoffs there with a potential downtown parking uh, program. um naming rights for the Anaheim Arena. Um again, somewhat probably um limited um funding here. Um maybe in the neighborhood of a quarter million, half a million uh dollars um at most. For context, um Tom was telling me the the Honda Center gets $4 million a year for the Honda Center. And that's obviously a regional draw. So the Anaheim Arena would likely be fairly limited in its in the revenue that could be generated by something like this. That does have the potential to generate some general fund revenue or it could be potentially used to um you know do debt service on existing bonds. Um a cannabis program. So you know mixed results with cannabis programs around uh

in in neighboring cities. um revenues have not necessarily um kept up with what was expected in um in forecasted revenues. It does also come with um significant administrative um overhead from the city attorney's office, code enforcement, potentially police as well. Um and um and there are challenges in in in setting up a program like this. There is potential revenue though that comes in from this any anywhere from potentially a million to to eight million um depending on the type of program how many retail licenses uh that council may have an appetite to consider uh rid share company tax. So this is this is essentially a tax on Uber and Lifts um which do have a significant presence in our city and and certainly do impact um our streets. Um there is a broad range of potential fees that could asso that could be associated with this and hence that that revenue um is pretty broad as well potentially anywhere from 10 to 25 million depending on on what the appetite is. We have done some research on this and looked at at various cities um Chicago, San Francisco that have um uh similar programs and there is potentially significant revenue that could um come from this and it is and and again primarily visitor serving although certainly locals um do use Uber and lifts as well to um get around town. um franchise fees. Currently, our municipal code prohibits um the imposition of of franchise fees and uh this would uh that that policy direction was what 10 15 years ago

and and and and was specific to the video service providers. So, this would be a um you know reconsideration of of that policy um again in the neighborhood maybe of of 1 million to to 10 million a year. um would be general uh fund revenue and would have low administrative costs. Disposition of former redevelopment properties. This is already in progress, so I won't spend too much time here. Um, one of the key takeaways here though is as you as you are aware when we've brought these items to you before, we're required to share a lot of these the revenues that comes with the disposition of these properties with other taxing agencies which does limit the potential for um uh significant revenues coming from these properties. Um, and again, this is an ongoing policy. So, um, you know, we don't need a a lot of we continue to implement this policy as we go. With that, we've reached the conclusion, the exciting conclusion of this presentation. Um, I will reiterate that the workshop is intended as a kickoff discussion with council. No final direction or decisions are expected necessarily today. We will be back in April with a with our strategic plan annual update. Um, but we can come back sooner to further this conversation as as desired by council. With that, I'll hand the um meeting back over to the mayor. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. White. Um, so we wanted to just get check in back with um, council both on our priorities uh, what we want to focus on um, given current budgetary constraints, but also explore as was um, highlighted um, at recent meetings what the temperature is or ideas that we have for um, new revenue streams. um as well as looking

ahead to LPMR, what potential um things we might want to look at um as those funds become available. So, with that, um just going to uh call on Council Member Compos Kurtz, who has um rung in with questions and comments.

Um I'll thank you, Madame Mayor. Um I'll start with one. The only in all the presentation, the only ask I heard is regarding the Angel Stadium property and that is an ask to allow staff to enter into discussions with the state. Um, and I would support that. Um, we need to do a better job this time round in working with the state. So, the sooner we can get that conversation going, I think the better. The other piece that you mentioned were the was the community engagement in in what our community would like to see at that property. And I would offer that I'd rather have those that community engagement begin sooner rather than later and not wait for uh I think you mentioned the the the second quarter when we might have the assessment. uh because we need to start understanding what the community would like to see there. You know, we all think everybody wants to keep the angels in town. Let's make sure that our our residents want just that so that it'll drive some of the uh staff's work as they continue down that path. So, uh I'd like to recommend that we allow our our staff to to start working on those two things. Does anyone have any um comments um further on the Angel Stadium um portion of the revenue? Council member Meeks and then Council Member Moss. Um yeah, I would like to expand that and add I think we do need to start working on that. It's a long process. I do think we need to get community engagement and understand what they want, but I also

think that we need to kind of provide some options and some think outside the box. And I would like to have us do some level of study of what a sports complex on the property could possibly generate. We could generate one-time money by selling or leasing it for housing or something, but to to create a another large revenue source that drives tourism to [snorts] Anaheim um could be a win-win for everybody if we can provide sports fields and complexes for the community when tournaments and things aren't in town. And I don't know what kind of money that is, but I've been to several of them with my grandkids, and those parents are paying a lot of money. So, [laughter] so I and I mean, we have the perfect place for that. And the stadium area would be just we have the hotels to accommodate it. We have the family resources for it. But I I just think it's something that we don't want to miss the opportunity for if it's something that will work for our community for a long time. So, I'd like to include that in our studies as we move forward.

Thank you, Council Member Moss.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, excuse my voice. Um, in regards to Angel Stadium, I concur with my colleagues about community engagement and I would propose that that comes before a study um to see if our community in fact is interested in a sports complex at the stadium. I think it sounds great, but I would love to hear community input as well. Um, I do have one question uh for now and then I'll have follow-up questions. Can you please clarify the video service provider franchise fees for me? I'm not very clear on that. Sure. So, uh, in the state of California, uh, most video operators, uh, video service operators like cable companies essentially, um, cities historically would charge them franchise fees for the use of their streets and roads for bearing of cable and putting the boxes on the streets, etc., etc. U, all those have now shifted to a statewide franchise. It used to be every city would have their own franchise agreement with Time Warner or with whatever cable company, Spectrum. [snorts] Um, that's all been shifted to a statewide franchise, but the state preserved each city's ability to still receive a up to 5% franchise fee from those video operators. In 2008, uh, our city council at the time uh, wanted to create a an open uh, and competitive playing field for video operators to come into town. Uh, that was the time of, you know, streaming was just about to come online. There were a lot of companies out there that wanted to get into Anaheim and do some really exciting things. Fiber was starting to be discussed and start putting in the streets. And so at that time, the council uh decided to eliminate the video operations franchise fees from any video operation uh provider. I'm not aware of any other city in the state of California uh that did that or has done that since. And so we just highlighted as uh something that is available to us to study further. Now, this is not a franchise fee on

streaming services. That is a whole different animal. Some cities looked at that. Uh the courts have ruled that that's not legal and that's not what what this is about. This is just a more traditional franchise fee for allowing a utility company of sorts to come in and and rental fees for our streets essentially. Uh there are similar franchise fees for the gas company and for other utilities as well, but video operations is specifically the one that the city of Anaheim uh decided to remove in 2008. I appreciate the clarification. And you said we're the only city in the state. That's the only one I've been able to find. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. On that,

does that Okay. Does that include Wi-Fi? is cable and I mean would that franchise fee? Yeah. No, that's it's a good question and I haven't I haven't dove into this in quite a long time, but you know cable companies were just cable for the longest time and when we got rid of it, it was mostly just cable. Wi-Fi was just starting to really pick up. I'm not sure if the franchise fee applies to Wi-Fi. That's something I need to study further, but it might. Yeah, that would be great.

And if that's the case, you know, a lot of cable usage has gone down with streaming services, but Wi-Fi certainly has gone up. So um and you know the we're also we again we haven't done a study on this but so the numbers that we've put on the screen were very preliminary but I do know at the time in which we uh uh disestablished our franchise fee uh it was in the the 3 to 5 million range that was in 2008.

Yeah. Mr. assistant city manager. Do we is this something where they are um you said like attaching things to poles. So is there something where they are um having access to infrastructure or they just are putting things on city-owned poles? How does that work if you So for for attaching the city owned poles and utility poles, I think Dooku and his team have have a separate kind of arrangements um with utility companies or mobile uh like cell companies who mostly need to use our our poles and wires. I see Dooku coming to the front so he can

I apologize. I am totally uninformed as it comes to this uh subject matter. Good afternoon. Um, regarding um, anybody who wants to attach to our polls, uh, FCC allows that. We just have to recover our costs. So, that's separate. That's not what the assistant city manager is referring to. I believe what he's referring to is if there is a franchise that's operating in our city, then they are using our streets, they are attaching things to the public rightway. And so, historically, some cities have uh, attached fees associated with that purpose, not the polls. Okay. Okay, I'm going to ask a terrible f. So when you say attach things to our public rightway, what does that mean?

Boxes. Boxes in the right ofway. So it could be pedestals for cable operators or other types of um infrastructure that they have. So uh within the public rightway, there would be some type of a box that has their equipment in it that's serving cable or other services. And so they have to get a permit for that, I'm assuming. Correct. Yeah. We just don't charge them additional fees to put that on our streets or sidewalks. That's correct. We don't charge them an ongoing franchise fee for the use of our streets and rightaways.

Okay. Thank you. That makes a bit um more sense to me. Um does anyone have any questions? I'm trying to do it by subject matter since I know we're all going to want to jump in a little bit. Um so, and then we'll go back because I know we some folks had something to say about the angels thing. Just while we're on this kind of uh niche issue on the do you have a question? Um angels. Angels. Angels. Angels. Angels. Okay. So, let's go back to the Thank you very much, Ryan. I think you were next on the uh list if we are and I'm assuming Mayor Prom you're okay. Um angels.

Thank you. And before I go angels, I'll just, this is my nerd in me getting out, but with the uh undergrounding of power line or in infrastructure in the street, think of a power line only above or below ground. Same same thing, just a below ground. The question that I had was this in regards to the angels. Um the way I'm kind of seeing some things and the way I hear the state talking is that the state has truly kind of handcuffed uh us a little bit in terms of what we can and cannot do with the Angel Stadium property. So I'm curious um I mean I hear uh sports complex think it's a great idea. I'm just curious is that what the state is is going to allow us to do in the long run? Do we have to clear that with the state? I think it's an excellent idea to see what the residents want to find out if they want an angel or a baseball stadium there or not. But what is it that we're required to do? I know we have the state is telling us, look, you got to build tons of housing and this is where it's got to be. Is there room for additional infrastructure that's there? I hope there is. But I guess my overall question is what can we do with that property? because I hate to go out to the residents and say, "Look, we can do anything we want." When in reality, maybe we can't. And then the second piece I would also like to add is if the residents decide that they don't want a baseball uh franchise there, I would be curious to find out if you could estimate on what would be the uh what would be my maybe the financial hit uh to the city's general fund if we removed the baseball stadium. Thank you, council member uh council member Rubakawa.

Thank you, Mayor Aken. Um, one of the things I just wanted to kind of um expand on with my colleagues related to the Angel Stadium is it would be good if maybe we have a dedicated meeting to explore the issues that we currently have surplus land act. We're not required to build housing unless we sell it. that it needs to go out to bid and maybe give this council an opportunity to understand all of the issues that occurred with the prior deal that was in place, what our options are now, and then we can give additional direction on getting surveys and talking to the community, but maybe get a good understanding of what we want to do. Do we want to consider selling the land? And what does that look like if we did? Would that allow us to break the contract with I mean, obviously, if it's sold, we can break that lease agreement with the angel. So I think there's a lot of moving parts. It would be really good to start that conversation um at the dis and maybe be able to come with all of our questions and considerations and and and get more clarity because I agree with my council colleague um Bailis that it would be good to understand what our restrictions are if we decide to sell it versus if we decide to keep the land and build on it.

So council member confirming that you would envision that discussion prior to our community engagement. I mean, ideally, I would consider it be it would be better because it would be good to give some information to the um community as to what our restrictions are where we go because it'd be like to uh Council Member Bis' point, if we go out and say, "What would you love to see on Angel Stadium?" But then we're restricted from actually developing or moving forward with some of those initiatives, that's a little bit um misleading to the public. But if we can actually say, "We've had this conversation. Here's what we can and cannot do." I think that might be a more um lucrative conversation for the benefit of the people who live in Anaheim.

And just to follow up on council members point, I mean I think there is discussions we've had before where we have the land if um to her point if we own the land versus if we sell the land and is it with the angels versus without the angels. those were kind of the crux when we come to valuation of that land because those are four very different scenarios. Um so just exploring what that is and then maybe working with our communications team in community outreach to gauge how much of a priority is it to have the land tied up with the baseball franchise. Um, and I think we make a lot of assumptions. Um, but we haven't really worked with our communications team to go out there and ask the residents of Anaheim, um, you know, how much are you willing to invest and or pay to keep a baseball franchise versus unrestricted land versus a potential other professional sports franchise that may want to come. um you know, I would love women's soccer, but um a couple billion short of uh buying us a team. Um but I think that would be just an interesting exercise as part of that discussion. Um council member um Kurt, did you have a follow-up comment?

I do actually now two. First to the comment made on the youth sports park or a sports park. Um I actually uh just the other day had a meeting in which uh youth sports and what they bring to our city do um they are very lucrative to the city sp uh when they have conventions uh youth sports conventions a series of games they all stay in our hotels. So, um, it's the more that we can bring in and have them stay at our hotels, I think it's a fabulous idea on on the community meetings and and the meetings with the state. Um, right now we are self-limiting because of what happened in the past and so we can talk among ourselves and we can city staff will tell us state won't allow us to do this. We have to do it this way. But one of the things I I think is important and that was their request is let them start some conversations. We don't know what the potential is. Might there need to be legislation could be. Would we have support in that? We don't know until those conversations start taking place. The other thing is and and while I don't like to to necessarily hold community meetings where people tell us give us their wish list um and then we have to go back and say we can't do those things. If if something is really really wanted maybe that's what we fight for and we go to the city for and say these our residents really want this. How do we make it happen? So, I would like those community meetings, uh, even though we can't get all our other answers, let them start talking about what they'd like to see, what they definitely do not want to see. Um, and we get that conversation going. Might we have to adjust and and move uh, as a year

progresses, possibly, but it doesn't hurt us to have meetings on an ongoing basis. So, I would I would really uh support starting those meetings before we have all the answers. You mean on the Angel Stadium plot specifically? Yeah.

Okay. Um thank you. And then I know um assistant city manager, there was because you and I had talked about this um a year or two ago, there was a potential plan that is already put in place by I believe a sports commission, an Orange County sports commission that explored this concept. Would that be something that you could share uh with the council? I know it was a different parcel and it was it's a couple of years old, but at least I believe it looked at some early economic projections.

Yeah. Uh, sure. Yeah. And let me clarify, it was uh it was an exercise that was conducted by Visit Anaheim. Um, and at the time they had a division called Sports Anaheim that was dedicated to uh this exact thing, right, which is trying to lure uh sporting events to Anaheim to fill hotel rooms. um uh they were finding that uh a lot of the times they were scheduling fields in Fountain Valley and Irvine etc etc uh and trying to have people stay in Anaheim and the thinking was well wouldn't it be nice if we had the facilities here in Anaheim and it would be even closer uh and so uh they paid for a consultant to to assist them in in looking at uh potential a potential location uh and how many fields it would take to really be viable or feasible for a big large tournament, what kind of sports would need to be included? I think they looked at not only swimming but soccer and and softball and baseball. Uh even uh potentially looking at a new community football stadium opportunity. So, uh happy to connect with them and see what they'd be willing to share with us uh from their files. Uh and yes, uh would love to continue that conversation either with them or on our own um city staff pursuing that. And I'm assuming I don't recall if this if that report had it and I know the information would probably be stale, but did they have um an analysis of what for when it comes to traveling sports because I know council member Rubikava travels, you know, I travel, those of us that have kids in sports, grandparents that are traveling, what are the popular sports now that people are traveling for? and then maybe working with community services to analyze that against what are the most popular sports that residents in Anaheim are playing

because hopefully it would be nice if they overlap and any part of this is really driven by what do our residents need and what are kind of what are we lacking in sports fields and facilities um for our residents as well. Um, Council Member Bis, let me preface this by saying I'm I may get I may get killed for this because [laughter]

lay it on us. I have to I have to go back and and ask some of uh the District One residents, but on a on a on a true serious note, I understand my marching orders from the from the residents before I say this, which is we really want a commercial product on 39 Commons. However, we have been trying that for a very long long long time. And if we decide that 39 Commons is not viable for a commercial product, Boy sure would be a great place for a sports complex. So, I just want to throw it out there.

I love it. Um I apologize, Council Member Leyon. Um you had rang in on this issue as well.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um I just uh I I appreciate my colleagues and and their feedback and and thoughts on the on the stadium. Uh that's something that I think I've always said that we need to be proactive about and I believe if I'm not mistaken was one of the first things I agendaized uh when I joined the council uh to have those conversations proactively and not waiting to react for uh an outside source to kind of start everything. Um so I I do appreciate staff um sort of bringing that forward just to start that conversation. But I I do want to be very very clear in setting expectations for the public about what we are aren't uh what it sounds like uh is a majority okay for you of what we are giving you the okay for and that from my understanding would be to reach out to the state to discuss the SLA surplus land act process and reach out to our state legislators and get their feedback. And so I just want to be clear that this is not a go start negotiations um direction. It's a we need to we don't know what we don't know and we don't know what the opportunities are in terms of um partnerships at the state right to make sure that we're doing this uh proactively but also holistically um and getting the best uh result for residents. And so, um, again, just to be, uh, transparent and clear, um, you're asking for direction to reach out to the state, state legislators, and then I I I am supportive of reaching out to the community, uh, before we have a formal meeting. I do think that it it's it's the city of Anaheim and I think we can dream big, right? And obviously, it's our job to be realistic about we c what we can or can't do. Uh but I think right now because we have we have time, right? Uh when it comes to this, I'm

sure we all want to be again as proactive and move as quickly as possible. Um and and try to get more revenue and do all the things that we want to do. Um, but we we do have some time to to make sure that we're doing it right, that we're getting the feedback from our residents, that we're going to every district and and having those conversations and and and maybe we don't have all the answers to the questions that we get, but that also could then uh help us when we're having follow-up conversations with the state or when we're having a meeting here as council members, uh, being able to answer those questions, uh, versus having the meeting and then going out and getting a bunch of questions that maybe we haven't even thought of. Um, so I definitely uh want to make sure that we are reaching out to the community, that we're reaching out to our residents. Um, I also just want to clarify and I'm I'm glad uh our assistant city attorney uh is able to be here and Kristen, I don't know if you know the answer to this or not, um, but in terms of the current lease with the team, and I know that this isn't necessarily part of what we're discussing, but just to again full transparency, the current lease runs until what year? Let me recognize um Mr. Morton.

I saw the opportunity. I took it. Um so the current base lease expires in 2029. There are three three-year options. So 2038. So those are they've already exercised the first one. So 2032. Okay. So currently because they exercised their opt their first of three options the current lease goes to 20 2032 2032. Okay. So and ultimately could go to 2038 at their sole discretion.

Okay. So again we do have a little bit we do have a little bit of time but again I appreciate staff uh uh bringing that up because I think that's a it's one of the big ticket items right that's um as my colleague mentioned that obviously has a history here in the city of Anaheim. Um, so whatever we do, we want to make sure that we're doing it right, that we're doing it as transparent and open as possible to the residents. Um, and obviously at the end of the day, we want the best result for the city of Anaheim. Um, so I'll pause there. I have other comments on other stuff, but I'll I'll end it with that for now.

Um, may I ask um, Mr. White if you could put up the top priorities? Um, because I agree with Council Member Leon. I think we're talking about two different things in that, you know, what are pro what are possibilities um with the Angel Stadium property lease versus um you know, leasing it out versus re uh versus selling it and then what are the possibilities um is one part of the conversation. But then uh mayor prom brought up the potential to have a youth sports facility. I didn't know if that was I know we spoke about it at the strategic planning session um because I think I used my big circle at it but I is it in our top um priority plans and kind of where do we know where was that on the list and can we it sounds like we might want to bump it up. It it is on the list actually study. So on the bottom right corner you'll see study options for a sports complex for city needs and sports tourism.

So that isn't a top that is a top priority. Wonderful. So, are there any next steps that we can take just on that kind of to Council Member Bis' point, not tying it to a specific location today, but looking at kind of what are the economics around um sports complexes, sports, I guess sports tourism meaning traveling, tournaments, etc., not just professional sports, but youth sports and youth sport development. Um, those kind of issues. Does that I don't want to put words in your mouth mirror prom but is that something that

No, that's great. I think there's a lot of new things going on. I went to a meeting on it recently and you know to your comment about which sports fit with what our residents want and things like that. They were saying that a lot of the sports complexes uh they're being able to build pretty flexible now and so that you can run potentially baseball and soccer and uh you know different sports. Football, flag football, women's flag football is one of the grow fastest growing youth sports. So uh yeah, there's a lot of new things happening out there and it's I think there's a big market. So appreciate the support and studying it. Um, Council Member Bis,

sorry, you you'll probably hear a theme coming from this side of the evening, but don't forget to include in there either the uh the staff operational costs of a sports complex or the possible uh contracting it out. I think those are important to include in in any survey that goes out.

So, okay, just to just to wrap that one up. So I'm I'm want to make clear that that the direction is to pursue the feasibility study aspect of the sports complex with the revenue side yeah not just is it possible but it's full so not not even like it'll be location neutral initially with analysis and then we can start adding location potential locations to that I think location's going to weigh into the revenue analysis so you may have different options out there. But if it's in the middle of our destination and the hotels are very local and transportation's not an issue, I think it

changes. It changes the uh revenue outcome. Thank you. Are there any other comments on um sports complex? Council member Moss,

at what point will be will we be doing um community engagement or what would a plan for that look like? That's a great question. Uh I, you know, my I imagine us uh starting to outreach to some firms that that are in the space. I imagine also outreaching to our friends at Visit Anaheim who who kicked this off a decade ago and see if they have an interest in participating uh in some way, maybe financially, maybe not. Uh and in getting that process kickstarted, um I can imagine community outreach could be a a part of that that full analysis and study. um to see kind of what our residents want. Uh there was a a comment made earlier about what sports do our residents play, what do they need more? Do they need more soccer fields or they need more lacrosse fields? And we need to figure that out. And so so yeah, I would imagine it would be part of that.

Thank you, Council Member Rubikava. Uh so I I I just want to make sure that we're comprehensively looking at this. I agree that it would be good to get community input and we should start with the state and looking at the the sports complex, but what are we going to then come back and have the discussion about what we want to do with the land or is the sports complex discussion and and um and uh that's going to be separate and can go anywhere in the city including district 1. So is that what we're kind of looking at? So, I'm just kind of I want clarity because we're not really giving good direction to staff in terms of are we looking at this if this is a sports complex, are we looking to keep the land and so I'm just kind of I want to under get a better understanding of what we're telling you guys to do.

Yeah, I I imagine that as we dive into this uh we can look at various options and various locations and do an analysis of each. Um because as as the mayor prom mentioned uh where you locate it uh will uh will have a big impact on um its usage and the revenues that could come off of it. And so I think uh we can put together a study that would look at you know number one the analysis and the outreach and all that other great stuff and talk about uh the value and whether or not it makes sense from a revenue standpoint. And then we can probably also dive into locations and different options throughout the city. I heard 39 Commons mentioned heard the stadium mentioned uh also something in between probably that we can look at. And so um yeah, I I think the direction is good right now. We're going to have to

the community outreach portion. Would that be related to the Angel Stadium? Because I think that's what I was hearing our my colleagues ask is are we asking the community what they would like to see at the Angel Stadium land? would you? So, I think we want I want to make sure you have clarity on what we're asking because I think it's two different things at this point. Yeah, I'm I'm hearing I'm speaking to the sports complex analysis and and I know that there's been also a conversation about the stadium out community outreach

and I obviously there's going to be some crossover there. Uh what we're hearing from the community uh and I think that's okay. Um I think the two can work in parallel. I think we can do a study on a sports complex and I think we can do community outreach on the stadium. And I think we will hear, "Oh, I want it over here. I want it on the stadium parking lot." Or we could hear it, "Ah, no, I don't." So, we may hear various things and that's okay. We'll marry the two. Um, especially, it sounds like we're probably going to be doing these things uh at relatively the same time.

And then after we'll come back and have a comprehensive discussion about what direction we want to go to, go as a council in terms of the stadium property in general, because I think that is a a conversation that needs to be in public. uh transparently and and engaging people who live and have a a stake in the game here or skin in the game, whatever the saying is.

So, next steps on sports complex stuff just to put that to bed. you know, we'll reach out to some firms, we'll reach out to some partners, some stakeholders, uh, and then we'll have to bring, uh, you know, an RFP, not the RFP necessarily, but we'll probably bring an RFP to council, and then also the scope of work and so everyone will be able to see that and make sure that we're on we're on track for what this council would like to see. Thank you, um, Council Member Leon, and then Council Member Kurtz.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to um I think what you said, Greg, was spot on and just wanted to make sure and clarify or confirm uh that I agree with you that these are I'm looking at this as two separate discussions uh two separate issues, two separate plans, two separate goals. Uh and to your point, maybe there there's we'll hear the same thing uh potentially right on both of those. But I'm looking at this as two completely separate uh discussions and pathways. So, just wanted to confirm that and that's the uh to clarify that for for staff. That's how I envision it. Yes.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, because I'm taking a look at the top priorities and we've addressed the address the future of the Angel Stadium and study options for sports complex. I mean, so they're they are two separate distinct issues, but I also don't want to to um well, I don't know that I'm supportive of moving the study options for sports complex above everything else on our priority list. I'm taking a look at it. you all know create and maintain senior centers for senior or centers for senior programs is high on on a list that I have and so I don't want because we've had this discussion for staff to assume that that's not as important or some of these other things that others might be interested are not as important as that. So thank you. Yeah, I mean I think that's a little bit kind of what today is for. And I'm I'm assuming and again assumption rightly or wrongly that um the size and scope needed for any type of potential sports complex would be a different real estate asset that we're looking for than a potential senior center. Um, but hopefully as we go forward in looking at and maybe we could have a conversation about the senior center because I don't know what type of square footage do other senior centers around us have kind of what asset are we looking for that is either um potentially already built or build from scratch? Those are two different analysis. Um, but I would love to get people's input on on that because I agree with you. I think it's extremely important. Um, I know after visiting a few senior centers, they can range anything from 30,000 to 40,000 square feet, but staff

knows that. Um, um, I did have a meeting with seniors from across the city and they just gave us their list of, their wish list of what they'd like to see included. Staff has that. Um, and the intent of that meeting and and and what I told the seniors is we need to give some information for for staff to at least even start looking at costs and potential properties and and and so forth. So, that was the intent of that. But, um, and staff now has that information. I guess I just wanted to make sure that we don't leave it at the bottom of the list that that staff continues to to take a look at options whether they be uh uh a place that's already exists and has to be remodeled, rehabbed or or new, which sometimes I I understand is cost prohibitive.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I I don't know if if appropriate, but I I I feel like I have comments on all parts of the presentation, but since we're on the top priority slide, um I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to update this a little bit. Um well, I'll put it forward and see kind of what folks think. Um, I don't know if uh Ted, as we're updating this and we're kind of going through the different goals that we're setting for ourselves and we're reaching them, like for example, build the Plat Platinum Triangle Fire Station. I mean, we're well on our way. Do we update this and take that out since that's, hey, check the box or how do we update it?

Yeah, the the strategic plan really is intended to be, you know, a living breathing document to to use that term. Um, last year when we uh did our annual update, we uh we added a couple of items. We did we added resort 2.0 and we added the OC Riverwalk to the strategic plan. So that was a those were new items that were created. So it it isn't entirely appropriate for council to um really at at at your discretion. It could be now, could be at a um you know at the annual um update for for that's the point of these check-ins is to make sure that we're continuing to um understand what the priorities of council are and if we need to um move something into that slot, right, as we accomplish something. And that's exactly what what we're hoping to to get today is kind of where those priorities are. We listed out some of those major capital projects that we're looking at. um gave the reality check, right, of in terms of revenues that we that we have and what timing means for that. Um but understanding and and updating this list is absolutely appropriate.

I appreciate that. And I think too if you're able to during the uh when we're doing the annual updates, I think you'll probably already do this, but if there's a section that actually just points out here's what we've accomplished or here's the this was a previous top priority and it's no longer a top priority because we checked the box and we got it done. I think that would be something to highlight. And if you as you're planning for that for that presentation, I wanted to add on here um just public safety continues to be a a top priority, top responsibility for a lot of us and you hear a lot from our uh community members um about just wanting to feel safe in their neighborhoods and uh looking at business owners and major corridors. And so I'm not sure if that's something that we might be able I don't know if it's a subsection of one of these or if we might be able to to to add as a as a potential other top priority. And I can't tell you right now how I would measure that. Um it just depending on how everybody feels, right? Depending on where you live, you might feel a little bit differently. Um but I did just want to uh bring that up. Um also the top priority of addressing blight and improving major street corridors. I know we've done a number of different things. I know economic development has worked with Chrysalis on uh uh cleaning up some of the corridors. Um so if I can if we could get an update on on that specific priority and kind of it could be a memo of kind of here's what we've done. Um but I also wanted to add on there. Um, you know, I I I agendaized the conversation about this at the last meeting about abandoned properties or vacant properties or properties that have really become a a public nuisance. Uh, where there's no one living in that house. Uh, but there's well, there's people living in there, but they don't own the house, nor should they be in the house. Um, and so that creates sort of a source of a lot of crime and a lot of public safety concerns. So, it's all kind of intertwined. But I would like to update that priority to to include um you know, how do we how do we address that? What are our options? Is it code

enforcement? Is it the city coming in and saying, "Dear property owner, you really need to keep up and here's your responsibilities. Here's what you have to do." Um what is that what are those options look like for us? And I'll be very specific, right? I mean, there's two that come to mind with the Broadway Magnolia, the the Old Valley's gym that sat vacant for 20, 30 plus years until recently. Um, but then there's also on Brokers, and I'm sure there's other areas of the corridors along the district, but you know, Brookers north of Lincoln where you have a lot of single family uh homes, uh, but a lot of them are abandoned. They are boarded up. And so I I I want to make sure that we're if there's tools at our disposal out there that maybe we don't have um that how do we acquire those and how can we move that so that we're able to help out especially the neighborhoods that live next to these properties and those business owners. Um and so that was that's another one uh that that kind of goes along with the major corridors. Um, and then I also brought this up before and I'm I think this is going to be a subsection and of the top priorities and I'm trying to look for it. I know it's related to economic development. Uh, but just well it's planning and e economic development. We've heard a lot of feedback. I think Mayor Prom had actually brought this up a few meetings ago about the just the planning approval process for new businesses. So, I just want to make sure we're doing a deep dive on that. Um, and it's not a this isn't intended to be a criticism. Um, this is intended to see what is it what is it that we can do to uh update to streamline to make it easier for the new businesses that are trying to come online that unfortunately have been waiting for two years to get the final approvals but haven't been able to come online because they're waiting. Um, and so that obviously increases our cost, delays our opening and delays us getting potential new sales tax revenue, right? So, um, want to make sure that that's on the on the radar as well. So, I have

more, but I will pause and and hear from my colleagues as well.

Um, I have a question um, assistant city manager on the um, I think it's related to both of council member Leyon's questions. Um I know that we had had a um report from um I believe economic development about vacancy and we measure vacancy in all six districts based on um businesses that are listed as having like four lease or four rent parcels. But that's very different, I think, than what council member Leyon is talking about, which is they're not on the market, but they are either not filled with a business and or could in the case of a residence abandoned. Um, do we have any analysis on those types of of parcels? I would need to check with our economic development manager to get more detail on that. I I I know they're constantly looking at that. And so I don't know if that specific analysis though has been done yet uh or if we have data available on that. So I'll see if Ted has any more to answer or Sergio's stepping up. So we'll see what he has to say.

Mayor, thank you. Um exactly. So we the city actually commissioned a report from Kaiser Marson Associates last year um regarding the vacancy rates across the the city and it's correct what that measures is existing buildings that are listed for sale but properties that are vacant that is not captured and so I think that we have not conducted a a survey or analysis. So that's something that council would like us to explore that's something that we can commission and look for um and and and take on that that effort. So you said I'm sorry the Kaiser um Marsden was just for sale not for lease.

No essentially that's existing B businesses that are listed for uh for sale lease that are centrally reported. But if a property owner has just a vacant piece of property that they're not marketing because they're you know wealthy property owner that's maybe located in Texas that doesn't you know has no incentive to as an absentee property owner. um there that that essentially that property would not be kind of reflected on the vacancy rate for the city.

Okay, I think that's that's very helpful for me. Thank you. Um council or sorry, mayor prom meeks and then council member Bis and then council member Rubikava. I want to go back to um senior centers and people other people probably have comments on this too, but we did start that process with doing my understanding a lot of some outreach uh with a survey of you know what kind of senators people are looking for, whether or not they want multiple ones, whether want a single one and then I went to kind of a summary of that uh information last week at the meeting with the Anaheim Community Foundation. Um, so yeah, pulling some of that information together and putting some more more definitive costs to Council Member Bailis's suggestion for the next six months is like what are our options there? What are what are those costs? Where would we have room to put it in an existing community center or adjacent add-on to an existing community center or a place where one would go? The most interesting thing I learned last week at that meeting was that uh the prediction of where the seniors will primarily live in the next five years was all in district six. So they were clearly surveying my house. Okay. [laughter] But once again, I don't think if we were going to only build one senior center, district six isn't convenient to everybody. So, you know, I just want to understand what we need across the city. Thank you, Council Member Bis, and then Council Member Rubikava.

Thank you. I'm gonna real [clears throat] quick make a followup on Council Member Leon's point. Uh, and I don't know maybe if uh Heather could address this, but yeah, blight on the major streets for sure, but we also see that on the residential streets. and and maybe this didn't get picked up, but I think we're also talking about the house that somebody has left, you know, and the yard is done, the the windows are broken and and I think that is half of maybe what he's speaking about. And I think that's uh just as important obviously as major streets and uh I think maybe maybe if Heather has an update, but before I let you do that, let me give my second thought here real quick. Is this a because you you mentioned so I'm asking is this um the right place in the meeting. Can I talk about a strategic plan that I might like to add or maybe you can tell me where it's at or is that somewhere else?

You mean a um priority to add on to our

in this list here? you want to add something to the would you want why don't we have her add your question just on blight and then we can um absolutely would love to talk about another one and then just cognizant of time it's 2:45 240 excuse me um would like to maybe at least in the next 10 minutes move from priorities to revenue um because without revenue all of our ideas um are not going to to move forward so um with that I'll turn it over to Heather and then um to Natalie and then if you could um then maybe could just go back for a fresh idea. Does that work for you council member?

Thank you. Um and I think a couple of of you have touched on it there. There is um a unique set of residential properties that are abandoned and either have an active owner active owner um or or not. So I think um to the question of do we have a um list of those I would say de facto through existing code enforcement data that we can certainly scrub and begin to build that list. And then to council member Leyon's point you know what what are some options that we may want to look at to deal with some unique circumstances where we have leans on properties so a property owner is never going to sell it. So what what are some new tools that we can bring forward for some policy decisions? So that's that's definitely on our radar, but that would be potentially a additional cost consideration right to the the blight um um item on the strategic plan. Rebecca Calva, Heather, this is not what I was going to say, but since you mentioned I would also add the properties that are not for sale that are commercial, like for example, Luigi's on state college. Um, I would say the I think it was a CVS or a Walgreens near our lovely Dollar Tree off of La Palama. So, a lot of those that are um not for sale but are abandoned by their property owners who are probably just collecting a tax break on it because it's um underutilized, that would be priorities and I think we've asked for that in the past, but we it'd be great to add that to the list. Um and then to shift over to the priorities. So, um I I love the conversations that we're having because I think it's important to understand how much some of this stuff is going to cost. Um I'm interested to find out where we are on the uh create and implement an economic development strategic plan. Um I know that that you know economic development is generate

attract um retain businesses in Anaheim. So when will we actually see that strategic plan? Yeah. So the uh first quarter uh it's coming. So there there's going to be some community outreach efforts with uh stakeholders groups um starting in January and then very shortly after we're talking late February, March time frame, we want to be bringing that draft forward to you for consideration. And then who's included in the stakeholders group?

We've got a we've got a series of of groups, small small business owners, larger um business owners, stakeholders, property owners. Um Sergio, if you'd like to maybe add a little bit more. They've been working on the details. Thank you, council member. Yes, as Ted mentioned, um the stakeholder groups, there's going to be various um groups that will have small businesses, mid and larger size businesses, um as well as brokerage, property owner, and development community, but then an at large uh um meeting that will be open to anybody that's interested in providing input.

Perfect. And if you could share your promotional tools with us, that'd be great for us to also I know that Council Member Leon is pretty deep into his small business community and so am I. So, it would be good for us to make sure that we're keeping others in the loop to participate and not going back to the same well of individuals who have, you know, ongoing um interest in Anaheim, but it would be nice for us to get some of the smaller businesses who don't have that historic relationship with us.

Absolutely. we would be working with your council offices and of course uh our great communication team to make sure that we're able to blank it but as well as folks that have traditionally done business or have our stakeholders here in Anaheim to make sure they get a good great cross-section. That's the one thing that we've been talking about is to make sure that this effort and it's been long time coming and we appreciate everyone's patience. Um but we want to make sure that it's a great cross-section and provides great feedback that then can provide us the direction of of how to proceed. So, thank you. Perfect. And then my other questions are related to the what our leader of the meeting has said. We're going to transition to so I'll table that until it's time to go there.

Thank you. I think we are going to um just Oh, sorry, council member. Let me go council member Leyon because I think we're going to jump for council member Bis to do something a new priority before we move to revenue.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I know we want to get to the revenue uh discussion and some of these might be follow-ups. Um and so maybe that's something for I remember that we had a conversation at the strategic plan meeting, the one we had at the convention center about the World Cup and about the Olympics. And I don't see the World Cup or the Olympics on here. And so with the World Cup being next year, I know we had talked about what is it that we're going to do to I mean we're not hosting any World Cup matches, but we obviously have a lot of residents and people that visit us. Um, and so is there anything that we can do to kind of take advantage of that? Whether that's city events or whether we're hosting a watch party. I don't know what that looks like, but if that's something that maybe we can bring back, I I don't want to wait till April to have that conversation because the World Cup kicks off in June. So, if maybe you can come back in January just to talk about I'm sure staff has had discussions or u or or conversations about what the World Cup what it looks like, what it is that we might be able to do. I know on the OCTA front um and and Metro Link front that they're planning trains to and from LA from Arctic and different things like that. So I'm wondering if that's something that we can also kind of capitalize on on the city side. Um and then um just the the final one that I feel like at this point should be moved to maybe one of the top ones. It kind of already is, but the plan for responsible use of revenue from retired reserve bonds. And I know we're about to have a conversation about revenue, but I really would like to and I don't know if this is is something that we lock down or how we do it. Um, but I I it feels like every meeting we have a conversation about the LPMR bonds, the number that is going to be available for us to be able to provide new services or to support our current services uh diminishes. Um, and so I just want to make sure that we are, as I said, I think a meeting ago, two meetings ago, about neighborhoods, neighborhoods, neighborhoods. We have a number of different priorities and responsibilities here at the city. But I just want to make sure that we I don't know how we do it, but doing something

to make sure that we're locking something down for our neighborhoods and for our residents because if we don't do it now, I feel like by the time we are trying to have that conversation, it's going to be sorry guys, we we kind of we had to spend it all on other things which there are again competing priorities, but I just want to make sure that we're having that conversation of what can we set aside now and that we don't touch so that we can be delivering [snorts] for neighborhoods and residents. Thank you, Council Member Bis.

Thank you. I think this is incredibly important and one thing that's missing and tell me if I'm in the wrong spot. This is not where it would be. But I think that we need to have a list up there that says prioritizing organizational efficiencies. And what I mean by that is we have items that are out there staffwise. Let's say that if we put an emphasis to try to get them done, then maybe that saves us money and we can use that money then to do something else with. I think that we have to look at those efficiencies that are out there. Not only money but also time. And I'll give you just one quick example of what I mean by this is you know if we're internal we're looking at ways that we can make time I think is incredibly important in this example goes to that which is maybe we're dispatching some of our uh police cars on the west side from the west side rather than out of the centralized city hall. Those are the kind of examples that I I think up here we really need something that says look it's important to take a look inside at what we're doing not only as the outside as well. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you council member. Um if without objection I think if we could move to the revenue stream. Um I know um both council member Rubikala and council member Leyon have have brought it up. Um and I agree um about with when we look at identifying responsible use of the resort bonds. Um it seems that the answer to to every question is just wait for LPMR. LPMR is going to pay for it. Don't worry, we have LPMR. Um but to that point I want to make sure um that we have a realistic opportunity a realistic idea of what we think given budgets and increase in labor costs etc what the remaining pie potentially will look like and are there additional revenue streams that people would like to discuss to add to that pie. So, do we have a ability to just give a kind of quick realistic overview on that? Do you want to bring up the forecast? And again, these these forecasts are just that. It's a it's a real time forecast of where we are and and what things could look like. Uh, and I think, uh, you know, I'll I'll I'll do my best to play Debbie Moreno and and and and make sure that we, uh, fully disclose that, you know, the national economy could change on a button and things could could swing drastically one way or the other. And so, we're constantly looking at it and updating this chart. Um I I believe there was uh there's also a slide in our presentation that talked

about yes this is uh the adopted uh five-year um today uh with labor increases that have been done today. Uh but if we uh if we continue to uh you increase labor for all the groups at a certain clip uh obviously that eats into uh that amount. We showed you a slide, I think in October, that showed a different scenario that that included, you know, compounding of increases across the board for labor. And so, um, so that is certainly a risk as well. Um, uh, and so it it really is up to not a couple things, what happens in the environment, but then also the actions that this council takes between now and LPMR. Uh, there is a structural deficit. We're lucky that we have LPMR that will come along and just reverse that structural deficit overnight in 27. We do have to wait until that time for that structural deficit to be to be clear. And then to your point, then we have some really tough decisions to make. Uh and it's all about priorities. Um and uh and it's going to be difficult. But uh to the question of how do we set aside some funds for neighborhoods and for this project and for that project, that's exactly uh why these conversations are important. uh hearing from council that they want us to continue to focus on these critical projects and also neighborhood issues and blight issues is super important as we start to put together a plan on how we set aside some of those funds. Um because without a plan then to your point uh the next priority next week will come up and just kind of continue to swallow things. And so uh our best answer here is this is the forecast that's been adopted. there are are are a handful of labor contracts that are not reflected in this because they're currently ongoing. Those discussions are happening. Uh but we know that in the next uh in this year and next year and the year after that there will be uh some major uh labor

agreements that will come into play and those are going to dip into that number. Uh and we'll continue to do so until we get to 27. Um and so this this is our best uh our best effort at at showing you what the future could look like. Uh again want to mention that uh revenues uh future revenues is not necessarily built into that five-year that we showed. Um so it could be to the positive uh if things come online faster. We do have some major development projects that are uh that are coming online. OC Vibe uh Disneyland Forward other hotel developments. uh we put some markers down to show you what those numbers could look like but that's at full build buildout which is you know 5 to 10 years out several years out and so uh I don't think that we should be uh relying on those numbers for 27 28 29 per se um and so all that to say this that that's our best snapshot of what we have available for us in 27 and beyond and uh really a lot of it just depends

so see So just so I'm clear in 2027 we were looking at I believe it was like 128 million. So we're right off the right off the bat we are going to be down to 57 million annually um because of debt service. So, with the $57 million a year, um, how much do we believe we want to put into reserve so that our reserve fund is flush where we want it to be and also pension obligations are where we're comfortable

and our reserve fund. And again, I don't know if we um if if this council wants to look at putting in a reserve fund or creating a a new separate kind of improvement fund for neighborhoods. We've done that in the past as well. So, it's already set aside in a in a different fund. It's something we could explore as well. Um, in terms of the amount, I that that is a a policy decision and discussion amongst uh this body to to determine what projects are we saving the money for. If if it's more of a round amount that could be divided among uh districts uh or if there's specific projects that we want to knock out come 27 and 28 that are priorities.

Okay. Okay. So, but 57 million seems to be the number that we're comfortable with saying on an annual basis we can pay down pension, we can restock the reserves. That that that's 57 today. There will be uh some labor contracts that will come into play between now and 27 that will uh likely diminish that number. And will we have an idea? I I guess I'm looking for a worstc case scenario number of what we might have year is zero. Don't say don't say zero. [laughter]

Well, I I think as you look as you look in the out years on this chart, you can kind of see what the ending reserve balance does without the considerations that Greg is referencing. And let's just face it, the biggest consideration in the out years is going to be labor costs as our number one cost for our city. So I think you know as staff you know working with the council the class and compensation study identifying where we want to be as an organization in terms of our kind of pay structure and philosophy we are making large inroads today um on that front. So going forward you know and I think that's reflected in our class and competitive I think it's reflected in some of our current labor contracts kind of you know putting this all in as an effort to get towards where we want to be as an organization with the council directed compensation philosophy going forward. You know, certainly a council consideration could be to pace labor costs with market and revenue returns, right? And so, you know, the council has the authority uh working with staff to control those costs in the outy years and preserve some of those funds residual from the LPMR for the very things you're all talking about in the DIS right now. But the biggest consideration is going to be labor costs in the outears because those do not reflect in this. in working with Deianne and finance staff yesterday, you know, we really think that our our reserve number should be, you know, really closer to 20. Uh today it's at 14. You can see it dips down in in, you know, the next year to get us to LPMR, but you know, uh with unknown costs, primarily labor in the third year, you know, we skyrocket to 19% and then grow from there. But I do think identifying uh you know a reserve philosophy from a staff perspective at 20% given our reliance on the resort as one source of revenue for our city unlike many other cities in California we need a little stronger reserve statement I think um as part of our financial picture

and what is the financial recommended percentage for reserves. So the government finance officers association recommends two months of operating expenditures which would be about 16 to 17%. However, they do say that for organizations that have a heavy reliance or on more volatile revenues that that amount should be higher. Okay. Um, I wanted to turn over to Council Member Rubikala and then did anyone else have comments just on the I'm sure we all have comments on the revenues, but um, and then so Council Member Rubika and then Mayor Prom Meeks.

I mean, I um, want to acknowledge I think the last time we looked at a slide like this, there was a deficit that we had um, we foresee right in 2029. And that was with uh labor increases built in at 5% for every single labor labor group between now all the way through 27.

And and it's normal to be labor costtheavy because it takes employees to actually do the work, right? So, I mean, everything that we do in the city of Anaheim is servicing our residents and that requires our employees to be properly compensated and um and to have enough of them to whether it's planning or community services or parks or police, fire. That's so that's why labor costs are so significant. Okay. I just want to make sure that we're we're clear on that. So then um all when everybody's ready, I'd like to look at some of the revenue generating opportunities because we see the deficit is clear. The 50 million is lovely to look at, but we don't really think we're going to have that by 2029. So put possibly good to look at some of the other options unless we're out of time because I know it's 3:00.

No, over 3:30. Okay. Yeah. No, and I think that that was kind of what we wanted to discuss right now. So if you want to use Yeah. I mean, I'd like to if you could go through the slides again of the options for revenue. There were quite a few. And thank you. First of all, thank you guys for putting this presentation together. It's a great um snapshot of not only our priorities, but some of the revenue opportunities that we can look at for our city. Is there uh one in particular you'd like to focus on or would you like us just to run through them all again? If you can go through all of them again because we kind of went through them pretty quickly.

Yep. M Madam Mayor, just point of clarification. Council member, may I ask a quick follow-up question? I don't mean to interrupt you, um, but I just want to triple check. So, slide I think it's 23 forecasted new revenues. Can you go to that slide? I just as we're looking at the new as potential other revenues that we're going to be discussing and looking at. Um, so this is not in that previous slide that we discussed. Correct. That's right.

Okay. So we anticipate but we can't really and I understand because we had that conversation right we we we can't just prepare for the here's the best case scenario uh it's prepare for the worst expect the best but so I just want to clarify so with the Disneyland forward with OC Vibe that we're anticipating another 40 million in the general fund somewhere between 5 to 10 years

that's correct thank you full buildout of both projects okay thank you thank you council Okay, now going to the uh revenue options. Here you go. The first one was the local sales tax. Um again, potential revenue uh depending on uh the policy direction 25 to 100 million a year requires voter approval does go to the general fund. It does diversify the city revenue streams. Uh however, there is local impact. Next one is the utility users fee. Again, wide range depending on what that number set at. Uh between four and $32 million a year would require a voter approval. Does go to the general fund uh and uh could decrease with conservation efforts because it is tied to utility rates. Uh toot uh we all know toot uh we're at 15% but if you tack the TID on top of that it's 17%. So we are kind of on the high end of the scale there. Um but uh again could could mean 15 million a year if it's raised by 1%. Um and uh does we would have to go back to the voters for that as well. It is general fund um and could have impact on our resort. Uh there's the admission tax again uh could be could be set at various rates and so uh the range could be between 90 and 135 million. um uh would require voter approval for that. Could go to the general fund. Uh does have impacts uh potentially on our venues. Uh parking tax, same thing. Between 19 and 30 million a year, however, that depending on how it's set and who it applies to, does require voter approval. General fund uh could have some impact as well. Uh the real estate transfer tax, uh this is something that some cities around us uh

and especially in LA County have looked at. uh depending on the the rate and how it is um uh set proportionally uh between five and $50 million a year. And this is for anytime there's a transfer of property, a sale of homes in in the city. Um this requires voter approval. It is general fund. Um uh but it is tied to home sales and and uh could be volatile. Uh Angel Stadium property, I think we we've discussed that. Uh, so I'll move on to the next one. Uh, the billboard program. Uh, you know, staff has been looking at this. Uh, we think there's potential revenue there between one and $2 million a year. It all depends on kind of where we go with this one and what we're willing to do and place on our city streets or on our city highways. Um, this uh does require uh voter approval. It is a city council initiative. Um, could be it is general fund revenue. Um and it does somewhat diversify our revenue streams. Development impact fees. We mentioned that uh this this isn't uh uh general fund. This is restricted revenue. Uh having said that uh we haven't touched these in quite a long time. In January we'll be bringing forward uh a study that we've done a full comprehensive study on our development uh impact fees and we'll be briefing you prior to January as well to look at those. So that is something that will be coming to you with more detail later. Uh downtown parking fees. Again, uh just looking around at other jurisdictions and how they kind of address some of these issues. Uh parking fees are are pretty common. Uh depending on on uh our interest, it could be between uh you know half a million to $2.5 million a year. Uh something that city council could put into place unilaterally. Could be general fund. It would be general fund. Uh naming rights. Uh something we've looked at not only at the Anime Marina but also at Artic. Um, it really

just depends on the market and the interest that's out there. Could be between a4 million to a million dollars a year. Uh, again, something that council could do on its own uh via policy and would go to the general fund. Uh, cannabis program. We've looked at this prior. We, you know, the city uh did consider a proposal to do this uh several years ago. Um, it's I think it's more volatile now than ever. Uh but revenues could be in the $1 to $8 million range again depending on how many what the rate is etc. Um that that is an ordinance that council could consider and it would be general fund. Um ride share uh company tax. This is uh otherwise known as TNC tax. Uh there are a handful of cities uh around the country that employ this. It's basically the Uber lift assessment. um uh depending on what it's set at, it could bring in between 10 and $25 million a year. Uh and this is something uh that that council can can look at for approval, but also depending on how it's structured, it may require uh voter approval. Um and and that would be uh general fund revenue. Uh this the franchise fees, we kind of discussed this previously. We'd have to do a deep dive into what the actual number would be, but it's between$1 and $10 million. Um and that is something that council could approve by ordinance and that would go to general fund. Um former redevelopment properties, obviously we have a portfolio. We're always looking for opportunities if we wanted to explore uh uh going through our portfolio and selling those off. We could realize sometime revenue. Uh obviously there surplus land act issues that we need to consider and and also that is something that council can direct us to do. doesn't require a a ballot measure and I think that's it.

Thank you. So, council member Rubikava and then Mayor Prom Meeks.

Thank you. Thank you for the comprehensive outlook on revenue. I a couple of them kind of stuck out to me uh that I think would be good for possible discussion, but I'm I'm really interested in looking at revenue streams that have the lower impact on any of our residents. So, right out of the gate, I'm pretty opposed to a utility tax or a sales tax increase because I think that would hurt not only residents but businesses as well, and that would probably have an impact on our economic development strategy, right, Sergio? Um, so, but but the kind of a couple of them that stood out was the um naming rights, that's sort of lowhanging fruit, and then the ride share, which seems to be pretty lucrative. And to your point on the infrastructure side, if they're they're operating a business and utilizing our streets, maybe there is an opportunity for us to implement a tax that would benefit our infrastructure and and help our um general fund. So that those two I think I would definitely support um further exploration.

Thank you, Mayor Prom.

Thank you. Um, yeah, there was a couple that stood out to me and one of them, well, we had talked about the ride share tax or at least I had talked to um, director Amami from public works about it in being a funding source for our East West connector and our transportation within the resort area and I think that um, is a great strategy there. I don't know if it'll kick off more money than that, but certainly it's a way to fund that priority for the city and um potentially even generate more revenue in the resort as we connect people to places where they shop and where they eat and everything and keeping them in Anaheim and connecting those destinations so we extend their stay. I think all of that plays into our strategy of uh toot and and generating that uh more of that as we move forward. Uh the other one I thought was kind of a little bit of a no-brainer to move forward with was the franchise fee. And um you know if if we're the only city around that's not collecting our piece of that uh the cable companies are not charging the people in Anaheim less because they're not paying us money.

So [laughter] so we might as well get our share. Um and we and I would say we could move forward quickly on that one. Um, and then I'd also, you know, as we kind of start to define and do these studies and figure out exactly what we want to move forward with and the cost of those things, we definitely need to look at grant opportunities and reach out to um our partners and other agencies and things to see what kind of revenue sources we can develop to pay for a lot of these things. It's always better to pay spend somebody else's money. So, um, that's [laughter] that that's something that we need to identify as a revenue option for some of these things that that we want to accomplish. Um, as far as some of the other things go, I I would have a hard time moving forward with any kind of a tax right now until we have more definition on what our needs are. What is that going to buy us? And is it worth taking money out of somebody else's pocket to do it? Do is it so important that we are going to tax somebody else and take their money to pay for something that we want? And so I want to make sure that we're exploring all other options to pay for things um before we we go down that path. But uh so I I think we've got a little bit of time to kind of figure out what those things are and then maybe there's something that has some sort of nexus to that improvement or cost or something that makes it a little more palatable.

Thank you. Um, quick question just to follow up on Mayor Prom's comment for and and council member Bakawa for the ride share. Is that something um I didn't I forgot what it said on the slide that voters would have to approve or is that because it's based generally to outsiders andor tourists. It does not need voter approval. Yeah, we need to do a little more work on it, but my initial analysis has has showed that it does require voter approval. Um, you know, there there's a question on whether or not we can do it as an assessment uh that wouldn't require voter approval, but uh in the jurisdiction that I that I've looked at, most of them have have done it via voter approval.

Thank you. Um, Council Member Curts and then Council Member Leyon. Thank you. Um, the documentation fee is that so I sell my home and somebody's going to buy it and we pay a fee to document that sale. Is that it? I'd like to explore that one. It doesn't

I that really good. No, that's that's exactly kind of what it is, right? It's just it's charging a fee. There is a base that the county um charges already um and then this would be on top of that which uh which a number of cities do. It's it's not common in Orange County um but a number of cities do that. And it and again the range of those fees, it's usually a tiered system. And then it also varies significantly um from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. You know, I I would like that one explored. Uh certainly the video uh service provider franchise visa. We're the only city in the state. Uh let's jump on that

wagon. Um I'm not supportive of billboards. I am certainly not supportive of a cannabis program. Um, right share is interesting. It's um when Mr. Mommy talked to us talked to me about it. He he he wanted you have noted you wanted uh it would go to the general fund, he mentioned it would be a great way to to fun uh to help fund an East West connector. So, I'd have to get more information on how it's going to be used. Um and then the Dell development improvement fees. I'm glad you're coming uh next month. Oh my gosh. Uh with that information because it looks like it's something that we're way behind on and could uh could improve on that uh fee. So that's it for now.

Council member Leyon and then Council Member Bis and Council Member Mass. Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh I'm not necessarily prepared to thumbs up, thumbs down these uh right here, right now. I just wanted uh to provide a comment the right share one uh just uh just to put out there just as a consideration that a lot of residents do also rely on on ride shares uh to get to and from and so just a just a consideration to throw out there. I know maybe it's not the majority and I don't know if we have or if we can get those numbers since those are essentially private companies, but um I just wanted to throw that out there that a lot of residents also rely on that.

And that's also one where we we've looked at tailoring it so that it it could exempt residents and maybe geoence the resort to to kind of protect against that. But again, a lot of studying still needs to be done on that. I I appreciate you saying that. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if that's some that's what we're looking at. um the redevelopment properties just as a question and I apologize if somebody already asked this. How many properties do we currently have? And I mean I don't know if there's a ballpark and then are there any pros and cons versus of just selling them off as soon as we can or holding on to them. What what's what's that consideration?

It's a total um large sites. It's a total of six sites. So it's not a it's not a lot large portfolio. We started with 63. we've kind of been um kind of narrowing down the projects um or the properties. Ultimately, we're dealing with environmental issues like 39 Commons and also other properties where we're dealing with title issues and um kind of property owner issues where we're resolving. Um ultimately what we're doing is we're actually trying to expeditiously get those all to market and that's what we're what we're just addressing some of those sites. So, as Ted had mentioned in his presentation, that's already that's a um a a process that's already underway that council has given us a clear direction that we want to get um through expeditiously. But the larger sites that we have are like Anaheim and Ball where we're dealing with some some property issues um then a couple properties on Lincoln and um when when which we will hopefully disposing of pretty quickly near the freeway for the Porsche dealership. Um but relatively it's it's about six, seven sites, large sites. And so you say large sites. Are there other smaller sites?

There are smaller like little remnant parcels that we are we're actually also in the process of disposing either to adjacent property owners or we're looking to see if we're going to keep them as properties. Um I I do like I just want to throw that throw it out there. I know there maybe there aren't that many properties left, but if it's something that we can um I'm over here I know we're talking revenue. I'm thinking how we spend the revenue. Um but if if if when we sell the redevelopment property, does that go to general fund when those properties are sold? It does. Yes. Okay. I think a portion goes a portion goes to the uh taxing other taxing entities and so we get a small portion of it.

Yeah. It's it's a small percentage. Yeah. And it's also restricted as well. So it doesn't go into the general fund, right?

Okay. Solid. Um, so it sounds like maybe there's appetite for a number of of these uh to get just some more information. I know these are preliminary, but uh just to very very briefly just circle back, I do like the idea of creating a neighborhood improvement fund. um whether that's with the revenue from the 30 or 40 million we expect from Disneyland forward OC Vibe or whether it's LPMR I I would like to explore that further and then see if that's a way to kind of lock things down at least a portion of something that is specifically and I know we do a lot of it in with different departments but a specific uh fund just for neighborhoods and neighborhood improvement just wanted to uh make sure that that was on given staff direction on Um, Council Member Bis and then Council Member Ma.

Thank you. With time, I'll keep the comments relatively short. Um, let me just start by saying I could definitely get behind a ride share tax that's out there. Franchise tax fee for sure. Um, I asked for this a while back ago and I know staff already knows how I feel, but uh, obviously the development impact fees uh, that has to We have to put that as a priority very quickly. Um, just real quick, I'll just say this. You've got fees in there. If somebody moved into Anaheim what, 17 years ago, there's a fee in there that they paid the same rate if you moved in yesterday to a brand new single family house. So, obviously, they are underfunded. And the interesting part about the development impact fees is this is how we are supposed to pay for our parks. it's supposed how we're supposed to pay for our police station, how our fire station wasn't necessarily designed to come out of the general fund. So, I'll just add that. And then I'll say this, uh, as [snorts] far as grant goes, I think the staff is doing an excellent job. I know every time I read a, uh, uh, an agenda, there's at least three or four items where you guys have reached out, we're augmenting with grant funds. So, as a strategy, obviously, keep it up, but I know you're doing a fantastic job with it already. And then I think you missed one thing and another way of generating revenue and maybe this isn't exact tax but the more we pay off debt the more revenue we have and I'll leave it with that.

Thank you uh Council Member Ma and then Council Member Rubikava.

Thank you Madame Mayor. Um timing is everything right? I think we'd be having a much different conversation if we didn't have LPMR and we know that we're the envy of many cities in the area. Um that said, I think that it's really responsible to pay off debt um as was mentioned once that bond gets paid off. As far as um revenue, um things I have noted to explore are the rid share company tax. Certainly updating impact uh impact fees, uh the video service provider franchise fee seems like a no-brainer. Um I am interested in exploring billboards and um grants. Um, I echo what was mentioned. Our staff does a phenomenal job of identifying grants and just a shout out to Grace uh specifically with housing. Uh, her name was mentioned twice over the last week and the great job she does at um, identifying grants. So, thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, Greg. Can you share a little more detail about the um, Uber or the ride share fee? Is it a tax on the consumer or is it a tax on the business? uh it goes on your folio. So when you get emailed a uh you know your receipt from the ride, it the assessment is listed there. So it's a consumer tax. Yeah. So if we as a council voted to go ahead and send it to if it has to be voter initiated, we could vote to send it to the general election because it's a tax. So it has to be on the general election.

And again, I I I'm not 100% sure it has to be a ballot measure. We're still trying to see if there's a way to get it done via an assessment if that's an option. More than likely, yes, ballot measure. And yes, this council would need to Okay. And then what would our timing be to get that onto the 2026 ballot? Well, I believe it's uh this council uh it's August is the deadline, but we would need to act well before August to allow the clerk to prepare all the documents and everything.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. Yeah, because I I I think that's very lowhanging fruit that we could just I mean for more reasons than one. And then just to a add a different question. So I know somebody mentioned about it possibly being utilized for specific purposes. That requires a twothirds vote right from the voters and not just a simple per that'd be a special tax that requires a twoth3 threshold. So um yeah it's a lot more difficult. Okay. Thank you. Do we have any other um questions or comments on the workshop? Okay.

Mayor, mayor, could I just summarize a couple of the revenues so that staff has some clarity on what we would be pursuing and bringing back likely next quarter with some more information? Of course, Mr. City Manager. And and please, you know, keep me honest here. Um, I heard some broad consensus for a couple of them. I heard broad consensus for ride share. I heard broad consensus for some franchise fees. Um, I heard some interest in some uh uh uh impact fees, not quite as broadly kind of echoed from the DAS, but I heard some interest in impact fee. Um, am I missing anything?

So, I didn't weigh in. Um, oh yes, correct. Thank you, council member. Uh, the naming rights possibility for Anaheim Marina. So, naming rights. I didn't weigh in because I believe it was said that we're bringing back developer impact fees in January. Anyways, that's correct, Mayor. And then, um, I did not weigh in on billboards because I believe we have a billboard item coming before us for top level discussion about what that means and could look like as well. Okay, I've got consensus. I think that's already in the queue. All right, it is. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so we are going to be now um concluding our workshop. Next up is the closed session agenda. Madame clerk, do we have any additions to the closed session agenda? Uh, mayor, we do not. Um, I would like to talk about potential deletions to the closed session agenda. So, we had our agenda published on Thursday. Um, and it was uh since I set the agenda with the city manager, we had items three and four before us. Is that correct, May? May Mayor, that's correct. Um, when it was published on Thursday, it would had items three and four.

Thank you. So, um, I was notified, I think, as well as the public that we have added items one and two to the close session agenda, which appear to be duplicative of something that is going to be on our business calendar. Um, so I would like to since the proper procedure is to um have take the temperature and vote of the council, I would like to make a motion just so we're not being duplicative to take items one and two off the closed s uh close session agenda and have that debate publicly as it is part of our um business calendar. Anyways, if anybody would mind seconding that motion.

Okay. Just point of clarification, madam mayor, we can you repeat the motion.

Right. So, we have items one and two that were added Friday night to our closed session agenda um without any uh notice to uh meet with the agenda setting power which is fine except that it is duplicative of something that we have on the business calendar. So, in order to just for time, um I think we should just remove items one and two from the closed session agenda and have that discussion in front of the public as part of the business calendar. And so just a point of clarification, uh, madame city attorney, uh, if we have if we have the discussion in close session, does that mean we cannot I mean to the mayor's point that we can't have the discussion we have in close session in public?

Um, you can have a you can have the same discussion in open session, but you can't reveal what was discussed in closed. So there are going to be some parameters there because you cannot reveal what anybody said about any of that. You can't reveal any of the discussion. But if you want to start from scratch in open, um I think that you can do that. Like I said, provided nobody's revealing close session discussions. So then it would be fair that we could have the same conversation twice.

Yeah. as long as with within closed you're sticking to what is on closed which is public employee appointment and conference with labor negotiators. So salary and uh the appointment the council has the authority um in either open or close to and is required in either open or close to review and approve um the candidate that um the city manager has selected.

Got it. Okay. So just a point of clarification. If we are told information in closed session by either someone from the and this is my concern told information from someone from the human resources department and then we discuss it. How are we protecting ourselves from not disclosing closed session information in open session because it's really hard to trace the fruit of that tree. I mean you will be threading a needle but I think you have to bring back let's say it is the HR director you have to bring her back and start over. You got to ask it again. You got to make it all because you can't say Linda you said enclosed right that's what you can't do but you can start over. So I guess that's my concern. If we have to bring back the human resources manager to start over in the business calendar, why not remove it from the close session and just have the conversation so that we don't accidentally say something that we heard in closed session in the open session?

Well, I think um you could do it either way. um honestly but I do think if you if you do it in open you you cannot repeat and I understand it could be um hard to remember what was discussed in closed and if that's fair game or whatever else but as long as you do a basically a redo in open I don't believe that that violates because the close session privilege applies to what you guys talk about in close session you cannot repeat that

correct I guess that that so anyways that was my concern is just to protect the members on this council and then given that we are having the exact same discussion in the business calendar. It's a very very interesting needle to thread. Um, as well as just for transparency, it looks a little bit like we are whipping each other on votes inside closed session is right before we're about to have a public discussion on a public employee that we need to discuss. That's a second part, but I mean the first one is my is my main concern. Council member Rubikava,

I think my question is more around procedure. So, two things. One, this the item was actually posted within the notification deadline. Yes, correct. Agendaizing authority is to add something without having it to be requested on in council, but it doesn't necessarily say that the mayor is the only person who has agendaizing authority. Is that correct?

Well, I think if you're talking about um yes, council can agendaize things at at a meeting, right? The mayor can agendaize things outside of a meeting. And I think the reason why the mayor is asking about asking for the council to vote on whether we're removing it is because I think that I I don't want to speak for you, Madame Mayor, but I think she's recognizing that at this point now that it's on there would need to be a council vote to remove it, which is why she's asking for concurrence.

I guess I'm What policy are we referencing? This is unprecedented for me in a council meeting where we actually vote on removing an item from close session. uh especially a personnel issue. So, that's a little bit concerning for me because there are privacy um concerns that I have and I I'm fully uh prepared to have this discussion in close session and I I think we could potentially and correct me if I'm wrong, but from a Brown Act perspective, the council, we do give direction to the city attorney to come out and report on close session. That could be something that we direct our city attorney to do after the close session discussion. Well, if you were selecting a candidate in close session, the the contract has to be approved in open session. There's

Yeah, I mean, it's on the consent calendar. Yeah. Um I think it's on the business calendar. I mean, on the business calendar, um appointments can be made um under that Brown Act exception. Appointments can be made and closed and then the city attorney, it wouldn't be that you would direct Rob, who will be here by then, hopefully. um it would be that he would have to report it out because that exception says if an appointment is made in close session that it must be reported out in open session at the same meeting. So I'm I'm bifurcating the appointment authority from the contract approval.

Yeah. And I guess I'm interested in understanding why our city attorney or city manager put it on the close session agenda either way. So, I would probably not be supportive of removing it from close session, but I'm happy to also come out and have the conversation in open transparent session with agenda item 19. So, I that's my position on the topic right now is I will be voting no to remove it because it was within the agendaizing deadline and within the authority of our city manager to place it on the agenda. So, I I think at this point I would like to maintain our agenda the way it has been noticed.

Can you Right. There were some personnel concerns that I had that were raised post uh publishing of the agenda and so uh within the city manager authority um I place the item in close session as well uh for council consideration

just because of the risk of disclosing stuff from close session. I'll go ahead and second the mayor's motion. Okay, we have a motion and a second to remove the turs two items from closed session. Please vote. The vote is three eyes, four nazs. Um motion fails with the no votes by council mayor promise council member bailis council and council member Kurtz.

Thank you. Um I'm going to be excusing myself from closed session for items one and two. So is that something that I need to note for the record and then I can have the city attorney at the time um just notice me to come in when we are addressing items three and four. Yes, you can recuse yourself from items one and two. Thank you. And do I need to report that when we come back into open session? I think Teresa, the city clerk, normally does that? And I um mayor, I can make that notation. I also reflect in the minutes as well. Thank you. Okay, so for uh do we have any speakers on the close session agenda?

Sorry about that, mayor. We do. We have eight speakers um wanting to address the city council on close session. We'll go ahead and call the first speaker up. Um each speaker will have three minutes to address the city council and if they could please step forward and the remaining names will appear on the projection screen behind me. The first one is um Heather Madrick. Good afternoon mayor and city council members. My name is Heather Madrick and I am the secretary of the AMA executive board. I am also a police dispatch supervisor and I have proudly served the city of Anaheim since 1995. I was born and raised in the city and continue to reside in District 6. Public service runs deep in my family with five of my immediately immediate family members have worked for the city of Anaheim. I share this background with you because I know Anaheim, its people, departments, and the challenges AMA members face. Police dispatch is at a critical shortage. In the month of November, dispatchers worked 727.5 hours of mandatory overtime to meet minimum staffing. In the first eight days of December, we have been mandated 242 hours of overtime. If someone calls in sick, we drop below minimum staffing, go short, and do not get a lunch during our 12 and a half hour shift. We have lost five dispatchers to Irvine. Two have retired and hiring replacements takes three to seven months plus another 12 to 18 months for training. Trainee do not count on the floor towards staffing. So we are down more positions that it appears on paper. I personally average 24 to 30 hours of overtime a pay period. In October of 2025, dispatchers handled over 35,000 calls with the call volume rising during the summer months. Despite being one of Orange County's busiest

cities for police activity, Anaheim dispatcher pay does not match that responsibility. UCI dispatchers nearly nearly as much as our dispatcher too, but handle less than a quarter of our cults. We are losing talented public servants to other cities. Recently, we have seen a property technician with over 20 years of experience take their talent to Irvine because of higher compensation. What a shame. If we want Anaheim to continue to shine on the global stage, we must invest in our people who keep it running. Our employees deserve fair pay that reflects their value, skill, and dedication. Ourou negotiations is a major way to improve the salary for our workforce, and we ask for your support. I'd like to close that it is my 50th birthday on Christmas Day, and I would love for our negotiations to be finished with a birthday and Christmas miracle. Thank you. [applause] We have our next We have our next speaker. Our next speaker, please step forward. Ricardo Cetto. Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. My name is Rich Salcea. I am the treasure of AM Executive Board. I work in public works and I've proudly served the city of Anaheim since 1993. I was born and raised in district 3, graduating from Anaheim High School and now live in district 5. In public works, I'm sorry. In public works, we recently went through three recruitments and have struggled to fill our skilled positions like in streets and concrete because of because of simply not enough pay. This is a heartbreaking Oh Jesus. I'm sorry. I don't speak for a

living, so this is incredibly hard for me, but uh [applause] Anaheim is my home. It's an honor to serve my community that shaped me. Today, I want to share some perspectives on our current contract negotiations and real challenges faced by AMA employees. Not having a competitive wage for essential highskilled positions is hurting our city. In public works, in public works, we recently went through three recruitments and have struggled to fill those skilled positions like in streets and concrete because of simple because we simply don't pay enough. This is heartbreaking. Anime is a world-class city, yet we are struggling to attract and retain the talent needed to maintain the services our residents expect and deserve. The people who maintain Anaheim streets, parks, libraries, and facilities are not just employees. They are the foundation that keeps this city operating smoothly every day. When I first joined the city of Anaheim, I was proud to serve my hometown, a city known for excellence, opportunity, and community pride. But today, our workforce is underpaid, overworked, and stretched thin. The result is a decline in service quality and growing struggle to deliver the level of excellence that a world-class city like Anaheim should represent. Before I close, I just want to say I grew up in I grew up in a bluecollar hardworking family. My dad a truck driver, my mom a factory worker. They both lived, worked, and retired here in Anaheim like I hope to do. But working three jobs as a part-timer and two shifts as a full-timer for seven over 17 years just showed me it's not enough. Through my own union and through the class and comp study, I now know

just like a lot of my peers who are severely underpaid, it's just not enough money. I urge you to invest in your employees not as an expense but as a commitment to NI's future. Paying Amy employees a living wage, one that reflects the value of our work and our standards in this city that the city stands for, is essential if we want to attract and retain the best people and serve our residents. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to the people who make NIM a great place to work and learn. Sir, I'm sorry your time is up.

Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker, we have our next speaker, Victoria. Or our next speaker, please step forward. Sorry guys, just pull it up. Hello, mayor, city council, and all ears that are hearing my voice. My name is Victoria Salcea. I am Ricardo's daughter. The reason I come here and stand up to you guys today is in solidarity with not only my father but as well as his peers and with AMA. My father comes home every day with sweat down his entire shirt. He comes home with asphalt stuck to his hands, his arms, and his boots. He works really hard. And knowing that my dad works hard and not only he, but so many city employees are out there working as hard as he is, perhaps not even knowing that they're underpaid is heartbreaking. In a time where there are people who are scared to step out of their homes due to the current ongoing ICE raids, sacrificing stepping outside and making money to provide for their families out of fear of being deported, a time where there has been significant slashes to crucial programs like SNAP and EBT, I urge you to please invest in your hardworking employees. The time is now. I love Anaheim, but I want the best for its employees. Thank you guys for your time. [applause] Our next speaker, our next speaker, Madame Mayor, council members, my name is Joseph Travisu. I'm a proud AM member and I'm a traffic controller assistant with the Anaheim Police Department. I'm here today to ask that you give us a fair contract in the cost of living increase. As council members, I'm sure you've seen us working hard to provide you safe and timely entrance and exit from city venues and events. Um, and but that's

not all we do. We also respond to callouts from home for fatal accidents, roadway hazards, and much more. All while our wages are slightly more than fast food employees, although our responsibilities are vastly greater. In the traffic safety section, we have a difficult time hiring, training, and retaining employees. I truly believe that an increase in pay can help solve this issue. I respectfully ask that you consider giving us a fair contract. The time is now. [applause] My time. Okay. Uh my name good afternoon uh mayor uh city council members and city leadership and my fellow colleagues. Uh my name is Raphael Barios, community services coordinator with the city of Anaheim since uh 1997. Uh that year I started working at George Washington Community Center which is now a park. So some of you guys might not know that. Uh in my role as a current role I'm a director of the downtown Anaheim community uh family resource center. Sorry. Public speaking is not my strongest suit, but um my strongest suit is having a big heart for my community that I love and I serve every single day. Um in my roles as a center director, I'm a case manager, program coordinator, special events, uh as a my some of my notable assignments have been senior safety net case manager. That was I was the only one citywide uh getting case magic case management referrals from seniors uh who were getting uh eviction notices and whatnot. I did that for uh two years working with the housing community development making those referrals for TBR and emergency assistance. I one of my things that I I taught one of the 80-year-old members uh was downloading a PDF. I take the time and effort to whoever walks into the door

that I serve. Not only you make you guys look good, uh you guys also represent us uh out there. I see you guys at events and I've met each and every one of you. Um but we treat every person that walks in the door with respect and dignity. I act like if they took 10 buses to get to us. That's the role I try to uh provide them. Um and now I've done that with Contigo. So, Conteo has been one of the most stressful but most rewarding um com um programs that I've ever done. Um a lot of people get three-day notices and they're have to work with the CA uh sorry, property managers or owners to get all the paperwork and make sure that it's on order. Same thing with senior safety net. Um, a lot of people are going through a lot of stuff. Uh, and it's not enough money to help them, but I think they take, uh, comfort in the support that I provide. Um, I used to work with county. Uh, I did family resource centers. So, uh, factf funed, if you're familiar with that, they help. It's a, uh, all-in-one pap uh, parenting classes. I used to work with social workers. uh at the county of Orange. I did uh uh homeless un unhoused uh encampments and whatnot and I work with police officers, the CAD team, everybody. I did a a program for uh the county of Orange. We're a suicide program. So, your staff here, they're dedicated, they're skilled, they have experience, we're ready to work and continue that work. I have 17 years uh under my belt and I still have 20 more to go. Um, so I thank you for all your efforts that you do behind the scenes, all those long hours meetings and same thing with our teams here. Everything you guys do, I appreciate. Thank you guys. [applause]

Our next speaker, Jason Perez.

Good afternoon, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Jason Perez and for the past 11 years I served as a community services coordinator in the community services department and I currently serve as the first vice president of AMA but even most importantly I am a district 2 resident as well. Negotiations officially began in June but our work started the day our lastou was signed. We never stopped listening. Hundreds of our members told us exactly what matters the most. Wages that let you live in the city you serve. stronger benefits that protect our families, real work life balance in a job that demands everything. We hired an independent public accounting firm and studied the city's finances inside and out. Every proposal on the table is driven by our members voices and backed by the facts. Anaheim is just not not just thriving, we're on the verge of something historic. OC Vibe is rising around the Honda Center. The Platinum Triangle is exploding with new homes, offices, restaurants, [clears throat] and entertainment. And in less than three years, the world will be watching when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympics and Anaheim becomes a host city for multiple events. None of that happens without the employees here today. Who are those employees?

[applause]

our members in code enforcement, libraries, community services, the park rangers, the traffic controllers, Anaheim Convention Center, their security, the facility maintenance workers. You name a department, our employees support every one of those departments. Yet, right now, too many of us can't even afford to live in the city we serve. In fact, some full-time Anaheim employees earn so little that they meet the very same federal CDBG lowincome guidelines we use to provide food assistance and housing help to our residents. After 11 years as a community services coordinator, I watch co-workers both in my department and others forced to choose between the job they love and a roof over their family's head. That's not right and it's not sustainable. We are close, very close. At our last session, AMA brought forward proposals we believe can get us to a fair agreement. We're not asking for anything unreasonable. We're asking for dignity, respect, and the ability to stay in the city will proudly represent to the world in 2028. Mayor and city council, after 11 years on the front lines, I'm asking you today, hear us and empower your team to finish this deal. a deal our members deserve and will be proud to ratify. I thank you for your time. [applause] [cheering]

Good afternoon, council members and mayor Aken. My name is Jane Barreres, president of Anaheim Municipal Employees Association. I represent 899 members, including 371 voting residents. Our dedicated staff serve Anaheim daily, working in libraries, parks, community centers, fire and police departments, maintaining city streets. We support Anaheim's major facilities like the convention center and provide essential services during emergencies and events. Our TCAs ensure smooth traffic flow for venues such as the stadium, Honda Center, Disneyland, and more. highlighting their indispensable role for efficient city operation. You only need to go up north to Dodger Stadium or Sofi and see the difference between getting out smoothly or sitting in traffic. Pepper offers identical retirement benefits across the city, giving newly hired workers little incentive to stay in Anaheim. The city struggles to attract experienced employees and and laterals due to its lower wages and lack of competitive benefits. Building inspectors are considering leaving the cities for better pay. Our proposal for full reimbur reimburseable overtime for inspectors and other creative ideas have been rejected. Our proposals will keep public servants in the city. I have heard from department heads who agree with additional funding for these certificate pays only to have them rejected at the negotiation table. I would attend training out of the county and I introduced myself as working for the city of Anaheim at the police department. Everyone would um would want to know what working in Anaheim was like. Do you really get to work at the Honda Center and go to concerts? Do you really get to work at Disneyland? Do you get in free? Have you met Mike Trout? Have you met Shoi Otani? People used to envy us working at Anaheim, but not anymore. Anaheim is

risk risking turning into BlackBerry or Kodak. Both used to be the best and innovative. BlackBerry failed to adapt to the smartphone technology and Kodak thought digital cameras would never surpass film. Anaheim wages have been surpassed by almost every other city in Orange County. We have met multiple times. I have multiple conversations with all of you. It is time to invest in your greatest asset, your workers. Thank you. [applause]

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Council me, I don't have a fancy speech or nothing, but I just I've been a a veteran of uh 26 years for public works. Uh my position is a night position, night shift. I love that shift. Uh while you guys are asleep, I clean up the city. Um a lot of things goes, you know, and a lot of things go good and bad, but I'm in the sweeping department. So, I'm very proud of that. I'm here to support my brothers in a fair contract and uh just consider us that, you know, I seen a lot of right now. It used to be hard to go to the city and try to apply for a job. Now, it's it's hard to get people to get to work for us because the pay is not there. It's not all there. they go other places. All I ask is um give us give us uh at least acknowledges that uh you know we we we try hard and we work hard just so this city can look the way it looks now. I'm proud to be a city employee and hope to keep continue and uh in God we trust. That's why I'm here. This Thank you so much. [applause] Mayor and city council. That concludes our in-person speakers. Also noting for the record, we did not receive any electronic comments on the close session agenda.

Thank you so much. So, we are going to now close the public comment portion of the close session agenda and recess to close session.

Can you hear me now? All right. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to reconvene the Anaheim City Council meeting back to order. The first item on our agenda is an invocation that will be offered this evening by Chaplain Nathan Zug. Following that, I'm gonna ask Mayor Prom Meeks to lead us in the flag salute. Will you all please stand, convene together tonight, and to continue together? I know the council has been together already. Uh we're asking for your particular grace and your peace and your guidance throughout this entire meeting. As you know, much has gone into each agenda item and each decision that will be made tonight. A lot of preparation, a lot of thought, and a lot of many different aspects. So I ask your wisdom and grace on the council themselves, our mayor, and any other aspects of decision making tonight. Would these decisions um bless our city in ways that we didn't imagine? So just guide and bless our council and all that goes on tonight. I thank you for them. Thank you for each department leader and each staff of our city and all all those involved. I thank you also for our first responders tonight and those um keeping us safe and protecting us in our life and property. Um so Lord, may you show truthful, kind presence tonight, this week and this month in ways we can see, feel, and know. Do this for each council member, our mayor, our department leaders, city employees, Anaheim businesses, residents, and guests. And may you inspire us with the fellowship of human

connection to assist each other when we are in need and in each moment of success. And again, we're grateful and I pray this in your holy, holy name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you. this time of year as we give thanks and thanksgiving and then share our love and our generosity through the holidays. Um we also look forward to the new year and hopefulness and the joy of what we'll experience in in the coming year. So I want to give thanks to our great flag and the country that gives us all those opportunities. Ready? Begin. I aliance 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. Good evening. And so we have a very special recognition um tonight in that we are recognizing Anaheim High School's football team [applause] and Council Member Leyon has asked me for the privilege of leading this item. Can you please join me, Council Member Leon? [cheering and applause] For the record, I did not know I'm kidding. Uh, so this is really the bet that keeps on giving. Uh, so you all

know that I'm a proud Magnolia High School Sentinel. Always will be. U, but I also want to commend the Anaheim High School football team for their victory over my Sentinels. It was a 70-0 victory. I'll remember it for the rest of my life. But, uh, in all seriousness, I talk I talk a lot of smack. Your coaches probably know. You guys probably may have heard me during the field during the game. Uh, I'll talk a lot of smack. But, uh, at the end of the day, we're all we're all one city, right? And, uh, I do want to commend the Anaheim High School football team, not just for their victory over my Sentinels, but for an amazing season. Made it all the way to, I think, semi-finals, uh, CIF semi-finals, and that deserves a recognition in and of itself. So, I I I'm I'm paying my bet by bringing you guys here, but it's more than just the bet. It's it's really it comes down to uh you guys being stellar athletes, stellar students, and you guys have really bright futures. And just know that all of us, as much smack as we talk, we're we're here to support you. And uh so, uh congratulations at Meta Mayor if we can bring them up. And

I think uh [laughter] for the record, I lost a lot of bets on this game. I first I I lost a bet with Congressman Korean, an Anaheim High School alum, and of course my colleague over here who did bring me a football jersey, and I did wear it for the record. So, uh, go Anaheim High School. And I think there's a Letterman's jacket for me. So, bring it over. Come on. [applause] just

[laughter]

I can students. It's all Okay, everybody. So, we're going to take a couple photos here. Look right here. And then there's going to be a lot of All right. Now, family, if anybody wants to come up, [laughter] It's like you're waiting for the snap, right?

All right. Looks like we got a couple more. Great.

So you guys Good everybody get my hand. [applause] So, we're going to move on to our business agenda. Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to tonight's agenda?

Mayor, there are none. Can you please outline our public comment procedure and call the first several speakers that are here to address the agenda?

Thank you, mayor. Speakers have one opportunity to address the city council except for the scheduled public hearing. The public comment period is limited to 90 minutes or until all agenda item speakers have been heard. Any time remaining of the 90 minutes will be provided to speakers who wish to speak on any non-aggenda related items but within the council's jurisdiction. A second public comment period will be open by the mayor only if any non-aggenda item speakers were not heard during this first public comment period and it will be open at the end of council business. The time limit for public comment is three minutes per speaker. Those wishing to address the city council must complete a speaker card which are available at the back of the council chambers. The name and contact information requested on the speaker card is optional. Any unidentified speakers will be called by the speaker card number. At this time, I'd also like to announce that Spanish interpreting services are provided at every city council meeting. Simultaneous Spanish interpretation is provided through the use of headsets and consecutive interpretation is available to anyone who would like to address the city council. For translation services in other languages, please contact the city clerk's office at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled meeting. At this time, I'd like to introduce our interpreter who will make the same announcement in Spanish. city clerk. At this time, on behalf of the city council, we would like to remind the public that Anaheim remains committed to freedom of speech. And we ask that

speakers address the city council with civility and refrain from making personal, threatening, abusive, slanderous, or profane remarks towards any member of the council, staff, or general public. We appreciate you reflecting this spirit when you speak. The time now is 5:26 with the 90minute public comment period set to conclude at 6:56 or until all agenda items speak speakers have been heard. We do ask that speakers line up at the podium once they see their name appear on the projection screen behind me. And mayor and city council for agenda items we have nine speakers. The first speaker if they can please step forward is R. Joshua Collins. Good afternoon, council. My name is R. Joshua Collins, founder of Homeless Advocates for Christ. And first, of course, just want to encourage everyone to give their life to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us, to save us from hell, to give us everlasting life. We've all sinned. We all need a savior and only Jesus can save us from that horrible place called hell. Thank God for Jesus. Um, I also want to uh talk about the homeless situation uh as well. I recently ran into a homeless mother of of two and her her son was in Anaheim High School or sorry, Western High School for two years and then his sister for one year and for some reason I guess they had spoken to City years ago and were still on the street uh when I ran into them on Thanksgiving. I'm I'm curious to know why is it that they weren't picked up in the system as far as u having ties to Anaheim. But I spoke with Sandra Seagard about them and and then she reported back to me in a text message that that um you know they couldn't verify sitting at uh I'm assuming couldn't verify that they had ties to Anaheim. Yet both of these uh

youngsters had uh student ID numbers with Western High School. So, if I'm I'm very concerned since I know CNET's getting $7 million for the next two years, this funding, how come they couldn't verify uh two students of Western High School as having ties to Anaheim with their mother? I don't understand that. And so, uh how many times are things like this happening where people aren't aren't getting housing when they really really need it? And especially a mother with her two kids. And why don't we have more services for homeless mothers? And you know, we just saw some high school students up here. Uh imagine if they were homeless or living in their car with their mother or things like that. What do what kind of safety net do we have for for high school homeless students? How many more are out there that are homeless? What are we doing about that? Um that's a major concern of mine. Um I'd like to see some change. Of course, also another homeless individual, he had recently some brain surgery, back surgery. His name is Will. Would like help. His number is 657-272-4935. He did give me permission to share his number. If you can help him, 657-272-4935. Thankfully, that homeless mother from what I understand has gotten some help. But, um, again, I think we definitely need to to provide uh more opportunity, more help um ways to get help to people like that. But, thanks for letting me share. have our next speaker step forward. Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. My name is Jessica Avalar Bruce and I have the privilege as serving as the chief program officer of Cynet, a nonprofit which has partnered with Anaheim since 2014 to connect thousands of homeless neighbors to shelter, housing, and care. City Net's main offices are on Crescent Avenue in

Anaheim and I am speaking tonight in support of your agenda item 15 to continue the successful CCRT program in the city. Through CCRT, City's team serves on the front line as the initial point of engagement into a broader system of care addressing homelessness in Anaheim and across the county. A system which includes shelter, mental health, substance abuse recovery services, temporary housing, and permanent housing with housing supports when needed. These initial street outreach and engagement services meet people where they are living unsheltered in parks, flood control channels, shopping centers, and anywhere else homeless neighbors can be found. These efforts divert thousands of calls each year that would otherwise have gone to law enforcement, allowing Anaheim police officers to focus on public safety while we address the humanitarian needs behind those calls. This is what collaboration looks like. The right response at the right time by the right team. Our outreach specialist worked tirelessly to connect thousands of unhoused neighbors to shelter, housing, and critical services. Every one of those connections represents a life moving closer to stability and a community moving closer to solutions. I want to take a moment to thank the dedicated men and women of the Anaheim Police Department, particularly the Halo team. Our daily partnership with them has been invaluable in ensuring that outreach and public safety work hand in hand. Together, we've demonstrated that compassion and accountability can coexist. And that's Anaheim's and that Anaheim's approach is a model for other uh is a model for others across the state. As the chief program officer of cityet, I am fortunate to partner with 10 counties and more than 50 cities across the state. And everywhere I go, I reference Anaheim's leadership and willingness to innovate to innovate as a standard that other communities should be seeking to replicate. Homelessness is not just a statistic. It's a human crisis. Inside every encampment is a story. someone's parent, child, or friend who deserves dignity and a path forward out of homelessness.

Our work is about creating those paths and we cannot do it alone. Continued investment in outreach and housing is essential if we are serious about reducing homelessness and improving the quality of life for everyone in the city. Thank you for your leadership and for partnering with us to make sure that compassion and effectiveness guides our response. Together, we can ensure that every unhoused neighbor in Anaheim finds a place to call home. Thank you. Our next speaker, Ivon Delator. Following Ivon Delator, is Paul Stanford. Good evening. I'm here um to oppose about the murder of Albert Azalano that was killed on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. on December 6. There was a confrontation with the the police department, Anaheim PD, which killed this young man of 19 years old. Um this needs to stop. Police brutality is a epidemic all around the world and it needs to stop. Now we have another young man dead because police want to abuse their authority and it's not fair. Something needs to be done about this. You know, we should have to be hearing on the news that somebody died because of police police brutality because these officers abused their badge. This young man just got home from work. And it's a shame because it could happen to anybody and it's not fair that something needs to be done about this. It's not just here in Anaheim. It's also Fullerton and also in Orange County,

Santa Ana as well. This is an epidemic all over the world and it just needs to stop. Something needs to be done about this. And it's not fair that you guys want to pay out the families, but it's not going to bring them back. And it just, like I said, it just needs to stop. Something needs to be done about this and you guys need to be have them held accountable. Somebody needs to go to jail for this. It's murder. Plain out murder. And if you guys do your job right, I would feel that you guys need to investigate this thoroughly because this family needs justice and other families as well that haven't gotten justice by these officers that are still on patrol and still killing other family people out there. Thank you.

Our next speaker Paul Sanford. We'll go to our next speaker, Lick Lamp Lampling.

Madame Clerk, could you just announce the next couple of speakers so people can line up? Sure. It looks like we have Mr. Okay, we'll go ahead. Um, and then following the speaker, we have Sky. Then, um, Sean Massuda.

Good afternoon. Uh, good good evening, uh, mayor and then, uh, and council. I want to thank city staff for, uh, recommending Laz Parking as well as for council's consideration. My name is Nicola Le Padding. I'm the senior general manager for Laz Park in Orange County. Um, I'm an OC resident and I office out of our local office here in Orange County. Um, Laz Parking employs about 1,500 employees in the Orange County region, 283 of those being in the city of Anaheim. We run 120 plus locations in Orange County, 13 of those being in in the city of Anaheim with our our most recent major tent pole being OC Vibe where we employ over 100 employees. So, you know, have a very very good ties to the city of Anaheim and a lot of dedication to the city. Um we're we're really excited about the opportunity afforded us here in in running the city garages. Um we look forward to the agenda item number 12 and uh we look forward to serving the city of Anaheim. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Sky, then following Shawn Masuda, then following Vern Nelson, and then Donna Seeto Nelson. Jail the killer cop who killed Albert Arzola. It's simple. Ivonne was right. Something needs to be done. And that something that needs to be done is simple. We don't need to over complicate this. It was murder. And what do you do? You put that killer cop in jail. That is our demand. Don't talk to us about anything less than that. If you want to actually be a model for public safety, imagine doing that. Setting the standard for that. I don't believe that that's what you want to do on this city council, but prove me wrong. I believe that you actually want to perpetuate the model that you already have, which is to normalize this. This happened in a neighborhood that is regularly harassed, that is regularly brutalized and terrorized by Anaheim PD. And the neighbors in this neighborhood know that. And finally, it resulted in a dead body. Finally, it resulted in blood on the hands of Anaheim PD. and it'll keep happening because this isn't the first and we all know that, right? People in this audience have had family members killed by Anaheim PD. So, we need to cut through the and we need to be real about what is actually happening about how we can talk about civility in this chambers, but what happened on the streets of Anaheim that day was anything but civil. What the pigs did on that street was barbaric. So if you want to talk about civility, talk to your cops, talk to your officers. We have been trained to go to the very people in this room, the very people who are in uniform, our oppressors when this happens. And we have been trained,

we have been taught to go beg, beg for crumbs, beg for some faint resemblance of justice. But again, if you want justice, if you say, if you're going to utter anything remotely about justice tonight, you know what is the task before you? It is to jail the cop who killed Albert. There's no more fighting for crumbs. We have to put our blood, our soul, our bodies, our emotions, everything into this. So, if we're going to sacrifice for this, we might as well sacrifice for the whole loaf instead of fighting for crumbs. This is not going away. And we know that we cannot reform police brutality out of existence. We know that police review boards do not actually offer any sort of authority to enforce accountability. We know that authority and we know that comes from the people putting pressure on the people in power because we know that you will not do it until there's pressure that means something until something is at stake. Albert deserves justice. His family deserves justice. This just happened. They are scared. They are in shock.

The neighborhood is in shock. Sorry, your time is up. And I'm still trying to piece together what happened. Still trying to Sky. I'm sorry. So again, I'm going to say it one more time. Jail killer cops. Your time is up. Everyone say it with me. Jail killer. Thank you. We'll have our next speaker step forward. Jailer cops. OUR NEXT

excuse me please. Let's ma maintain decorum in the chamber. Thank you Mr. Metsuda. Hello. Justice for Albert. I want to explain it again. So, a couple nights ago at 9:30 on Philadelphia Street, a young 19-year-old man named Albert was killed by Anaheim Police Department. He had just gotten home from work. He was standing outside of his door with his hands in the sky. He didn't have a weapon. He wasn't posing any kind of danger to nobody. The reason why the Anaheim Police Department murdered a 19-year-old kid was because, at least as far as we can tell, in the body cam footage and in the footage of people's porches, a cop who was trying to get straight with Albert, I guess, trying to prove that he was a big man, fell when he was walking back from the stairs. So, he fell on his back, and it was then that he took out his gun and shot Albert twice. While Albert's body lied there with blood coming out of it, warm on the pavement, a crowd started to form of friends and family, people who lived in that neighborhood. And the police went on to shoot people with rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. So, you know, it says in God we trust. We're talking about tonight, you know, we thank the Anaheim Police Department for being compassionate and empathetic. Prove it. We're talking about, you know, these cops are keeping our streets safe. Prove it. Because the Anaheim Police Department didn't just get away with killing Albert. They've gotten away with killing many other young men, Latino men. Why are they killing us? Why are you guys talking about I'm sorry I'm addressing you guys. I'm really addressing these cops. Why are these police departments? Why are these people, these politicians talking about

keeping our streets safe? talking about reform and you know having good relations with the community like cops with donuts or whatever prove all that you know because for the last 12 years since 2012 since Jo was killed by the police department since Manuel Diaz was killed by the police department it's been the same it's been the same stuff we've got a new police chief but it's the same old story what's up with that why is this a pattern why do we need to accept this why do we need to live in a world where cops with egos get the badge and a gun and they think they can earn their stripes by killing someone who has no weapon who's 19. You know, [snorts] it's pathetic, man. I just want to put it in perspective. You know, all of these people, Susan Barios, Miss Teresa Bass, Mr. Robert, Mr. Jim, what what about when they kill your nephew? What about when they kill your son? What about any of these people right here? What about when they kill someone you know? Will justice be swift then? What about any of these other people who were killed by the police?

Sir, I'm so sorry. It could be someone you know and it could be you. You know, they could kill this mayor and the cops will get away with it. This is the kind of that happens in Anaheim. Well, hold on. You know, this is this is more important than three minutes. This young man's life is not Thank you so much. Your time is up. Sir, sir, I'm sorry. Time is up. Sir, your time is up. You're disrupting the meeting. I understand. Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step. There is a next person. Madame clerk, can you please call the next speaker? Our next speaker, Vern Nelson, followed by Donna Seto Nelson, followed by Jose Duran.

Police.

I'll also be speaking about Albert Arzola, a name we should remember, a 19-year-old that was killed Saturday night. I'm glad that the I didn't write a speech this time. I'm glad we have that the new chief is here so we can hear what we're dealing with. It it said in the press that there was a confrontation leading up to the shooting and there there was there was no confront we me and Donna went there the next day and talked to a few people that were witnesses and we saw the videos we could. There was no confrontation. The um officer we don't know who he is yet. He fell down the stairs and his first reaction was he had a gun in his hand. His first reaction was to shoot this guy two two times or three times. I think the neighbors heard three shots and I think two of them hit him, hit Albert. And it just seems like something that could happen in my neighborhood because we've we have this problem with uh the police come there in the gang unit to where I live and there's there's kids. They're they're young. They're younger than 19. They're 14, 15 and they come with their guns drawn. if there's um they're drinking beer. Sometimes they're not even drinking beer. They're just not bothering anybody. And it seems like they're ready for trouble. And I hope uh the new chief can do something about that. De defuse all this. It's a culture that needs to be toned down. Uh Albert was Albert was according to everybody we talked to, he wasn't doing anything. He had his hands up. The cop fell. The cop shot him. And then they uh then of course there were there was a lot of protest afterwards and they shot a lot of rubber bullets. One guy really got hurt. Um we have that on video too. Um got hit in the neck by a rubber bullet and had to go to the hospital. Could have been killed. Some people recently have got killed by bean bag rounds.

Um, so, um, I hope our new chief will work on that. And we we'd like to have as much information as we can as soon as possible. And it doesn't seem like this guy who reacted to falling down the stairs by shooting somebody um, should still be in the police force. Thank you.

Next speaker, Donna Seto Nelson, followed by her Jose Duran. The mayor talks about decorum and we're talking about a young 19-year-old man that was murdered, but you want decorum. I don't know how you get that from murder. My name is Donna Sevido Nelson. Um, I consistently came to city council beginning two days after my 21-year-old son Joel was beaten, handcuffed, and shot in the back of the head on July 22nd, 2012. Um, I stopped coming here about a little over two years ago when um, the police review board used a picture of me and my family crying in the street just a little while after my son was murdered. And I guess that was a good picture for them to use for a presentation and it was okay with the people here. Um Albert Arzola was only 19 years old. Um his hands were up. He came out and he was murdered in front of his family and friends. They say 12 people were detained. It was his family and friends that were detained. The witnesses for being upset, probably not having enough decorum with the police. you know, pe people are upset when they see their son lying on the ground, you know, murdered by the police. That that's a normal reaction. Um, these same gang unit officers that patrol these neighborhoods come to my,

not just my neighborhood, my apartments where I live about two or three times a week. They come with their guns drawn to 14, 15, 12 year old kids on their on their cell phones playing little games on their phones. I've called so many times to complain about, you know, weapons drawn on these kids. Um, and Sergeant Petus, oh well, your alley smells like urine. Like, what does that have to do with the way people are treated? Like, that should not be happening. Um, a mother was filming when the police were there harassing her kid and others. He was outside taking out the trash. One of the officers pushed her, grabbed a cell phone from her hand. Later on, when it was given back, the footage that she took was deleted. Um, we made complaints about this. Um, Julissa came out to talk to everybody. Um, nothing's changing. They still come out. They they treat three. Like if you're brown and young, that's a reason enough to chase you and have the their gun to your head. Like that's okay with the city. I've complained about this so much and nothing is changing. I I kept saying, "Watch, something's going to happen."

Sorry. I said nothing. And I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. This needs to stop. We have a new I'm sorry. Chief, I don't care. I don't care. We have a new police chief. He needs to know the way his gang unit I'm so sorry. His gang unit operates on the street. I'm so sorry. And I hope Natalie decides to have some kind of community briefing because there's no answers. There's not even a fake story for us to go by. Ma'am, I'm so sorry. We're gonna

You're not sorry. You're not sorry. You just care about your decorum. I have to treat everybody the same. You do not care about Miss Clerk, can you please call the next speaker? Our next speaker, Jose Duran. Something

I understand. I know, but there's other people that everybody gets three minutes. We have to treat everybody the same. So, I'm sorry. I know you've had your three minutes. I understand it is need to move on to the next speaker. Miss Nelson, Miss Nelson, we need to move on to the next speaker. Mr. Duran,

I know, Miss Nelson, I understand. Uh, mayor, city council members, and staff, my name is Jose Duran. I'm the president of the Anaheim Police Association. First, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Chief Rick Armanderas, his leadership as the Anaheim's 37th Police Chief. He has guided our department through important growth and transition. The men and women of the Anaheim Police Association deeply appreciate his service. We we wish him the very best on his well-earned retirement. That brings me to agenda item 19, which the Anaheim Police Association strongly supports. Anaheim drew the attention of some truly impressive candidates. Through the hard work of the recruiter, Gary Peterson, city manager Jim Vanderpool, HR director Linda Andall, and everyone involved at city hall, we believe that you guys have identified an excellent fit for the future of the city. Chief Manny Sid brings over five years of experience as a city chief of police and is highly respected by the communities he has served. He has a strong reputation for building trust, developing future leaders, and fostering collaborative community- centered policing. His leadership style and his vision align with Anaheim's values and the direction our as our city continues to grow. The Anaheim Police Association looks forward to supporting him as he steps in its new role. Thank you and I encourage you all to vote or ratify his contract. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Gabby Setter.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Gabby Sutter and I'm the executive director for the Anaheim Police Association. We represent 400 sworn peace officers. I would like to thank the city for its thorough recruitment process and the appointment of Manuel Sid as chief of police. We look forward to his leadership and to working together for the betterment of the city, its residents, visitors, and our members. Thank you. Next speaker, Paul Sanford. We'll go to our next speaker, Tyler Collins.

Good evening, mayor. Good evening, council members. My name is Tyler Collins. I'm the owner of Healthc Care Services and Lighthouse Treatment Centers, Anaheim Lighthouse. And with me I have Theresa Cthra, our executive director of our rehab here in Anaheim. And we're under consideration for an expanded treatment contract with the city. And I just wanted to say thank you for our relationship with the city. Um the lighthouse has been in in business uh for 25 years helping people recover from addiction through all levels of care uh through detox uh residential treatment and outpatient afterare. for 111 bed uh licensed facility on Pearl Street. And over the past couple years, we've been working directly with the Anaheim Police Department Halo team uh as well as the Access team to accept over 130 scholarships into our 30-day treatment program from detox all the way through uh to afterare. And we're very grateful for the opportunity to help individuals and families who are suffering from uh drug and alcohol uh abuse. A lot of individuals are dying in the streets and we're just grateful to be a beacon of hope for them uh and work directly with uh you all and the police department. So, thank you for the opportunity to continue serving our population. Thank you. Our next speaker, Mark Richard Daniels. Total change of plans. I was going to talk about one thing, but I'm changing my plans. So this shooting, if I understand it right,

the shooting was unprovoked. This young man was shot by what was the reason? Uh the the cop fell down the stairs, had a gun, and then shot the kid. Now, I doubt the kid did anything to provoke that. And then even if he did to to fire your gun while you're laying on the ground or you're just getting up for no apparent reason, that's that's murder is what it is. Okay. That uh and I know our DA knowing our DA is who's very much pro cop, he'll, you know, he'll side with the department. So, it's almost like there's not even a reason for even having an investigation, but it will still stand that the man fired his gun and for no apparent reason. He was not under threat uh from all sounds of it. Now, maybe I'm missing parts of this and I'm sure I am, but there has to be more to this. And why would you fire a gun at somebody that was unless he was on top of you or he was a he had a gun on you or he holding on to you. But the man from all accounts back here fell down the stairs and fired his gun at this individual. So I got to hear more about this. This is very disturbing. And I was uh around what kind of woke me out of my dogma in 2012 was the shooting of Don Oavdo's son Joel and then Manuel Diaz the night before. And that sort of kind of like woke me out of my uh in West Anaheim

kind of like oh my god this is in my city and there's uh armed people. it's uh with armored vehicles uh and it was just chaotic and I thought my god this is the city I was born in. What the hell's happened? And so I started to get more involved and and from that point on and gotten to know many of the people that were uh their lost their family members and to have that kind of rapport with the community. Now, this all sets it sets it back. This sets it back years because you're not going to give a satisfactory answer why this has happened. I don't care what you do. Thank you,

Mayor and City Council. That concludes um speakers on agenda items. We will now go to general comments and our next three speakers is Ruben Greg Sodto, Veronica Mahia, and Bianca Garcia. So, our first speaker could step forward. Ruben Greg stood mayor city council meeting. Okay. I about the shooting. I didn't know about about it because I live in my car. I was in Riverside for 7 days in a hotel getting my paperwork for my divorce from beginning to end. Well, it's not ended yet. That was a criminal case. It cost me $890. That's a lot of paperwork. 50 cents a page. I had two big stacks. And you know what? In the mall, everybody where I go, my YouTube, my Facebook account, everybody know what's going on. There no way anybody's going to get away with the cops. Fullin, everybody arrested me falsely and put me in jail. taking all my money, put me in the gutter, taking my dollar away, and everybody drinks to do drugs, especially with marijuana legalized now. I really don't give a hope what you do. You can't do this to me, not to everybody. Any of you, you ain't no better than me. Just like Jesus Christ back in the day, I went and did my thing and try to get girl. I'm getting girls to stop being a piece of meat for these This heart right here is broken, right? It's bleeding out. That's for all the ladies that these guys like so-called freaking brothers treating like a piece of meat, break their heart, and don't give a hoot hoop. And that Jesus Christ crap. You can throw that away. You know why? There's gays that Jesus try to stop all this stuff. It's only getting worse. You got all these churches preaching the word, making money. Ain't

nothing about that. I don't care about that. I want to straighten out these men how they treat you. And a lot of ladies, everybody's starting to hate cops. Well, because my stories are now more and more and more and more. Hey, you do what you want. I don't care. I put up Facebook. I don't care. You drink. I want you to take your kids to hell like my family did mine. Bring around trashy parents. Your parents are the problem. It's not me. Anyway, that's all I got to say. Thank you. Our next speaker, Veronica Mahia, Bianca Garcia, and following Bianca Garcia is Matthew Duncan. Evening, honorable mayor, honorable city members, and Anaheim community. My name is Veronica Mahia. I has been I have been an Anaheim resident for almost 40 years, and I am Mia's Mia's mom. Mia was born on December 28th, 2011 on the block of West Cron Avenue. She attend Clarabarton Elementary School from kindergarten through sixth grade. She was in a team gymnastics. Restless bullying drama child to take her life on March 17 this year.

[sighs and gasps]

During the short 13 years my daughter was alive, she was kind. Just like Natasha Chiski, Mia wrote about kindness. She wore shirts that says be kind. If you look through the notes teachers, classmates and friends wrote Mia, [snorts] you will see the word they always used to describe her, is kind. My daughter did not deserve cruely. I am living a nightmare in the city [snorts] in the city of kindness. Since losing Mia, I have tried to get Anaheim Union to bring resource to Mia's friends. I have not successful. Mia's friends need help. I humble ask you to kindness. Please do more for our youth and parents. Please offer more anti-bullying and suicide preventions services. I do not wish this pain to anyone. Thank you. Evening honorable mayor, honorable city council members in Anaheim community. My name is Bianca Garcia. I was raised in Anaheim and I am a part of the community

grieving the loss of Mia Mahia. Mia was one of my 35 cousins from my mom's side. She was also my flower girl at my wedding. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14. One in three teen girls considers attempting suicide. Every minute, 13 children attempt suicide. I can't tell you how much I wish I knew these figures before Mia passed. This is an epidemic. We are losing our children. We are losing our future. I am not fear-mongering. This is the data. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stigma and survivors of suicide loss often feel often don't feel safe to share their story. My family is living the unim unimaginable, every parents worst fear. And as agonizing as it is to be here without Mia, vulnerable exposed, we continue to share Mia's story with the hope that lives are saved and families are spared from this pain. I know the Anaheim Chief's Youth Advisory Council created and implemented an anti-bullying curriculum, which is good, but it was only for a 100 Anaheim youth. I know city councilman Carlos Leon hosted a back- to-school bash where the with hope foundation which is dedicated to suicide prevention was present and they were able to help individuals struggling at the event that is amazing but we need more. The pain of losing Mia is indescribable and will stay with me forever. Since March 17th, I have thrown myself into saving lives because I do not wish this pain on anyone. I travel all over looking for opportunities to partner with organizations.

I'm signing up for every event. Last month, I attended the Yorbalinda Youth Empowerment Service Day. They had the with Hope Foundation do a presentation on suicide prevention. It was a very large turnout for a rainy and cold Saturday morning. I would like to see more of these events in Anaheim. And so I humbly ask for your kindness and your willingness to do more for our youth and parents. I am willing and ready to work together to make life-saving differences in our community. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Matthew Duncan. Matthew Duncan. I am an advocate for dogs, both wild and domesticated. Domesticated dogs are sometimes called man's best friend. So, I want to share an update on the little dog who was recently put into a plastic bag. and thrown over a six-foot gate at a pet clinic in Anaheim. The little dog landed face first and suffered injuries to his mouth and nose. This abuse was captured on security video and the abuser who is an Anaheim resident was interviewed by Anaheim PD. News reports showed multiple officers and investigators leaving the abuser's apartment. And last week, the media reported that the abuser was arrested and is facing felony animal cruelty charges. So, I am monitoring this case. The little dog is still being cared for by OC Animal Care and will eventually be uh made available for adoption. But I think we again [clears throat] we need to respect the other species that live on this planet with us. Thank you. [applause]

Rest in peace, Mia. Madame Mayor and esteemed council, I have an update from Elle. This is a message from my contact in Elille. Hebron municipality signs twinning agreement with city of Preston, United Kingdom. The Hebron municipality and the municipality of Preston and the United Kingdom signed a twinning agreement between the two cities this evening, Thursday. The agreement was signed on behalf of Hebron municipality by the deputy mayor Dr. Asma Asharabati and on behalf of the city of Preston by the deputy mayor councelor Nui Dhan. The signing ceremony was held virtually via the internet with the participation of the ambassador of state of Palestine to the United Kingdom Dr. Husam Zolamat several members of both mun municipal councils and the Britain Palestine friendship and twinning network represented by Mr. Vincent Finn as well as directors from both municipalities. The ceremony included remarks by Dr. Al- Sharbati and councelor Khan in addition to a speech delivered by the political officer at the embassy Mr. Maruan Yahari along with video representa presentation introducing the city of Hebron. In her speech, Dr. Alsharabati stated that signing the twinning agreement represents a strategic step toward strengthening cultural and social cooperation between the two cities. She highlighted Habbron Municipality's commitment to exchanging expertise in the fields of education, culture, youth, heritage, and tourism in a manner that opens new horizons for joint activities, promotes shared human values, and creates opportunities for youth to participate in collaborative programs. For her part, councelor Nuida Khan expressed pre Preston municipality's pride in this partnership, affirming that it represents an important opportunity to exchange expertise expertise, support youth initiatives, and encourage cultural and educational exchange. She emphasized their readiness to launch joint projects and programs

and to organize mutual visits that enhance cooperation between the two cities. media department Hebrron municipality dated 27th November 2025. I implore you to agendaize the twinning or sister cities agreement moving forward between Anaheim and El Khalil. It's easy and it would be a monumental thing because Anaheim would be the first United States city to enter an agreement with El Khalil. Make some history. Thank you. Our next speaker, Paul Hayek,

two items, the uh various units that like lumination um and these others that help find the homeless, their shelters. Why don't they open up storefronts where the homeless can walk in, talk to them face to face instead of just on the phones? Number two, item 19. Was the Was the Was the Was the victim a handicap? This reminds me of Kelly Thomas in Fullerton. He was a handicap, autistic, high function, a little bit slow, and didn't move fast enough. Was a Were the demands ever given? That's what I feel. WE HAVE A SECOND KELLY Thomas here in Anaheim. AND KELLY THOMAS WAS SHOT by a form PD at the foren train station. That's that that one you ALWAYS SEE DECORATED. THAT WAS KELLY THOMAS. our next speaker. Okay, Anna, it's me, Vance Disney, the man who brought you the simplest MOG device ever, the adjustable center wall for our freeways, and also reminded you of real American standards with the Easy Bat car, an easy battery replaceable electric car. So, just to follow up on the last time I was here, I took my comic book to ComicCon on in Ontario. I also went to the no kings rally, but no one showed up. But in times like these, we need to readjust our moral compasses

and realize a government that shows uh that shuts down the economy and collects a paycheck is not a government. Well, anyway, this silver anniversary, they put out a little silver girl uh show, but but when uh women start paying me for sex, then we can talk equal pay in the workplace. And uh any takers? [laughter] Anyway, uh and so now I will begin by explaining the silver surfer. His name was Noran Rad and he came from a planet far away in the powers cosmic called Zin Law. and his planet was under the threat of a huge galactus villain. So to save his planet, he wanted he he worked for that villain to to lead him away from his planet. Then he came to Earth and fell in love. So he refused to let him so he refused to let him destroy Earth. So the Galactis villain villain banished the Silver Surfer to Earth and beca and the Silver Surfer became Earth's superhero protector. This is when my character Rip Rad back on Zinlaw awakes in a cry lab. So, not knowing who he is, then then discovers in the dark in the in the data lab that he's uh the surfer's clone twin. So, he so he cryboblasts to the Galactis monster to find his brother where he is he is granted the superpowers cosmic to base jump through space. But he refuses to work for the monstrosity and is also banished to Earth. So he shoots in through the Bermuda Bermuda Triacle Triangle, turning his space jumpsuit into a hang glider cape and dives into a sandbar where he meets a meets the Jolly Roger, a black pirate uh woman who explains the the defectiveness of of the monarchies. Uh and so she calls him her pumpkin pirate. So while while he's in the bar, the PD public pub defender makes him start wearing clothes. Anyway,

he he uh continues to look for his brother and runs into a Korean sales lady at Kavana who follows the laws of Zin and uh she's Miss Fant fantasy. She's Miss Fan fantasy and bins wet like water as as taught by Bruce Lee Tai Chi yoga. Her name is Taigga and she has has good news for him. Not only can she save him a bundle on his car payments, but he he just missed his brother who managed to escape Earth. So the pucker pirate, the Jolly Roger, Taigga, and their PD band together to fight against the defectiveness of monarchyism.

Sir, I'm sorry. And these stories are based on the shenanigans of the Irish Republican Navy. This we have our next speaker step forward. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. drawn to a house of people who were just hanging out to send their dogs in to run havoc and then to arrest over a dozen people in the house in the uh in the neighborhood who came to see what was up. that they shot a man with a less thanlethal round and sent him to the hospital when he had his hands in the air. We saw the video.

I think maybe the police were trying to avoid another 2012. So, we all remember when when Manuel Diaz and and Joel Asave were gunned down by Anaheim Police Department and the neighborhoods erupted in mass rebellion and the Anaheim Police Department quashed that rebellion with overwhelming brutality and violence. Well, you know what? The people of Anaheim showed that it's right to rebel against these police officers that gunned down our people in the streets. They knew that you guys had no interest in listening to what the people had to say. They had no interest in listening to what the families had to say. We saw right now when you guys sent Donna Asavdto, whose son was murdered by your police department officers, you guys sent her down and told her her time was up. You're more interested in decorum than the actual lives of the people who your police department officers are killing right now. We have cops right here who are here to make sure that we don't get too rowdy when what they should be doing is going out there and finding these killer cops and sending them to jail where they belong. But you guys have no interest in getting justice. And that's why, frankly, this is the talk shop. This is a waste of time. You guys are on the side of the killer cops. You'd love to have your little photo shoot with the football players when in two years they're going to be 19 years old, too.

I'm sorry. And who knows what could happen. They could get gunned down, too. Oh, it hasn't been 3 minutes. You guys know exactly what you did every single day that you don't send those killer cops to jail. You are complicit in the crimes of the Anaheim Police Department. You are accessories to murder and you have blood on your hands. Blood on your hands. Thank you. And you must be held accountable, too. SEND THE KILLER COPS TO JAIL. TO JAIL. OUR NEXT our next speaker. Thank you. I'm sorry. We have our next speaker. Next speaker.

I'm sorry, but if you are not, I understand. But if you do not sit down, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And I don't want to do that. I'm going to ask you one more time, please sit down so we can continue the meeting or I'm going to have to ask you to leave.

Thank you. Excuse me. Chief, Chief, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to either stop the meeting and clear the chambers or we are going to have to ask you to be removed and I don't want to do that. So, can you please All right. Thank you. We're gonna

in here. Thank you everyone for your patience. Madame clerk, we're going to resume public comment. Can you please call forward our next speaker?

Thank you, mayor. Our next speaker, Brian K. If Brian Kay could step forward. running. All right. [sighs] You know the the reason why people come down here speak. Have you seen yourselves? You're the wealthiest, the strongest, the best dressed, the healthiest. You're who every person in this community looks up to and wants to be like. And we want to see you succeed apparently more than you want to succeed. You know, we we come to these meetings, we speak, some of us come here and we have no chance of recovering or being made whole. And the only thing we want is for nobody else to have to walk in our path. for nobody else to experience what we're experiencing. And you know, so much have been said about the victims and the victim's families. And I think it was very sad that a police union member came up here and gave a a one minute boilerplate speech. But even if you don't care about the people of Anaheim, how do you find this acceptable behavior to do to that officer to have inspired that type of behavior? How do you find it acceptable to ask an entire police department to stand by that officer and say that's acceptable? You know, that officer, that cop,

he's different. and the rest of his life is going to be spent dealing with the fact that he thought it was acceptable that when he fell down and made a mistake that he attacked the people around him. You know, Chevy Chase made a career out of laughing at his own mistakes. You know, he accepted. He said, "Hey, I fell down. Look at me. I fell down." But the fact that this officer fell down and felt it was appropriate kind of explains why for years you ignore. You know, I presented gifts to you last night at Connor Trout's meeting. You're bragging about giving somebody a gift. Not to be worried, you've never even mentioned the records I presented to you and D. Snider and the First Amendment. We're just here for the truth and we don't want to see you have to spend the rest of your life dealing with what happened. We don't want to see our police officers. We don't want to have to pay taxes to pay our police officers to deal with what's going on. We hope that when we came down here and spoke for each and every one of you that you would not have this problem, but you do. Happy day.

Our next speaker, Paul Sanford.

Good evening, uh, Mayor Aken and honorary council persons. Um, I'm here with good news tonight. I want to thank you all for the down payment assistance fund um passing and the difference that is going to make to our workers in the resort. Um Mayor Aken and all you council persons that were here so honorably meeting with us over the past two years, dedicating your time, some very valuable questions, some very valuable considerations we had to take back to the community. I have never in my 34 years working in the resort had a council person who partnered council persons that partnered with the resort on how we make a difference. I've come to the council me meetings. I've listened I've listened to the need for generational wealth for housing for the businesses to step up and it's only because of what you've done here uh Councilwoman Curts I mean amazing that we are here to celebrate tonight. So, I think it's incredibly important that I say this. I also want to thank uh Mr. Waterman with Visit Anaheim. He stepped up. It was a big ask. He understood the difference, which I've never seen in any uh chairman of Visit Anaheim in the past to understand what's needed for us all to work together and have a community that that sort of gets it. So my hope is that we put quite a bit of funding into down payment assistance because in measure A we learned about the concerns about generational wealth and the only way our workers are going to be stable and have generational health wealth is to start paying off homes and mortgages so they can pass them on to their families and their children. And I know we've got a lot of work uh Prosper I've spoken to them they're willing to jump in and get going. Okonnell Hotels, Balladselves, we're all ready. But without your commitment, your trust, your vision, and really the work you're doing for the workers, which you don't get enough credit for. You really don't, we

wouldn't be here tonight. So, merry Christmas, and thank you. Our next speaker, Mark Herbert. Mark Herbert, anaheimgree.com. Uh, I was going to speak about some other things, but I think something's more important and it's this shooting, this killing. And and yet I look in the audience and when it got a little heated, the Visit Anaheim people here waiting for their accolades, they left. Uh when the police association came up comment, they made no comment about the shooting. It was about their police chief's retirement. Could not wait for another time. Um, I was going to speak about agenda item number eight that the fire department council can't seem to keep track of the cost of building fire station number 12. That'll have to wait for another day. I was going to talk about um the housing development in Anaheim Hills where the festival housing will be before you next week. 447 units added to an area that has a three-hour evacuation time at the current time. That'll have to wait for another day. Um,

it's kind of sad that our leaders had to leave the room when four people were speaking, maybe lacking a little decorum. That's not exactly the leadership I was raised to expect from our leaders. Uh, I was going to talk about the ATID housing funds and how they're going to probably get their accolades tonight for what happened last meeting. I just like to put in perspective their contribution of 2.5 million of public funds to assist in a housing a small housing program. Here's the problem they're addressing. And I've said this before, there's 9,100 units short in Anaheim of affordable housing. The mayor, council, hotel years, consultants, developers, and staff all agree that this is Anaheim's number one problem. To fix the affordable shortage will cost $5 billion. 9100 affordable units times 550,000 per affordable unit. $5 billion. 2.5 million per year covers 5100s of a percent of the cost. It will take Anaheim 2,000 years to eliminate the current shortage of 91 affordable 9100 affordable units. Merry Christmas,

mayor and city council. That concludes our in-person speakers. Noting for the record, we did receive electronic comments on the agenda. Four comments for item number 15, four comments for item 19, and seven seven were for general comments. Each of those were distributed to city council as well as posted on the city's website. Thank you. So, we're now going to close the public comment portion of the meeting and move to council communications. If any council members have items to share, uh, please let me know. I'm going to start with council member Kurtz and then council member Ma.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I I do want to take a moment to touch uh not yet, please. I want to take a moment to touch on something uh that happened over the weekend. There was an officer involved shooting in an area I share with council colleague Rubava on Philadelphia Street just over the line in my district. Sadly, someone was shot and died in an encounter with our police. My heart goes out to the family, neighbors, our officers, and everyone impacted by this. Whatever the situation, any loss of life in our city is a tragedy. We know our police department works in the best interest of public safety and faces very very difficult situations. And as with any critical incident, this will undergo a thorough and independent review by the Orange County District Attorney, the Office of Independent Review, Anaheim's Independent Police Oversight Consultant, and by Anaheim Police itself as part of the major incident review team. On Wednesday, our police team and myself will hold a community meeting to share anything we can at this early stage,

respecting that we still have a process ahead of us. We pledge both safety and transparency for our neighborhoods and together we remain committed to providing both as we move forward together. Thank you. Now, you know, while the tragedy did did take the wind out of a lot, there are times that I am terribly, terribly proud to sit here. It's hard work, but there are times when I can sit down and and I'm so so proud of District 4. First one, without any fanfare, without any social media, without anything, the Anaheim Hotel invited residents of the Golden Skies Mobile Home Park to come have Thanksgiving dinner at their hotel. And again, no fanfare, pictures, posting. This is just come and have a good meal on us cuz you're our neighbors. Thank you. Next, this was the uh Ponderosa Park tree lighting and I thank so many people for that. But what I am most most proud of and I have to read it because I always get their name confused. Mesidav

Ponderosa. These are 12 women in the Ponderosa area who put this together. They organized. They had a script for the day and everything moved smoothly. There were over 300 adults there. Not even counting all the kids cuz we couldn't count kids since they're shorter than the adults. Santa was there. dancers from Ponderosa Elementary was were there. Project say was there the face painting and this was on a Sunday afternoon an evening on a holiday weekend. I thank that community for organizing this event. I could not be prouder of those 12 women. Next slide. This is a little different. This is the uh and I'm a horrible photographer and this is this is this is me taking a picture of the dancers of the Catella High School dance team. These young ladies represented Anaheim so proudly down in St. Clemeni. The Slammeni High School team invited them dance team invited them to participate in their showcase. I'm sure I was the only one from Anaheim in attendance other than their coach. They made us proud and I want to tell these young ladies that they danced their heart out and made Anaheim proud. Made districts four and five very proud. So, while we have issues in the city and there's always things that we can do better, none were done better than these

three events that happened in the last week. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a few slides to share starting with Thanksgiving morning at the Grove. Thank you. Um, let's see. Sorry, my notes. On Thanksgiving morning, my team and I joined the YMCA of Anaheim for the Y gives thanks meal distribution at the Grove. This event was inspired by the legacy of Frank Garcia, and it was brought it brought community partners, local leaders, and residents to support families in need. With the help of more than 100 volunteers, over 2,000 complete Thanksgiving meals were distributed through the drive-thru. I was one of many proud sponsors to support this event and I want to extend my thanks to the Anaheim YMCA team and leadership for their commitment to our community. Next slide, please. Um, last Wednesday on December 3rd, I joined families at Angel Stadium for the annual Angels Kids Holiday Party. For more than a decade, this event has brought joy to local kids. And this year, the Angels Baseball Foundation partnered with over 10 community organizations to welcome more than 500 children. Kids spent the evening playing in real snow in the outfield, making crafts and cookies, meeting Santa, enjoying a warm meal, choosing a toy, and riding a train around the field. Thank you to the Angels Baseball Foundation for their continued support for Anaheim families and for keeping this tradition going year after year. Next slide, please. On Saturday, uh, December 6th, I had the opportunity to stop by Taka's sensory friendly holiday celebration here in Anaheim's District 5. It was a welcoming, inclusive event for the autistic community where families could enjoy the season in a way that was supportive of their needs. Families had a chance to meet Santa in an environment

that felt comfortable for them, and many organizations were there sharing unique programs and resources that support families. Thank you to Sim for the invitation. I look forward to working with her as we continue building an Anaheim that embraces people and families of all abilities. For any family wanting to learn more about the work that Taka does, please visit www.takanow.org. And lastly, I want to thank our neighborhood services staff for organizing more than 30 neighborhood holiday celebrations throughout the month of December. These events bring families together in their own neighborhoods, providing toys and refreshments for children to enjoy. The toys are distributed, the toys that are distributed at these celebrations are collected by the Anaheim Fire Department, and Anaheim's generosity is truly appreciated. Uh, I also want to quickly thank my friend Bob Sanchez uh, for helping me find Santa in the North Pole. It's been great to see the kids' faces light up as they see him. So, I just want to say thank you. And lastly, I would like to ask Madame Mayor to close this evening's meeting in the memory of Mia Mahia. We heard from her mother this evening. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member, Council Member Leon, and then Council Member Rubaka.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh we were uh honored to support Frank Garcia at season of thanks this year. Uh we brought hundreds of families together at Savannah High School uh to ensure that as many families as possible could cook a Thanksgiving meal with dignity this holiday season. Uh volunteers, students, and local organizations and generous partners uh like Frank and friends of families uh showed what happens when community shows up for community. and uh it was a a very powerful reminder of uh Anaheim's heart. And so I want to thank everybody uh that helped make that uh reality. I also want to extend my appreciation for uh Assemblyman Valencia and uh California Speaker uh Rivas for securing 1.5 million in funds for Catholic Charities of Orange County. This is going to help expand trusted local immigration related services right here uh in Orange County. and it means that more families can get legal assistance and resources close to home in a place where they feel safe and supported. We celebrated this year's Anaheim Tech Scholar program by providing laptops uh or tablets to 20 students as someone who once received this same scholarship. It is incredibly meaningful to help today's young leaders get the tools that once helped me pursue my own goals. And I want to thank Mayor Akin, my colleague, Council Member Moss as well as my council colleagues who uh approved bringing this program back. And I also want to thank all the sponsors and supporters for investing in the potential of our youth. And I I extend my congratulations again to this year's uh cohort of tech scholars. The holiday season is also officially in full swing. Uh from the joyful West Anaheim tree lighting at Twilight Reed Park uh to the city tree lighting at city hall uh families gathered to celebrate hope and togetherness. And I want to thank everybody that helped organize those. I want to extend a thank you to Councilman

Bailis as well who uh helped make the West Anaheim organization treelighting a success. We also stopped by Target for a shop with a cop with the Orange County Family Justice Center. Uh, a little holiday shopping turned into a lot of laughter and a couple of friendly cart races in the parking lot. And I just want to extend my appreciation to everybody uh, as well for helping make the season a little bit brighter for uh, some of these families in need. Small Business Saturday was another chance to show love to the entrepreneurs who who are the backbone of not just Anaheim, but Orange County. Um, every storefront, well, every booth, every table at this event, uh, represents a family, a dream, uh, a job, and supporting our local businesses means investing directly into the future of our neighborhoods. And I want to, uh, thank the SPDC team, our economic development team, as well as Ryan, who's out there um, and supporting these entrepreneurs uh, in making their dreams a reality. And finally, Madame Mayor, I I would like to ask that we adjourn in memory of Gilbert Ainho. Gilbert was born and raised in Anaheim. Uh proudly served more than 30 years with our public works department. He was president of the Anaheim Car Club. He poured his heart into creating a place for connection, for tradition, for camaraderie. Gilbert loved his city. He showed up at community events, at car shows, at family gatherings, anywhere that he could lend a hand. He was a devoted husband to Teresa, a proud father, stepfather, grandfather to 13 grandkids, uh, who absolutely adored him. His kindness, his humor, his strong work ethic left a mark on everyone who had the privilege of knowing him, myself included. He believed that community is built by people who care enough to give their time, their talent, and their heart. Gilbert did all of that quietly, consistently, and with love. We extend our deepest condolences to the Avenia family, to his Anaheim Car Club

family, and may his legacy of service and passion for community continue to inspire us. And and to end, Metame mayor, I I also want to acknowledge, you know, any loss of life is a tragedy. Um, and I know that there's a lot of events that happened over the last few days that uh uh might have some of of our community members on edge. Um, and I know that right now saying that there is a process uh may not necessarily be what everybody wants to hear, but there is a process. And I'm thinking of all of those that are involved. Um, and I want to continue to make sure that we are working towards uh continuing to build positive relationships with our officers and our community. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Rubakala, and then Council Member Bis. Thank you, Madame Mayor. So, I want to just I'm going to kind of go off I'm not going to um share my community events today. I want to recognize a couple of people. First, I just want to recognize a lifelong Anaheim resident by the name of Roberta Cotner and she is going she just turned 98 and at the end of the meeting I will be asking the mayor to agendaize bringing her in so that we can recognize her and the impact that she's had here in Anaheim. And these are just a few images of her. her and her family lived in my district and now reside in district 5. Um but it would just be a great honor for us to go ahead and bring her in as she just celebrated her 98th birthday yesterday and um your husband had a great impact on Anaheim. So you have two council members here tonight who want to recognize Gilbert Avenia for all of all that he did for the city of Anaheim. He was a city employee just like my dad. He also attended Anaheim High School and I believe uh I went to high school with one of your kids. So I I can see her right there. But I just want to recognize the fact that we will all miss him. Um he was part of a car club that was really significant to all of the things that we celebrate here in Anaheim, including our Chico culture. And I want to make sure that his memory lives on. So I join my council colleague in asking our mayor to close the meeting in his memory. And I also want to thank his grandchildren for being here tonight. Thank you guys for coming in here to celebrate the life of your grandfather. Although he left far too soon at the young age of 57, his memory will continue to live on here in the city of Anaheim. So, thank you all for being here tonight. And Teresa, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Council member Favis,

thank you. [clears throat and cough] Um, I think I also have one slide. Proud of my one slide tonight. Uh, for all of us West Anahimers who have put up with uh traffic and congestion and everything like that on Beach Boulevard, I'm happy to say it is coming to an end. And for all of you out there, I know you've seen some improvements uh in the median that's out there. We've got some palm trees, uh some additional fences, uh some additional safety measures for traffic, but I just wanted to say thank you to city staff. It was uh an honor to see this u monument or the the sign for Beach Boulevard, the entry into uh West Anaheim on Beach. So, thank you for that. And I think hopefully soon I think some of those palm trees will get lit up in the evening as well. So, thank you for that. The second thing I want to just ask, and I usually try not to go over things that have already been covered, but I feel I have to tonight. Uh I want to say thank you uh to all of our sponsors. Thank you to the all of all of the volunteers and um thank you to the West Anaheim organization that helped uh put on the tree lighting at Twilight Reed Park. I think we saw a little under a thousand people come out through the park. Um the other thing I see through all of our threads tonight and uh I think we all had a picture of Santa in there and I know he's at my event too. So that guy really does get around and uh Harry's got a big day coming up so I'll end it with that. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Um, I just have a few um items to quickly share. I think some of them have been touched upon. Um, but I just wanted to um highlight that we had the Asian-Americans Advancing Justice SoCal have their grand opening of their new Orange County headquarters here in Anaheim. Um, this new hub is going to provide legal services, community support, community space, uh, as well as advocacy and to help families, immigrants, domestic violence survivors, and lowincome residents access essential services. So, I wanted to welcome this amazing organization to Anaheim and thank them for uh, choosing us as their new home. Um, as council member Leyon mentioned, I was proud to attend with him the um, annual Tech Scholars event. Um, it is always so wonderful to not only see the excitement in the kids' faces, but to see the excitement in their parents' faces. You can just see how proud they are of these hardworking students. So, thank you very much to uh, Council Member Leon for being such a staunch advocate for this really important program. Um, [clears throat] and last I wanted to thank the community um members. Um, I don't remember who took this shot of us up. It's not a great angle.

Yeah, I was thinking that

we were both against the uh from the floor up angle, but um it was an amazing on Sunday um event at the Nutcracker uh Christmas tree lighting here in front of city hall. It's an event that has been going on since 1995. um started by uh former mayor um Frank Feldhouse as well as Miss Sally Feldhouse and she has been a tour to force to keep it coming back every single year. Um and it gets bigger and better every year. So, thank you to all the the student choirs from the schools from Anaheim Union High School District as well as our amazing uh staff that puts so much work into this program and just makes it seem the whole day seem absolutely uh flawless. So, thanks to community services Shaunie and your team um as well as public works and our APD um that got those streets closed so people could freely walk around and enjoy this beautiful holiday event. And yes, Santa was also there. It's amazing. I don't know how he and Mrs. Claus do it. Um, as mentioned by both um Council Member Curts, um I know that I um can speak on behalf of of the council that the events of of this weekend really um just drive a hole through the heart of this community. Um we are always upset when there is any type of loss of life and we um extend I know I extend my condolences to the family um to to the neighborhood to those that are affected and we will work to make sure um you know that we come together as a community and try to move forward in a in a really thoughtful and respectful manner. So, thank you so much um to uh to those speakers that that came. I know it's um it's hard when something tragic happens in a community. It is um brings

in high temperatures. It's not easy to come and express your thoughts. Um and so to those that came and spoke thoughtfully, thank you very much for for your respect. Um and to um those that that um were here um you know, thank you for speaking and for coming together and and we promise as a community to come together and move forward. [snorts] I'd like to um move now to the Oh, I'm so sorry, Council Member. You told me that and I forgot. Council member Rufa.

No, I'm sorry. Um, one of the other things I just wanted to add and ask the mayor to close the meeting in memory of officer Alex Sanders who was an Alhamra police officer who tragically passed away on November 21st in a vehicle collision while pursuing a suspect. So, um, in memory of his honor, if you could please close the meeting. Thank you for the reminder. Um, turning it over now for the city manager's update. Mr. City Manager.

Thank you, mayor, members of council, and the public. College football fans watching Sunday's national broadcast of the lot impact trophy awards also saw what an incredible place Anaheim is to do business. We worked with the team behind the new stadium landing industrial campus near OC Vibe to highlight this new project in our city as part of our effort to bring advanced manufacturing and other high value jobs to the city. The following 30 secondond commercial aired at no cost to the city and was produced by economic development and our very own's communications team. It appeared alongside globally recognized brands. We want to share this video with you in the community at this time. Home of theme parks, baseball, hockey, and entertainment. But there's more. 20,000 businesses call Anaheim home in the heart of Southern California. And we're powered by reliable, cost-effective utilities. Locating in Anaheim means being part of the excitement of Disneyland, Angel Stadium, OC Vibe, and a diverse, thriving business community. Be part of it all in Anaheim. So, exciting stuff for our city. Uh, thank you economic development and comms for producing that amazing, uh, commercial for us. Um finally um Angel Stadium update our annual month our monthly update. I want to provide um last month I shared that engineering consultants have completed testing concrete and metal columns as part of the ongoing stadium assessment. I can share that lab testing is underway as expected with results set to take four to six weeks. Once testing is finished, findings will be internally reviewed and analyzed. From there, the next step will be to hire an engineering firm for a final assessment based on the testing and results. A finalized assessment is expected around mid 2026. There are no

significant stadium developments other than this uh generally month general monthly update as requested. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. So, items 1 through 18 are before us. Are there any members of council who wish to remove an item for further discussion? I will start with council member Curtz. Thank you. I'd like to pull items seven and 18. Seven and 18. Thank you very much. Uh, Council Member Ma. Thank you. I'd like to pull items 15 and 17.

Thank you very much. Council member Bis uh to add on item number six. Item number six. Um Oh, no problem. It's items number seven, 18, 15, 17, and six. And we're going to add um Council Member Leon number 16. There any Oh, sorry. Council member Meeks. I'm going to add number eight. Number eight. Thank you very much. So, with that, may I have a motion to move the balance? Move the balance. We have a motion and a second. Please vote.

Council member Rupaba. The vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Okay. So, we are going to start uh just in chronological order with council member Bis with item number six.

Mr. City Manager, may we have um a report?

Ask for ask for a report from director Amami, please. Good evening, mayor and council members. The item before you is the award of a construction contract for the new Brookers Park splash pad. This project will transform an underused portion of the park into the city's third splash pad, adding ground spray features, a mechanical building, new pathways, seating areas, and three shade structures. The work will be adjacent to the existing Moonscape playground and is planned for completion before the start of next summer. The city received one bid developers general contracting of Irmine submitted a proposal for 1.3 uh 76 million and which is consistent with the engineers estimate and within the available funding. Given the timeline and the reasons other firms did not bid, staff recommends awarding the contract rather than readvertising. The project is categorically exempt from SQA and is funded through development impact fees and community development block grant funds and construction is scheduled to begin in early 2000 2026 and finish in the second quarter of 2026. And I also have with me u director

great thank you Rudy. Um, I just want to highlight that this new splash pad at Brookers Park will be located in an underutilized area of the park adjacent to the playground. The improvements will include ground spray elements, mechanical building, seating, concrete pathway, shade structures, and other associated work. Once completed, this will be the city's third splash pad and the first one to be located in West Anaheim. Funding for this project uh is budgeted in the community services department budget from community development block grant funds and development impact fees. Our goal is to complete construction in time for summer play by our residents. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh I have to be [clears throat] honest, I don't have any real questions for you. Uh for me, I get emails um not quite weekly, but I do get a lot of emails from uh District 1 residents, where's my splash pad? I just wanted to point out that this is West Anaheim's first uh splash pad, so I'm certainly happy to see it um come available. I know it has uh shade with it, so I think it's an very wellthoughtout project, and I I absolutely want to see it up and going by this summer. I I can't think of anything better to add to the parks. I know that this is this will benefit everybody, districts one, district 2, district 3. So, this is truly a West Anaheim uh amenity, and I'm happy to uh see it up there. And I will, if nobody else has any other questions, I'd be proud to move the item.

Thank you, uh, Council Member Leon. Finally, I just wanted to commend staff for their work on this. I know the broker splash pad, although District 1, as you mentioned, is going to benefit a lot of families in West Anaheim, and it's one of those uh that I think I've seen on the budget now for the last two or three years, and I'm I'm glad that we're finally at this point, and looking forward to the to the groundbreaking. So, uh happy to second uh account, my colleague's motion. Thank you. Um, did you make a motion to move item number six?

Yes. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please vote. The vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. So the next item is item oh I think it's Shnie again. Item number seven which was pulled by council member Compost Kurts. Would you like a staff report?

I would. Yes. Thank you. I ask for staff report from director Larson cash please. I can't multitask. I'm sorry. I'm going to switch seats. Okay, thank you for your patience. Um, so good evening again, uh, mayor and members of the city council. With me tonight is our parks manager, JJ Jimenez. So before you is a request to award a design contract to PBLA Engineering for phase two of the Boise Park renovation project in the amount of $698,766. Boen Park is more than 60 years old and is used by the community for baseball, softball, soccer, exercise, playground play, and more. The park is approximately 24 acres and has not seen significant improvements in over 30 years. For the last few years, staff has engaged with the community for their feedback on the revitalization of Boise Park. These efforts resulted in a community vision master plan which includes sports fields upgrades, new

restrooms, a skate park, additional parking, lighting, covered picnic areas, walking paths, basketball courts, fitness equipment, and more. Community Services is realizing the project in phases with phase one in progress with the development of a new skate park that is anticipated to be completed in late 2026. Phase two encompasses the northern 4 and 1/2 acre section of the park along Vermont Street. Improvements will include an expanded parking lot, new restroom, basketball courts, new and expanded playground, shaded picnic areas, walking paths, and more. Moving forward with the master plan, an RFP was issued in October for design services, including design development, construction documents, and construction administration for phase two of the park renovation. Responses were received from seven firms and staff conducted interviews with the two top rated firms. The proposal by PBLA was found to best meet the requirements of the RFP and was deemed to be the most qualified. PBLA has over 15 years of experience designing public spaces with the qualifications to design and develop documents that will fulfill the community envision master plan. So that concludes my report and we are happy to take any questions you may have.

Thank you, Council Member Herz.

Yes, excuse me. [clears throat] Um like uh Council Member Baylor, I don't have any questions. I want to say thank you and finally uh the community's been waiting a long time. Um and I want to particularly thank JJ for being so available to the community. um he did lead several meetings in which the community uh gave them ideas of what needs to be at the park. Um is I the the kids cannot wait for the basketball courts. They are so very excited about that. Uh one little boy told me while his brother's in the skate park, he's going to go over and play basketball. So I thank you for it. It is needed in that in that park. Um, and I notice that we still have the airplane there, so we're okay. Thank you. And if there are no other questions, I'd like to move the item.

I'll second. Motion in a second. Please vote.

The vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. The next item pulled was item number eight by Mayor Prom Meeks. Would you like a staff report?

Uh, no. I have a question. [snorts] Sorry, Director Amami. I could have called you about this earlier, but I didn't have time. So, so I see that we're amending this contract, and this is for design and construction oversight. The consultant doing the oversight, and the contract for the project is a design build, correct?

It it was a design build originally, but because we had that uh property rights issue was with the angels on that parking lot, we had to bifrocate the project from design build. We came back to council and we separated um or

unwinded the contract construction portion of it and just had a separate uh agreement with this current architect to also provide construction support services. But they've outspent that budget just due to the numerous change order requests and things that we've been getting submitts from the contractor to substitute pieces that were not um allowed in the building. Uh so now we're asking for additional budget to do that. And then there was one uh design feature that was uh inadvertently omitted out of the auxiliary building that we're adding in as well. So because it it seems like it's a the contractor, the builder, I guess, is resulting in a lot of extra costs for us in this contract. Is there something in his contract that can hold him accountable to some of this or that we can I mean he's costing us an extra $300,000?

It is and it's a challenge especially when you know we're in a low bid environment and you know the bids on this project came in between from about $14 million to $20 million. So there was a big range and this was low bidder and the challenges we have is these constant requests to change the type of rollup doors and you know things that they had either missed in their bid. Um but the result of having this extra work from this uh construction manager is to ultimately ne either um reject all of these change orders that are coming in or negotiate them down um significantly in our interest. So ultimately we're still trying to get the building that we want paid for at low bid environment but just means when we get that low bidder it's a lot more effort in making sure that we keep them to the contract.

Unfortunately yes I understand that. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to kind of get a little background of where how the contractor was doing. So, this guy's doing a good job keeping him accountable. They'll get they'll deliver the building still at a lower price than probably what the next bid was. It's just a lot harder. Yeah. That's what low bid is. Okay. Uh well, I'll move the item. Um thank you. And we have a comment by council member Bis. Okay. Thank you, Rudy. I was just wondering um can you speak to the possible delay that um is there or should I I should ask is there any delay and if there is how much?

Sure. Uh let me introduce our construction manager um Raul Garcia. He is a subject matter expert on the area and he can give you a little bit more detail. We only have a couple of months potential delay. Right now, the project is is scheduled to be delivered at the contractors is scheduled in September of next year. Our own estimate says that it'll be probably more realistic November, a couple of months afterwards. That's the only forecasted delay at this time. Okay. Thank you. So, we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

The vote is seven eyes, no nazs. Motion carries. The next item pulled is item number 15 by Council Member Ma. Would you like a staff report? No staff report needed. Just a couple questions.

May I ask for a staff report? Absolutely. Madame Mayor, if that's okay. May we have a staff report on item number 15?

Of course. And for a staff report from Director Septer, please. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present this item. Um, as you know, the community development department is uh tasked with oversight of the Anaheim homeless system of care and is the contract administrator uh for the CCRT uh program which is uh put in place really in support of community and the police department. With me tonight is uh deputy director Sandra Lozo and Sergeant Cooper. uh Deputy Director Lozo will uh guide us through a presentation on CCRT um that hopefully will answer a lot of your what may be your questions.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and council. Anaheim system of care has grown over the past 10 plus years to the robust village of partners we have today. We would not be able to ma help as many people over the years if it wasn't for our citywide departments and employees, external agencies, and 200 plus service providers. One of the service providers contracts is being amended tonight before you for consideration. When we discuss homelessness in Anaheim, we always get asked, "What are our numbers?" So, let let's just start there. Anaheim participates in the federally required point in time count led by the county which will be taking a place again next month on January 28th and several city staff will be participating to ensure everyone gets counted. Our last pit count in January 2024 showed,417 homeless with 601 unsheltered on the streets and 816 sheltered. It should be noted that although we are the largest city in the county, we did not have the largest unsheltered population and we also had the most people sheltered in the region. This is a trend we want to continue to see. The service provider for tonight's item is our community care response team led by cityet with a request for an additional two years in 2026 and 2027 calendar years to service Anaheim for a total of 6.85 million. You can see one of our three pathways, our pathway to home on the screen, but it starts with prevention, moves to outreach, shelter, rapid rehousing, and permanent housing. Although City has been a tremendous robust partner throughout many components of our system of care, especially in this pathway home, their main focus is in our system as being our

front door to getting people into our system of care. Currently, CCRT provides a full spectrum of services, helping our most vulnerable on the streets stabilize, recover, and transition into safe housing. Not only are they providing outreach on the streets, but providing transportation off the streets, assessing them through navigating our housing options, which includes getting documents ready, such as simply obtaining an ID or birth certificate so that they are ready when the housing becomes available. At the same time, they provide behavioral and recuperative health care support if needed along with pet boarding care while people are healing. Another strength of CCRT is helping to relocate and reunite people with their families, which is always a priority as it helps with all of our pathways out of homelessness quickly and with a supportive environment. Another very important and larger component of CCRT is the approach to help with whatever it takes, which includes setting aside funding for just that, whatever it takes. This has been crucial when we've had to shelter people quickly and provide subsidies to help prevent people from falling into homelessness. They have been instrumental in helping Anaheim with high priority needs such as motel relocations, outreach and cleanup projects, emergency responses, and helping to house people in our new housing developments. CCRT also responds to calls for service, which originally focused on calls from our police department, but has grown to include community calls over the years. They're integrated into our data and metrics where we focus on hotspots and top people in need. And this slide is just an example of some hotspots over the past years by district. In preparation of amending their contract, we reviewed calls for service

from our police department and CCRT. You can see since the inception of CCRT in January of 2021, they have handled over 84,000 calls that would have otherwise fallen to the police to respond. You can also see a reduction of both calls from police and CCRT and the start of almost 4,000 calls for service needing both police and CCRT together. This brings us to our proposal tonight where we again adjust our system of care to the needs and demands of our community. Now, our city has increased our halo teams and by reviewing those tens of thousands of calls, it was apparent that the need for the CCRT response has also changed. to adapt. Going into the next contract, we are looking to work more strategically and focus our efforts on working more closely with our Halo teams to continue to address hotspots, but also respond to community calls and push for more contacts and outreach to move more people off the streets. Therefore, we are shifting away from our seven days a week, 14-hour shifts with only two to three teams each field day to five days a week, 12 and a half hour shifts with six to eight teams in the field each day. This will allow three to four teams strictly dedicated to the increased Halo teams and creating three to four teams strictly dedicated to the community needs. There will be overtime included for special needs on the weekends with our alert freeway cleanups or special events. This new model will provide direct coordination with our Halo tourism and patrol teams. We also requested more access to basic client information which required a change in how we request release of information to help connect people to our system more quickly. This allows for deeper conversations related to specific needs of the clients that CCRT is serving.

This proposed agreement will also continue to have oversight and accountability with CCRT continuing to partner with our city task force and coordinate better in the field by having teams with our police officers. their contact uh their contract is a reimbursementbased and they are paid only after city staff verify services are rendered and proper documentation is obtained. We have staff that review all invoices against state HUD and other federal regulations to ensure eligible costs, proper backup documentation and alignment with the services. We also regularly monitor for the data entered into the region's homeless management information system or HMIS. We review quarterly and annual reports. It should also be noted that CCRT this past year was responsible for 68% of people sheltered in the entire county. This of course wouldn't be possible without all of our partners, including those such as Salvation Army shelter, who has now the highest housing rate at 28% when the national average is 16. The more our system flows, the more people CCRT bring in through the front door. In addition to working closely with Anaheim police, we are looking during this upcoming agreement to also create a centralized dispatching where everyone, including our community, can call one number. And our police will have specialized dispatchers to triage which teams respond to the homeless calls, police, CCRT, or both. This will help us in those instances where city staff, businesses, and residents will no longer have to figure out if they need to call police or CCRT. This will be a one call, one connection approach. With the new teams integrated together, it would also help not only with the right response, but the flexibility and safety support needed to ensure resources are provided and any safety concerns are addressed.

In closing, we always like to share one of our thousands of stories that happened within our system of care. We had a gentleman who was an older adult living on the streets. Initially started to engage with our CCRT back in 2022. He continued contact and trust building with our CCRT team h helping to navigate him through his health care and hospitalization. He was then able CCRT was then able to connect him into our pathway home, working with our housing team to get a match to a housing voucher and finding resources to help him with move in assistance. And earlier this year, he received his keys to his new home. CCRT is not only integrated into our system of care, but embraces our system and therefore is able to house people like this gentleman straight from the street. This used to be something rare just a few years ago and is now becoming a regular part of our system, helping more people off the street permanently. This concludes our presentation and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Um I'll turn it first to Council Member Moss and thank you for the great and important work you're doing. I had the opportunity to go on a ride along with Sergeant Cooper and saw firsthand um the interactions that cityet does and getting people plugged into services. Um your presentation did answer a lot of the questions that I had. Um but just one uh what markers does the city use uh to consider or to indicate success of this contract?

Uh thank you council member for that question. There are several markers. Obviously there are some requirements with our regulations on their funding sources that we have to monitor. But as far as the people movement, we do monitor the HMIS system and again they work very closely with our task force where we have hotspots and top people in need. Uh so they're helping to identify those and by having them working more closely with the PD out in the field, we'll be able to identify those folks a little faster and whether they need to get into our access program or into the shelter, we monitor those those individuals moving into those other parts of our system of care once they're in the front door. so we can see that success on top of just visually seeing um and hearing from the community.

Thank you. Um and then last comment is that I'm a big fan of the one number, one call. Um I myself sometimes I'm confused. Should I call? Should I do Anaheim many times? So just having that one point of contact will be great. So um with that I make a motion for to move this item. Thank you. I think we had comment or we have a motion. Does somebody want a second? Second. Thank you. Um, Council Member Meeks and then Council Member Bis and then Council Member Curts.

All right. Thank you. Um, as you know, I am a huge advocate for the one uh one number to call and we have been working towards that for a long time. Um, and you promise we will get there eventually. So, but I am a little bit concerned um about how that will just work operationally. I I have no problem with it being to the police and being to dispatch, but we're really short staffed in dispatch, and it seems like we will be for months to come as we try to uh staff up that part of our organization. Uh, is there are we looking at any opportunity to have supplemental dispatch people or have CCRT be able to take some of these less emergency calls so that these calls don't overwhelm real, you know, crisis emergency crime calls in our dispatch center. So, and how's that going to work? Maybe over six months we staff up and we're good. But right in the next six months, I'm a little concerned.

So, so currently obviously, you know, where tonight we may be uh approving a new chief. So, a lot of the decision- making around staffing and dispatch, we will will we will need to work with the uh with the new chief in terms of what that staffing looks like. But in the interim, uh there is a CCRT line currently. Um and uh based on your feedback and feedback of community, we have been working with CCRT now to uh to better training and better responses because I know you did share with us that um a call such uh something like in the median where somebody responds and says that's not us because of public safety reasons. So, we have a commitment from CCRT that they are engaging in better training of their staff so that a community member doesn't then hang up and feel unsupported, but rather the CCRT dispatch will take the initiative to connect that call or make that referral themselves so that we can be more responsive within the system that we currently have. And we hope that that will start to bring uh that will start to bring better customer service in the interim phase while we work to uh address the the one single dispatch system.

So the the homeless hotline to CCRT will still be active until we can right until there is a replacement that will continue to to stay in keep the dispatch operational. Okay, that's great. Um and then the five days a week that's Monday through Friday and is there a reason we're not splitting those shifts where like one group works Tuesday through Sunday or Wednesday through Sunday. You I'm concerned with having no coverage on the weekends.

So just you know we always have coverage 24 hours a day for any homeless needs if they're conducting criminal activity. Right. And as we have discussed with you, one of the things that we're doing is training a lot of our patrol officers to understand how Halo officers work and really giving them the training that they need to be able to handle any call that comes in any part of the day. So, what we've done is I think we have at least over 40 officers on patrol that have gone through the halo training and they're marked on the schedule. So, the watch commanders and the sergeants know that these are Halo trained officers and they don't have to necessarily handle the call, but they quarterback it and give advice and give officers how they should handle that call. So, there is 247 coverage. The reason we cut down is based on all the calls for service. the real need was during the week and that's when we have the best opportunity to get people into shelters and get people out of the streets. Um, if you look at like the heat map we made, I think I've shared it with some of you, that was the real need was basically Monday through Friday and it's almost like a 9 to5 is really when all the activities taking place. That's when most people are at work. That's when most people are getting up and going to work and calling on their way to work. So these are the different things that were considered. Um, part of their fund is also it's available for if we have an event that we want to come in on a Saturday or if we want to come in on a Sunday, they have the flexibility to staff that. So, if we're going to go to a certain location and we want to bring them with us, that's something that we can coordinate ahead of time and we can bring them with us and and they can staff that for us. So,

so if there's a an homeless issue that a community member wants to report and whether that's just somebody sleeping on the sidewalk or something like that on a weekend on a Saturday, um they will call the homeless hotline will refer to dispatch and will police respond to that as a as a crime or because I mean the community doesn't know is that guy committing a crime over there? They shouldn't have to kind of triage that like we depends on what happens.

It will get sent to the police. Now, what level of response will depend on the crime. If somebody calls and says they're using narcotics, that is something that patrol will be dispatched to as soon as available, right, with priorities. If they're just calling to basically notify us of an encampment, but there's not necessarily a criminal end going on, we don't have an owner that's willing to press charges for a trespass. It's just alerting to us to that. That will probably wait until the Halo team comes in as the most trained to go deal with that. We want to keep our patrol officers available to handle the the active crimes that are going on. And so for that particular instance, that would probably wait till the Halo team was available.

Okay. I guess my request would be to to continue to monitor that through this contract. And if it's not working to not have some of these CCRT teams on the weekend, let's move the shifts around and and make sure that we have resources for the community. Um, and so then there's 7:30 or 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. And same thing as weekends would happen after that time. The call would come in and you it was critical, they would respond. If not, it would wait until the next day. Correct. Okay. All right. Those are all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Bis.

Thank you. Um, since Sergeant Cooper was still up there, I'll just go back to you. um or anybody who wants to answer it, but I was just wondering if you guys or if somebody could explain, you know, how renewing this contract is going to concretely improve our efforts to address homelessness in District 1. Um you know, I want to make sure that we're ensuring safety for the comfort number one of our residents that are out there, but also, you know, beach and ball cobblestone apartments. I get tons of calls and emails from from those areas. And so I just want to hear I guess how this is going to help that particular area.

So we we'll we'll tag team this a little bit. No problem. Uh we we we believe that you know we have that the homeless system of care including CCRT uh really is a model that

will continue to serve uh the needs of the community. Uh homelessness is an ongoing issue, but we do believe that we are we're making changes and CCRT goes out continuously. They get to they get to know people that are frequent flyers on the streets and are getting them into treatment, but they also work very closely with our police department on those things that need to be enforcement. So we the CCRT and APD and everything else that the city is doing collective is part of a a collective effort and we believe every piece of the puzzle that we've put together is a critical component to addressing these the needs of our community as it relates to issues like cobblestone. You know you we remain here responsive to those to the needs you you welcome to call any one of us. I know that you frequently do call Sergeant Cooper. Um, where these hotspots occur, you know, Sandra answers her phone, uh, as most of you can attest, seven days a week, almost every, uh, different hours of the day, trying to really, uh, be responsive to we to what's going on. And, uh, that will continue. Uh, but CCRT is a critical part of how we respond. You know, there's been uh for example, I can think of a situation where we got called around 8 8:30 at night because there's there was a family that had arrived at Arctic um with children and we needed to do something that we they were homeless uh and they were going to be stuck overnight on a cold night at at Arctic. Sander called CCRT, CCRT used their whatever it takes money and we were able to address that. We've had lots of situations like that. Uh but the ongoing monitoring and enforcement uh does remain uh paramount to what we're we're trying to achieve. And I know Sergeant Cooper probably has had it.

This contract is important for the simple reason that if we go back to 2018 when Maxwell Park was inundated with encampments and we as a police department tried to enforce our way out of that. A federal judge came in and gave an injunction to stop us from enforcing homeless laws. And one of the things was we needed an outreach component in order to be able to do enforcement. So in order for to to do our job, we have to have this component in order to enforce the laws for those who will not accept resources, who will not move forward in bettering themselves. Um, we're good at enforcement. I have some really talented people as far as the outreach, but that is not the police department's niche. Again, we have a stigmatism that all homeless people are criminals, and I'm here to tell you that that is not true. It is not illegal to be homeless, but it's very hard to be homeless and not commit crimes. So, what happens when we have a homeless person who's not committing a crime, the police department really doesn't have any mechanics to address that other than outreach? And this is where City comes in. And they're the ones that fill that gap in our system. And again, we talk about an entire system. We need every piece. And so, we can't do the enforcement without the outreach. And so, these all work together. And I will tell you that going to several conferences around the country, um, we get sought out everywhere we go because of this system that we have. There's a lot of cities, a lot of counties, not just in California, but back east that really are looking at us as the the leader and guiding people of how to put together a total care system. So again, this is a piece of that care system and it only works when we have all the pieces. Um can you share [clears throat] with us does this add any additional uh mentally ill uh beds and if it does do you think that number sufficient

uh with our system of care we do have additional beds um for mental health uh and substance use disorder. It's not embedded into this contract. However, they do have resources and counselors and have connections into our system of care. So, they're able from the street to get people into mental health beds as well as substance use disorder beds um by renewing this contract. And are we good with what we have or do we do we still need more?

We always can use more. [laughter] Um but uh you guys have been really good about adding to our system of care where there's been gaps of services. You guys just approved uh additional treatment beds through Anaheim Lighthouse who has been a sponsor for over 10 years. Uh so that's going to be another uh additional set of beds that we'll be able to utilize um starting right away. So uh we continue to add to those um and so we do have enough right now. Um but as we continue to move through the system and the flow opens up if there's more uh we'll come back uh after we look for funding sources.

All right. And then the next to last thing, I don't I don't want to go over it again, but I still, you know, I have the same concerns uh the council member Meek's got is that uh you know, I've got the reservations about the hours of service in this contract. I'm not sure that Monday through Friday is, you know, sufficient. Homelessness obviously doesn't follow a 9 to5 model. Um we have people that come in or or that will be there. And what I hear a lot from you guys is it's always, you know, point of contact. We don't trust or they don't trust people don't won't trust us until after the 10th, the 15th, or the 20th. And in this particular instance, perhaps maybe we're missing a third of the contacts that uh that would be going out there. So, I'm I'm hesitant, you know, to not have an overnight shift or somebody that's following an officer around. Anyways, that's just it's my two cents. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Council Member Leyon, and then Council Member Curts.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. And, uh, I'll just go ahead and take the opportunity to say thank you to our HCD team, uh, the CCRT team, and Sergeant Cooper. I I think all of us have probably texted you at some point about some issues and uh your responsiveness and your willingness to want to uh really make a positive impact and and a dent on this issue in our community. Just uh want to express my appreciation uh for that continued work. Um and I appreciate as well uh Grace and Sandy and the CCRT team for meeting with me as well and and providing a little bit more background and clarity in terms of what you do. Um, and so I I just I want to ask because um for transparency purposes, right, it's a $6 million contract. Do we have a breakdown of kind of what that what those where those funds go and what they're spent on?

Uh, thank you, council member, for the question. Uh, so the contracts over the last um two rounds were actually 8.5 and 8.3. So we've been able to reduce down that contract. Uh we've been able to um work with city net who also has additional funding that they can um utilize through calim caloptima. Um we do have about 200,000 or a little more on the whatever it takes. Uh the vast majority is in our labor uh which is all our case managers. There is a a line item a smaller line item for the dispatching. So depending on how quickly we can ramp up uh the central dispatching one call, one connection, uh we can then utilize um that allocation and see if there's any needs um by that time. Uh if there's not, there's obviously going to be a savings at that point.

Thank you. And Sarge, I don't know if the question is for you or maybe somebody from the CCRT team might be able to answer. Um what does a typical call look like? Is there a typical call that you all answer in the community? And and how is how does the CCR team address that differently than maybe another another team?

I don't think there's a typical call. I mean, we get anything and everything. Um, we can get everything from somebody sitting on a sidewalk to a large encampment. So, anything from the smallest thing to the biggest thing. And so I guess what we talked about and what it it looks like is a lot of the times it's police driven contact. So we're the ones making contacts. We're the ones um offering the initial uh offer of resource and then having CCT come in and supplement us, you know, with whatever they can offer the particular person. So that's really the the model that we're using as far as we initiate the contacts. Um, sometimes it's after enforcement, too. We've had several times where we do the enforcement side and they handle the criminal side that they they have, but we have them meet them when they get sided out and right. And so, we don't skip that. They still go through the enforcement side, but on the back end, we're having CRT meet them at the jail when they come out and really extend that hand and see if there's something we can do to keep them from going back. to one of the other questions is a call that really describes what CCR means to us is we had a young female that wanted to go into treatment and we had a bed, we had her ready to go, but her intake was three and a half hours later. And so from a police standpoint, our options are now the police can hold on to her for three and a half hours, keeping us from being out in the field for what you pay us to do, providing policing and doing other things. But instead, CCRT came and took them, got her some needed stuff that she needed before going into detox, and they really freed us up. So, instead of having a three and a half hour contact for us, it was a 20-minute contact, and we were back able to be on the streets where you want us to be. That's what they bring to us, and that's why this relationship works.

And bear in mind that what he's describing is half of the team because those are the t that's the team that will be embedded with the police department. And and under this model, you will have CCRT both working side by side with Halo, but also responding to the police uh to community calls because the team still monitors the Anaheim Anytime or other calls that are coming in to our team. So those may look a little bit different in terms of approaching somebody who a community member or has asked us to go out and engage.

Thank you. Uh thank you for that. Um the last question and was uh I I think I covered this in our meeting but just for sake of transparency you talked a little bit about kind of the expenses and keeping track and it's a a reimbursement um sort of agreement. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes, thank you uh for that question. So, uh, they do their services and then bill us, uh, the following month. And so, they do have to have all the backup documentation. And so, we do go through that, make sure they're eligible costs under all the different grants that are supporting the funding sources, but at the same time, we get to see the people, we get to see the services they're providing and where they're going. And then we can follow. So, if they did get somebody into Salvation Army, Salvation Army has a report that shows the intake of those individuals and who referred them. So, we match that. and then we can see if they went into treatment and how they match that. Uh because we'll probably get a bill from the treatment facility for that. So we do uh monitor the people and the expenses um not only to hold ourselves accountable just um on the fiduciary side, but also making sure the flow of the systems working.

Thank you for that. Um, I'm not going to repeat everything you said, Sergeant, but I I think the teamwork aspect is what stands out to me is the, you know, there's certain situations where it needs to be our Halo officers. There's certain situations where it's the uh more of the the other side of it, right? The outreach side of it. And I I think that's really what sets us sets us apart, the multi-pronged approach that we've taken. And when I have residents come up to me um saying that they've seen an improvement in our communities and I'm not sure if we ever get to a point where we solve everything 100%. And um but the fact that folks can see improvements and I you know it comes and goes and and there's a I think a cycle but it's because of the work that we're all doing right. It's the teamwork. It's the the collaboration aspect of it. And the thing that you said that I do want to reiterate is, you know, not everybody that's unhoused is is a criminal. It's some folks are out there because of bad luck. Um they're just they've been dealt with a bad set of cards. And so being able to capture their story, capture where they're coming from and really being able to sort of in a way really tailor what services, what opportunities there are to help them. Because at the end of the day for me, you know, addressing homelessness uh goes handinhand with we want to help people. We want people to be off the street. We want them to be able to uh have a roof over their head. We want them to be able to uh succeed and and be um productive members of our community, of our society. And I with the stories that you all shared, and again, I appreciate you meeting with me. um that that's the sense that I got that there's genuine care um of wanting to help people. So, um I will I'll go I don't know if somebody second council member Moss's motion, but I'll go ahead and second and uh I'll third the motion

as my colleague has already seconded. But again, I appreciate the ongoing work um and and commitment to the community.

Thank you, Council Member Curts. And then Council Member Rubikava. Um, and my question, my colleagues asked most of my questions, but I I still have a little bit of a concern about the weekend or out of hours. Um, just an example. So, a family shows up at the park and there is someone or a little league team shows up at a park and there is someone asleep in the middle of the park with all their stuff. It's a Saturday. who responds to that call?

Thank you, council member, for that um question. So, in reviewing all the calls for service, um with the 14- hour shift right now of 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., there is a huge drop off after 7:30, 8:00 p.m. Uh there's a huge drop off on Sundays. There's a little bit on Saturdays, which is why we did um include overtime line in there, especially if we have our alert team. So, we do have a a a team out there of part of our system, but as Sergeant Cooper mentioned, we also have trained a lot of our police officers and we'll continue to do so, which we didn't have before. So, they're going to have connections and resources available to them. And if it's something they can't handle that night, at that point in time, we'll have those um numbers at the ready so that we can follow up with them the following morning to make sure they still have access to our Salvation Army shelter. So, we do have um in fact, I think it was a weekend or two ago, we did see that um Anaheim PD did get four people straight into the Anaheim Salvation Army shelter themselves. So, there's still resources um that will be provided to them if they do need to make contact, but on the weekends, it's very difficult in certain recovery facilities to take intake on the weekends. And so, um, again, uh, strategically operating and knowing who our folks are now and knowing where the calls are ser calls for service are. We're going to be strategically focused, uh, working Monday through Friday with multiple teams almost doubling out there. And so, our hope is is that we won't see as many calls or need on the weekend because we'll be handling them between Monday through Friday, which prior we didn't have that. We had kind of encampments every day of the week. And so, we're starting to see a shift in that. But again, we're we have enough room in our in our contract to be flexible if we need to make any changes.

Great. And I'm I'm glad to hear that. Um so as you try something out, doesn't work, you can make a quick change on that. Um and so let it play out, see how it works. And uh I it's been a long time since I've gotten many complaints regarding homeless in either our parks or on our streets. So I thank you for all the work you've done. Um and uh hope the partnerships will continue to work for you. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Rubakova.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I've already seconded this, so clearly I support it. But just a couple of things that I want you guys to keep in mind is the proactive uh element of it. I hope that we're not just waiting for people to call in. If you guys are um around the area and you see activity, it should be addressed um and accounted for. And then while you're out there, if there are any policy opportunities, this DIS did um create or provide some additional policies that were tool, you know, additional tools for your toolbox. If you see anything while you're out there, please bring that back to us because that gives us an opportunity to further enhance the tools that you have to help solve the homelessness issues that we have in our city. And that's all.

Thank you. Um I just have a quick question um for Miss Stupter. Um, are we I know that we say the awards for round six of the HAP funding is coming out and we anticipate similar regulations around um for round seven. Um, you know, are there are there any worries um that funding levels are going to change or that we're not going to have that allocation? And if so, what are we anticipating to do to make up that gap funding? So we are we are currently anticipating six and seven. Part of part of what we're having to do though and the beauty of having blended funding is that uh HAP six did change eligibility of what type of services we could fund with that. Um the general fund also help has been helping with shelter. Um and so because we have a general fund contribution, it allows us to look at all the different sources of funding and move things around. So right now uh given the the various uh diverse nature of our funding, we can fund everything that is in our homeless system of care. What we're going to be doing behind the scenes is if we paid maybe for outreach with HAP and shelter with general funds. We may be swapping those things. Uh but with the funding that we have is is enough and we do believe that uh HAP 7 will be forthcoming. Beyond that, that may be a different situation, but for the foreseeable future, HAP six and HAP 7, um we do we do we do are confident we can fund our our homeless system of care.

And when we come to the end of this funding cycle, can um we do a I know you did a report on what our success stories were for several of the rounds of HAP funding. It is something that is continuously on the chopping block for the state budget. Um but has been, I think, as just demonstrated by your team, instrumental in helping really move the needle in Anaheim. Um so if we could just collect that data, update the presentation um that your team made so that all of us can use it to advocate to our state partners um to keep uh this type of funding in the state budget. Um I just always worry after seven um that we're going to have to that we that we might lose it and that would just be a real tragedy um for all the hard work for that people like you have put into it. Um, so thank you. That that's um my only comments and I think we have a motion and seconded by council member Ruba Calva. I know I was going to try to speak slowly. Um, but we don't have any other comments unless someone would like to make a quick comment to

draw it out. Sorry. I have a quick question. Um, what's the average number of of touches

before somebody accepts services? So when I first started uh 10 years ago with the system of care, it was on average 5 to 10. Um with some of the potency and changes in some of the substance use um and unfortunate drugs that are on the streets, it tends to take a little bit longer um and the mental health piece. So uh it's closer to maybe 10 to 20 um depending on where people are at um on the streets. somebody who's new off the streets, sometimes they'll um they'll be able to accept right away. There's a lot of people that are at risk that don't want to be on the streets and they'll contact us right away. Um but the longer people are on the streets, it starts to get a little bit more difficult. But again, that's where our access court comes into play. So, as it starts to get more difficult uh to make those decisions, they get off the street and they start falling into a little bit of trouble, that access court is that final net that catches them uh and then we are able to stabilize them through the court system and that's been very successful. Thank you.

I'll add to that for you just on the fact that one of the mottos that we have going forward is it's potentially the next contact and that's kind of what we preach and that we go and that's what motivates our team to go out and make that next contact. So I don't like to have an answer in mind but it's always potentially the next contact. Thank you. Um so with no further comments we have a motion and a second. Please vote. The vote is seven eyes, no nazs. Motion carries.

The next item pulled by council member Leyon was item number 16. Would you like a staff report, council member?

Yes, please. All right. Uh, good evening again. The item before you is the acceptance of a CALR sustainable transportation planning grant and approval of a revised scope to prepare the Anaheim Connections LA28 transit mobility plan. Calrans awarded $425,000 to support planning originally intended or initiated by ATN for the ANA bus rapid transit project. With ATN leadership changes in the city's expanded role in future transit governance, ATN asked the city to assume responsibility for the grant and adjust the scope to focus on mobility needs for the 2028 Olympics. CALR supports this direction and the new plan will evaluate transit connections to the Honda Center, OC Vibe and Artic, identify potential schedule changes for m major events, recommend transit stop and first last mile improvements. Review ticketing and wayfinding strategies and coordinate closely with OCTA, CALR, Metroink, LOSAN, and ATN. Approval tonight authorizes the city to accept the funds, designate the public works director as the city's agent, and increase the budget accordingly. The study is exempt from SQUA because it is limited to planning and data gathering. That concludes my staff report and available for any questions.

Thank you, Madame Mayor Prom. Uh thank you, Rudy, for this. I just wanted to get a little bit of clarity. When you talk about transit connections, are we talking just from the resort? we talking from multiple points of the city or does it are we going to know from the study and we don't know yet what that looks like?

All of the above. So we're coordinating with LA28 on all of the movement that we expect to come from LA. Um but also we're really focused on managing the movement that'll be in our city in and around the uh the event center at the Honda Center and to all of our hotels. So it's focusing all that. it's moving target. Um this grant um you know like I mentioned CALR was willing to change the scope because the original scope um the timing of it would not have left um enough time for implementation. This is something actionable that we'll be able to to plan for get this plan done by early 27 and actually put in place the improvements that come out of the plan. And then just to clarify, so this is just so this grant is for to do the study or does it also involve some of the I mean what the actions would be following the study?

It it is just the study the data gathering the study the outreach in planning and then what comes out of the study is what we would implement as actual project schedule changes wayinding signage all all those come out of this plan. Okay. And then can you talk a little bit about so I had two questions the outreach part of it and what that looks like. Um and then also you're talking about the the wayfinding and all of that. Um is does it just depend and it's up to us to make the decision how we're going to fund that and it really just depends on what the stud is going to tell us.

That's correct. Yes. I mean so we'll identify projects that we see see as feasible. Um it's also our intention that these are not just for the Olympics. This is something that we could be a legacy project that stays from the Olympics and continues to uh help us through the uh the future of the resort and and as we work through resort or the Anaheim resort 2.0 project as well. And then in terms of the outreach, are we reaching out to community to hotels all the above? All of the above including the LA 28 committee as well. So it's all the stakeholders other the the rail providers OCTA all the transit providers to get come up with a coordinated plan.

Thank you. you. And then last question, do we have an idea of how many people we're going to be expecting during the during the Olympics? Um, well, might be an unfair question for you. So, the the the events that are at the Honda Center will be hosting the volleyball and they're going to be going through about seven or eight days of four events per day. So, if you think about that site flipping 17,000 people a day for each one of those events, four times a day, it weans down once they get into the playoffs at the end. Uh, but that that's a lot of people. But we also expect people will probably stay in the resort and want to use a transit system to get to events. Not just them in LA, but there's also the surfing competitions down in Trestles. Again, our hotels would be an attractive location for all of that.

Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Uh, no more questions, Madame Mayor. Okay. I don't think we have any um any further questions. Do we have a motion? Second. Thank you. Please vote. A resolution city council of the city of Anaheim ratifying and approving the actions of the Anaheim director of public works or design submitting a grant application on behalf of the city of Anaheim to the California Department of Transportation for the LA28 transit and mobility plan and authorizing acceptance of such grant on behalf of the city amending the budget accordingly and determined that these actions are exempt from SQA pursuant to guidelines section 15306 and the vote is seven eyes no nays. Motion carries.

Thank you. Item number 17 pulled by council member Ma. Would you like a staff report? Yes, please.

Good evening, mayor and city council. Joining me this evening again is our parks manager, uh, JJ Jimenez, as well as our principal project planner, Anna Stra. So, together we are excited to provide an update on the OC Riverwalk project. The OC Riverwalk project is a multi- agency, multi-ben project that when completed will create the first Riverwalk in Orange County. As hinted on this slide, the project can only occur through the collaboration of multiple agencies. Tonight, staff is requesting that the city council certify the OC Riverwalk environmental impact report, adopt the findings of fact, adopt the mitigation monitoring rep program, and approve a memorandum of understanding with Orange County Water District that will set the stage for future negotiations. Tonight is a major milestone in the progress of this project and we want to thank council for your consideration. At this time, I will now turn it over to JJ to provide a brief project overview, including accomplishments to date and next steps. Thank you, Shaunie. Good evening, mayor and council. The OC Riverwalk project site encompasses approximately a two-mile stretch of the Sanad River covering almost 111 acres. Specifically, the project stretches from Orangewood in the southern edge to north of Ball Road connecting to the Anaheim coast. Notable adjacent properties include Anaheim Stadium, Arctic, and OC. The project area mirrors the image shown on this slide for most of the year with no water and only a functional river regional bike trail. There are limited opportunities for recreation and for our community to engage with the river.

The O River Walk is a vision to transform the two-mile river corridor. The main goals are to connect, to recreate, revitalize, and to conserve. How do we achieve this? Who do we need to partner with? These are some of the entities who we are working with ranging from regulatory agencies to funding partners, land owners, neighbors, and advisory bodies. As important to this project is our community. Using the clever tagline, what would take you to the river? We developed a robust community input process for this project that began more than two years ago. As shown on this slide, we use the variety of tools to gather our public's desires for this space. The master plan here is the result of collaboration with stakeholders and conversations with our community. This is their vision. The main components of the project involve creating water impelments, modifying the east and west river banks, constructing two pedestrian and bicycle bridges, providing new trails, improving existing trails, and enhancing community opportunities. We will quickly review the main project components in the following slides. Project includes pedestrian and bicycle bridges that will enhance the use of the regional trail and connect communities to each other. Enhanced connectivity for the community will will be achieved through new trails and trail improvements. The black bolded line represents the existing Santa Ana River Trail. The pink line is the Osage Riverwalk proposed trail extension to Ani Coast to the north. New access points will be provided and banks of the river modified to create stairs and sitting for people to to recreate.

Beginning with River Park, open spaces will be created for events and activities that will provide new ways for people to experience the river. The river will be revitalized through art, education, signage, native plants, nature, and viewing points. And in doing so, we will redefine the river as a place for people and nature. Lastly, two water impoundments in the river will allow for recreation and recharge our groundwater table. As shown on this slide in blue, the empoundments will be adjacent to Arctic and River Park. In addition to the master plan just presented, considerable progress has been made on the environmental process for this project. As shown on this slide, tonight's item represents the second to last final step on the SQA process. An environmental impact report has been completed and based on the analysis conducted, the project would not result in any significant and unavoidable impacts. Progress has also been made in the applicable agreements with key partners. To date, the city has enter into an agreement with the city of Orange. Tonight, staff is requesting the council approve anou with Orange County Water District to guide the design, implementation, and operation of the OC River Walk project. Next, we will be working with OC Public Works to develop an MOU for this project. Great progress has also been achieved in securing funding for this project. A $7 million grant for pedestrian and bicycle bridge was just awarded last week from SCAG. All efforts shared tonight have been fully funded by the Coastal Conservancy. We will continue to move forward with this project with items

funded by grants and will seek additional grants for final permitting and implementation. Next steps for this project include completing the federal environmental process called NEPA, development of construction documents, and submitting permit applications to applicable agencies. We will continue to pursue funding for from grants and other sources to implement construction in Anaheim. We have a bold vision to develop an iconic riverwalk that will transform the greater county of Orange area. That concludes our presentation and we're all happy to take any questions that you may have at this time.

Thank you, Council Member Moss. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I'm thrilled about this project and I have been for a couple of years. Um, thank you for your work on it. I just wanted to clarify um what theou commits us to and what we can expect you to come back to us for.

Thank you for the the question, council member. Uh theou is a it's a ninebinding document. It what it really does it sets us up for future negotiations between the two parties, OC water district and the city um to enter into a specific agreement. But in general um it does state that the city will be responsible for most of the project components including design, permitting and implementation. And once constructed the um OCWD of the water district will take over the operation of the impelments um and um with reimbursement from the city for operation.

Thank you. And then last question um to clarify is River Park part of this greater river walk project? River Park is what we call the first phase of DOC Riverwalk. While is working independently at a different timeline and I'm happy to share with council tonight that that project is fully funded by grants, it is in the permitting process and we expect to break ground um next summer with a um expected construction within a year of that. So yes, that is the first space that's moving forward. I appreciate that. This project is the epitome of a collaboration. So again, thank you for your work. I make a motion to approve or to move this.

Thank you. We have a motion and a second. I know we have some other council members that want to make some comments. Um I'm excited to see these next steps. Um but also want to give credit to Mayor Prom, who is our representative on the Orange County Water District, who without her advocacy getting this forward, we would not be here today. So, um I know you had some comments, but just wanted to make sure we acknowledge your hard work because it is not easy.

No, I I mean I just wanted to make sure we were highlighting this project. It is uh transformational. It is bold. It is innovative. It is everything that we do here. And I think we're creating a model for the entire county on what how we can engage people in the Sana River and how you can make it an asset in your community and not just a way to carry storm water through your town. Um, so I'm very excited to be part of it. I have been a huge advocate for it at as a representative in the Orange County Water District also and excited to see this go forward. It's it's it's a long road. Um, you know, I wish I could say it was as close to being built as the Boyce and Park improvements, but it's not. Uh, we still have a long uh funding road to to go through. Um, and so to the extent that we can all work with our partners and advocate for this project and pull everybody together, I think uh that will get us to the finish line and and see this transformed. Um, you know, this goes back 25 or 30 years. The city had a design competition. It was I can't even was it USC or UCLA? Anyways, some some student came up with this idea of putting water in the river. And it was like, wow, what a great idea, right?

Water in the river. And we did jet jam. We tested it, you know, and it worked and it was fun. Uh, so yeah, it's taken a long time to get here, but we're going to make it happen. So very excited. Thank you, Mayor Prom. Council member Bis.

Thank you. Um I just [clears throat] want to say, you know, or first off, can you back up to the slide that had all of the partner agencies that are there? I think it was. Sorry, we're going backwards. I know. There it is. So, I just wanted to share this and say, you know, the first time I saw this, I was sitting on the parks commission and I got to be honest. I sat there and said, "You want to do what?" I I I I honestly said to myself, there's there's no way. Uh but you know what? I have to give kudos to the staff that's here. I mean, you guys have been uh quite frankly, I mean, light speed, I think, just to get to where we are right now today. and to have the uh the water board on on board. I know you still have a couple federal agencies that you have to get on board, but I mean truly this has been a staffled uh effort and I just want to say my kudos to you guys as all.

Thank you. Um so no further comments. We have a motion and a second. Please vote. The vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. And this includes action of approving a memorandum of understanding as well as a resolution of the city council of the city of Anaheim certifying a final environmental impact report number 357 and adopting findings of the effect and mitigation monitoring program number 398 of the OC Riverwalk project and related actions. Vote is seven um 7 eyes um no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. The last item pulled from our uh consent calendar, item number 18, by council member Curts. Would you like a staff report?

No, I don't need a staff [laughter] report.

Oh, well, we we we've all went I've gone through like three staff reports on it. You know, it's interesting. Uh the last page that that uh council member Bless had them bring up with all the partnerships. Picture a page with 90 some odd partnerships. That's how many hotels are partnering on this item. That's exciting. Council member Meeks said this last uh item was bold and innovative. Just like this item, bold, innovative, you have got hotels and we think this is the first in the nation that have come together working together uh with visit Anaheim and defining the fact that they're going to help their workers. They're going to help their workers if there's an emergency with a safety net program. They're going to help their workers become home buyers here in Anaheim, close to their jobs, becoming part of the community of of of property owners here in Anaheim, starting to build generational wealth. I just want to say thank you to those 90 some odd hotels. Thank you for the council for approving it. Council, thank you to to city staff for working hard to pull this together. And I would be honored to um ask for your vote. I'll make the motion.

Please vote. Orinance number 6617 and orance in the city council of city of Anaheim amending specified sections of chapter 2.14 of the Anaheim municipal code relating to the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District and the vote is seven I's no nays. Motion carries. All right. Thank you, Greg. All right. Item 19 is the approval of the appointment of the chief of police and the associated employment agreement. City Manager, may we have a staff report?

Certainly. Uh, mayor, council, members of the public, uh, it is my honor to bring Chief Sid to the city council as our finalist for the Anaheim Police Chief. Our thorough recruitment process has brought a top quality finalist. We have heard from this council and our community that public safety is our top concern for all we do. Protecting life, safety, neighborhoods, businesses, and visitors is the greatest responsibility we have. We saw the importance of that this evening during our strategic planning session discussion. The contract before you this evening reflects the quality of the finalist we are recommending, the requirements of the job, and the competitive talent market we face. The job in Anaheim is of different magnitude altogether. We serve 350,000 residents in a city spanning 20 miles. Our police serve what is really a collection of district neighborhoods from West Anaheim to the hills. We are also proudly a diverse city which calls for a chief who leads with understanding and insight. Chief Sid is this candidate. Add to that our visitor economy with theme parks, conventions, sports, entertainment, and 25 billion visitors annually. Our police chief oversees more than 400 sworn officers, major operations, including patrol, SWAT, gang, air, K-9, and a mounted unit. Running the Anaheim PD is a greater responsibility than running many entire cities. We also need a chief that understands and responds to the priorities of this council, and I am confident our finalist does. staff is acutely aware of our budget constraints and the need to control costs even within a highly competitive market. The recommendation contract presented here strikes an appropriate balance acknowledging that public safety is the council and the community's highest priority and that the proposed agreement for the chief is consistent with chief salary survey

findings. And with that, I will pass the presentation over to director Andall. Good evening, mayor and council members. This evening, I have joining me Gary Peterson with public search uh excuse me, public sector search and consulting. Uh he handled the recruitment for this class, this position. And joining us this evening um is also Chief Sid who is out in the audience. Uh tonight's uh approval by council will consider the appointment by the city manager and as you heard Manuel Sid to the position of chief of police effective December 29th. Um and also approval tonight will approve the associated employment agreement. Um so I'm going to go into a little bit of detail of uh about this recruitment. Following the retirement announcement by our current chief of police, Rick Armanderez on July 8th, the city contracted with Gary Peterson, who handles exclusively um excuse me, recruitments exclusively for the public uh uh public safety. Um, prior to posting this position, Gary met with the mayor and all members of the city council to gather feedback, capture the city's needs and priorities, align key messaging, understanding the challenges of the city and the department, and to define the ideal candidates such as leadership qualities, experience, and community engagement. In addition to individual meetings with the city council, Mr. Peterson met with internal stakeholders which included impacted bargaining units and those were APA, APMA, ASME and AMA as well as members of the executive team. During the process and prior to interviews, the city and Mr. Peterson gathered additional feedback to guide the search and shared information through a series of department meetings, one-on-one drop-in

meetings with Mr. Peterson, virtual community sessions. There were two of those as well as in-person community meetings. We also provided input surveys through two QR codes, one that went directly to the city and one that went directly to Mr. Peterson. And we attended all city uh council district meetings. The recruitment, as you heard from our city manager, resulted in highly qualified applicants. The top candidates were invited to interview with different panels which included a professional panel, a community panel, um a city executive panel, a labor panel as well as a city manager panel. Thereafter, acting under the authority granted by section 604A of the city charter, the city manager selected Manny Sid to the position of chief of police. I'll share a little bit about Chief Sid's background with you. Chief Sid has over 24 21 years of law enforcement experience and is bilingual in both English and Spanish. He currently serves as the chief of police for the city of Glendel and prior to that the chief of police for the city of Culver City where he rose from the rank of police officer to chief of police. Chief Sid currently serves his profession in a leadership capacity as the president of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association representing the 45 Chiefs of Los Angeles County. Mr. Chief Sid holds a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in political science. The terms and conditions for Chief Sid are set forth in the agreement and the staff report of tonight's agenda. Staff is recommending one amendment to this agreement this evening. The amendment is to delete section 4B2 of the contract and in lie of longevity place the value of the base p place that

value into the base pay resulting in a salary of $389,485.34. This base salary will include an additional 12% for recognition and possession of an executive post certificate and graduation from the national FBI FBI academy in which Chief Sid has successfully graduated as well as all other benefits. Sorry. Um sorry, Missando, what would you say? So it's 380 3.89 4.85 and 34 cents. Okay, thank you. Continue.

Of course. Um, chiefs that will also enjoy the benefits generally provided to all executive managers as well as a vacation bank of 160 hours and 40 hours of a six sick leave bank, vacation acrruel of eight hours as well as 40 hours of non-cashable admin leave and a sufference package of 12 months. Chief's appointment is scheduled to take effect December 29th, 2025. And this concludes my presentation. the city manager, myself, and Mr. Peterson is available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Uh, does anyone have any um questions for the HR team? Uh, Council Member Meeks,

Linda, can you um just kind of describe the different panels for the interview because I know there were several different groups that we put together um for this process to review all review the candidates, excuse me. We had a professional panel which was made up of city managers as well as sitting police chiefs. Um we also had a community panel um that consisted of members of course of our community, business stakeholders um and then we had a city executive panel as well as a labor panel and the labor panel included all the members of the police department which uh was APA, APMA and ASME and AMA and then the final panel was with the city manager.

Okay. Thank you. you know, I I mean, we established a process um back in the summer when we uh retained the recruiter and you know, he you spoke to all of us and and got kind of our input. Um so, I appreciate the the thorough process that was established and um going through that process and making sure that at the end of the day we selected the best person to represent the city as the the chief of police. I'm uh happy to support the city manager's recommendation. Um I appreciate you making that change to the contract. Um there was a clause in there for longevity pay that I did not support because he hasn't been here and longevity pay is for people that have been here a long time and and so I just didn't want that to um misrepresent what we were paying him. And I think, you know, we're paying him uh what we need to pay him based on the salary survey that you gave. It's yes, it's a lot of money, but it is a big job and we want to make sure that we have the best police chief that uh is possible to represent our city. So, um I will move uh approval of this.

Thank you. Um Council Member Ma and then Council Member Rubakala. Thank you. I just have one question about the severance package. Is that consistent with our former chiefs? Yes, it is. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Rubikala.

Well, I will second Council Member Meeks's motion, but first I I just want to highlight and commend our city manager for conducting such a thorough process and keeping us all in the loop. I I have to say we went through this unfortunately what, a year and a half ago. We didn't expect our current chief to retire so soon and abruptly, but I'm glad that we were able to conduct a process that engaged the community and so many key stakeholders. Thank you, Gary, for bringing us candidates that we could um vet and actually come to Anaheim because Anaheim is the largest city and it is one of the best cities in the county of Orange and probably arguably the state. And we need good leadership to be here to lead our Anaheim Police Department forward and make sure that we're meeting our public safety goals. And one of the goals that I have, as everybody knows, is that Anaheim is one of the safest cities. And I'm excited to welcome Chief Sid to um Anaheim Police Department and to join us um as we continue to move forward. So, uh, in recognition of what my council colleague said, I just want to thank our city manager for just his professionalism and for his ability to keep us all well informed and engaged in the process.

Thank you. Um, did I council member um Leyon and then council member Curts?

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, few questions uh to start off with, Gary, if I may. um if you can just talk a little bit about I know you're not up uh the chief is up for consideration but can you talk a little bit about your experience and I I know we spoke on the phone um I think well over the allotted time and I'm seeing a pattern so it might be me of my meetings running longer than they should be um so can you talk a little bit about your experience um other cities that you've helped find chiefs for and give us that background. Oh, sure, sure. So, uh, let me start with, um, I'm a retired police chief, uh, 20 almost 27 years in the business, uh, four years as a police chief, um, been experiencing executive search for about 11 years, um, over a 100 police chief searches across the nation, um, including 25 major US cities, including Minneapolis, Atlanta, Louisville, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and so forth. And so, um, this this process is pretty consistent with, uh, the way we've done it with other entities and, uh, we've never had a failed search and we, we like to think we produce excellent candidates.

Thank you, Gary. I appreciate that. Um, and then, Chief, I I do have some questions for you if that's if that's okay. Um, but I first of all, I do want to say that I appreciate your time uh in meeting with me uh on a Sunday of all days. I know that's not necessarily the best time for meetings for anybody, but I appreciate the flexibility um and your willingness to to chat. Uh we talked about a number of different issues. Uh a lot of them pertaining specifically to District 2, a lot of them that are citywide that we're seeing. Um you know, the importance of ensuring public safety, how it's a priority and responsibility for all of us. um and continuing to build the community bonds um that the police department has um has strived for in the last few years. And I think you saw today that there is uh potentially more work to do uh on that. Um one item that we discussed that I do want to highlight uh for the public uh is immigration and uh the ongoing fear that many in our community um have to have to live with on a daily basis. Um, and so I want to give you the opportunity to if you could speak about that um, a little bit. Um, and so our our community can feel reassured uh, that our priority is public safety and not immigration enforcement. If you could speak about maybe your background and um, the approach to that.

Uh, good evening first mayor and council members. I appreciate the opportunity to be here uh, with you all this evening. Uh, council member, I appreciate the question. um a little bit about myself and when we talk about this topic in particular, it it certainly hits home. Uh I am the son of two Cuban immigrants. Both my mother and father were born in a different country uh immigrated to this country with not a lot more than you know a dream uh and some hope. So understanding I think some of the very real fears and anxiety that certain parts of our community feel uh given the certain posture and where we are today as it relates to immigration enforcement. Uh, I understand it and it resonates and it's our job as local law enforcement, certainly here at this police department, to do everything we can to alleviate some of those as much as we reasonably can, of course, within eyes of the law. Uh, but simply stated, our job is to protect public safety here in the city of Anaheim, uh, to collaborate with this community, all segments of it, understanding that we're going to need them and build credibility with them to be effective in providing public safety. uh and this certainly uh challenges that with the certain you know the given posture of of the federal administration. Our job as a local police department is again to uphold public safety uh work with our community and really focus on that uh both in philosophy practice and in accordance with state law. It is not our job uh to get involved and to participate and assist the federal uh any federal entity in conducting immigration enforcement. Um, so, uh, that's really, you know, the long and the short of is that as it relates to that, uh, and that's something that I think we need to do do a really good job of of educating our community of what our role is, how we differ from the federal government. And that's tough. Um, particularly in certain segments of the community, understanding that they may not see that line and that line is blurred. So, we've got to work extra hard, uh, utilize all the relationships we have in any given community, um, and and leverage those so that we can ensure that they're educated

and understand that we're here to support them, that, uh, they don't have fears or hesitations about reaching out to us to protect their safety, to be victims of crimes, things of that nature. So, we got to work hard at it. Uh, that education piece, and again, I think this is a a prime example of why having continued strong relations with every segment of our given community is really important at moments like this, for sure. And I appreciate that, Chief. And you touched upon my next question about building those community relationships. Can you talk to us a little bit about maybe your experience or kind of how you how you're viewing um you know, getting the hitting the ground running per se in building those relationships, especially as we're uh in a a potentially difficult moment for the city. Um but can you talk a little bit about that um in terms of your experience and kind of what the vision is to reach out to the community and build those relationships?

Absolutely. Um, I think the success of any law enforcement, local law enforcement organization is going to be largely predicated on how well we build trust and foster trust with the community we have. Um, it's got to be there. It's that credibility. It's the foundation in which we build everything off of. Uh, so to that end, and certainly as the police chief, um, I've got to be the face of that and the idea of being incredibly present both physically and and mentally and in every other way culturally engaged with, you know, any given community. So, um, you know, both, uh, as a police chief and then through to the organization, we've got to be really present, uh, with our community, and that means being out there shoulder-to-shoulder with them, making sure that we're building real lasting, uh, connection and communication. Uh, that again, I think sets up a foundation for us to be successful in general in providing public safety. And then, as I said, particularly at moments like this when when it's extra challenging. So, we're going to find every avenue and every way to connect with folks. And a big part of that, particularly from a law enforcement standpoint, is being willing and consistent with going out and meeting folks where they are. And uh I think in law enforcement, we do a pretty good job of uh whether it's our national night outs and our coffee with the cops, and that's all good stuff. And we'll certainly continue to do those things, but we also got to be willing to go out and meet folks where they are, understanding that for certain segments of the community, they're going to be hesitant to come to some of those things. So whether it's our faith faith, our faith-based groups, cultural groups, youth groups, wherever we can find an opportunity to get out in the community and engage with these folks and get them to see us for who we are as humans with people with backgrounds very similar to theirs, uh, and take that opportunity to build just deep and lasting relationships with.

Thank you. And just my final question, if you can also briefly share kind of what the vision is for the department, for the city, um, and what the goals are, what the plan to achieve those goals might be.

Yeah, you know, I'll start by prefacing what I'm going to say in that I haven't landed at the organization yet. Uh, and certainly, um, excited about getting there, assessing it, working with the existing team and and all of staff to really understand where the organization is, uh, what we do well, where we can continue improve. For me, uh, when we talk about the vision, I I'm I try to simplify things and there's really going to be three focuses for me. And number one is to protect Anaheim and, um, you know, provide a high level of service, uh, fight crime, well, prepare for emergencies, do everything we can in the way of protecting Anaheim and providing again the highest level of service. Uh, and I think it was Council Member Muakava that talked about making it one of the safest cities that we possibly can around, not just in this region, but, you know, in the nation. Uh the second piece of that's a little bit of what I already talked about is preserving trucks. That's incredibly important and everything we do there's got to be a level of accountability uh transparency uh because it lends itself to that credibility that is is the foundation of everything we do. So we're going to work really hard at that and how we engage our community, find ways to build trust, make sure that we're being as transparent transparent as humanly possible. Um understanding that again that's going to be it's going to predicate so much of of our success. And then last lastly uh to really maximize the potential of our organization and in turn the folks that comprise it. Um trying to uh drive a level of professionalism uh day you know set a standard and push it and see that we can be the standard uh for what it is to you know for for public safety in in the US and certainly in this region. So um you know there's an I've had an opportunity to meet some of these folks in the profession. This is an organization, the police department, that has an immense amount of talent and a lot of folks that have a lot of commitment for it. I heard it from many of you. I saw some of it here on display tonight. So, we are going to work really hard to maximize that talent and that potential and see that, you know, push our organization forward as a whole.

Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Um, Council Member Curts and then Council Member Rubakala. Okay. Don't leave. I have a question here.

Yes, ma'am. [laughter] But I also have a comment uh regarding the the process and and uh the panels that you had and I I want to thank uh our city manager and uh Linda and putting together the panels particularly the community one is and I was interested in asking and and excuse me and actually asked who was on that committee because I wanted to make sure there were people that could rep that do represent um h our community and um I represent district 4 so I have a great concern about the safety in the resort area and you ensured that uh someone was from the resort area was on that committee and I I really appreciate it and it's someone who has worked with our police and police chief in the past and and uh has made known the problems that we've had on safety issues in in the resort. So, I thank you for that. Sir, you and I had a meeting also and and we talked about uh the importance of our officers uh doing a wonderful job, but you talked about team building and how important that is uh and that uh people that are valued do an even better job. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Certainly. Um I as we spoke about yesterday and something I feel really passionate about. Um I think you look around the landscape of certainly public service, public safety, private sector, what have you, uh professional sports, whatever the case might be. I think organizations that find continued success are usually organizations that can do a really good job of building, fostering, and preserving teams. And uh I think for an organization, so much of their success is predicated on that. So, uh, something that I'm really passionate about, uh, and one of the things that I'm going to certainly prioritize from the first day that I'm, you know, lucky enough to land at the organization, uh, while I'm assessing it and getting to learn it myself and assimilating myself to the organization because that's an important part of that. Um, it's also going to be to get to work on really building a team, a strong one. uh you know and that starts with you know the management team and the folks most intimately around me all the way down to the folks that are out there doing the work our sworn officers our professional staff uh and I think once we can find um some vision amongst that and we can build a strong team then I think we have the ability to start to build momentum and then that just kind of snowballs and then I think once you build a really strong team anything's possible. Thank you,

member Rubakala, and then council member Bis.

Thank you. So, one of the things I I think you and I spoke about as well is getting back to basics. Uh I I shared this with you. I was at Starbucks one day, which I'm at a lot, but there was a young patrol officer who mentioned never seeing our chief or never being engaged from um upper management. And I think it's really important that they feel supported at all levels of law enforcement. So, I was happy to hear that that's a priority for you because for me, it's important that our all of our employees feel valued like the council member mentioned. And one of the things our city manager has done really well because Anaheim has gone through a lot of um what's the word I'm looking for? Uh distress, uh turmoil with our former council. Um is he's done really well is making sure he's engaging all of his employees. People feel valued here. his leadership team does as well and they support their employees. So, I'm happy to hear that you're going to get back to basics and not so focused on the bells and whistles, but making sure that our employees have the things that they need to do their job and to feel like they are supported while they're out in in our on our streets. It's it's a dangerous job. Um, we saw that tonight with some of our public commenters. a lot of the negative um you guys get a lot of negativity your way just to do your job, but I'm glad to hear that you are prioritizing all of that. Um and but I'm so that I don't have any questions, but I just wanted to comment on that. And then one more thing I just wanted to share. So one of the council members and I'm going to um if it's okay, I just want to read a portion of it, not the entire thing. So, one of your former council members from Glendale has sent a letter in, and we don't normally read letters for the record, but I just wanted to highlight a couple of the things that she mentioned, and you can correct the pronunciation of her name because I know I'm going to mess it up right now. It's worse than Rubikava. Um, Alan Asatrian.

That's really well. You did. You hit nailed it.

Perfect. So, she is the former mayor and current council member in the city of Glendale. One of the thing she says, he will elevate your department and your city. He will strengthen your community relationships. He will continue to build trust and move public safety forward. He will take the Anaheim Police Department to new levels of distinction. Chief Sid is the kind of leader who leaves every place better than he found it. Glendale is a living proof of that. I have no doubt Anaheim will feel sa feel the same as we do. Although we are sad to see him go, we are proud to see him take this next step and grateful that he is joining a city that recognizes the caliber of leader he is. And then she just thanks the thanks us w for welcoming him and supporting him as he begins his new chapter. Anaheim is gaining an extraordinary chief and an extraordinary human being. So welcome to Anaheim chief. I mean it hasn't been ratified yet but you have a second already. So, um, the other thing aside from this, and I know Rob is going to, um, try to stop me from saying this, but I'm going to, um, I'll I'll tie it to the is to our agenda item. So, as it relates to our agenda item, we do have our new chief starting on the 29th as soon as this council ratifies this contract. So, one of the things I'm going to ask our city manager to do is consider um ceasing the 960 that we currently have extended to our chief now so that we can, you know, you can assume the role of interim chief and ensure that any movement within the agency is paused for now. I think it's a good idea to preserve the agency as it is so we don't make any changes abruptly or make any more disruption to the Anaheim Police Department. That is something that I'm just asking you to consider. It also will save some money for the city if we're not extending to a chief who's already retired and it was we're grateful for his extended service during this time. But as it relates to this agenda item, Rob, I would like you to consider doing that. So seizing or

stopping the 960D extension now assuming the role of uh interim chief and having the deputy chief report directly to you to make sure that there's no additional changes made to the agency until Chief Sid can come and can actually assess the situation that we currently have within our police department. I'm sorry. I'm I'm confused. So, is that something that we need to agendaize at a future meeting? Right now, it's just a statement on the record. If you want want to agendaize it, do you want to bring that back at the end?

I don't think it needs to be agendaized because we gave Jim the um he can make a decision as to whether or not he I think the 960 was basically we gave you the opportunity and you can decide how long we want to keep it in place. So, I'm just giving my direct report some guidance as to what I think he can do. Thank you, Council Member Bis.

Thank you. I'll try to be brief. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to the city manager. Also, uh, thank you to Mr. Peterson. Um, I know that it's when we're hiring a director level position. Maybe it's not always uh so extensive of a uh recruitment that's out there. So, thank you for comm or for including the community. I know I went to one of the meetings uh at Brookhurst where the uh residents had the opportunity to weigh in to say what they wanted. Um I'll also say this, I had the opportunity also to meet with uh Chief Sid. Um I like the fact that you have the option of driving down Beach Boulevard to and from work if you choose. [laughter] Yes, I do.

I'll say I'll say thank you to that. And then um also had some issues uh just as uh council member Meeks with the longevity. So I'm happy to see it in there. uh definitely support it and um I know I can't say it yet, but uh hopefully after the vote we'll welcome you to the city of Anaheim. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Um I had some qu I will have some questions for you in in a in a moment, but I wanted to um just ask some questions for uh Linda going through. Um so you can sit down for I don't want to make you stand the whole time. You're like excited. Um I I kind of echo uh Mayor Prom's concerns about the longevity, but I had a question then about the um first point. Um if the base salary is changing, if I'm correct, to 389485, is that correct?

That is correct. And so it says that the the um we're giving for the post executive certificate as well as attendance of the FBI National Academy 12% of base pay. So that number would then change as well. Correct. Okay. So what is the new number if we're doing 12% of base pay? So the base pay would be 3.894.85 485 and some change when you added an additional 12% that would be a total comp of 436 223 and 20 cents

436 223 I'm sorry about a $3,000 difference. Sorry 436 223 and 20 cents and we're getting you that 20 cents. We are being down we are yes down to the exact

down to two times. Um, I had some questions just going through because it is obviously a lot of money um, for this position and so I was just trying to go through some of our former contracts. How did we arrive at the 12% base pay for the post executive certificate pay as well as the FBI National Academy attendance? [snorts] So, we worked with uh Chief Sid uh with his current package he has at the city of Glendale and then attempted to offer him 10% more uh to come to the city of Anaheim and that's how we arrived at the number that Linda just uh referenced uh to council. Uh to answer your second question, uh there's a provision in the APA contract where we provide up to a 15% bonus pay uh for officers that have certain levels of credentials. And so we tied it to this contract in that context. Wait, is that something that we also Does APMA have similar um a percentage award to the base pay for postexecutive certificates?

I go ahead. Yes, they do. They have an additional uh 5% for a postmanagement certificate and if they possess a master's uh degree, then they get an additional five for a total of 10%. And does APA or AMEA get an additional allocation for completion of the FBI National Academy which I have also attended. It is very good. That is not included in the current APA contract. However, they do receive a 15% for a senior master advance on top of their base salary.

And what about APMA? APMA is what I shared earlier is a total of 10% for the master excuse me management certificate as well as a master's degree. Okay. Thank you. Um I know in one of our early conversations uh Mr. City Manager you said that there was some concern um about the range we have set for this position. Can you just share with me how this additional amount of money for to get us to 389 um does that have any implications now that it is outside the range for this position?

It does not. Okay. Um and you had mentioned that um we have a I guess policy or I'm not I'm sure if it's written down um that we don't have a position that makes more than the city managers. Is this outside your pay range? Your It is today. And so we are working with HR um in con in coordination with our class and comp study uh to bring those considerations back at the first part of next year. Uh we did not want to uh combine that with this particular appointment, but it is staff's intent working with the class and comp study at all levels of our employees in the city to address that for the first of the year.

Okay. Okay. Because one of my conversations I know uh with our recruiter uh it seemed that the range we were offering was not competitive um for the candidates that we were were looking for. So is this something I guess not just for this position? Are we going to look at other positions to see if we need to allocate executive ranges?

We will. So again, uh recognizing the uh compensation philosophy that's adopted by the city council that would be a tied to all classifications citywide. So uh certainly there'll be considerations for executive uh salaries again after the first of the year tied to class and comp at that percentile identified by the city council.

Okay. Thank you. Um, and are there anything um, and I'm not sure if this is maybe for Miss Andel or for you, Mr. City Manager. Um, are the the range or now the outside range salary for the police chief, does that have any effect on any other department heads? When you say any other any other effect, can you are we going to are we going to

then now have to look at potentially citywide the pays the um salary for any other department heads that potentially are in the same class as the police chief, fire chief, public works, etc. They're all unique classification as and as the city manager mentioned, we are reviewing all uh compensation and salary ranges for all executives as well as every classification within the organization. So it doesn't have more far-reaching implications than just this contract.

Um I no I don't think so. I think um the compensation is based on the requirements of the position um and the the size of the department, the scope of work. So all of that is taken in consideration where we set a salary range.

Okay. Thank you. And then do we have any um ties when we look at compaction between the chief uh what we currently pay the deputy chief and then in management I would assume is is next. Are there any compaction issues that we are going to have to look at um given the heightened salary range we are doing for the new chief? We don't have a compaction policy at this point in time. However, council did provide us with the direction during the class and comp study to consider compaction in all the salary ranges that uh is presented to council. In terms of compaction with the police chief position, the only compaction uh that would exist is with the city manager because it's a it is a position that reports directly to the city manager. So to go back to your other question, in that sense it does not have an effect on the other department head positions.

Okay. Thank you. Um I think we already addressed a lot of the um longevity issues and I guess we'll come back for the compaction issues um in January. So um now if you don't mind, Chief said I had a couple of questions um for you. Thank you. Uh again as echoed by my colleagues for making the time um I really enjoyed our discussion yesterday. I hope I did not keep you longer um than than my aotted time. I really appreciate um your time and I really appreciate um you know you asking me kind of what my concerns were um with the with the police force. And I think one of the things that I told you I was going to you know ask today um is really around the issue of of morale um and you know what is your philosophy on building morale and building um you know teamwork and relationships in between different ranks

different different departments within the force.

Sure. Uh number one thank you for the time yesterday. I appreciate it and I appreciate the question. Um, you know, I think a workforce that feels uh supported and that has opportunities is usually is when we're going to get the most out of our folks. And um, as the police chief, as your aspiring police chief, I, you know, I think a lot of that I have to set the tone for as an organization. And, um, you know, that includes, uh, expectations, uh, which dare I say turns into culture, and I think that all kind of predicates on what that's going to feel like in the way of feeling supported. But um our police officers as well as our professional staff do a really really tough job and uh it hasn't got any easier over the years and uh I think it's important that they feel incredibly supported uh by myself as a chief from the management as a whole um you know we talked a little bit about it yesterday. I think uh you know one of the things I think is amazing about this community and certainly was appealing to me is the support that public safety receives from all of you sitting up here and that also sets the tone for staff's morale. um you know uh they they listen in, they tune in to the meetings, they're they're hearing, you know, all of the the commentary and the general support that comes from this council. So, incredibly important. So, really setting a tone, making sure that they know that they feel supported, that we're doing everything to help develop them, provide them opportunities, help them see them grow uh in their own individual ways and within the framework of what we're trying to do as an organization.

Thank you. Um can you speak a little bit um to what you look for when it comes to promoting um officers either from internally in the department up to management positions um or laterally? What is kind of your philosophy on growing the organization and leadership pipelines?

Great question. Incredibly important not only for uh where the organization is today but where it is in the future. And certainly like any uh uh manager or executive, I'm looking, you know, looking for folks that have got experience and technical knowledge and uh have developed themselves through the the way of education. But uh aside of those things for me personally, there's two things that come to mind. Number one, I'm always going to be looking for folks that want to put the organization first. And uh without question, I want folks no different than myself that bring, you know, their desires, ambitions, and want to see themselves grow, which is great. We need that. And I'm certainly looking for that. But it's all got to be within the framework of what's best for the organization as a whole and that they want to buy into something which really leads to the second piece which was something that I talked about earlier. Folks that want to be part of something want to be part of a team and uh understand their role in that their desire to want to be a part of that team to bring their talents and abilities that we need to help push that team forward and in turn push the organization forward. So, uh, again, along with folks that have talent and experience and technical knowledge and have developed themselves and educated themselves, um, diversity in that and diversity in experience and what they bring. Uh, all important stuff, but all within the framework of really wanting folks that want to put the organization out ahead of them and that that's essentially their northstar and that will be our northstar. Um, that we all have to have that that commonality in pushing that organization forward. So, I have been in office for three years and you will be my third police chief. What do you think you are going to do different to ensure your longevity and success in the department?

I appreciate the question. Um, first off, um, it is my hope and desire with the support of this council that this will be your last one. And, um, I'm in my 21st year of law enforcement. Um, and it is absolutely my goal and my family's goal that I will retire from this organization. God willing and health willing uh which means eight, nine or ten years. Um and wanting to be here to work alongside this amazing executive team uh and you all to uh meet the many exciting things that are coming for this organization over the next decade from LA28 and Olympics and Riverwalks and all that exciting stuff that I want to be here to do the longterm work with that. So, you know, we talk about developing staff and bringing them along. Um I'm I'm here to do the long-term work. Uh, number one. Number two, and it's something I really, really pride myself in. Um, you know, I think it's my job as a leader to see the folks around me rise. To me, that's one of the biggest markers of if, you know, am I doing a decent job? Um, without question, my biggest professional accomplishment, and this came up in in interview panels, is the fact that today I can say with all the humility in the world that there's two sitting police chiefs in LA counties in LA County that used to be part of my command staffs. And those are their accomplishments, but to be any small part of that is is really exciting to me. And I have zero doubt that there will be a third here really soon. Uh so I say that to say that your next police chief, if I have anything to say about it when eight or nine or 10 years passes, um is going to be a man or woman that's already got an Anaheim police uniform on today. And that it's my job that when it's all said and done and my time here is done, uh that I leave the city manager at that time. Hopefully it's the same one. uh um at least one if not a couple of good options for him and this council to consider to carry whatever momentum and whatever culture and whatever expectations we put out ahead of us, whatever standard to carry that forward and that this city of this size with the amount of talent that it has in it doesn't have to continue to

look outside for their its next leader.

With the raise he just gave himself, I'm I'm sure he's gonna stay. [laughter] Um, I was interested to and I don't I specifically did not um ask that to our recruiter and I'm not interested in um you know knowing who who else applied but I'm assuming that we had some internal candidates and you know how are you going to um work with those that maybe applied um for the job that you are now occupying? Uh how do you intend on navigating that? Yeah, I appreciate the question. Um, I can't necessarily speak on everyone that applied either. I frankly don't necessarily know to some degree. That said, I am looking for and quite frankly need every one of the folks at that organization. Um, I definitely think that I come with some experience and some thoughts and some knowhow. Uh, but uh, there's a lot that I don't know and there's a lot that I don't know about this city, about this organization. So as I land at it, I'm going to be looking to lean on the folks particularly at that management level uh to you know help assimilate me to that organization uh and lean on them for their experience, their insights um and their talents. And uh I'm going to be looking to work shoulder-to-shoulder with them all uh build a team and um you know uh just very straightforward. I I'm not necessarily looking to be in the company of a bunch of yes men and women. Um, I want to surround myself with a team that can offer me and in turn this organization value. And every person that I think that can do that and wants to do that and wants to be a part of something, I'm hungry to work with them.

Thank you. Um, one of the things you said yesterday in our conversation that I thought was really special is that you you see it both ways. I think you please correct me if I'm say it in if I say it wrong, but that you know when you make a decision, you expect your um deputies and captains to have your back, but in the same way if someone makes a decision that you might have reservations about that you will be loyal um you know and and you know have that teamwork mentality um as well. Can you you said it much more eloquently if you could um express it. I don't know if I said it eloquently. It really comes down to just what I look at is uh you know principal team dynamics and um I think uh when we talk about the upper echelon leadership of an organization of a police department um you know I'm going to look for my command staff and management teams counsel and insights and perspectives and as I said I'm not necessarily looking for them to disagree with everything I come up with. Sometimes my thoughts and perspectives will shape and mold the decision. Sometimes it'll be some of the other people's in the room's decision and that'll that'll mold the ultimate decision. The one expectation though is that when we figuratively speaking walk out of that room that we are in lock step that this is now our decision and I think that's incredibly important for an organization. Um there's got to be that clarity. There's got to be that unity moving forward because it's the right thing to do and because our staff's expecting that and they need clarity of of where um we are going and conversely as you highlighted I'm here to support my staff and that's down for my line level folks doing the work to my li you know my supervisors my mid-level managers that are out there quite frankly having to make really difficult decisions in real time. Uh and I will certainly particularly with the more rank they have hold them to incredibly high standards as I do myself. Um, but it's all coming from a place that I will love them, put figuratively speaking, put my arm around them. Uh, and while I will critique them and give them

perspective, I will always be shoulder-to-shoulder with them and supporting them in the decisions they make because they are in turn our decisions. And um, so to say, you know, just to highlight what you said, yeah, it certainly goes both ways.

Thank you. Um, I don't have any more um, questions. Um, thank you for being here and for um, answering my questions. Um, and just wanted to take a moment before we vote to um, thank Chief Armander's um, for his time with the city um, for being a really really strong community member um, for being really responsive to I think the comments and the questions both on this council dis as well as um, in the in the community. Um, I know I was chiding you a little bit yesterday because he is a resident of Anaheim, but Seal Beach, you're pretty close. Um, and I really hope that um, he stays on and um, till you are able to on board with us and and then also be a phone call away for you um, if you have any questions um, to go forward that he's able there to to be a resource um, for you. Um, so thank you very much. Um, so with that, with no other further comments, we take a vote. Pursuant to government code section 54953, prior to taking final action, oral report is required to be provided on the salaries and compensation paid to any local executives. In today's presentation, as presented by our human resources director, the summary was provided meeting the requirements of government code section 54953 outlining the appointment as well as the associated employment agreement um as authorized by city manager and to be executed. And the vote is seven eyes, no nazs. Motion carries.

Thank you. [applause] [applause] Congratulations, Chief Sid. Would you like to share a couple words with us?

Yes. And I will keep it brief in light of I know it's been a long night, but I certainly do. And it's really just a lot of thank yous. And I will start with the folks sitting in front of me. Thank you. And um it is not lost on me your vote of confidence how important it is. Uh this has been arduous process but it's supposed to be because this is a really important decision. I appreciate your flexibility and please know uh that alongside the men and women of this organization we are going to work tirelessly for you uh in conjunction with this community uh to make you proud. And I appreciate you all. I appreciate the support you show this organization and obviously the the support you've shown me here tonight. uh to my new boss uh in in city manager of Vanderpool. Thank you, sir. Um I appreciate, you know, I know, you know, this recruitment is is a big deal for any organization, any city. Um and while you have undoubtedly vetted me as much as possible, there's also, you know, a little bit of leap of faith and a chance. And and uh I thank you for that and I appreciate your commitment to wanting to get this done and wanting to get it done with me and uh know that I will support the heck out of you and I'm going to work my tail off for you at every at every turn. uh to the executive team that I'm going to now be joining who I had an opportunity to see on full display today. It's an amazing team. I've gotten a a chance to meet a handful of them uh including our HR director who's been great through the entire process. Uh excited to work with these folks and help makes many of these things that I saw up here come to reality and and be a good working team member in that regard. Uh as the mayor touched on, I want to thank Chief Armen and that command staff. um number one for his many years of service, not just here, but for 30 plus years of service to this organization. I look forward to working with him to ensure the smoothest transition possible uh and to the command staff that I will be leaning on and looking to to build strong relations with, build a team with and push this organization forward uh to this community. I am excited. It's very much my way that I will pour myself into this this community and I will be out and about and these folks are going to get an opportunity and I will get an opportunity to meet with them and um I will be, you know, um incredibly

accessible to them and and and make it feel like, you know, really that I'm at at arms length for them and and accessible to them at any given time. Excited this organization and myself are going to work tirelessly to ensure that you feel safe uh to work, live, and and play in this in this amazing city. And last, but certainly not least, uh to the staff uh at uh APD, uh both union leadership, our sworn officers, our professional staff. Um number one, thank you uh for the work you do. As I mentioned, it's an incredibly challenging job. They go out there uh and and do an amazing job and, you know, nearly almost hit the mark every single time. And it's, you know, it's it's saying something because what they do and the work they do is not easy work and it's challenging work. But I'm excited to join them. I'm honored to join them. I look forward to getting to know them uh and really, you know, roll up my sleeves and get to work with them. Uh I can't thank you all enough. Uh again, not lost on me the big decision this is and I assure you I will not alongside with these folks, we won't let you down. So, thank you so very much. [applause]

Madame Mayor, can we take a two-minute recess and can we take a picture with the new chief?

Oh, he's a selfie. This would be our first selfie, chief. Can I have everybody take a small step to or left small step.

Yeah. All right. Okay. Right here. One, two, three.

Got it.

I'll stay for that. I'll stay for that. Mayor Just a

So item 20 is a public hearing. Uh, clerk, can you please read? Thank you, mayor. Item 20 is the public hearing to consider the proposed vacation abandonment of two segments of Santa Ana Street rightway situated between Philadelphia Street and Olive Street and between Claudina Street and Philadelphia Street. And this is a public hearing that was continued from the council meeting of October 28th, 2025. Thank you so much. Um, Mr. Director of Public Works, can we have a staff report?

Sure. Uh, good evening again, mayor, members of the council. As mentioned, the item before you is continued from the October 28th, 2025 council meeting and concerns the proposed abandonment of two segments of excess street rightway abuing 275 and 301 East Sana Street. This abandonment has been requested by the developer Maritage Homes of California to clear clear title for the construction of a residential project. The abandonment request is for two segments of the Sana Street Rideaway totaling approximately 1,200 square feet to be assembled into the adjacent property owned by the developer. On November 13th, 2024, the the city council approved project entitlements which included the approval of teniff track map number 19290 to create a one lot condominium map to construct 56 town homes. Staff evaluated the segments of Sana Street proposed for abandonment and determined that they lie outside of the ultimate rightaway and are not needed to support existing or future public use. The review confirmed that these areas have no role in current street operations and are not required for any planned transportation or infrastructure improvements. Based on this analysis, staff have concluded that the rightaway proposed for abandonment qualifies as excess property and is unnecessary for present or prospective public use, consistent with section 8324B of the streets and highways code. City Council policy number 5.5 contemplates compensation to the city for the fair market value of any applicant requesting the abandonment or vacation of any easement, rideway, or other property interest. The real property section responsible for recommending fair market value determined that a separate appraisal for this abandonment request was unnecessary given the minimal square footage of the

rightway proposed for abandonment and the nominal contribution to the area contribution the area provides to the additional development. City staff analyzed the value based on factors above and the dedication of the rightway conditioned on the approval of the track map and compared it with similar projects for which appraisals were obtained. As a result, staff has determined that the fair market value for the rightway to be $30,000. Staff recommends approving the proposed abandonment of these portions of Exis Street. I'm sorry. Staff recommends approval of the proposed abandonment in these portions of access street rightway for the residential project. And thank you for your consideration. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments um by council at this time before the public hearing? Okay. Seeing none, I will open the public hearing. Clerk, do we have any speaker cards for this hearing? Mayor and city council, we do have one speaker card um from Mr. Mark Herbert. And the time limit to speak on this item is five minutes.

Mark Herbert and I'm greece.com. Uh, I'd like I have a few questions about this project um centering around [clears throat] oversight, public oversight and public engagement and the culture of the process. So, I have about six points. I'll start with the first uh this council meeting streams. When it's stopped, will that show up in the streaming? The reason I asked that, it presents an atmosphere that when I view this plays into it, if I wasn't here tonight or I didn't see the cameras still rolling during the streaming, I would miss a lot of the vibe and atmosphere in here. And I don't recall the council closing.

Mr. Herbert, this is a public hearing about this. Excuse me. I'm trying to illustrate my point. I have six. This is one and they're related to the public hearing.

Yes. Because I can't The people at home will not hear. This is taken away from the time of what I expected because I didn't expect interaction at a public hearing. That's not the culture here with the public. But going on, I hope you stream the whole hearing unedited. I mean at the whole city council meeting unedited for the reasons I suggested. Two, moving on. I wondered if there was any Brown Act violations in the course of this process. The reason I [snorts] asked is I cited Brown Act violations. You weren't here at the meeting. mayor at the last council meeting three weeks ago and I've yet to hear back on my written submission either from the city attorney, the mayor, or the six council people. So, I don't know if we've entered a new era where Brown Act violations aren't serious. Moving on. um when they give numbers at the staff report, I'm a little leerary now of because of this track record of previous numbers given in previous staff reports. This especially has come to mind to me again because of Carrie Buffard, the whistleblower, who's raised some of the same questions about some of the numbers and contracts that the city has. So, just as the numbers changed on item eight on the fire station from what was initially approved, I'm wondering how solid these numbers are. Moving on. Let's see here. I have a couple couple more points on the last pre. Um, I'm concerned that we're not getting the tough questions

during the hearings of the planning process. And as an example, what I say is, what do you mean that the public's not receiving the tough questions? Let me cite the presentation that was just here before. The questions asked to the incoming police chief weren't very tough, weren't very rigorous. uh questions such as did he face a similar situation in Glendale on a shooting as Anaheim's just experienced? That's a tough question. What's his opinion of the proper size of the Anaheim Police Force? Again, that's a number related question. Um the council doesn't tend to ask number related questions, the tough questions. Again, oftentimes the presentations like this one, although this wasn't such a bad example, but the previous one where the chief new chief spoke, it was rooted in managerial jargon, which I didn't think the council did a good job of getting through and getting a non-jargon answer. That often times happens during other reports. And are we getting all the public comments and written comments that were submitted for this project? Oftentimes, like in the housing element, they're not included in the main report that was sent to the state. And to find the all of them, you have to go through the various points of the website. They're not collected to be attached to this to the proposal being discussed at the hearing. Thank you,

Mayor and City Council. That concludes our in-person speakers on the public hearing, noting for the record, we did not receive any electronic comments on the public hearing. Speakers, seeing none, I'd like to close the public hearing. Are there any other comments or questions by council? I'll move approval. We have a motion. May I have a second, please? Second. We have a motion and a second. Please vote.

The motion included approval resolution of the city council of the city of Anaheim vacating two segments of the excess street right ofway abing 275 and 301 East Santa Ana Street abandoned number ABA 202400434. And the vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is a report on close session. Mr. City Attorney, do you have anything to report? Nothing to report as to items one through three. Item four was continued to the next meeting. Thank you very much. Uh at this time we have future agenda requests by council colleagues starting with council member Leyon.

Thank you madam mayor. Not a agenda item but if I may also add uh if we can adjurnn in memory of Frank Cruz. He was a beloved community member of uh at Lindbrook Bowl and there's a tournament this weekend in his honor with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. So Frank Cruz, thank you. Um city clerk, do we have any um I don't know if resolution is the right word, but any type of um documentation that we can send to family of folks when we adjourn in their honor?

Yes, mayor and city council. we do do a memoriam certificate um that what we do is we'll outline um who requested the request to be a memor in memory of them and then we send it to the family. So um we typically reach out to those of the council if they are um would like to have the certificate either send it to the family or if any of the city council are attending the services and they take it either by frame or by um um by folder. And can we have all our can we have all our signatures on it or does that perfect? Okay, thank you. That would be Thank you. Well, never mind then. It's already done. Um, council member Rubikala,

thank you. Just a reminder to close the meeting in Gilbert Avenia's memory as well as uh, Officer Alec Sanders. And then I would also like to bring in, and this is kind of an odd thing, but I know everybody knows who David from Vons is, but he is retiring. Um, he has been Santa for many of our community events, and he has done a lot there. So, if we can just bring him in for recognition. He's kind of a staple in the community. Santa's not retiring. It was like Santa's not retiring, but um he does a lot of community events with us for as Santa, but um if we could just bring David in. My staff can work on getting his contact information. He's not the He's his helper.

Um Chris, um sorry, Council Member, I'm tired. Council member Mos. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I don't know if this is an agenda request, but um, in light of what was shared today about the tragic passing of Mia Mahia, I'm hoping staff may be able to explore the possibility of uh, posting the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline in some of our public spaces, whether it's our public restrooms or libraries. But I think that's important. Thank you.

That's great. And if I can just add on, so Council Member Moss, um, my office does a suicide awareness event every year. So, we'll share some information that we've worked on to maybe we can cascade it and maybe at some point this um dis can consider it being a city-wide event like girls in government. Great idea. Um, council member Leyon,

one more. I apologize, Madame Mayor. I'd like to bring in for recognition. I think somebody had brought it up during public comment um the recent incident uh with a little uh puppy in District 2. So, I'd like to bring in Dr. Ash and the University Veterinary Center team. Uh they're uh District 2, both resident as well as business. And I'd like to bring him in for recognition and just appreciate their um their quick thinking in saving the the puppy's uh life. And if the puppy's available, I would love to have them too. Someone will adopt the puppy.

I would love a puppy, but I can't have a puppy. But if No, I can't. But somebody would want the puppy. We appreciate Dr. Ash if we could bring him in and his staff for recognition. I was say I'm not allowed to bring home any more pets. Apparently 14 is the cut off. Um, um, with no further business before the council, I'd be honored to adjourn the meeting in the memory of Mia Mahia, Gilbert Aina, Alex um, Alex Sanders, and Mr. Frank Cruz. We will be adjourned until December 16th.