City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. The time is 4 o'clock, and I'll call to order the July 14 City Council meeting. Madam clerk, roll call, please.

Council member, Council member Wagon, Council member Barter, Council member Weber, Mayor Blum, and Mayor Kleinman present. Council member Stapleton has an excused absence. He is joining the study session as a member of the public via Zoom and is observing the meeting remotely.

Thank you. Now is the time for the invocation that will be led by Chaplain Kathy Gilbert of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. Following that, Councilmember Weber will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let's pray. Father God, on this day in July, as we celebrate 250 years of freedom, we thank you for your freedom, we thank you for being here in our midst, and we thank you for your delight in hearing and answering our prayers. Thank you for your word that tells us to pray and give thanks for those in authority, that we may live peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. So we thank you that for over 11 years now, the city council chambers have declared in God we trust. So we put our trust in you as we pray for our mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, our city council members, our city manager and attorney, our city clerk and her assistant, and our community development and finance directors, and our harbor department. and with great gratitude we pray and thank you for the recent hard-working response from our police and fire chiefs and their departments from the orange county sheriff's department and of course our public works and utilities departments so we ask specifically for wisdom and discernment for the review that we're going to have tonight of what happened on july 4th that july 4th weekend and future public safety responses for the use of the emergency access driveway on Bristol Street and for the proposed updates to the Newport Place Plan Community Development Plan. And we pray, Lord God, that you would bless and meet the needs of our citizens, protect our children. We ask for your help in the areas of homelessness and loneliness, that we would love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And we ask all things in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

Please join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

WE'LL NOW MOVE INTO THE RECOGNITION OF OUR OUTGOING BOARD COMMISSION AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS. I'D LIKE TO INVITE FORWARD IRA BEER FROM THE HARBOR COMMISSION, HASSAN ARCHER FROM PARKS BEACHES AND REC, DIANE DARITY FROM PARKS BEACHES AND REC, ALLEN CASHIN FROM OUR FINANCE COMMITTEE, BILL CALIPE FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE, DON YON OF THE HARBOR COMMISSION, AND J.R. WALTZ FROM BUILDING AND FIRE BOARD OF APPEALS, UNFORTUNATELY. SHARON WOOD OF THE CIVIL SERVICE BOARD WAS UNABLE TO JOIN US TODAY. SHE'S OUT OF TOWN. IN ADDITION, BILL KASKEY OF THE BUILDING AND FIRE BOARD OF APPEALS AND CORY CRAMER FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE WERE UNABLE TO ATTEND AS WELL. IN THE INTEREST OF TIME, I AM NOT GOING TO READ THE CERTIFICATES THAT WE HAVE FOR YOU. But I do want to thank each and every one of you for your many, many years of service and all of your contributions. We are so fortunate in the city of Newport Beach to have amazing members of the community willing to serve the city in many different capacities, as you all have. I'd love to welcome any of you if you'd like to say something briefly. Otherwise, we'll go ahead and take a photo with the council. Any brave souls?

I just want to say thanks to everyone for the support. Newport Harbor is, I think, a treasure of the city. And it's really been a privilege and an honor to be able to serve the city and act as a steward, I guess, for a short period of time. So thank you all for the support.

Thank you. Okay, well, come on down for a photo.

Just real quickly, I just wanted to also say the same sentiment. We really appreciate your work. It's an honor and a privilege always to serve our city, and serving on a board committee or commission is a great way to get involved and make a difference. I served five appointments to boards, committees, and commissions before I got on to city council. And I loved every single experience. I served with many of you, which is interesting. That shows how long your tenure has been. So we really do appreciate all your work. And I hope that you continue to add value to our city in so many ways because you have so much institutional knowledge. And it's really a privilege for the city to have so many really dedicated people that want to step up and serve. So thank you.

Thank you.

Ready, one, two, three.

okay we'll now move right into the study session the presentation on the city's planning public safety response and operational efforts related to the fourth of july weekend i'll now turn it over to mr jurgis thank you madam mayor and members of the city council uh madam clerk can we launch the presentation please

Again, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this report on the Fourth of July holiday weekend. I am joined today by Police Chief Dave Miner, Fire Chief Dave Boyles, and several department heads in the audience. We have a comprehensive presentation to walk you through with regards to the city's presentation, the events that occurred, our public safety response, and the areas where we believe we can improve. Before we begin, I wanted to place the presentation in context. The Fourth of July was not simply about the events that unfolded late Saturday evening. For city staff, it represented months of planning and preparation for the busiest holiday weekend of the year, one that brought more than 420,000 visitors to our beaches, including 160,000 on July 4th alone. Nearly all of the city's 13 departments played a role in preparing for and managing the weekend. We had a comprehensive operational plan in place, and that plan was effectively carried out on Thursday, Friday, and throughout most of Saturday. And then on the screen there, the upper right-hand corner, you can see our parades on the peninsula, on Mariners. We had several parades throughout the community, and that takes a lot of planning from the city staff standpoint that we spent a good deal of time putting together. Late Saturday evening, however, conditions changed rapidly. Social media posts drew thousands of juveniles and young adults to the Newport Pier area, creating circumstances that exceeded the resources already deployed and required the police department to activate its regional mutual aid plan, which worked successfully. Today we will explain what the city had in place, how the situation developed, how our personnel responded, and what we needed to do better moving forward. Before turning the presentation over to staff, I wanted to personally thank the men and women of the Newport Beach Police and Fire Departments our lifeguards, code enforcement personnel, public works and municipal operations crews, harbor departments, and all the city employees who worked throughout the weekend. I also want to thank those 17 regional law enforcement agencies that responded to our request for assistance. Everyone performed professionally and courageously under extremely difficult conditions. Their actions protected the public restored order, maintained emergency access and helped prevent an already dangerous situation from becoming far worse. Our planning involved much more than increasing the number of police officers on the peninsula. The city's plan included enhanced police staffing, additional fire and emergency medical readiness, fully staffed lifeguard operations, code enforcement support, and activation of the safety enhancement zones. We also increased short-term lodging monitoring, coordinated with Hoke Hospital, deployed our harbor department, worked with Caltrans on traffic operations, and expanded our public safety communications. These efforts were coordinated across departments and with our outside partners. Resources were strategically placed so personnel could respond quickly to incidents throughout the city. The key point is that the city entered the weekend with a comprehensive plan and coordinated plan, and we executed that plan. In advance of the holiday, the city launched a proactive public information and deterrence campaign under the Not in Newport Beach message. The campaign was intended to make it clear that people were welcome to enjoy Newport Beach, but unlawful and disruptive conduct would not be tolerated. The messaging addressed illegal fireworks, underage drinking, public intoxication, disruptive gatherings, enforcement consequences, and the enhanced penalties within the safety enhancement zones. Importantly, the campaign was not limited to just Newport Beach. Through geotargeting messaging, the city reached visitors and potential visitors in surrounding counties and out-of-state markets, including Arizona and Nevada. The campaign reflected what we knew of before the weekend that many of the people coming to Newport Beach would be arriving from outside the city. this is a drone video that highlights our daytime operation you see the crowds it's hard to spot out our public safety personnel but we have quite a bit of them out there you'll see the mounted police they're kind of in the center and you can just see the crowds on our boardwalk and in our sand this is what we deal with this is where our police safety officers dealt with when the crowds come together pull out the cameras and try to videotape each other push each other along or throw mortars

This is constant all weekend that our police personnel dealt with on a professional manner.

I'm going to go ahead and hand it off to a police chief, Dave Minor, to take it from here.

Let's go ahead to the next slide. Thank you, sir. Madam Mayor, City Council, I'll address the events, the timeline and the response and some of the incidents that occurred that evening. Going into the holiday, our department worked with our regional law enforcement partners to monitor available information online and on social media. Based on the information that we had at the time, there was no indication of a planned gathering or a specific time or place where riotous or unruly behavior would occur. That being said, late in the evening, around 730, we noticed large gatherings, mostly juveniles gathering in the Newport Beach Pier area. Starting around 7.30 and shortly before sunset, so shortly before about 8 o'clock, these crowds in the hundreds and even thousands grew unruly, began to assault the crowd, bystanders and officers with projectiles, with mortar style fireworks. And after repeated lawful orders to disperse, the crowd did not disperse. And at 8.06, we initiated our mutual aid plan. What that means is, in addition to the officers that we had, both Newport Beach police officers and outside agency that we're assisting, we requested mutual aid from our regional partners. And in total, Nearly 400 officers responded and were utilized that evening. We engaged the crowd, followed our protocol, issued an unlawful assembly declaration, and in a coordinated effort with those hundreds of officers, worked to clear the beaches, the streets, and reopen emergency access routes. And I was out there personally and I'd like to recognize and just thank, uh, you know, I know it's been said, but I would like to also thank and make it public. My appreciation and recognition, not only for our officers, but for the mutual aid assisting officers for their professionalism, restraint and courage in a very dynamic and rapidly evolving situation. So following that, we do have follow-up investigations are occurring, including review of social media and video related to the incident. I'll go through some of the statistics from that night. So total arrests from July 3rd at 6 p.m. to July 5th at 6 a.m. total 439. Now we can attribute 328 of those arrests to the mass arrest that occurred after midnight, after we had cleared the streets and regained access to the peninsula area. Of those arrested, as you can see, 18 to 25-year-olds accounted for 75% of those arrested. Juveniles ages 13 to 17 were 20%, and only 5% of those arrested were ages 26 or over. Just a little bit of information about where these people reside or came from, the people that we arrested. As you can see, Newport Beach accounted for only about 3% of those arrestees. So 97% of the people that we arrested came from outside of our city. And you can see Arizona accounted for 41%, Nevada 9%, other states 5%. And within California, not including Newport Beach, was 43%. Looking at it a little further, some of the counties and areas where those arrested persons came from, Maricopa County, Arizona led the way with more than double, Orange County, followed by LA County, Clark County, Nevada, and then down into San Bernardino County and Riverside. Of the 56 adults from out of state, as you can see, 72% were from Maricopa County, Arizona. So of the juveniles that were taken into custody. 83% of the out of state juveniles came from Maricopa County also, so 53% in total of the juveniles were from out of state. And just looking more at these stats that we've covered. So comparing the rest from previous years, last year during that same time period, we had 60 arrests. As you can see, we had 439 this 4th of July and even excluding the mass arrest incident, uh, that, that occurred, we still had nearly double the amount of arrests that we had the previous year. Like I said, that's not including the mass arrest incident. And you can see also the medical call volume increased with the increased visitors and activity. from the previous years. What we saw appears to be a cultural issue, a trending issue throughout the nation. You'll see that we had 328 arrests related to this mass incident, including 64 juveniles. I would like it noted There were no shootings, no serious injuries that occurred, no structures burned to the ground. And again, I attribute that to the professionalism of the public safety and law enforcement officers that handled that incident. By comparison, you can see a few other incidents that occurred that weekend throughout the country. Newport Beach had a very massive law enforcement response. So leading to questions about investigation and prosecution. The Orange County District Attorney's Office is the lead prosecuting agency in Orange County, so we have already been meeting with them and in discussions about gathering all the information to proceed with next steps with the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Supplemental filing options are also being considered and included with the City Attorney's Office and contracted outside counsel. Also, juveniles can be referred to Orange County probation, and our detectives are working through all the online video and social media video to try and connect some of these criminals that videotape their actions. But this is still very early on, and we are still working through, as you can imagine, the copious amounts of evidence and documentation to connect all these cases together. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to fire chief Jeff Boyles to cover some of the fire EMS and lifeguard information.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of council, Jeff Boyles, your fire chief. I'm just gonna talk for a couple of slides on behalf of our fire and lifeguard response. The Newport Beach Fire Department deployed 147 personnel on 4th of July alone. 194 incidents and 143 medical calls over the course of the holiday weekend. So I think you'll find that some of our statistics line up similar with the PD. Our medical call volume was 30% higher in 2026 than in the prior year, 2025, and as high as 75% higher than in 2022. We ran 100 emergency calls for service on the fireside on the 4th of July alone, which is about 120% higher than an average summer Saturday. Despite, though, I would like to point out, despite the increased traffic and weekend response, our response times were on average per our dispatch center only four seconds higher than normal. And that's due in large part, well actually due mostly because of the up staffing we did on the peninsula area and the pre-positioning, putting different fire engines and fire apparatus and paramedics and ambulances down on the peninsula. No firefighter injuries were reported. I'm happy to report our lifeguards performed over 4,600 preventative actions over the weekend and made 260 rescues. Those are actual ocean rescues where they enter the water. An interesting note is they made only 94 rescues on the 4th of July this year in 2026 compared to 351 rescues in 2025. You may remember the riptides and bigger swell last year, so that may have attributed to it a little bit. switch screens here of the patients that we did treat and transport 43 were alcohol related eight involved underage underage patients that we took to the hospitals 21 traumatic injuries we had eight assaults seven of which occurred on the peninsula two overdoses and two firework related injuries Another interesting note is on the 4th of July itself, the largest treated and transported patient group fell into the age group of 20 to 29 years old, which on any given day of the year, probably 364 of them, the average age group is 80 to 89. So it shows that they were just a younger population that we were running on and transporting. As far as automatic aid from other cities, primarily Costa Mesa, OCFA, and Huntington Beach, we requested their services nine different times. We canceled them seven. We only used them twice. And they requested us six times. So it pretty much evened out from that standpoint. So we were able to staff appropriately. Sure. I'm going to end with the same as Chief Miner said, we didn't have any firefighter injuries or accidents from our fire apparatus or our paramedic ambulances, which I think is, I just want to point out the vigilance and professionalism of our folks, our lifeguards, our firefighters. And any time that we encountered any situation that was in any way remotely hostile, the police were there to escort us. So just want to say that as well. I was out there with Chief Miner and some of these issues we saw firsthand. And I will turn it back to City Manager Simone Jurgis.

So continuing with our code enforcement staff, these are the Peninsula and Corona are in safety enhancement zones, which are triple fines. Our code enforcement staff were out there patrolling and addressed short-term lodging violations, disruptive gatherings, and firework violations. Staff responded to 47 holiday-related calls for service, 30 of which were short-term lodging related. They issue 239 administrative citations, and with a total fines of about $35,000 in fines. Our police department did go out on these short-term lodging issues, also issued five DACs and 15 Lugos. Those are the citations. If a police officer issues a DAC, which is a warning, or a Lugo, which is a fine, code enforcement automatically issues a citation. And if there is one citation issued for a short-term lodging unit, It's an automatic suspension, and they go through due process rights if they want to appeal it. Following up, after the event of Sunday morning now, when Chief Miner and his team got everybody arrested and cleared the peninsula, our municipal operations staff and our public works staff went out there to start doing cleanup. And of the 31 personnel that were deployed, We've collected about 41 tons of trash from that evening alone, which is an enormous amount. And when our municipal operation director got in touch with me at 8.30 in the morning, I said, how are we doing? He says, we're done. We're all cleaned up. So kudos to that staff and team. They were out there 4 o'clock in the morning and got it all cleaned up and ready to go for the next day. Let's talk about opportunities for improvement. What we think and what we know so far, and again, this is really preliminary. While many of the elements of the city's plan worked as intended, an after action review must also identify where we can improve. The items on the slide represent areas of further evaluation. First, we need broader, earlier and broader, more unified public messaging along with more reliable cellular and radio communications during periods of unusually high activity. We struggled with using our Verizon and telecom communications. The network was jammed. We had a lot of people, and it was getting harder and harder to communicate with each other. So that's something we know that we need to get addressed for next year. Second, we will evaluate earlier traffic control, stronger protections for emergency access routes, and improve dynamic messaging and a designated rideshare area to reduce congestion. Again, traffic control is paramount to get people off the peninsula. And a lot of people are using Uber and Lyft, and so they're jamming up our roadways too. And so do we have a designated drop-off location? How do we assist with more easier access for emergency vehicles? They run with lights and sirens, but is there improvement in that area? Third, we will examine whether changes to juvenile curfew provisions and short-term lodging regulations would provide additional enforcement tools. We have safety enhancement zones. Why are we allowing minors to be out there until 10 p.m.? So that's something we want to continue to explore and look at the legality of. Finally, we need to strengthen our regional resources and intelligence capabilities. That includes securing additional out-of-county law enforcement support. Chief Miner and I have been talking about reaching out to the outside of Orange County, to LA County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, looking for support from them so we can staff up internally. we will continue to evaluate these options and return to city council with more specific operational and policy budget recommendations the purpose of this resume review is not only to explain what occurred but also to learn from it and strengthen our preparation for next year thank you madam mayor and this concludes our presentation

first of all thank you for the thorough presentation as i've said this is absolutely not what we wanted for america's 250th celebration or for any other day of the year for that matter i want to thank simone and chief miner and our deputy chiefs for your strong leadership for being on the peninsula in the thick of things that day. Of course, all of the men and women of our entire police department for the swift handling of an impossible situation. I want to thank our firefighters, paramedics, and lifeguards for their tireless efforts managing record-breaking numbers of visitors and incidents. Lastly, thank you to our public works crews who restored the city to its usual pristine condition by morning. And can't forget OCTA for the bus transport assist. I've spent the last week analyzing, researching, reaching out to mayors and police chiefs across the country who have dealt with similar circumstances and others who might be able to offer insight or solutions. Our task now is to build on the measures that we've already put in place over the last year and to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. It's not one thing. It's a comprehensive, holistic collection of things, and it's not limited to the Fourth of July. These teen takeovers, mass, unsanctioned gatherings organized on social media at beaches, theme parks, and city centers are surging across the country. Just a few days after the holiday weekend, they're reportedly targeting Huntington Beach and Knott's Berry Farm. What began as rowdy adolescent meetups has mutated into organized threats, which have led to violence and shootings in many cases. As the chief indicated, the distinction here in Newport Beach, a record number of arrests without use of lethal force, tear gas, pepper ball, and no major injuries or destruction. The digital blueprint for these takeovers relies heavily on algorithmic amplification on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Within hours, thousands of miners converge on a single location with a shared objective to cause maximum disruption for digital cloud. I contacted TikTok for answers and preventative measures. They've offered partnership with our police department and the willingness to deactivate problematic accounts, which they've already done in some cases. Janine Villacres, the head of US and state government affairs for TikTok, has accepted my invitation to attend today, so I'd like to invite her up to comment.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and members of the council for the opportunity to address you today. We are aware that teen takeovers are happening in communities and that organizers are using social media platforms to spread the word about them. TikTok is proactively working with law enforcement to take down harmful content that's posted on our platform. We look forward to continuing our work with the mayor, local law enforcement, and the city of Newport Beach to prevent these incidents from occurring again. Thank you.

With that, I'd like to open it up to the public for comments.

Hi, my name is Ingrid Yankowskis, and I thank you for everyone for doing this. But we keep saying July 4th. I want to remind everyone that this didn't start July 4th. We have April with the spring breakers. We have May with another spring breakers. We have from Arizona first and then Vegas after. And this just got bigger. But it's been happening for not just July 4th, but years back. And we keep calling. We keep asking for questions. We keep asking for help, and we don't get it. So by the time we call, the fireworks are gone. Nothing gets done. So once again, this is not July 4th. This is way before.

Next speaker, please. I'd ask that everybody please refrain from clapping so everyone has a chance to be heard. Thank you.

Hi. Danny Sullivan, Newport Beach. These are more questions for clarification. Hi, is that better? Danny Sullivan from Newport Beach. One of the questions is you have given out, one of the questions is you've given out numbers for arrests, but then you've also given out numbers for titations, and I don't really understand the differences, and if it's just a technical thing. I guess the point is, if you looked at the arrest logs that's due news published, you arrested like 43 people, but you keep saying that you arrested 400 plus people. And then you give us numbers from last year on what was an arrest, which I don't know was an actual arrest, or if it was something that was cited and then they were released. And when you give out the numbers about the arrest that we made for this case that just happened now, and you compare it to other cities, I don't know if those are actual hardcore felony arrests where people were taken away, or if you're just talking citations in those cases. So I think we need some clarification so we know what apples are being compared, if we're doing apples or oranges. And the other thing is, and I don't want to take away from the whole teen takeover thing. That's a real thing that people are clearly talking about. But when you say half the people were arrested from Arizona, they clearly didn't hear about it in Arizona in the afternoon and then drive out here. They were already here, which suggests that you already had thousands of people that were here and the teen takeover stuff. MAYBE IT CONTRIBUTED, BUT THERE WERE ALREADY PEOPLE HERE AND PEOPLE ALREADY CONGREGATED NEWPORT BEACH PIER. THIS IS NOT A NEW THING. SO IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE MORE ABOUT, I DON'T KNOW, SOME OF THE VIDEOS OF THE TEEN TAKEOVER STUFF OR SOME OF THE SCREEN SHOTS SO THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND MORE WHAT WAS HAPPENING AND REALLY GET MORE TO THE IDEA OF HOW MUCH OF THAT IS REALLY THE PROBLEM HERE. But I would love to get the responses on the arrest citations if you can do that quickly. Oh, and lastly, could we just publish these numbers so we can all see it? And we shouldn't have to beg and look at your website and discover that none of this stuff is there. Just publish the arrest logs every day so that anybody can get this stuff for anything that's going on. So that when you have a billion helicopters over the peninsula where we could use a substation, not a separate police station, we could actually use a substation there, we don't have to guess what on earth is going on in our community. Thank you.

Again, I'd ask for decorum, please. Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, my name is Maureen Cotton. I'm the president of the peer to peer association. We represent the people that live between the peers and who are significantly impacted by this weekend or the 4th of July weekend. The events of the peninsula this 4th of July were not simply the result of a large holiday crowd. They were the predictable consequence of a growing reputation that Newport Beach has become a place where bad behavior is tolerated. What happened? Public intoxication, vandalism, assaults, destruction of private property and complete disregard for residents, businesses and public safety should not be accepted as the new normal. We don't believe that that's what you want. But we did have a sit down last year with the chief of police and the mayor regarding last 4th of July, which was also a disaster, right? And this was exponentially worse than last year. And we were told last year, this isn't going to happen again. And it did. If we want different results next year, we need a different strategy. I know you guys are working on that. First, I'd like you to seriously consider limiting both vehicle and pedestrian access to the peninsula on the 4th of July. Once safe capacity has been reached, every successful large event has capacity limits. Public safety should come before unlimited access. This is a common thing. This happened many years ago. I have members that have been living on the peninsula for 50, 60, 70 years. They always tell me that this used to be a thing where the peninsula was shut down. We need to reevaluate it. Second, Newport Beach needs to establish a genuine reputation for year-round enforcement, not a marketing campaign, but consistent action. Every weekend, particularly around both piers and along the boardwalk, visibly enforce laws against speeding or reckless e-bikes and scooters, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, illegal fireworks, vandalism, and other quality of life offenses. replace inconsistent discretionary enforcement with predictable enforcement backed by meaningful citations and fines word travels quickly when people know there are real consequences behavior changes finally remember that residents should not have to surrender their neighborhoods every holiday families visitors and business owners deserve a safe environment where they can enjoy our beaches without fear of chaos or property damage there were hundreds of youths crossing the PCH bridge over the river onto the peninsula. So it can't just be cars that are limited onto the peninsula. You guys really need a solution. And I'm not saying that I have that solution, but you guys used to issue wristbands, I'm told. You would shut things down by the subway plugs and on both things. There's only three real ways to access the peninsula with the exception of the ferry, which is not really practical. THANK YOU, THOUGH. NEXT SPEAKER, PLEASE.

AGAIN, PLEASE NO CLAPPING. THANK YOU.

MONICA CHRISTIANSEN, FORMER FEDERAL AGENT, CURRENT NEUROSCIENCE THERAPIST. I AGREE WITH HER COMMENTS. BAD BEHAVIOR DOESN'T HAVE CONSEQUENCES, IT WON'T CHANGE. SO I'D LIKE TO KNOW THE STATUS OF TRYING JUVENILES AS ADULTS AS A RESULT OF THIS. rioting and looting. Do you have any information on that? Because as I posted on the Newport Beach PD website, there's a precedent for trying juveniles as adults in these situations. There's a lot of different charges. And President Trump has made rioting and looting federal crime. So you might want to look into that. So also what did the police interviews yield regarding premeditation who bust in these people and who is paying them? Cause they didn't come on their own dime. They got busted at noon. And the suggestion for the police who did a great job next time, instead of pushing the writers into the neighborhood, maybe given a nudge into the water to cool off at the beach, they should know how to swim. Uh, an idea was to reinstate beach permits in 1998 level with Newport beach residents and taxpayers getting first choice for these permits to decrease this activity. And for the tech tech person, I would ask, is there a designated job that monitors violence or potential violence on tech talk? Also, I'd like to suggest a patrol car be at the beach. in Crone Del Mar and Ocean Avenue between 5 and 7 p.m. because there's a lot of car racing going on with dogs and children in the area crossing the street with cars going 40 miles an hour. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Chris Clewey, candidate for Assembly District 72. I'm from Huntington Beach, but wanted to come here because you guys are neighbors. And yeah, thank you to the police department and the fire department and everyone who kept this from any sort of fatalities. I think that's really important. And I also think it's very important that regardless of our political backgrounds, regardless of our political beliefs, we have to understand that stuff like this is not acceptable. Like, we cannot have kids and young adults show up in our cities and say that they're going to take it over. Now, that being said, we also, I believe, have to be proactive, right, in terms of dealing with this stuff. And so, in Huntington Beach, we've had an issue like this before at the US Open. I mean, you know, there were literal, like, riots and buildings burned down. So, you know, thank you to Newport Beach PD for preventing that from happening, but I would urge you all to develop those proactive solutions to have social media monitoring beforehand. Try to nip that in the bud, especially when it is an event that is foreseeable. It was the 250th celebration on the 4th of July. If we don't understand that some people are going to get out of control, then what are we doing here? I would also like to recommend to the TikTok person, to have some proactive solutions and not just show up and offer a nothing burger of a, not even an apology. Like that was literally nothing was said right there.

So thank you.

Thank you for giving me the time to speak. I'm looking forward to learning more about what Newport Beach is looking for and working with the district because we should have a safe district. We should be able to go to our tourist towns and have a good time. And those residents should be able to be safe and secure in their homes. And so, yeah, I just really hope you guys figure it out. If I'm elected, I'll be here to help you figure it out. So thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Rod Sedbeck, Newport Beach. Foreseeable and preventable. I'm really grateful to the police officers and the firefighters, the lifeguards and public works crews who responded with professionalism to a situation that should have been prevented. The situation deteriorated for hours before the riots. and hours before 730. It was all day. A man was brutally beaten for telling someone to go home. A bottle was thrown at a police officer in broad daylight. Teens vandalized a resident's property and stole his American flag running down the street with it as he chased them. Several local families, including mine, left because we no longer felt safe. Midday. TikTok? The city's responsibility is to recognize foreseeable risks and plan accordingly. Last year's 4th of July was a warning. Many residents voiced concerns, including me, without a response. This was not unforeseeable. Newport Beach has handled crowds like this before. During bow week and past 4th of July celebrations, there was a proven playbook. Mutual aid was pre-deployed. Roads to the peninsula were closed. Officers maintained high visibility and foot presence. Zero tolerance began early. Emergency access was protected. Proactive enforcement kept problems from escalating. City leadership has another opportunity to listen to the residents who experienced it firsthand. We would like an honest and transparent after action review. Bring back the preventative measures that have worked before. This wasn't a surprise. It was hours of visible escalation. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Madam Mayor, council members, and city staff, my name is Dennis Baker. I live in Corona del Mar. This is not a new event. A lot of people in this room are not old enough to remember, but I am a veteran of the late 50s and early 60s bow week. And so I have seen that. I admit to nothing being part of that. However, there was one particular thing that I noticed that kind of ties into it. even then before social media and everything else word would get out about what was happening down at bowel ahead of time and at this in this case it was easter week and the more that there was stories and everything else about clamp downs and we're gonna do this and we're gonna close off this and so on and so forth the end of that demographic that was an invitation to me to come down to bowel week and so uh i think that should be kept in mind with The understanding, of course, it's a whole different world now. The numbers are much huger. But the thing that actually ended Bow Week and the crowds, and there was violence. I can remember a house or two that didn't have any walls left inside of it. And when they closed the island, And you had to show your identification and something that said you were residing there, then you could get on and you couldn't get on the island. Now we're talking about the peninsula, which could be a bigger challenge, but there are tools to do it. And there is history. And I would ask that the staff and the council really go back and look at some of the things from the past. Put them in the context of TikTok and Facebook and social media and everything else. And guess what? In the 50s and 60s, people came from Arizona. People came from Nevada. They came from Utah. They came from all over the place to Bell Week. It wasn't just, I didn't live down here then. I lived in Glendale, so I would make the drive down. But it wasn't just people from Southern California. There were people coming from all over the West for Bell Week a long time ago. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, city council members, distinguished public officials. My name is Philip Betancourt. I sent my remarks to you in advance. I came, well, 2,800 miles to be here. Not exactly. Meredith and I were in Savannah, Georgia at the end of the day, and news of this event had already moved that way. I am now, Meredith and I are now residents of La Quinta, California, but I've had an office here in Newport Center for 35 years. I've been here so long, I was actually the project manager for the current policeman, or for the current police building, and to put matters in context, I remember being booted out of the rendezvous ballroom while Dick Dale and the Deltons were playing. For those of you who have been around, I want to fasten up too. I have really three small suggestions to make. Number one, lighting. You could have had, should have had, I believe, the Newport Pier and McFadden Square lit up like Fletcher Jones at the end of the day. Hooligans are like cockroaches. They do not like light. And that would have given you an extra tool to manage the hooligans at the end of the day. Number two, more involved. I believe a case could be made that to have had three SWAT teams in beach mobile vehicles positioned on the peninsula to move quickly. in to break up crowds. The difficulty of calling for outside law enforcement is that they come under treaties but they often do not have the sort of clothing and garb that you need to protect yourselves at the end of the day. Finally, I hope you will give a searching look to the short-term rentals. These people that came here spent the night somewhere at the end of the day and i do believe short-term rentals can easily be overrun by the willing daughter who wants to let the boys in if you will and it's the way things are at the end of the day and i salute the tremendous law enforcement presence. I salute the city manager for his sober report. And if I could close on a good note, as a cradle to grave Roman Catholic, I thought the chaplain's remarks tonight were inspiring, loving, and thoughtful. And I hope we remember those going forward. Thank you very much, Mayor.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi. I do want to thank the police and the firemen and the life. I would like to – I'm Dawn Vargas, and I have lived here my entire life. I was born at Hogue. I went to CDM, and we were gone for a couple decades, and we're back. And the 20 years we were gone – in that time i'm just so surprised at how crazy it has become on the peninsula i lived down there at 72nd street i was born on 72nd street and i lived down at the wedge for most of my childhood and now we're at 44th and People say, oh, well, then why don't you move if you don't like the craziness down there? Well, I don't feel like I need to do that. I feel like there needs to be some things put in place that some other people have stated, like regulating how many people can come onto the peninsula, not just the cars, but the e-bikes. you can ride a lot of miles on an e-bike and you can park up in the heights. So it's regulating how many people can come down on the peninsula at a time. Like a couple of other people have said, the mass crowds and the rioting and the fights and the violence started way before dusk. It was, you know, just after noon and I believe the beaches were being closed by 2.30 or something like that. Maybe it was a little bit earlier. And I commend the police for shutting down the beaches, but where are those people gonna go except swimming? So they're gonna go out into the neighborhoods and the storefronts, and they're already, you know, three sheets to the wind, fighting, and a lot of them, I did read the stew news and a lot of the information that was available on how many people had narcotics and that kind of thing. So going to the STRs, the short-term rentals, the Airbnbs, those are a problem. I've lived here now back since the 20 years gone in the Bay Area. I've lived here now four years, and the short-term rentals have gotten really bad. and I'm not just naming Arizona because it's Arizona and all the arrests and things like that, but we have places right on our street where the parents will rent it for them and they don't stay there. So the combination locks that they're able to get in and out with, that's a problem. And I don't think that the $1,500, sorry, I don't think the $1,500 for the offense is enough.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Can I ask a question real quick?

I'm sorry. We have lots of other speakers waiting. We need to give everyone equal time. But thank you for your comments. I want to know when there's going to be something that we can . Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Roger Abramson, originally from New York. I moved 20 years ago to Laguna Beach and then I moved to Newport Beach. I don't agree with some of the logic I've heard about closing down streets. They did that in Laguna Beach. I didn't like the way that worked out for my merchant friends. And short-term rentals, I was saying, I don't think the problem per se is the symptoms of short-term rentals, trying to close on every street. I think the police did an unbelievable job during the 50 officer responses, unbelievable. I'd like to address this to Aaron and the city attorney. I think the problem lies more in what will be the enforcement. If I had a kid shoot an officer, I'd be fine with you putting him in jail for three months. So what I wanna know is what do you think's gonna be, I wanna hear from the courts on how this plays out and what's the deterrent that they don't come next time on a different holiday and escalate and escalate just like the smash and grabs in the Nordstrom windows. Where is it gonna end and what can be done versus the state? I believe the city has great intentions, but I'm not familiar with city versus state law and what can be done to push back a little bit more like Huntington Beach, quite frankly, might do. if some of those threats come true i just want to hear from a legal point of view what what can be done for enforcement and i can't wait to see what happens to all those arrests if there's any i don't know if there's jail not jail i don't understand what those arrests work but i'd love to understand deterrence next speaker please

good afternoon my name is daryl nelson and i'm a proud resident of newport beach for over 40 plus years i would like to begin by thanking honorable mayor lauren clyman the city council of newport beach the police department and all of our first responders for their teamwork and proactive planning leading up to the 4th of july I appreciate the leadership, hard work, and dedication that the mayor and the entire city council invested in adopting stronger policies intending to help prevent large-scale incidents like this from occurring. Unfortunately, despite those efforts, the unprecedented size of the viral TikTok takeover crowd estimated around 30,000 people, creating an extremely challenging situation that tested the resources and preparedness of our city. Despite the size, unpredictability, and the fast-moving nature of the event, our law enforcement officers, the first responders, stepped up, adapted, and handled an increasingly difficult circumstance with professionalism and dedication. Their efforts helped maintain public safety, manage the situation, and protect our residents, businesses, and visitors. It is also important to recognize that despite the challenges faced that night, there were no major injuries, accidents, shootings, or other serious incidents reported. That outcome is a testament to the preparation, professionalism, and commitment of our Newport Beach Police Department, Fire Department, and all the first responders who worked tirelessly to keep our community safe. Moving forward, I am confident that our mayor and each member of the City Council will continue working together as a strong, unified team. At the same time, it is important to recognize that each city council member also has an independent responsibility to the residents of the district they were elected to represent. The mayor provides leadership for our city and the city council. However, each city council member has an equal vote and an equal responsibility to advocate for the safety, quality of life, and unique needs of their own district by combining district-level solutions with citywide collaboration Newport Beach will be in the strongest possible position to prepare and respond to similar challenges in the future. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to Mayor Kleinman, the City Council, Newport Beach Police, Fire Department, first responders, the entire city team who worked tirelessly throughout the night and into the following day to protect our community, assist residents, businesses, and restore order after an incredibly challenging situation. It was truly remarkable to see the city cleaned up and restored to its original beauty by the following morning. That was a testament not only to the dedication of city employees, but also to the Newport Beach residents and businesses who worked alongside them to help restore our community. Thank you all for your continued service, your leadership, and your unwavering dedication to Newport Beach. It's sincerely appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Kathy Hill. My father-in-law arrived in Newport Beach in 1947. He established Hills Boat Service, a business that still is active in the harbor, providing fuel for the boating community. The Hill family, now four generations, still own and operate many businesses in Newport Beach. This is our home. To say the events on the 4th of July were a strike to the very core of our community would be an understatement. We all were left wondering what happened to our town. It is very clear the city was overrun by criminals. That is perfectly acceptable to say. You see, criminals come in every race, sex, religion, political affiliation. Criminality does not discriminate. As we are so caught up in political correctness that we can no longer call it as we see it. A criminal by definition is one who has committed a crime. Pretty simple. So who loses in all this criminal activity? Newport Beach residents and business owners. We all have the right to gather peacefully and respectfully, to run our businesses, and to enjoy a national holiday. Criminals took that right away from us. If we cannot acknowledge the criminal activity taking place in our community, we are as complicit as those committing the crimes. Stand up. Acknowledge our world has changed, unfortunately not in a positive direction.

law enforcement.

Just to be clear, I stand behind law enforcement 100%. One of my uncles was a chief in the Sheriff's Department, another a lieutenant on West Covina PD, a nephew who's serving on Santa Ana Police Department now, and my cousin, an assistant deputy director in the FBI. We were taught as children to run toward law enforcement for security and safety. That is what you're seeing here today. A lot of us have lost that. We don't feel safe in our community. I don't feel safe in my store trying to conduct business. Where do we go from here? One thing is for sure, we don't ignore it. I've talked to many people in the local political area. I keep hearing we need to not get worked up. We need to work together. Well, we need to get worked up because we need to change. The status quo is no longer acceptable. We need to address real problems with hard conversations and find solutions. If we collectively are not willing to fight for our community, then who is? A couple questions I have. First of all, I'd like to say something to the TikTok representative that came. That took a tremendous amount of courage. She is the only one here and we should commend that. Secondly, Is it a matter of resources? Do we not have the funds? Can we come together as a community and give you more tools to do your job? We are here to help. We want to protect our community and protect you. I don't want to run at the things you run out every day. You guys do that. And lastly, if you're arresting people from other states, is that not a federal crime to come across state lines?

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, city staff. My name is Jeff Flint. I'm with the Newport Beach Short-Term Rental Alliance. And we just want to be here tonight because... I'm sorry? Okay, we've got to... Get a little closer to the microphone. Jeff Flint with the Short-Term Rental Alliance here in Newport Beach. We represent hundreds of property owners and small businesses here in this community who are just as outraged by everybody else about what happened here on the holiday weekend and particularly on the evening of July 4th. We've sent you our statement. We appreciate the work of the police department, the fire department, lifeguards, city staff, and all of you in getting control of the situation as quickly as you did on the weekend, on that evening. And particularly on the fact finding that you're doing right now to make sure that this never happens again. And I want to make sure that you understand, as I've mentioned to all of you by email, that we want to be a resource on that to make sure that it never happens again. The vast majority of short-term rental managers and owners and operators in this community are responsible. Their guests were victims just like the full-time and long-term residents of this community. We sent you some of those emails. A retired deputy police chief who owns a couple of properties in Newport Beach, one of which he rents out on a short-term rental basis, he heard from his guests that they were afraid to go out on the beach later in the afternoon and into the evening and to a dinner reservation that they had because of what was going on. people who have had their reservations for next year, people who pay to rent for a week here in Newport Beach is tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, and 10% of that goes to the city, which we all like, who had their reservations for next year canceled because they have come to the conclusion that Newport Beach is not a family-friendly destination. I don't think any of us want that. So going forward, Please, we're asking not to scapegoat short-term rental owners, the vast majority of whom are responsible. If there are bad operators, find that out. They should be held accountable for their action, but the vast majority are not. And we want to be a resource to you. There are recommendations we made when you were passing the new safety enhancement laws earlier this year that we thought would have been more helpful in preventing some of what happened. You went down the path that you went down, and there will be higher penalties for the people who, short-term rental permit holders who did not engage in best practices, and maybe that's a good thing. But there were comments made. We recommended, you might recall, banning remote check-ins during the holiday weeks. You chose not to take that as an option. We'd like to put that back on the table. So, again, as my time's ending here, Use us as a resource. If you determine that bars were the problem, you would bring in responsible bar owners. If you determine that hotels were the problem, you would bring in responsible hotel owners. Treat us as a resource. We will work with you to make sure that, from our perspective, this never happens again.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening. My name is Kendall Johnson. I'm going to try to stay on script. First, I want to thank the officers. It was obvious they were doing everything they could under extremely difficult circumstances. So my comments aren't about them. This also isn't about the 4th of July. It's about what Newport Beach chooses to tolerate going forward. One of the things I've always loved about Newport is that it has a reputation for being proactive. A few years ago, I reached out to Councilman Joe Stapleton about a public safety concern. He responded immediately, followed through, and the problem was resolved. That's the Newport Beach I've always known, and you all have done an incredible job of helping with the homeless population. So I want to thank you for that. That's why what happened this year was so surprising. This didn't feel like something that suddenly appeared at 8 p.m. As many people have already said, many of us who spend time on the peninsula noticed the crowds actually changing as early as spring break. Last year's Fourth of July also raised serious concerns. whether the answer is enforcement event management or something else my hope is that we can recognize those changing dynamics early and respond proactively that's what newport has always done well and for me this was there was actually a personal cost my dog was struck in the crowd while i was trying to just take her outside the person who hit her wasn't trying to hurt her but the crowd was really dense for in the middle of everything on 24th so the crowd was really pushed into our area and that and act as simple as just like taking your dog out with something that caused injury. So my whole week last week was going to emergency vets and neurologist. After a lot of answered prayers, thankfully she's doing much better. I'm not sharing that because this is about my dog. I'm sharing that because it illustrates what conditions had become in our neighborhood. We couldn't even safely do something like take our dog outside. My hope is that next year, Newport sends a very clear message and a message going forward, not just through words, but through planning, enforcement, and accountability about what will and will not be tolerated here. That's how you protect the character of the city, and that's why so many of us cared enough to be here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Robert Schneider. I am a 12-year resident. I live down on 22nd Street, boardwalk, front row to perhaps the most beautiful beach in the world. Also front row to the mayhem. It was a very interesting year. A lot of people pointed out that this was very much premeditated. This was not a social media call went out and everybody flooded area this was something that obviously was planned a lot of people came in with fireworks that's something that they didn't do on the peninsula the time light timeline laid out by chief minor was reflected what we saw we have you know we're watching this entire thing from a second floor bird's-eye view but it did miss something that we observed that between the hours of seven and nine there was virtually no police presence in the entire parking lot Most of the police that we could see were way down the beach, about a mile down. And that's when everything started to really escalate. We called five times to the non-emergency as well as 911 because the crowd was getting unruly. I was standing on the porch with my hose to prevent the fireballs that were coming into our house from burning the house down. I also hosed off the crowd, so I was trying to help you guys a little bit. They didn't appreciate that very much, but it was quite scary. It was the first time that I've actually been fearful. It's always a fun time down at the beach, and I'm sure early in my years down there, I probably contributed a little bit to it. Sorry. No doubt, this is an incredibly difficult job that you guys do. However, much of this danger could have been avoided with much earlier action. 7pm marked the crescendo, but it was obvious starting around 3 or 4 o'clock that this was where the night was going. We could see it happening, we could see crowds of kids starting to cause problems already. Clearly intoxicated, open containers, backpacks, looking for trouble. We watched repeatedly officers right in front of our house warn the crowd again and again and again to disperse, to stop blocking the roadway with no consequences. And I have two small children and I've learned that counting to three without doing something about it doesn't actually have an impact with the behavior. So I encourage you guys take quicker action on on these these unruly teenagers. And I think they'll they'll stop doing things with you when you actually respond. Finally, I just wanted to shout out to Public Works because by 630 in the morning, we were sitting on our porch drinking coffee, thank God, nothing burned down. And it looked like nothing had happened the night before. So appreciate you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

My name is Tina Babajanians. I live right in front of the West Ocean from a parking lot, and you guys have heard from everyone. So I'll just say that I'd like to be a part of the solution. I'd love to form a peninsula public safety and events task force made up of residents, business owners, property owners, renters, and other stakeholders who live down on the peninsula who love the community so that we can be a resource to you guys i know your resources are not infinite i know you guys have budgets and i can't imagine the overtime you're paying so i don't know who i have to talk to to let you know that i'm serious but i would happily lead that um if you guys are interested and if people here want to get my information we can you know gather up some people and just let you know what we see we see the patterns um spring break was a big indicator and i emailed mayor lauren and uh councilman stapleton of everything that i saw during spring break i sent them videos and it was the same crowd just over a course of a week and there were no fireworks involved but I was not surprised by the 4th of July, given what we saw during spring break and just kind of the escalation of the behavior. It's the same. It was Arizona. It was Nevada. We heard them all week long because of where we live. We just look down and everyone's there. And we saw the cops drive the kids off the street during spring break. So my point being... I'd like to participate in any way I can, so if I could send an email or something and work with you guys, that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor Kleinman and city council members. My name is Gary Cruz. I appreciate the comments from the short-term rental president of that association. In fact, I think he's someone you should listen to. I'm disappointed that some of the suggestions that he made to you weren't taken to heed. I'm not here to blame short-term rentals. I'm just saying that they are a contributing factor amongst many factors that you've heard. Short-term rentals are a problem when they're densely concentrated like they are on the peninsula. In fact, Newport Island where I live was becoming more and more congested with them. And we as a small community banded together and worked with the city council and city staff to get a presentation in front of the California Coastal Commission, our primary, our benchmark was to get it so a host had to be present there for a short-term rental. And we were told that they didn't want to put it in front of the Coastal. Fought us on it quite a bit, but eventually with the feeling that, well, there's no way Coastal Commission will pass that. Well, they passed it 10 to 1. And we got our community back. I'm not suggesting that that's the way everybody, all short-term rentals have to be handled. I'm only suggesting that the Coastal Commission will listen to you. And if you write something locally and it adjusts to the conditions, You've got a chance. Just don't say no. You have a chance. Now, I believe regarding short-term rentals, we have a few suggestions that I'd like to make. I believe that operators should have greater responsibility for guest conduct. I also believe that STR permits should be capped by the area, especially in the safety enhancement zone. We have some streets that there's maybe 12 homes and six short-term rentals. I also believe that the transit occupancy tax should be there to support our two neighborhoods where all the short-term rentals are. There are no short-term rentals in our one zones. It's all our two zones. So we're responsible. For it and we would like to see more resources given to code enforcement and police and things like that I don't even know how many code enforcements we have I also think that the city should do a better job of tracking and publicizing calls for service and We know about the number of citations, but we also know how difficult it is to get a citation. In order to get a citation, Lord knows how many calls for service there are. And even if there is a call for service, the damage is already done. The party's already over. We've already been inconvenienced. Also, one final comment. Thank you. The vision plan says that the city is primarily a residential community. I ask you to protect that.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello madam mayor council members. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity for me to be able to be here and share a few of my thoughts with you. I'm Denise Schuller. I'm a very proud resident of Newport Beach since the early 1970s. Love it here. I feel very blessed and we're very thankful to all of you on the city council for everything all year long that you do. In particular, I want to take this chance opportunity to thank two council members. That's Robin Grant, who I've gotten to know for quite a while, and my friend Michelle Bartow. I want to compliment you on your ability to be so professional, so gracious, and to listen to what we residents are saying. And I want to thank you for taking action when we share things with you. I also want to compliment Our police Department or Fire Department. And the lifeguards. The incident of the far forth. I didn't know you can direct your comments up here, but I think you thank you. Yeah, I didn't know I was going to get into that part, but. I just really saw everything that everybody else did. I felt really awful for all of you and all of our fire and our police and our lifeguards putting in all those hours, seeing the horses out there and everything. I want to compliment in particular the police department because I have gotten to know some of our wonderful police department people. I got to attend last fall the Citizens Academy, which was a remarkable experience, and I found 100% our police department is so awesome and so fantastic, and they all are so kind and supportive and professional, and you know what? They listen to us. They listen to us. And I'm very grateful for that. So thank you so much. I'm very blessed to have you. I'm blessed to be in Newport Beach with my mother and father bringing us down here in the late 1960s and being able to live here. And thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Kyla Wilner, and I'm a Newport Beach resident, as well as a responsible short-term rental owner and operator. I enforce the fire department's recommended maximum occupancy, not just at night, but at all times in my property. I check ID and make sure that my guests are 25 or older. You know, I follow all the rules. I wanted to point out a couple things. First of all, you mentioned that there's 1,500 short-term rental permits. There were only 30 Lugos. That's 2% of the total short-term rentals on the peninsula. So I don't know that the short-term rentals are as much of a problem as everyone is making them out to be. What about the college students that rent here for nine months or the year and have big parties with all of their friends? is someone checking those and and making sure that they're conforming to fire department regulations and and not having excessive amounts of people and someone else meant we know that a number of the the violators were from arizona do we know where they were staying were they staying in anaheim and being brought to newport beach or were they staying on the peninsula i i'm concerned that we're placing the blame in the wrong place not just because of you know my vested interest but if we don't get to the real root of the problem, then we're not solving it. So I urge you to look into where the kids that came from Arizona were staying, who was having all the parties that were a problem. I'm scared that, you know, I have a person check in my guests in person, but if someone is dishonest and doesn't follow the rules and I get a lugo, I can lose my livelihood. So that's very frightening when I'm trying to follow all the rules. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, board. My name is Kristen Jackson, and I am a Newport Beach Peninsula resident. Oh. Hi, I'm Kristen Jackson, and I'm a Newport Beach Peninsula resident. First, I'd like to sincerely thank all of our first responders for their incredible work protecting our city. We are deeply grateful for your dedication and sacrifice. I'm here tonight not only for myself, but on behalf of my fellow residents who live on the peninsula. My family was safely at home watching the fireworks until 9.30 p.m. when we received a call from a friend from the police department asking if we were okay. Until that moment, we had no idea how serious the situation at the pier had become. Friends of ours had left the area just 15 minutes earlier, but they became trapped at 20th Street at 7-11 for nearly four hours until... and unable to get out. That level of gridlock is deeply concerning. My greatest concern isn't for my own family. We likely could have found another way out with our four by four or even our boat if absolutely necessary. I'm here because I'm worried about our elderly neighbors young families, and anyone who doesn't have those options. If someone had suffered a medical emergency or needed to evacuate quickly, they could have been trapped with no way to receive help. Our Peninsula residents deserve a reliable emergency evacuation plan. We deserve safe access in and out of our neighborhood, especially during these big holidays. I'm asking our beloved city to take a hard look at what happened and make meaningful changes before the next big holiday. We can't wait until tragedy forces us to act out.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker please.

My name is Danielle Distel and I live in Newport Heights and I saw about 50 guys walking down from Costa Mesa by noontime. This is bar talk that this was a teen takeover and the city council knew in advance that something was going to happen and they didn't do anything. So I feel like you guys were complicit in some way with all of this. And this was civil unrest. It was organized. The kids, they're not kids. They were bused in from Arizona and Nevada, most of them. Some had guns. And you guys need to either step down or do your job. Amen. I'm from New York, and I thought to myself, you know, could this ever happen in the Hamptons? No, wouldn't happen. Not even close. How did you guys let this happen? That's it.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is Linda Delaney and I'm from Corona Del Mar. I think the common issue that a lot of people today are talking about is 4th of July. I'd like to open it up. It's 365 days of the year in the slice of heaven that we have created. Newport Beach is not just the peninsula. It's Big Corona. It's Balboa Island. How about Little Corona? How about China Cove? And actually, that's where I live. It's a small little community. I'd like to tell you a few things about what happened on 4th of July. And hopefully, we can use some things that other cities do. A solution. Let's just stop the influx of people coming into the community when it reaches a certain number. We have those track strips that you know how many cars come up and down a street. Let's start looking at how many cars are coming down Ocean Avenue, how many cars are going on Balboa Island. Stop the cars. If we had resident permits, you would stop the extra cars. You can stop Uber, you see the Uber sign, you can stop Lyft. We love having guests, but you can't take all the guests. The problems, the residents know. They start parking their cars on the street so that it doesn't give guests places to park. Big Corona closed how early on 4th of July? early. If we call the police department, we know where you are. You're on the peninsula. So we're all stranded, waiting for the peninsula to calm down. And perhaps, maybe, the dispatch person who answers the phone, and it would be really great if someone would say, I understand what you're saying, instead of, hold on, please. We'll get to you whenever we can. It's hard to hear that when you have people drunk on the street.

Please direct your comments up here. Thank you.

Sorry. Finally, if we stop the unloading at the beach and loading, you'll stop the cars. Make an area where they have to stop. Don't just let them come into the community. These residents love their homes. And if you don't allow them a place to go, it makes it very difficult to live in a community where it's just cars coming in every second. Last, my friends lived on 30th Street. When all the trauma started, they grabbed every piece of furniture, put it inside the house, and then went to the second floor and watched the mayhem. It's kind of sad to think they just bought a house in 2026 on 30th Street and watched chaos. Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Mayor Kleinman, council members. My name is Andrew Mason. I live on 14th Street. My wife and I are lifelong Newport residents, and we're in Costa Mesa for a while. It was our dream to get back down to the peninsula, and we're glad to be there. But I wanted to share a quick personal story about my experience on 4th of July with my two young kids. We found ourselves biking through the McFadden Square area and the alleyways around 6.30 in the evening and I saw a lot of very disturbing things. Violence, fights, helpless people being beat up and I was faced with a choice that I never thought I'd ever have to do with my own community which is do I stop and help someone who is being assaulted or do I keep going and protect my family? And that was really difficult and it's really stuck with me. And I really don't want to face that decision again in my city. So I'm encouraged by everyone here tonight. I know that everyone here is invested in our community. Our council is, our public safety officers are, our first responders. They deserve all of our respect and all of our commendation. And so with that, thank you all for listening to me. I know that we don't want this to happen again. I'm encouraged by what I hear. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor Kleinman and council members. My name is Nancy Scarborough. I'm a 20-year resident of Newport Beach, Newport Heights specifically. I have been involved in lots of committees and groups in Newport. I have two quick comments. One's a comment, one's a suggestion. One is that These kids had a great time. They were having a good time taking pictures. They got lots and lots of publicity. I don't think we should count on waiting till the next holiday or until next year. This could happen any weekend. It's happening in other cities in the middle of the week. So I think that we need to have a plan pretty quickly and then continue to evaluate. I know that you can't just come up with magic out of the air in hours, but I do think that we should not base our, our goal on next July, because I don't think we're going to make it that long. Second is, um, I was on the general plan update committee as such. I was the chair of the safety committee. There were several things that were discussed in that committee that never made it into the final draft. One of those was an update to the evacuation plan. The peninsula has a terrible evacuation plan in my opinion. And obviously it didn't work this weekend. So that probably needs to be updated. And then also, have suggested in the past and continue to suggest that we have a safety committee not just for the peninsula but for the entire city that wouldn't necessarily focus just on this event but we have other areas that are having problems we have fires in the Newport Coast we could have events happening anywhere in the city with active shooters, we could have tsunamis. I mean, there are just dozens of things. You guys are really busy. It wouldn't hurt to have a committee that represents other cities or other small communities within the city that could help filter ideas, vet things. brainstorm, come up with some of the ideas that have been here today. When you get a larger group of people talking, some of that stuff comes out. So I think that a suggestion would be to form a committee, an official committee like we have other committees. Laguna Beach just instituted this, and I haven't heard how it's going, but it's only like two or three weeks old. I don't know what they had to do to get this together, but I do think that's something we should talk about and consider. Thank you very much. And by the way, thanks to the police and fire. You guys did an amazing job in an untenable situation, so I appreciate that. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, good afternoon. Deborah Gubernick, Newport Beach. I have submitted a couple of letters to you all, and I really appreciate all of your hard work. It's not lost on me that sometimes this can seem like a thankless job if you're in public service and law enforcement. So thank you. It is not lost on us how hard you work, and we do appreciate that. I want to just say that one thing that we hear about short term rentals and I don't want this to be a blame game thing. Newport Beach has long been a gathering place and I love that it's a gathering place. I love that my family continues to gather here and I think that's something that makes it very special. But I think also if we watch the patterns of what we've been seeing in the past decade and we've lived here a little over a decade now, but Every year, the complexion of the city changes in these ebbs and flows of certain times when you know, for example, when Utah just got out of school or when Arizona just got out of school or when their fall break is or when their spring break is, you can start to see the patterns. There are ways that perhaps we could look at those patterns and do more to prepare. I think one thing that is really saddening me is that when I first lived here, Everybody on my street lived here too, and they were a neighbor and a friend. Whether they were renting long-term or whatever, they were still building this sense of community. What I've seen over the past several years is this, if you can't beat them, just join them mentality. I say that in terms of neighbors who decided, you know what, I'm just going to short-term rent my place. I can't deal with this anymore. I can't tolerate it anymore. On the same side of that, If you've got renters who are creating a problem, you get that if you can't beat them, join them. Hey, we'll just party too. Why don't we party? Then you get all the kids joining in on that too. Just a couple of things to think about is how we can gather this data and improve by looking at the patterns because I agree with others that it's not just a 4th of July type of scenario. I also think that tourism is so important. I acknowledge that. I acknowledge gathering is so important, but I don't think that we can make tourism or the gathering come at the expense of the residents here and of those of you that are working so hard to make this such a wonderful place to be. Thank you for all you do.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please. I want to thank the mayor and the council for all in all, you guys are doing a really great job. And I'm sure you knew that you were going to get this today, you know, everybody voicing their opinion, which, you know, they all have a right to do. My name is Martha Gewirtz. I moved here 27 years ago from San Marino. And before that, I'm a homeowner in Cronodomar. And before that, I used to come down with a girlfriend. We'd take our bikes down to the peninsula. Now back then, they had the super soakers, so I'd be riding along on my bike and all of a sudden I'd see somebody pumping up their super soaker and they would just completely soak me. And then I'd dry off and then somebody else would come along. Okay, basically that was harmless and good, clean fun, so to speak. And it's not that way anymore, unfortunately. And I think we have to clean up our own backyard, because these kids these days on their e-bikes, they're terrorizing people, they're going into CVS, riding through, you know, just going crazy. And in other situations in South County, they're holding the parents responsible for the children's behavior. So not everyone... was from Arizona and Nevada, there were a lot of kids that were acting up down there too. So that has to be, I think, addressed, the kids and what they're doing today and being allowed to go crazy on their bikes and do crazy things. But all in all, the cleanup was amazing. I know residents came to pavilions and helped clean up, and it was really great. And the emergency responders did a fantastic job. And you guys are doing a fantastic job. But, you know, social media has to be looked at. You might have one. I didn't hear. I came a little late. But you have to have more than a few people looking at what's going on because, you know, the assassination attempts, if they would have seen some of this stuff and the hateful rhetoric that people do on social media, I think things can be prevented. Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Kleinman and members of the council. My name is Walter Starr. First, let me thank the police and fire for an amazing job. And I am very pleased with the investigation that's gone on so far, but I think we need to be looking not merely at an internal investigation, but bringing in an outside expert to look at what happened to look at what the police knew and when they knew it what the police didn't know what they missed what more intelligence resources could have done for them what responses we took what we didn't do that we should perhaps be thinking of doing next time The situation is too serious, in my view, for a merely internal look at what happened and trying to do it again. We need to learn from national best practices. And then if I could just comment on this short-term rental issue. I don't think we should be looking at doing anything to the short-term rental rules until we know how many of those folks arrested were staying in short-term rentals. And if the answer is a relatively small proportion, then we shouldn't be penalizing those who are short-term renters. Thank you.

I just want to say thank you, Madam Mayor, for the strong leadership, city council, for the strong support. Chief Minor, thank you for being out there on the 4th of July when you could have been with your family like other chiefs were. You took time to really hold everything down. Also to our new deputy chief, Randall Bissellet, thank you guys for the support that you gave your team. it's not easy to arrest 400 people you it takes away from actually having support it's about 100 hours we're taking away from actually being able to support the rest of the team but i think that you guys did a phenomenal job if it wasn't for social media we probably would have woke up sunday morning without knowing anything took place um it's not new to newport that these incidents take place uh fourth of july has always been very rowdy in town it's not something that you can blame just the city council the council did their best um i think we learned from every experience and it just makes us a better city altogether i know that some of you guys have pointed fingers to leadership i think leadership has done a phenomenal job from top down thank you guys

Hello, my name is Nate Capra, and I appreciate everyone's time here tonight. I also have to show my appreciation for our law enforcement and all the other agencies, as well as our first responders. I also want to take a moment to recognize all the other public-facing employees who had to work that day, particularly the people at pavilions that night and the next day. I do want to quickly mention that I do have a relatively successful side business as a TikTok personality doing geeky Dungeons and Dragons things, but I just say that to point out that we're not all hooligans. And good Lord, we're not all 17. I'm not even 17 times two. But I understand in the room right now, we have a lot of people with some really strong feelings on all sorts of different factors that played a role or could have played a role in what happened on the 4th. But what I love the most about what's happening right now is we're in a room full of people who love Newport Beach. And I'm one of those people. We have 355 days. Less than that if we consider spring break and Memorial Day. But the clock is ticking. Nobody sells itself like Newport Beach. Having worked with Visit Newport Beach and California, Newport Beach knows how to tell the country and the world that this is the place to come. So what I ask is while we're spending time, time we need to spend focusing on how to prevent the chaos that took place on the 4th, we devote just a little bit of energy, and I know I'm not allowed to look behind me right now, just pretend that I am, because it needs all of you people. that we have a little bit of a conversation about what our ideal Newport Beach 4th of July looks like. And it might be idealistic, it might be a pipe dream, the money may not be there, the manpower may not be there, but if we try to devote some energy into Building that kind of Newport Beach holiday and selling it to the people letting them know that this is a place for bike rides and hot dogs and Balboa bars and sand castles and it is safe and we maximize traffic as efficiently as possible then Maybe there's just a chance that this becomes less desirable of a place for that kind of behavior Thank you.

Thank you You're it Oh, no. Okay. Ex-mayors breathing down your neck. Go ahead, please.

Cyrus Ojade, we appreciate the safety measures and the efforts that law enforcement has done. However, it's hard for me to believe that this is going to fully solve the problem. About 15 years ago, in 2011, there was the U.S. Open. There was a huge concert, and the result of these young people gathering, I believe there was a riot or some kind of disorder that happened. So we try to stop this, we try to ban this, limit this, but apparently the problem is the problem just spreads everywhere else. And yes, I do believe parents should be held accountable. But this is not so much of a legal issue, this is more of a cultural issue. And we're seeing a decline in parenting over the last several generations. A lot of these younger people are not as productive, not as ready for the real world. They're less likely to start families. It's something we gotta look at, of how they appear, how they talk, how they dress. We're experiencing a massive cultural decline from the last several decades. And speaking of short-term rentals, ask yourself, would these things be as needed as much if hotels weren't as expensive? Think about it. Because if you allow construction of more hotels, the need for short-term rentals will come down. Now I want to change the subject a little bit. And by the way, a lot of people live here, they pay a premium to live here to get away from this kind of problems. It's simple. It's why the cost of housing is living. They're willing to pay for it. But in order to address that, I heard several months ago you guys approved a high-rise around this area. I'm very delightful that a high-rise got approved and I think we should have more high-density housing as time goes on because supply and demand means more supply. California is the most difficult state in the U.S. to build up and out. Hence why the population numbers have been changing the way they have been. I think Newport Beach and many cities have done a mistake switching their grid street system like they had in the old days in the Balboa era and converted into this unattractive arterial road cul-de-sac. The system is an utter sham. Just a good history lesson. This is causing a lot of the congestion problems we have. And just food for thought, I've been a resident of Laguna Niguel for nine years. I feel you guys, I know what it's like, but currently I live between the Palms Hotel and the Rio Hotel, and I can tell you this humidity is kind of getting to me. But anyway, thank you so much. Best of luck.

Nancy Gardner.

I hope we will take this as an opportunity, take a step back and look at it more macro in terms of safety overall, as we've seen, it can be very difficult to get off the peninsula. It can be very difficult to get, drive our streets in Corona at the best of times, think of it in an emergency. And again, look at our whole evacuation safety issues, not just for the 4th of July, but for the city as a whole all year round.

Next speaker, please. good evening my name is sandy manage newport beach resident legal liveaboard resident part of the liveaboard community of about a hundred families that reside in the peninsula area and what i have brought to share with you this folder represents 347 emails that i personally have made to code enforcement as the eyes and ears of the harbor as a live aboard since 2018. That's what this represents, 347 contacts. So the people that are asking for a safety committee, you have one in place. as the Live Aboard community. I have a very lengthy story that I can share about some of the things that we've done to serve and rescue the residents of Newport Beach, but I don't want to take the time away from the Peninsula residents and what we went through on the 4th of July. What I would like to mention is that an ideal Newport Beach holiday for the 4th of July, I can share an ideal 4th of July with you because I am a bartender at angels baseball stadium where i was working on the fourth of july and we had a fabulous night with no fights and everyone said so and i left angels baseball stadium as a bartender drove home to the peninsula and got stuck in the middle of a riot so what i'm asking for that I've lived aboard for a long time and there was a change in this city regarding security in 2018 prior to that where my mooring is located at there was an Orange County Sheriff's Harbor patrol boat overnight every night 2018 came and that stopped. We want that back. I don't know what it's going to take to get it, but criminals notice. I have a very lengthy stories to share with you here that will tell you about the The lack of consequences for stealing multimillion-dollar vessels from the peninsula, and someone's going to be released in six months for that crime, was what was shared at the most recent Harbor Commission meeting. So I will end with that. I want to thank the officers that did serve you guys. It was a war zone. I drove into it. My son-in-law is in security. I would have been so horrified if it would have been him. And we love you guys. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Everybody. My name is Jordan Carter. I've lived in Newport Beach for about three years, so I haven't lived here as long as some of the people that have spoken, but I've lived here long enough to know that I love the place I live. The first thing I did on July 5th was head straight down to the pavilion's parking lot, where I joined about 40 passionate community members with leaf blowers, brooms, and trash bags all on their own. I personally picked up about four bags worth of trash just in that parking lot, not to mention the countless bags that the volunteers spontaneously picked up that day. These were not the people trashing that same parking lot and jumping on top of the trolley. These people showed up because they care about the place that they live and the place where they get their groceries to feed their families. I was amazed at the pride that these citizens had for their local community. I think short-term rentals do undermine the sense of community that is clearly alive and well in Newport Beach. And every unit that sits empty for countless weeks in a year is a home that can be used for a family that contributes to their community every day of the year, just like those people that cleaned up the parking lot. You mentioned investigating the short-term rentals at the beginning of this meeting, but you did not expand on it. I believe this deserves serious attention. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, Carmen Roson. I live in the Balboa Peninsula since 1989, different areas. On the 4th, the first thing I did in the morning was to attend the 4th East Horse Family Parade. And on my way back home, around Marina Park I live, I already saw at around 11 a.m. a large gathering around 30th Street on the beach. All of them, you know, early 20s. And I commented to my husband, I haven't seen this in prior years. So my question also will be for the police department. What, when you have a large gathering, what starts constituting to them that we need to watch it? Because it was already brewing. the problem to come later in the day at that time. So maybe we should have checkpoints that we set up already earlier in the day with breath analyzers, checking backpacks for firework or alcohol and so forth. I think that's something that can be implemented. Also, I have the question where all the drones used during the Fourth of July. A person mentioned, well, it's not just the peninsula. We have other areas in the city. I believe we have seven drones. Can they be used to monitor the different areas and see if we have problems? And large gatherings. And again, when do you start trying to separate the people and make the gatherings smaller? Regarding the transportation, yes, there were many comments that were people parking. The lady from Newport Heights said they were parking in the Costa Mesa area and coming down to the peninsula. I suggest that on the 4th of July, do not have the trolley. If you already have plenty of people coming, let's make it more difficult to have more people coming to the peninsula. We can enjoy the trolley the rest of the weekends during the summer. If you're going to set up Uber drop-off locations, maybe they should be in areas that are where people have to make an effort to get to the peninsula. Regarding TikTok, it was mentioned that there is going to be a partnership with law enforcement to shut down the post. If you look at the flyer supposedly that was done for Newport Beach team takeover and the one that we have now for Huntington Beach, it seems that both of them were posted by the same person, the same account. How about shutting down the account and making the account no activated for six months or whatever? And maybe we need to start contacting legislators to make TikTok and any other social media accountable for these posts and taking more proactive action. Regarding the shortened lodging units, some residents mentioned, oh, I know about this house that have only teenagers. Well, code enforcement has a phone number and an email. I have called and emailed them many times about many issues and they do reply.

uh so take action thank you thank you next speaker please good evening mayor and council my name is wade womack thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your commitment to taking a deep dive into what happened on the fourth um just a few points first of all One big thank you to the police department for handling what otherwise is an extremely difficult situation and showing great restraint. And with the permission of the mayor, on behalf of the citizens, may we offer them a round of applause for our sworn officers. Thank you, ma'am. As a retired law enforcement officer, just one suggestion for the police. I know you're going to be looking at everything next year. I would say arrest early and arrest often. Figure out which kids are bringing the booze and the fireworks. Hook them up at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., whenever it is. Get them in that paddy wagon and get them out of here. And the other kids will see it. I'd like to express a little concern about the messaging from the city. Around six months ago, the not in Newport message was sent out. And I'm afraid that that had unattended consequences. It drew a lot of attention to us. And in my opinion, there's been some politicizing of the law enforcement. And it's concerning when the city calls down the media to tell everyone that the city is on fire, when in fact, up to now, it had not been on fire. Things were pretty darn bad. reasonable for decades. The message not in Newport is extremely negative in connotation. And I think it simply says, don't come here. And I think that's not what we got in this situation. So I would just ask, work with the PD. If you've ever seen their critical incident videos, it's meticulous. It is perfected. You could tell they practice it over and over and over. Any law enforcement messaging should be perfect. So I would ask, please don't politicize these things. It's making it a bigger thing than it should be. I think if the police department does what they've done in past generations, operate discreetly, efficiently, effectively, we can get back on the right track. Thank you.

Hello, Mayor Kleinman and City Council. My name is Scott McFetters and I live on Newport Island.

And I just wanted to say that, you know, STRs, short-term rentals, are a big problem, and it needs to be addressed, and I think that's what I'm hoping, and I think a lot of us are hoping, happens. It's not just a Fourth of July issue, it's an ongoing issue all the time. It's consistent with everything that happens, whether it's parties, traffic, people coming in and out all the time. And it's just a problem that needs to be addressed that I think we can kind of find a solution. We did on Newport Island, we were able to work with city council, Aaron, the rest of the crew to get owner occupied on Newport Island so that we basically eliminated any problems that we had before. So there's ways to do it and there's just way too many of them and they're not all great managers and they're not all great owners. So hopefully we can get a solution for everybody so it's more livable for everybody and everybody can get a little quiet enjoyment down there. What I really want to say, too, is on the peninsula, we always look at it as where the outpost and the rest of the city is the fort. So we have to have good working relationship with different members of the city council. You know, they come and they go, but you got to keep working with everybody that's there at the time and make sure everything works. And they really work with you when you contact them. So if you have an issue with a not maybe it's not a short term rental, maybe you have a party house that somebody owns or whatever. They work with you. They make introductions to the police, and everything gets solved. The police are unbelievable in this city as far as on a day-to-day basis. They got overrun on the 4th of July, but every other day that you call, they're here immediately. They do what we need to do. and you get a good working relationship in your area with them so that you can deal with the different problems that you might have. Like I said, the peninsula is like being in an outpost, and you need to have people to help you so that you can have a quality of life. So thank you, everybody. Appreciate you. Appreciate you guys all the time. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

I think I'm the last. I want to address the short-term rental issue just for a bit. My name is Ron Anderson. My wife and I have owned a cottage down at the end of the peninsula since 1997. Regarding the short-term rentals, I'm curious how many people in this room are here living at Newport Beach because your families rented a house during a summer sometime in your life. And you found what a wonderful place it is. Beach properties from coast to coast are famous for rentals. I think, though, that those of us that do own properties could probably be a little more responsible. Anybody in the room that does have one, I would suggest you get cameras on the outside. Make sure you get a responsible property manager. And live there yourself for a while. Get to know your neighbors. Get to know them well enough to where you're comfortable with them calling you in the middle of the night when somebody's not participating in your house. And remember, it is your house. And it's your responsibility to take care of that and the neighborhood.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone online?

Yes, we do have several participants on Zoom. For Zoom participants, if you wish to provide public comment, please use raise hand feature and unmute yourself. Zoom participants will be identified by name or last four digits of the phone number. And the first one is Brad Granlund.

Please go ahead. Let's go to the next one.

And we have council of a Tuesday.

That American you hear me we can. OK, terrific. Well, good evening, Madam Mayor, my fellow colleagues. I am Joe Stapleton, City Councilman, District 1. I do apologize for not being there in person tonight. I am on a planned trip here in Italy where it's coming up on 3 AM. My thanks to our staff for making it possible for me to participate tonight because this is too important of a topic to miss. To the residents who came out tonight and to everyone who reached out to us on Council, this past week, thank you. I personally responded to every single message I've received. Your voices are being heard and they're helping drive this process to our police, our fire, our lifeguards, our public works crews, the OC sheriffs and all regional partners, our city manager and all departments, thank you. What you did under incredibly difficult and dangerous circumstances was extraordinary. The 402 arrests made that night were appropriate And I know I speak on behalf of the entire City Council and I say we want to see full prosecution for every one of them. Now tonight is the first step. This is a study session. It is the beginning of a serious planning process and I want to be clear that we are committed to getting it right. we're talking about here isn't about decisions that our residents made or our staff made or even our city leadership made that went awry it's about unlawful unruly and ultimately criminal actions made by people who chose to cause mayhem what we experienced was unacceptable on multiple levels traffic was gridlocked families were standing in their cars with nowhere to go unruly crowds Almost like I heard tonight, 97% from out of town. They overtook the peninsula in ways we've never seen before. If you have a short term rentals in area contributed to the problem, and certainly need to be part of the conversation going forward. We also have to be smarter about social media. I was happy to see TikTok present in the meeting this evening. TikTok mobilized thousands of people in a number of hours. That same power needs to work for us. Monitoring platforms in real time must become a part of our infrastructure. I also wanted to highlight the Pavilion's grocery store location. That property sits at a very strategic point on the peninsula, and I believe partnering with that property owner to think creatively about how that space could serve public safety and crowd management is worth serious exploration. I know we've already begun conversations with ownership and management at that location. We talked about the fines we've tripled the fines. Those current penalties don't seem to be sufficient. Maybe they're not a deterrent. I don't know. We've got to continue looking at meaningful changes to that and maybe match the severity of what we saw. Finally, I'm committed to bringing the district bringing directly to our district 1 residents. We are going to hold a community town hall in the very near future and real conversations about what happened, what changes are coming, and how we can plan better together for 2027 and beyond. Newport Beach has always set a high standard, and tonight we need to ensure that we meet that standard next year. I really do apologize for not being there in person, but look forward to finding a solution and getting it right. Thank you.

And I will try to call Brad Granlund again. Please unmute yourself.

Seems like the callers are having difficulty unmuting.

Is that on our end?

Caller, if you can unmute yourself Is it just one caller? And we can't unmute on our end? Okay. We'll go ahead and conclude the public comment portion, bring it back up here. Any of my council colleagues have anything to add? Councilmember Grant.

Just some brief comments. I want to thank everyone, our public safety, our city staff, and everyone here who's commented and everyone who over the last week or so has sent us important messages via email, text message, phone calls. It's all appreciated. Obviously, this is just the start of our inquiry and we have a long road ahead to make sure that We recognize all of this information, very important reports and shared information from our community, and that we're able to work together with, as Councilmember Stapleton mentioned, additional comment from the Peninsula in a town hall and more emails and letters that people send to us over the coming weeks and bring all of that information together and take the strong advice of our public safety officials to make sure that we are working forward towards a really safe and family-friendly Newport Beach 365 days a year on the 4th of July, on every holiday, but every single day of the year. We've had some important information come from the community about safety enhancement zones, Exit from the impaired community it varies of our community that are much much tighter Evacuation routes all these things need to be considered. This is a time This is an opportunity for us to Really take a hard look at what we already have in place and how we can make those items and maybe other things better I really do appreciate all of the strong ideas that came out from the community and we can really enhance those I guess I'll just turn it over to my colleague Michelle Bardo because I know that she will have some important things to share as well.

Thank you. I hope they do come off as important. But obviously what happened on the 4th of July and what people experienced is unacceptable. I'm not going to pretend that it's the other anything else than that. But it's also not the whole story. I was on and off the peninsula the whole day and early the next morning and the way our police and fire and lifeguard teams are responding. And next morning, early on the peninsula, I was going to go help with the cleanup and it was already done at 730 in the morning. So well done. Thank you. We go to that pavilions a lot. In a single day, the real story is all of the mutual aid, the 17 agencies that we had, the hundreds of medical aids and rescues, the 400 arrests, that was really good work. We planned, and we can always make another plan, and I'm incredibly grateful for everything that everyone did. But we can do more, and I'd love to see some things out of this study session. One, of course, a full analysis of everything and what things we maybe missed. to maybe have that looked at by an outside agency who does crowd control. So many, if you've been around the world and you've been at the end of a soccer match, these sorts of crowd events are pretty common in other countries that hold big soccer events. And I think that it's just something that we have to accept as the status quo as it's happening more and more places throughout. the country, not just here and not just on that day. And we looked at the stats. We did have a much more successful result here than in other places and in places that that happened to, especially in some of our neighboring cities in previous months. I think their lack of enforcement and arrest definitely contributes to this rising trend. So again, thank you for your proactive action. I think we need to work on a real-time monitoring of social media. When I was on the school board, we always worked to, you know, schools always have threat assessments and things coming in, and I think we're maybe not used to that for these sorts of events, and that just needs to be our status quo that we expect. If we're having holiday events, we just kind of watch that coming in and work with our sheriff's department and agencies. PROACTIVELY. I HEARD AFTER THE FACT FROM SEVERAL PEOPLE I KNOW IN ARIZONA THAT A LOT OF THE TEENAGERS SAID, OH, YEAH, WE HEARD IT WAS COMING FROM SOME REALLY BAD KIDS. IT WAS OUT THERE IN THE COMMUNITY AMONG THE TEENAGERS AND SOME OF THE NEIGHBORHOODS WERE PLANNING ON GOING OUT THERE. And then I'd love to expand kind of our visual eyes on the beach. You know, there's lots of cameras already there surfing and things like that. I think we maybe could use that. We have drones, but we could maybe tap into kind of our existing infrastructure to use that to our advantage. You know, eyes on the sky. They have AI for tracking, you know, waves and things like that. We could use that for crowds and crowd temperature and crowd control.

And then just a couple more.

We talk about the difficulty in getting a hold of people, and I think one thing that we could do that might be a little innovative would be geofencing emergency communications, so that if people are in specific areas, they're getting these alerts, you know, kind of like those amber alerts you get on your phone, but related to your different areas. um and then last i think one thing i heard from so many people over and over again and here tonight as well was how can we help we have our community emergency response team volunteers that's kind of a blueprint we know how to use maybe we expand how we use that and use those volunteers not so much for crowd control and things like that because i wouldn't not be a good idea, but more things like fireworks and streets and just train our people who want to be involved in ways to help in ways that are neighborly and non-dangerous, but offer our officers and first responders that additional support. So again, I don't think these kinds of events are going to go away and I don't think they're going to be confined just to the peninsula and just to the 4th of July. So being proactive and innovative and approaching the world more as a

dangerous and we live in our little bubble here and i think we need to just know that once they're a vacation destination there's going to be people who are going to come and try and take that away from us thank you councilmember weigand yes thank you mayor uh appreciate my uh colleagues his comments uh and previously mentioned um this is a tough tough place for us all to be i appreciate all the members of the public to come out and voice your concerns and See you saw things firsthand you saw things on social media you experienced the same thing that all of us experienced in the frustrations throughout the day I was proud to set up a parade for over a thousand plus people and overshores for the Mariners community and to then see later in the evening some of the stuff that was happening was disappointing and frustrating to witness and I think there's a lot, though, that we can look to from our police department and our fire department, including lifeguards that were on the towers at the time, and that yes things happened things got out of control but we were prepared and the men and women of our police department and our fire department and our municipal operations department they were prepared for something like that happening and so when it happened they were able to address and assess and take action and so that action was appreciated and my mom and dad both were police officers and employees of the of newport beach pd and Fourth of July has been an issue my whole life. My dad was an undercover officer at one point, and he reported back that all it would take was one bottle to be thrown into the crowd, and mayhem would occur. So this is a tinderbox. It's always been a tinderbox on those days, and thankfully this day, while it resulted in fireworks and mayhem by youth and out of control crowds. It didn't result in any major crimes. There wasn't any rapes or sexual assaults or home invasion robberies or burglaries. Yes, all of the above that happened was and I'm very upset that that's what happened in the city. But I think that staff did an amazing job of planning and preparing for an incident that would occur. But could improvements be made? I think all of us can agree that they can and that our staff can agree that it can. Does that require more communication with Oh kayak, you know our? Assessment agency at the Sheriff's Department. I think we had a lot of Intel going into the day knowing what was going to happen But maybe there's there's more There's been a lot of discussion about just shutting down the peninsula and closing down our entire streets and a part of me grows concerned with that because we've seen higher-ups closed down our beaches and that's not something the 4th of July stands for. So we have to be smart about the approach, and I appreciate all the public's comments about that particular issue of closing down the peninsula, but we have to be cognizant of what that day represents and what we can do as a council, as staff, as a community to band together to allow for those who really do want to come to the beach and recreate. to get to do that. So I want to pay close attention to that particular issue, but maybe there are streets that can close down. Maybe oceanfront lot can be closed down. Maybe there's patterns of traffic that can be created to, one, address some of the comments related to evacuation routes, but also to prevent any type of behavior that's unbecoming. We've done it in the past. But things have changed. We used to do it up in the 30s and 40 streets, and there was all these barricades and closed roads. But we didn't see any issues up off of that part of town. We saw it more at the pier up through 36th Street. So what in the game plan can we change for the future? I think that's where our leaders will come in and help us see and map out particular strategies that could help determine what would be beneficial and what wouldn't be. Because if you close a certain section down, it's possible that you've now spread it to another part of town. So there's a cause and effect relationship here a lot of times. So I think being cognizant of an action plan that changes and alters completely might have ramifications for something else. there's a lot of work to do uh i know that the staff like they always do will rise to the challenge and to the occasion um i do want to think municipal operations i was down there the next day body surfing with my son at a street we rode our bikes down and we rode the whole peninsula back up back to get home i didn't see one evidence of any type of destruction or anything that i was watching on my phone late earlier in the the previous day so i The fact that we are able to get volunteers off the street, people came to, you know, arm to arm with our city staff to clean the town up. That's remarkable. I don't think that happens in many cities. And so kudos to municipal operations and public works. And I'm sure utilities, Mark, your team helped out with that, too. So just a lot of facts here of preparation that went into this that It gets lost in the mayhem, but the preparation did occur and that our staff was very prepared to, one, respond when it got out of hand and two, to clean up what was there. um looking forward to a lot of different things to happen we have to discuss with the coast commission at some point what our ability is to close down either certain parts of town certain parking lots certain streets maybe even a section of beach i don't know that that is something we need to have a discussion with the coast commission because coastal access is the number one thing that Hand strings us from allowing us to do some of these activities. So I know that the mayor has already been reaching out to the Coastal Commission to set up a meeting I think that's an important place that we can at least find out what we can and cannot do for the future and You know, the social media, I'd love to have a conversation with TikTok, with Instagram, with Snapchat, all these different providers to see is there a way that we can do some type of proactive work. PREVENTIONS OR ANY TYPE OF, AS COUNCILMEMBER RIVARTA SAID, GEOFENCING, YOU KNOW, EITHER TRYING TO LOCATE THAT OR TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH THAT. SO I THINK THERE'S A LOT OF CONVERSATION I THINK WE COULD HAVE WITH THAT. My mom calls me every single day frustrated with fireworks, and I get it. It's disturbing to your animals. It's disturbing to your peace and well-being. But a lot of these fireworks are being purchased out of state legally. There's operations 365 in some of these states. And as we saw in Arizona, they just are driving on the 10. They can scoop up whatever they want. It's completely legal. But I can't. see police doing a checkpoint and stopping every car searching for fireworks. It's a constitutionality issue. So, you know, is there a way to identify fireworks? Do we need more dogs that smell it out? I don't know if that's even something we could do. But, you know, there's got to be some potential to look into it. We got a lot of emails from folks about fireworks. And then the one item I do want to just touch on is short-term rentals. I get it, there's a lot of good operators and there's also a lot of bad operators. So I'd love to have this council at least start by forming an ad hoc committee. And I don't know if I need to put that in my next report out for ad hocs, but I'd love to, or for A1 items, but I'd love to see an ad hoc. formed on short-term rentals issues had come up in the past about them and I'm not sure if we were able to based on the Coastal Commission's opinion at the time which is I believe changed change and reduce our number we have 15 1,550 of them. Is that too many? I'm not here to judge that right now, but I think this council or whoever we form this committee with, we can look at, do we have an abundance of them? And does that need to be reduced based on those that are offenders that lose their license? And then should we continue to curb that number? And then increasing the minimum night stays. Right now, we only have a ban on one night stays for short term rentals. Should we go after the twos or the threes or the fives or the sevens? I don't know again. These are discussions that we should have a thoughtful thought process and do we want to take dates between spring break Memorial Day through Labor Day specifically around the fourth of July and require that those be increased so that's something to discuss and And then transferability. I know that that was a topic that had come up in the last previous round of discussing short-term rentals Should we address transferability and then right now? I believe that the transit occupancy tax is Required every two years But I'm looking to see maybe if that should be quarterly should we have an online system that allows for those to report that and And then a security plan. All of our bars and restaurants down there have security plans. So it would be nice to have a security plan for short-term rentals. We have FUSIS, which allows our police department to tap in through a series of cameras to see and have eyes and ears in the sky. So I would think that perhaps short-term rental should be required to have some type of cameras that could look out into the public, not into viewpoint of personal privacy, but out onto the public-facing areas, especially on the peninsula. That would have been really helpful, I think, one, to identify those that were causing trouble and then allow officers to see that real time. And then lastly, there is a trash issue. It's a commercial business in a residential neighborhood, but they get the same rights as a residential when it comes to their trash fees, and other parts of town have to actually pay. So I think it would be fair to discuss that. And then this discussion of the remote check-in, I'd love to readdress that. You know, sorry, I rambled on a lot of stuff to say well, I heard a lot of comments But I can guarantee you that this council is is looking to the future to do our best arson I know our staff is and appreciate the time councilmember Weber Thank you to my other council colleagues all keep this relatively simple I

Our Newport Beach Police Department absolutely handled business on the 4th, period, end of discussion. As someone who was born and raised here, I've spent several decades down on the peninsula on the 4th of July. And I thank my lucky stars that we did not have social media back in the day. Both before I had kids and with my kids, we would go down there. Social media has a way of highlighting the chaos and no doubt has it forever changed our youth and essentially the world. But I think the more important story today is what happened because of our first responders. So our officers alongside the fire department, lifeguards, and all of the mutual aid faced an incredibly difficult situation. They rose to the occasion and they took control. They restored order, made more than 400 arrests, And I think the most important component is they prevented any major injuries, accidents or other tragedies. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of preparation, dedication and truth be told, the outstanding leadership of their department. So I do want to just do a quick shout out to my utilities, public works. I can't tell you the countless messages from people down on the peninsula on Sunday morning who sent me a note saying that if social media did not exist, they would actually have not a clue as to what happened that entire weekend. So kudos to you guys. Amazing that our team, our city was pristine. Thank you. Thank you. I could not be more proud or more grateful for every single man and woman who stepped up to protect our city. One of the things I love most about Newport is that we're always going to be looking for ways to evolve and be better. But let's give credit where credit's due. Our police department showed exactly why they are the best. They protected our city, demonstrated immense resilience in the face of a difficult situation, and the resounding theme is you made Newport Beach very proud. So to every single one of our officers, our lifeguards, our firefighters, and every single member of the outside agencies that came to help, Thank you so very much. Newport Beach is a safer place because of every single one of you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, it was so great to see most of you stay through our comments on this one. And it is wonderful to hear the concerns. That's why we're here. I think it starts out because that's how we actually get here, because we're concerned. We're concerned about our city, how amazing it is, and what do most of us want? We want it to stay amazing. I was given a really special gift on 4th of July, and that was that the big Canyon fireworks were postponed because we were going to take a relaxing 4th of July and stay at our house here. Instead, we went to stay at our beach house on 30th Street from Thursday to Monday with our three-year-old daughter, myself and my wife, and our restaurant operating. So it's great to hear the perspective of some that had issues, some that had been armchair generals. I believe we had one gentleman from Huntington that needed to comment on what was happening here. But there were some of us that were right there the entire time. For five days, we saw what we did. And what we did was unbelievable. It was amazing because since 1979, and I hate to admit that up here, I have been down there for most Fourth of Julys, enjoying in the revelry, the rambunctiousness that has always been what Newport is. Some people have talked about closing the streets in the 80s and they also forget what that meant. Actually shootings, stabbings, real problems, but social media doesn't perpetuate those ideas. So what happened this time? Yeah, the most people we have ever seen in the history of Newport Beach descended on eight blocks of our beaches. And what happened? Well, with one of the greatest and most amazingly run coordinated efforts to stop it, remove them, and get it fixed within hours. So much so, anecdotally, a great friend of mine that was staying at his beach house on 32nd, they left at 4 p.m. to go watch the fireworks in the upper bay. They took their boat, they went out, they came back at 10 o'clock, and I called him and asked if everything was good. And he asked me, why, what's going on? I get it. There was a lot of problems, a lot of difficulty, especially when you're browbeaten with these things. When you see them firsthand and you're saying, this isn't my city, this isn't something we would do. But the reality is not in the visual stimulus that we have so many media companies here ready to promote. I talked to a lot of them after the fact, and you know what? Nothing was published about the reality. Everything that they like to publish is about creating something, creating the fear, creating the problem, creating what's wrong, not the success, not that no one was hurt, not that no property was destroyed. Our restaurant was running on 30th the entire weekend at 10.30. We laughed. We saw people going by. Yeah, there was turmoil and problems. I get it. I also got up in the morning and watched at 7 a.m. a car show at the pavilion's parking lot. Beautiful old cars being pulled in at 7 a.m. Wow. Super odd considering the entire thing was destroyed according to all social media. So here's what I'd like to say. While I was sitting there watching what can only be said as one of the most amazing responses I could imagine in my life, watching helicopters run overhead, and don't get me wrong, I was surprised I could get my three-year-old to sleep during that time. That's why I typically don't sleep on the peninsula, but we enjoy it very much. Wow. Wow. And a huge amount of the comments we've gotten from the rest of the city need to be addressed as well. Peninsula Point, I get it. You guys couldn't get off from the parties. That's good, but the fireworks weren't going in the old hours. The Balboa Pier was not what it used to be. Actually, it was calm up there. The biggest issue was traffic. There were some issues in the port streets where some kids were rebel-rousing, which is a word I'm trying to bring back now since apparently it's the 1920s again. But we're in a point where I don't know if we could be more proud. And Nate, thank you. You didn't give yourself enough credit. The ferry kept running to make sure people had access. Everyone wants to hear about evacuation plans and all of these things and the problems we're having. We are a public beach, and we're doing our best to make sure that it is as clean, beautiful, and pristine as possible. I'd love to say that we have control over it, but the irony is that we get to be stewards of something that is amazing. But we don't own it and we don't control it. Even though I get it, every resident here would want to. And don't get me wrong, if that was the option to put a gate on the peninsula or blow the bridge, for my money, I'd be right there. And that'll probably go into a poor quote somewhere and probably screw us with the Coastal Commission. But look, the reality is this. This has been Newport for as long as I can remember, and that was late 70s. This has been the greatest response I have ever seen to something that was unprecedented. It wasn't people driving on. It wasn't e-bikes coming on. It was people walking, walking on to the peninsula. So for everyone that has an issue, a complaint, a concern, I get it. But can you be prepared to at least take a step back and realize the unprecedented and most amazing job that happened in order to control something that hasn't happened in the history of our city? That these officers, every single one of them, because that is the actual truth, Every single Newport beach police officer was out there. In addition to 17 other cities. And so when we talk about plans, we talk about ideas, what we should do better next time we're there. We want to hear it, but we've actually tried to think about those things already and we're trying to implement them continuously. Because nobody sits up here because we don't love it. We sit up here because it is our home, it is our sanctity, and it is the thing we want to protect for all time. And so the only thing I can say is that by sitting there for all three of those days, I have never seen better control of the situation. than they had and that was in the very very heart of it so with all the love i possibly have to give to our entire force to municipal operations to the fire department and our city team i i was blown away by what we were able to do around the clock so all my love and passion goes to those guys thank you

Thank you. Well, we certainly appreciate all of you coming out and all of the thoughtful comments that were received this evening. I'll just comment on a few things that we heard, starting with Councilmember Wiegand's statement. I do have a meeting set up with Coastal Commission later this month to advocate for relief. The Coastal Commission's edict is to protect public access to the coast, but they are also supposed to balance that with public safety needs. I also want to support staff's recommendation for tighter restrictions on unaccompanied minors, especially during safety enhancement periods in those zones, the ability for the police chief to declare a minor curfew during other periods as necessary. I support, I think we heard from at least one, if not more residents about parent accountability. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE US HOLD PARENTS MORE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE EXTENT LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE US ADD DUI CHECKPOINTS ON THE PENINSULA AND THE CDM MAIN AREA DURING SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ZONE PERIODS AS WELL AS DEDICATED PUBLIC SAFETY TRAVEL LANES AND PARKING LOT CLOSURES ONCE FULL. I think in terms of ordinances, I'd like to see us consider an unlawful mass gathering ordinance allowing the police chief to declare a temporary emergency zone and close access points, issue dispersal orders, apply enhanced penalties for violations, and allow for immediate removal of anything obstructing access. I THINK WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE'RE INCLUDING FRIDAY OR ANY KIND OF BOOK ENDED DAYS FOR THESE HOLIDAY WEEKENDS IN THE SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ZONE ORDINANCE THAT WE'VE ALREADY ADOPTED AND HAVE BEEN BUILDING ON OVER THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF OR TWO YEARS. MAKE SURE THAT WE ADOPT A PUBLIC NUISANCE ORDINANCE ALLOWS US TO USE THAT IN OUR MUNICIPAL CODE FOR ENFORCEMENT AND PROSECUTION AS WELL AS APPLY THE TRIPLE FINES THROUGH THE SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ZONE ORDINANCE. FOR SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS I'D LIKE TO SEE US EXPAND OUR SPECIAL EVENT REGULATIONS TO PROVIDE THAT NO PERSON SHALL INTENTIONALLY ORGANIZE, COORDINATE, CONDUCT OR INDUCE OTHERS TO CONDUCT AN EVENT ON PUBLIC PROPERTY. EXPECTED TO ATTRACT MORE THAN 50 PEOPLE AND AGAIN APPLY THE TRIPLE FINES DURING THE SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ZONE PERIODS AND IN THOSE ZONES. CITY STAFF TALKED A LOT ABOUT COMMUNICATION. FULLY SUPPORTIVE OF US BRINGING ON A FIRM OR SEVERAL FIRMS TO address crisis communication, fully allow us to engage in all of the social media platforms, monitoring across TikTok, Instagram, Discord for keywords related to local meetups in particular. I'd like to see us target the markets that we know people are coming from, particularly the parents who are sending their unaccompanied minors out here. and continue to build on the success, and I do think it was a success, of the Not in Newport campaign using body worn camera footage. Connectivity is another thing that we heard about. It is an issue. We've been talking about it. I've been prioritizing it for the last year or more. I did meet with Verizon, who is our priority carrier, particularly for law enforcement and city staff. They are working to upgrade their system. They mentioned that the capacity on the 4th of July was 140% higher on the 4th than any average summer day, and that's already obviously a lot higher than it is for the other months of the year. So they're working to upgrade the 4G to C-band and add additional small cell sites. I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE THAT WE ADOPT STARLINK FOR OUR PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL. WE CAN'T HAVE THE UNRELIABLE GAPS AND ISSUES THAT WE'VE BEEN HAVING WITH THE CELLULAR CARRIERS PARTICULARLY FOR THOSE PUBLIC SAFETY INDIVIDUALS OUT IN THE FIELD. Lastly, again, somebody brought up drones. I would agree. We have a robust drone program I'd like to see us continue to build on that. Add additional drones and nests so we have overlapping coverage. Drone pilots currently are allowed through the FAA to fly up to four drones at once So we do need to be able to bring drones in and replace batteries like to see us build to eight or ten drone and nests total as well as add a couple of different portable backpack drones. And lastly, I think we've been talking about on this council adding more street cameras that the police department controls that are separate and apart from the ones that Public Works uses for traffic needs. WITH THAT, AGAIN, I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO COME OUT, THOSE WHO WROTE IN THAT WE'VE BEEN RESPONDING TO OVER THE LAST WEEK, AND ONCE AGAIN, THIS IS GOING TO BE A CONTINUED CONVERSATION, AND WE CONTINUE TO WELCOME PUBLIC FEEDBACK AS WE MOVE FORWARD, AGAIN, NOT JUST FOR THE 4th OF JULY, BUT FOR EVERY DAY, AND I WILL once again reiterate our gratitude for our police department and all of our public safety personnel. Madam Clerk, let's go ahead and move into public comments on agenda and non-agenda items. Please read the notice.

The City Council of Newport Beach welcomes and encourages community participation. Public comments are invited on items listed on the agenda and non-agenda items. Speakers must limit comments to three minutes per person to allow everyone to speak. Written comments are encouraged as well. The City Council has the discretion to extend or shorten the time limit on agenda and non-agenda items.

We will now proceed with public comments on all agenda and non-agenda items. Please note that the members of the public will still have an opportunity to comment on agenda items under consent and public hearing later in the meeting provided they do not comment on those items at this time. A speaker who comments on any consent calendar item will not be permitted to comment again on the consent calendar later in the meeting.

Good evening Adam Leverins As you have heard from a number of public speakers at various meetings here This year a change from the past previously Agenda materials were in the alcove out here staff reports city financials public comment people had sent in bids letters updates, etc and Those things are no longer there. I've come to find that some of the things submitted also aren't available on the website, like linked at the end of the agendas on the website are various public comment items. I think there's four or five links, and those generally pop up either this morning or last night. And for people to come here and make well-informed remarks to you folks, I think we need to return to a time when those things are available without having a tablet or a phone or a screen big enough, actual hard copy paper that people can read. And since the cessation of the city providing those things, a couple instances, I was able to have the city clerk's office print out materials for distribution at my expense. But they no longer allow that. So not only... Does the city not provide these materials that are public comment and agenda materials or staff reports or excerpts from staff reports? They won't allow a member of the public to pay the city to provide those things. And I have heard numerous times this past eight months talk of transparency. And again, you've heard this from a number of people, this does not look like transparency. It looks like limiting opportunity for people to be informed and engaged and try and articulate based on facts. And the difficulty in obtaining those facts is a real problem and I hope that that would change in the future and we can go back To where at least staff reports, you know as it is now there's there's one binder here There's a binder at the library and a binder at the clerk's office if there's a number of people walking into a meeting who want to Quickly look through something or new material that's come in. You only get 72 hours of notice for these agendas There's four people in one binder. This is not transparency It should change. Thank you

Hi, I'm Samantha McDonald. I am a liveaboard with my partner in Newport Beach. We both got our PhDs from UC Irvine, have been in the area for 10 years, sailed over 10,000 nautical miles with our boat that's right here in Newport Beach. Council Member Bloom, you said just a few minutes ago, we are a public beach. We are stewards, but we don't own it and we don't control it. It belongs to the state of California and the people of California. And I'm sure you all are well aware at this point with liveaboards and other mooring communities coming to you that the state of California is watching Newport Beach and looking through what the State Lands Commission's review of the management of the tidelands. And the State Lands Commission found that you're likely violating the California Constitution because you're charging unfair and discrepant rates to moorings and to dockholders, which has been going on obviously for a year or two now. The city has an opportunity to avoid any future investigations, any violations, any of these questionable and expensive appraisals for moorings and for docks for good because the city can adopt the California state lands category one rental rates for Southern California. That means adopting a rate that the state of California has already analyzed, published and approved that is fair and reasonable for use in the public tidelands. The state is doing all the work for you. It has created a fair, consistent, transparent rate for moorings and docks. The city doesn't have to pay for an appraisal. It doesn't have to lift a finger or be a point of blame for any of these things that are coming to you for the past few years. And the best part is that the rates are cheaper than what's being currently proposed, especially for docks. So that means you can go back to your constituents and say, hey, we chose the cheapest and fairest option for you to keep recreational access that is approved by the state of California. We've brought this information to the Harbor Commission, and they appear reluctant to listen, and even worse, it fears that they're making up lies, that it would be impossible to use these rates, but we can and we should. The SLC has endorsed these rates as fair and reasonable. Newport Beach own rules codify the ability to lower rates for recreational access, and this is a win for everyone. Do we want taxpayers to keep paying for expensive appraisals and expensive investigations, expensive analysis? Or do we want the cheapest and best option that's fair and reasonable for everyone? Or even worse, what would it mean for the many homeowners who we all know are very wealthy with docs in this area when they learned that you had an option to have cheaper rates but instead chose the rate that is double to three to four times the amount. And so I please ask you to consider the fair and reasonable rates that are already set by the state of California with the benchmark for Southern California, for moorings and for docks. Because again, going back to what Council Member Bloom said, we are a public beach. We are stewards. We don't own it. We don't control it. The state of California does for all people. And so by adopting those rates, they're much more able to keep fair and reasonable practices that avoid everything that we've been going through with moorings and dockholders for the past few years. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Sandy Manich, legal liveaboard permit holder of a beautiful classic sport fishing powerboat. I also teach interior design, and I'm an artist. And the boat looks like it inside and out. Right now, we have a family of seagulls. on my flying bridge that I've allowed to stay there. So I've got three baby seagulls. I've done this every year for the past six years. So around the fish farm, there is a flock of about 18 seagulls that have fledged from my boat. And I will have the boat maintained when they fledge. In about three weeks, my wash committee will come out and take care of it in case anyone's concerned about that. Because some of my neighbors did express some concern on the next door. in any case what i wanted to say as far as a win for everyone and the liveaboard community and the opportunity that we offer as a safety partnership and the documentation that i have brought inside of this documentation mr our commissioner noah bloom mentioned that there was no property damage at the 4th of july but in here is when the most recent since the Security went to a civilian, cannot write tickets, security force in Newport Beach in 2018. We've had three major thefts of multi-million dollar vessels. The most recent one was in September of last year, stolen from the Peninsula condos, and the documentation, I notified code enforcement a month before the theft that fishermen were on the no fishing dock after curfew and fishing from the no fishing dock and jumping the fence. There's pictures of that in here. Jumping the fence. That's what I did as a liveaboard to provide security. I heard nothing back from code enforcement. A month later, a multimillion dollar boat was stolen. How much damage was that? There's a hole in that boat. I've got pictures of a hole in that boat. That boat came and sank one of my neighbor's boats. My neighbor, who was a liveaboard, rescued that person out of the water when his boat sank. Ten boats around me were hit. How much property damage was there? Where is the transparency? What was said at the last Harbor Commission meeting was that someone was apprehended and that they're going to be released in six months after doing this. That's what it was said at the last Harbor. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but that's what I heard stated. So if I'm wrong, please forgive me and correct that. but if that's what is the consequence and i'm trying to work with the city and provide security as a liveaboard and the eyes and ears of the harbor thank you thank you next speaker please

Mayor Kleinman, council, Wade Womack, 30-year resident, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Just thinking about things today, I'm grateful that the city is restarting the police station location. The idea of running the Civic Park and cramming the police station into the Civic Park is quite concerning to just a high number of residents. And so with that in mind and thinking about other things, The first thing I heard when the police station was slated for 1201 Dove was that our police station is currently overcrowded or they're just full up. And so one thought would be to create a substantial substation down on the peninsula. substantial substation our reporting districts for the police in our city there's four of them two are on the west side of the bay and two are on the south side call it the peninsula newport heights on the north call it fashion island and newport coast on the on the east side we just like battle the bays we kind of split newport harbor cdm why not build a substantial police station over on the peninsula for an increased presence 365. Get officers in the field quicker. Right now they've got to drive from Fashion Island, summer days, fight through traffic. It probably takes them 45 minutes to get to their beat and another 45 minutes to get out. If they report right to a substation, then they'll be in their beat in five minutes. So it would increase police presence. It could alleviate some space concerns at the existing police station. It could immediately make a difference in our city, where if you look at a heat mat of the crime activity, it's the peninsula. That's where a lot of our activity happens. Why not do a police substation? Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine, many beach cities do this. A substantial police station. It would be redundancy for our city. You have a holding cell like you set up on Up Superior. You have a separate dispatch that can handle a few things. It's redundancy. So the big earthquake hits, if the big police station is compromised, you have a redundant station. Redundancy somewhere on the peninsula or up at the corporate yard, somewhere on the west side of the city would really make a huge difference in the long run I don't think would be near as expensive as what we're looking at and on cramming the police station in the civic center Park and I think it can make great impacts within 3, 4, 5 years. In the area that everyone was so concerned about tonight. Thank you for your time.

SEEING NO OTHER COMMENTS, WE'LL NOW MOVE ON. THIS IS THE TIME FOR COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENTS OR REPORTS FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS ON COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES AND THE TIME FOR COUNCIL MEMBERS TO REQUEST AN ITEM BE PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA. COUNCIL MEMBER WEIGAND, DO YOU HAVE ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS OR REPORTS?

NO, I'LL PASS ON THAT TONIGHT.

Council Member Bartow? No report. Council Member Grant?

Just three items I want to mention. We did have a installation by the Balboa Island Improvement Association of a new flagpole on Park and Marine, and we appreciate the investment they're making in this lasting symbol of our community pride. i also want to recognize the truly historic milestone with the grand opening of witty hall this past weekend more than a decade in the making the new auditorium stands as a testament to what can be accomplished when a community embraces a bold vision and works together to bring it to life i hope that everybody will take a chance to go over and see woody hall it's absolutely spectacular and a wonderful example of a public private partnership with the city and the community thank you councilmember weber none

Mayor Potem Blum.

Nothing, thank you.

Moving on. We have one matter brought forward by Councilmember Wiegand per City Council Policy A1. Councilmembers may bring forward a matter for consideration and if approved by a straw vote, if the Council staff will return with a report on the matter at a later meeting. The item for consideration is considered taking support and opposition on propositions on November 2026 ballot. All in favor of the proposed consideration?

Motion carried. This throw vote was carried unanimously, and Councilmember Stapleton have an accused absence.

Madam Clerk, would you please read the notice regarding public comments on the consent calendar?

this is the time in which council members may pull items from the consent calendar for discussion items 1 through 11 public comments are also invited on consent calendar items speakers must limit comment to three minutes before speaking please state your name for the record if any item is removed from the consent calendar by a council member members of the public are invited to speak on each item for up to three minutes per item All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion in form listed below. Council members have received detailed staff reports on each of the items recommending the action. There will be no separate discussion of these items prior to the time the City Council votes on the motion unless members of the City Council request specific items to be discussed and or removed from the consent calendar for separate action.

Councilman why can't you have any items to pull from the consent calendar conflicts to announce related items one through 11.

Yes, I'll need to recuse myself on item number 2 due to investments in telecom.

Council member Marta. I do not. Council member Grant and Council member Webber not mayor pretend bomb. And I have none. Are there any members of the public that would like to speak on the consent calendar.

Adam Leverand's first item, consent three, which is granting various city employees the authority to write citations. I just wanted to note some of those positions, the fire chief, the public works director, the harbor master, and employees holding positions in the department designated by them. municipal operations director, animal control officer, community service officer, custody officer, parking control officer, community development director, contract municipal compliance officers, revenue manager, building official, and the city clerk. A lot of these are administrative citations which are processed through the city's revenue division with two law firms that I believe you contracted with at the last meeting. The rules of evidence don't apply. And the fact that somebody received a notice of violation is prima facie evidence of the crime. I have problems with that process. They can appeal to real court after that. But at the last meeting, it indicated 60 some odd administrative sites were issued last year. And through May of this year, there was, I think, close to 270. the second item is title 17 revisions consent item four harbor commission has heard from me a number of times on this you've heard from me once if this is passed in its present form it is going to make all kinds of boats in the harbor non-compliant and I'm talking about marine sanitation devices. We'll call them Coast Guard toilets. The ordinance is taking a portable self-contained unit and saying it has to be connected to an internal holding tank. Smaller sailboats, duffies, electric boats, some of the fishing boats, they're so small they don't have an internal holding tank. That's why they have a self-contained toilet. If you pass this ordinance to be compliant, they would have to take the toilet off the boat. I mean, you can envision the problems with that. I want more restrooms, more boats with facilities for that sort of thing. The second thing, part of that code says that it would be applicable to any vessel on which a person may stay aboard overnight. There's a letter I'd sent in. I can't find it in the agenda materials. It's a a rib at 19th Street Dock. The gentleman had a lazy boy chair and a bunch of solar panels in there. People could sleep in a canoe. It should be changed to on a vessel people do stay aboard overnight. The way it's drafted, somebody with a duffy wouldn't be able to go into the anchorage and watch the Christmas boat parade or fireworks. they'd be in violation of the ordinance as it's written. It's very simple to fix. The last concern I have is it gives the harbor master authority to issue and serve administrative subpoenas. You heard from me at the last meeting that people have 30 days to respond. The city considers a subpoena served when they drop it in the mail mail delays. I'd like to see that expanded. I don't think 30 days is enough considering that the person may not get it for a number of those days. Thank you.

Mayor Potem, do we have a motion? Oh, excuse me, Mr. Mosier?

Mayor Kleinman, members of the council, my name is Jim Mosier. I submitted written comments on a number of the consent calendar items, but there were three I did want to call attention to. Number two, I don't think should pass without notice, that is a revamped, revised restructured ordinance having to do with how the city considers and approves new telecom, sometimes called cell site applications. This is, I think, improperly removing most of the public process and public awareness of what is going on. One, I believe, unique aspect of this is we are exempting any city-owned property from any kind of regulation whatsoever. One of the most contentious kinds of cell site applications is to put one in a public park. If this is adopted as written We still have control over that. My written comment was probably not quite correct. But what we're losing here is any public awareness of it, any guidance from the city council as to what is appropriate or not in the city park because it's unregulated by anything in the municipal code. It's completely up to the city manager to decide whether it's proper or not to lease that property to the sole company. I don't know why we would be doing that. A large part of this has to do with operations in the public right-of-way, which would mostly be streetlights. The way it is written, the council is looking at a master license agreement. You're being asked to approve that, but if you look at who signs the actual licenses, it's only the city manager. So nobody will know what is being approved. The council will have no role in that, as far as I know. And then on public property, many of the installations are what are sometimes called stealth. It will be left entirely to the city staff to decide whether they are or not. And the public will have no right to question that or even be aware of what is being approved until it happens. Item number four, I share the concerns that Adam just expressed. You have a fairly poorly written ordinance having to do with harbor waste in the harbor. Why you would adopt it poorly written and not correct it, I have no idea. And then finally, item 11 is your report from the last planning commission meeting. And in that report, you will see our housing element in inaction instead of action. You recall a previous council, without a green light vote, added much housing to our city. On the rationale, the state made us do that to provide affordable housing. The Planning Commission is being asked to approve projects without any, and they are being approved. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, I'm married love to move. The consent calendar and I want to know change the minutes, thank you to have a second.

Seconded by Council member, let's go ahead and vote can can it reflect.

My recuse on item 2.

That was my apologies that were reflecting the recusal from Council member why I see air and looking over at me like a but thank you and I'm I'm better at this but I'm proud to say with the change I assume.

Motion carried by unanimous vote.

City clerk will now read the ordinances that have been adopted.

Ordinance number 2026 there's 0, 7, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Newport Beach, California, adding chapter 1, 3.2, 2, personal violence service facilities in the public right away and amend in chapter 2, 0.4, 9, personal violence service facilities of the Newport Beach municipal code related to telecommunication facilities. Ordinance number 2026-08, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Newport Beach, California, amending section 1.12.020, authority of public offices or employees to issue citations. Chapter 1.12, citations and warrants, title one, general provisions of the Newport Beach Municipal Code related to city employees enforcement of the municipal code and state law. Ordinance number 2026-09, an ordinance of the City Council of Newport Beach, California, amending Title 10, offenses and nuisances, Title 11, recreational activities, and Title 17, Harbor Code of the Newport Beach Municipal Code to regulate and manage certain activities within Newport Harbor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We'll now move on to public hearings. Item number 12, resolution number 2026-52, 2350 Bristol Street, driveway access appeal. Have any councilmembers had any ex parte communications related to this matter? Councilmember Wiegand?

Yes, I've talked to a handful of residents in the neighborhood related to this issue.

Councilmember Bartow? Councilmember Grant? None. Councilmember Weber?

None.

Mayor pretend long and then thank you and I have a Mister churches to have staff report.

We do matter merit this item is an appeal of an application that went to the planning Commission to modify a condition of the approval. The planning Commission denied the application and the applicant slash appellant has appealed that to the City Council for your consideration. With me is I'm a real community development director and in it. And okay, it's a planner who has a brief presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Kleinman, council members. My name is Daniel Kopschever, assistant planner, here to present the 2350 Bristol Street driveway access project. First, a vicinity map showing the access to the site from Bristol Street with the orange arrows, and then the emergency access onto Zenith Avenue into a residential neighborhood shown in the red arrows. The project request is for the city to find that employee and delivery vehicle use of the Zenith driveway is consistent with the original approvals for the project site. The original approvals included an option A and an option B site plan. Both options showed labeled here in green concrete bollards and then labeled highlighted in yellow that these bollards were to be movable for emergency access. Subsequent site plans that were approved also labeled for emergency access at this driveway. Notable conditions of approval include number three, which states that the approval is for a precise plan with the location and uses of the structures are as approved. Any relocation or alteration of those structures would nullify the approval and that a change plan is required with approval of the planning director for any proposed changes. Condition of approval number 19, states that prior to the building permit issuance the emergency access shall be approved by the fire chief and the details for the construction of the emergency access shall include with clear height and means of emergency vehicle override. Some historic Google Street photos will show that the Zenith driveway has been kept closed. Code enforcement case was first started in the end of 2024 in December when the gate was reported open and being used by vehicles other than emergency access vehicles. For some background, after the code enforcement case was started, the applicant submitted a staff approval application for the city to find that the uses are already allowed. The application was taken to the Planning Commission for a public hearing, was denied at that hearing, and an appeal was subsequently filed. Excuse me, so for the appeal claim and staff response, the applicant interprets the use of the Zenith driveway for delivery vehicles and employees as already allowed. Staff has analyzed the plans and the conditions of approval and interprets this as emergency access only. The applicant also claims that because of this, because of their interpretation, that the use of the driveway is vested right and the plans and conditions do not support that according to staff. Another claim by the applicant is that two driveways are necessary for operation of the property. There's no evidence that the property cannot function with one driveway. They have historically functioned with that emergency access gate kept closed. And the applicant has also stated that nearby properties have two driveways. This does not affect the request or the original approval. And for the final claim, the applicant is claiming that limiting or revoking use of the driveway is a compensable taking. Since that's interpretation is that this access was never allowed, this is not a vested right and not a compensable taking. I'm available for any questions. I'll conclude my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Are there any council members that have any questions for staff at this time? Okay. Seeing none, we'll open up the public hearing.

And are you the appellant? I am. Okay, perfect.

Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. My name is Chuck Krolakowski. I'm legal counsel for the property owner at 2350 Southeast Bristol in Newport Beach. I heard a lot of comments tonight from the earlier discussions regarding safety and protection of your citizens. And this case is a plastic example of providing safety and protection for your citizens. This property was approved by the county more than 40 years ago. It was built out per the county approvals. It included a sliding gate at the rear driveway along Zenith Avenue. Over time, Bristol Street has been updated, reconfigured. The 73 freeway was built. Because of that, Bristol Street, as evidenced in the county approvals, is a high-speed traffic corridor. It is meant for vehicles to travel very fast down that street. As you will see in my appellate package, the front driveway that leads to the property is 13 feet from the back of the sidewalk to the eight-foot overhang. which means no delivery vehicles can enter that property off of Bristol Street, which means they will pull in, extend into either the sidewalk or the lane of traffic, deliver their merchandise, and then back their large vehicles onto Bristol Street with cars driving at 60 miles an hour. If the city council is concerned about safety and the protection of its citizens, its delivery people, its visitors, the secondary driveway is absolutely necessary. The property's improved with a multi-story office building. There's two driveways, one along Bristol, one on the back driveway on Zenith. The original approvals from the county referenced providing emergency access. That's referenced in the staff report and various documents. But never does it say ever in any of the approvals that it's emergency access only. No indication of that in any single document. THE DOCUMENTS REFER TO BALLARDS. NO BALLARDS WERE EVER PUT IN PLACE. IN FACT, THE STAFF REPORT SUGGESTS, ACTUALLY NOT SUGGESTS, BUT IDENTIFIES THAT THERE WERE TWO PERMITS WITH THE COUNTY WHICH INCLUDED REFERENCES TO A SLIDING GATE SYSTEM IN THE BACK. AND THIS IS IMPORTANT. WHEN THIS PROPERTY WAS APPROVED BACK IN 1986, THE CITY HAD ZERO JURISDICTION OVER THIS PROPERTY. IT WAS NOT ANNEXED TO THE CITY UNTIL MUCH LATER. NONE OF THE PLANS, SPECIFIC PLANS, GENERAL PLANS, NONE OF THOSE RULES APPLIED TO THIS DEVELOPMENT. WHICH MEANS WHEN THE COUNTY APPROVED THIS PROJECT, and it signed off and provided the certificate of occupancy, there's an actual presumption that the project was approved by the county, which means if there's a sliding gate and that was approved by the county, it had to be done before their certificate of occupancy was issued, which was done in this case. A COO was issued for the property, which by definition, which means the property is presumed to have satisfied all development conditions and conditions of approval. And the reason this is important is twofold. One is, is that by the county approving this project, the way it was built, and issuing their certificate of occupancy, the property owner has a vested right to continue with those uses into the future. Furtherance, And further of that, once the city, the property was annexed to the city much later, it would have been grandfathered in. So any city regulations or rules that would have applied to the property after the fact would not apply to the property as it was developed. The critical issue in this case, which I presented in my letters to the city and the pictures, is the safety of this access. Delivery vehicles, I provided substantial evidence that delivery vehicles cannot safely enter the property off of Bristol Street. In fact, at the Planning Commission hearing, a traffic engineer for the city said, yes, it is unsafe for delivery vehicles to enter and exit the property from Bristol Street. That was admitted to by the traffic engineer for the city, who's not here tonight. part of the record in this matter. It is unsafe for those vehicles to enter and exit the property of Bristol. What does that mean? That means we need a secondary access point. The county identified the need for a secondary access point. There was no restriction ever on emergency access only as set forth in those documents. When the county made its findings regarding this project, it made determinations that the project was consistent with the objectives, policies, and general land use regulations specified in the county's general plan and zoning laws. The county's findings also determined that the project was consistent with the provisions of the zoning code. The county's findings also determined item number four that the project would not create unusual noise traffic or other conditions or situations that would be objectionable or detrimental with other permitted uses in the vicinity the county also determined that the application would not result in conditions or circumstances contrary to public health and safety in general welfare the county reviewed this project they signed off on this sliding gate at the rear. Based on those determinations, the city doesn't get to second guess those findings. It doesn't get to say, well, we think 40 years later it should have been done differently. That's the way it was done. In order to receive their certificate of occupancy, the conditions specified that either the county manager or the fire chief would have to review the project as built before they issued those COOs, which were issued by the county almost 40 years ago. Modifications to Bristol Street have made it necessary for this property to operate as we're requesting. That there's an initial driveway off of Bristol Street, which is 13 feet from back of sidewalk to the eight foot overhang. However, in order for delivery vehicles and frankly, the employees of the site who have to enter the property and exit the property, safety is the paramount concern. I provided additional pictures in my package that site distance as you're leaving the property is impacted. There's signage, there's fencing, there's bushes. So imagine this, a UPS truck pulls in, they're hanging out in the sidewalk and or Bristol Street, depending on how long they are. They pull in, they drop off some merchandise, then they have to, without being able to actually see The traffic coming down Bristol Street, they're required to back up into traffic. I PROVIDED ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE THAT IN THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS THERE ARE MULTIPLE ACCIDENTS ALONG BRISTOL STREET. IN THE CITY REPORT FROM 2020, IT REPORTED 52 ACCIDENTS IN THIS GENERAL LOCATION OVER A TWO-YEAR PERIOD, AND IN THE LAST YEAR THERE'S BEEN ABOUT APPROXIMATELY 25 ACCIDENTS. SO BY ALLOWING THIS CONDITION OR ACTUALLY TRYING TO STOP THE USE OF THE REAR DRIVEWAY, WE THINK THAT THE CITY IS CREATING A DANGEROUS CONDITION of public property that people that there will be accidents that there will be injuries. Another another comment while this process was initiated staff was initially in support of delivery vehicles using the back driveway. HOWEVER, ONCE WE SAID NO, WE WANT DELIVERY VEHICLES AND EMPLOYEES BECAUSE WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THE EMPLOYEES ARE SAFE, CITY STAFF BACKED OFF ON THAT RECOMMENDATION. WHILE I THINK IT'S CRITICAL FOR DELIVERY VEHICLES TO BE ABLE TO USE BOTH DRIVEWAYS, IT'S ALSO NECESSARY FOR THE EMPLOYEES. THERE ARE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF EMPLOYEES THAT EITHER WORK AT THIS BUILDING, VISIT THE BUILDING, AND FOR THEM TO BE ABLE TO DRIVE IN OFF OF BRISTOL AND THEN LEAVE THROUGH SECONDARY ACCESS OR VICE VERSA, DRIVE OFF OF ZENITH AND LEAVE THROUGH BRISTOL HEAD FIRST AS OPPOSED TO BACKING UP IS SAFE FOR THE BUILDING, IT'S SAFE FOR THE CITY, IT'S SAFE FOR BRISTOL STREET. One of the comments that was initially brought up was, well, there's no other secondary access for properties along Bristol Street. Literally right next door, there's a property, which I included pictures in my submittal, which has not only two driveways off Bristol, but also an additional driveway off the side street right next to Zenith. SHE HAVE A PROPERTY RIGHT NEXT DOOR WHO HAS ONE OF THE SAME SIMILAR TYPE OF LOWER BUILDING WHERE YOU HAVE TO DRIVE THROUGH AT 8 FOOT HIGH UNDERGROUND PARKING AND THEY WERE ALLOWED TO HAVE SECONDARY ACCESS OFF OF THE SIDE STREET RIGHT NEXT TO ZENITH. SO TO SAY THAT THIS IS NOT AN ESTABLISHED PATTERN IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOT CORRECT IN TERMS OF THE PROPERTY NEXT DOOR. There have been, obviously, some complaints from neighbors. That's why we're here, because they make a complaint, code enforcement comes out, and we start to deal with the issue. But the complaints are this. We have a residential street that has multiple office buildings, commercial buildings, all along Bristol Street. If you know the history of this street, back in the 80s, most of this area was residential, and there was one big open space right when you got close to the 73 Jamboree intersection. All of that residential disappeared along Bristol Street it was replaced with commercial it was replaced with office and so the residents at that time had to say OK we understand we live near a high traffic high speed commercial corridor. the entrance to the 73, exit and entrance. And so they have to understand that, listen, things do change over time. There's office buildings, there's commercial buildings, there's going to be people who need to access those properties. Providing this secondary access off of Zenith Avenue is the remedy to that situation, not the problem. In conclusion, our position has been this whole time, we don't think we need to apply for this. We were directed by staff, hey, we have this issue with your back driveway, please ask for permission. Our position is we already did that with the county over 40 years ago and received a COO. We're doing this because we want to ask the city to weigh in on this. Ultimately, the city makes its decision. We'll have to proceed however we proceed, but we'd like to get this resolved. We'd like to make sure that this property can operate safely for the protection of not only its occupants, the protection of anyone driving along Bristol Street, and frankly the protection of the neighborhood and so we ask that the city council reverse the decision of the planning commission planning commission and approve of our request that the rear driveway be used for both delivery vehicles and employee use thank you

Thank you again the public hearing is open will go ahead and go out for comments. Are there any members of the public that would like to speak on the side.

Mayor Kleinman, members of the council, my name is Jim Mosier. I was at the Planning Commission meeting and I think the Planning Commission got it right on this. At that hearing there was a great deal of testimony, especially from the employees in the building about their safety concerns and about how it would benefit their building to have access to a rear driveway. Their concerns may be real and the property owner has every opportunity in the world to come to the city and ask for a modification of their use permit to allow the use after proper study of what the alternatives are and so on. for reasons I did not understand they chose not to do that and instead what they're asking what they asked the planning commission for and what they're asking you for is a determination that the original permit allowed unrestricted access from that rear driveway the problem is and I'm no expert on this apparently the plans that were approved by the county designated that driveway as for emergency access. The lawyer here thinks that means anybody can use it in addition to emergency access. However, the five planning commissioners who were at that hearing have experience in development and plans and I'm sure there are people in the city who look at plans and when a plan shows a driveway and it says emergency access it means it's for emergency access only you could perhaps ask somebody from the fire department whether that's correct or not that is what the planning commissioners thought that seems to be Why you would think it's something different? I'm not sure and I would just point out I have had occasion to go along Bristol when there was a meeting at the airport and coming to one here and I noticed just a short distance to the east on Bristol. There's the Clearwater senior home and Kind of the opposite of this case and their approval. They have an emergency access which is on Bristol their main entrance is on Bayside Place I think is the name and And that it's not a sliding gate, it's a gate that opens like folding gate. And it has a big sign on it, emergency access only, stay clear, so forth. So the fact that there was a sliding gate there and it was intended for emergency access does not seem at all strange to me. Again, I think the Planning Commission got it right, and if the property owner wants to get a modification to their use permit, they should make a proper application for that so it can be properly studied. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi mayor and council members, my name's in the key and I live in the neighborhood. The city identifies this property is having 65 space parking lot with access from Bristol Street over a 5 month period I observed reoccurring business activity including food vendors event tense open access to use Zenith entrance and numerous vehicles parked along Zeta Avenue these reoccurring observation raise the question of whether the property's operations have changed since the current owner acquired the building in 2018. I asked the council to consider whether these operational characteristics are consistent with how this property historically functioned when the Zenith driveway was approved as a controlled emergency access. The Santa Ana Heights specific plan was intended to separate business traffic from residential neighborhoods. My concern is that the Zenith driveway is no longer functioning as a controlled emergency access. Instead, it appears to be supporting routine business operations through a residential neighborhood. The applicant argues that the Bristol driveway is unsafe because of traffic and limited visibility. Bristol Street is certainly busy, but commercial properties throughout Newport Beach operate on busy streets every day. Drivers wait for the safe opening before entering traffic. When the full driveway apron is used, there is a long, unobstructed view of traffic in both directions. The applicant also argues that the Zenith driveway should remain open for delivery vehicles. However, the buildings with low clearance parking structure routinely receive deliveries without allowing large trucks into the parking lots. Delivery trucks can park on public street and deliveries can be transported to the buildings by cart. More convenient delivery access does not justify converting a controlled emergency access point into a routine business entrance. For these reasons, I respectfully ask you to deny the applicant's appeal and preserve the Zenith driveway as a controlled emergency access consistent with its historical approval. Thank you. I just want to say that those two law firms that work there, they have close to 100 employees. And as I said, there's 65. parking spaces. So that's probably why they park on Zenith and don't have enough parking spaces.

Thank you. Are there any other comments on this item?

Excuse me. Good evening, everybody. My name is Charlie Schaaf. I have lived on Orchid Street for 43 years. So I was here when the Travcoa building was first built. We were told that that driveway would be blocked and only used for emergency. This word only seems to be a key word. I think it's absurd to say when you say emergency access, it does not mean only emergency access. Next of all, the statement by the lawyer that the adjacent building has two driveways is not true. It has a single driveway on Spruce. I call it Spruce Street. I think it's Spruce Avenue. It's true that that building was built before the 73 exit. That extension for the 73 did not even exist. But the 73 does not merge into Bristol until you get down to the Spruce Street intersection. I really request that you honor the original commitment that we were told 40 years ago plus that they would not be able to drive through our neighborhood in order to come to work or leave thank you thank you any other comments okay does the appellant have any additional comments in response

Yes, just briefly just a couple of comments. A comment was made that delivery vehicles can just simply park nearby and then deliver merchandise to the building. There's no parking along Bristol Street, so there is no opportunity to park close enough to make your deliveries because Bristol Street, there's no parking on the street. And second of all the 2424 property next door that comes a white billion actually has 3 driveways to along Bristol and one long spruce which is right next to seen at that.

Don't go anywhere just yet sure to any council members have any questions for the appellant. I can't remember why again.

There I'm using Google Earth here and Apple maps both to pull up some aerials of here have you worked ever with the neighboring property that only does have the one entrance on spruce next door to you have they have you guys ever worked to do a joint parking lot plan that could. I could combine the 2 parking lots to satisfy the Not that I'm aware of.

I believe that property is actually under construction right now. The last time I drove out there. The Newport Dental Arts? Yeah, but I'm not aware of any collaboration between those two properties.

And then the property next door has been for sale for decades. Have they ever attempted to purchase that to provide a little bit of... Yeah, I'm not aware of any collaboration between those two properties.

I believe the property already is sufficiently parked. The question is more the access to in and out of the property.

Yeah, I pull up both these map features and on the ground both show the gate open. So is it supposed to be closed at all times under the current code?

Well, what Cody referring to the city code doesn't apply to any of this because this project was approved by the county emergency access. Our position is that there's no provision which says this is emergency access only a sliding gate was approved and signed off by the county over 40 years ago. And so whether that gate is closed or opened at any given time, our position has been consistently that there's no restriction, that it's emergency access only. That we're required to provide emergency access to the extent the fire department or someone needs to come. So to the extent the gate is closed, we'd be required to give either the code or the lock number or a key to the fire department so they can access the property. which I actually find interesting that they would that they would want to use the back access for access to the property in light of the fact that there's very limited access at the front along Bristol Street. Because one shows it open and then the other one shows that half halfway open. Yeah. So no, it's been opened and it's obviously it's a it's a sliding gate so it could be opened and closed. And are you currently using it for it is it has been currently open since we've been the book actually for quite a while and then ultimately when the city notified us that there was an issue with the driveway. We then started this process of basically asking the city to affirm our ability and or right to use that rear driveway.

And staff how many times this code enforcement gone out for it being open.

We initially received a complaint as described in the presentation, so code enforcement reached out, notified the property owner. We researched the county approvals and determined that that access was required to be controlled access only for emergency vehicles, and that started the conversation with the applicant. Just provide a bit more background. The applicant did bring up the fact that delivery vehicles had some difficulty given the single access off the highway or up Bristol. And so part of that discussion was we would be open to considering the allowance for delivery vehicle access along the back through Zenith. if they could put together a controlled plan that can show how they can provide access for delivery vehicles but not provide completely unrestricted access for employees. That's ultimately what drove the application for the staff approval for a determination of substantial conformance for that original approval. However, through that application, the applicant decided to move forward with a request for full access only and did not focus on a delivery access only plan. Go ahead, thank you.

Council Member Grant?

Yes, so that did answer a number of my questions and I guess I'll just make a couple comments. I think that the intention here is what I'm struggling with because it appears from the staff report and from testimony, even some of your testimony, certain amount of intention of not having full access was in play 40 years ago when maybe nobody but the gentleman who is also here was around but it seems from whatever documentation we have there's evidence that the intention was to not have unfettered access whether it was by ballasts and how it went from just the ballast to the Emergent to the rolling gate. I also don't see an answer to it just somehow from documentation to actual construction it changed but I still think the intention is what I'm struggling with and I'm just even wondering the intention with the rolling gate was that meant it appears to me that that could have been still an emergency access only opportunity as opposed to full access when that was done. So I'm just not making the necessary steps to get to full access with something that was the original intention. I also wonder about the property owner's ability to find some way of conforming to the needs of the residential community. It's a partnership. We've got this commercial corridor, admittedly, that rose up after some amount of time and has increased in its commercial aspect given the 73 freeway but i i'm not understanding necessarily a good sort of give and take to accommodate the residential community that was already there when this thing was built and sounds like in the proceedings that went on at the county level that there was a certain amount of outreach to the community to address those concerns, which if I was living there and a building like that came up and I was made those promises, I would want to still rely on them. And I don't know if you have additional information about what those, if there was anything other than this idea of having a restricted access, because that's kind of what I'm hearing mostly. Obviously, we don't want unsafe conditions on Bristol. I drive Bristol all the time. I feel like there could be contingency plans put into place for deliveries, employees, that kind of thing, good signage. I'm hearing you that, you know, there's a very limited amount of space. I, you know, like I said, I drive that corridor all the time and I see that there is a varying amount of space and, you know, it's not a wide open access area. But obviously with good landscape signage, communication to providers, that kind of thing, you know, that's kind of how we, you know, bring together this marriage between the residential and the commercial so that they can coexist. So I just thought I'd mention those few sort of, you know, concerns that I have.

And I think the big sticking point was when we first talked with city staff about this they were generally in support of delivery vehicles in light of the limitations on getting in and out of Bristol. But the ownership was was was adamant about making sure their employees have that ability as well and I think that's the sticking point we're at right now.

Okay. Just one question for staff. Well, let me go ahead and close the public hearing. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Go ahead, Council Member Grant. Okay.

So, recap again the process. So, there was an opportunity to take a different lane and look at this approval or modify the approval to allow for a certain amount of additional access other than purely commercial act emergency access but the appellant chose not to do that if we deny the appeal today they can come back with that and do the appropriate studies and community outreach and that kind of thing and pursue it from a different angle is that the case

That's correct. The applicant could apply for a new site development review that would allow us to actually change the conditions of approval that applied to the development. And through that, we could give staff time to study the request and any analysis that we may need, we can request it of the applicant.

So at denial here today, there's another avenue open for additional review and study to find some kind of compatibility with the two different uses on those separate parcels.

Correct, so the request today is a request to find that providing unrestricted access is consistent with the original county approval. The alternative path is to simply amend the approval to request access and change the conditions.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, seeing no other comments up here.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, and just I had just a couple of points and thank you so much to staff. I think the historicals on this were extremely helpful. Even seeing the handwritten notes and the cross outs from fire chiefs from a long time ago saying no. um and i actually thought the leniency that the city had taken with delivery vehicles was a very strong point um to kind of grant a little bit of leeway throughout this so i'd like to make a motion um with those in mind to approve stack of recommendations to uh deny this appeal i'll second thank you we have a motion and a second let's go ahead and vote

Motion approved by six zero vote with council member Stapleton absent.

Moving on to item number 13, ordinance number 2026-10, approving amendment to Newport Place Plan community development plan related to the minimum percentage of inclusionary for sale housing within the residential overlay and resolution number 2026-53, overriding airport land use commission's determination of inconsistency. I'm going to recuse myself from this item because my husband's company has received income from Intracorp involving projects outside of the city, and Mayor Potem will take it from here.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Wonderful. Are we looking for a staff report on this one? No.

Only if the council has any questions.

Is there anyone from the council that would care for a staff report on this? All right. Seeing none up here, do we have any comments from council before we go to public comment? Wonderful. Let's go out to public comment on this item.

Adam Leverins, this is the reduction of inclusion, inclusionary element for affordable and low cost housing for housing overlay. Looking through the staff materials, it looks like in 2006 there was a 30% affordable to lower income inclusionary provision for 30 years. In 2023, staff materials indicated that Council reduced that from 30 to 50%. And then in 2024, the developer requests reducing that 15% further to 6% for lower income and 8% for moderate income. And quoting from the staff materials, on April 9, 2024, the City Council approved the necessary land entitlements for the development of a 67-unit condominium project. Residence is at 1401 Crail Street by Intracorp Homes. This project is located within the residential overlay and included the inclusionary requirement of 15% as required. After the project approval, representatives of Intracorp submitted a written request that the city consider lowering the inclusionary requirement for for-sale housing as the approved project is no longer financially viable to implement, to close quote. The way I've seen council bending over backwards to help developers not build affordable housing, it's someday the chickens are going to come home to roost. There's state mandates of units of affordable housing that the city needs to build. The continued reduction of inclusionary requirements and then for other developers, the in lieu fees, if you don't build it, you pay $36,000 in fine per unit. As I've said, it's cheaper to pay the fine and get market rate rent on something. I just hope that you'll look into the future. There's going to be other people sitting here. somebody's going to have to address the state mandates that just can't be kept putting off, putting off. And I don't know if different developers can build housing more affordably, but to go from 30% in 2006 down to six and eight for this particular area, it's going to be a problem. And it's, to be very challenging and possibly costly in the future and and i just it's frustrating to continue to see the catering to developers at the expense of the city and possibly residents who might need affordable housing to be able to live here and work in some of these lower income jobs And I just, again, hope that consideration can be given to maybe they got approval, they got approval under certain conditions, and then after you get approval it's like, well, can I not follow the rules? I mean, how much is that going to go on? Thank you.

Any other public comments on this item?

and members of the council. My name again is Jim Mosher. And this is one of the more interesting items on the agenda. As Adam pointed out, we do have a state mandate that we're facing. And partially this council and previous council approved adding to our general plan, 8,174 units without a green light vote on the premise that we had to do that to produce about 3000 units of affordable housing. And historically, meaning back to our 2010 zoning update, which was in response to our 2006 general plan, the area that the public most looked at as the most likely site for affordable housing was this portion of the airport area, which, as we said, we had a 30% requirement, went down to 15%. Now you're going to be asked to reduce that down to 6%. And the interesting thing is I thought you were going through all this effort that we actually had a requirement there. but it is slowly dawned on me from the last two Planning Commission meetings that this is really irrelevant in staff's view because we now have no requirement there because the previous council has approved, in approving those 8,174, they approved something called a housing overlay. The housing overlay has no requirement to build any affordable housing, even though it's supposed to accomplish those 3,000 we need to build. And just like the previous applicant had two different pathways they could take, this company Intracorp that wants the lowering of this, actually all they have to do is ask for their application to be processed as a housing overlay application, and they don't have to provide any affordable housing whatsoever. I'm not sure how the staff came up with that interpretation, but they applied it at 1300 Dove Street about a month ago. That developer was proposing 5%. I thought they were anticipating this, but they were only doing the 5% to get a concession on their development. And last week, in the report that you received tonight, the Planning Commission approved a property near this 1301 dove actually right next door to 1201 dove with no affordable housing at all even though it's in the same area that i thought had an inclusionary requirement and staff says they don't have to pay any attention to this requirement whatever it is even if it said 90 they don't have to follow it all they have to do is apply for housing opportunity overlay application thank you mr measure

Any other people speaking on this item? Wonderful. We're going to close the public hearing and bring it back up here. Any other comments up here? Seeing none, I'm going to move staff recommendation for approval. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from Councilmember Weber. Can we vote?

MOTION CARRIED BY 5-0 VOTE, WITH COUNCIL MEMBER STAPLETON ABSENT AND COUNCIL MEMBER LAUREN KLEIMAN OR MAYOR KLEIMAN RECUSED.

THANK YOU, MAYOR PROTEMBLA. OK, MADAM CLERK, PLEASE READ THE STATEMENT ON MOTIONS FOR RECONSIDERATION.

motion to reconsider the vote on any action taken by the city council at either this meeting or the previous meeting may be made only by one of the council members who voted with the prevailing side are there any motions for reconsideration hearing none we are adjourned