City Council - Regular Meeting

good afternoon the time is four o'clock and i call the september 8th city council meeting to order madam clerk roll call please all council members present now is the time for invocation that will be led by reverend monsignor doug cook of our lady of mount carmel catholic church following that we'll have the pledge of allegiance led by council member weber

Since I happen to attend the church where Monsignor Cook is the pastor, I'll pinch hit for him, but probably not as well. Dear Lord, we are here today because we care so much about the city and Thank you for all the volunteers who work so hard to build this place. Thank you for all the residents who care so much to put their time and talents into making the city a beautiful place to live. Thank you for our staff and council members who give so many hours and minutes of their day in thought to making this a wonderful, beautiful place. It is truly a beautiful place that you've given us. We ask f

I'm just going to leave it. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, council members Bartow and Weber. It is now my honor on behalf of the city of Newport Beach to recognize two outstanding Corona Del Mar high school student athletes and CIF Southern section champions, Sophia Simonoski from the girls swim team and Erin Silva from the boys wrestling team. Sophia and Erin, please come forward. Both of these exceptional athletes have represented Corona Del Mar High School and our community with tremendous talent, dedication, and sportsmanship. Sophia is the 2026 CIF Southern Section Division I champion in the girls 100-yard breaststroke, winning with an

Moving on to our next presentation, I will now read the September 2025. Actually, I'm going to have Lena read it. Do you still have it with you? You don't. We have a presentation, a proclamation to Janice Song, Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County Ambassador. Janice, please come forward to receive the proclamation.

Thank you. Janice, do you want to say a few words?

Thank you madam madam era just want to add to it if there is lunch. So when you say no lunch on Senate and it's actually a really good lunch and it is a very good lunch.

He's very generous with it, and it's a really neat opportunity for you to see what goes on at the food bank, and there's such a story to tell for so many years that they've been doing it there, and it's at the Great Park, and they use an old building, but it does such a great thing for our community. We don't think about it a lot, so I'm happy that you but if anyone in the audience in particular, it is a really meaningful and inspiring event and it's open to the community to come.

Madam Clerk, please read the notice regarding public comments on agenda and non-agenda items.

We will now proceed with public comments on all agenda and non-agenda items. Please note that members of the public will still have an opportunity to comment on agenda items under consent and closed session 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. Commander?

Could you direct your comments up here to the dais, please? Do you have any comments related to?

Any other speakers? Madam Clerk, do we have anyone online?

Can we unmute her on her end? Anyone else? Okay. That was the last speaker? OK. We'll now move on. This is the time for council announcements, oral reports from council members on committee activities, and for council members to request an item be placed on a future agenda. Council Member Wiegand, do you have any announcements or reports?

Just two. I do want to thank Zach Gentry and his municipal operations department this weekend. Huge tide surge, huge swell, and they were out there the week before, lifting up a lot of sand and protecting and barricading out the waves that were soon to come. If it weren't for you guys, that whole entire Main Street parking lot down by Balboa Pier would have flooded, and we would have had a repeat of what we did in 2020, I think. and so you guys were out there a lot up and down the coast keeping an eye on stuff and you saw a lot of news coverage of other cities that didn't fare as well but the

And then I do want to mention on Thursday, Battle of the Bay, Newport Harbor's going to win this year. Sorry, Sarah. Sorry, Mayor. I know you've got your son playing in the football program this year, but we took a drubbing last year, and I think we get a good opportunity to come back. We have a brand new principal at Newport Harbor High School, so he gets a chance to be a 1-0, and I look forward to taking CDM down this year.

Will he be on the field? That's the only thing that's going to help.

I'm excited to go to that too on Thursday. But I did want to say thanks again to our public works and to our police, to our fire, to our lifeguards. I was down there this weekend and what a technically challenging weekend you guys all had. Everything felt very safe and watching the sand kind of wash away was a little heartbreaking. We just had our water quality tides committee meeting and talking about sand. On the one hand, I guess it's good that we didn't go spend $30 million to replace that sand that would then wash away, but hopefully we can figure out some ways to bring our beaches back.

Councilmember Grant. Thank you. I'll echo those compliments to our Public Safety, MOD, Public Works. Obviously we had an incredible weekend and past couple weeks and it's worked out very well for us. So thank you so much. I also want to compliment the Newport Fire Foundation They featured a Vietnam veteran, Captain Charlie Plum at Woody Hall. He was able to share his remarkable story surviving as a Navy fighter pilot who endured over 2,000 days as a prisoner of war. It was really an honor to have him here at Woody Hall. He had some really good takeaways, including always pack a parachute, whic

How are the cookies? Amazing. Best cookies in the world. Council Member Weber?

Thank you Mayor pretend blown no comments other than the video clip that I provided for the karaoke. Oh We don't have it currently so nothing to add Hey, I'm just a girl

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

Councilmember Wiegand, do you have any items to pull from the consent calendar or conflicts to announce related to items number 1 through 16?

I have a conflict related to item 13 related to my membership at the Balboa Bay Club. Councilmember Grant?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to pull items two and seven, please.

OK. And I have no items to pull nor conflicts to announce. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to speak on the consent calendar, items number one through 16, except for numbers two and seven, which have been pulled by Mayor Pro Temblom?

Thank you. Are there any other speakers? Madam Clerk, do we have anyone online? OK. Seeing no comments up here either, do I have a motion?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd love to push the motion forward with adjustments to the minutes, noting a recusal on item 13 from Councilmember Bartow and a recusal on item 8 from Councilmember Stapleton.

Do I have a second? Seconded by Council Member Stapleton. Let's go ahead and vote.

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

Okay, we'll now move to consideration of items that have been removed from the consent calendar. Mayor Potemblom, are you wanting to take items two and seven separately or together?

I'm going to talk about item two first briefly. I'm not going to need a staff report. Thank you. And I have a couple of comments to make on it. Mainly, thanks. I recognize that the 4th of July this year was difficult, not necessarily for all of us that were on the peninsula, but some of us that saw it had emotional responses to it. This is the subsequent knee-jerk reaction. But I really appreciate that this council came together in a study session, talked about it, gave very clear parameters, and this is the revelation of those parameters we brought forth our public safety from both police and

There are a lot of things in here that are going to prohibit a lot of things. In my typical way, I don't actually care for prohibiting a lot of things. I think that we should embolden people to be free. But after seeing kind of what happened out there and seeing who was manifesting the problems, I'm so thankful that not only as a community, we addressed it. As a community and a council, we listened. We started it with a study session, which is what we should always do. We brought the people in. We had a great ability to talk to them, see what their concerns were. And then we put the experts in

Councilmember grant. Thank you. I will echo the compliments to our police department and to chief minor. I think the recommendation that we have on the agenda tonight Can provide significant benefits that protect our public safety, especially during the peak holidays, but just in general and I'm really I you know highly complimentary of all the work that's gone into that and this is an important you know a bit of advice from our public top top public safety officials so obviously we take it with um you know the highest regard i do propose that Rather than rushing through adopting measures, the

Seeing no other speakers up here, we'll go out to public comment on item number two.

Madam Clerk, is there anyone online? No raised hands online. Council Member Stapleton?

Yeah, I'm supportive of this. You know, just looking at these items that set up that the following should not apply on subsections A and B with the curfew. You know, there's 10 bullets here. You know, I started running through my head what might be something that would be prohibitive of somebody that's a minor not being able to get to do. But I think all of these items I can read and see that there is a workaround. And the one thing I've learned about in criminal justice is police officers have a discretion. And if they see something that kind of fits in this realm like, okay, sporting events,

We have a motion. Do I have a second? Are there other comments up here?

Thank you. One quickly and very brief comment. As I read it, it talks about when large crowds and unsupervised gatherings create heightened risks. And I feel like that has been the conversation. We can prepare. We can plan. We can have ancillary officers from other cities be ready to come down here. But the question is when the risk gets beyond something that we can easily handle. And so we listened. We had to sit here and listen. And this was the response. We needed something that was comprehensive and amazing. So I couldn't be more thankful. And I'd be happy to second Councilmember Wiegand's

We have a motion and a second. Council Member Grant, you have additional comments?

Just one quick clarification. You know, I think I was clear that I am supportive of this. I think that it's important for us to maintain, you know, the public safety at these important times. I am hopeful, you know, I am going to support this initiative tonight, but I am hopeful that as we move forward that we will have an opportunity to bring together a group COUNCILMEMBERS OR OTHERS TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THESE MEASURES THAT WE ARE ENTERTAINING SO THAT WE DO HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH.

DO YOU NEED TO READ THE ORDINANCE? NO. OKAY. WE'LL MOVE TO ITEM NUMBER 7, ALSO PULLED BY MAYOR POTAM BLOM.

Thank you. And I also do not require staff report. And this trails directly off of what we were just speaking to. I am a very firm believer that the experts are the best decision makers. And I think we were very blessed to have not only our very competent and amazing police force, all of our public safety officers involved, our city attorney's office, the mayor herself calling out to other agencies throughout our city manager's office, Public Works, everyone who came to make 4th of July turn into a very wonderful 5th of July as I was on the peninsula at that time. The idea that we're going to

I'll just again restate that I do believe that it's important for us to create a committee to work in partnership with our public safety professionals to accomplish emergency preparedness policies and resources. The purpose of the ad hoc is to support public safety as they coordinate these evidence-based recommendations and protect our community. Thank you.

We'll go out for public comment. Again, this is on agenda item number seven. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, do we have anyone online? I will bring it back up here for a motion.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would love to push a motion for denial of this ad hoc.

Do I have a second? Seconded by Councilmember Weber, the motion is for denial of this item. So that's against staff recommendation to create the committee. Let's go ahead and vote.

Madam Clerk, please read the statement on motions for reconsideration.

Are there any motions for reconsideration? OK, HEARING NONE, WE'LL NOW MOVE ON TO PUBLIC COMMENTS ON CLOSED SESSION ITEMS. MR. HARP, OR EXCUSE ME, WE'LL FIRST GO TO COMMENTS IN THE AUDIENCE.

Any other comments from the audience? Anyone online, Madam Clerk? Okay, Mr. Hart, please announce our closed session items.

And with that, we are now recessed to closed session. Mr. Harp, is there a closed session report?