City Council - Special Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the special meeting of the city council of the city of Mareno Valley. Please note that the city council receives a separate stipen from the community services district if any CSD business is conducted during this meeting. I now call this special meeting to order on February 26th at 6 pm. The pledge of allegiance will be led by Mayor Prom Gonzalez followed by a roll call. Please place your right hand over your heart and repeat after 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.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. Next item is C. A roll call. Madam clerk, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bernard here. Council member Delgado here, ma'am. Council member Baka Santa Cruz here. Mayor Prom Gonzalez here. And Mayor Cabrera here. Thank you.

Thank you. Before I move on to staff introductions, I would like to note that we only have relevant staff here tonight for uh the mall topic under discussion. Typically, we have a full um team of staff that is here, but just wanted to clarify for the record why you see some of these empty seats. We have uh only the relevant staff uh for this particular item here this evening. And so with that, I'll turn it over to our city clerk for staff introductions, please. Thank you, Mayor. Patty Rodriguez, city clerk. Sonia Gomez, senior deputy city clerk. Steven Kitania, city attorney. Brian Mohan, city manager. James Rodo, building official,

Edgar Gonzalez, fire marshal. Jesse Park, fire chief. Sir Mack, chief of police.

Thank you, team. Next, we will go to item E, which is public comments. And a friendly reminder that public comment shall be limited to only those items listed on the special meeting agenda pursuant to California Government Code section 54954.3. As many of you know, the city offers language translation services through a free app called Wordly. The app automatically translates a variety of languages into English and vice versa. To use this service, please scan the QR code at the speaker signup table by the double doors. For the visually impaired, please use your earphones or earbuds to listen to the verbal translation. If you do not have any such listening devices, please let the city clerk know, and we will gladly let you borrow some for this meeting. Before we move on to public comment on the only item on tonight's special agenda, I respectfully request that all comments be addressed to the presiding officer, which is myself and to the city council, my four colleagues. And I ask that all speakers keep their comments respectful and that members of the audience be courteous and refrain from disrupting any speakers at the podium. Now we'll move into item F, special order of business. I now open the special order of business regarding the status of the mall's closure. Item F1, report on status of Marino Valley Mall closure. And we will have a staff report from the fire chief, building official, and the city attorney. The fire chief Jesse Park, building

official James Verdugo, and city attorney Steve Kintania. Following the staff's presentations, the city council will have an opportunity to ask questions of staff. I will then open the matter up for public comment. However, I'd like to remind everyone beforehand that since this is a special meeting, public comments must pertain to the subject matter that is under consideration. Those wishing to comment are encouraged to complete a purple speaker slip and submit that to the city clerk's staff. Each speaker will have a total of three minutes to comment, which may be modified based on the number of speakers that are present and submit their speaker slips. If necessary, I will ask for consensus from my colleagues uh to reduce the amount of time per speaker in order to ensure that we can complete our business this evening. Now, let's proceed with the staff's presentations. And at this time, I will turn it over to our city staff. And first up is our fire chief, Jesse Park.

Good evening, council, and to our attendees. My name is Jesse Park, and I act as the city's fire chief. I'll be presenting information regarding the Marino Valley Mall. This presentation is a summary. The times, dates, and violations are on record, and this presentation isn't intended to provide the full comprehensive list. It is intended to give you an overview of the events leading up to the closure of the mall. To start with, I want to provide some background information. The city does not have its own municipal fire department in the same way our neighbor, Riverside City, does. Marino Valley contracts with Riverside County to be part of regional cooperative fire protection. This is similar to other regional county fire departments in Southern California like Orange County, Los Angeles County, and San Diego County. Both Riverside County and San Diego County contract with CalFire, the state's fire department for operational staffing, and CalFire has many such cooperative fire protection agreements throughout the state. Marino Valley also contracts with Riverside County for fire marshal services. County fire marshals are not CalFire staff and therefore the patches may be different but the mission is the same to protect life and property. Fire codes and laws are initiated at the state level. The state issues the current fire code. The county then adopts the code and the city in turn adopts the code and it becomes city policy. Each jurisdiction can amend the code. However, we have not made any changes and we accepted the code as written. Your fire marshall then uses the city code to perform inspections in the city. I'm providing this background because Cal Fire was not responsible for the mall being temporarily closed and Riverside County Fire is not responsible for the mall being closed. Nor is the city of Marino Valley responsible for

the mall being closed. The person responsible for the mall's closure is the owner of the mall. And I'll tell you why I can say that with full confidence. But before I go into the timeline of the current mall closure, I want to remind everybody that this is the second time in three years that the fire department has had to partially close the mall due to serious life safety violations. The first time was in 2023 at the Anchor Store location that was formerly Godshocks, which is still owned by the current mall owner. Although this building was occupied, it did not receive the same amount of attention as today because it was operating as an unpermitted distribution center and its closure did not affect the suites inside the mall. The reason that it was ordered closed and vacated were very serious. unpermitted high pile storage, high hazards in a building where fire protection systems had been disabled, doors welded shut, fire exits blocked, emergency lighting removed, and unrated electrical hanging. These violations are the responsibility of the mall owner. And despite having the mall owner and his team attend a meeting here at city hall, it still more took more than a year to make those corrections. and the city litigation is still unresolved in that case. This pattern of removing fire protection systems, performing unpermitted construction, and storing inappropriate material in the mall continues. On one occasion, our inspectors found the mall owner illegally storing pallets of expired hand sanitizer in a vacant portion of the mall. Hand sanitizer is incredibly flammable and the sprinklers are not rated to extinguish that type of fire. We were very lucky that our inspectors were so thorough and we had that hazard removed immediately.

But our warnings to stop this type of practice seemed to go unheard by the mall owner. In March of 2025, our inspectors were at the mall looking at the tenant improvement plans for four new businesses. when they found the sprinkler pipes and alarms had been ripped out without getting a permit or installing new ones. If a fire occurred in that location, there would be nothing to stop it from growing and the results could be catastrophic. That portion of the mall was immediately placed on firewatch. And unfortunately, council to this day, they're still on fire watch almost a year later. And that's because the mall owner will not replace the fire system. Effectively, this makes it impossible for those four businesses to open. So, now let's get to the timeline of the current mall closure. On April 3rd of 2024, the mall was scheduled for its routine annual inspection. The mall, just like any other business like it, is required by law to provide us with the testing and maintenance records for their sprinklers, alarms, generators, exit and emergency lighting, and smoke control systems. When a business is prepared, they will hand over these records on our arrival. And our walkthrough and inspection is relatively brief. Unfortunately, the mall did not have any of these records. And during the walkthrough, our inspectors found many other violations that needed to be resolved. It's important to note that just because a property owner doesn't have a curtain current maintenance records, we don't shut them down immediately. We only deem a building unsafe when there is a true threat to public safety. So, when we ask the mall to provide a record that says their generator is in working order and they tell us they don't have one, but they say the generator works, we give them the benefit of the doubt. Our inspectors are not certified

contractors. We do not make the owner start up the generator to prove that it runs because we would be making ourselves liable if we signed it off. That's what the contractor's for. If we ask the mall staff if their sprinklers are in good working order and they say yes, but we don't have any records to prove it, we still issue them a notice of violation. They're still in violation. and we inform them of the requirements and schedule another inspection, hoping that upon the next inspection, we'll have the proper documents and we can sign that violation off. We provided the mall the notices of the violation, all the violations, how to correct them, and we scheduled and rescheduled many return visits, but the mall owner refused to correct these violations. And this has continued past 2024 through 2025 and right into early 2026. Over time, despite the mall revitalization plan being approved, we suspected that the mall may not comply with the law and this could really affect all the businesses in the mall. In general, unless there is an obvious life safety violation, we do not close a business due to outdated documentation. If a business is located in a larger building like the mall and the smaller business has completed their requirements but the larger shell has has not and they have outdated requirements, our past practice is still to let the new business open and create revenue believing fully that the building owner is indeed making those needed corrections. However, the continued pattern by the mall owner of refusing to correct any violations became so concerning that it needed to be brought to the attention of the city manager and the council. We requested that the mall owner come to city hall and we reinform him of the

violations and scheduled a return inspection in two weeks where he could provide us the required testing and maintenance records that had been due for the last two years. We met with the mall owner on February 5th, 2026 and then we scheduled our return visit for February 19th. On February 19th, myself, your fire marshal, and your city building official went to the mall to collect the updated records. Unfortunately, not only did the mall owner not have the required maintenance records, but the mall staff also freely admitted, and this is very important, they admitted that the exit doors were broken, the alarm panel didn't work, and the generators did not work. We had given them the benefit of the doubt in the past, but now we knew for a fact that the mall was unsafe for the public to be in. I deem it unsafe and our city building official provided them a notice to vacate, effectively closing the mall to the public while still letting the required security and contractors enter to get the work done and to get the mall back open. That's what we've been doing every day. your fire marshal staff, myself, instead of doing their daily business, we're going back to the mall, explaining again and again what is required to get the mall back open. Every day, our answer to the mall is the same. Fix the nine life safety violations. The mall actually has hundreds of fire code violations that need correcting, but there are nine that we have identified as true life safety hazards. When those nine are corrected, the mall can open. Finally, I want to counter a false narrative that the mall was ignorant of the violations

and caught off guard. Our inspectors all utilize an iPad with location services enabled. Every violation is digitally recorded. It's accompanied by a picture and that is timestamped and dated. The notices are recorded onto our server and provided to the mall's owner's designated officials. All of this information is stored for analytics and for billing and for potential litigation. In no way was the mall ignorant to the violations or corrections made or needed. The only people that were caught off guard were the tenants. It would have been highly inappropriate for the fire department to tell the tenants that the mall can close. That is the responsibility of the mall owner to tell them what's going on. However, once it became clear that the mall was unsafe, your fire marshall staff along with myself, we went door to door to every suite and we handed them a press release and we answered their questions. Again, it was never our intent to see the mall closed, but it is our responsibility to ensure that serious public safety violations are resolved. That's why I can confidently say that the reason the mall is temporarily closed is due to the mall owner's inaction. That is the end of my report and presentation. And before I take any questions, I'd like to provide our city building official and our city attorney an opportunity to provide some additional information. Thank you.

Good evening. Um my name is James Bdugo and I serve as the billing official for the city of Marino Valley. In light of the serious nature of this matter, I would like to provide additional context regarding the role and involvement of the billing official within the timeline referenced by fire chief Jesse Park. The core duties and responsibilities of a building official are established through certification by the international code council and through the enforcement of the California building codes as adopted by this jurisdiction. Under this authority, the building official is both authorized and obligated to administer and enforce the California building code and all applicable state adopted standards. The purpose of these codes is clear to establish minimum requirements that safeguard public health, life safety, and the general welfare of the community. These standards address structural integrity, adequate means of egress, proper lighting and ventilation, accessibility and protection of life and property from fire and other hazards associated with the built environment. They are not aspirational guidelines. They are the minimum safeguards necessary to ensure that buildings remain safe for occupancy and enjoyment of the public. Pursuant to section 104.1 of the California Building Code, the building official is responsible for enforcement of the code and it and is authorized to interpret and apply its provisions. While interpretations, policies, and procedures may be adopted to clarify application, they must remain consistent with the intent and purpose of the code and may not wave any explicitly prescribed requirements. Preservation of life safety is not discretionary. It is a defined boundary of the authority entrusted to this office. Similarly, the fire code is uh official is charged with ensuring that required fire protection and life safety systems are properly maintained, documented and brought into compliance when conditions are present. When conditions present a clear threat to life, safety or health under the California fire code, those conditions

must be addressed. Any structure or equipment deemed unsafe due to inadequate means of egress, inefficient lighting or ventilation, fire hazards, improper occupancy, or lack of maintenance is referred to the building official for appropriate action which may include repair, alteration or demolition or notices and orders to follow procedure. When unsafe conditions are identified, the code requires that notices be served by the property owner or authorized to the property owner or authorized agent specifying the deficiencies and the correct actions necessary to abate the hazard. The building official is further authorized to issue required notices or orders including written vacate orders when occupancy is determined to be unsafe, unlawful uh in order to protect life. These provisions collectively establish the fundamental life safety obligation of the code officials to ensure that no occupied condition falls below the minimum standards established by the California building and fire codes. Property owners bear the ongoing responsibility to maintain all fire protection and life safety systems in operable condition at all times. Under the authority granted by the state of California building and fire codes and under my certification as a building official through the international code council, an order to vacate was issued as noted by a chief Jesse Park. That order will remain in effect until all required life safety systems within the building have been fully repaired, restored to proper working order, and verified to comply with applicable life safety codes and regulations. This action is protective. Our obligation, both legal and ethical, is to ensure that buildings occupied by the public meet the minimum life safety standards established by law. Until these standards are met, occupancy will need to be deferred until compliance is achieved. I defer the mic over to city attorney Steve Continia.

Thank you, James. Um, good evening everyone. Good evening, council. And good evening to everybody who um took the time to come out here. Uh, I'd like to start out with talking about what we all have in common in this room. And all we have all what we all have in common is that we want the mall to be open and open as soon as possible. I can tell everyone in this room that each one of these council members have come to me and pleaded try to do whatever you can figure out anything you can to get this mall reopen. But at the same time, the council understands the predicament we're in. And that predicament is a is a good predicament. and that is we have a fire department who has a duty and an obligation to ensure that whatever business operates within the city is operating in a manner that protects health and safety. So I just like to start with that. So that's what we all have in common. That's what our common objective is is to ensure that this mall is open as soon as possible. We are losing tax revenue every day from the sales that take place there at the mall. Our retail businesses are losing income. Their employees are losing their have lost their jobs. That affects families in our community. families who depend on the income that they earn from these retail tenants, who have their businesses in the mall, to feed their families, to clothe their children, to do everything that's necessary to take care of their families. Without that income, they continue to suffer. That's why we all want this mall to reopen.

And in addition to that, it causes a lot of inconvenience for shoppers and visitors of the mall. You we not only have shoppers in the mall, but we have um groups of senior citizens to go in there and get exercise by walking throughout the mall. I would do that. I'm a senior, but I'm don't have time to go for walks any event. So, let's begin with that. We all know what the issues are here. We all understand it. This council understands it. And it's unfortunate for them that they have their hands tied here because the fire department has to do what the fire department has to do to protect the life safety of everyone in this room. So this is all really about life safety and fire protection deficiencies at the mall. That's simply what it's all about. When do they have to comply with all of these violations? And there's nine violations as soon as possible before the mall can be reopened. And the determination as to when they comply is a determination that's has to be made by our experts, which include our fire chief and our fire marshal. You know, we all heard about these hor the horrible stories that came out of the city of Oakland when there was a fire there. We lost over 30 lives there. When you took a when you take a deep dive into what the result of all that was, families were destroyed because of the loss of loved ones. But in addition to that, the taxpayers had to cover the bill for the damages that and the loss of these loved ones. They had to pay up millions millions of dollars. That's not going to restore the lives of the people who were lost, but that was a

direct impact on the taxpayers in the city of Oakland. Um, in Switzerland, you I'm sure many of us have read about or heard about the fire that took place there. And what was in common in both the Oakland fires and the fire in Switzerland were lack of inspections, lack of followup by their respective fire departments. That is not happening here and with our fire department. I can assure you it will never happen here. So this is what this is all about. It's all about the deficiencies that our fire department has determined exists there with respect to life safety and fire protection. Oh, as an aside, just like to point out that um staff has set up a page on our city's website that provides background information on this particular situation, explains how we got there or how we got here. It also includes a list of frequently an frequently asked questions that are be frequently asked about the situation. And we are also providing a status update every day at 4:30 um listing all the violations that have been resolved and all the pending violations. Now, when this came to my attention um in January, you know, so you know, I was aware that a lot there was there were violations out there, but when it got to the level of having to make a determination that we may have to shut the mall down, the city manager and I immediately dispatched a joint letter to the mall owner, informing the mall owner that our fire department has identified that

there various fire protection systems that were demolished. They removed or modified without the knowledge or pre-approval of our fire department. And this included like basic very basic life-saving devices such as fire alarms and fire sprinklers. I mean, that's something we all understand is necessary. We also pointed out in that joint letter to the owner that in addition to these fire violations, we had community enhancement in our neighborhood services division, which is essentially our code enforcement division. had we had learned that they had issued 88 code violations to the mall for things such as unpermitted construction, the lack of certificates of occupancy. If you don't have a certificate of occupancy, that means that that place has not been determined to be safe for anyone to occupy that facility. that there were cracked pavement, there was u insufficient curbing, there was inadequate and complete parking and lane striping. There's a w long list of violations, but I just want to point out those are not the reasons why the mall was ordered to be shuttered. After I sent this letter, I had anticipated that I would receive an immediate response from the mall owner or the mall management and lo and behold, nothing. And then I was informed by the fire department that the we had some very very significant fire safety issues there. Some of these issues were discovered simply because we have a contractor there working on the facility that we have leased for our immersive museum that the city is

planning on opening up there soon. So, our contractor had reported to staff that they've identified that c there are certain issues there that we should be concerned about with respect not only to the lease premises but also for the entire mall. The concern that we have is that well the concern that I had is that since I didn't receive a response I thought okay let me give the owner another opportunity to respond. So on February 26, which um just coincided with the time the fire department had considered um issuing an order to vacate. I dispatched a letter to the mall owner informing the mall owner that these issues have not been resolved. And I included in that letter oh on fee that was on February 19th. I'm sorry. Thank you, Brian. So I sent a letter on February 19th and in that letter I reiterated the nine violations that had been identified by the fire department and those included the lack of inspections in regards to and and testing in regards to the fire sprinkler the mall's fire sprinkler system the mall's fire alarm system the smoke control system the mall's fire doors the mall's fire standpipe system which I have no idea what that is the fire smoke dampers, emergency generators, emergency lighting, and emergency exit lighting. Now, these are just the categories that they were cited for. And within these categories, it included issues such as u locks on certain exit doors that needed to be either removed because they weren't working or needed to be

repaired or replaced. There was signage that was missing um that was nec these are we're talking about emergency exit sighting just basic signage like that that needed to be repaired or replaced. The mall needed to provide updated key codes for the emergency communications room. Can you imagine having our fire department show up and they can't get into that room on a you know in in the case of an emergency. There were a multitude of smoke detectors that uh needed to be cleaned immediately to clear some of the dust buildup or replaced. In fact, my fire alarm was going off on Sunday and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I looked up there and it was covered with dust. U there are various fire extinguishers throughout the mall that needed to be tested and inspected to ensure that they work. Uh there were piles of storage that needed to be removed that were placed and stored near certain emergency exit doors. U there were we have these there are fire rated doors in throughout the mall and a lot of business establishments that withstand fire and smoke during an emergency. Many of those needed to be repaired. uh the fire rated doors. They had to have some of the self-closing hardware and the smoke seals tested and replaced. There are certain repairs that needed to be made to all the fire resistant walls to ensure that smoke and fire couldn't, you know, go through these walls to spread throughout the mall. They needed to install illuminated signs at fire exit doors. Um they the the main alarm control unit in the fire command room needed to be diagnosed to ensure that it was functional during a fire emergency. They needed to remove storage that was

piled up in the electrical room. And so the list goes on and on. So although there's only nine violations that they've been cited for for reasons which which is the justification for shutting down the mall within each of those categories there's a host of violations and issues that need to be resolved immediately before the mall is allowed to be open. So the one thing that the good news I have to report is that the mall retain attorneys and I have to say that it was a relief to be talking to their attorneys because I believe they understand the law with respect to these particular issues. they understand the procedures they must comply with in order to get us through this this ordeal, in order to get the mall open. So, that's the good thing to report. The other good thing to report is that the mall has resolved four violations so far. So, now we're down to five of them. And those the five that have been resolved include The four that have been resolved include um test the inspection and testing and documentation for the fire sprinkler systems, the fire stamp height systems, the fire smoke dampers, and the emergency generators. So, we're down to five now that need to be resolved before the mall can be reopened. And that includes these very critical issues. They need to um conduct inspections, testing, and maintenance. Not just inspection, not just testing, but all three with respect to the fire

alarm system, the smoke control system, the fire doors, the emergency lighting, and the exit lighting. Now, how long that's going to take, I I can't tell you. I the mall the mall mall's attorneys have informed me that they've designated a an individual who has some background with fire issues who's been assigned to deal specifically with our fire department and our building part department on how to comply with these various issues. At first, they assigned these duties to a security person, which shocked me, which indicated to me that somehow somebody was missing the point here. But again, I think we are moving in the right direction because we are getting compliance. In fact, on my way into city hall today, by the time I got here, they resolved another issue. So, we are moving in the right direction. In the meantime, unfortunately, this city council does not have the legal authority, I do not have the legal authority, your city manager does not have the legal authority to order the mall to be reopened as long as these fire safety, these life safety and fire protection issues are resolved. And so I anticipate that and I should also point out that in order to expedite matters in this particular situation, our fire department, which is and they're not required to do this, has promised and committed to show up every single day during the weekdays at 1:00 p.m. to conduct inspections, to answer questions, to assist in any way they

can, to get the mall in a condition where they should be to ensure that the public that the public who visits the mall, the employees who who work there, the retail tenants who rent space there, and anybody else who walks in that mall is going to be safe and ensured that if there is a fire emergency and and a fire evacuation that it's most likely they'll survive that situation. Now, so the question, the bottom line question is when do they have to do this? And I think that the question should be or or and the answer to that question is they need to do it as soon as possible to get back into business. So these retail businesses can get back and earn money, pay taxes. The customers can come in there and shop without any concern about their safety. And families can earn money to put food on the table. pay their rent and mortgages and live their lives as in a peaceful way without the without the the stress of not knowing where their next paycheck is going to come from. So again, I'll conclude my remarks with we all have in common the objective to get this mall open as soon as possible in a manner that's safe for everyone. So, I am that concludes my statement. If there's any questions, I'm available to try to answer them.

Thank you very much to our fire chief, our building official, and our city attorney for the report. At this time, we'll bring it back to the deis for council questions of staff. And it looks like uh we have a question from uh council member Baka Santa Cruz. Chief Park, could you explain Firewatch and who pays for that and what's the purpose? You said that the u the mall's been on fire watch for a year. Yeah, actually I'll defer to Edgar. He's our expert for for firewatch and exactly how it works because he receives the reports.

Yes. So, a firewatch is um conducted by a security company and they're required to monitor the building 24/7 and basically act as a point of uh communication for people that are occupying the building in case there is an emergency or a fire. If they see smoke uh to help evacuate people and call the fire department, summon summon help. Um act as a fire alarm system would traditionally if it was installed. mall covers that, right? That's an additional cost that the mall has to have because their systems are not up to date. Correct. Council member Delgado,

thank you for those presentations, all three of you guys. That was very helpful for us. Uh very helpful for the public to understand uh what transpired and we just didn't wake up one day and decide that this needed to be done. Um I have a two questions for Chief Park. Uh we understand why fire extinguishers are so important, fire sprinklers are so important, doors being um readily available to exit egress. Um but what's the importance of having backup generators for the mall? I mean lighting I guess would be the number one uh what would be the other for fire life safety in the in that that regards?

Yeah, ab fabulous question. So even without a fire, if the mall goes dark because of a power outage like we've just recently had with our storms, there would be panic in the mall because the generators are there to provide that emergency lighting to light up the way to go to keep the alarm system running, the PA, and to highlight where the exits are. So even if there wasn't a fire, without any backup generators going, uh that can create a hazard all on its own. Um, however, with a fire, we may not be able to have the doors work. We may not have the smoke control systems work. We may not get alarms. There could be a fire in the mall uh that occurs with after a power outage and that could create just pure chaos and a true catastrophe. So, that's why the generators are so important.

Thank you, sir. And and my last question for you, Chief Park, from your training and experience, would it be safe or appropriate for this city council, for this body or or city staff to override any safety issues that were presented to us regarding the closure of the mall?

I would not recommend that. I would I would strongly discourage that. And one of the reasons being um we're here here to be your experts. Experts are here to tell you what happened in the past. we can't, you know, see what's happening in the future, but we we know what's happened in the past and and there's rules out there for this. Uh the other reason is you would be accepting the liability completely as the city council because you would be going against your building official, your fire marshal, and your fire department, and you would be taking on all that liability yourself. So, I would not recommend that. Thank you, Chief Park, and thank you to each of you guys for your presentations.

Thank you. Next, we'll go to Mayor Pro Tim Gonzalez. Again, thank you. Thank you team for for those presentations. And uh Chief uh Park, of the five uh remaining uh violations, um are these the most challenging ones of the slew of the of the nine or are they are they all different? Um what's the kind of the the challenge of the last remaining five?

Yeah, that's that's actually a good question. So, uh, in our opinion, the mall handled the easier ones first. So, for instance, they did not buy new generators. They just rented temporary ones, right? And I will explain that in a in a minute, but um, so they're renting generators that are in good working order. They haven't fixed their generators. Um, so that still needs to occur, but that's an easy fix because you're buy you're renting something that works. The sprinklers as well uh, are pretty basic. I mean, it's plumbing, right? So, to get a clean sprinkler report and a standpipe report is pretty basic. However, if you have not maintained your fire alarm panel and it has gone completely outdated, you're going to have a hard time. They're not going to make those parts. They're not going to update that software. So, you're looking at more challenging. Uh same with your smoke control systems that are tied into that. Uh also, your fire doors and your exit signs and your emergency lighting. Those are all more challenging things because they outdate themselves and if you if you've never kept on up on them, you may have to just replace them completely and that's going to be a timeline because you're going to have to wait for the shipping, right? So, uh I would agree with you, sir, that yes, the the less challenging things occurred first and the five remaining are going to be more challenging.

Thank you. Next up, Council Member Bernard. Thank you. So, um, the questions that I have is, um, so JC Penney, Macy's, and Harkkins were able to stay open. Can you please explain why they were able to stay open?

Yeah. So, in the case of Macy's and Harkkins, or excuse me, Macy and J C Penney, they own their own building. They own their own parking lot. They own their own fire protection systems. And one of the crucial things is is their exit and evacuation plans exit outside the mall. So, they have sufficient exits with the mall concourse doors being closed, which is what they're at now. And they're all up to date. And so, we uh we have a history in the city if we are going to issue violations of only closing down the offending area, right? We're not going to close down a whole business if we can just say, "Hey, your fire hood isn't working. So, you can't cook there, but we'll let your business stay open, right? because we don't want the full impact to the business. Um, and so that's the case for Macy's and J C Penney. Harkkins was a little different. We had to go and change their business practice. So, we had to work with their management. Harkkins has sufficient exits because of the type of occupancy it is. You know, with it being a theater, they need to be able to exit a lot of people very quickly. And so, they have a lot of exits. And they actually have like six bay doors at the at the rear entrance of the mall, kind of over there by um RGB. And so we were able to identify that they still had smoke doors that they could bring down. They could close off their kiosks. They could partition off those uh exit doors that normally people would exit into the mall. And so we weren't able to do it to start with, Councilwoman, but we were after working with the mall, we were able to let them open. Unfortunately, every other business, they share fire protection and they share exits and hallways. And so even though we went to all the businesses that we thought, okay, maybe there's there's an opportunity to open this business, they're just already tied in. And so those were the only three that we could.

Thank you. Thank you. And then one last question maybe for our city manager uh to transition over uh toward the businesses and uh the employees who are without work and more of the economic and financial components of this. Um, can you can you share, Mr. City Manager or any of our members of our staff, uh, what options the city might have to try to provide any kind of assistance, economic, financial, or otherwise, uh, for the businesses, for the workers who have been affected by the closure.

Um, thank you, mayor, council members. Uh, let me go back to what economic development um, has already done. Uh so the day of the notice evacuation um as fire was going through uh the building uh economic development was also um they we had developed a strike team in which they were going through to the businesses to the employees providing them information about um their respective resources whether it be an employee or business. Um they've also put out additional information uh about the Burke and other resources that are available to the business community as well as the employees. Um regards to um your specific question um on what does the city do now? Um the city does not have anything um uh currently um codified that when a situation like this happens that a particular fund or a particular reserve or particular policy kicks in in which we deem uh an economic package. give you an example. Recently um when we had um a um federal shutdown, one of the longest ones in history, um this particular body under emergency powers created a fund for um a food program. So although we don't have a standing codified policy or practice, this body could make a decision as to something of that nature that we did with the food program or the food pantry uh do something here. Um but at this particular point in time, we do not have anything in place other than the economic development uh department going out and providing uh resources for the businesses and the employees.

Did that answer your question? Yes. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Mr. Mayor. Yes. If I could, um, I'd like to give a progress report of what occurred today so that you can be fully up to date. I couldn't put it in the presentation because it occurred today and you know, we have to we have a posting time, but I think it would be beneficial to uh the council if you would like. Absolutely. Please.

Okay. So, today myself and Edgar and the team went out to meet with the mall owner and his his staff and and this is what we found. Um, the good news is the mall owner has hired several people to address the nine life safety violations. And each day that we go to the mall, we receive uh reports and we continue our inspections and some progress has been made. Some of that has been explained pretty well by our city attorney. But I'd like to show you what one of the reports, this is called a clean report. I know you can't see it very well, but on the clean report, what you'll see is there's a spot that says pass and then there's a spot that says fail. This is for the sprinklers. Okay? Okay, so this is a clean report and that's why it's got everything is itemized, right? It says all the parameters, who did it, where it was, what what sprinkler they're looking at, all those things. And then there's uh the opposite is is a dirty report. So the dirty report basically has a has a box here that says fail, right? And and so that is also required so that we know what they're working on, right? So when we go in, we say, "Where's your dirty report?" And they hand it to us and we say, "Okay, how are you working on this?" And um so so far we've gotten clean reports from sprinklers and stand pipes and smoke dampers. When we asked for the report for the emergency lights and exit signs we were given this letter. This letter is d This is when we were there on 221. Okay. So a few days ago on 221 we went there and they gave us a letter. We said where's your report? We want more, you know, information. Do you have a clean report? They said, "Yes, this is our clean report." Okay, I'm going to read it to you. Okay. To whom it may concern, this letter is to confirm that all emergency lights and exit signs at the above reference job site have been inspected and tested. All units are currently in good working order and operating as intended. Testing was performed to pro to verify proper illumination and functionality during

emergency power. No deficiencies were observed at the time of this inspection. And then it's got a scribble of a signature. Um I it didn't put a name down. It's it's an electrical services. Okay. So this is what they presented to us except that we know it's false because it says they tested it under emergency power, but they didn't have generators. So how are they going to test something that it's under emergency power? They can't. Also, we know because we've done the inspection that there's several exit signs that are in violation. So, we went out to check them, right? They're telling us that it's good. Okay. Again, I know you can't see these, but they're for you. Broken, broken, broken, broken, and broken. So, we cannot sign off anything right that says that that it is an obvious violation. It also makes us very hard for us to trust who we're talking to. Now to today, full transparency, they came in, the mall owner and and his representative came in and they gave us uh they gave us some more dirty reports. Okay, so they just told you that they told us that this was their clean report and now they gave us this report for fire and exit signs because we told them we cannot accept this and it's dirty. Okay. So, it means that there's failures in this and all the additional reports they had had failures. So, here's another report that we received from a contractor and they're just being honest here. This contractor, they wrote wrote repairs are needed, units turned off at the breaker and they list the items. So, we know the smoke management system is not in working order and even if some of it did work, it's turned off right at the breakers because it's failed.

So, we do have additional reports each day. We will be looking at them. We'll go out there. But the past history is not um helping the situation. And our goal is for the mall to be safe and pro prosperous, right? We all want that. Like our city attorney said, we want to reopen it, but we want it to stay open. And I say stay open because the mall owner told us that their generators are 30 years old and they don't work. So he asked us could we approve a backup to the backup. In other words, temporary generators, right? Ones on wheels. And we said, "Yeah, okay. As long as they meet the requirements of the building and and they're approved by our building official, we'll do that because we want you to get the testing done and we want it up and running." But the law is very clear. Temporary means 90 days. Okay. So, the mall has pledged that they'll fix these nine life safety violations, but remember they have hundreds, the ones that Steve talked, there's hundreds of those other violations. So, what happens in 90 days when we go back? They still have many violations undone and they didn't get the generators. It it's really a tough question that we're we're all having to think about right now, but that's the situation we're in. So that is today's update. Tomorrow there will be a new update, but I I hope I was able to shed some clarity on that. Thank you.

Thank you very much once again for the reports and the updates. We'll go ahead and bring it back to the day. I'll ask just one last time if there are any further questions from the council. If there are none, seeing none, we will go ahead and move into public Council member Vaka Sanders, one one more question that has been brought up on your business card that you're leaving at the mall. Yeah. Is there a bad contact number on it? It's possible. It's a It's a city card. It may go to an It's supposed to go to the admin, fire admin. I'll have I'll have uh it look into it now. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for letting me know.

Thank you. Sure, we have been directing everybody to the to the website and the FAQs and there's a call line um that goes to the appropriate person. So, if it's a you know, if it's a question that I can answer, I'll call them back. Thank you. So, seeing there are no further questions, we will go ahead and move into public comment. Madame clerk, how many requests do we have to speak? Thank you, mayor. We currently have 15. I'd like for them to have the full three minutes. Okay, Madam Clerk, please go ahead and call up our first speakers.

Thank you, Mayor. The first three speakers are Sheena McIll, followed by Tony Hernandez, followed by John Stevens. And just a friendly reminder, um, you couldn't see your names up on the screen just in case if you're curious in where in what order you fall on the list. Um, so you can be prepared. And then a friendly reminder that every speaker does get three minutes per speaker. And there is a clock up on the screen just in case if you want to reference that. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Sheena McIll. I'm pretty sure everybody sitting on the panel has heard from me. I'm speaking not only on behalf of my business, but in support of the mall and the many small business owners who operate within it. I have been overseeing properties of this magnitude since 2003, over 20 years of experience in mall management and large-scale property management. In my in my space alone, I have 20 staff members, including my 66-year-old mother and my child. We represent just a small portion of many individuals currently out of work and unable to provide for their families due to this closure. I poured my heart, my soul into this place and I've sacrificed so much over $100,000 in my 4,000 square feet. When I've learned that the mall was closing, I immediately reached out to ownership who's in the building right now and I asked what's needed to be done and how could I help? Within days, I worked with ownership. I secured qualified vendors to begin addressing the cited corrections even on the weekend. I also reached out to my city and county contacts to ensure I was speaking with the right decision makers. Matt has acknowledged that he that mistakes were made. Ball was dropped. However, we are supposed to also believe in accountability paired with correction. Jesus teaches us to forgive. Right. Neighborhood fire owner Steve Miller, who's also in this building, a former fire chief with deca decades of experience, has evaluated this property, he has continuously stated and certified that the mall is in no immediate danger and does not pose a life safety risk at this time. Of the nine corrections cited, the remaining items are we're talking about doors and alarm components. We're talking about stuff that we can't find that you have to source and then buy. I'm going to skip through some of this because I got, you know, just a minute. But your guys's um the city of Marino Valley's vision

statement speaks about building a strong, safe, and prosperous community, about economic vitality, about opportunity and partnership. Keeping this mall closed, as long as you guys are keeping this mall closed, this doesn't strengthen the community. It weakens the small businesses. It displaces the workers. It disrupts families and reopening with oversight and o reopening with oversight aligns with your vision. You guys have to align with your vision that's on your website. It allows safety and economic stability to move forward together. Look at your mission statement and then look at what's happening right now with this mall. We have so many people that are not able to go back to work for some doors and some lighting. You just admitted that the backup generators are back up and running temporarily. There can be a firewatch, an extended firewatch. There's other avenues than to keep this mall closed. Thank you. Our next three speakers are Tony Hernandez, followed by John Stevens, followed by Ismael Gonzalez.

Okay. Uh my name is Tony Hernandez and I'm here to uh represent and speak on behalf of the mall. You know, and our main concern of the mall is to provide a safe environment for our tenants and customers. And we try to keep up as much as possible with our equipment, with our fire equipment. We have been working diligently with the fire department and uh in the last week or so we have been working 24 hours a day to make sure we take care of these issues and basically uh we are working on that and uh we are asking basically that u you know uh you you mentioned something of the generators the generators uh we have ordered parts you know and that's one thing where you you guys are are incorrect you order parts and the parts are due to come in within the next few days and you know we are working on these repairs. We are working on these issues and basically you guys are being negative that we are not doing anything about this. We're working really hard, you know, because this mall there's a lot of people that depend for this mall, you know, for their sa, you know, for their, you know, to provide for their families, you know, for their rents, for their families. You know, we have a lot of seniors that go in there in the mall walking. We have two schools that are, you know, that are backed up by the federal by the federal government. And then you know we have se you know a couple doctors you know a dentist in in the mall you know and basically this there you guys uh all we're asking for we you know we will go ahead and continue to to gather all to take care of all these issues in a timely manner. We just asking for an extension and let them all go back to work you know all the employees because you know basically you are hurting that and we're supposed to be a city where we're supposed to be united to work together. We understand the safety issues. We understand what the fire department is doing, you know, and they know and but we need to work together and my recommendation is to give them all an extension and you know

basically to allow us uh to get these things done while you know while you know we we have the people back to work and the mall you know to creating revenue for everybody else. So basically that is what I'm recommending the staff to do. We're supposed to be a city to work together, not to destroy be destroyed by the media. The media is destroying the city, destroying the mall everywhere. And I understand we're working for safety. two and a half years we have not did a single issue in the mall you know and basically but I understand that there's certain issues you know because you know the you know the mall's 30 years old and we are working on all these issues and with your support and you know and basically for you to allow us to do something with the mall I would appreciate it because we're going to work together and make this city the what it should be and that that's what I have to The next three speakers are John Stevens, followed by Ismael Gonzalez, followed by Elizabeth Toriio.

Hi, council. My name is John Stevens and I'm a lawyer and I represent them all. Um, but I'm also the mayor of the city of Costa Mesa. So, first thing I want to do is say thank you to Mayor Cabrera. um to to hold this meeting, this special meeting, and to call it is a very good thing to listen to the public and to listen to the mall owner and me, and I appreciate it. I also like to commend your city attorney, uh Mr. Kintania, who since I've been working with him, has been a model of responsiveness. Um we can disagree on the substance. Our position of course is the mall shouldn't have been redteaged as a substantive matter because it didn't meet the standard of the health and safety code. We also filed an appeal that says that the actual documents were procedurally uh deficient and you can read our appeal uh because there wasn't a reasonable time limit for correction based on the nature of the nuisance which is right in your code section 6.04. uh there wasn't a reference to the potential consequences of failure to abate the nuisance by the by by the specified period and there wasn't a notice of right to appeal in those documents. So the documents themselves were deficient but but I'm not here to litigate that. What I'm here to do is to be an agent to fix this problem. And as Mr. Kintania said, he he and I are on speed dial with one another right now. he picks up on the second ring and he responds and I appreciate it. One thing I would like to do by way of an ask is I would love it if other um uh the the I know the fire uh department and is is important is uh busy, but if they could have that level of responsiveness to our team. We have Mr. Miller who's working

around the clock. I'm on this 247 to make the mall h open. We want this mall open. Please, please, by the weekend, okay? And and I I know the position you're in also because I sit in your chair and I know you have to listen to your experts and I know you can't overrule your experts, but please ask them to be use their own discretion. When you elevate this to a level of a fire chief or a fire marshal, they have discretion. Please ask them to be creative and and collaborative with them all. I understand that there's trust issues that have been built up over many years. I'm here as an agent to address those trust issues. I'm willing to talk to all of you. I'm willing to talk to you, mayor, mayor to mayor, and I know I have the right to do that. Whatever we can do to open this mall, let's do it. Let's do it together for this community because a lot of people need to get back to work. and the city needs to start running again. Thank you.

The next three speakers are Ismael Gonzalez, followed by Elizabeth Tibio, followed by Thomas Smith.

Hello and good evening. Uh my name is Juwan Gonzalez. I'm a member of the Sierra Club and uh Inland Valley Alliance for Environmental Justice as well as the Marina Valley Historical Society. Um I want to first by uh first congratulate and applaud your fire staff. uh your fire staff are the true heroes in this circumstance in the story. Um without them, the uh fire chief paints a very uh unfortunate situation where there was pallets of alcohol sanitizer just waiting in the uh uh wrong areas of the mall without any power generators, right? Without any sort of uh sprinklers. Uh that paints a he's nodding his head like that paints a gruesome idea of one of those crates lighting up exploding possibly with hundreds of people kids in the mall. And for the owners to ask for extensions and more leniency from the staff and from city council is ridiculous because they've even said that they've been contacting uh the owners for two years since 2024 in that city sta staff report. Um if he wants more availability with the fire staff, I mean the fire staff has already said they're there every day at 1 p.m. Like how much more do you need? Right? And my heart goes out for all the small business owners, all the uh citizens of Morirana Valley because here is an owner who admitted that is from Costa Mesa, Orange County. Uh I'm not sure why the mall cannot afford its penalties or any of uh the upgrades that it needs. 30 years for power generators. The mall was constructed in 1992. That's 34 years. So that means they've never even thought about replacing them, upgrading them. um as well as the uh fire emergency uh technology, right? Uh that's really

unfortunate and maybe it's due to or it's due in part because of how much e-commerce has infiltrated our new livelihood, right? Every day um people order online instead of going to the mall. Maybe the mall needs more money to pay for all these repairs and they're afraid to say so, you know, but that goes back to the problem of warehouses. You guys have you guys have caused this issue in reality. You know, you guys are in part um responsible for the lack of u malls, the decline of malls. And here are the real uh the constituents who are hurt by warehouses. You guys failed to pass a moratorum to uh stop incences like this. And here is a real life incident where, you know, um, e-commerce is really taking advantage of brickandmortar stores. They're being so, uh, competitive that it's it doesn't really make sense to have malls anymore across America. This is a problem. And um yeah, I think unfortunately the mo has

the next three speakers are Elizabeth Toriio followed by Thomas Smith followed by Steven Miller. And I would like just before the next speaker comes up, Liz Toribo Toriio. Um just a friendly reminder for everyone to please keep it respectful. Everyone gets equal amount of time. Um hearing some kind of um people speaking up while we have a speaker at the podium. if you could please just uh everybody be respectful and allow everybody their three minutes to uh make their public comments. So next up, Elizabeth Toriio.

Um hello, I'm speaking on behalf of Luna Sunday Cafe. Um I understand everything that's going on. You know, you guys explained everything pretty well. Um it's good to hear it. Um good to hear positive feedback. It's really just we really just want to be back, you know. Uh we have a lot of um employees. My whole family works there. It's just kind of been a lot on us. Want to reopen, you know, just kind of want you guys to push us, you know, push it a little bit. Even if it's I know it's hard. I know a lot of stuff going on, but if there's just any way for us to get open as soon as possible, next week, maybe in two weeks, just not a month. Don't let it don't let it go for too long. you know, it's affecting us a lot as small businesses, you know, but it's really all I have to say. Just try to get it reopened pretty quick. Thank you. The next three speakers are Thomas Smith, followed by Steven Miller, followed by Laura Vjo.

Is Thomas Smith here? If not, we can come back. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and go to Stephen Miller.

Thank you, uh, mayor and council members. I want to compliment you on your fire department. I'm a professional firefighter, retired with Orange County, and I've been in the fire protection industry for 50 years, and I see with your professionals that they're doing just an A+ job. Their knowledge is above base. their um staff, the inspectors are there. They've been working with us. I've only been there five days. So, in those five days, I think we've done leaps and bounds. Um the only thing that I would like to to bring into bear to mind is the current owner and manager has only had this building for three years. Everybody's talking about 30 years and and all these things that need to be done. Well, he's moving forward. We've had contractors there day and night working. I in my personal opinion believe there may be some other options to the closure of the mall but that's just me and every firefighter will fight a fire a different way and they they interpret things different way but again they're doing their job right and I hope that we can come to some understanding I believe so to move this forward and get them open as fast as possible and again Matt is not the problem he's the solution thank you very much

the next three speakers are Laura Vjo followed by Surgery Jones, followed by Bob Polyares.

Is Laura Vjo here? Oh. Hello council. My name is Lara. I am speaking on behalf of Vajo Westernear and just wanted the community to know put a face to our name that we are one of the small family businesses that has been deeply affected by the mall closure. It has deeply affected our livelihood as we are a small family business and we just want the mall to be open as soon as possible. Thank you. The next three speakers are Surgery Jones, followed by Bob Palyaris, followed by Seth Cox.

Hello, I'm Sergy Jones. I'm a supermodel and community activist. I just moved here July 1st and my aunt been staying in Marino Valley for 25 years. She brought me to this mall when they first opened. I already been helping some of the um some of the business owners to support them to help bring more revenue to the um to the stores. And I don't feel like it should be closed. I'm going to be honest. It's the hub of this neighborhood. They got two schools in this mall, too, that help the neighborhood. They help the homeless. They have a library. They help several different things. They feed the homeless. If this mall closed, a lot of people going to lose their jobs. A lot of people going to lose their revenue. A lot of people going to be out out on the street and then there's going to be more homeless people. I'm disabled because I got hit by a truck last year and I was planning on opening a store in this mall. And I feel like every day I go in that mall, them people are very nice to me. They're very opening. They respectful and I understand they have issues, but they could be worked out. It's not even that bad of the issues. I understand they have code issues. They all could be figured out. I also have a plan to help the mall have a fundraiser to help to raise money. At the end of the day, I don't think y'all should close this mall because it's going to close Mobile. Thank you.

The next three speakers are Bob Palomares, followed by Seth Cox, followed by Christopher Baka. Good evening, council. Uh, I feel bad for these people that have businesses in the mall and all the employees. They're the ones that are really hurting. But uh my opinion, you know, I'm not an attorney or anything, but I think the city had and has an obligation going back to 2019 when there was violations then up to now. And uh apparently the current owner has had it for three years and the violations have been there and everybody's talking about, you know, what we're going to do. And I got to put take my hat off to the fire chief for, you know, the great job he did exactly what he had to do. Period. But the city has an obligation to all the people that go in that mall. And the one thing I didn't hear and I haven't heard is that no legal action was taken against the owner. Had an incident occurred in that mall where there was life lost, believe me, we would be in court. There's probably going to be lawsuits anyway, but we're fortunate that we're here talking about correcting these things, but the city is obligated to protect the citizens. because you didn't take no legal action. That's no good. You know, you had plenty of time. All the violations are there. I

know. Maybe you want to smooth it out and make it good with the and even the city has investment in that mall and you would risk that all these violations are here and you're allowing people to go in there that are affiliated with the city. That's negligence. So you need to clean it up. You you got to do what you got to do. Now the chief told us what has to be done. But you as a city council need to get this guy in court because it's been going on for far too long. You know, this way at least you can have something to tell him, we took you to court. They told you what you need to do. Now we're going to take action. But right here it seems like there's a little passing the buck going on. Thank you. The next three speakers are Seth Cox, followed by Christopher Baka, followed by Alexander Johnson. Good evening, council, mayor, staff, first responders, gallery. Um, I'm going to steal from Miss Pomeish tonight. All right. Wow. Just wow. How did we get here? Uh, thank you fire department for telling us how we got here. All right. Um, and it's even more disturbing to me after I hear how we got here. All right. Uh, I'm a data guy and a numbers guy. All right. Back in June of 2023, there was a notice of determination filed about the Marino Valley redevelopment. right? 11 bullet points that they were going to do. I don't believe any one of them has been done.

Okay. So, that's one way. What that's one thing. Now comes the most current stuff. Over the 15 months, the last 15 months, the city of Marino Valley has spent $12.389 million on the mall. Would you like to know how they did that? The immersion studio has been paid seven.5 million. the $5 million they got up front and $250,000 for the next 10 months. They were supposed to open when? This month. What's the condition of that contract right now? Is it ever going to happen? We also paid VA consult VCA consultants $75,000 for structure structural engineering services for mall museum project. We paid Mr. Electric Incorporated $4.7 million for the Marino Valley lease facility improvement project phase one, two, and three, which that line item I believe is in the development thing. They were supposed to rehab the Sears building for commercial use, and now we're doing them for them in my opinion. Uh the last one, we have a library there. Over the last year, if anybody doesn't know, uh I believe the current monthly rent on that is $6,874.54. So over the last year, we paid Marino

Valley Mall Holding LLC $8,82,500 worth of rent. So, we've been bailing them all out for over forever. At least the current The next three speakers are Christopher Baka, followed by Alexander Johnson, followed by Christa Hawkins. Hello. Good evening. Again, my comments are my own. don't reflect anybody else's opinion other than myself. Um so I want to start with uh Moreno Valley the land of econom I mean um commercial and retail development forces. So I'll start with Aquabella that's the longest that's been BS in the books for over 25 years. Then you have the WLC that's been on the books for 10 years with nothing going on. Now you have the Gilmans which is coming up during the political uh season so you'll vote for it so they won't have uh candidates running against you. Um, and then now the point to this is the redevelopment of the mall was approved in 2022, I believe. How how many years has that been? 2022 to redevelop the mall. And where are we now? Where are we now? Look at this situation that we're on now. As far as I'm concerned, this mall should be gutted out. I mean, I'm sorry for the businesses. I think I commend the city, the staff. I believe uh Santa Cruz and

uh Bernard are proactive in helping the the retailers in in in their economic um um downfalls. They should be subsidized and moved and uh there's plenty of retail space throughout the city for them to be relocated to and that mall should be gutted down. uh is like one of the other speakers said, this era is over. It is completely over and you need to rethink the redevelopment of this mall, the interior, including when they do them the apartments and so forth, grocery stores, maybe educational facilities, maybe um uh just other stuff. uh you know these these trick shops and you know cinnabons and all of that stuff is stuff of the past. So you really need to rethink the redevelopment and um as far as I'm concerned I was there last time I was at the mall was May and that place is borderline indoor swap meet. The the escalators don't work. There's stores there that are plywood and chain link fence. I mean, it's not, you know, that's not going to attract nobody. You think people are going to get off the freeway to come to that? I don't think so. That mall needs to be totally gutted out and redevelop and the city should take incentive into relocating these real re real um businesses elsewhere. And those businesses can sue them the mall for whatever infrastructure they put in there. But otherwise, it's it's ridiculous to for them to pour in more money and The next three speakers are Alexander Johnson, followed by Christa Hawkins, followed by James Vega.

Good evening. My name is Alexander Johnson. I'm here just to speak on behalf of the city. I'm a city resident. I've been here for my entire life. I just want to speak on the uh in behalf of the city and their anger and all the small business that were closed down during this mall shutdown. also want to apply uh call on the council to build a moratorum fund for the businesses that were affected. These people are going to go weeks without revenue. We're going to go weeks without feeding their families and they're going to be behind on rent and they won't get any city support or support from the the residencies electric utilities. They won't get any support. I I want the city council to uh put a um issue um uh into the their next agenda for the next city council meeting. Also want to uh applaud the fire department um you know all their hard work and everything they've did to to uh make sure the mall is up to date. Uh the mall owner was very negligent and um he should be held accountable for that. Um these businesses are going to be greatly affected. Um, it's also quite convenient that Macy's and J C Penies and Harkkins Theater are also uh big businesses that were affected by this shutdown. I think that's um totally unfair for all the businesses that were um affected by this shutdown. Also want to uh um talk about the the for the fire for fire department. Uh want to greatly thank them for all their service for the past uh couple of weeks. Um they've gave the mall a two week notice. I I was kind of just skimming through the um meeting agenda.

Fe February 5th on February 5th, they they uh contacted the mall owner and then February 19th, they shut them all down. I don't think they should have shut them all down on the 19th. I think they should have um worked with the city council um and and uh do that. So, what I want the city council to do also as well is to work with the fire department and come to agreement uh compromise for um getting the mall. I think the mall owner should either be forced to sell the mall to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future. Um not being able to even restore backup generators after you got the mall 3 years ago is a gross negligence. And um I think there should be a I just wanted to again speak to the anger of the city and I I just want those businesses to know that we are all um in your prayers. Thank you so much.

The next three speakers are Christa Hawkins, followed by James Vega, followed by Luis Palomares.

Hi, my name is Christa Hawkins. I'm just here as a resident, been in Marina Valley all my life. Um, my heart goes out to the small business owners and wow, I just I just have to say, wow, Marino Valley, like you you guys are just doing an amazing job showing what Marino Valley is about. Like the you guys are going to go home tonight. Y'all y'all going to eat. I'm sure you're going to be able to pay your bills. And these business owners, these small business owners, they're going to have to sit up tonight and try to figure out how they're going to make things work, how they're going to pull it together. And like everyone has been saying, it's been negligence. Years of negligence. I don't know all the politics. I don't know the hierarchies, but I don't know. You can't work any job where you don't have accountability. Everyone has a boss. Everyone has someone to answer to. And it's been years of the owner or whoever, the city council, the the city not holding this person accountable to what's been doing. And now in the end, capitalism, the the small businesses suffer. They suffer. and they're the ones that are going to have to figure out what they have to do to feed their family and to keep on going with the business. The young man who just spoke, he spoke amazing. I didn't even think about that. They're going to be behind on their bills and I'm sure they're still going to be expected to pay them and and not be in business right now. So, it's just it's just really sad. And also, we know that Marino Valley, let's be transparent, there's not a lot of jobs here. Marino Valley is a commuter city. Unless you work at the hospital, maybe at the the college, maybe at some schools, there's not a lot of jobs here. And I really blame that on the city. And I want you guys to think the city council. What vision do you have for Marino Valley? What vision do you have? Because the mall is a place where jobs are. And now the mall is closed. Not everybody wants to work at a warehouse. I'm sorry that you guys keep putting putting every every other day, every other week. So, I'm just looking at you guys and I really hope that you hold yourself accountable. Everyone here, I like I said, I don't know the politics, but

everyone who has a position to do something, I hope you guys hold yourself accountable and think come together. I don't know if there's a fund. I don't know if there's a budget, but I know there's money somewhere that you guys can help these small businesses while they're out of work. And and I do I I understand that the chief that you guys are under a lot of pressure. the the fire department's under a lot of pressure because it's been ongoing problems with the mall since I've been in high school. But like I said once again, the small businesses owners are the ones who are affected. So really sit and think about your vision for Marina Valley because it's just it's being destroyed. And think again before you put a put another um warehouse. The next three speakers are James Vega, followed by Luis Palomares, followed by Nikita Wilson.

Hi everybody. Uh good afternoon. Uh here on behalf of uh Robert Garcia specifically, he's out of town. So uh he just wants to put on the record uh based on him coming to the city and trying to bring something positive to the city that uh obviously he's unhappy. a big investment on his part-time effort to try to bring something positive to the city, but he wants to put on the record that the current lease that he's in is unvalid uh based on lack of disclosure um about the conditions of the mall. Okay. Uh two parts. The contract never stipulates anything in regards to there being any external issues with the fire department uh that can affect his livelihood. over 200 kids that he trains uh just in bad taste. Uh he's not happy about it. It's very unfortunate. Um second part uh we went through personally I went through over a year of uh working to try to make this happen and uh unfortunately we were never told by the fire department outside of the building what the conditions were or else the investment would have never been made. So, with that said, it's unfortunate uh but he just wants to put on the record that he has no ties uh to the mall at this point uh due to the contract not stipulating what it needed to stipulate or anything that could hinder his business. He runs a multi-million dollar championship boxing operation that was in Marino Valley and he can't do it at this point with no idea when it can happen again. So based on that and the lack of communication from the mall, uh he just wants to put that on the record. Thank you, gentlemen.

The next three speakers are Luis Palomar is followed by Nikita Wilson.

Wow. Just wow. We're on that Titanic here. This is our mayor, the Titanic mayor. Everything he touch turns to crap. It's so sad. He's the leader of the city here. He's the one. I know he was involved with the Garcia boys, you know, to bring it on. Hey, we can do this. Let's do it. They brought it and look, the the poor man right now, he could lose his shirt here because of you that encouraged him. You know, you should have told him all the red tape that was going on behind the scenes. You're the mayor. You should have known this was going on, but you're too busy on a campaign trail instead of doing what you got to do for the city. You probably knew a lot of these violations. Why didn't you get on the owner over there? Don't you know the owner also, Mr. Matt? We should be protesting at his house. You know, really, it's so sad. It's a sad day in Marino Valley that we have a mayor with no leadership skills and other businesses that are there too also are suffering because the museum we're we have it's not even open yet. We're pouring money there. Why did we even do it there when we knew all these violations were going on? Who knew what and when did they know it? And golly, really really? Come on. You're too busy suing people like me that come and speak truth to power and the facts so to shut us up to go away. You know the Thomases, you sued them. You put them in court for over a year. Violated their first amendment right. Their first amendment right. We the city had to pay. They took you back to court. We the city had to pay 200 $2 million on your watch. We're paying your bill. Maybe we could use some of that 2 million to help these people out. It's not their fault. They went to work one day and didn't have a place to go to work at. People got up in the morning, didn't, you know, didn't know that they were going to a job that wasn't going to be there. When were you going to tell these are the victims? These are the victims of the decisions that our mayor has made on the leadership. Yes. You're too busy suing your company. The flock cameras. The

flock camera. Remember, you were working for them. That's a conflict of interest. But you were working for them and you turn them around and sued them for a sexual harassment lawsuit. Come on. Wasn't that a conflict of interest? You sued them, got money from them. You shouldn't have been working for those camera people. Really? Really, really. So, it's sad. The leadership here is going to pot here. I just feel sorry for the people here that work in those stores and that own the stores, rent the stores, and the people that work in those stores. Wow. Tell Cabrera, give me a break. When are you going to change it up, Cabera? Man, you got us on a train wreck slash um golly, I'm I'm upset. I'm upset because it's outrageous me. How much money do these people owe in back taxes over 7 million? I mean, I'm strike that over 700,000 from 119, one owner to another. When were we going to collect those back taxes? But we let it go on and on and on. Everybody's got a part to play here. Really? Really? Come on, Cabra. Get with it. Do the right thing for the right reason. It's not just a

The next two three speakers are Nikita Wilson followed by Si, followed by Micah Barrett.

Hello everyone. I'm Nikita Wilson. My comments is of my own. I just wanted to address repeated notices, repeated opportunities, continued non-compliance, institutional patience. I'll repeat that. Institutional patience. I understand that the violations are the responsibility of the owner. We've heard that. going forward. I'm just curious, are there being policy tools implemented to prevent, you know, make shorter enforcements when people are non-compliant? Has there been something implemented to once you have this amount of non-compliance in institutional patients, is there a shorter limit being implemented to prevent this risk from happening in the future?

Never. The next three speakers are SI followed by Micah Barrett followed by Jesyn McIll. Uh thank you everybody here that we want to see some solution today. I I'm owner of u two store in the mall and I have family and I have to pay the rent. I have to pay my family also. I have to survive. I have old mother 85 years old. I have to feed for her and I work every seven days in this mall. I've been here 3 years and I didn't see any bad things in this mall and all the customer was happy and I want to know like the fire department and the mall management they both say fire department say nine violation and mall say is fixed. What is the who who making this decision to solve this problem? Fire department said the 100 code can be they counted how they say nine and they later on say 100 point going to become up later on. This is I don't understand. We don't understand this point. We only want to see as soon as possible to mold the open is this situation. What we going to do? We don't have food. I'm hungry. And the and the fire department say close your business for we don't know when they going to open. I invest there 300,000 dollars and I know making money in nothing. I staying home. I getting depression. I getting so sick. My family is need the money. The hungry of the lion if they see any food they going to going to grab it. So you guys at least do something that the fire department can work parallelly as well the mall open the

same times so we can do the business and solve the problem as well. We want to solve the problem. We don't want like that. Oh the fire department every time go and say stop it stop it is here this solution. I know when I open the business fire amendment go and say the two two problem I fix two problem they send the different man and they go they say oh no no no you have two other so when you say the two is should be two is not be like again and oh another two. So same thing the mall management close mall closed there is the 134 store and there is the 3,000 employee work I have employee they now have put I asked them what are they going to we not getting any job monu is the best city here we have the good mayor we have good stuff why the monu mall going to be closed for seven days why should say can anybody tell in 10 years mall any has the fire. Nobody can say the mo has the fire problem AND SAFETY. I DRIVE EVERY DAY FROM here to Ontario and I drive my car. I can be accident but is is I I cannot say oh I'm not going to go home because I going to get accident. I drive every day thousand thousand people driving mall is good place to go there by shopping and we make money there and and the customer get lot of stuff from that.

Thank you. The next three speakers are Micah Barrett, followed by Jesyn McIll, followed by Oliver Oolivarez.

Uh my name is Micah Barrett. Uh all comments I make are of my own opinion. Uh I've been a resident of Marino Valley for the last uh two years. Um I enjoy living in this city. Um and when I listen to everyone that has spoken today, the number one thing that I see that comes up is the communication. And I know that you said that the onus of the communication is on the mall owner, which I do agree with because a lot of these violations should have been addressed much sooner. They should have also been, you know, made known to the tenants of the mall so they can understand, you know, what cons what type of situation they could face in the future. Um, and one thing that I'll say, Mr. uh or Mayor Cabera, that I appreciated was your social media post yesterday, and I I'm sure it was posted other places as well. um you know addressing the situation at the mall uh and then also you know council members holding this uh meeting today. I really do appreciate that and I hope that the city does as well. Uh but I think that we need more of that communication going forward. Uh I spoke to the the mall owner. I've spoken to him since I've gotten back on Tuesday and you know he told me on Tuesday that they expect to be open end of day Wednesday. I spoke to him today. He said he expects to be open by end of day Thursday which is today. I understand there was um a fire marshall uh inspection uh done today and um we just don't know where we stand and I think that I know again that the onus is on the mall owner to provide that communication but I think that we also appreciate hearing it from you as well and that we feel that we know that you guys are handling it and that you're on top of it. Um and I also liked in that post because I didn't know about this until yesterday was that there is the mobile.org/mall org/mall that shows that the violations are being addressed. Um, and I think just maybe as those violations get addressed instead of just, you know, the update on the website, it's just kind of sending out like, hey, you know, this is where the mall is currently and, you know, they've addressed another two violations or another one violation and, you know, we're expecting and you don't have to give a date on when you expect the mall to be open, but just giving us that, you know, that that uh sense of

comfortability that, you know, things are moving ahead because again, when I talk to the mall owner, he doesn't know. And so I'm not saying that you would know or that you know the fire chief would know or the fire marshall would know. Um but at least we can get a sense that you know things are moving ahead and you know we are going to be reopen um you know in a timely manner. Thank you for your time. The next two speakers are Jasine McIll followed by Oliver Olivarees.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Jessine McIll. I just had just a few things just I just wanted to say in regards to my daughter owns, you know, she owns a a boutique inside the mall, a hair salon, you know, the this the fire department comes in, they check everything out, you know, but they check them out, you know, as soon before they when they open their business, they come in. So, how do the mall have all these issues when they're checking everyone that moves into the mall? We have a whole lot of new people that moved into the mall, but yet they're saying that the mall have all these issues. How can that be with all these issues when you're checking everyone that moves into the mall? I don't understand that. And including

Yeah. Yeah. including the museum. The museum is downstairs. They allowed the mall to open up the well to get ready to open up the museum but yet they have all these issues and I don't understand that. How can they have all these issues all these reports all these things that need to be done when every whenever someone open up they check them? I don't understand it. That's all I have to say. The next two speakers are Oliver Olivarees followed by Lorena Calderon.

Good evening everyone. My name is Holliv, CEO and co-owner of uh Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. And the reason I'm here, you know, is the problem that everybody has out here. Uh we just opened up the the gym last year. uh thinking all these g kids and people that we could help and and we have over 300 kids plus the professionals that we had. Um I had the opportunity to work with uh with Ulyses and his team. You guys great people. I know you guys can pull this off. I know you guys can make it happen. I know you guys are smart enough to help us out and get this going. Um also u I'm a general contractor as you know and I know what what they're calling is is true. you know, it's it's it's safety issues that needs to be um resolved, but we can make it happen, guys. I mean, there's there's a lot of people that they need this business open. And talking to my my business and my behalf, uh we just like I said, we just opened up our business like a year ago and we have compliances with everything. I mean, everything that you guys are looking for, we had it. We have um doors going to the parking lot. So, I mean, I don't want to be selfish here, but we have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in this. There's a lot of kids that they see their future there. So, I think our business should be compliant to be reopened tomorrow. We have everything. We complying with lighting and everything. We just passed that. Not I mean March 8 last year, we opened this gym and we comply with everything. So we went through the whole thing and thank you for putting up the team. We worked with uh with James Berdugo and he helped us out a lot to went through. So uh please guys let me open my gym tomorrow. We complied not too long ago and I know it's is it's

good to go. Thank you. The next speaker is Lorena Calderon.

Hi my name is Sena. I have a sports uh shop at the Marino Valley Mall. I came tonight to see hopefully there was a solution which I don't see any solution like I thought you guys were here to help us attendance or anything. I don't see anything like that. There's stuff that I have question is like parkin stayed open but yeah they're still using the entrance to go to the mall to go into their theaters. The museum it was open. So with all these violations how would how did it get approved to get open? When I opened my location, the fire department went in, they didn't let me know about any of all this. And I like all this. So, I just asked for please let us know. The next speaker is Roy Blacker. A lot of great points were just made. want to say this off the beginning. I mean, I can go back to Wiser, the recently retired CalFire chief, county chief to Jesse. I've been cross these guys for parts of seven decades. I can tell you this from my experience, if it got to this point, there is something really radical wrong because those guys will bend over backwards to try and help you out. So all this maligning of the fire department and that I believe in my experience has shown that there is no way that could be possibly going on. So I want to I've listened I've heard the reports everything in the comments. Now we're going to address the elephant in the room. The reports I heard, the mall company owes almost half a million dollars, at least from press reports I saw, for officers, services, billing hours that were provided in the last year that were not paid for.

If this is the case, then how did that get to fruition? And is there a provision for that to be taken care of? Because that's actual money that's been paid out. And what is the contract? Because I believe my understanding if I remember correctly back in ' 89 the conditions of approval were there were supposed to be a officer for every hour that mall was open was supposed to be on site. What are the billing hours today? When how are the how many hours are on there? Because I my understanding Tmacula has four cops for every hour that mall down there is open. Everybody talks about public safety. Let's compare Marino Valley to what everybody else does and what this mall is doing. Let's get the real facts out on the table.

Something is going wrong here big time. We didn't get to this position out of nowhere. And well, you can go Central City Mall if you're a fossil like me or Carousel Mall. This appears to me to be going that direction. And if we don't stop it or correct it, the what the what you're hearing today is going to be titillywinks to what's coming. And you heard the amount of money. Everything needs to be put on the table. We need a full report of what the contracts were, what's been spent, what's been done. We shouldn't have to make foyer requests. It should be out there tomorrow. everything any amendments anything to this agreement because public safety is at stake and I will tell you Mr. Costa Mayor, attorney mayor, or anybody mall, all of you again, I'll put the offer on the table. You can come on my show and we'll address this till the cows come home. Come on, have some balls and stand up and defend your positions and your actions all around. That's how we'll solve this. Anywhere else, you're all the chicken bleeps that

mayor. That concludes all of public comments for tonight's item.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you to all of our public speakers as well for coming out this evening. At this time, we will before we bring it back up to the deis, I do want to just uh bring it back to the staff level and hand it over back to uh our city staff to respond to any questions that may still need to be answered. So, at this time, I'll go ahead and turn it over to city staff. Well, I think uh some points of clarification. Um as the city attorney and I were uh listening to some comments. I don't know how um people referenced that the mall owner has only owned it for three years. He's owned it since November of 2017. So much longer than uh three years. Um and the owner does have the responsibility uh to ensure that uh the property meets uh the state building codes. Um also somebody mentioned that the uh museum is open. The museum is not open. Um and we were going through tenant improvements and working with uh Lighthouse Immersive uh which is the consultant uh for the museum and um designing and building out that all work has stopped um and and our library that the city owns uh the mall doesn't own that it's a city library has also ceased operations as well. Um yes, we have been um um uh tenants of that particular mall um for some time as it has been an initiative of this particular council and councils before this council that we have libraries in every um district. And so just as we have a main library, we also have satellite libraries in each of the districts. and we're currently building one um at Lakeshore Village.

And so um that is why we um are are tenants there. Um I would also say that um as far as when businesses come in and there's an inspection what is uh more typically known as a certificate of occupancy. that particular inspection is inspecting the suite um or the space in which the business or tenant is going into. All of those have sub panels. All of those have different requirements for the tenant to ensure that um it is safe for that space. The sub panels are not the issue here. It's main power sorry main panels uh related to um uh fire safety life safety um systems and it's not any of the panels in their area. It is the main panels uh for the entire mall. Um so that that takes care of of why businesses are able to um uh occupy those spaces when uh they become new tenants. Um, I do uh want to also mention that when council um in early 2025 uh approved uh the lease and the immersive mall uh to go in the bottom uh or the first floor of the old Sears building. Um once we started getting in that space and started taking a look at um uh various tenant improvements, uh we and I think Chief uh alluded to this earlier, we started noticing some some things about um how the mall operates and uh saw some um unpermitted work and so forth. even steel beams that we cut

out to um do a 16,000 square foot um ceiling to sorry um floor to ceiling uh section in the second floor of the Sears building. Those particular beams uh that were laying on the ground um later that week were used by the mall owner uh to um weld in where they were supposed to be closing uh the escalators that were in the old Sears building. Well, those are warped um steel beams and so uh that is against um building codes and so forth. So we we we did learn a lot over 2025. Um so I've answered um why bu um why tenants are able to um occupy certain spaces. I've answered the fact that the mall owner has owned uh the building since uh November 2017. Talked about our museum and our uh library. I think that's covered a lot of the things that we were concerned about and some of the comments, but I know uh the city attorney also uh wants to uh briefly discuss um why the city didn't take um legal action against them all.

This may sound very awkward coming from an attorney, but I believe that litigation should always be the last resort, particularly when um alternative remedies exist. In this particular case, you know, we have a relationship with the mall because we have entered into a lease agreement with the mall and with respect to the u the numerous code violations, the violations related to our municipal code were which are not the reasons for shutting down the mall. We have attempted the staff has attempted to resolve these matters or to get the mall owner to resolve these matters over the last few years. Um, and some of them have been resolved, but because as as the city manager mentioned, we have had contractors in there uh working on preparing the premises that we have leased for the immersive museum. We're planning on opening there. and through our contractors. That's I understand that's where uh when our fire department discovered that some of these issues related to fire protection and life safety issues were a lot more severe than we have kn than than we knew or anticipated. And in response to that, when that came to the attention of the city manager and my office, that's when we made a decision to send out this joint letter to the mall owner advising the mall owner, not only of the municipal code violations, which again don't form the basis for shutting down the mall, but it was all the life, safety, and fire protection issues that turned out to be very, very serious. And when we didn't get a response from that, we, you know, I I sent out another letter, a follow-up letter. And at the same time, you know, after conferring with the fire department, we realized that we had reached an impass with the mall owner because I didn't receive any

response to the letter that I sent to him. and the uh fire department did not receive any response with respect to any attempt or any planned attempt by the mall owner to remedy the ver these nine um safety issues. So again, litigation should always be the last resort and also in the context of government. Right now we're dealing with um a property interest and as all of us know in this country we protect property interests. We cannot take the rights away from a property owner without providing them with due process. What's it what's that mean? Well, we have to provide them with an opportunity to appeal our decision and I can inform the council today that as of yesterday we did receive an appeal of this determination. So, we have to go through that process before we can initiate any litigation against the mall owner. So, I just wanted to put, you know, go on record to uh explain why we didn't jump to litigation on this issue. And of course this is part of the process as well.

Thank you very much for that and for answering those additional questions. And so at this time we will bring it back to the deis for any additional questions or comments from the council before adjouring and then opening our closed session meeting. We do have a close session immediately after this as well. Uh, so at this time I would look to my colleagues for questions, comments, primarily comments, but if there are more questions that come up, we can address those as well. Council member Delgado.

Yeah. First of all, I want to thank everybody that came out tonight to express their concerns. Um, our hearts do go out to the tenants and the employees of the mall. Um, obviously you guys are part of our community. I've been in constant contact uh prior to the um attorneys getting involved with Sheena. Um yes, and we we were working on solutions uh you know with the employees and how we can help them. Um but what I what I will say is on any critical incident um I think Chief Park brought up the Oakland incident 30 over 30 people perished in that that fire, right? um they didn't leave there that night, leave home. They got ready and they went out and they went to an event at that. They didn't do that knowing they were going to lose their life. Critical incidents like that do not tell us that they're going to occur. So, we have to prepare and plan for such incidents. Then, that's what fireife safety is all about. If we saved one life by following the law and following our fire department's building safety and our attorney, if we saved one life because we did that, all of this is worth it in my opinion. So, um again, our hearts do go out to the employees because they are part of our community. Uh but uh we will we will come up with a solution and get this this mall back our our mall back open.

Council member Ibanka Santa Cruz.

Um when we found out Tuesday that a final inspection was going to happen on Wednesday, I did, you know, reach out to the mall owner and so he knew that this was coming that day. And um once the inspection was failed, I also tried to warn business owners and the community that you know this was happening that day. And um we've put out communication. We've made a web page. We've given a daily update. We've sent people out there. The goal is opening the mall in district one. The mall is the largest employer. I mean, all the businesses are in there and we value those businesses. I remember I remember being in high school in 1992 when the mall opened and applying for jobs at the trailers. And I remember applying, you know, and thinking this was going to be the greatest thing ever, a mall right in our city. And, you know, my kids grew up spending Friday nights going there. I dropped them off and picked them up and not anymore. But, um, they're a lot older, but I have grson now. And, you know, we go to the mall. We took pictures at the mall in the center um two weeks ago and we haven't been able to pick them up because the mall has been closed. But um we have two schools in the mall um schools that we work with closely. A lot of businesses we do food giveaways with nonprofits in the parking lot. We um the mall is a centerpoint of this city and it is all of ours highest priority to get it open. That's why we've dedicated staff to um updating you, to going out and inspecting, and we've said if we inspect and there's, you know, one thing left and you're able to fix it, we'll come out again that same day. The goal is to get them all opened. But we can't risk your lives. We can't risk our lives. Um, and it's it's

just the right thing to do. And when you're up here, decisions are hard because you know there's people affected on both sides of your decision. And it's hard to shut down a business. And when we were told, all of us went home with worry and, you know, a heavy heart. But at the end the next day, we all came back ready to um do whatever it takes to reopen. So um we don't want to let the mall go. We don't want it to close down. And um I plan to do everything I can to get it open. And even if it means, you know, we do some kind of abatement like we did with Calrans where you know the fire the freeway exits weren't being cleaned. So we went into an agreement. We made anou and we said we'll clean the the exits and then we'll bill you. That's a possibility too. Maybe we can do the repairs and then bill them. But that's something that we'd have to, you know, as last resort. Um we don't ever want to take property. You know, we have property rights. We don't want to do that to business owners. We wouldn't come into your business. We wouldn't come into your home. We shouldn't, right? But um that's where we are today. And this meeting, you know, it came up so that we could be transparent and stand here and answer your questions and present the information because you deserve this. You deserve to know what's going on. And we will do everything right and make sure that the mall is safe when you come back. and the things that can be worked on. We'll continue to work on those so that they're done um so that the mall is entirely safe, all of the code violations are addressed. And even the violations when we violate business owners or residents or um the the goal is correction. We're not looking to make money. We're looking for correction. So, that's where we're at today and that's where I stand and I stand with

you on reopening the mall as soon as possible. Council member Bernard. Um,

so I just, um, again want to thank everyone for coming out. This, when we found out everything that was going on in the mall, it was not an decision that was taken lightly. Um, I think there, um, had to be some conversations around the fact that the goal is not to close them all. I know there are all of these rumors that we want to close them all permanently. That's what this is why we were calling it a temporary close. Um there are will the city wants to take over the mall? We do not. We actually approved a plan for the redevelopment of the mall and that is why we we were putting the museum there. That's why we were um renovating this series because we are trying to invest in the mall because we are trying to be part of the growth. And I think um there's no way that we can say like oh this was this was an easy decision to just shut it down. But at some point um I had to me personally I had to think of the lives in there because there were two schools in there. There are dozens of people that go that have businesses in there. There are like people are in and out of that mall. My own family is in and out of that mall also. I mean um Lord the the eyebrow shop and me go go go way back almost 20 years in that mall. Um, so for me, I had to look at at some point we were talking about people's lives. And the the truth is is really simple. Um, we said we would send someone out there every day to check to see what's being done. He's making the corrections that are needed. I think for me, um, and this this may or may not land well. It is what it is. I wish that the mall owner had just did what was asked of him from jump because then we wouldn't be in these predicaments. the and I know someone was like, "Well, how do you have all these violations?" But because those violations were ones we were like, "You can work on those. Those are fine." That those aren't life-threatening violations. It's the life-threatening ones that got him shut down. The rest of them, we even went as far as to wave what what was it? $350,000 worth of fees to bring it down. So, it's the life-threatening ones that

actually were the ones that got him shut down. And so at some point though, um I'm actually sad that we had to get to a predicament to shut it down in order for him to start to address these these things. And I'm hoping um like everyone said to get this mall open as soon as possible that he's able to continually address them. Which by the way, the way he's lightened the fire to address them. I wish he had had this fire the entire time because he has put um all of all of you in these predicaments of of how you're going to take care of your families and what are you going to do. And so um we are not here to be difficult. We are not here to to keep you all from your businesses. If he if we go out there tomorrow and everything is checked off, then good. You guys can open up. What I also do think is false is that he's promising you from day to day, oh no, you're going to open Wednesday. Well, Wednesday's here. Okay, Thursday. Well, Thursday's here. He's also not giving you all a realistic timeline. And the realistic timeline should be here are the things that I actually have done left. And I understand there are parts that we need to get and this that, but realistically, these are the things that I have done left. The other thing that I think is very important is that they are running on the temporary generators that are good for 90 days. The goal is for us, if we are able to get all of these met, to not be back here in 90 days because he hasn't gotten the the the gen the permanent generator into. So I think that's the other thing that we have to constantly keep thinking about. Um so again, the goal is not to keep you all shut down and out of your businesses and unable to take care of your families and provide the services that you all provide. Um the goal is to get this mall open. If we could have got that mall open two days later, 48 hours later, trust me, we would have done it. Um, so I I I promise you, I think all of us up here, that is our main goal is to get this mall open where we can make the compromises at, we will, as you can as you can tell when they said like we have the temporary genuh generators and the

chief and fine, we'll take the temporaries for now, but it's only for 90 days. So, we're taking them, but it's only for 90 days. And those are the things that I think we need to just keep in mind that we are trying the best we can to get it done. And that's why we also had this meeting because we wanted all of us in the same room so that we could all talk about this and hopefully um be able to come to a resolution or solution to get this done. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Prom Gonzalez.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for all the participants that came tonight. Um, again, I'm going to I don't want to bel labor with repeating what my colleague said, but our goal is to reopen the mall, make sure that all the businesses continue thriving. Um, you know, I it's there's a personal connection as well. You know, I have family that uh owns a business there and and they're suffering just like everyone else that is a business owner. Um, and and our goal is to make sure that the mall reopens. And I also want to, you know, kind of dispel a few things. You know, that's why there's there's checks and balances, right? We we need our building officials, our fire officials to give us that objective um analysis of when there's life-threatening issues and and it insulates us, right? Because if not, we would we would probably negotiate our way out of of of these issues and and we can't do that. We we want to make sure that the business are taken care of, but at the same time that the owners held accountable and and that we're able to move forward in a safe manner. And I know we will. I know with my colleagues, we're gonna um hopefully provide some solutions and and we need to move forward so we can make sure that these businesses that are key to our to our economy, to Valley, that they reopen again and continue providing for their families. So, thank you. And I'll say that I first and foremost agree with everything that all four of my colleagues have said and to also not repeat everything that they have said. At the end of the day, this is about protecting all of you, making sure that we protect your lives and not only that, but your property. Imagine if there were a fire and we didn't do anything to try to correct and fix that. You would not only possibly injure yourself or get seriously hurt, you would possibly lose everything that's in your store. And then what kind of position does that put you in? That's the last thing any of us

want. The last thing any of us wanted was to close down that mall. But we were left with no choice. And all of us were in agreement to ensure that that mall comes into compliance, that those lifethreatening violations are addressed and fixed and corrected. Not just to reopen the mall in the short term, but to ensure that that mall is thriving for the long term. That you all continue to scale and grow your businesses, that we drive as much foot traffic as possible into those businesses to ensure that you're successful. That is the goal. And like uh Council Member Bernard mentioned, that's why we're doing everything that pertains to approving the revitalization back in 2023. We did our part by approving the proposal that the mall brought to us. It's up to them to build it. We can't force them to build it. We already did our part. We can help them to attract businesses, to attract others to come to the mall, but they're the ones that have to sign the contracts. They're the ones that have to finish the work. They're the ones that have to build, hire the contractors. We want that mall to thrive. And how do you think it makes me feel when I spent years trying to convince a few several of those businesses like RGBA to come to Mareno Valley and then for this to happen? How do you think that makes me feel? because I put my neck out there and told them to come here and then this happens is the last thing that I wanted to happen and I have to face all of you and just keep it real. We have to be honest and that's what this meeting is all about. So that we put the truth out there because from the get-go there was a lot of misinformation and rumors and flatout lies that were being told and this was to clarify all of that so that there's no room for misinformation

and spewing of the facts. And at the end of the day even as a council our our hands are tied by the law. we have to abide by the law and that is clear. It was stipulated and spelled out by our staff uh during their staff report. And so I have no doubt that we're going to go into close session immediately after this. We're going to have a robust conversation to figure out a solution to reopen the mall ASAP. and again ensure not just that we open it for 30 days, 90 days, that that mall stays open in perpetuity and that we do everything we can to ensure that it is successful. That is the goal. We have a museum that's under construction and it had to pause because of this situation. That museum needs to get open. The schools need to get reopened. All all of it needs to be reopened. And I know that we're going to go into this close session, put our heads together, have a very hard, difficult, thorough conversation, and my hope is that the five of us after close session can come out here and report out what that solution, what that plan looks like, so we can get that mall reopened in a safe manner. So with that, I'll I'll conclude my comments and we'll conclude deliberation for this particular item. And we will adjourn the special open session at 8:12 p.m. And at this time, we'll go ahead and transition over to our special closed session. And again, I need to note for the record by law that the city council receives a separate stipen from the community services district if any CSD business is conducted at this meeting. I now call the special close session meeting to order on February 26th at

8:12 p.m. Item B is public comments on matters on the agenda only. And again, I would like to remind everyone that since this is a special meeting, all public comments must be limited only to those items that are on the special closed session meeting agenda. There is a threeminut time limit per person unless modified based on the number of speakers. And I would just invite, you know, I I know there were many comments that were made. Um it's essentially the same subject, the same topic. So if you would like to speak during public comment, you're welcome to do that. But um I'll leave that up to uh each one of you uh to do so if you wish. Uh so Madame Clerk.

Oh yes, Mr. City Manager. Do we need a moment to transition over to close session? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So we'll take a brief fivem minute recess. We're going to take a break while uh staff transitions our computers over to close session and we'll resume in about five minutes. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome back to our special close session. I will rewind just a little bit to make sure that um I repeat some of what's on the script here for the agenda. Again, I would like to remind everyone that since this is a special meeting, all public comments must be limited to only those items that are on this agenda. There is a threeminut limit per person for public comment. Madame clerk, do we have any requests to speak? Thank you, mayor. We do. The first two speakers are Roy Blackard, followed by Christopher Baka.

So, I'm protesting this close session again. There is no way this item should be in close session. Everything should be out in front of the public. People's lives are in danger and I demand from you and you and the staff and everybody a answer to my question about the elephant in the room because you I believe and prove me wrong that you are putting everybody's public safety in question by what is going on with the police department. If there is not a cop on that facility for every hour that mall is open, then you are derelictked in your duties. Period. In the story, on top of that, if there's press reports, and I have not seen a denial of it yet to this second, if they're behind, then why? And is that not going to be a condition in the future for opening this mall? because you talk about fires, you know what's happened at that mall and around that mall and what's been going on. So if you per if you perceive or I want to see or I want to hear when you're coming out of close session then I want to hear the report on how public safety all around not only fire protection but police protection is going to go in the future because I believe and I think everybody will support me on this that mall does not open period into story unless proper police and fire protection are at that mall every hour it's open. And I want you, if it's not, then we deserve an explanation from every one of you sitting here of why.

Again, we should have every freaking document should be released to the public. That should come out in after close session that every document from the time this thing was discussed in the city, conditions of approval, any amendments. No questions, no this or no hiding behind that. We're done with it. I hope you understand that. We are done with coming here 40 freaking years with this same crap and it doesn't get better. Prove me wrong. This is serious as a heart attack and beyond. I don't want to hear platitudes or excuses or nothing. Do your job that we elected you and we paid you to do. We will accept nothing less.

The next three speakers are Christopher Baka, followed by Sheena McIll, followed by Shik Islam.

Good evening again. Again, my comments are my own and they don't reflect the view of anybody else other than me, myself, and I. Um, I 100% agree with Mr. leard as far as these secret meetings go on. Uh there's a lot of secrecy and behind the scenes uh things going on that should be open to the public and uh you know hopefully someday we'll eliminate uh close sessions or you know just bring everything out to the table. What are you hiding? But anyhow, my point here at this time is that as I mentioned, I believe that mall needs to be gutted out and I really feel for the retailers and I really feel that uh the staff should come up with a plan to relocate them and give incentives to other um uh uh um malls in the city. there's plenty available in the city that may be even better uh better situation that that they're in right now and that can be an incentive by um the city to those other owners. Um as far as other things such as the the boxing ring and the museum, I think that you can create a back entrance that is not um dependent on the mall, the the middle of the mall. these buildings have, you know, their their their their backside is to the parking lot. You can create openings there. You can, you know, as far as the boxing ring, I don't think it's um dependent on the foot traffic. Anyhow, there's no foot traffic in the mall that, you know, all this other, you know, the reason people go to those the places that they go to is because of, you know, their their their their um how do you say it? Um they always go to those places. So, they know that are there. or they specifically go there, you know, as uh Crunch Fitness can have a front uh entrance. Uh the museum and

the and the um boxing ring and the schools, I believe, can be you can enter from the back. You can create entrances from the back and just uh get out. In my opinion, get out that mall. It is outdated. It's from the 80s and you may as well if you're going to keep it open, maybe you can have the Breakfast Club and uh Moon Zappa in there. You know, it's very 80s. It's just outdated and it's, you know, it's just ridiculous. It needs to be gutted out. And I would highly recommend and suggest that you really consider closing that mall down as far as the middle part is concerned and opening up the back entrances to those big establishments that have that are able to enter through the back and you you know they can use their parking lots directly into that access. That's my opinion. Thank you. The next three speakers are Sheena McIll, followed by Shake Easilam, followed by Surgery Jones. All right, I'm a little calmer now. Um, okay. So, a few things. The doors and the Let's see. The doors and the fire alarm system. Those are the two key components that I'm personally working with the mall. I mean, I worked the vendor that's there. that's my vendor that's that came out. So, those things are what I have a question about is that I know that those some of those things are going to take time um to get those parts. I was just speaking with one of the contractors. He's here in the audience. He said that today they've started to just take those doors out that we just can't get the parts for and we're swapping them out. So, there is a plan there. Before Matt left, I did speak with him. There is a plan to get the permanent generator there. He wanted the backup generator there just in case his generator that he's getting repaired fails. He doesn't want you guys to jump on him and h, you know, have this issue again. Okay. One of the things that I I

wanted to speak with the gentleman that just left, shut down the mall for what? You have so many people in there that are depending on this mall for their livelihood, myself included. Um, I do know that when we had Matt to pay for his per his permit on a Sunday, which thank you guys for letting him do that on Sunday. We didn't get that permit for this generator until yesterday, which was a delay of time as well. Um, listen, Mr. Block has notedly noted that the ball was dropped. Again, I I'm telling you guys, I've been doing this for so long. I'm partnering with him to make sure that moving forward the right team is in place to make sure these things do not happen again. Meaning putting these things on an outlook calendar to remind every single year that these are needing to have an annual testing on on a on these things that you guys are calling out. Making sure that you have documentation stored in a way that anybody that needs to get these documentation if Mr. Parks or M or or Mr. or Edgar comes by and they ask for these documents that they're readily accessible and not in somebody's phone or somebody's email down the way. Um, it's not really about teaching someone a lesson and I understand timelines and I understand safety. That's what they teach me being in this industry. But we really have to come together and think about all of these people, including myself, who are out of income. I'm losing about $4,000 a week. I do have a 9-5 fortunately to hold me over, but a lot of these people do not have that. And we really need to just think of a game plan to work together in with Matt to figure out a solution. I know the ball was dropped, guys. He knows the ball was dropped, but we got to figure out how can we get this mall back open as quickly as we possibly can. I will make sure that this does not happen again. I'm doing it. I'm already doing

it. All this stuff is happening because of me. Everything is moving along because of me, because of my connections. Please, anything you guys can do. Thank you. The next two speakers are Shik Islam followed by Surgery Jones. Thank you so much again. Uh I want first thing like the mall open immediately. If tomorrow open that's going to be best for us. We have family we have certain kind of amount to spend for our family buy food uh buy other things. So we want to request tomorrow or day after tomorrow as soon as possible give us the sudden dead like we can start business. We cannot stay home like this. We're going to heart attack. We're going to die. Who going to responsible for that? Because we get depression when they're going to mall open. So we are really really upset and we want to see like the the fire department go there they say the nine violation three or five done they have to do another five how many days they going to do they're not going to be bring the new stuff and mall continue close and close we don't like it we don't we don't like hoping that's going going to be uh continue we won't like the uh sudden solution I think like that here the you are the best people here so you can help and guide them all to immediately fix the problem and also the fire department they can help they can say okay this is the problem this this this is done we're going to be passed if they don't give any like clear view so m management maybe the 12 years going to be work is still not going to be finished the problem so problem have to have specific what is the problem and

the finish it pass it otherwise we we cannot Like every day thinking tomorrow open, tomorrow open, tomorrow never finish and we don't know like tomorrow is still going to be open. So like I have a high blood pressure I thinking too much maybe I going to get a heart attack can be happen. Same thing like they say the fire department anytime fire can happen in the mall a lot of people die. Same thing nobody knows when happen 9 point this they have done is still they cannot be guarantee that tomorrow not going to be happen anything in the mall fired nobody can give the guarantee so so we want solution and we want like the here like again I'm praying that like please open the mall here the 134 store masses is open JC was open why they can open why mall cannot open they go to my store and they say the fire is good fire is working why I cannot open why the message can open why that's our questions the what what is difference masses and me my my fire they check it and they say is okay my store they go they say is okay so why I cannot open this very big questions and this this we cannot continue like that we were asking like as soon as possible to open or parallel to work open the mall and work with the fire department what they need to do 10 years doesn't happen nothing what going to be happen maybe the continue open nothing going to be happen

thank you thank you so much thank you the next two speakers are surgery Jones followed by Luis Palomarez

hi y'all know who I am I have a couple of questions my first question is like he just said Macy's JC Penneyy's Um, they have all the major stores that have openings on the outside. They're still open. But what about the stores who have back doors? Why they can't open? One. Two. Um, why y'all can't build the owners fix the problem and build him and make him pay it back? I have ideas to help him do fundraisers to make money to build to pay y'all back. That could be a good idea as well. Then also they have people who depend on this mall who can't even pay their rent who can't pay their light bill because they was dependent on their money. What about them? They sitting at home can't make no money. They sitting at home can't pay their children for get no food for them. Like at the end of the day, think about the people. Think about the community. Thank you.

The next speaker is Luis Palomares. Louise Palomar's community activist. Wow. Anyway, saying all that, I heard the speakers. I agree with all of them. And as far as uh there's hasn't been no damn communication here. The right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. Nobody knew what was going on, but the city had all the violations. But the guy over there at the mall, the owner, I don't know what, you know, two years later and we're still waiting to get fixed. Did it even have to come to this and never should have had to come to this? This should have been done. Who was minding the store? I know the city said they've been sending letters. They've been doing everything in their power to get these people to do what they need to do. So, the the blame falls really on the owner if you ask me. And it I just feel for these businesses and the people that work there. That's their livelihood. Now, what are they going to do? They're going to be short on their mortgage, their rent, their car payment, their insurance, buy less groceries, you know. So, I hope this console with our campaigning mayor here that I'm I'm pretty sure he knew what was going on with with that boxing ring over Yes. Don't nod your head. Yes, you know what was going on with the boxing ring. They put a lot of money into they've been trying to make this come and they finally opened and all these violations. The guy even sit up here. I wish I would have known. If I would have known, I probably would have did something different. Mr. Mayor, wow. It It's sad. I feel bad for these business. And then the museum, you know, the um somebody on the staff said that they seen all the things that were going wrong in that building. They said, "Wait a minute. We got a hold. We got to put a hold in this until we could figure out which way we're going to take this." But it should have been pretty much pretty close to up and running. But this is the lack of the leadership here starting with our mayor.

The blame lies on him and the people over there at the mall and the people that are the businesses. I feel bad for them. I really do. All the revenue the city tax dollars from the revenue are our tax dollars come from that mall. A lot of things and we're saying they owe how much in in back taxes. Wow. How are they going to do all this? And how much money have we already gave them? Seth Meyer said, "How much money?" So, how are where's the money? How are they going to do it and when? And I hope yesterday. Get it done yesterday. That means real quick. Thank you,

mayor. That concludes all of public comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you to all of our public speakers as well. At this time, we will go ahead and pass it over to our city attorney. Mr. City attorney, what matters will the council be discussing in close session today? Mr. Mayor, the council will be recessing in close session to confer legal counsel regarding significant exposure to litigation. um that is pursuant to government code section 54956.9D2 the number of potential cases at this point include one um the Brown Act requires that we explain for the record why there's significant exposure and the significant exposure is based on the mall's attorney um representing to me at the time the agenda was put together that they were going to file for an exarty court hearing this Friday which didn't happen. Um, and that involves litigation. But in lie of that, they ended up filing an appeal which is likely to um lead to litigation if it's not properly if it's not resolved.

And Mr. City attorney, do you anticipate any reportable action? Maybe. It depends on the council. Understood. Thank you very much. And so um as with our normal procedures for close session at this point we will go ahead and recess into our closed door closed session meeting and we will be back once that is concluded to report out if there is a report out and and Mr. Mayor I'd like to point out because somebody had asked me about it um when we report out it's televised so you know people can go online and see it.

Yes. So, thank you for for saying that. In case anyone goes home or if you are watching at home, when we come out of close session, um it will be available on YouTube, on Facebook where we stream it, or if you are still here, when you come back, you'll be able to see that live. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome back to our special closed session meeting. The time is now 9:49 p.m. And at this time, I will turn it back over to our city attorney. Mr. City Attorney, are there any necessary closed session announcements?

Yes, there is, mayor. The city council voted 50 to direct the city manager and city attorney in consultation with the fire chief, fire marshal, and building official to negotiate with the mall owner on an inspection and abatement agreement to facilitate the reopening of the mall as expeditiously as possible in a matter that is deemed by the fire department to resolve, correct, and abate all pending life safety fire protection violations. That concludes the close session announcement. Thank you very much, Mr. City Attorney. And

I should point, Mr. Mayor, that this is not required. You're doing this for purposes of public transparency. Yes. Thank you. We certainly want to ensure that the public is uh educated and informed on the council's decision. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. And the next item on our agenda is adjournment. And since there is no further business before the council this evening, I want to once again thank everyone for attending this evening, everyone for watching at home, and we will adjourn this special close session meeting at 9:50 p.m. Have a good night.