City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. The time is 4 p.m. and I will now call the March 20 24, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. Madame clerk, roll call, please.

Uh, Mayor Prom Blum absent, the rest of the council members present. Now is the time for the invocation that will be led by Dave Man, Pastor Meredith Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. Following the invocation, Council Member Weber will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Our God, we come be before you and together once again ask for your blessing upon our council meeting this evening with all the business matters and agenda before us, considerations and decisions. Bless our mayor, each of our council members that are present here this evening, all our city officials. We lift up our police department, chief of police, the entire police force and staff here in Newport Beach, our fire department, the fire chief, fire marshal, all our EMS and emergency response crews. Lord, we're thankful for them. We consider Lord your blessing also in extending our public works staff, city utilities, our marine and safety, our coast guard here, all our city businesses we lift up to thee and residents residing here in Newport Beach. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your continued presence, providence, protection and love towards us in our city, Newport Beach, Corona Delmare. We pray the same for our neighboring cities and presently our entire country and the conditions of our world. We pray Lord for your peace. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Madame Clerk, please read the notice regarding public comments on agenda and non-aggenda items.

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

We'll now proceed with public comments on all agenda and non-aggenda items. Please note that members of the public will still have an opportunity to comment on agenda items under consent and close session later in the meeting provided they do not offer comments on those items at this time. Any public comments? Please come forward. Uh, Mayor Kleman, members of the council, my name is Jim Moer. I had three comments. First of all, uh, I believe that the last week was the first of our new safety enhancement zone areas uh, being in effect that were uh, the subject of some discussion in February. I'm surprised although the city police and code enforcement didn't have all the tools in place at this week because the ordinance had not come into effect yet. Uh I'm surprised that there's no report as to how that went. Did we really have an inundation of problems during that week or not? Second comment I have is on item two on the consent calendar which is the draft minutes from your last meeting. If you look at the very end of that as to how that meeting was noticed, you'll notice or discover that there was no physical posting of the agenda announcing that meeting. I understand that's a situation that is being has been rectified for this meeting but it's uh awaiting as you may or may not know uh some budget to pro to for the city to procure a proper electronic bulletin board which we do not currently have. So that that needs to be taken care of at some time. And then the third comment I have also about those draft minutes. I I spent some time looking at them trying to correct the names of speakers whose

names were misspelled. People I knew or could verify. It appears that the clerk has chosen not to make most of those corrections. I do not know why. Uh but I would suggest when you make the announcement for people to speak before them before you hear somewhere in that announcement you point out that they do not have there there is no requirement for them to identify themselves but if they want their name correctly spelled in the minutes it would be very helpful for them to fill out a speaker card and it would be even more helpful if we had speaker cards up here for them to fill out. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I am Katherine Young. My husband and I have lived in our house on Siri Drive in Corona Delmare for 33 years. Some homeowners in our community community wanted improvements in their cell phone coverage. So our association gave AT&T Verizon a chance a year ago March to so hold a Zoom infomercial for their cell towers proposal. It was to construct two cell tower towers 40t high above Siri Drive, 100 ft from our houses and children's park on Pelican Hill golf course land located in Orange County unincorporated land, not Newport Beach. Being this close to towers putting out microwave and 5G electronic transmissions would endanger our health and our property values. Some h houses would get improved coverage, but a large group of houses that are downs slope to the ocean in our community would fall below the 5G straight line of sight to missions. On the positive house side, those houses would be unlikely to have their health damaged and home values reduced, unlike our houses close to the towers who would have to consider selling and moving away to protect ourselves. Orange County held two public hearings in Santana. One on December 4th, a week after Thanksgiving, and a second December 18th, a week before Christmas. All who attended the meetings were strongly opposed to the project as were a huge majority of the letters written to Orange County. The result as we understand is that Orange County did not

approve nor did it disapprove the two cell power towers. Then recently on Siri Drive we saw markings for utility work. The worker told us Spectrum was updating his service. Oh, on Thursday, March 12th, in the early morning, there appeared a crew of about 10 workers and many, many huge cable trucks on the street. The supervisor told me that he had all the permits he needed to dig and install cable across Siri Drive to deliver power to the cell phone towers on Orange County land. I asked him if he had Orange County permission. He said no, but he had all Newport Beach permissions. The next week, several of our houses received a paper notice in our mailboxes dated March 18th from Cable Brother of Anaheim describing conduit work for Spectrum to begin on March 23rd. Those of us whose health and home values would be severely damaged strongly oppose the proposed towers. We are amazed that it now it appears that Newport Beach has been aiding and abetting this serious endangerment to our lives here secretly without any notifications or explanations. I think the first object of Newport Beach is to do no harm. Thank you for your comments, Miss Young. I believe you're conflating two different things. One is a cell tower application by AT&T and Verizon on County Land, and another is uh sounds like some work being done by Spectrum, but looks like we have another comment on this item. Uh we can certainly have

someone from staff work with you offline.

So, my name is David Brown. Uh I live a little over a block away from the Youngs. I am here in complete solidarity with them and my other neighbors on Siri Drive. On March 5th, the City of Newport Beach Planning Commission, following a study session with this council and with the bare minimum of public notice and civic discussion, recommended sweeping changes to this city's wireless facilities ordinances, which would in many cases allow the city to grant administrative approval for new cell towers anywhere in the city with no public notice, no public hearing, and no opportunity to appeal. I'll say that again. This council is seeking to give city staff non-appealable authority over permits for cell towers. These enormously consequential changes are being rushed through with a single study session and a single poorly publicized public hearing. Why such a hurry? Why are you rushing to hand the keys to our city over to the cellular companies? Why have you solicited input from those companies but not from the people who elected you? The speed and timing of these proposed monumental changes is both highly prejuditial and highly suspicious. The telecommunications industry is governed by federal laws that they themselves wrote and then got passed by their shills in the United States Congress. They already have nearly unfettered ability to put new cell towers anywhere they want and to blight any neighborhood they choose. But for some reason, this city council cannot wait to make this ruthless industry even less accountable to the citizens of Newport Beach than it already is. At best, this is textbook government arrogance. And if it passes, the only just consequences would be for each and every one of you to be removed from office by the voters and for a cell tower to be built in front of each and every one of your homes.

Several of my neighbors, as Kathy just described, awoke one morning in March 2025 to an announcement that two 40oot cell towers were going to be built literally across the street from their homes. The cell phone companies had cynically exploited the fact that the other side of the street is subject to the county's wireless ordinance and not the city's, thereby depriving impacted homeowners of any opportunity to appeal to the elected representatives in this room. Little did we know that there was a movement of foot already to strip us of that right. Please stop and rethink this. The only reason these so-called reforms have encountered no opposition is because no one knows about them. Your staff has brilliantly mired them in 147 pages of gobbledegook. My neighbors and I have worked very hard for our homes and we will fight tooth and nail any effort by this council to disenfranchise us and to give the cellular companies free reign to do whatever they want wherever they want in our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers?

Yes. My name is Donovan Aus. I'm a native I say native of this town. I was born in 1945. That puts me almost 81 years old. I'm a combat veteran, Air Force pilot from Vietnam. That's what I did to help our country with our freedoms. It gave me a great career. I retired as a Delta Airline captain 21 years ago. These are my neighbors. We are pleading with you for being faithful, rightful, honest, and also transparent. We have been alerted that the plan commission has been looking for sweeping changes as been briefed here. So my word to you is this does not seem American. You are taking some blanket information from people. Even the government says in 197 in 1996 they said cell towers are not harmful to your health. We really don't know what's going to happen that way. And I'm going to tell you I have prostate cancer that was received in Vietnam from Agent Orange. I volunteered to fly. I didn't have to go. I was electrical engineer and could have had a drafted for a job, but I I chose to join the Air Force. And I'm not going to say it was God in the country and everything. It was a screwed up war. A lot of lies, especially by the government, including saying, "Don't worry about Agent Orange. It won't hurt you. I have a 100% disability from prostate cancer. Please observe the people you were elected by.

And I'm going to tell you one thing. My neighbor years ago was Mrs. is Dora Hill. She was probably the first lady. Mr. Coupe was a manager here. Tuck Coupe was my classmate. 1963 Newport Harbor High School. We did not even have CDN there. We were a village of 5,000 people where the dads worked for a living and people were good and government was honest. Please go back to your values and think about your people and you don't have to think that the government tells you everything is correct. Agent Orange, three Mile Island and now cell phone towers. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment and for your service. Once again, I do believe that the issues are getting conflated here. So perhaps one of your group can get contact information from our city manager or city attorney so we can talk offline more about this. Do we have another speaker on this topic?

Good afternoon, Mayor Kleinman, council members. My name is Dana Marseilles. I'm also here in solidarity with my neighbors. I've been a resident of Newport Beach for 12 years. Um, I'm here today to express concern about the proposed new wireless ordinance. Not because I oppose improved connectivity. We all want better cell service. Uh, it is because of how it limits public participation in discussions that affect our community. As written, the ordinance removes important public notice and appeal rights for many installations. Facilities can be approved administratively with no opportunity for appeal and many modifications by past discretionary review. This means that residents might know a project, not know that it has been approved until it's potentially constructed. Additionally, the ordinance appears to shift some authority in selecting locations for new facilities over to the telecom providers with no input from the zoning administration. While these companies play an important role in providing our service, their priorities are focused on installing new facilities, cutting costs, they are not interested in preserving the safety or uh character of Newport Beach. Additionally, it was unclear to me whether these new streamline processes involve only small cell towers or do they also involve those larger 40 60 foot towers um class 4 towers. Many cities have setbacks for these large installations. I didn't notice that there were any setbacks listed in the proposed new ordinance. Is council considering adding these, especially given that there's going to be no public appeal process or input? There are many of us whose homes are adjacent to private or city-owned commercial land. Uh, and without a setback requirement, could potentially like a 40ft cell tower be constructed within 25 ft of our homes if we live right on that border? The reason I raised this question is that these

larger facilities also require some increased infrastructure. They need backup generators. They need a big tank of diesel fuel. And if you're going to put this in an area of Newport Beach at high already high fire risk right next to our homes and right next to our parks, I think it's important that there is some public um notification of this and that the zoning commission can um weigh in on the discussion. So, I would ask the council to just consider reooking at the provisions that elimmit public appeal, public notification, and limiting our zoning commission review of these important projects. We want to streamline this process. We all want better cell phone coverage, but the process should not be at the expense of our community safety and the character of Newport Beach. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jurgis. Would you just give Mr. Brown your card, please? Thank you. Any other comments?

So the mayor can briefly respond to comments and direct you to reference staff. There's no violation of the Brown Act if that's what you're implying. Okay. But if Thank you. But if but if she can respond, can I then respond? No, it's not is it's uh basically your opportunity to make public comment and that you've made your public comment. It's not a forum for debate over an item. Um, she can briefly respond to the item that's within the the uh that's within the purview of the Brown Act. So, there's no issue. Do we have any other public comments? Yes. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Good afternoon, uh, mayor, council, council members. Uh, my name is Chris Bliss. Uh I submitted a video I wanted to show um uh showing the uh points of contention and and some of just the nuts and bolts of the whole mooring issue and um maybe it'll help clarify some Newport Harbor moorings

issues. Over 1,000 middle class boers rely on these moorings for affordable boating in Orange County. And these are the private peers owned by Bayfront homeowners. Private pier owners have numerous amenities such as freshwater, electricity, walk-on, walk-off access, and equipment storage making boating easy and convenient. The moing users, on the other hand, have no such advantages. Even accessing your boat is inconvenient and challenging, and doing maintenance on the water adds a whole new level of difficulty. Private pier owners often rent out space at their docks, which are over the state tidelands for high rent, often making tens of thousands of dollars per year, with little or none of that going to the tidelands fund. Mooring permites are not allowed to rent their moorings. If their moing is vacant, the city can rent it out and keep the proceeds with nothing going to the permit who owns, pays for, and maintains the moing equipment. Both the peers and the moorings are within a few feet of each other and share the same tidelin space. Both have the same function, which is a place to park a boat. Both require a permit and pay fees to the city. Yet, the moing users are required to pay multiple times more than the pure users despite the inconvenience and lack of amenities. This outrageous inequity and discrimination has been happening for decades. The Newport moorings are the

only affordable coastal access for boers in Orange County. Now, the city plans mooring rate hikes ranging to more than 500%. This will ultimately make boating in Southern California unaffordable to all but the very wealthy. The Newport Morings have provided affordable coastal access for middle class families for a hundred years. Please help protect this invaluable resource. Thanks for watching. Um there are there are many um easy fixes to so many of these problems and we invite the city to reach out to us to come to a fair and easy solution to some of these problems which has been going on for years and years and years. It's an easy fix. Afternoon, Adam Lens. I had a couple slides I would like called up. And in in relation to the video you just saw, um there's been some spin from people that moing permit holders are trying to jack up everybody else's fees. That's not accurate. We're not saying that anybody is paying too much. We're just saying that the lowest tier access is paying far more than almost everybody else in the harbor. And this has been going on for a long time. This first slide you've seen previously and I I've told you that I'm just trying to have you become more fully informed because I think better decisions come from being better and fully informed. Um according to the city tideland's financials there's about 1,200 moorings in Newport. They contribute $1.9 million annually into the Tideland's fund. There's about half again as many commercial slips and side ties. And you look at the slip rates at commercial marinas. They have to be making many millions of dollars, but

they contribute less to the tideland's funds than moorings at 1.38 million. And then a similar number of residential peers as moorings, approximately 1,200, contribute $282,000. Next slide, please. The the mooring rate calculated on a per square foot basis is a $139 a square foot per year. Um, below that in the green boxes, these are the city's commercial tidelands fees. And all of those in the green boxes pay less than the substantially more challenging to use moorings that, as the previous speaker noted, we're not permitted to rent out. We own the equipment, pay to maintain the equipment, acquire permits under citymandated policies, and uh commercial businesses that pay less, medium commercial marinas, small commercial marinas, shipyards, HOA, and docks for non-member uses of 13,000 to 30,000 square ft 0 to 13,000 ft. yacht club slips, vessel render facility, boat rentals, sport fishing charters, restaurant guest slips, vessel charters, fuel docks, all others. Some of them pay less than half of what morning permits pay for, as the video said, walk- on, walk off access. Um, it it's just so counterintuitive that the lowest tier, most challenging, least amenity boat birthing in Newport has for at least a decade been paying far more than anyone else. And and we're just looking for equity and equality. You know, a lot of people with boats, more than half of the people on the moorings, can't afford to live in Newport Beach, but this is not city property. this is state tidlands and it's for everybody. And if we could convince some of the folks on the other

side that that's true, maybe we wouldn't be in the pickle we are right now. Thank you. Any other speakers?

Good afternoon. My name is Michael Alti. Um, I'm here to urge you to substantially increase enforcement against illegal motorcycles on our sidewalks and and bike paths uh by the police department. Um, I moved here from Los Angeles about 20 years ago. Los Angeles is not a very safe place to bike and Newport at the time was a very safe place to bike. I really appreciated the bike paths, the back bay, the boardwalk, the river. We have really great facilities. Um about 15 years ago, the city, I'm not sure if you're aware, had a bicycle safety committee, who was uh official uh run by uh may uh mayor Gardner and later Tony Petro. And I was on that committee for a few years. At the time, the danger was um over a 6 month period about eight different people were killed on their bikes by vehicles. Now our situation is very different. That committee doesn't exist anymore, but the danger is from motorcycles. I know a lot of people call them ebikes, but they're really motorcycles. These are shouldn't really be called bicycles. I know you um you change your ordinance uh effective January and there's a new state law. Um right now I have two kids and I want to take them out biking on our bike paths on the sidewalk and um the boardwalk. We live very close to the boardwalk and we don't feel safe. I don't feel safe. My kids don't feel safe. It's completely completely out of control. Um, you see these teenagers, sometimes it's adults, usually it's teenagers, and they act like they the road belongs to them. You tell them they're not supposed to be on their motorcycle. They yell at you that what are you going to do about it? Because they don't have license plates. So, I can't take a video and report them. That's pretty useless. Um, I whenever I'm on the bike path, on the peninsula, on the wherever, I don't

really see any police stopping these individuals. I spoke with uh Sergeant Spencer today and he informed me that there is some enforcement, but that the police department doesn't have enough resources and has other priorities and can't go and have more enforcement. But if you have over the summer, over a course of a few months, every single weekend, police at the bike path on the boardwalk, uh, jamboree, other places, the backbay stopping people, that would get the word out and these kids would stop using these motorcycles if they get confiscated. That's how you do it. It this shouldn't be a controversy. It should be pretty easy to do with some leadership, initiative, and dedication over even just a few months period. the word will get out. These motorcycles get confis confiscated. The parents will get the message and it'll stop. And I also urge you to work with neighboring cities, the county, Huntington Beach to add to all work together on enforcement, especially on the river trail, and really need more leadership here because it's out of control and it's very unsafe.

Thank you. Any other speakers? Good afternoon. My name is Bejorn Hazelquist. I'm the founder of a local nonprofit called Strength and Pain Foundation based out of Costa Mesa. We are an organization dedicated to supporting survivors of brain injury and concussion. I'm also a local surfer. I was born and raised here in Newport and like many others, I learned to surf at Blackies and have been surfing in this community for over 30 years. For my entire life, Newport Beach has had black ball rules to protect swimmers. In essence, what I'm proposing tonight is black ball for beginner surfers, or as experienced surfers affectionately refer to them, Cooks. Newport Beach has some of the most heavily surfed beaches in the world, and with that comes a real and growing safety problem that this council has the power to address. In 2022 and 2024, I personally suffered two concussions and one major neck injury from two separate collisions in the water. On both occasions, the surfer who hit me lacked the experience and skill to safely navigate the conditions they paddled out into. They should not have been out there. I suffered personal injury and financial damages in the form of out-ofpocket medical expenses that exceeded $10,000. And yet under current law, I had no legal recourse because the harm was unintentional. Courts typically ruled that the injured party assumed the inherited risk of the sport and the case is dismissed. I believe the nature of this entire situation is fundamentally unfair. Just like all of us here would not be comfortable with a 12-year-old child with no driving experience taking a car for a joy ride on the 405 freeway at rush hour, most experienced surfers are not comfortable with absolute beginners paddling out at advanced surfing spots. Unnecessary collisions and injuries inevitably happen when there is no regulation over where beginners are

allowed to surf. So, at the local level, I'm asking this council to take two practical steps. first post large clearly visibleformational signage at Newport Beach surfing spots similar to what already exists at Trussels and Saninophrey. These signs map the brakes and specify the skill level and equipment required to surf safely as well as specify which spots are for experienced surfers only. They set clear expectations before anyone paddles out. And second, I support citation authority for local enforcement when beginner surfers disregard posted guidelines and cause injury to others. I also want to be clear about what I'm not asking for. I firmly oppose a statemandated surfing license and I do not support a local citymandated surfing license either. A city surfing license has been done in the past in the 1960s and during that era it seemed to be more about control and collecting revenue for the city than anything else. So, in conclusion, I just ask that something be done about this issue. I don't want to get hurt again. I don't want to see anybody else get hurt again. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, now is the time for council announcements or reports from council members on committee activities and the time for council members to request an item be placed on a future agenda. Council member Wagan, do you have any announcements or reports?

Yes, I do. Um, having served the city as our vector control representative, uh, there are two items that I wanted to, uh, bring up. We approved a design build, uh, contract for with Snder Langston with Gendler as our designer for our 1949 building that we have uh, that needs to be rebuilt on site in Garden Grove. So, we're moving forward with that process. And then also there was a recent a um it's called 80s squaminger and it's a winter salt marsh mosquito and it was having a heavy breeding season in the Randall Preserve and um so the prevailing winds can send them up to 20 miles away and they ended up in Costa Mesa. Uh but there was a significant hatch off in the brackish water. So it's a brackish water mosquito and there was a high tide event uh mixed with some freshwater that created a ton of these mosquitoes that were breeding. So, um, our teams came in help, uh, in a localized spray, uh, to take those down. Um, and it's been helpful so far, but this was something that, uh, I don't think we were expecting and, uh, the team is on it and has brought those levels back down, but that was something that, uh, I found interesting that I should share. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member BTO. Uh, yes. A couple of weeks ago, I was pleased to attend the first um of many weekly farmers markets up on um Dover Drive over by Bob Henry Park in Newport Harbor Lutheran. It was the first day, so I think everyone came in with low expectations, but it was a really well done farmers market. So, I encourage everyone to attend. They're going to be there um every Saturday, and then around December, they plan on doing some kind of Christmas market thing. So again, I'm kind of picky and um wouldn't recommend it unless they did an excellent job. I think everyone would enjoy it. Council member Grant,

thank you. I first want to congratulate our utilities director, Mark McCoy. He was able to speak at SpeakUp Newport this month and give us a wonderful update on the history of our water reliability in Newport Beach. And um we basically get an A+ on our report card. We'll be water independent very shortly. And that's in large regard to many people that came before Mark, but he's definitely carrying the mantle for that. I also was able to attend the 111 Marines Foundation mess night. One is our Marine Foundation here in the city of Newport Beach. It was at the Balboa Bay Resort and it was a really memorable evening celebrating the 20 years our community has devoted to supporting the Marines at Camp Pendleton. And then finally, I am grateful that local business um Casey Leer Real Estate hosted a um sort of a startup community appreciation day in Chronomar with a vintage car show and an In-N-Out truck and lots of residents coming and it was a nice way for a business to appreciate the community. So, thank you to Casey Casey Leer Real Estate. That's all.

Council member Weber, none. Council member Stapleton, I just want to thank the Newport Shores uh HOA annual meeting. They had me over there. Gave a state of district one and a state of the city, which was great. Um so I appreciate them having me every year. And then to the public works team, utilities department. Uh congrats to the Newport Beach Foundation. We went and uh fed our public works and utilities uh employees. I don't know, 150 employees or something showed up uh with Beach City Barbecue. when I was there with the mayor and it was a lot of fun to uh say thank you to those that are maybe left on the other side of town sometime. So great effort. Mayor Protown. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Nothing to add.

Madame Clerk, would you please read the notice regarding public comments on the consent calendar? This is a time in which council members may pull items from the consent calendar for discussion. Items 1 through 11. Public comments are also invited on consent calendar items. Speakers must uh limit comments to three minutes. Before speaking, please state your name for the record. If any item is removed from the consent calendar by a council member, members of the public are invited to speak on each item for up to three minutes per item. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. Council members have received detailed staff reports on each of the items recommending the action. There will be no separate discussion of these items prior to the time the city council votes on the motion unless members of the city council request specific items to be discussed and or removed from the consent calendar for separate action.

Council member Wagan, do you have any items to pull from the consent calendar or conflicts to announce related to items number 1 through 11? No, I do not. Council member Barto, I do not. Council member Grant, none. Council member Weber, none. Council member Stapleton, none. Mayor Poten Blum, I have none, but I did just want to comment quickly on item 10. Um, the purchase of the auto pulse automatic chest compression devices that I think we all need to be fully aware of how impactful they are in this city, saving lives, and the amazing work the fire department does using them. So, thank you. Thank you. Are there any members of the public that would like to speak on the consent calendar at this time?

Adam Le, just several quick things. Um, the minutes that you're approving from the last meeting indicated that I had supported heightened qualifications for the appointment of citizens to the finance committee. I submitted a correction to that. what I had uh suggested that that I had faith in all of you to vet candidates and that I hoped you'd be open-minded enough to not limit it to only people with a formal education or a degree in finance because sometimes there's people without those things that make lots of money and become incredibly successful. Um consent item nine, general plan and housing progress report. Um, again encouraging some actual affordable housing to be built and I'll tie that in with consent item 11 which is a planning commission agenda for an upcoming thing that as I understand it will come before you in the future but it's uh Newport Place community development plan amendment to revise the minimum inclusionary affordable housing percentage applicable to forale housing development within the residential overlay from 15% to 6%. Another reduction of what isn't already being built as far as affordable housing. And and with the inloo fees, I've seen other places where a developer can claim to build affordable housing somewhere else undetermined at some point in the future undetermined. Or they can pay a $36,000 fine. I've pointed out that it's more economically sensible for them to simply pay the fine. And I I worry that at some point the state's going to come down that the city's not even coming close to meeting its affordable housing mandates. And I hope there's some plan I'm not aware of, but but thought really needs to be put into this. and again reducing the percentage because developers apparently can't

construct affordable units and make money. There's got to be some kind of an option. Thank you.

Any other comments? Hello, Mayor, city me council members. Ron Rabbino, uh, East Bluff resident, took time off from the Hogue Classic to come over, so I'm not dressed up very well today. Thank you for opportunity to speak to you. Uh, my comment is on number nine, the housing status report. Um, I went through the report. Table A shows uh, 171 units of which 165 were ADUs. uh table A2 you know reports uh 168 permits of which 10 actually have gotten to occupancy. Uh in the last 5 years uh on the sixth cycle we have 200 uh 352 units towards our goal. The mandate is 4,845 affordable units. We have 4,493 to go with only four years left. So 5 years into it, if you do the math, we're not on a good track and we're not going to make it unless something different happens. Table B is really informative. Um I encourage the public to go down into the detail. I have a couple quick questions that I'd like you to ask staff and deal with in the future and make it in a public forum so we can hear the discussion. Um is the density bonus concept used in the city's housing plan working? Is it really producing the affordable units? I don't see the math. Year-to- date versus projection says you're not going to make it. What is not meeting the the state mandate in terms of permitted projects by the end of the sixth cycle? Are there penalties? Will it give the developers more rights? Will it roll over as an additional goal

for the seventh cycle? Will this deficit, you know, be able to be caught up by the end of the sixth cycle? Can the city sponsor singlepurpose projects such as seniors, veterans, and workforce housing with assistance in land costs? Can there be grants? Can there be loans? What creative ideas do we have? I read about them in other cities. I don't see anything like that going on in Newport Beach. We need 100% projects that are going to be geared to the affordable units, which is a good thing to have in our community, not a bad thing. And so that's my comments. I'd like to see discussion of this progress report where you don't have to dig through to find the numbers. My review says we're not on track to make the goal. What's the impact?

Thank you. Uh, Mayor Klyman, members of the council, my name again is Jim Moer and my first comment is, if I'm understanding the agenda correctly, the entire business of the city council tonight is on the Mr. Mo, did you already comment on consent? I believe you came up and commented on consent already during general comments. I commented on the minutes, which is one item on the consent calendar, Mr. Moher.

Thank you. Are there any other comments on consent? Seeing none, do we have a motion? Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a motion uh with the adjustment of the minutes of content.

Council member Weber seconds. Let's go ahead and vote. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Madam clerk, please read the statement on motions for reconsideration. A motion to reconsider the vote on any action taken by the city council at either this meeting or the previous meeting may be made only by one of the council members who voted with the prevailing side. Are there any motions for reconsideration? Hearing none, we will proceed to close session. Uh, are there any council members who have any conflicts to announce on close session agenda?

Yeah, I do. I'm recused on close session item 4B and C based on real property interest at 4100 and 4110 Macarthur. Before we go out for public comment, I just want to mention that we will adjourn this meeting in memory of Norma Pat Moore. Council member Wend, do you want to

Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh tonight we adjourn in memory of Norma Pat Mau. Uh Norma was a beloved grandmother, gr uh mother, Navy veteran, and longtime Bowo Island resident. Born in 1923, she served in the United States Navy during World War II as part of the historic women accepted for volunteer emergency service, also known as the Waves. While stationed in San Diego, she met her husband, Phil, at the Hotel Del Coronado. The couple were married in 1945 and made their home on Balo Island, where they lived for 40 years and raised two sons. Phil later served on Indep Beach City Council as mayor in the 1980s. Pat was active in the community, including her involvement with the Balo Island Improvement Association and as a dosent for local theaters. In 1998, Pat and Phil retired to Fbrook where she enjoyed gardening, entertaining friends, and staying active on the tennis court. After Phil's passing in 2002, Norma returned to Newport Beach where she spent her later years surrounded by friends and family. Pab passed away just one month shy of her 103rd birthday. We are grateful for her service to our country and her lasting connection to Newport Beach community. We extend our deepest consol condolences to her sons Matthew and Craig and daughter-in-law Jay and their four grandchildren. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any comments on close session?

Adam Le regarding close session item A. It states anticipated litigation threat of litigation. This is referring to a letter from a law firm uh regarding concerns of violations of the Brown Act at a previous meeting. Um I went through and watched the video of the meeting from February 24th and noted that a member of the public had read an agenda item and I'll read it. Ordinance number 26-2 amending various sections of the Newport Beach Municipal Code to address illegal activity during high-risk periods. Uh it was noted that that didn't describe what you all voted on and discussed. It turned out that some of these things are 365 days a year. And to say on an agenda item that is doing something only during high-risisk periods and then implement it year round was stated as a matter of concern on the 24th. I believe it was on February 10th. There's a letter from a law firm now. I see another letter from the short-term lodging people. Um I had sent emails to staff and the city attorney responded saying no these rules are year round. I I just hope I mean there's an attorney over here, there's two attorneys up here. I hope you can recognize something as simple as this. And and as Mr. Moer stated in his written remarks, this isn't a threat of litigation. It's just seeking a correction of process. And it doesn't seem that that should be so hard to do. and and just there are people that come up here and and say things you should really take to heart and at least consider rather than just ramming stuff through as frequently frequently as it looks like happens. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Uh Mayor Kleman and members of the council, my name is Jim Moer. Uh, I too would comment on close session item 4A, which is the letter that was received politely asking the city to reconsider the ordinance that had not been properly noticed. I think there's no doubt that the part of it about shade structures was not it was not clearly noticed. It was not only not clearly noticed, it was misleadingly noticed so that people reading the agenda did not know what that item is. this becomes a threat of litigation or actually exposure to litigation only if you choose not to reintroduce that part of the ordinance. And I certainly urge you to do that. It's very simple as Adam said and it's the right thing to do. As to the letter regarding this that you also got from the short-term lodging owners association. Uh I did not see them complaining about the notice of that. It was a little vague but not quite so bad. But I would point out attending that meeting and the following meeting where the ordinance was again discussed, I thought that it was very misleadingly described to the council at that meeting. I repeatedly heard the city attorney tell you that the mandatory revocation portion of that short-term lodging ordinance, which will come into effect during the next spring break period, would be triggered only by the most egregious violations. But if you actually read the list of conditions that trigger mandatory revocation, extremely minor infractions by tenants of a short-term lodging as that is drafted and as you approved will cause mandatory re revocation. I thought that was misleading for people

to think that it was only very serious violations. It is not minor violations as well. you just read what the ordinance says. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, Mr. Harp, please announce our close session items. Thank you, mayor. The city council will journ close session to meet with legal council discuss potential litigation based on alleged violation of the Brown Act on February 10th, 2026 related to an ordinance amending the municipal code concerning shade coverings. the initiation of litigation regarding one matter and one matter of existing litigation title Newport Beach Stewardship Association versus the city of Newport Beach. And that's all on the agenda under items 4 A through C. Thank you. Thank you. We are now journed to closed.

Mr. Hart, do you have a closed session report? I do. Thank you. Uh, regarding agenda item number 4B, a motion was made by the mayor over Tim and seconded by the mayor to initiate litigation in regard to one matter. The action, the defense and other particulars related to the litigation shall be disclosed to any person on inquiry once litigation is formally commenced. All council members vote in favor of the motion except for um council member Stapleton who was recused from the matter. Thank you. We are adjourned.