Remarks by Miguel Arias
198 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 8 of 8
- Play at 1:36:01
“President, I do have one question for IT on this item. My apologies. Director, why aren't we securing our own facility? if it's mission critical to the infrastructure? Why are we leasing private space?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 1:36:39
“But my question is, why aren't we acquiring property at 1,000 feet? and having our own facility versus leasing private facilities?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:01:09
“This is where I love to geek out because we're a legislative body and this is kind of our primary function. So a couple of things I wanted to just provide input on as some of the amendments have been suggested. First and foremost, I did just now receive the email you guys sent yesterday at 4.30. I think if you pay attention to news, we were all busy at 4.30 yesterday. So I just read it on the dais now and reviewed the proposed amendments. I HAVE SOME REACTION TO SOME OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS, BUT I WANT TO START OFF WITH COUNCILMEMBER RICHARDSON'S, YOU KNOW, SUGGESTIONS. ONE IS I'M VERY…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:06:23
“Director, back to my initial question. What retailer have we revoked their CUP based on alcohol issues or tobacco issues? Have we revoked any retailer CUP?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:06:40
“Okay. My second question is in terms of CUPs. do we still have a significant amount of businesses that do not have a CUP because they were grandfathered into the city?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:06:56
“Convenience stores, retail stores, liquor stores. I know we have several dozens.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:07:39
“But those that were grandfathered in do not have a CUP for us to revoke.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:07:59
“Got it. The other recommendation was a mandatory Retailer Education Opportunity to Cure amendment. Doesn't the state law require businesses to already do some level of training to the employees when they sell alcohol or tobacco? Isn't that already a requirement? So that exists already. So there's, in my view, there's no need to mandate a thing, because it's already a condition of your operations of a business. In terms of, the other one was centralizing court enforcement, which I think there are recommendations that they should be under the mayor's office. And the answer is absolutely no.…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:10:30
“So in this case, the first find is $250, correct? We can levy up to $250 fine, yes. I think it reads the first one is $250, the second one is $500, the third one is $1,000 in the same year. So walk this through me, city attorney. You find somebody on Monday. Do you then put them on Monday as a business out of compliance and therefore their license at risk? Or do you give them time to cure the issue and to pay the fine? We educate and give them time to cure the issue. 14 days, Erica? 18 days. So right now our current practice is that we give somebody 18 days to cure the violation. So they at…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:11:50
“And then there's a request for us to remove that each day is a separate violation. So if I'm understanding this, if somebody is selling illegal tobacco on Monday, that's a fine. If we go back on Tuesday, then still selling it, that's another fine.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:12:06
“If we go back on Wednesday and they're still selling it, that's another fine. Correct. and so what they're proposing is let the one fine just be the one fine and don't attach each day as a new fine. Is that?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:12:20
“That's how I'm reading it. And keep in mind, gentlemen in the audience, this is just my layman's term reading of it now. Again, I just got it on the dais an hour ago. There'll be plenty of time for me to ask you guys questions, but I'm trying to think this out loud because this is part of the legislative process. the reciprocal recovery of legal fees and investigation costs. What's the current process if somebody gets fined by the city and it goes to the hearing officer? The hearing officer can waive all fees or fines that were imposed by the city, the hearing officer finds that we were in…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:13:07
“Even if he finds that our fine was in error?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:13:24
“Correct. But if we were in error, he has the ability to waive all fines.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:13:35
“And the dismissal would essentially waive the fines.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:13:51
“So let me ask you this. Is there another vehicle where somebody can litigate us, they win, and they recover all legal fees?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:14:09
“So there's already a vehicle for them to recover legal fees if our error is of such magnitude that a court would fine in their favor.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:14:55
“So I'm glad to point that out. How does it work now, city attorney? If we play out his scenario, you inspect it on Monday, you find them. you come back 10 days later, you find the same violation. Is that a new fine or do you tack on a fine for each state in which they failed to correct their violation?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:15:48
“It's a new fine because it's a new violation. Got it. But you're not going back and saying, we're going to retroactively fine you for the 10 days each day being a new fine.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:16:00
“It would just be an additional fine. So if they were selling illegal products on Monday, you come back 10 days later, they're selling a new batch of legal products that use the previous ones. You go from a $250 fine to a $500 fine 10 days later?”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:16:27
“Thank you for the clarification. A sell-through period for newly prohibited products. I struggle with that provision, and I don't think that I'm going to be supportive of it. I recognize that laws change, but whenever a new law goes in effect in the state of California, it's usually for the new calendar year, and we all know months in advance what is expected from everyone in the new calendar year. I wouldn't want to have a fire sale at every retailer of illegal products and give them a waiver, even though they're technically illegal at the time of the fire sale. The quarterly reports, of…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:20:43
“In this body, each of us spends days and months working on a piece of policy while the rest of us get to see it when it gets published. And this is our opportunity to ask questions. So I'll be respectful of the authors and defer to them if they think more time is warranted or whether they want to proceed with today.”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026
- Play at 2:26:49
“Council President, just wanted to make a final point. I know one of the authors is not here today. instead of maybe taking substantial changes that I, at this point, I'm not willing to be supportive of substantial changes because I haven't had time to talk to a legal counsel about what all the implications are. So I would just, as a friendly request, maybe request that we bring this back at the next meeting when the third author is here, or at least we have time to discuss the potential substantial changes with legal counsel so that we don't maybe create some unintended consequences that the…”
City Council · Aug 13, 2026