Remarks by Mike Buley
25 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 11:56
“Thank you, Mayor, Councilmembers, and members of the public. I'll be brief tonight as well because we've got some items of significant public interest that we're going to get into. But just a quick shout-out. I had a great time this last weekend at Segerstrom Performing Arts Center's 40th anniversary. Kudos to them. Mayor was there, Councilmember Reynolds, City Manager, Councilmember Guimaraes, Just a great event and what a great community member the Segerstrom family and their performing arts center and the museum and just a great day in the city and additionally I was It was a somber and…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:13:51
“Sure, just a couple questions. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Thank you, members of the public. I mean, it's awesome to see this level of engagement and outpouring. It's been my experience prior to coming to Council that oftentimes the community gets engaged after the big event happens and the effects are felt. So the fact that we're down here near the finish line and we've got a packed house, I think that speaks volumes and it's a good thing. Thank you, staff, for all your effort and everything that we've put into this. I'm going to ask kind of some bigger picture questions, and…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:15:28
“And then we're doing this juggling act because we also are trying to get our housing element certified. And we recently received a letter that kind of set tonight is the night to get this plan approved and as a potential condition to get our housing element certified. So tonight's the night to get this done for purposes of getting our housing element certified. Am I kind of correct on that?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:16:28
“Right. So to make this process not complicated enough, we're balancing these two very important, very significant interests. and each of them, if we don't hit these deadlines or whatever, there could be consequences, and I'll get to that next. Where I'm going with this, there has been a certain good level of community outreach, public outreach. Recently, we had the town hall that was great. Mayor Stevens invited the community in to express their concerns, and a lot of the council were there at that, heard a lot of good things. There was one stream of community commentary that night that…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:20:57
“I think I'll follow you and I just want to synthesize that a little bit. My understanding is let's take the housing element and those potential lawsuits. If we don't complete this, we don't get certified. Based on what I've read in the paper with other cities, just to put a dollar amount on it, could be looking at 50k a month in penalties, setting aside the other problems that you mentioned we may be facing. Correct. Okay. And then just My review of the fdc agreement the agreement that's got the december date uh... i couldn't find a specific consequence uh... in the event we missed that…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:23:02
“Okay, fair enough. If we were to continue this back to... staff's question, what would we do with that time? Here's a few scenarios and you can tell me if this would make sense. You constitute an ad hoc committee comprised of stakeholders, renters rights groups, different members of the community, liaison from council, liaison from planning commission, that could happen during that timeframe.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:23:48
“And to make this not a restarting of the whole process, we could limit this ad hoc committees to review the work product that's been done to date. They don't get to engage in new research, new reports, new studies, but they review everything that's been completed up to date. That would be a potential scenario.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:24:17
“Okay, but I think we're heading back down to the legal.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:24:37
“And that's fair enough. I didn't want that level of legal analysis. I'm just saying if we have more time, I just really want to stay on target here as to what could be accomplished. And then should this ad hoc committee come up with a recommendation that actually reduces the specific plan amount from $2,300 to a recommendation that is something below that, and that winds up being the recommendation, comes before council, we decide that's something we wanna consider, and then I believe I heard Council Member Chavez allude to this, or somebody, if we did dip below this 2300 threshold that's…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:26:00
“Okay. And cognizant of the time in the community here, just last year I want to talk about this 2300 number. I've been hearing that for months now that... That 2300 number, we go one above it, you get the second access road. We stay at the 2300, we avoid the access road. I've heard that, but tonight, I think on slide 48, it says the 2300 unit alternative requires a secondary access road. Can somebody explain that to me?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:27:08
“And then, another thing that I recently learned, and Councilman Pettis and some of the others alluded to it, if we were to go forward with a 2,300 number, I've seen some analysis that shows that sets the base. And then with the housing density bonus, that could realistically under one scenario get us to 3,825. So the fact that we were to select 2,300 tonight, it's a realistic expectation that something between 2,300 and 3,800 with a housing density bonus is what could actually be achieved out there.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:28:01
“Are you guys in a position tonight? And this isn't to put you on the spot, but it's a critical number. We've got a lot of people here. I'd like to know what is that base number that you probably can't give me an exact scenario. Cause I know the housing density bonus depends on all kinds of different conditions, the master developer plan, and then the sub plans and, this guy decides to seek the housing density bonus. The other guy doesn't. Um, but are you guys able tonight to tell me what is that base number that we could, um, approve tonight with a level of certainty or comfort that when all…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:29:02
“So tonight you couldn't, if you had additional time, would you be able to give us something with a 70% degree of certainty or 90% degree of certainty?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:29:29
“I can say with reasonable certainty tonight that if we approve 2300, we're going to get a developer where the housing density bonus is going to go beyond 2300.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:30:14
“I'M NOT TAKING FAULT. YOU WERE WORKING WITHIN YOUR PARAMETERS. YOU HAD TO PUT TOGETHER A this specific plan or this recommendation that we're reviewing tonight based on economic feasibility and what's an actual plausible outcome. So again, I'm not casting aspersions or pointing fingers. I'm just trying to get accurate information before we jump off this plank tonight, myself and my six other council members up here.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:30:44
“I think that's perfect segue. I was just wrapping up. Go ahead.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:15:25
“There was this discussion, we've gone from 2,000 to now 2,300 units, and it sounds like there's discussion what triggers the secondary access road. And just so I can understand your motion, that in the motion, if we up it to this 2,300, in the event it's gonna trigger a secondary access road, I'm not clear on what happens next. What prohibition do we have if the, Density bonus adjustment comes in on the 2300 that makes it an obligation for safety reasons to get the secondary access road What controls do we have? I think you said that the developer will have to come back to council. What…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 5:33:46
“obviously significant motion and uh... pre-set all the efforts of staff pre-set uh... all the community came out and i appreciate the creative uh... motion but uh... by the mayor and i'm gonna support the motion but i just wanted to be heard on this motion you know to me what we've really been debating here whether we go uh... four thousand units high density or fifteen hundred units uh... it's a quality of life issue as quality of life issue for the affordable, people looking for affordable housing, they just want a house, they want an affordable house to get into, and it's a quality of life…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 13:34
“Mike? I thought we were going to public first, but since I've got a couple, I've got a couple. Looking at the presentation, we saw the .5%, I think it was the slide four, and what we're here talking about tonight is this allocation to the first-time homebuyers program. And although there's the other 5% that we allocate to the arts. and just so I'm clear on the presentation or the study session, we're kind of just, when we talk about we could allocate this either to the general fund or allocate it to the housing trust or whatever, we're just talking about this first time home buyer's 0.5%.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 14:24
“Okay. So we could do something with this, and I just want to make sure we're not contemplating touching the arts. Right now they've got their same amount, roughly 230,000 years going to the arts. And we could allocate this 5%, or 0.5% over to the arts as well. We could go any place with this right now. Okay, and I'm just... I'm curious, the 7% that is generated from the cannabis resale tax, where's that other 6% go? Is that just poured into the general fund?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 15:13
“And would we have the flexibility to We could either do this 0.5% into the areas that you guys have identified, pour it back into the general fund. Could we specifically designate it to go to parks or CIP or something like that?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 15:48
“And just more of a comment, just seems first time homebuyers program, when it was first presented to us and which led us to this site, it just seems so cumbersome. And the dollars that we're looking to allocate to a first time homebuyers program hate to sound somewhat crass, but it really can't help that many people or have that broad of an impact it seems like. Whereas in the dollars that we're dealing with could conceivably have a pretty broad impact on improving a park or improving some specific, it would impact the quality of life for a large number of the community that enjoys that park…”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 35:21
“It occurred to me as I'm listening. What kind of federal, state, county first-time homebuyer programs or packages are out there? Because I know first-time homebuyers get special incentivized loans and reduced down payments. And so just in general, I mean, are we reinventing the wheel here a little bit by at the city level having our own FTHB program? And how common are these in other cities?”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 36:49
“And it sounds like grants is the way to go so you avoid all the administrative costs.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 37:13
“And even this in a grant, you still, there's a certain level of administration to check for qualifications and make sure that the application checks all the boxes. Okay, yeah, that was it for questions or comments.”
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL AND HOUSING AUTHORITY* · Sep 8, 2026