City Council - Regular Meeting

Give me two seconds. Okay. Uh, good afternoon everyone. We're going to go ahead and get the the meeting of the Santa Monica City Council started. I'll wait for Council Member Snell to finish his video. Kidding. Um, mayor, mayor, before you begin, remember this is this we're calling it a we're calling the meeting of the regular and special.

Yeah. So, uh, we are calling the, uh, regular meeting of the Santa Monica City Council and the special meeting of the city Santa Monica City Council uh, to order at 5:35 concurrent uh, concurrently. Um, C uh, Council Member Negrete, would you mind leading us in the ple pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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.

And council member Hall, will you read the land acknowledgement? Oh, and then we'll do the roll call. The city the city of Santa Monica is located on the land of Tvangar. With great respect, the city acknowledges the Gabrielando Tongva Tongva as the first people of this ancestral and unseated territory of Kurovanga, a village that we know as Santa Monica. We honor their elders, past and present, and the Gabrieleno descendants who are part of the Gabrieleno Tongva tribes. We recognize that these peoples are still here and as settlers in Kuam or guests, we recognize our responsibility and obligation to care for their land in partnership with them. The city of Santa Monica commits to work in partnership with the Gabrielleno Tongva people to uplift their voices and visibility on their ancestral land.

Thank you, Council Member Negrete. here. Council member Council member Hall present. Council member Raskin here. Council member Snell here. Council member Zernaya here. Mayor Pro Timwick here. And Mayor Terosas

here. Great. Um so before we get started, uh are there any Lvac disclosures or pro other items that people need to announce? No. Um, and for agenda management, uh, I'm asking for a motion to, uh, hear 30 minutes of public testimony on agenda item one, uh, and then the remainder of that public testimony, uh, after all other agendaized items have been heard. So moved. Uh, uh, looks like Mayor Pam moved. I'll second. Uh, can I make one uh, modification of for Well, actually, let's do that motion first. I'll make a second motion later. Okay,

you can do it by voice voice. All those in favor? I Any opposed? No. Okay. Uh six to one. Thank you. Um did you want to make a second motion? Yeah. Um, in light of the uh many people we have here tonight, uh, I I'd like to make a motion to suspend the council rules if as necessary or just make a motion that we ask, uh, speakers to identify if they're Santa Monica residents when they speak. I'm fine with that. Did anyone have an objection? I'll second that. Okay. Do we need a You can do voice. Okay. All those in favor? Oh, question. Is that

I have a question. I thought we couldn't do that. I think he's asking to suspend the council rules. Correct. You city attorney? Well, I I think um you know identifying information is generally given on a voluntary basis, but you can ask the question that you normally don't ask. Okay. So, there's a motion on the floor to have um a voluntary identification of location from where the commenters are coming. Uh on general public comment or all items. Let's make it all items. Okay. Do we need a voice vote or Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? No. One, two, three. Okay. So, let's do I'm saying no.

Okay. So, it's Hall, Negrete, and who? Zwick. Oh, sorry. Zwick. Wait, is Zernaya Negretti and Hall? Okay. And Zwick. Okay. So, that fails. Got it. Thank you. Um I am then uh now travel announcement and mayor's highlight I believe is is on this agenda, but I think do I need to do that first? Did you We're not We're not doing a mayor's highlight today. No, not the mayor's highlight, right?

But we do want to do the MA city manager. You want to do And before we do that, I don't think we have any speakers on that item. uh the city manager's report we're going to hear on after after the 30 minutes of public comment. Yeah. Great. Um so I'm going to go ahead and set a timer for 30 minutes. Um and I will begin by calling up um we have Yep. Go ahead.

So mayor, we can just do the we can just do 30 speakers because it's it's more than 25. I just wanted to acknowledge if someone wanted to have 10 seconds of comment that we could fit because I know that some of the folks had said they would be brief. Um, great. So, we're going to call up Justin Rosen, Jonathan Foster, Robert Bell, Naomi Maurice, Chris Lison, and Jillian Felon. Feel free to come on up and start your minute. They might be outside. and feel free to state your name when you come up. Do we have Justin Rosen, Jonathan Foster, Robert Bell? Feel free to get started.

Good evening. My name is Robert Bell.

I respectfully ask you to reconsider the structure and timing of these meetings. Public decision-making should occur in public view at hours and under cir conditions where ordinary citizens can meaningfully participate. As council member Negreti observed at your January 27th meeting, the one that ended at 2:34 a.m., there is a principle dating back to the Roman Republic that public acts affecting citizens should occur in the light of day, not after exhaustion has set in, and not through prolonged recesses and late night proceedings that ordinary residents simply cannot accommodate. When important agenda items begin late at night, participation is no longer truly equal. seniors, families, working residents, those concerned about nighttime safety, or those who are just fatigued are effectively excluded while only organized insiders and professionals can remain for the entire process. I urge you to consider the reforms proposed by Miss Negradi.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, can we make sure the mic's working? Yeah, it turns off after a minute. Great. Mayor, we also have a minor. Great. Bring the minor in. The minor's name is Jack Abrams. Jack Abrams. All right. Go ahead. Can I address the council? Go ahead and start. Uh, no, you can address us when the comment comes up. All right. Go ahead. Just state your name.

Hi, my name is Justin Rosen. Um, and yeah, I'm here to Sorry. I'm here to uh uh call against the the closure of Santa Monica Airport. Santa Monica Airport is a vital part of this community. Uh it was a very important ad hoc air airport during the LA wildfires. Um they were disastrous and they would have been far more disastrous if we hadn't had Santa Monica. Um it's it's a very important airport for the community. A lot of people would be put out of their jobs and their livelihood. Um during COVID and during the double Hollywood strike, a lot of entertainment people in the industry pivoted to Santa Monica airport to work and fly. And uh the the closure of it doesn't doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It wouldn't stop air traffic. It it wouldn't lower pollution. Um it would just have a massive influx to other airports and Vanise airport is one of the busiest airports in the entire globe. And that would get even more busy and more dangerous for the air traffic controllers. So I urge you to not close the airport. Um, I need you to reconsider and thank you so much.

Thank you. Let's have the minor. Okay. Uh, and just to remind everyone, we do not do clapping here. If you want to, uh, express support, you can either stand up or do happy hands. Thank you.

Hi. Uh, good afternoon, members, city council. My name is Jack Abdens, and I just come to you with a very short story. Few years ago, there was a kid who was um only a year younger than me and he was dying and he needed a heart and the heart was in Santa Monica. It would have taken too long to drive it to Van Eyes, drive it to LAX or even helicopter it. So, they put it on a plane and flew it to Santa Monica from Santa Monica to this kid and because of it, because of the airport, that's the reason this kid is alive today. So, you know, that's my reason we should keep the airport open. And uh yeah, that's about it. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Chris Lison, the executive director of the Growing Place with three early childhood campuses in the heart of Santa Monica. On behalf of the professional community and families of Growing Place, thank you for your generous donation of our 40th anniversary celebration for the proclamation of this milestone and for the city's continued support of early childhood education in our community. For 40 years, Growing Place has been proud to call Santa Monica home, working alongside families to nurture children who are confident, compassionate, and creative problem solvers. Want to thank you for standing with us, for fost for honoring our 40-year legacy, and for helping ensure that Santa Monica continues to be a place for where children, families, and educators thrive. We deeply um are grateful and um look forward to the next 40 years. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Chris. Um, I believe that we also Sorry, are you Naomi Maraice? Okay, fantastic. I'm going to call a few more names because I don't think everyone came up. Um, and now I can't see the names. Go ahead and I'll try to address this.

Okay. Hi there. My name is Nami Maurice and I'm a water quality data analyst at Heal the Bay. I'm here to let the city council know that Heal the Bay is releasing our 36th beach report card annual report next Wednesday, May 20th. This report looks at ocean bacteria results from the past year and based on these bacteria levels, provides A through F letter grades for beaches up and down the West Coast. Of note for the city is that for the fifth consecutive year, the Santa Monica Pier has landed on our list of the top 10 most polluted beaches in the state. The pier has consistently high levels of bacteria throughout the year, posing risks to anyone getting in the water. In this past year, water around the pier was unsafe for recreational contact over 75% of the time. To make matters worse, bacteria levels have only been increasing in recent years, highlighting the fact that this is a persistent pollution issue, not an isolated event. We've been working on a task force with the Office of Sustainability and the Environment um to dedicate time towards addressing this issue and have a

Thank you. I just want to take a moment um uh mayor's prerogative. I guess I I know that we have a special guest here for the city manager report that I see came in. Um would everyone be okay with seeing the animal and then continuing with the public comments just to be able to accommodate that? Um do we need a motion for that? Okay. So I I move that we hear Mr. Foster because he's been called up. Um, and then we suspend the comments for a minute while we hear about our adoptable pet of the meeting. I'll second that. Great. All the those in favor?

I. Any opposed? No. Great, Mr. Foster. And then we'll see our our animal. Hello, Jonathan.

Is this working? I think that's uh There we go. Uh Jonathan Foster, homeless bum drummer. Hello homeless bum. I've been here for 25 years. Uh so I just give up, you know. But um I've never seen so many people here uh on the topic of the airport. I've seen this going on since like 2010 11. I' I I was here when they flew to Washington to to get it closed. And we are going downhill fast to get this closed and get a park there. And the park should be all grass and maybe a few basketball courts and maybe some tennis courts and pickle ball is I and I can't tell if it's like craps. It's a seven out and it's gone or if it's saved at the last hour 7 and 11. Uh it sounds like all of a sudden it's going to get saved and there's going to be an airport there still. And they they they said they wanted this to be a park and it's for the 4 million people of Los Angeles County. That's what it's for. And I'm opting for a park. Thanks.

Um would our friends from the or Mr. Chi will talk as our as our dog hopefully comes up.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We actually have uh um thank you for the brief interlude. Um we'll get back to the meeting here quickly. Um we actually have two friends that we wanted to introduce to the council. First, um if you remember our adoptable pet from our last meeting, Dove this week, the pet of the week, the adoptable pet of the week we wanted to share with everyone is her brother, Domiano. Damiano is a one-year-old lab in pitbull mix. He is a little bit bigger than his sister, but still a perfect small to medium-sized um family member that can be the perfect companion for any family. He loves running around the yard, playing with toys. He loves playing with his sister and other dogs, too. He's also extremely gentle with other dogs, people, and children. If you're interested in meeting Damiano, please contact the animal shelter. And of course, you can also visit the Santa Monica Animal Shelter Foundation website to make a donation or shop the Chewy Wish List. That's our first friend we wanted to introduce.

We love our friend. Thank you. Maybe someone all of the people here are watching and maybe someone who's here to give a comment would like to adopt a dog. If anyone is interested, we do have Domiano ready to find a new home. The other introduction that we had um really and this will uh constitute the totality of our city manager report tonight. Um we wanted to introduce someone extremely important here in the city, a new member of our team. Joining us today is Asta

Aa like pasta. Aa aa like pasta aa is our new fire department peer support canine. She is a four-year-old golden lab retriever. She's going to live and work alongside her handler, Captain Paul Balante. Um, we all miss Roger, our previous peer support K9. Um, Asta is the um member of our team now that will be visiting our fire stations and attending community events and supporting personnel before, during, and after critical incidents. I know our fire chief, Chief Hack, wanted to say a few words. If that's okay, Matt, we'll turn it over to you. Sure. Uh, just wanted to add just a couple things to that. And and the reason I want to add that is because ASA came to us through an anonymous donation from uh a coordination with uh director Kevin Bra, who is the director of the International Public Safety Leadership and Ethics Institute, and his partnership. and he saw on social media how we lost Roger and uh reached out to me and said, "I've got a donor who wants to provide a new support dog. Uh we coordinated in house." Captain Volante stood up and said, "I'd be happy to have him." I think his family is probably equally as happy to have uh Asta at their house. And it's been a a really a nice um change of pace from losing Roger and bringing a on board. And we're very fortunate to Guide Dogs of the Desert, Kevin Bra, and the anonymous donors. Just wanted to thank them very much for bringing Asta to our department. So, thank you.

Can you bring Austa behind the dice so we can all say hi? Thank you. Aa's not for adoption. Yes. Okay. Um and and thank you for an amazing fire service day this weekend. And I think many of our community members got to meet Asta. And there are Asta trading cards, AA stickers. Did you bring any of those with you?

Okay. Well, next me we all want some stickers cuz they're pretty cute. And um she has one on her her cup. Um all right, we're going to move back uh in the uh you know uh order of hearing all of this. We have Jillian Felon, Robert Roth or Roth, Sam C, Bridgette McBride, and William Schwarz. If you guys could approach the mic. Mayor, we have three more. We have three more minors. Great. Well, then after these we'll we'll hear the minors. And if you want to just state your name and start commenting, that'd be fantastic. Hi, Jillian Fallon. I submitted a video for my remarks.

Sorry. Go ahead. Oh, Fallon, love the airport. There's historic fact in this airport. It's been here for a hundred years. Can we turn it up a little? Aviation. It's got a lot of history. It's a cultural icon. It makes Santa Masha special.

Having a great park there is is is a dream and it's an impossible dream. If you just look at the billions of dollars that it's going to cost and the city's already declared fiscal insolveny because it's the most illthoughtout plan. There's no funding. I don't care what the proponents of it say, they have no funding. I think it should be there in the event of a natural disaster or LAX gets shut down. Uh what are we going to do? I'm also a registered nurse, so I'm very much concerned about emergencies and emergency preparedness. I love going by the park uh the Santa Monica airport park all the time the way it is right now.

Well, I think if they ever need a disaster happen in Santa Monica, they need that airport. Love the airport. There's historic fact in this airport. It's been here for a hundred years. Brings back the spirit of aviation. It's got Thank you. Robert Roth. Roth. Roth. Roth. Okay.

Robert Roth. Thank you. Uh I'm a resident of Santa Monica. I live near the airport. Um, and I am somewhat concerned about this uh park because it could become another MacArthur park very easily if it were the size and scope that we are talking about. I think it's economically infeasible. The change in use of the airport land would have a number of other effects. First, if it were used for property development would increase the population density and not only of the airport area, but the area west of the airport, which is currently under FAA height restrictions, it would now permit high-rise structures and would increase the amount of population density potentially. And if the airport were to be closed, I think an substantial increase in building along that corridor and it would cause a significant increase in traffic gridlock. When the runway was shortened, the move pushed over uh

Thank you. Two minutes.

It's one minute. Um Smitha C. Great. I I'm here I'm here to um talk about the Great Park Coalition and uh the move, it seems to me, to just limit the democratic process. I've been trying to get signatures to get a ballot on the measure that would be 75% park and 25% housing. And I've heard from many, many, many people that um the Great Park Coalition already told them it was going to be 100% park. And they used a survey that they had sent out using their Sunset Park mailing list and the Great Park mailing list that they created to encourage participation in creating the great park. They used that mailing list to send out another uh survey. Then they falsely stated 67% of participants voted for a great park without ever giving the participants a choice to vote for housing. Um then and that I think that the fact that they're running this anti-dem democratic campaign where they're encouraging voters to not put anything on the ballot

the airport democracy. Thank you. I had called Bridget McBride and then we'll hear from the miners. Is Bridget here? Yeah. Great.

Hello, my name is Bridgette McBride and I represent approximately 1500 Venice residents who are increasingly distressed and exhausted by the huge uptick in prop planes buzzing over our heads. As you know, there has been a 39% increase in total flights out of Santa Monica airport, 95% of which are local flights operations circling Venice. Total flights for 2025 were 78,693. And of those, 74,498 were local flights circling Venice. Just imagine that. Think about that number. for 74,498 touchandgo procedures above our heads in Venice. Low, loud, and continual. Our quality of life has been dramatically reduced by this development. We experienced constant noise, exposure to high concentrations of lead raining down on our yards and patios and into our lungs. We're very concerned about safety. There are four or five planes at a time, one to two minutes.

Thank you. Um, are you are you Mr. Okay, sorry. I I had called you. So, you come up and then we'll have the minors. Yeah.

Hi, I'm Bill Schwarz, lifelong Santa Monica resident. So, uh I always wanted the uh Santa Monica airport to close, but now since the fire, I completely changed my mind on that one. And for the two basic reasons that number one, I think it should be a major command center that could uh provide services within a 10 to 15 mile radius. and it can be a park and some residents in proportion. I think that the three examples I like to use uh in which it's been very successful to do a mixeduse type of situation and if you would look it up would take some time. Tokyo Metropolitan Disaster Prevention Park. This is perhaps a gold standard for your dual use version on a normal day. It is a massive 13 hectare green space. uh but in the event of an emergency it can it is transformed with a strong infrastructure. The second one is the Bishan Angu cao park in Singapore. A huge uh difference of merging the two infrastructures with satellite techn

appreciate that. Um great and just if you could state your name when you come so we can find you on the list that would be great. Arlo Lamb. Carlo or Arlo. Arlo. Okay, great. Thank you. So, I am the vice president of the aerospace club at Samo High and the president of the backcountry club at Samo High. And I just wanted to point out that San Mona has immediate access to the San Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which is the largest urban park in the world. Um, meaning that the addition of the 1002 192 acre great park would only effectively add a tenth of a percent of park space to San Monica residents. That's all. Thank you.

Um, hi, my name is Charlie Cohen. I'm the president of the Santa Monica Aerospace Club. Um, the club visits the airport frequently and while there, many members have gone to significant engineering universities such as um, Purdue and um, Michigan. The club inspires engineering. Closing the airport removes our immediate access to this. Additionally, um Santa Monica airport um helps out in the fires against um the Palisades part um fires. Also, um as a high schooler, if you close on the airport, I don't get a chance to vote cuz I'm a minor. So, I would lose the opportunity to turn this back in the future because it's a permanent decision. And I feel as if I should have the right to choose if the airport is open or closed. That's it.

Thank you. And I think we have one more minor. Hi, my name is Roya Chandler. I'm in fifth grade and I want the best for our city. I've grown up alongside the Santa Monica airport my whole life. From AYSO soccer practice to art fairs at Barker Hanger to my sister's birthday party at the Cloverfield restaurant. I've been there. And before we make any big decisions, we need a budget. Keep our airport open until you solve our budget problem. My generation is the future and our voice should be heard. Thank you. Thanks. Are you also a minor? Okay, feel free to come up and state your name.

Good evening. I'm Sheamus McMullen. I'm a student at Santa Monica Flyers Flight School. As there's many flight schools at Santa Monica, as you probably know, uh this airport means a lot to me. Uh from a young age, my dad would take me up the observation deck and we'd watch planes for a good hour uh take off and land. These are the moments that influenced my passion and love for aviation as I'm sure many other young people are in the crowd at night or around Santa Monica. Um I'm fearful of losing this airport because it's so much more than just an airport. It contains such a rich history and is surrounded by such a great community of people. by every time I'm at the airport, there's always a few excited kids standing up on the observation deck. Um, just like I did when I was their age. And if you take away this airport, you're taking away the ability for young generations to come to experience amazingness of aviation. Also, you should not let history stop here. And I'll just say one more thing. You move an airport, you're going to hear some planes.

Thank you. All right, we have I'm going to go back to the comments in the line. So, we have Safa Shar, Hans Shider, Megan Silva, Mary Nordheim, and mayor, remember we have callers. I do remember that. But we have Wait till the end. Yeah. Okay, great. And just state your name when you come up. Thank you.

My name is Safa. Thank you. With student pilots flying lowaltitude prop planes over our heads from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every single day without exception. We are no longer just frustrated in East Venice. I understand that this is some people's hobby. This is our lives. This is our livelihood. These are where people are raising their children. We cannot work in our homes. Our neighborhood is now a dumping ground for all the leaded fuel that the prop planes produce. When we report violations of the Fly Neighborly program, we are ignored every single time in writing. I'm asking a very simple question today. Why is the Santa Monica airport allowing relentless, repetitive training activities over a densely populated area solely outside of the Santa Monica jurisdiction? Why is the Santa Monica airport allowing SMO to ignore complaints about safety violations? Why are these repetitive pattern flights performed only outside of Santa Monica? Why is the burden of noise, pollution, and risk not shared with your own s?

Thank you. I'm sorry, what was her name again? Bridget. Uh, sorry, that was Safosar. Thank you. Hans Shider.

Yes, I'm Hans Shider. I live in West Los Angeles. Couple of facts here for people. Just so you know, to uh train the military to train a pilot to fly the A10 Warthog cost $8.3 million. For the F22 Raptor, it's $16.9 million. The military is no longer turning pilots loose. The only way the airlines are going to have pilots is those that are trained at places like Santa Monica Airport. And another common you deciding here an important consideration. Some years back, the Russians came up with biggest aircraft ever made. It's a freighter and he was capable of transporting in water along with everything else but he put water in it 156,000 gallons at a time and that plane was uh designed also to be a fired dropping plane for dropping well fires instead they offered to the people in Sacramento who said oh we'll never need anything like that they said we'll lease it to you only if you need that time no thank you

thank you. Um, Megan Silva. Great. And then I'm going to call up some more names. Mary Nordheim, Zachary Hovet, Nate Taylor, Brandon Baglia, and Bryce Cooper. Hi, I'm Megan Silva. Thank you guys for listening to everybody. It's a hard job. So, I live in East Venice. My work is there. I'm there all day. I have a very small house, so I'm outside about unless I'm sleeping really. And in the last year, the planes, the noise, it's truly untenable. It is different there. Like one of the aviation fellows was saying, it's precoid and postco, but it's it's all day every day now. They're low. My air purifier is always yellow and red. Uh it really is degrading Venice residents quality of life. We've complained and no one's hearing us. So, I don't really know what to do. I don't air airport, no airport, but like just can you stop flying over East Venice exclusively because it's a they won't go over Santa Monica. We don't I don't know what to do, but it's not great for us in East Ven.

Yeah, hear you. I I understand that people are frustrated. This is not unfortunately a question and answer session. So, thank you for the comments, Mary Nordheim.

Yeah, my name is Mary Nordheim. Um, this is definitely a quality of life issue as well as health issue, property values. Um, with these flights taking off and landing every 2 minutes also work at home, it's difficult to uh conduct any kind of business over the phone. You can you can't hear. It's constant. And um it starts at 7:00 and like what somebody else said, it goes till 11:00 at night. If you work, you got to get up the next morning and go to bed early, right? And you can't. Um there's safety concerns because these are training pilots and it's a safety concerns. What happens if there's a mishap on the training and it's over a densely populated uh neighborhood? I've lived there for 15 years. This was never the flight the flight pattern has not changed necessarily, but the frequency has and it's

Thank you, Zachary.

Good afternoon. My name is Zachary Hovet and candidate for a vacant airport commission seat. I live in Sunset Park. My kids walk to Grant and Sam respectively. This is my home. Let me tell you a story. When my family moved here, I heard the planes, like a lot of neighbors, I had complicated feelings. But I also watched Angel Flight pilots take off from that one runway to bring sick children home from distant hospitals. I watched an airport that had been here since 1919 quietly hold the line against overdevelopment that has swallowed every other open piece of land in this city. And one January, I watched CalFire relocate helicopters to that runway when the Palisades burned. That is not a liability. That is being a good neighbor. I design airports for a living. And the single most important lesson from that work is this. The cities that make the best decisions about their airports are not the ones who move the fastest. They are the ones who listen the longest. Santa Monica has not done that yet. Every voice matters here. the park supporters, aviation community, the housing advocates,

and the families exhausted by noise. They have never been brought to the table with the same honest question. What does this place need to be for all of us? Thank you. Thank you. Um, we have Nate Taylor, Brandon Baglia, Bryce Cooper, Oliver Conklin.

Hi, I'm Nate Taylor. I'm a 25 year uh 25 year Ocean Park and Sunset Park resident. I've lived under the flight path here in Santa Monica for 25 years. History is repeating itself like El Toro and Irvine. Residents were promised a world-class public benefit. Decades later, much of that land primarily benefited de developers while traffic and congestion only intensified. Just look across the street for another example. When Rand land became a park, did it become a thriving community destination? Do you hang out there? Meanwhile, the city is failing to ma maintain tourism, public safety safety, and even even long-standing community events like concerts on the pier. Now, we're being told that a plus or - 200 acres of new parkland at the edge of the city, which will ultimately serve more Angelinos will somehow succeed where other projects have not. Despite gridlock and a city already struggling financially, you all know the city is searching for revenue. You know, we're having trouble maintaining the tax base we already have. I love the city. I'm your neighbor. Please keep the airport open and don't try to fix what isn't broken.

Thank you. Okay. Again, no copy. Um I Madame Mayor, can you make um I have to restart the system. Can you make an announcement about the 30 minutes because people outside can't hear? Sure. Um 22 speakers now.

Yeah, we have we have had 22 speakers comment. We have eight more to go. Um and we have another minor. So, I'm happy to have the minor go. And then um just as a point of clarification, I'm going to want our city manager to address the airport jurisdictional issues. Um go ahead with the minor. Is is he the minor? No, I don't know. You pointed to him as Okay. All right. Never mind. Um my my deep apologies that you you look very mature. Um uh Okay. Brandon Betaglia, is that you? Okay. Great. Thanks.

Good evening. My name is Brandon Matalia and I am speaking tonight to urge you to delay the closure of Santa Monica Airport and fully study alternatives before making a permanent decision that cannot be undone. Santa Monica Airport is not just a runway. It is critical economic and public infrastructure. It contributes millions in economic activity while providing transportation access, medical flights, wildfire support, and disaster response capability for the region. Once this infrastructure is destroyed, it cannot be replaced. I also asked the council to consider the long-term impacts of redevelopment. Replacing the airport with massive development could mean years, even decades of demolition, construction noise, truck traffic, dust, congestion, strain on already crowded streets like Bendy's, Sentinel, 10 Freeway, not to mention the permanent congestion afterwards. All the concerns people raised today about traffic pollution in those could become significantly worse. We're on the same team. Not to mention restructured airspace bringing much louder jet traffic over Santa Monica. If you check out in and out on the approach end, if the goal is more open space, MAC already has parks like Clover Park and Penmar and the airport itself already provides recreational space. Does not have to be alternative.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Um Penmar is technically not in Santa Monica. Uh all right. I I just really quickly I wanted Mr. Dishlip to just explain or m Mr. City Manager. there seemed to be some misinformation about who's uh about the flight schools. I just wanted to get that clarification.

No, and certainly we are currently working right now on coordinating meetings with the residents in East Venice and Marv Vista. Um but really the issue that um is really vexing everyone is the way that the FAA draws the um parameters through which the flight training schools can operate. They've established the area over East Venice and Marv Vista as an authorized training area. It's an FAA jurisdictional issue that we can certainly engage with residents on to start trying to request some relief. Um there's a long protracted process in engaging with the FA on those matters. Um but we're currently working to um really figure out a way to organize with the residents and figure out how we can engage and interface on the issue more effectively.

So are you saying that the new flight patterns are a result of the FAA decisions? Yeah, those flight p where um a training school can fly over really that's dictated by the FAA. We have no jurisdictional authority to limit or or modify where those um pilots can operate. And so ultimately it's an issue where the FAA establishes here's the boundary within which you can operate and fly um for whatever reason that's been established over East Venice and Mar Vista. Um, and it's an issue that again, um, as long as the airport, you know, functionally operates as an airport and the FAA has established where those training areas are, um, that's what's allowable right now. And from a jurisdictional regulatory perspective, there's no ability for us to, you know, dictate that that change, but we can certainly help influence.

Okay. Thank you. Um, so we have Bryce C. I'm going to call I believe we have seven remaining speakers. Correct, madame clerk. Okay. So, I will call the remaining seven um until until we uh hear the rest after we hear other agenda items. Bryce Cooper, Oliver Conklin, Jesse Blitz, Morgan Hunter, Gross, Sheamus McMullen, David Seagull. May I ask an operational question of the proceeding? You can ask You can walk over to the clerk and ask her. Um great. Is Bryce Cooper not here? He's right here. Yes, he Sorry. Go ahead. I am not a minor, ma'am. No, I thought you were pointing at him. I'm so sorry.

No crates at all. Thank you for your time, council. Uh, overall, tonight was an overwhelming response to a call to action for Santa Monica residents to be represented in their own words, in their own bodies. I think you saw that they showed up in the hundreds this evening simply to ask you as a council to please consider a plan that not only includes an airport but more park space potentially a balanced approach to redevelopment of an existing space. This all or nothing approach no longer works for Santa Monicans. What worked 10 years ago does not work today. Ask yourselves what your opinions were 10 years ago on many political issues and things have changed. I assure you economic times and uncertainty have also changed. This is an opportunity for you as a council to be responsible for one of the greatest redevelopments rather than a myopic view of a closure that could subject Santa Monicans to a loss that they're never able to recuperate from. Life-saving ability, financial wherewithal. We have multiple businesses on there. We are shaping the future of pilots on that airfield that you use every day when you travel. This is not only an opportunity for you to reshape this development, but to also be responsible for blocking the closure which could subject Santa Monicans to peril. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Oliver Conklin. Great. My apologies.

Oh, that's okay. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Um, so when I first got my pilot's license in San Diego, the airport I wanted to uh go to first was Santa Monica. Uh the impression it made on me is lasted sense is a beautiful cultural icon uh that I and many others call their office. Uh I leave you all with a question and uh some of you in the front row too uh which is are you prepared to lose a useful tool and irreplaceable uh historical landmark, a natural disaster gathering place, a community space, a space with multiple parks already on site, a transportation hub in Los Angeles, a place that creates the next generation of pilots, mechanics, and air traffic controllers in a time of need and controlled airspace that sits above you every day, keeping the sp uh skies orderly and safe, a place where many businesses and more could go uh to employ your people. Uh are you prepared to spend millions uh to irreversibly change Santa Monica, remove value for you and its citizens and never get a place like

Thank you, Morgan Hunter Gross. cancelled.

On my summer California expedition, after thousands of miles, I went to Sutter's Mill. When Jesse and I were in fourth grade, we went to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento. A linked place, a different California lesson. At Sutter's Mill, I learned the gold rush phrase, seeing the elephant, chasing the dream, seeing the real world, and coming back changed. I think Jesse saw the elephant in Hollywood. And I finally watched his movie about Alex. Not just the trailer. It's a good human movie about pain, silence, stigma, and the circle gathering when someone breaks. But real life isn't always is not always the movie. Sometimes the circle does not gather. The wife is gone. This month, my parents moved into assisted living with Parkinson's and dementia. I coordinated the whole move, went through everything, moved everything, and right now my mom is in the hospital. My K through 12 village school burned down. The friend groups are scattered and the person in crisis paying $100 a night at 19th and Pico just to survive is standing alone at the microphone trying to explain a lifetime in 60 seconds. In hackers, the quote is, "When I was a child, I thought as a child when I was younger, I crossed the mustard. Now I don't." Thank you.

Thank you. Um, did Jesse Blitz already go? I think so. Right. No. No. Oh, sorry. Come on down. Come on down. Jesse built. Sorry. You got it. Okay.

I live in East Phoenix. It's not that bad. Um I think what people aren't thinking about and so the people who are not thinking about this, what happens when we lose the airspace is that we lose it forever. One, but we lose the height restrictions on all the buildings in Santa Monica and around Santa Monica. So, I think we can build condos and we're going to build businesses and and apartment buildings to no end. I feel like we're going to be another South Beach if the airspace goes away. And I don't think we get that airspace back. I have owned a preschool in Santa Monica since 2009 and I've watched the city as it attracts more and more homeless and mentally unstable people and I'm worried about the congestion if we'd get more housing. Tons and thousands and thousands of more housing. Our infrastructure already doesn't work. We're already in a 60% in this is your website 60% increase in crime on people and we're not handling that. That's over 60% over last year. I'm worried about more congestion especially with the school. These guys are jumping over our fence to sleep in our playground. They're leaving drug paraphernalia at our front door. They're harassing the parents and teachers. I'm worried about the infrastructure. I hope that you can make a good decision to maybe think about it before we hastily take away the airspace forever. I think there's a lot of problems that come along with that. This is your legacy.

You guys can make a future for generations. Thank you. Uh Sheamus McMullen. He already spoke. He was a youth.

Apologies. David Seagull. Um and then I'll call up then uh James Jacobson. David Seagull. Thank you council members for your service to the people of Santa Monica. Appreciate it. I am a pilot. I have a residence for my family underneath the flight path. We love the airport. But I want to speak quickly as a business owner. I've been able to build businesses here in Santa Monica, not just in aviation, but in tech, in uh financial services, and in entertainment. We've hired hundreds and hundreds of people. We pay taxes here, and we can't run our business without the airport. We're currently talking about moving our businesses because of the uncertainty of the airport being here. Really appreciate the airport. Love it. I know it's I'm a small guy, but you know, world doesn't revolve around me, but our businesses and our family revolve around Santa Monica airport. So, I appreciate your consideration on it.

Thank you. Um, James Jacobson,

JL Jacobson, 40-year resident of Santa Monica. I don't want anybody to think that when the airport is closed that we'll have less air traffic over Santa Monica. We could end up with more aircraft track it because LAX cannot put their planes over Santa Monica while that airport's in operation. I also want to point out that 6,000 single family homes burned down a little more than a year ago and that airport should be used for emergency services to put out wildfires before they get out of hand. And finally, my sister lived on Wall Avenue, just a little way from the airport runway on the west side. And the stories about all the traffic and congestion are greatly exaggerated. I hope you keep the airport uh in service. It's a historical place. I've enjoyed it many different ways. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to um our special agenda items and then we will um take public input on items under the consent calendar in close session. So, uh mental health awareness month. So, mayor um I believe we have I believe we have speakers on the two items on Sorry, you were talking about item two, special agenda items. Yeah, special agenda items. Yes, we do. And we have two callers on the special agenda items. Special agenda items. Yeah. So, the two callers on the special agenda items, that's Heather Hajj and Shawn Michael.

Okay, great. So, um for the special agenda items, we're going to proclaim mental health awareness month. And I wanted to call up Chantelli Jaya. Sorry for the misprononunciation. and Kelly Delich from FSSM from Swag Dylan Jerich Saul and Satie Griman's. Um I'm again so sorry for the mispronunciation and then from the that that they're from swag and then the disabilities commission commissioners Gordon and Ayiami. Um I'm going to go ahead and read the proclamation and then um Dylan and Sadi I believe you guys have been designated as the speakers. So, we are proclaiming 2026 mental health awareness month. Whereas mental health is essential to overall well-being, impacting individuals of all ages, and is a vital component of a healthy and thriving community. Whereas mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, are increasingly prevalent among youth, impacting their social interactions, academic performance, and overall development. Whereas early intervention and access to quality mental health resources are essential for supporting young people and maximizing their future success. Whereas Family Service of Santa Monica, now a division of Vista Delmare, has operated in Santa Monica since 1925. They provide behavioral health services for children, youth, and families, including school-based mental health in our local public schools, assertive clinical case management for families with children aged 10 and under, and outpatient therapy at their UCLA treat location. And whereas the Santa Monica High School Wellness Advisory Group, SWAG, uh, great great acronym, is an on-ampus club that promotes mental health and wellness to the SA Samo High community. They provide mental health education in a peer-to-peer model and freshman seminar classes, host onampus stress relief workshops, and were instrumental in creating now monthly thriving Thursday lunchtime wellness fairs. I wish I had them in high school. Sounds great. Um, and whereas the city council appointed the Santa Monica Disabilities Commission to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities in Santa Monica

by prioritizing issues of concern and advising city council and city staff on these issues. The commission recommends ways to maximize participation of people with disabilities in all facets of city life and works to increase awareness of the abilities, rights, and issues of people with disabilities throughout the community. And we recognize the importance of prioritizing mental health and supporting well-being of our community members. Whereas mental health awareness month is a time for community members, government, public, private agencies, healthc care providers, businesses, and schools to recommmit to supporting our community by increasing awareness and understanding of mental health, reducing stigma, and making appropriate and accessible services available for all. Uh therefore, on behalf of the city council, uh we do hereby proclaim May 2026 as mental health awareness month in the city of Santa Monica and encourage all community members to support mental wellness, foster compassion and understanding, and help ensure access to care and resources uh on this 12th day of May. So, I would love to invite you up to say a few words, and then we'll do a picture with the proclamation.

Hi, good evening. My name is Satie Gritsman and I'm Dylan Jericio. We're seniors at Santa Monica High School and co-presidents of the Student Wellness Advisory Group, also known as SWAG. We're truly honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of SWAG, Family Service of Santa Monica, and the Disabilities Commission. All of these organizations work tirelessly to support and improve mental health and well-being within our community. We hope that this serves as a reminder of the impactful change and work being done in our city both this month and every month. SWAG at Samoh High works to support student wellness, connect students with resources, and encourage open conversation about mental health. We are very grateful for this recognition and the continued dedication to shining light on wellness issues. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you guys. Wait, don't don't leave. We're going to we're going to come to the photo and everyone who came for me awareness month, let's get everyone in the photo here in in front of the wall. Yeah, I'm on that call. Hi guys. Hi. Hi. Thanks for being here. Thanks for your patience. Appreciate it. Who wants to hold the proclamation?

Thank you. Thank you guys. Oh. Oh, you you were supposed to Okay. Um, sure. If you guys want to make a brief comment, I that wasn't in my program, but if you would like to make a brief comment on behalf of the disability special.

Hi, good evening. My name is Sulaman Adami from the disability commission and this is my colleague uh Commissioner Nancy Gordon. Welcome to Gotham. Okay, so uh by some coincidence uh the issue of paper came up with the commemoration of the uh disability commission. Uh I live like one block from the airport and some 20 years ago about the mental health month proclamation. Yes. Okay.

So we used to take kids to Big Bear. So this so come to be coincidence that we are celebrating mental health month and the airport issue is coming up. So we appreciate your indulgence. Thank you. Thank you. Um just to clarify, the airport's actually not on the agenda tonight. These are just public comments that that arrived. Um, did you Okay. Uh, Mayor Pro Wick is going to read the next proclamation. Okay. Mayor. Oh, yeah. We have Zoe about what? Uh, for the mental health. No, no, no. We're not taking public comments on that, are we? We're doing the proclamations.

That wasn't a public comment. Those were the disabilities commissioners. Oh, okay. Okay. No, no, no. Sorry. that they were they were uh they were on the special agenda. Okay, go ahead.

All right, we have a second uh proclamation tonight. Um, we also, uh, this is also National Public Works Week and National Bike Month. Uh, so I'll start in here. Uh, whereas the city of Santa Monica's mobility division is now part of the public works department, further aligning transportation, planning, operations, and infrastructure with the city's broader public works mission and the shared commitments to safe, sustainable, and accessible transportation. The city joins together the observance of National Public Works Week and National Bike Month. And whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vital to sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, safety, and quality of life of the people of Santa Monica. And whereas these services are made possible by the dedicated efforts of public works professionals including engineers, managers, transportation planners and staff across government and private sector who design, build, operate and maintain transportation systems, water and waste systems, public buildings and other essential infrastructure. And whereas Santa Monica's transportation infrastructure includes a robust and growing network of bicycle facilities, including trails, paths, and protected bike lanes supporting safe and accessible mobility for residents and visitors. And whereas bicycling is a practical, sustainable, and essential form of transportation that promotes health and well-being, reduces pollution and congestion, and contributes to the city's environmental and climate goals, and supports Santa Monica's local economy and tourism by enhancing quality of life and making the city an attractive place to live, work, and visit. And whereas the city of Santa Monica is committed to building and maintaining safe, connected, and equitable infrastructure for all users and achieving vision zero by eliminating severe injuries and fatalities from our streets. And whereas it is in the public interest for residents, youth, civic leaders, and businesses to understand and appreciate the essential role of public works and active transportation systems in daily life. One more. And whereas in the year 2026 marks the 66th annual national public works week sponsored by the American Public Works

Association and the 70th annual National Bicycle Month celebrated nationwide each May. Now, I therefore uh Mayor Prom, all of us and all of us uh on the council um on behalf of the city council do proclaim the week of May 17th to 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week and proclaim the month of May 2026 as National Bike Month. We urge all residents to join in activities for bike month. Promote safe and accessible bicycling and to celebrate public works professionals in recognizing their collective contributions to health, safety, sustainability, and quality of life in our communities. Very excited and we'd love to hear a few words. Uh Mr. Dishlo,

thank you councel. Uh I'm Chris Dishop, your public works director. Uh thank you for that recognition of all the hardworking public works staff. I'd like to invite anyone else that's in the to come forward. Um so uh this year's APWA theme is rooted in service and powered by community and it acknowledges that the roots of service run deep in public works. Uh it's propelled our commitment to Santa Monica and driven the innovations to infrastructure and sustainability uh that really make our community so special. And this year in particular is exciting as we've just restructured and expanded public works team to include mobility in the 311 customer service as well. So this allows us to take a moment to celebrate National Bike Month. I hope you all take some time to join us at some of the exciting upcoming events we've got scheduled. Uh with that, I'd like to personally acknowledge and thank our employees of the year from each of the divisions in public works. So starting with the administration division, we have Heidi Duran. From the airport, we have Jose Flores. From architecture, we have Tony Lopez. From the cemetery, we have Alonzo Meyer. From custodial, we have Sonia Olivio. From engineering, we have Steven Basera. From facilities, we have Antonio Selenus. From fleet, we have Eloy Garcia. From mobility, we have Bo Lone. From public landscape, we have Raul Bravo. From resource recovery and recycling, we have Damon Middleton. From street services, we have Christopher Jones. And from water resources, we have Abel Aoyo. Now, I'd like to ask Cynthia Rose to come say a few words about bike month.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll be quick. Uh May is National Bike Month, as we said, sponsored by the League of American Bic Bicyclists and celebrated in communities from coast to coast since 1956. National Bike Month is a chance to showcase the many benefits of cycling and encourage more people and more folks to try the joyfulness of biking and give it a try. Thank you to our city council for proclaiming May Bike Month here in Santa Monica, elevating and highlighting the commitment of our shared vision of a bike friendly community with safer, greener, multimmoal streets where everyone in our community can move more sustainably and thrive without needing to drive a car. A truly multimotal city where everyone who lives, works, or visits Santa Monica can truly enjoy all of what Santa Monica has to offer by bike, walking, or on our own big blue bus. Thank you. Thank you to our talented, enthusiastic staff who work tirelessly to make our visions of a bike friendly community a reality today and for future generations. The dedication to your work is truly inspiring. local. Uh lastly, I want to acknowledge our co-proclamationers uh public works and the synergy we are building for biking and active mobility by priority by prioritizing our own community and council's collective vision. Together, we are creating safer, more sustainable streets and and safer and more vibrant sustainable streets. Of course, a public works department synergy drum beat of, excuse me, of course, public works is the synchronized drum beat of a successful city with huge with a huge diversity of responsibilities and work that go far beyond just our streets. Thank you for what you do to keep our city going day in and day out. And I'm almost done. With this combined purpose, we look

forward to a few short years from now when in 2028 when we close the Santa Monica airport and create a great park, we will all be a able to navigate on a bike on bike friendly streets to enjoy off- streetet bike trails and immerse ourselves in nature at our own great park. Thank you again, Mayor Terrosus and the council for your steadfast leadership. Happy public works week, happy mental health month, and happy and awareness month. And happy bike month. Thank you. We'll take a quick photo with everyone. Two members.

Everyone in you go down. Oh my god. And I think shorter people to the front perhaps. Are these all the employees of the month or employees of the year? Love it. Congratulations everyone. Awesome. Yep.

We have excellent city staff. Thank you. Okay. Um, Miss Anderson Warren. Oh, congrats. Thank you for being here, everyone. Miss Anderson Warren, do we have public commenters on agenda item two? We do. We have uh Zoe. Okay, great. Let let that person talk and then we're going to move on to uh public input on under consent calendar and close session.

Thank you, Mayor Promwick. No, I'm I'm saying the people who came for that. Yeah.

Oh, I don't have my glasses on, but I'll try to do my best. Can I get my glasses really fast? should we move? Okay, she's coming.

Thank you. Thank you for waiting for me. Hi, council. As some of you might remember, I've been advocating for mental health uh as the founder of Compassionate Santa Monica for the last 10 years and it has been the focus of the healthc care sector of Compassionate Santa Monica. When I went to Santa Monica College, I was diagnosed with ADHD and is a late onset ADHD that a lot of women in the last three years have been diagnosed since uh the pandemic. And this is great for me because now I can understand my brain much better. Um, you know what I bring to the table um, as an ADHD person and I disclosed this to Mayor Lana Degrade at Starbucks at one of her events is that I have an ungodly pattern recognition. Um, I have an aggressive active questioning. Uh I have incredible skill set with silent observation, real time theory building, behavioral analysis, microexpression decoding, and postcon conversation autopsy. However, um there's an aspect of ADHD that comes with anxiety and depression and I have treatment for that and I'm glad that I have insurance to cover for that treatment and that puts me on the category of disability. And right now, because of the tragedy of being accused and harassed by my roommate and the city attorney not acting, uh, it's putting me a danger on my treatment and I was in two my occupational therapy appointment today and my psychiatrist appointment therapy today and this is being documented and if the city doesn't intervene, you are enabling ing the dangerous behavior of a landlord and a roommate

that are sexually harassing me and are trying to get me out on the streets when I've been paying rent every month since January. Mayor, actually there are three three more. Amelia, Brennan, Jonathan Foster, Olaf Hawa.

Yeah. This is related to the proclamations of Yeah. mental health. Yeah. For two minutes. Great. Hi, uh, Jonathan Foster. Um, you know, a lot of people think I'm mentally ill because I've stated, you know, I've been in it homeless in a car for 25 years and it's really not as bad as you think. And um, what I would like to see is is this statement where it says mental health awareness. It should say mental slash emotional health awareness because they go hand in hand. Yeah, emotions can mess up your your uh mental health and mental health can totally destroy your emotional health. So, they should be linked together. One of the biggest causes of mental health is the paycheck is so low for a lot of people and it really just confounds a lot of people's minds. And uh lastly, I'll just end with that. I I I I really do want to see that mental/eotional health awareness. I I think I think that's important. Um and just um on Third Street Prominade, I would come in and people would go, "IT'S CJ. HEY, CJ." And they finally after like seven, eight, nine years of that, I was like, "What does this mean?" Oh, you're crazy John. That's what they would call me on Third Street from 2001 through about 2010 when I finally asked questions. Why are you guys calling me CJ? And uh we'll try to end with uh what I was going to say is that I generally have like three drum solos going on, four R&B tunes, two symphonies, you know, some old ancient music going on, um two ac capella songs and you know, some more hard rock songs always going on at the same time in my mind. I have

so much music in my mind and I can't get to it. But mental/ emotional health is what I really would like to see. Thank you so much. Thank you. Amelia Brennan or Olaf. Hi Choa. Okay, moving on to agenda item three. Mayor, before we do that, I'd like to ask about travel. If there are any council members that have any anything to report on travel since the last meeting? I I do. Great.

Um I traveled to the SAG convention uh last week and it was quite interesting. We I actually sat in on a a session talking about AI and how it was going to affect public administration and and in the cities which I thought was very interesting and uh so that's my comment. Yeah. I also attended the uh Skagg General Assembly. I was the city's voting uh delegate and uh we approved SKG budget and uh representatives and heard an annual report. Um there are a lot of interesting 21st century challenges the cities are facing across the region and uh folks want more information about that recommend checking out the materials from the SCAG meeting. Great. Okay. Um

yes. Sorry. Um I have reported travel and during the previous meeting but because I wasn't able to be here in person, I wasn't able to uh give y'all the stickers that we got at the Cal City's meeting. So I'm gonna Oh, great. We love a sticker. Thank you. Um, so we'll go uh on to public input under uh items under the consent calendar and close session only. Uh, and then we'll talk about if anyone's pulling anything uh off of the consent calendar. Unfortunately, Madame City Clerk, I don't see anything past item two under my public commenters. We do have starts off with Mike Sullivan. Yeah, they're not here on my list. Morgan Hunter Gross.

Hold on one second. Suzanne Vaughn. Okay, you see him?

Great. Yep. Okay, so we will hear from Mike Sullivan, Morgan Hunter Gross, Suzanne Vaughn, Connor Webb, Jonathan Foster, and Juan Matute. Hi, I'm Mike Sullivan uh in the Kia historic 2440 Santa Monica Boulevard where Volkswagen was since 1964. I'm here to ask for a deeper dive into 4 I. Um we hired a land use company to help us uh redesign the stoplight uh new turn lane that would come onto my property. Uh they quickly came up with an alternative I think has got real merit. Um it does things a couple of things that are real obvious. It gives a real red light instead of a hawk light that warns you and it does it takes re not right now it's set up to reroute traffic down turn left on 23rd or 20th left on Broadway left on Cloverfield right on Santa Monica. I can't imagine those neighbors have been asked about this. Um I think there's just a number of things that are we can make much simpler, easier and and absolutely safer. So just a real simple ask. Thanks.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Morgan Hunter Gross. I'm speaking about item 4K, which is the homelessness emergency proclamation. Um, I'm going to continue. So, when I was younger, I used to cross the mustard. Now I don't because real life has no stunt coordinator. No second take, no guaranteed rescue scene. That is stigma, neurodeivergence, neurodeeneration, sism, mentalism. The belief that mental suffering makes someone less credible. Westside privilege is real. Private schools, tutors, SAT prep, doctors, immigrant caregivers, Hollywood rehabs, image management. But the privilege is not care. After 20 years working in Hollywood and Santa Monica, after losing work when disability became visible, I may be homeless again with a green and yellow lotus part 4. That sounds impossible. It isn't. Santa Monica needs systems for the real version where people are believed, supported, and seen before they break. That is why I propose a Santa Monica Civic Skunk Works Commission. If we are one of the smartest cities in America, then let's stop only importing problems and start exporting solutions. That is why I've been live streaming documentary about Santa Monica airport. That is why I've been riding my own elephant all the way to Washington DC. My name is Morgan Hunter Gross. I'm a neurode divergent polymath born in Santa Monica Hospital in 1985. And what I've seen at 19th Street in Pico is shocking. I've been there for three nights. I have a month I'm staying there. It's fascinating to see the annex, too. Um, the grouping of the people under the overhang in the car park where they sit in car chairs to hang out.

It's rough, guys. And I mean, it's the north side. It's a big intersection. So, everyone who wants to go uh east from that neighborhood has to go in that in that alleyway. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Suzanne Bon, Connor Webb, Jonathan Foster, Juan Matut. My name is Suzanne Vaughn. I've been a resident of Santa Monica for 46 years and I'm speaking on bike lanes and pedestrians. Uh related to the curbs protecting the bike lanes on Broadway from 17th to 26 as well as other places in place or planned. I know they're built to protect people using the bike lanes. However, there are other members of our community to consider. Santa Monica is home to two major hospitals as well as numerous specialty clinics and senior care facilities. We have a large population of seniors with special care needs. In the notsodistant past, all our sidewalks were amended to have ramps at all four corners of every intersection. Acknowledging the the need for this by wheelchair bound those using walkers as well as baby strollers and skateboarders. Consider this scenario. your 75-year-old wife of a disabled 80-year-old man who now needs a wheelchair to get around. It's a struggle, but you help him maneuver to the car, settle him in, and somehow manage to collapse his wheelchair and wrestle it into the trunk. You know there's a bike lane curb where you need to park. So, you place him in the back seat right behind the driver's seat because you know from past experience he will not be able to navigate the high curb beside the bike lane and the chances of stumbling and falling are high. You drive to your destination and though you try to find an easier parking place, there are none available. So, you park in one of the me metered parking spaces on Broadway that are between the traffic lane and the bike lane. Because the traffic lanes have been narrowed to accommodate the bike lane and curb. Opening the driver's door is dangerous because it puts you so close to oncoming traffic.

Now standing in the street, you wait for oncoming cars to pass and then open the door to help your spouse slowly exit the seat and stand up on the street beside you. By now, cars are packed up. Backed up at least Connor Webb.

Evening council. Mayor Teresus. Uh, my name is Connor Webb. I'm here to speak on I believe 4 I the Santa Monica Boulevard safety study. Um so you know a few months ago this this was in front of you and I I think it was a pretty historic night where uh this council really um declared their intentions with safe streets uh in this city and and and and really made a statement about uh projects moving forward and uh staff went back and I think made a lot of improvements to this to the safety study that uh will go a really long way to uh allowing a once in a generation change to our most dangerous one of our most dangerous corridors in this entire city. getting us closer to vision zero. Um, and I want to see it move forward as quickly as possible. However, you know, I still think some of the stuff that was was was brought up last time still hasn't been fully addressed. And, uh, you know, I don't I don't know if I don't think we need to send it back to be to be redone. But, uh, uh, I I do think council needs to give some more direction here. So, for example, last time I said if you don't feel comfortable uh you know with your kid, grandkid, uh niece, nephew crossing an unsalized intersection on Wilshire by themselves, um then we probably haven't done enough here with this study because it feels like copy and paste at those intersections. So, some of those need to be improved still and this plan uh has not yet addressed yet. I think staff is really open to uh improving that and and moving that forward as design progresses. Um, I also just really want to emphasize the need to make the uh Santa Monica and Chelsea intersection to uh McKinley Elementary happen early early early phase one or before. Um, and the design is great the way it is. I think anyone who's going to buy a car is uh is uh going to have that address in a GPS and that GPS is going to route them the appropriate way to get into that driveway. So, no reason to change that. I understand concerns, but uh I think the change will be pretty seamless. So, uh really looking forward to seeing this corridor change. I would love to see staff uh or council give

some more direction but overall great stuff forward. Thank you. Thank you Jonathan Foster.

Hello again council 4K on the homeless. I um support u continuing the resolution. Um it does look like I might have a slight answer here. Uh number five on the uh print out uh something with the staff all uh it says authorize the director of the community development and department uh development department or designate to approve temporary uses located on city property utilizing city funds and to support people who are at risk. And uh that's what I said. You said you can't be here, can't be there, can I asked where can you be? You know, so that kind of I guess that kind of answers the the bit of that question. Um I'm one of the only people I've given uh some of the best remedies to this problem. And there comes a cut off line for people who can and people who cannot. And the people who cannot we we do if people will let go of the money we do have plenty of money to to house all those people. And you have to be really designated mentally ill. And I am the only one with the real program idea that for competent people, I have the only program that will work, that will get people off the street, into housing, into an income, something that works for them. I've stated it here on this microphone. I don't know if anybody listened to me, and I think no one did. Okay? And it's very, very simple. They they go out, right? They make money, these people, right? They have no bank account. Can you imagine being homeless, walking around with $4,000 in your backpack and then somebody found out? Yeah, you'd get killed. So, they need a bank account, right? These people work and can save. They need to be taught to save and to save and save and save and then you have a big pile of money that you can operate

your life with. There's not a single person that's come up. I have more to qualify all this. If Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Ratusa.

Hello. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today in support of the Santa Monica Boulevard safety study. I'm here representing Santa Monica Families for Safe Streets and McKinley Elementary PTA where I've been on the traffic safety committee. After taking my child through uh to Mckenley on Santa Monica Boulevard for five years now, I'm glad that there's finally an item in front of you that will make it safer for all children in this city. Um the PTA and Santa Monica Families for Safe Streets very much supports the approach to Chelsea Avenue, including we've had some preliminary conversations with staff about accelerations so that there is some protection in place for the beginning of next school year, which I think is really important. uh very supportive of the hawk type of uh pedestrian hybrid beacon technology for that intersection um and as with the design that's happening now. Uh I would add that uh the change in approach to bus lanes I think is very welcome. Westside COGS transferring $600 $800,000 through the city of Santa Monica to coordinate with that regional system. Bus lanes are regional. People move and live regionally. Uh so I think that's a big uh win for staff. Uh and I would like to add that um it's important to consider in the future cost transparency when we do these feasibility studies. Sometimes we don't know about storm drains, utility relocations and everything and all the research at work and everywhere else suggests that these things can lead to spiraling out of control costs. I just say this is a plan. It's a feasibility study. Staff has done a great job with uh getting it up to shape over the past few months, but it is not the final thing. and and you you'll be seeing things back as they come in front of you for CIPs and other uh incremental decisions over the next uh several years, hopefully sooner on that Chelsea Avenue intersection. Thank you.

Thank you. Um we also have uh three commenters on the phones, right? Actually, we have one. Oh, they're not all here. Okay, great.

Okay. All right. First up is Jacob Wasserman. You can press star six to unmute yourself and your time will begin. Uh, hi. I just want to make sure my uh visual aid is being displayed. Yes. Give me a second. Okay, it's up. Go ahead.

Okay, great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm Jacob Wasserman. I'm a planning commissioner, but speaking for myself, a professional transportation planner and a Wilmont resident. Um, lives are at stake with the Santa Monica Boulevard study uh item for I. And I need and I know that um that might sound dramatic, especially when being pumped through the speakers of your room, but it's true. Lives are at stake when we make these decisions. And so that's why some of these uh plans just don't go far enough and honestly don't respect what council told staff to do. Um, specifically I'm thinking of the rapid flashing beacons versus hawks. And to simplify that, those are the little tiny yellow lights that you see on Welshure when someone wants to cross versus an actual traffic signal with red lights. And we need to have those red lights or else people are either going to feel unsafe crossing or be injured crossing. There was someone talking about people in wheelchairs. Well, how do people get in wheelchairs? It's getting hit by cars. And so that is why I strongly support hawks or full traffic lights at at all the places where these small flashing beacons are currently proposed. And second on the bus lanes, I wish they were fulltime. The the bus lanes that are proposed on the east side of the city, there's not, you know, if you're making them part-time, you're making them full-time. There's no difference in the striping on the street or the costs. It's an equity issue for our transit riders. And it's a safety issue because more people in buses means safer streets, less people in cars, and it also means that you can cross more easily because there isn't a line of parked cars have to peer around and drivers can make right turns more easily as well. So, I support making it full-time bus lanes as much as is possible. Um, I still don't get why the COG and the city are doing two separate planning studies, even if some of it's been moved, but um, I hope they can coordinate for full bus lanes down the whole corridor and make it safe for us

to use any mode of transportation, including driving, um, on the boulevard. Thanks so much. Thank you. That's it for the fun. No, we have Denise Barton. Oh, Denise Barton is there. Okay. All right, Miss Barton, press star six to unmute yourself, and your time will begin when you begin to speak. Hi, this is Denise Martin. I don't want to speak on this item after all, but I'm still waiting for public input. Okay, well done. Um, great. So, now we will move on to the consent calendar. Does anyone want to make a motion to approve other than I understand that 4 I was requested to be pulled? Any motions to approve?

Move. Okay, I'll second that. I'm sorry. Who made the motion? I uh council member Zernkaya. And who made the second? I did. And were there any items being pulled? Yes. Or I Or I And that was by council member Hall. Well, I think multiple of us, but I have Hall as the first one. All right. Council members, yes. Council member Snell, yes. Mayor Timwick, yes. Council members Raskin, yes. Council member Hall, yes. Council member Negrete, yes. Mayor Terosas, yes. Great.

Now for I is approval of revisions of Santa Monica Boulevard safety study and adoption of the plan.

Yeah. I did did the I think a a very brief staff report just to apprise us of the changes would be helpful. as quick as possible, senior transportation planner. I'm happy to return with revisions as requested by council. We've heard your concerns with some of the missing elements in the last version of the plan and we've made some changes which I can summarize in this brief presentation. that work.

Oh, it's scrolling. You got a full screen. You You're going to have to hit the full screen.

Okay, just keep moving. So, to start off, we uh heard from council desire to narrow travel lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard to reduce speeding. So with that, we've applied some standards to the corridor and included a lot more striping to delineate uh travel lanes and uh lane widths, especially near intersections where you see parking disappear, you start seeing turning lanes present. Um so general car lanes for cars um are preferred at 10 ft, but have a maximum width of 11 ft in some areas. Travel lanes that host cars and bus service are planned to be a maximum of 12 ft. and bus only lanes are planned to be 12 ft wide with the maximum width of 13 ft in very few cases. You can see the diagram at the top shows uh the bus only lanes and their width and the diagram at the bottom as well and that we've uh delineated both the parking lanes and the other travel lanes to come as close to the intersection as possible. So that was the first major change throughout the corridor. We also heard a need to extend uh buson lanes through this project. As you know, we've been coordinating with the westside cities council of governments and their bus connection project. Uh recommendations from that project have been reflected in this revised safety study. Uh that includes extending the PAL bus only lanes in the city of LA. Uh extending them into the city of Santa Monica. So, they're going to go from Sentinel uh to Harvard Street where the parking lane will be used as a uh bus lane during peak hours. Um council gave direction to extend the bus plaza from Fifth Street to Lincoln Boulevard in the eastbound direction. So, we did that by repurposing one travel lane while maintaining parking for those three blocks. In addition, staff created a curbside transit plaza to support bus

service in the westbound direction between Sixth Street and Seventh Street. So that's right in front of the library. On street parking was repurposed in front of this block to make room for that. And lastly, full-time bus only lanes are recommended in both directions from 14th Street to Lincoln Boulevard, which means one travel lane in each direction will be repurposed for full-time bus only lanes. So most of the on street parking in this area is expected to remain in place uh with limited removal due to either visibility uh or bus lane tapering design matters like that. Um, these recommendations are consistent with the council of government's 30% design memo to improve travel times and reliability. And as mentioned by a public commenter, the county metro uh are looking to allocate $600,000 to the city to take care of the design and the implementation of the bus only lanes. Now, council uh requested the relocation of a bus stop at 26th Street in the eastbound direction. So, we did that and we included the bus bulb to support boarding and the lighting. This bus bulb also shadows parking and creates a narrow profile at that intersection. Um the current near side stop for the westbound direction is proposed to stay in place for a couple of reasons. Uh, first off, buses in the westbound direction, if we move that to the far side, it would have to stop in lane. And that southbound right turn movement at 26th Street is considerably heavy for vehicles, um, likely due to freeway commuters. So, we prefer not to create potential conflicts or excessive queuing in the intersection with that southbound right turn and that westbound through movement for vehicles when the bus is stopped in lane. Uh second reason is a

far side westbound stop um has a narrow sidewalk and it could create conflicts with bus stop furniture. Um expanding the sidewalk in this area is not feasible because the streets fairly narrow. It's around 63 ft west of the intersection uh compared to 68 ft um east of the intersection. Um overall keeping the westbound stop at the near side location will eliminate the need for a Q jump since the bus is already in lane uh when they stop. Um and then throughout the corridor any other stop that remains near side was primarily because of any driveway concerns on the far side. So we we made sure to look at all the stops. Council also directed staff to explore vertical deflection, primarily race crosswalks or speed tables or speed humps. Um, and we engaged our design consultant team to see how this could be evaluated on Santa Monica Boulevard. Uh, while we don't find that existing guidelines fully support this, we did find other examples where there's vertical deflection on principal arterials, mainly in the city of Los Angeles. So, we looked at candidate locations for either race crosswalks or speed tables. um throughout the corridor um by looking at pedestrian activity, proximity to sensitive uses like schools and hospitals, things like that. And and also focus a couple of locations on the eastern side of the corridor where we do know there's uh higher speeds. So staff will continue to evaluate uh vertical deflection through the design process to see if it can be applied in addition to all the other safety improvements we've recommended. The last couple things I want to mention include the application of pedestrian recall uh from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. uh

meaning pedestrians won't have to push the button to cross either direction on Santa Monica Boulevard intersections. Um and that we're going to continue to monitor improvements and we really are looking forward to applying the count plus ATP methodology. So this is something that was developed by CALR and is used by ATP recipients. ATP being the active transportation program. It's a fairly large grant program um to better understand the before and after performance of safety improvements. Uh this is an approach that staff is currently applying to the East Pico safety project for example. So we'll similarly apply it to the Santa Monica Boulevard safety project. Now, we made some adjustments to the phasing as requested by council. Uh, in the immediate term, we can take care of any signal timing adjustments, any turn restrictions or farside bus stop relocations. Uh, our team's also uh ready to prepare signing and striping improvements throughout the corridor in coordination with the repaving of Santa Monica Boulevard and this includes the bus lane recommendations uh from the COG. The plan is to complete that before the Olympic and Parolympic games. And we're also including the full design of Chelsea Avenue of that intersection as part of uh the phase 1 time frame. Um though the construction of Chelsea is anticipated to take place immediately after the Olympic Games. So if adopted tonight, we can move uh we can also move on the ATP cycle 8 application for the phase 2 work. And just to give you a visual on how phase one and two work together, you can see here uh the design phase takes you can see the design phase in the green boxes and the construction phase in the blue boxes and you can see the Olympic and Parolympic games sort of in there in between. So summarize the changes to the plan.

I'm happy to uh take any questions you may have. Council member Zitkaya Swick Nutal. Great. So, thank you very much. I'll save the thank yous till the end, but I just wanted to clarify uh something. So, my understanding is that there are some timing considerations and bringing this plan back for adoption this evening, right? Uh because of grant deadlines and things like that. Could you just kind of clarify what those are?

Yeah. Uh so as part of uh the ATP cycle 8 grant application was just something that we're staff is very interested in chasing to fund the improvements related to this project particularly the phase 2 improvements. Um one of the conditions is to have a uh council approved plan in place for you know set improvements. Um, so if approved tonight, that would assist us in making the deadline for uh submitting the application, which I believe is June 22nd, if I'm not mistaken.

And adopting this plan tonight does not or would not preclude us from or preclude I should say the transportation planners who are experts um in this from making additional revisions as necessary to achieve the council set priorities. Right. Can you reframe the question? Sorry. Um, so adopting the plan this evening would not preclude either the council or transportation planners from additioning to make uh continuing to make additional minor revisions as necessary or is that something that you would need council direction for? That'd be helpful. Thank you.

Good evening, council. Uh, no, absolutely. Right. Uh, the intention here, right, is a safety study. It is more high level. We would like to get hire an engineering design team right on which we will continue to evolve and evaluate and functionality right uh if there are specific uh components right that you want to give us direction on or things that you want to make sure we include say in the phase 2 ATP grant that we are currently going after right we're we welcome that information but the intention here is that as we go into the design phase we will continue to evolve and grow the the design

and and I assume also make improvements as perhaps new studies become available, new best practices get updated, things like that. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Council member Z.

Someone's someone's

trying to get out of their mobility. Um, so, uh, yeah, I'll say thank you, but I'll hold off on further praise and thanks. Um, and just jump into a couple questions real fast. Um, in general, again, I I think we've got a lot of good stuff here and a lot and you guys were obviously very responsive to a lot of the the concerns that that council and the community had. So, I appreciate that. Um I think the one thing I'm still struggling with a little is um these um crosswalks with the RFPs. Um you know, we did this plan on Wilshshire uh for a number of uh number of crossings where we did uh RFPs and um just crosswalks across the four lanes of traffic. And well, we've seen both sort of like anecdotally that it's often proved inadequate because we've seen people get hit in those crosswalks. I've heard anecdotally a lot of people telling me that they've almost gotten hit in those crosswalks on Wilshire and uh and I think we've also see um to some extent in the academic literature as well from what I can understand that those types of crossings are really um only recommended as appropriate on streets with operating speeds under 35 miles an hour with one lane uh one through lane per direction and low to moderate volumes and you know east of Lincoln I think the whole corridor falls outside of that sort of criteria. area and uh you know tends to call for other interventions like PHPS uh hawk signals half signals full signals or grade separation and I think Calrans is is in fact I know CALR is in fact recommending removing RFPs or is in the process of removing the RFPs on the eastern continuation of the same corridor and replacing them with stronger interventions to protect pedestrians and I'm just trying to understand are we why why are we proposing to install the techn technology that CALR is seemingly removing um from the same corridor. And I mean, could we be liable

essentially if you know someone gets hit in this intersection knowing that it's basically not a street that's recommended for this type of intervention? Thanks for the question. Um we did look at um FHWA step guidance to see the appropriateness of um RFBS and other countermeasures at these intersections. And I think with the pairing of a raised median, which we are recommending at many of these locations, um we do have sort of a suite of items or or countermeasures that support uh RFBS and just safer crossings compared to what they are today. And I know that there's been mention of um hawk signals as well throughout the night. And I think that you know staff is open to looking at the application of hawk signals in particular on the eastern side of or eastern end of the corridor where you have um you know higher speeding vehicles. Um we do note that you know cost is always something that you know is something or something to consider with the cost of the a full hawk signal pedestrian hybrid signal versus an RFB. and then um you know the timing of sort of the entire corridor. Do you want to add anything?

Um no I mean uh hello everyone. Thanks council. Uh Kyle Co, our principal transportation planner. Uh yeah, everything that Carlos said I think um you know the dynamics I think are a little bit different on Bush right now because we haven't completed phase two and so like where and so in some areas where we for the entirety of the corridor where we're going to do curb extensions as well that brings out the flashing lights on an RFB closer. So where we have like uh they're closer to the roadway I think that changes their impact. when we have them on the flashing median that changes the impact. So I don't think that they've been ruled out completely as invaluable. We agree on the eastern section that like Carlos said, hawk treatments and things like that, you know, uh appropriately spaced throughout the corridor, it makes sense. And if council gives us direction to pursue something like that, now would be the time because we would need to include that in the grant application because um they are considerably more expensive. And so putting them at every intersection will, you know, make make the grant application much more expensive than doing the RFB treatment. So that's another consideration and is how we fund and finance that.

This is a study though, right?

Uh this is a study that we are using uh hoping to use if adopted to apply for grant funding from the state. And the way that grant application works is that you put in specific recommend like specific treatments that you are going to do. Um, and they they grade you on that and they expect you to implement the things you do. So if if we're going to be recommending putting in much more expensive treatments, then we would want that direction now because otherwise we wouldn't, you know, the grant that we apply for wouldn't fund it. So, we need to have clarity on that so that we're getting enough money to actually fund this implementation. And if you look at the um the schedule, you know, our hope is to do phase one. We're already pulling together different funding resources for that. And then hoping uh and starting to pull together resources for matching funds for the grant in hopes that we have a very competitive grant with an a recently adopted plan that has treatments that, you know, the council thinks is effective and want to move forward with implementing.

Got it. But at this stage in time, I mean, we're asking for money. So, is there a reason why we wouldn't want to ask for the more appropriate treatment since we're asking the state for money? Yeah, we can ask for that for the money for sure. Is there any concern? I mean, I just there was one part of my question I don't know if you answered. I mean, it says NACTO guidance specifies that this is not an intervention that's appropriate at speeds operating above 35 mph with more than one through lane per direction with low, you know, with more something higher than low to moderate volumes. like is there any concern that we would be implementing a recommendation that goes against NATO and Ashtto basic qualifications for the streets for which it's appropriate? Um I would leave questions about liability to the city attorneys.

Great. Sure. More question.

I mean I'm I'm I mean again this is a study. I think it would be subject to um further engineering and um actual um you know drawing up of plans at a later time. Correct. I mean that's kind of where we would be. So if you did want to do that, I think the grant could ask for that item, but we would still go through the design process after the fact. Is that how the process would work? Uh so if if we want to put hawks in at every crossing then that should be directed and we should do that in the plan so that we are able to effectively apply for grant funding that would cover the much higher costs of doing implementing that.

Correct. But in but generally how the process how the process evolves is that the city would request for the grant money hopefully get the grant money and then the actual design process right with um hiring the engineers or doing the in-house engineering would happen after that. Yes, but we wouldn't switch um I understand that but but right but we but there would be an actual design process that would occur after the fact. Right. So I'm just trying to talk about kind of where we are in the process.

Yeah, if I can there would be but if I can just jump in uh just to clarify, I'm not asking whether studying one thing or another would be illegal or incur liability. I was simply asking if sort of installing a treatment that is not recommended, not considered safe and by national standards would potentially be something that might incur liability if there say someone was to die in that intersection thereafter. Understand? Thank you for that clarification. So again, I mean that it is always a series of factors when when these lawsuits happen and it's going to be fact-based and again how how everything was designed and how the existing conditions were at the time. So yes, that could be a factor, but there would be many factors.

Yeah. Thank you. Um so just moving on quickly, um vertical deflection, I understand Santa Monica Boulevard, it's kind of a borderline case and I appreciate you guys sort of researching the topic. Um I think you might have made reference to and I was made aware of a few sort of as you mentioned um vertical deflection uh interventions in the city of LA including one on Alama Street near Union Station that seems to have higher level of service, higher speed limits, more lanes and is a major transit and trucking route and it has raised crossings. Um, and I'm just curious like can you explain how I should square that, you know, plan going forward and the the the idea that this is not an appropriate street.

Um,

so uh I don't think we are saying it's an inappropriate street. what we're saying particularly um in the one you're referencing I I think it also cites right that it had to be modified and shaved down right so what we're saying is it doesn't fit within the general guidelines of of the standard plan so what we need is an engineering design team to come on board to help us work through this and come up with the solution that does work right and so all the the the only thing the report says basically is that from at an initial glance Right? Does it fall exactly within the parameters of how to use this right in the standard design? No, it does not. Does it mean that you can't do it? No. Obviously, there are examples elsewhere, right? But we just need the design team to help us work through um what that looks like.

Great. Thank you. Um, so I think I'll I'll just say that um I think maybe my only insistence on it is to do with a little bit of PTSD where in the past um there's been other talk of vertical deflection in other parts of the city including streets like Neielson, 23rd Street, other parts um other streets, smaller streets and uh it's generally been recommended against in all those instances in the past. And I just want to try to get something clear here that regardless of exactly where we land on Santa Monica Boulevard in this inter intervention. Um I was hoping I could just get a kind of a sense on our policy in general towards vertical deflection as a strategy to reduce speed going forward on our streets in Santa Monica. Is this going to be a part of our toolkit going forward or are we going to sort of keep recommending against it on every street we're trying to reduce speed? uh it will absolutely be part of the toolkit and we will be back um by the end of summer, August or September, right, to address the 16 item study session that council requested uh to go over all of these policies. Um and that is one of the things we will be discussing then,

right? Um the only other thing uh Chelsea uh it seems like there's been great work done and and efforts to speed that. Um it still obviously is not happening in phase one. There was can you explain you know just I guess there was some idea that um you know that was the original council direction. Can you explain how it's not possible? And also there was some suggestion of interim measures that maybe could be taken in the meantime. And

I just want to clarify that first part of the statement. It is absolutely happening in phase one, right? But the timeline when you look back at that, right? What we don't want is we don't want it halfway under construction during the Olympics, right? And so just the timing of where we're at when we looked at it is we can get the initial repaving, striping, bus lane work done. we would not be able to physically finish the construction of Chelsea before the Olympics. Therefore, we are choosing basically to make the recommendation to pause for the time period of the Olympics and pick it back up immediately post Olympics. The design, the construction will all be done through the contracts of of phase one. we just have the this right block in the middle where we don't want this under construction and and so rather than start and not finish we are recommending basically that we hold and start immediately post Olympics. Does that make sense?

Yeah, sure. I'll let them answer the rest of the questions.

Thanks Chris. Yeah, there was just another half about whether there I think it was referenced that there might be some halfway measures that we could do in the interim and I was just curious if you could expand on that. Um well, so there had been conversations with community members and you know, folks from uh McKinley Elementary School asking if uh there was a way that as an interim step and certainly as a phase one of the striping, the restriping design to look at a way using like quick build materials to um uh to physically restrict the left turns in and out of Chelsea. Got it.

And so that's something that you know if council directs us to do that then we can uh you know look at an interim phase you know with the hope of uh getting it in before the next school year. Um because again this is like paint and post kind of things. Um and then you know when we redesign when we do the phase one kind of restriping before the construction the civil infrastructure construction would happen we we could put that back too as a temporary measure.

Great. Um, that's that's really that's really helpful. I mean, it reminds me actually like I I'm pretty sure in the Measure K budget there's like $500,000 allocated annually to some of those quick build technologies. I mean, are we actively spending down that? It's been about a year since, you know, the first batch was allocated. Yes. And we have a a full list of projects that we'll be coming to you again in in August to to review. Great. Um the only last thing uh that you know there's this mentioned around that same place of the the the Kia dealership and um has staff analyzed that and come to any conclusions. Are they still going to throughout the design process or?

Uh I think in uh for the Chelsea intersection I mean it's certainly um a design that staff recommends the one that's you know in the concept plans. Um we've looked at it. I think that there's some potential flaws, but really hasn't really uh been analyzed in detail. I think there's some moreh specific engineering analysis that has to be done in particular for those dual left turn movements that share one turn pocket um which you know and then there's a bike crossing which kind of has an elbow in it. Um so we've only really looked at it at a cursory level but we are recommending the one in front of you tonight.

Okay. Um, and then, uh, the the there was just some talk throughout about, you know, the Westside Cog has a plan, we have a plan, we're we're trying to get on the same page. Um, seems like we're getting closer. Um, are there are there um there was, I think, some mention of a westbound bus lane in the westside COG plan at one point from Fort Lincoln. That's not in ours. Uh, is there a reason that got dropped? Is it ARC request or theirs or or what? and and uh sort of what are our plans to be you know fully aligned as we go forward. Can I just clarify one one thing quickly on on the last response? Right. So, obviously we need to get into design and we will continue to work with all of these stakeholders. Chelsea like there there's there's a lot to work through there, right? And so pending other direction, right, immediately from council, we are going to continue to work on refining and and figuring out what works there. So, I just want to clarify that. Uh, and then in terms of the im immediate, uh, solutions that you talked about, um, I just want to make sure that council understands that that would immediately prevent any of those left-hand turns that we're talking about just so that you're understand what the direction would be. And then I'll let you talk about this.

Um, yeah. So we we uh are coordinating with them and I think um for that couple of blocks that you referenced I think fourth to 7th um you know we are putting a westbound uh on from 5th to 6th right in front of the downtown library. We are making that like a transit mall. So that will have, you know, remove all of the parking on that street uh block and it'll be kind of similar to the other transit mall going in the other direction, red painted, right? Uh so we're really talking about kind of this uh other one block or two blocks between sixth and Lincoln. And so we are coordinating with them in the 10% design that the Westside Cog had. It was like a very initial kind of sketch design. You know, there there was inaccuracies in terms of the width of the street and all those things. later that was refined. So, uh, on April 16th, the Westside Cog board adopted like the 30% design memo. In that memo had, you know, basically exactly what we're proposing in this plan. So, you know, we are fully aligned with a 30% recommendation. And also in that uh uh board meeting is when they voted to allocate the $600,000 that would have gone to the design implementation of our portion through their process. they're putting that over to us because we're actually moving on a f much faster track, a more efficient track. So, but from a design phase just for those couple blocks, you know, we've sliced it, we've looked at it. It doesn't actually fit given that you would have to make like extra narrow like like a 9 ft center turn lane, but we have like the number 18 bus is making that turn and it just it wouldn't fit like you know buses and cars would be bouncing off of each other. So the way that it's designed here is kind of creating, you know, enough space for everybody to be there and a lot. So yeah, the nar kind of narrows, but

thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. And council members, if your questions already been asked, let's uh try to keep it succinct here. Thanks. All right. Thank you, mayor. Um, just a couple of short questions. In the immediate near-term on that slide, uh, you listed movement of the bus stops. Does that include repavement of from asphalt to concrete pads? No. Okay. But that would eventually be contemplated. Yes.

Okay. Got it. Um on vertical treatments, if it becomes clear during design that like the engineering design that the raised features can't be installed at some of these intersections, um what alternative treatments would staff support in that case? Would it be like the hawks? Yeah, I think certainly like on the eastern portion too, you know, because again like it it tapers down. The roadway tapers as we go and you know and it's going to get narrower and narrower and slower and slower as you go. So certainly on the eastern portion, you know, we're supportive of looking at hawks for some of those crossings and things like that. if if the raised deflection it you know if it's deemed infeasible because of drainage issues and other things that we have to look at through the design process um then then yeah I mean we you know staff supports like a a heftier treatment like a hawk or whatever um and like on areas where there would be RFBs you know the there's RFBs where you can put them on much thinner poles with thinner mast arms they're not as expensive and heavy to put you can put flashers above head it's just a different flashing light and it it doesn't require a full stop like a hawk would.

Okay, got it. Um, on the grant application, is there any risk where if if we are asking for these more expensive treatments, is there any risk where the state goes, "No, no, no, Santa Monica, you're asking for too much, or should we just shoot for the shoot for the uh moon and land amongst the stars?" We're already applying for the large category for this project, so I don't I don't No, I don't think so. Okay, great. Um on Santa Monica and Yale Street, uh there was one public comment that um raised some additional design suggestions from a bike box to green back sherrows to a modal filter. Um did staff consider any of these options for that intersection and is there opportunity to explore increased protection there?

Uh no, we didn't. Uh I saw that comment. You know, it's a climbing lane northbound and Cheryl southbound. um we didn't but you know they're good suggestions and I think you know we're doing a similar thing on Chelsea where we're creating like these segments of a class 2 that allows you to get the skip striping legally across the street. Um and so we would have to look at some sort of design for that. But that's something that we can look at and explore as part of the phase one design. Cool. I don't know what it would be exactly. We'd have to look at it but we could look at it.

Great. Uh yeah, that that used to be my intersection and it's used quite frequently by bicyclists as a north south transit across Mid City. Um, and then just finally, as the phase one design progresses, uh, will there be opportunities for like, uh, you know, in incorporating continued public comment? And as, um, I saw the, uh, kind of assessment factors that we were going to be looking at, um, how how should the public engage with, uh, design like the the construction of the bike lanes? AB:

Absolutely. Right. Uh the design covers a decent period of time if you go back to Right. Right. So we can continue to keep the community and the council informed as Right. We go through and evaluate some of these things so that we have this level of transparency as we figure it out. Right? Some of these things, right? We can't commit exactly to what it's going to look like, right? It's a it's a high level design study, right? we once we get the engineering team on board right we can continue to find the right way to keep the community and the council informed as we move forward

but yeah but the only thing I would say is you know it is it is a fast turnaround to meet this deadline is an incredibly fast turnaround for this project um we like right now we have a work order ready to go that for phase one and the Chelsea design and basically we're waiting for tonight and we would you begin to get that consultant team on board this week um to start it because uh to meet the repaving schedule which is going to start in summer of 27 spring summer of 27 you know it's not giving us a lot of time to design like a very large corridor with a lot of changes so it is a fast turnaround but our goal is to keep everybody a breast of what's going on and um but I don't know that we have like public workshops or anything like that Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you, Council Member Negrete.

Hi. I have some u maybe different leaning questions just based on both internal and external input. So, I know some of it is generally um mentioned in the staff report, but not more specific as it pertains to maybe stress testing this and really getting like the detailed turning radius with these new bulb cutouts, if that's the right way to say it. um with both big blue bus and fire. Can you just say because I know a lot of these um on paper look great and all for more safety but sometimes operationally um I don't know how you guys stress test them out if you use other bulb cutouts that already exist.

Yeah, I can give a little clarity on that. And uh one of the things we we first start off in with really with these concept diagrams that you've seen here uh we didn't leave in the turning templates but the their turning templates have been applied to these which is basically the radius of different vehicles right and we usually use two design vehicles um hazmat is one of them and I think a trash truck RR yeah the front loader the hazmat and we'll start doing the 40ft uh bus

so we we do that on paper but also during the phase one we're able to do the striping and ballards and then learn from that phase as well. So if we see that certain areas are getting run over often or we're hearing complaints, I think that's a something that we've done in the past with sort of the first interim treatment. We learn from it and then before we pour the concrete, we make any changes that we need to. Okay. So that to be clear, you do a phase a preliminary phase um to really stress test it in functionality in terms of like turning radius for fire and for buses as you mentioned. And then if for some reason it doesn't work out then you scale back and have

yeah like the design one like the curb extensions and things like that are made of just like the plastic ballard. So it's kind of creating the space and making cars and vehicles start to make those maneuvers. um you know and then and then we get a sense of like the path of the vehicle in real time in addition to the auto turn you know we also work through the design phase with all of our internal stakeholders with fire and uh with RR and with big blue bus we go over all the 10 turn templates in many cases we'll go out and actually put out cones and have drivers drive the apparatus around certain things um and so I mean that's our goal is to like really do that uh you know sometimes if like design changes come late in the design that weren't able to get the same scrutiny then then we've run into problems but we've also been able to accommodate those things uh you know like on 17th Street near Broadway there's like uh two convolescent homes there and you know so we're able to go in after the fact in the design make modifications to ensure that the fire apparatus was able to get in there more regularly that they had the proper loading space that they needed and so on. So our goal is to kind of always massage that um to make sure it works for everybody.

Yeah. And then just to that I I was just getting wanted to clarify that left turn for KIA cuz you know I understand like of course obviously safety but also taking into consideration at what point does layering restrictions and all these things start to affect both residents and businesses. So, I guess that's still something you guys are working out in terms of potentially a different way to make sure that we're not taking away the opportunity from the left turn going into the establishment. I just wasn't clear on Absolutely. Again, right, we we've got what's what's in the safety study, but we acknowledge, right, we need to work with all of those media stakeholders. Yeah.

With a design team and work through like we have not vetted the alternative design, right? We've looked at it, right? But we need professionals on board to help us work through with the stakeholders from both sides. Anything?

I think um just to provide some clarity on that. I think the authority we just request from the council is to allow staff to continue to assess is there a viable way to implement you know procedures that prioritize safety but can address some of the concerns that Kia has raised. The folks at KIA have developed um some preliminary design concepts for us to review. We'd just like to maintain the flexibility to assess are those viable moving forward as we get into the design process. Um there's also Chris, can you speak to um the immediate um blocking of that left turn lane and how that's being sort of coordinated as sort of the interim measure and what the current

that's what I was referring to, right? If if if council gives any direction for something in that 6 to 12 month immediate phase, right? the the realistically the only thing that that we could get out in that sort of timeline would be, you know, uh this like striping and and ballards and posts that would prevent that immediate left turn, right? And so that would not be flexible flexible, right, while we continue through the design. So if that's the council direction, right, we

I'm not giving that direction. I'm just I wanted to create flexibility for you all to do your job. I'm definitely not an expert. Um clearly some people are more um experts in this area and um I think our job is to leave that flexibility to you guys. And I just want to make sure that we're not unintentionally creating conflicts between pedestrian safety and um transit operations, emergency response functionality, and of course uh the business community. So um I you know and we'd like the opportunity to basically get our design professionals on board and work with the stakeholders to see what we can come up with.

Right. Okay. Well, thank you for being really clear that there's like these phase phases. I don't think I really fully understand that stood that myself and that you guys do go back and make those changes. It sounds like when things in real life uh don't work out quite as well as they did on paper. So thank you. Great. Um, council member Snell and and my my question it's related to the same thing that council member Negradi has been talking about with so at the design right now study says the Santa Monica there's a hawk signal at the Chelsea and Santa Monica location. Is that what we're we're talking about at this point?

Yeah. Yeah. And to be clear, it um right now it's not contemplated to be a a hawk signal. It's it contemplated to be a full signal, but it would be uh just for the Santa Monica Boulevard uh traffic east and west, right?

And it would only be actuated when by a pedestrian or when a bicyclist is there. And the reason that a hawk is not really uh compatible with that design is because hawks are typically kind of independent. They don't are they're not synchronized and coordinated with the signal system necessarily of the corridor. And what we need here is to have the signal coordinated with the timing of Cloverfield which is not that far away and also have the capability to put in bike signal heads to get bicyclists across on the crossike and to have uh the ability to have video detection for the bicyclist to trigger that signal. So we just need a full signal because it gives us the capability to add the elements that we need to make that crossing work. But it's just the signal for pedestrians and cyclists when they are present. If that makes sense.

Is that what you said when a full signal? So it's not it's like the up the three balls, you know, up and down. Not the hawk signal has like maybe you've seen them. They have like two red balls that kind of pingpong and then then it goes full red and it's basically like an overhead stop sign while somebody's present and then and then it goes off and then it just runs. But they they act independently. It's not like a it's not a signal that's tethered to the rest of the corridor and that's what we need to make the design work. Okay. Thank you. Great. Council member Raskin and I would like to ask some questions before Hall gets back in. Well, you all have asked and answered my questions.

Great. Um, I just want to put I make sure I understand this correctly. So, the parents are requesting a hawk beacon for phase 2 rather than a full traffic signal um near McKinley. Is that correct? No, I got that wrong. I I mean I I saw like an email asking for that, but you know, a hawk signal wouldn't allow this design to work the way that it is because it doesn't have the same flexibility in a signal cabinet where we can connect it to the rest of the corridor, can use bike signal heads, can use video detection. We need to be able to do all those things to make it work. And a hawk signal is more of like it's like a souped up flashing beacons type of thing.

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Um, and then have you I know that city manager Chi referred to the Kia dealership plan, but has staff reviewed the LG concept plan that was submitted on behalf of Kia Santa Monica in April? Mhm. We've uh I mean ju just initially and kind of gave a look at it and like Chris had said, we you know, we've

um do you have any assessment about whether that it delivers like an equivalent pedestrian and cyclist safety at the Chelsea intersection? I I think um that's part of why we're looking for flexibility from the council tonight in moving this forward that um certainly prioritize pedestrian safety. There's a lot going on at that Chelsea intersection. You know, the out the roadways offset, there's an alley, there's the driveway, there's a school. Um the initial designs that Kia has submitted are certainly helpful. We've had a chance to do again a preliminary review. Okay. What we're looking for direction from the council is again in prioritizing um pedestrian safety. Can we have some flexibility to see is there the opportunity to resolve that particular concern that Kia has raised simultaneously?

Okay. It the memo from LLG also notes that the city safety study crash data was collected before the recent installation of the two-way left turn lane on Santa Monica Boulevard into the Kia driveway. Do you all believe that that change materially affects the safety analysis at this intersection?

Uh I don't I mean there's currently not what it it does improve the safety in that before there was a two-way turn lane there. Uh vehicles were they had no place to store when they were trying to make any left turn and so they would be hanging out into that number one lane primarily. So, in that regard, it moves the vehicles out of the way, which is an improvement, and that's why we included that change as part of the six schools um project. Um but it does not provide a crossing and it does not provide um you know, they're still making those left turns both from Chelsea and on to Chelsea. you know, you can go there and watch and people get stuck and have to abandon them and you know, that's like one of the primary collision factors is those sorts of movements across the uh across the corridor. And so, uh, yeah, it's an improvement, but it's not nearly,

but you're going to take that into account when you're looking at, um, something that works, uh, for the intersection now that we're moving P like if we approve this tonight, you you would take into account the safety data with the two-way, um, turn. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah. And then just I want to make sure I understood it. The city's phase one plan for Chelsea currently relies on striping and signage for turn restrictions. And I'm wondering, can you all commit to quick build uh physical infrastructure at Chelsea as phase one by August 2026?

Um I'm I'm not sure. No, the the the only thing that we could commit to was like I mentioned, right? It would literally just be um ballards to prevent that. So, not like a point build physical median element. We would not be able to do that by August of 2026. Right. Thanks. Um Council Member Raskin, you're in the queue. Council member Hall. Yeah, go ahead.

Uh okay. Uh first I just want to thank all the advocates and colleagues of mine for pushing on this. Uh I think we've ended it in a much better place. Um I really want to thank staff for listening uh and for refining the product um after receiving some direction and and frankly you did it really fast. So thank you. Um I know we're up against some deadlines. Uh, I'll say I'm I'm not super interested in preserving a left turn at Chelsea if the highest pedestrian protection for the children crossing the street to their school uh would have us design the intersection otherwise. Um, and so with that, uh, I will move the staff recommendation with the following direction to implement quick build protections at Chelsea and Santa Monica if possible before the next school year, whatever those treatments could potentially be. um that will prepare us for your recommendation as staff. Um and just to reiterate that we want the safest possible intersection for uh pedestrian and bicyclist crossings and then to continue to explore expanded treatments such as vertical treatments uh or vertical treatments or or otherwise along the corridor uh particularly on the eastern part of the corridor as well as hogs, PHBs and full signals where appropriate um in accordance with Ashtto necto and Calrans guidance. I I'll second that. Uh, council members and then Raskin, you're still in the queue. Are you not in the queue? Okay.

Uh, okay. Uh, yeah, I won't I won't belabor this. Uh, thank you for your work on this. I think we're, you know, all kind of getting on the same page and that's great. Um, really appreciate it. I'm excited to to to see the final plan and to get funding for it. Um, I think council member Hall's direction incorporates this, but just so I'm clear, the only question I have for you guys slash for the council member is when it comes to the hawk PHP signals at unsignalized crossings per nacto and ashtto guidelines, are you clear that that's something that we would prefer over the RFBs in in those instances? Um, is there something that you need that's stronger than that or is that sufficient direction to to to go that route as per policy? Um I I mean I I would say yes except for like clarification because um in your earlier questions uh you were saying how CALR is doing away with RFBs. So uh you know if if you're saying that you don't want us to to use them like flat out as like a policy then that would need to be like directed.

I think it I wouldn't say flat out. I I was saying I think that the recommendation was for streets at that level of volume, width, and speed they're not recommended and that we should explore higher interventions like hawks. Correct. Yeah. And and I think from our perspective we would rather Okay. Yeah. I mean, we'll we'll look at that and, you know, from our perspective, we would rather, like I said before, include hawks at locations that we, you know, that are like high pedestrian volumes, you know, the wider portions, all those types of things to ensure that they have the beefed up thing. But we'd rather include that, have the clear direction to include that now so that we can but you know, so but yeah, we just want to be clear like what we're including and not including.

Yes, I'd say that's contemplated in the motion. Okay. So the actric direction is to go in that direction um at unsalized crossings especially on the eastern half. Uh yeah does that sound that sound good? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council Negrete I just wanted to be clear because you said dependent upon staff direction. Obviously we're going for whatever is safest but that left turn is going away from the school. Does that now affect or block the left that we were discussing into the Kia from Santa Monica or no? this direction.

I mean, we will we will need to design like the quick build whatever happens this summer, but I think the priority from what I've uh understood was the lefts in and out of Chelsea and so we could look at a way to design that with ballards that would in the interim allow for the movement into the Kia still, right? Cuz that's like on the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit down and so we could look at I don't know what the design is. We'll have to look at it, but we can try to come up with a way to limit the left turns on and off of Chelsea and not prohibit the left turns into the Kia.

Okay, got it. So, sorry to clarify, the motion contemplates if if staff's direction or staff's recommendation is to not have left turns into Chelsea andor the Kia and believes that that is the safest uh treatment for pedestrian and bicycles crossing, then we want to go with the staff recommendation that eliminates those left turns. But are we talking about like before this summer before the school new school year starts or are we talking about in the phase one overall restriping design in the phase 2 civil infrastructure design? Cuz I think we were talking about this.

I I will leave that to y'all but I believe our our direction is that we want the safest possible intersection for the children crossing the street. Is that is that fair, Mayor Teros? Yes, but I I also think it's important to look at the tradeoffs and ensure that we're, you know, acknowledging that there are multiple ways to do this. And so I think, you know, we saw that there was an engineering study that was presented. And so I would like us to be creative and contemplate the multiple um inputs that we've received.

We will do our best to do that. Cons take the consideration of safety. Absolutely. That's the first thing this plan is for and we understand, you know, in the interim and looking and trying to do a feasibility study of how we can accommodate as long as it doesn't impact safety is what I'm hearing. Okay. Thank you, Raskin. So, sorry, I I don't want to beat a dead horse with this, but I I I'm not sure I'm clear on this. Is does the motion to contemplate then that um staff is still going to work with stakeholders to explore those trade-offs alternatives? That's what we're going to do. Okay. All right. Thanks. Without pro without compromising pedestrian safety, we're going to assess. Yes.

Great. Council members or Sky and Agrete are still in the queue. We really would love to move forward.

Sorry. Um, so I just wanted to make sure I'm understanding as well. Does the motion include for uh allowing staff the flexibility as needed to make minor street design adjustments to ensure the plan is both financially feasible and looks at safety holistically rather than piece by piece? Does that uh is that included in the motion or could that be? That that is um my understanding of the council's motion to again prioritize the um most pedestrian safety focused improvements including assessment of um hawks for unsalized crossings and to take into account pedestrian safety first at the Chelsea crossing but through it all to assess sort of all of the other tradeoffs as part of our design efforts.

Thank you. I just I'm just cur Okay, it doesn't really matter. I just feel like we're giving direction that's obvious that they're going to do. Is this outside of what the staff report was? It's like we're saying do what's safest and most cost effective, which I feel like is obvious. I'm trying to understand if I'm missing anything that's very specific that's outside that I don't want to get be like, oh, I didn't realize that that's what we were voting on. Is there something in here that's outside of what staff was already doing? No, I I the hawk signals the hawk signals. Okay. and the idea of doing quick build at Chelsea since we can't do it before the Olympics because you needed us to tell you that. I got it.

Well, again, it's like almost like two phases that we're talking about. We're talking about limiting turn restrictions on and off at Chelsea sometime this summer before the school year. We need to design that, but it can be simple enough which is Ballards. And then designing including some sort of quick build in the phase one signing and striping design that Olympics kind of. Okay, let's we we we we understand the direction um right now. We don't need to design this sitting here in the council dis right now. We we need to understand the direction and we'll we I think have plenty of question. Y

I think we said within um like in a cost effective way. Do we need Yeah. Do we need to do a voice vote? Yes. I'm sorry. We're doing a roll call vote for Okay. Okay. Council member Negrete, yes. Council member Hall, yes. Council member Rascin, yes. Mayor Timwick, yes. Council member Snell, yes. Council member Zernaya, yes. And Mayor Terosis, yes. Congratulations. Thank you all so much. Appreciate it.

Um, okay. Before we go to close session, there's been a request from the organizers of the um airport uh public commenters uh to entertain a change to our agenda management to allow uh the commenters who are still here not to make a comment but just to come up, state their name and what was the one sentence that they were going to say? Please don't close the airport. Please don't. All they are going to say is their name and please don't close the airport. so that they do uh their name and please don't close the airports unless they would like to stay until the end of the meeting.

Yeah, if you'd like to stay at the end of the meeting, we're more than welcome to. This is our opportunity to feel free address the council respectively. No comments after that. Just state your name, please. You'd like to keep the airport open, but please don't close the airport. Walk past the podium and please walk outside. Otherwise, we'll turn off your mic. Um so so one one thing to consider this is this is outside of your norm and this would be to allow people with a specific point of view to have an opportunity to speak where there's this is general public comment when anybody can speak on anything and what you we'll still hear the rest of general public comment at the end advancing certain

can I make a suggestion then um is it possible to reframe it slightly to just say that anyone who's still signed up for a comment on the airport item can come up and say yes or no. So, so that's the issue is that it's not the airport. It's not the airport, right? So, so the issue is is that there's nothing on the agenda like related to the airport this evening. This is general public comment where anyone can speak about anything not on the agenda. Well, can't they say please don't close the airport? They can, but but there are other people who maybe want to speak on other general public input items. See what I'm right? So, we would be advancing people with a specific point of view. that we're not permitted to do that.

I'm I'm just saying there's some risk there because there there could be other people who are who need to defer to the end of the meeting and you're allowing certain people not defer to the end of the meeting. See what I'm saying? Anybody can say anyone sentence they want to. Right. Fine. We will allow literally five words. Yeah. Five words. Your name and five words on anything you'd like. And um please organizers. Uh so can I does anyone want to move that we do that? I'll make the motion to move that item. I'll second it since I brought it up. Can I um just for clarification, the item is to advance general public comment that we had originally put at the end of the meeting right now.

Just the people who want to come say their name in five words. Correct. To and and therefore all general public comment will be completed this conversation. Right. Mayor, are we going to come back and hear more general public later? We're doing it right now. So now we don't have to hear it later. Right. There are some people on the phone, but they can there are people that want to speak about things other than the airport. So, right. So, I'm saying that we will entertain people who would like to say their name in five words right now. Anyone who would like to say more than that, they can comment at the end of the meeting. Right. Okay. Great. Council member Hall. No. Let's take a vote. Yes. Council member Hall.

No. Council member, yes. Yes. Council member, yes. No. Yes. Okay, great. So, we're we're not going to call you up by name. Everyone just line up right now and we're going to do it in rapid succession and you can go ahead and start right now. I'm Ben Marcus. Thank you for hearing us. Amelia Brennan, please don't close the airport. Please pay attention. Josh Pence, thank you for your time. Sorry, one second. Our our council would like to explain his no vote.

Sorry, I I would just like to explain my no vote. It's not that I'm not supportive of you guys getting out of here as fast as possible. I understand this is a very laborous process to come and give public comment. I just really dislike that we are constantly amending our rules for the convenience of a certain group of people or for us. And we should, we have passed rules, we should stick to them. Okay, I appreciate that. All right, Josh Pence, thank you for your time. Kaitlin Walsh, please don't close the airport. Mayor Blackman, please keep the airport open. Jason Gilbert, please keep the airport. MJ Selmo, please keep the airport open.

Mary Hunter, please keep the airport open. Michael Kent, please keep the airport open. Joseph Gro, please keep the airport open. Victor Go, keep Santa Monica airport open. Loretta F. Bryant, keep the airport open. Alisan, the airport was here for a century. Keep it open. We need it. That's more than five words, but we'll allow it. Dena, uh, please keep the airport open. J Kratz, please keep the airport open.

Ryan Lehi, please don't close the airport. Cameron Mahalotti, please don't close our home. Dakota Collins, please don't close the airport. Ted Rosi, please keep the airport open. Alex Croll, keep the airport open. Douglas Glover, please keep the airport open. Thank you. Jamie Marie Davis, keep the airport open. Mike Hendricks, please keep the airport open. Kevin S, please keep the airport open. Jeff Rhodess, please keep the airport open. I'm Ryan and please keep the airport open. Hannah, please keep the airport open.

Michael Corander, please keep the airport open. Daniel Ammonton, pretty please keep the airport open. Preston, please keep the airport open. Trip Harris, please keep the airport open. Matic Narski, our future needs this airport. Jean Basil, let's keep the legend alive. Dave Boston, please keep the airport open. Leila Chandler, I am a student. Please keep the airport open. Tessa Konur, please keep the airport open. Yasmin, please don't close the airport.

First officer Jonathan Daniel, please keep the airport open. Dorothy Alunian, keep history alive, please. I'm Daniel, please don't close the airport. Thank you. Valerie Taylor, please keep the airport open. Edward story, please keep the airport open. Max Sparks, I support the airport. Cindy Winthrop, please keep the airport open.

Uh Sean Beck, uh please keep the airport open. Tony Canono, please keep the airport open. There's so many people. William Braun, closing the airport, big mistake. Christina Holly, the airport is a gem. Uh, Elen Mo, um, keep Santa Monica flying, please. I'm Terry Ley. Please keep the Santa Monica airport open. I'm Los Angeles. Please keep the airport open. Hello, my name is Marcus. Um, please save our airport.

My name is Zachary Ezra. Please keep our airport open. Orita Cruz, please keep our airport open. Amir Kru, please keep an open airport. Patriot Hazeri, please keep the airport open. Thank you. Michael Sher, please keep Santa Monica airport open. Dear Spears, please save Santa Monica Airport. Patrick Camry, please save Santa Monica Airport. I'm Joe Trilling, please save Santa Monica Airport.

I'm Barry Netberry, please save Santa Monica Airport. Conquin, please save Santa Monica Airport. Thanks. Jorge Sanchez, please keep the Santa Monica airport open. Uh, Epherazzo, keep the apartment open, please. Cody Williams, please keep the airport open. Alden Marquez, please keep the airport. Thank you. Tony Sheriff, please keep Santa Monica airport open.

Tim Cashin, keep Santa Monica Airport open, please. Hollis Erdman, please keep Santa Monica airport open. David Hopkins, Santa Monica resident. Please keep the airport open. Liz Dustphanie, please keep the airport open. Christian Fry, I'm a 27year resident. Please keep the airport open. Lissa Kana, please keep the airport open. Thank you. Ray Ogawa, please keep the Santa Monica airport open.

Scott Howard, resident, please keep the airport open. Allison Sha, make the airport historic landmark. Uh, Juan, Angel Fly pilot, keep the airplane uh, keep the airport open. Alex Silver, please keep the airport open. Paul Wisner, 26 year resident, Sunset Park, underneath the flight path. I love the airport. Please keep it open. John Cyrus Smith, pars commissioner. 1740 is a bad bill. Thank you.

Good evening. Andrew Hoyer, vice chair of the urban forest task force. Trees are better than airplanes. Ben Wang, I am not. Please keep the airplane the airport open. It's the best asset we have in Santa Monica. Thank you, Eve Lopez. 67% want it open. Thank you.

Okay. Um with that being said, we will move to uh close session. Do we need to get a read into close session? Yeah, let me go ahead and read it real quick. Great.

Okay. So, first we have 5A. It's um existing litigation and this is what a bunch of John does. Next we have the city versus SOP. Then we have another um existing litigation, City of Santa Monica versus Whimo LLC 5D. Another existing litigation, Santa Monica EV holdings LLC versus the city LC, sorry. Then we have a 5E which is existing litigation Whimo LLC versus the city. Then we have 5F. It's a conference with the legal council significant exposure litigation. This is one case 1213 Pine Street. And then we have um a conference for real estate negotiator. This is for 200 Santa Monica Pier. Um the city of Santa Monica city manager is the negotiator. Parties negotiated with Fever Lab Inc. under negotiation the price and terms and payment of the licensing. Then finally 5H, we have another real estate negotiation. This is for 200 Santa Monica Pier. The pier uh beach parking lot one north sandbox north. And this is um the city is city's negotiator is Oliver Chi, the city manager. Parties of negotiation LA Kings outdoor game under negotiation price and terms of the payment and lease. And those are your items for close session. And we have a phone caller

for five words or for the close session. The close session. Okay, great. Yeah,

Mr. Finch, you can press star six to unmute yourself. Um, yeah. Hi, this is Will Finch, Santa Monica resident. Close the airport and build the park. appreciate you. Thank you. Um, madame city attorney, how long do you think it'll be in close session? Uh, we anticipate one hour. And is anyone recusing themselves from anything? Great. I got one, mayor. Uh, I will be recusing myself from item 5F due to a potential conflict of interest under government code 871000. That is it.

Great. We'll see everyone back in an hour. Yeah. A fiveword public comment. Is she trying to make a public comment? Oh, that's later. We haven't heard that yet. Yeah. Rules for No, the special agenda's No, that those people are here for general public comment. That this special agenda is on the agenda. Thank you. And I'm sorry, city attorney. What was the time? One hour.

Okay. Thank you. building

on the left side. Tell my kids that. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Sometimes there is I'll do the number one. conversations.

I guess That's it.

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Okay. And here we are.

You've been sitting here the whole time.

I'm trying to charge myself up. have to speak. Wish they would have had a close session after

some do after something they do in the middle. I don't know why

it should have been done.

Narrition.

No, I love my position. I just don't like to speak. Just go up there and just stand there. I will do it. I will do it.

I was afraid to get over it. You can't get me to shut up. I just ended up reading library. Oh, so I do it. I have to

You know what they say. I mean, you have people I promote

I promoted sold out Richard I've been trying to do some comedy improv myself like that movie. Did you see that movie? Is this thing on? I didn't see that because

and directed by what's his name? Yeah, I could tell. I could tell.

Want to hear a couple of my jokes? I think they're pretty good. Some people just laugh.

Crack a few jokes. Pretend I know what I'm doing. That was awesome. Praise God. I'm not a good

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We give him a couple months.

He wouldn't lawyers He donated billions of dollars. Listen, not irrelevant. It seemed like for a while back she used to go They don't know the history. That's what mine usually look like.

Oh, no. I don't mean to say that. I'm talking I I'm just against AB74. Yeah. I'm just It's ridiculous. Elizabeth. I'm the chair of Wilmont. Facebook I just No, I'm saying that they're ripping out rent control and this is gonna where the financial incentives are such that they're going to get bought. They're going to turn I just

I don't know why. I was on that. I was on that. That's right. That's where I see you. Yeah. So fantastic.

Like a moment. I need those moments because we don't have they couldn't beat us on process. I I've seen him lose something. I was part of the um at the city council. I I helped that would be the only I would do it. I got petitions for um term limits for the city council and we were at the I think it was the Democratic club and and Kevin was totally you got something

I wish they would do it at the end of the meeting just through it and then You know what would be the best things for them to do? Yeah. Experiment with it for a couple months. Oh yeah. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I agree. Do it on a on a on a a different day. Try something. There's no no reason to experiment. You know, do it like from 5:30 to 7. On a Monday. I mean, from a performance standpoint, to be the same day. from a performance standpoint, making the biggest decisions late at night on an empty stomach after a long day of work.

I know. And then they're like really I know and you wouldn't like if you're on a bombing mission or something a you wouldn't have you have the most important thing that you do. Well, why are you here?

What's wrong with you? And so he was like, so I just I think I scan the room so that I can go into the room and virtual and practice talking because talking is hard for me. Yeah, I live I live off of Lincoln just south of I can rehe I can practice talking in the room. When I when I first came, I watched how you how you came up to the podium and you walk up the podium and you take the microphone and then you speak and you address them very politely and learn

and of course the third is going to be what is a lector. This is a lectctor. The podium is the staging area. That's a collector sits on. So when you say please come up and give the podium. No one's going to ever get that right. Totally. So it's not that elector. That's what that actually is. It is. It's like finally one day I talked to some poor woman getting

at crossroads we had in Friday night on Fridays we would go to the church with all they would come and talk to us on third street on sorry fourth street elementary school was on fourth street we had we were in the church so on Friday Paul would come with pink socks would come talk to us at the church and they were up on the I had a9 elevated and I had been to synagogue. So we have which is elevated where the Torah is behind. So it was interesting to get a bit of different religion also.

It's just what is that thing you're wearing? It's a virtual extended reality headset. So I can see my hands but I'm processing the scan. So I went walked around the room and I scan the whole room. And so hopefully I'll use be able to see what it's like. There's this new technology called Gausian splatting.

For 3D we used to use like triangles and polygons and stuff, but Gazian splats a little bit different. So what would be super cool is eventually what was um CCM allows us to see an entire city from in pretty high resolution detail in three dimensions. So an example if you went there and like talking about an intersection at the by school or whatever you could go there and be in the then do hypothetical versions and adapt I'm trying to study extended reality which is what this is with government I come from cinema so I'm applying cinema stuff and visual effects to

say you must wear I don't know if I can take it off keep going is there a You can use other apps where your world uploads, but you need to keep your headset powered on for the upload to finish. Once uploaded, processing world can take eight hours. Whoa. It will notify you when your world is truthful. I'm more of a body surfer, which nobody is a body surfer anymore. His dad was a dentist. My dad's an opthalmologist. Really? Serious? Where where did they go? with Santa Monica and Madison group. His last job was at the jail treating the inmates.

What are you going to speak on? The commission. Okay. See, what are you going to say? Well, I Oh, about the airport. Oh, yeah. I Because I've gone to two of those meetings. I just think it's interesting what I've seen and I don't want to talk about I want to talk about it a little I think most of my bad points other airports have the parallel airport has a different I just think it's interesting the differences

Mojave spends effort trying to like have the airport grow money and national security and stuff. And Santa Monica airport is the complete opposite. It's I mean I understand the reasons why but I just think it's interesting. No, we bought it. We would go to like there was a Navy surplus store somewhere. I don't know if it was on I used to take the ferry across, you know. You have your own forest. It's not really a an island. You don't have any arborists. So, um, we have arous city staff. If you could do anything on that ramp, I didn't.

So, the airport has all these waff. And so, the the I'll tell you where it's perfect. It would be like and I went to school at UC. So, La Hoya Shores has Like nobody has ever seen a glove. Like if they had only pilots, you can screw up your obviously they're going to side with the airport no matter what you I don't think that's the best argument. People trying to

experience and getting advice from city staff and making the best decision. But for the for the disability commission have a disability. Even when I go to Silo these days, I'm like I go out past the break. I think it's You don't have the for every member. I agree. I don't know if they changed that or not. Yeah, I was thinking of doing the disability commission. You'd be good. I think I would. You should. I want to do it if I can travel cuz this summer Oh yeah, you're going to be gone. I want to I would do it when I come back for sure. Yeah.

Put your name on the list. Yeah, if I could do it in video calls for sure. Wait till you're done. Yeah. Like I've been to every I want to I want to really focus spend a lot of effort because I'm finding all these I mean the pier is not I just think that's how am I the first person to figure that out the pier like it's a straight California violation the pier it's not handicap accessible

Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started here. Uh, we do have a quorum of council members that are back. Well, I'm going

Oh, but we don't have a city attorney, so we'll wait for one second while the city attorney comes back. Um, thank you, Denise. So, I'll just explain what we're going to do then, um, while we're waiting. So, we have, uh, public input on the remaining agenda items only. uh and we will be uh providing time for both the special meeting and the regular meeting. So if you if you want to come comment on any of the administrative items, uh if you wanted to comment on the 16 items or on the special meeting, you should sign up now because I will call up everyone at the same time.

And our city attorney still isn't here. Our assistant city attorney is here. So maybe we can go ahead and get started. Yeah, that should be fine. I'm just saying um I'm going to call everyone together for both the special meeting and the regular meeting. Um correct, Madam Clerk? Yeah. So, they're all under item six. When you come up, if you could just state your name and which item you're speaking on, that would be helpful. Great. Sure. I was just telling everyone while we were waiting for the city attorney what we were about to do. Um I don't know. Ma, madame assistant city attorney, would you be able to provide a readout of close session?

Um yeah. Okay. So then uh Okay, we're back in session. It's 9:25 and I'll ask our city attorney to give us a report of close session. All items were heard, but there was no reportable actions. Great. Oh, sure. And I think we had an additional recusal. So, uh, perhaps that you want to go ahead. Yeah. I'm not really sure how to state it, but we realized in close session that I may or may not be too close to a property that was discussed in close session, so I recused myself.

That was on item 5F. Council member Negrete recused herself on 5F. Madame Clerk. Great. Uh, okay. So, I'm going to go ahead and call people up and then there are a few people on the phone as well, which we'll call um as well. Okay. So Brett Marorrow, Karen Croner, Ashley Olsen, Elizabeth Vandenberg, Andrew Hoyer.

I'm just trying to make sure I'm not. Yeah, go ahead. You can just state you state your name. Yeah.

Hello, I'm Bob Miller. I'm the chair of the Human Services Commission speaking on 11A. I appreciate the work that has gone on to this uh this review and effort to make our boards and commissions more impactful, efficient, and meaningful. But as this consolidation moves forward, I want to make sure these bodies don't become something we simply maintain just to check a box. Boards and commissions are one of the most direct ways that residents engage with local government. They bring lived experience, expertise, and community perspective into decision-m in a way that staff reports and outreach metrics alone cannot. And I think we've seen over the last year or so what happens when we start mistaking newsletters, social media, or one-way communication with actual community engagement. Real engagement requires dialogue, trust, and ongoing participation before decisions are made. So I also want to advocate for live streaming for all boards and commission meetings. If we truly want public a meaningful public participation, it should be consistent. Our boards and commissions matter. Our community partners matter. and let's continue improving the system so we can you all use this movement uh moment to strengthen how we actually engage with the public. I also want to speak briefly on item 16A. I want to thank the council and the staff for re-engaging with the coastal commission after years of impass. This issue sat stalled for over a decade and now we're finally starting to see movement again. And honestly, that's become a pattern for this council and this mayor. For years, difficult issues dragged on without a resolution. But over the last year, we've seen this body willing to engage, make decisions, and move things forward instead of letting issues collect us. Now, we all know that legislation changes when it's first from when it's first introduced. And while there are still disagreements about parts of 1740, I believe there's a lot of common ground that more common ground than people will acknowledge. preserving provisions for 100% deed

restricted affordable housing and adaptive businesses or adaptive reuse. Supporting bike lanes and business renovations that help local businesses move faster. Understanding that 1740 doesn't override Proposition S or eliminate sensitive environmental habitat protections while continuing to strengthen ESSHA buffer protections where where appropriate. So, I appreciate the work happening here tonight. I hope the city continues engaging with directly with the coastal commission and the public so we can finally move these issues along after they've been longstalled for so long. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um, I just wanted to make a note the only thing on the agenda is an LCP update. 1740 is not on the agenda, so I I don't Our city attorney is not here, but I just want to make sure that we're keeping the comments to the items on the agenda. Thanks. I'm I'm a little I'm a little confused because I was told I could speak about this. So, I'm just going to go ahead and Sure. We're we're hearing an item about our LCP, our local coastal. Yeah. No, yeah, I I I saw that. Great.

Um I'm Karen Croner and um the negotiating committee of the Democratic Club opposed AB1740 vehemently a few days ago, and the vote was not even close. and I am here to ask you to rescend, retract your support for AB1740. It would allow new market rate development on Santa Monica's beaches without currently required coastal commission approval. It allows Santa Monica City Council to approve whatever infill housing it wants on our co coast. Excuse me. But uh as the mayor was saying, this is not on the agenda. No, but I was told I could discuss this. I I was told I could bring It is not on the agenda. So, it would be a violation of the Brown Act. No.

Well, this affects I'm sorry. This affects what they're about to discuss. We're we're talking um I I'll the procedural matter for we're going to be LCP approval, right? So, council is going to be providing direction on deal points that would need to be in an LCP for us to Okay. Then then let me Okay, I'll stop talking about 1740. I'm going to talk about the process that I think the process has has really um not been your best and I think that you have really um

you know you have not engaged the public. There have been no public sessions, no public import um um in and no one elected you to densify the coast. I'm trying not to talk about that bill. Um and uh even today I in the process, Mayor, you left it off of your list on Facebook of what you were going to discuss here tonight. So nobody knew about the LCP. Our coast is iconic. It's the only reason people come to our town. It's the only reason people live here. It's the lungs of our our city. The coastal commission has preserved this important national treasure. And that is why the natural treasure and that is why now I got to jump skip that. Okay. So um in downtown Santa Monica, you're building your luxury towers. You may succeed in erasing what to me as resident was unique and beachy about Santa Monica and that may fa further crater our town. I really hope not. But we the people will not allow anyone to limit access to our coast, block view of the ocean, kill the essential ocean breeze, decimate our sacred land. I think in your discussions, you've gone too far this time in terms of development and the land does not belong to you. It belongs to the people and whoever on the council wants to discuss going farther with building housing on the sand will make will face such opposition have you as we've never seen truly we will vote you out. There's been discussions of recalls. Um this coast is must be made accessible, invisible, enjoyed by all. We the people, not people, not the developers. Um, Ellis, Barry, Lana, we know you're better than this. We know you believe in democracy, in the importance of nature for every person, no matter race, income, class, demographic. Our coast must be accessible, open, and protected. Please stand up for what matters. Your position on these actions will

Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Um, Ashley Olsson. And then we have Elizabeth Vandenberg, Andrew Hoyer, Mitch Silverstein, Eugenia Mccora. So, so at the end of the meeting is public general public comment still.

Mhm. Okay, perfect. Um, the timeline and history of the city of Santa Monica's local coastal plan application submitted to the coastal commission for certification and what transpired have significantly different explanations depending on who you talk to. Um, many in the community are confused about this emergency agenda item and the timing is suspect. I know we're trying to separate 1740 from this conversation and and I respect that. But when on one hand the city says we've been working with the coastal commission for years to certify the LCP on and in the other hand sponsoring a bill and shaping a bill that takes away the authority from the coastal commission and weakens the coastal act. I think people are trying struggling to marry those in their head. So, um I'm hoping that after spending $400,000 in public funds and countless staff hours and that this application is legitimate and actually this conversation is um really productive and something good is going to come from it. My question in the process of it is if this if the LCP is certified, does that mean that, you know, we're no longer going to be sponsoring 1740 because now many of the things that we're most concerned about and obstacles to business will be resolved in the LCP. And tonight, I'm hoping that you guys will discuss what that will cover, how that will help, and what the difference is between the two different things that are going on at the same time simultaneously. Um, Mayor Terosis, you mentioned that the city's previous local coastal program and how it helped businesses flourish and allow events to prosper. So, I agree that a strong local coastal program can support both our economy and our environment. So, I'll ask you directly if you will you support moving forward with the LCP and stand up for the environment and small businesses by abandoning your support for AB740. Thank you, Elizabeth Vandenberg.

want my apologies may but I I I think I want to be in general comments so because I want to talk about AB okay 1470 I don't know if that would be a late chit then because we already had the general public comment sign up but you can go ahead and talk to the clerk if you want to talk about our local local coastal program we can talk about that I think she did an excellent job I'd like to talk about 14 7 1740 am I able to do Um, I guess we I'll defer to the city attorney, but that right. So, so that isn't on the agenda, but um there is an opportunity for a late chit. Um, you may speak to the city clerk and when the time comes, the council may vote on whether or not to accept the late chit.

Yep. Even though I signed up earlier, but I missed Oh, did you I did sign up. Were you signed up for item number one? Yes, I believe I signed up for an item one, but I will be upfront and say I was confused by the whole process. Okay, that's totally understandable. If you've already signed up for item number one, then you may speak at the end um of the e meeting um due to council's agenda management and you don't need to request a late chip. Okay. Does that mean I go sit down? Yes. You know, that's a very sad moment. I will just say if anyone wants to give feedback on the terms of a local coastal program that they would find preferable, that is on the agenda. Go ahead.

I'm sorry. I was just going to see if the council would entertain a motion. I don't know that there's many folks still here wanting to comment on general public comment. But in the event that they are um would you guys entertain a motion to allow that to be heard now instead of having them wait till potentially 1:00 in the morning? Um let's hear these items first and see what time it is. So is that I'm proposing that as as a motion after you mean after these comments? after local coastal plan if there's anyone still here to say more than five words like we about their general input to allow them just to do that. I don't think there's that many folks here. All right. I'll make a motion to hear the remainder of general public comments after the conclusion of comments on you know these comments that we're hearing now.

Well, that was my motion. So, are you seconding it? Okay. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't motion. Yeah,

do a voice vote or do you want me to do the roll call? I'm about I mean I think we did what we did for a reason. So I'm going to vote no on that. Okay. So let's go through council members. Yes or no? Is she here? Yeah. No. Council member Snell. Yes. Mayor Timwick, no. Council member Raskin, yes. Council member Hall, yes. Council member Nete, yes. Mayor Terosas, no. That passes.

Great. Well, we will hear the general public comment at the end. I do believe there are still hundreds of names that we're going to have to go through, so I'm a little bit concerned about that. But um Andrew Hoyer, Mitch Silverstein, Eugenia, uh Makora, Connor Langla. Are any of you guys here? Feel free to approach. Honorable mayor, city council, Mitch Silverstein with Surf Fighter Foundation. Um, we are also a little confused because the LCP item came last minute and it's very hard for us to entertain talking about what we support in LCP without also discussing what we oppose in the exemptions AB740. So, I would ask, can we just say our comments because they basically all of our comments talk about LCP and AB740. Madam city attorney.

So yeah, if you are if you would like to speak how I mean look, we don't really need to parse it out that carefully, but if you are speaking about the LCP and how it relates to 1740, I mean that is probably fine. But again, the the idea is that the council is speaking about the LCP this evening. That is the item before the city council. What the city council decides, what the city council is permitted to speak on is only what's on the agenda. Thank you. Um I think I'll just proceed then if um so honorable mayor, city council, Mitch Silverstein, California policy coordinator for Surf Rider Foundation. Uh Surf Rider's mission is to protect and enjoy the world's ocean, waves, and beaches for all people through a powerful activist network. Uh I'm joined tonight by our LA chapter manager and local volunteers who work every day to protect our coast and ensure it's accessible to everyone. On a personal note, on a personal note, I'm from the valley and when I grew up, Santa Monica is where I fell in love with the beach. Um, we absolutely support Santa Monica getting really serious about completing its LCP and really appreciate those of you that brought this forward tonight. So, thank you. Um, and we also oppose AB740, a bill originally intended to apply statewide but now only applying to Santa Monica. We do ask that you pull your support. Support which, if I'm correctly informed, was never publicly agendaized or voted on. Um, a bill like this, a coastal exemption bill, exempts many development categories from coastal development permits, eliminating them from coastal commission review. Supporters claim that these are low impact categories that don't threaten public access or coastal resources, but we are here to tell you otherwise. Um, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Coastal Act along with statewide protections for public access and coastal environmental resources that Californians fought hard to attain. our coast is healthier and more accessible because of those protections and this bill would erode them when an LCP would could give you all the things that you want and um my colleagues are here to

explain that more. So, thank you for your time.

Um Eugenia, Connor Langwa, Grant Parks, Maddie Utract, if I call your name, if you could just line up, that would be really helpful so we can go through the process quicker. Thanks. Good evening, city councils and members. I'm Mak. I'm the Los Los Angeles chapter manager for the Surf Rider Foundation and as my colleague mentioned, we're here to support and we really appreciate that you move forward with the LCP item on the agenda. Um the coastal act sanction bills like um AB1740 threatens our um the protections Californians hold dear. So even bills applying only to this city will almost certainly inspire copycat bills across the coast. So the goal act has been modernized over the years but assumpting entire development categories is a direct threat to the act itself and will create pressure for uh more assumption down the line. So with a completed LCP, Santa Monica could take local control over 90% of coastal zone developments and um that will cover almost everything in um AB1740 and I know we're not speaking about this bill but it's related to us um but with the California Act uh protections intact. So the city is one of the last coal city uh without the completed LCP that's why um actually causes the delays that this bill claims to fix. Um so please complete the LCP

and um pull your support from AB1740 and thank you so much for listening to us tonight. Thanks. If you just want to come up and state your name, that would be great. Did I called you? Yeah.

Hello. I'm Maddie Utre, a volunteer with Surf Rider Los Angeles, and I strongly support finishing Santa Monica's LCP. And I uh in a connected to that, I oppose AB1740 because uh of the housing exemptions and how they threaten coastal equity. Uh the coastal act protects lowcost overnight accommodations in the coastal zone for good reason. If working people can't afford to stay on the coast, it becomes the exclusive playground of the wealthy. And if AB1740 passes, a developer could demolish any remaining budget accommodations for market rate condos. No mitigation required. The bill also has zero affordable housing requirements and treats all housing equally. Santa Monica built over 300% of its market rate targets but failed affordable housing goals last Reena cycle. The Coastal Commission also protects lowcost visitor serving facilities like restaurants, shops, and recreational areas and AB1740 strips those protections too. Even with well-intentioned staff and counsel, a city could not should not have the power to demolish affordable accommodations and facilities that millions rely on without state oversight. We need the co the coastal commission as a safety net for coastal access. Uh, so please support finishing the LCP which would grant you local control with protections intact. Thank you.

Thank you, Andria Payne, Emma Voit, Dustin Thomas. And again, I did not see uh Andrew Hoyer, Connor Langa, or Grant Parks here. So that that's it for the special agenda. Hi, I'm Andria Payne, program manager of Surf Rider Foundation's One Watershed Program, a program that brings youth from underserved communities to Santa Monica to the beach for surfing and ocean education. I strongly support finishing a strong LCP for Santa Monica. For many of our students, this is their first time seeing the ocean. Programs like ours depend on affordable, accessible beaches for everyone. AB 1740 would reduce independent coastal commission oversight in Santa Monica and allow the city alone to decide whether developments impact public ins uh access. The coastal commission protects things like parking, bike lanes, recreational spaces, public views, and affordable visitor amenities. All essential for working families visiting the coast. No single city should have unchecked authority over the coastline shared by millions without oversight. I worry that this bill could ultimately limit access for the young people that we serve in LA County. Please pull your support and support solutions that expand housing while also protecting equitable coastal access for all Californians. We support you completing your LCP instead. Thank you. Thank you,

honorable city council. Thank you for your time. My name is Emma Voit. I'm also with the Surf Rider Foundation. Also here to voice support for um completing the LCP. The only way to ensure new development accounts for sea level rise and protects coastal views for everyone is through your LCP. So I want to focus on what we would lose with housing projects that are exempt from coastal development per permits. That would be protection of public coastal views and critical environmental oversight. Under AB740, developments landward of the PCH and more than 300 ft from the high tide line are exempt. That's woefully inadequate buffer. Views from the entire coastline bluff and Palisades Park would be threatened. While unlikely, the park could even be reszoned for highrises under AB1740. Uh, equally important, environmental hazards don't stop at 300 ft. As we all know, flooding, groundwater, emergence, sea level rise vulnerabilities. The commission has expertise in these areas, and the LCP is your way to plan to address those, not AB740. So again, just the LCP is the right path forward and thank you for your time. Thank you. Um, Bryce Cooper, I think already I can't tell. Did Bryce Cooper?

Yeah, come on up. Bryce Cooper, Jesse Blit, sorry. Filts. I don't know why I'm having dyslexia or something. He's gone. Okay. Morgan Hunter, Gross, Allison Sha, Eve Lopez. Go ahead.

Council, it's me. I'm back. No. Thank you very much for earlier this evening. Uh what I'm speaking on is your commission structure. Right now we are calling for an immediate an immediate reconfiguration of your airport advisory commission. There are multiple reasons but the main reason is that this commission is based solely on non-avviation experts. We have no aviation expertise on this commission whatsoever. and we've seen it multiple times take numerous hours to get to the bottom of a very simple related aviation related issue. This is a safety issue. These are airplanes that are in the sky. This commission is meant to advise you the council of their best ability on matters aviation related. Yet there's no pilots, there's no users of the airport, no renters at the airport. There is nothing to reflect the stakeholders that are there at the airport. This would be like having a women's reproductive right commission advising you on the best practices for women's reproductive rights with no women on the commission. How does that make sense? So what we're asking you for and we've asked this before is an immediate reconfiguration to reflect what other airports our size are doing. Camaro Van Eyes St. and Louis Abyispo. We have flown out and talked to these airports and their commissions are in fact made up of pilots, non-pilots, business owners, people that understand the complexity of an aviation related facility this size. It is only in your best interest as a council to make the best decisions for those in Santa Monica based on the best information. You have committee members posting on public forums in social media on KTLA news that they can't wait till the airport closes and is going to be a great park for our community in 3 years. That seems like an echo chamber of a personal sentiment rather than advising you on best practices. We need to stop this immediately. This is not fair democracy or policy for citizens in Santa Monica.

Thank you so much. Please, please, please change this commission immediately. Thank you, Morgan Hunter Gross. Allison Sha, Eve Lopez, Mark Smith, Edward Story.

Hi, my name is Morgan Hunter Gross. Um, governance is only as effective as the expertise of the governors at the Mojave Spaceport. The board is comprised of pilots and aerospace engineers. They understand that high performance propeller is isn't a nuisance. It is the sound of industrial progress and national security. In Santa Monica, we have an intelligence gap. Our framework is optimized for noise mitigation and restriction politics, not technical literacy. We lost red six, a$und00 million aerospace unicorn because this body couldn't distinguish between a disturbance and a resolution. A revolution. To an untrained ear, their test aircraft was just a loud prop. To an expert, it was a sound of the world's most advanced augmented reality training system being born right here in our city. Because we lack the aviation depth to value that innovation, we prioritized a noise report over a generational defense anchor. Red Six took their engineering jobs, their massive tax base, and their genius to Florida. We didn't just lose a tenant. We traded hundreds of millions of dollars in economic growth for a moment of silence. Santa Monica Airport was forged as a cornerstone of national security where Douglas aircraft built the arsenal of democracy, a legacy of defense in an innovation that our current policies are actively driving away. It is time to stop managing this airport as a liability and start leading it like a worldclass asset as it is. I have gone to the last two airport commission meetings and directly concerned about Brown Act violations in the minutes and rebroadcasting editing content not just for time. Handing out $5,000 $5,000 fines then $10,000 fines while the precision approach path

indicator Papy lights are out of order is safe. Thank you. Eve Lopez, Mark Smith, Edward Story, Bobby Leak, Lech, David Waterfall, Jerry Rubin. I have a PowerPoint. What's your last name? Lopez on 11 A. Great. Uh, thank you. Um, can I advance it from here?

Okay, great.

Thank you. So, on 11, uh, item 11A, the staff report focuses almost entirely on FPPC findings related to airport closure that are, um, quite historical. It misses the the real issues you heard today. residents are coming to complain to you about being in East Venice and the noise complaints, but our airport court commission does nothing about it because they don't understand it. They don't understand what airspace is. They don't understand how regulated the air the traffic pattern is. They don't even understand the curfew hours. The staff, while they did a great job on many aspects of things, they did not evaluate a multiple of items, including the effect of having no aviation knowledge on the airport commission and why our airport commission, an advisory board, cost the city $67,000 a year. It's the highest costing advisory board of all of the boards. And yet there was no light bulb going on that the reason it's so expensive is because you have to outsource a lot of the information because they don't have basic aeronautical knowledge. So we the public are paying because you fine folks have made the decision to exclude people with aeronautical knowledge from this commission and that is just wrong. The real issue is the composition of the airport commission. Everybody knows it lacks aeronautical knowledge and what happens is our staff is burdened. It costs the city a great deal of money. You hear community resident residents. They are frustrated because nobody is listening because there is not adequate commissioners with knowledge on the commission to do something about it. This lack this makes a lack of confidence in our government in our governance. And lastly, this nonsense that we have to amend the charter. No,

we don't. You appointed people without aeronautical knowledge. You don't need a charter amendment to post to post people who need Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Good evening. Um, if they were giving out frequent flyer awards for attending airport commission meetings, I think I'd probably get the the largest awards of anybody. Um, for the past 20 years I've been going to airport commission meetings and it's been it's been a blank show of romper room idiocy. I mean they don't nobody knows they don't know what aon from a wing. They don't know anything about aviation. They don't know how to address noise complaints. They don't know about fuel. It's really embarrassing and a waste of time is the bottom line. Last week I had the pleasure of going to Oxnard and Camarelloo and Santa Maria and meeting with the airport managers at these airports. They spoke lovingly about the airport commissions. Retired military, active airline pilots, flight schools, drone companies, new technology companies. These are the people who make up their airport commissions. What do we have? We have one guy who lives three houses away from the departure end of the airport who somehow the city attorney allowed to break the rules and be reuped and have a new sentence if you want to put it that way of continuing his tenure on the airport commission. That's almost like illegal. But yet we allowed it to happen and he knows nothing about aviation. And there are three other people who live a stones throw from the airport. So what is their goal? Is it financial? I mean, do they want to close the airport? I asked the guy who lives very close to the airport if he would allow a pilot on. And he said only the pilot wants to have the airport closed. Safety poppies. Does anybody here know what poppies are? Position lighting to help you be on the glide slope. The airport commissioners did not know that. Okay. I was at the meeting. They were glazed over. The papies were out for 18

months. Why? Because city staff wasn't on top of it. Now, shouldn't the airport commissioners be on top of that to be

Thanks, Mark. Um, Edward Story, Bobby Leech. Good evening, council. Uh, Bobby Lash, resident of Santa Monica. Uh, I'm also a a widebody airline pilot for Legacy Airline based here in Los Angeles. I've spent uh some time with uh some of our fellow cohorts at the airport commission meetings and the lack of aviation knowledge is downright insulting quite frankly. Uh so I urge you and my ask tonight is to reassess making sure that someone is on the airport commission that has aviation knowledge. One of the perks of my job is I get to spend a lot of time with FAA safety inspectors with uh folks who design the nextG airspace system, the arrivals, the departures in and out of LAX. And one of the things that we're big on in the airlines is efficiency. And one of the things that would keep uh our airplanes more efficient is not having to fly all the way out in the downwind to LA uh downtown LA. And if we had people who knew about aviation on the airport commission, we would know we would know and understand that the airspace that protects Santa Monica keeps noise down from these large jets. U that's just one example. So thank you for your time.

Congrats to the Sabres on their win tonight. Sad for the Canadians. Um, okay. David Waterfall, Jerry Rubin, Mitch Silverstein,Wan Huang, Kang Hu Wang. Okay, Jerry.

Well, thank you very, very much, Jerry Rubin. Uh, I'm a member of the urban forest uh task force and I'm speaking on the item 11 about the commissions. Very honored to be on the task force. Our next meeting's tomorrow at the Santa Monica Main Library at 6 p.m. in the upstairs community room. And you're all welcome. I just want to say how grateful I am that you are considering making the urban forest task force a full-fledged standalone commission. It's hard to believe that that task force started April 17 years ago. Gosh, our first co-chairs are our honorable former mayor Judy Abdo and our honorable city manager Susan McCarthy. I want to give a shout out and credit to all the past and present members of the task force, including Councilman Ellis Raskin. Thank you for your service. I want to give a lot of credit to Robert Castana, our urban forester, and Matthew Wells, our landscape director. They are doing tremendous work. It deserves to be a full-fledged commission. I feel so honored to be part of this. I want to give a uh note of gratitude to my late wife, Marissa, that really helped behind the scenes to get the urban forest task force started. Um, all I want to say is thank you very very much for your ongoing good work and care for our trees. They are so important and so wonderful and they deserve this uh recognition to become a full-fledged standalone commission. I also just want to throw in that I really hope the disabilities commission remains a standalone commission. They deserve it

as well. Thank you very very much to all the boards and commissions. Thank all of you too. Thanks.

Thank you. Um okay, I don't necessarily see the rest. I I had called several people. It doesn't appear all of them are here. Yime Wong, Jonathan, Edy. Um were was anyone not called who had signed up to comment on the remainder of our agenda items or the special meeting? If not, yeah, just come up and say your name. Hi, my name is Eay Wong and I went to Sam High. We run a STEM program over the airport uh for school age kids uh math circles, math festivals, chess clubs, aerospace engineering workshops and um so we project to build RC flyers and also have a JetMax program where families can build a real life aircraft um at the hangers. And I think that the uh the kids really love to explore and you know uh most of you were once a kid and uh this childhood hobby um I would say that you know please don't silence the sparks because they really they they see a lot in the spaceship called aviation. Um, I don't know if any of you are ever pilots or have gone down this route, but it's really a very magical um it's a magical spaceship that you uh need to keep the spark alive because it's it's just magic. You know, the the amount of spark that I see in children's eyes is day and night and you don't teach this stuff uh in regular schools at all. And so this is a a really a huge uh value in public space that uh creates quite a value, you know, in learning early physics. This is my son's uh aircraft. It's been beaten up probably, you know, 100 times before I've, you know, demoed it to you. It's not his best, but nonetheless, you know, he did after John Collins uh Guinness World Guinness World Record of the

fastest paper airplane, he invented his own aircraft and paper airplane for three consecutive days. That's all he did. And same with the other, you know, 15, 18 parents that gave feedback to me. You cannot put a kid in a box, transport him to another box, and then take him out of that box for 20 minutes, put him back in that box for until lunch, and put him out of that box for 45 minutes, transport him into another box on wheels, and then back to home, another box to sleep for eight hours. You cannot do that. um you know you know anyway

thank you thank you so much um if you could just come up and state your name that would be appreciated because I don't I don't know if I called you I am Jonathan Edy oh Jonathan item 16B y

uh Mayor Terosas may pro Tim Wick I apologize in advance my eyes are going to be on the phone mostly um I am Jonathan Edy 9 uh 9043 Wilmont and I speak tonight to request your consideration in filling the Santa Monica Housing Authority Board vacancy and a possible amendment to the emergency homelessness declaration. I've been a Santa Monica resident for more than 15 years. I've been a housing authority head of household since January 2022 and that first year was quite rough as the city I'm sorry as the housing as the city began its pandemic recovery and the housing authority went through staffing changes. Hindsight makes that period feel transitory like growing pains. But anxiety for for housing authority participants was very real. Payment standards had not been updated to match cost of living for nearly a decade. Many households were paying more than half their income and rent. Some housing authority practices were were unlawfully increasing rents and any protest or resistance to those increases received threats of voucher termination. Laughla provided statements to on these sorry Lafla provided statements on these realities as a comment to the draft administrative plan in 2023. In part the statement stated this tenants are placed in a very difficult position when they receive a notice from the housing authority with purports to notify them of a rent increase but is not a valid notice under state or local law. If tenants refuse to pay the increase the landlord is expecting, they subject themselves to an unlawful detainer case and possibly loss of housing in their voucher. Most, if not all, will feel forced to pay the unlawful rent increase to avoid this risk, even if this means foregoing paying for basic necessities." End quote. Additional guidance came from HUD validating that housing authority participants residing in rent control departments are indeed subject subject to and protected by rent control board policies. This advocacy in addition to

grassroots efforts created better circumst are you commenting on two items or one? Just one. Okay. So you have two minutes. Uh this advocacy in addition in addition to efforts create better. Yeah. Okay. That that I mean that was your two minutes. Four minutes. No, it's just two minutes for it's two minutes per item.

Yeah. Per item. Yeah. No, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Um Okay. So, this is what we're going to do. Mayor before you we stood. There's people on the phone. Well, we have one caller on the phone. Yeah. Okay, let's bring I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure that we didn't miss anybody. I know I can read the names one more time. Thank you.

So, if you signed up, I'm Last chance. Elizabeth, well, you're going to come up during general public comment. Andrew Hyer, Connor Langwa, Grant Parks, Dustin Thomas, Jesse Builts, Allison Sha, Edward Story, David Waterfall, Quang Quay Huang. I don't see them approaching. Let's bring in the um phone caller. Okay, Mitchell, we're ready for the phone caller. Good evening,

Miss Bart. Oh, yes. Your time begins when you begin speaking.

Good evening. Item 11 A is again showing the city council's wanting to diminish and stifle the voices of the community. Just like you do, cutting time to one minute if there are over 25 speakers. or making first reading of ordinances and resolutions consent calendar items instead of their own items to again cut down the on the ability of the public to express their opinions. So combining boards and commissions is not a surprise. Things to think about. I do believe the housing commission has to be a standalone commission due to federal funding. Then on the audit subcommittee, you might want to check with the Los Angeles grand jury since they're the reason we have one due to financial mismanagement within the city that exists until today. Although the city council members on it now have taken the focus away from fraud, waste, and abuse by changing what's under audit. The disability commission needs to stand alone too due to discriminate discrimination I myself has experienced as a disabled person. I think it's important that you are willing to listen to them. But of course you want to create a new new group for for racial justice which is nothing nothing the city needs or can afford. But there's your personal political preferences again. The existing boards and commissions are what the people in the community want, not not to have our voices diminished or stifled out. How can you represent a city you refuse to listen to? Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Okay, so this is what we're going to do. If anyone's because there was a vote of the council for agenda management. If anyone is here, um, again, you get one minute uh on general public comment and you can come up and speak now. And you you just to be clear, if you were not signed up already in the queue, I I don't know, Miss Madam city clerk, I don't know that all these people were signed up in a timely manner in the queue. We know Miss Vandenberg was, but um does anyone want to move to hear? Are you guys all signed up on agenda item one? Okay.

Okay. So then we don't need to move to hear late chits, I guess. Okay.

No, because there's literally hundreds of names. So, um, if you signed up for the agenda item one and you did not come to say your five words at the microphone, now we will hear you for one minute and you can just state your name when you come up. All right. uh Elizabeth Vannenburg um Wilmont chair speaking only for myself AB 1740 co-authored by assembly members of Burr and Santa Monica appears to be a Santa Monica only state law designed to replace production of a local coastal plan and eliminate the California coastal commission's oversight is being sold as a housing and streaming bill but the real issue is buried in its multif family residential exemptions. This bill targets existing multif family zones in builtout urban neighborhoods for streamlined de redevelopment exceptions, including occupied apartment buildings, not just vacant land, not just parking lots. In Wilmont's Oh crap. In Wilmont's coastal zone, that includes all residential housing between Ocean 4th, Wilshire, Montana. All of it zoned R3 and filled with existing renters and two to fourstory buildings. And there is no affordability requirement with this development. That changes the economics uh completely. When you combine no affordability.

Yep. Not good. I'm very concerned about the renters the renters in my neighborhood. Thank you, Miss Vandenberg. I have a video.

Sure. Council members, madame mayor, I am the grand example of that youth you saw earlier who came in here and were learning to fly. I learned to fly at Santa Monica airport under Clare Walters, great aviation legend all those years ago. went on to the airlines, the corporate aviation, number of things that were beneficial to the community. One of which was I had the great honor of flying donors organs along with the doctors who performed the surgeries. That's a time of the essence kind of thing. What we saw recently at the airport in regards to time of the essence is the Palisades fire. So much has been written in the pages, the past pages of Santa Monica airport. And what I'm talking about is the future pages that'll be written both in the idea of the emergencies that are not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And so aviation itself, I want to assure you, is proven itself in technology to lean toward technology that will improve it, will be more comp, and more safe. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sorry, what was your name again? Peter Williams. Thank you. Yeah, if you could just state your name when you come up. Are we ready for Miss Olsen? Yes. Great.

All right. Santa Monica is sponsoring a bill that significantly diminishes diminishes the coastal act, creating a roadmap for other coastal cities to create exemptions. Our legacy will be the pres the precedent we set. That's the opposite of Santa Monica being the California's most committed stewards of the coast. And I want to address this video is the narrative surrounding AB1740. You can put the the volume down. Um, around 1740s, the coastal commission prevents Santa Monica from per permitting events in the coastal zone. This is in the coastal zone. This is without an OCP. This is where fireworks are illegal in our city. And this is with coastal commission approval. So, this event year after year after year continues to get approvals. And this is on a sensitive ecological habitat. So, the claim that Coastal Commission is categorically blocking events or makes permitting impossible is false. This is a sensitive ecological habitat. No LCP, no AV 1740. And it it gets approved year after year. And we need honesty about what this bill is really about instead of continuing to scapegoat the postal commission for every issue facing the city. Whether it's economic recovery, business vacancies, bike lanes, or event planning, Mr. Fighter again. Uh

going to play clean up. We lost a couple volunteers to the hours. Um, so regarding AB740 versus LCP or both, you know, one of the things we want to highlight is that with a completed LCP or without one, as Santa Monica currently sits, every single coastal development in the coastal zone that gets approved here goes to the coastal commission for review. And that's kind of the big holdup that this bill tries to tries to uh improve. And so with an LCP, the city takes over 90% if not more of local development in the coastal zone with those protections intact. And but the public still has ability to to weigh in and appeal if they think it's outside that coastal act. And most appeals do not get granted, just so you know. Um, another thing we noticed with AB740 that we didn't mention was the events for the the events exemptions. those events have zero environmental protections in it. So basically the city could approve anything they want on the beach or the closing it and while of course this city council wouldn't do that. We're concerned about the next one and you're actually Thank

you so much.

Good evening. I'm Andrew Bergman, a 39year Santa Monica resident pilot for more than 40. I trained here, lived by the airport, and used to lease one of the great old Douglas hangers where I felt aviation history all around me. My hanger neighbor flew in the Berlin Airlift. We saw Tuskegee airmen taxi by. It's a storied place. Others will mention have mentioned the safety it offers, which is very real a thing, or its many financial benefits. But tonight, I'd like to focus a little more on the guard rail provides against development. Federal airports like Santa Monica, as you know, come with building height restrictions for surrounding areas. Look east and you'll see the cityscape appears mostly flat until Century City. That's those restrictions. And if the airport goes away, they will too. Developers would love to see that happen, but you shouldn't unless you want to live in Century City. If you care about noise and pollution, you should care about that. Happily, there's an alternative. New technologies like electric Yeah, thank you. Appreciate you being here.

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Thank you. Yes, mayor. Do we have a copy of this video? Cuz I mean, no, cuz I Well, unfortunately, it didn't start the same time as the actual video, so it was very difficult to follow. Um, so I'm just wondering whether we Warren can send it to us. Can we get a copy of it? Great. I can email it to everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. Looks like we are concluded with our comments. Um, and we will now move on. Oh, wait. Sorry. Just to be clear, we didn't have anyone else on the phone. Correct. Okay. So, let's hear about 11A. Who's doing the staff report for that?

Okay. Great. Also, mayor, I before staff goes with the uh report on 11A, I'm going to have to recuse myself for a portion of 11A. So, I just want to ask from from legal, how do you want to handle that?

Yes. So, it's our understanding that you will be recusing yourself from the discussion on the um restorative justice commission. So, we would ask staff to um discuss everything but the restorative justice commission. Um council can um vote and give direction on that piece on everything but that piece and then um uh council member Snell will leave the room. I do believe however that that means that the vote on the ordinance should be conducted without um council member Snell because unfortunately it does include the um restorative justice commission as part of it. Yeah. And let me say for the record that I'm recusing myself because I'm chairman of the board for for Santa Monica Black Empowerment Association where my wife is the uh executive director and she receives a salary. Okay. Okay. Um, so if we're ready, good evening, council. Maria Dakai, wizard, assistant city clerk, returning with the boards and commissions review from January. Um, so before I begin, I just wanted to give you a snapshot of all of the city's boards and commissions that we currently have. Um, so back in January, um, council supported joint meetings of the audit subcommittee and transit uh, transient occupancy tax committee and the commission on sustainability and clean beaches. Um, staff liaison will move forward with updating agendas. um

web pages and bylaws as needed. Um also at the uh January 13th meeting, council supported consolidation of the housing commission and human services commission. uh maintaining a standalone disabilities commission, reducing membership um of the arts and public safety reform commission to seven, expanding the age requirement of the two public safety reform seats for 18 to 22 year olds to 18 to 25 year olds, and converting the urban forest task force into a commission. Uh council also supported staff's proposed uh amendments to the boards and commissions resolution and directed our office to remove section 1G regarding the ineligibility of residents to serve on boards and commissions and uh remove section 2G term limits for regional advisory boards. Um council also um directed staff to maintain a centralized system of reporting uh measure to measure efficiencies, performance and impact. Um our office surveyed other cities on how their boards and commissions report to council and we found that our process of gathering written reports to be similar. Um here is an example of um a report template from the city of Redwood and we will be modeling uh report templates after this to link board and commission work to council and uh department's priorities and assess resources resource needs and effectiveness. Um, also on January 13th, council directed our office to return with options for landmarks commission efficiencies and youth representation and information on the airport commission's composition and potential conflict of interest. And as we began

research, we came across council direction at the February 10th meeting to pause landmarks commission work on the MEL Act and structures of merit and at the September 9th, 2025 meeting to discontinue exploring youth options or youth seat options as it's duplicative of the city's active youth groups. So um work on the first two uh points was not conducted. Um however, our office will uh reach out to active groups to identify opportunities to uh for boards and commission and election outreach. Um information on the airports commission was gathered and I'll go over this toward towards the end. Um lastly, on um January 27th, uh council supported a Santa Monica Restorative Justice Program, which includes establishing a new restorative justice commission to develop program criteria, eligibility standards, and oversight mechanisms for the program. Um going into a little more detail in the ordinance in the report. Um this slide lists specific code sections being deleted, amended or added. Um things to note on this slide are um our proposals to designate two seats for affordable housing participants in the new housing and human services commission and establish a seven member body consisting of residents with expertise in restorative justice or lived experience representing communities impacted by inequities for the restorative justice commission. Um, I also wanted to read a correction into the record on page three of the ordinance and uh, printouts should be in front of you on section D

um, regarding the public safety reform commission 11 should be um, changed to seven for seven voting members. And on section F, the police officers bill of rights is missing an R N officer. Um, a new proposal uh for your consideration involves the disabilities commission. Uh, staff recommends aligning membership with most boards and commissions by reducing um seats from 11 to 17 uh to seven to seven in in two phases. Um there are currently two vacancies which can be dissolved in 20 after June 2026. uh and when two more members complete their terms in 2027, those seats can also be dissolved. Um and we think that this method would allow current members to complete their terms and anticipated work. Um and for your reference, um at the bottom of the slide, uh is a breakdown of the boards and commissions membership. Aside from the disabilities commission, the only other 11 member body is measure GS and um modifying their membership would require a vote of the people. Um and as for other seven member bodies um these include commissions that the that council is considering modifying or uh creating. Um then going into the resolution in your um in your staff report. Um this slide lists the major amendments that council supported back in January. So hopefully this all looks familiar to you. Um but upon uh reviewing the resolution, there were additional amendments that we proposed. Um, we'd like to propose an amendment to the appointment process by setting

application deadlines one week prior to meetings, reiterating that applications must be completed to be considered, and update the clerk's posting locations of notices. Uh, we'd also like to clean up the language on term limits uh by including references to the new Housing and Human Services Commission and Housing Authority Board for tenant members. Uh the resolution attached to the report was missing the names of these bodies um on page five and the resolution printouts in front of you are the corrected versions. Um and also uh also at the bottom of the slide um we are asking you to exempt the bodies listed below um as they already um come to council to um provide annual reports at different times of the year. Um they present uh for bodies such as the PR corporation, downtown Santa Monica, and the Santa Monica Travel and Tourism. They um annually present their work plans and request budget from council. And the transit security commission and clean beaches committee are required by state law and city resolution respectively to report annually via information item. Um let's see the last few amendments. Um section nine um we're just clarifying that secretaries are also referred to as liaison. Section 10 um the conduct of meetings, agendas and minutes. Um here we're trying to clarify that staff liaison um duties are to maintain public facing uh pages such as the event calendar and web page. And um

there was also a duplicate reference to the council's rules in section 17 that we're incorporating on section 10. And uh last two are to incorporate um city trainings required by city policy and future mandate mandated trainings into the resolution and uh align the time frame to submit the demographics report with the annual packet. Let's see. Okay. So, in January and during public comment, uh concerns were raised over airport commissioners lack of aviation or aeronautical expertise and experience, the proximity of their homes from the airport and possible conflicts of interest. And council directed staff to look into the airport commission's composition in these conflicts. Um, airport staff surveyed municipal and county-owned airports with airport commissions. And of the four commission surveyed, um, all included residents or general public members and, uh, two designated seats for members in a pilots's group or club or local uh, aviation community. Um, so should council desire to formally revise the commission's composition, this would require a charter amendment. Um, alternatives to a ballot measure would be to prioritize outreach and appointments to applicants with aviation experience and expert expertise. Uh, the city attorney's office confirmed these issues were uh that the same questions were raised in 2014 and 2016. And in both cases, the attorney's office found that the p the public generally exception in the FPPC's conflict of interest regulations applied to the commissioners and does not disqualify

them from participating in the commission. The FPPC agreed and took no action in 2014. And in 2016, the FPPC further determined that the commissioners are not public officials for the purpose of state conflict of interest laws because the commission is advisory to the council and the attorney's office advises that these conclusions still apply today. Um, this last slide summarizes the actions needed from council um to adopt a resolution uh with or without modifications. adopt uh the first reading of the ordinance uh with or without the proposal regarding the disabilities commission or other modifications uh and direction or receive and file information on the airports commission. This concludes my presentation. Uh are there any questions?

But I'll defer to my colleagues. No, I I have Oh, council member. Can can you bring up the uh the slide that talks about the airport commission? Did did you say that we need to have a so that we have to have a charter amendment? Is that what you're telling us if if we wanted to change the composition of the airport commission? Um, well, the airport commission is a charter body and if you wanted to change the charter section here at the bottom of the slide, it would require a vote of the people. Um, however, an alternative would be to to um prioritize uh appointing applicants with aviation or aeronautical experience instead of um going through the election and and um formalizing this change. and and and right now with respect to our airport commission composition, no one has uh airport experience.

Right now the only requirements are that they be residents of the city. Gotcha. Thank you. Sky, thank you. Um, I think we heard a member of the public uh mention something about um wanting to live stream all boards and commissions and I I assume that would be kind of challenging to to to launch. Uh, but I was wondering if you could clarify what SB77 was and what um what the city is going to be required to do to comply with those new updates to the Brown Act.

Um, I'm sorry. I think I didn't hear the the live streaming comment. Was it that um the desire was that all boards and commissions live stream their meetings?

Yeah. which I I I assume with this many boards and commissions would be very difficult to to stand up and any sort of short time frame. Um but I I do understand that there will be some changes due to uh 707. So I just wanted to get some clarification about what those changes may be and I don't know if if um I don't know who would want to answer that. Um yeah, I guess I' I'd start with the first um question. I mean uh right now our boards and commissions meet in different uh meeting locations. So um some of them meet at the Smi room where we just don't have the technology to live stream those meetings. Um we we do in this chambers however um I think we're limited to um City TV's support. Uh that's why there's only um a handful of boards and commissions that are are um recorded and streamed live. Um as for se uh SB77 right now after July the um requirement um only applies to the council. Uh we do plan to come back with um an amendment to the council's uh rules to incorporate um these changes, but um one of the and I might need some help answering this, but um one of the um things that um council will be allowed to do is to um determine whether or not or not to allow some boards and commissions who do qualify to have hybrid meetings um to allow them to do that. But um when we do return, we'll be focusing on council first before making any recommendations uh for boards and commissions. And I don't know if you wanted to add anything. Thank you. Um and then going back to the airport commission, I understand that to

make any changes about the actual required makeup, we would potentially need a charter amendment, but we are able to uh determine who to appoint. However, we're limited in terms of it depends on who applies. Is that accurate? Um, I would say so. I mean, I think the um the only requirement that we see here is that they be residents of the city. I don't know if there's anything more that attorney would like to add.

Right. So, but I believe your question is is that um the applicants would still need to go through the regular um applicant application process. Yes. So you are still you are still um going to be limited to the people who actually go through the actual application process for you and it's and would it would also be subject to I assume kind of when there are openings on the on the commission because I think I looked at it and the last uh time we appointed anybody there was one appointment last year in 2025 and everybody else was appointed prior to that. Is that correct?

Right. So, um, just because it's a charter commission doesn't mean that it doesn't follow, right, the very similar process with respect to your other boards and commissions, which it does.

Thank you. Um, and then I did also want to get some clarification I about the um the decision to withdraw. So, as part of the public safety reform and oversight commission, I I recall and in the staff report, it notes that it was proposed to it was also proposed to allow commissioners to not only reside in Santa Monica, but work or go to school in the city. Upon further review, staff is withdrawing this proposal. Would you be able to provide some background about why that proposal with was withdrawn? Um it was mostly because we started this uh study back in 2025 and there was transition in leadership and the support staff and um so back then there was support for this. Um but after meeting with new new leadership uh and staff it was not something that was supported. Um they wanted the input to um remain from from uh residents of the city. Was there were there any concerns expressed about not about potentially not being able to recruit a sufficient number of um youth representatives for this board or was that not a concern assuming the age range was increased from 18 to 22 to 18 to 25?

Um there was concern in filling the the youth seats but um not the other seats. Um so the um the residency requirement and the age requirement were were separate. Okay. So would the for the youth seats specifically it would still remain under this proposal to for them to be required to be a Santa Monica. They wouldn't be able to fulfill the uh the connection to Santa Monica I guess with going to working or going to school. So, no.

And um if we were to have trouble filling the youth position as a result of of that provision, would we be able to revisit that in the future outside of the usual boards and commissions review process? Um I I believe so. I mean, we're amending an ordinance here. So, it would mean um going back to to you all to amend. Um, I don't know if there's anything else to to add to that, but that's usually the normal process to change that requirement. Okay. And

sorry, final final question. Hopefully final question. Um, one of the items here that was uh presented as part of kind of uh council's direction during our study session was removing the ineligibility for close family relatives of um of city council members to serve on boards and commissions. And I just wanted to inquire if um if there are some potential other options that can address the risks of appearance of conflict of interest uh while maintaining the availability of of well-qualified candidates to serve on on certain commissions. And if there's do you think there's maybe some happy medium where we could exclude them from kind of higher impact commissions and allow them for more of the advisory bodies. Is that something that could be contemplated

that I I do not know if there is a happy medium? I mean, um, even excusing, uh, or recusing yourself from an appointment that I I don't know if that would be that medium,

right? So, state law is going to, you know, generally govern govern financial conflicts of interest when you talk about these sorts of votes, right? And and then there's, you know, um, issues with quasi judicial proceedings and due process. So, this is more of a policy consideration for the city council. Um what can happen on um certain boards and commissions is again quasi judicial proceedings. There could be some um questions about whether or not there's an impartiality issue, right? So if there is a a close family member on say the planning commission and you know that it the there's the possibility of that decision getting appealed to the city council, there could be some question about participating in those decisions. Um, so you know, it's not really a hard and fast rule, but to your point, if it's something more advisory or something that doesn't necessarily go up to the city council, that might be safer, but again, it's largely a policy issue. Um, and then state law would absolutely govern, you know, conflicts like it would in any other way. So hypothetically, if we wanted to, we could retain that exclusion for the quasi judicial, but eliminate it for advisory if that's what the council were to decide.

That is an option. And then I would say there's always still kind of a case-byase analysis when it comes to particular decisions that that border commission could be making. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, council member Raskin. All right. Just two quick questions here. Um because uh I heard a question from someone about this today. Uh in part 17 of the resolution uh we're deleting a requirement for boards and commissions to comply with council rules and we're doing that because it's listed duplicatively somewhere else in section 10, right? Yes.

Okay, cool. Um and then this I'm sorry for not asking this earlier. I don't know who's best position to answer this, but for the urban forest commission, um it it's it's currently the practice of the urban forest task force to give recommendations on tree, you know, sight specific tree plantings and removals. And I didn't see that explicitly enumerated in their list of duties. And I'm curious if it's contemplated that they would continue that that function.

Um I believe we have Matthew Wells on the the line. Um, Matthew, if you could help us with this. Um, this would be in the ordinance um, regarding the urban forest commission. And is he still on the line? Hey, Matthew, thanks for everything you do. And maybe if you could repeat the the question. Yeah. Uh, I think I think you know what I'm talking about. You know, is the commission going to continue to give recommendations to the director on removals

or Oliver or Susan if you know the answer to this is Chris here on the rules Ellis Matthew the rules for Yeah. So how how the tree removal processes work and

Yeah. So the urban forest task force as it's been at least since I was there, you know, if if there was a property owner that said, "Hey, I've got a ficas tree that's dropping berries in my car every day. I want you to change it to a pine tree or something like that." Then the urban forest task force would be the forum where they can go hear their complaints and they'd make a recommendation to the director. And um it's I think an important function uh and I'm cur I I didn't see that expressly spelled out in the duties and the resolution. So I'm

that would absolutely be the expectation still for the commission as it transitions into a commission that those issues would be addressed um and handled through the the newly formed commission for recommendations to staff for sure. Okay. So, and if I may confirm, there's some language in the um in the ordinance in the draft ordinance that uh would give them the power and duty to advise on citywide compliance with the vision and guiding principles of the urban forest master plan, including but not limited to tree planting, tree removal requests, species designation changes, and updates to existing urban forestry standards.

Got it. Yeah. I just wanted to I was just curious if that encompassed what we're talking about. Okay, great. Um, I have a question for Oliver on the Restorative Justice Commission. What's the anticipated time? Oh, my bad. I I can't ask a question about it. Okay, okay. Um, on the disabilities commission size, were the disability community advocates and organizations engaged in that recommendation? Um, they were informed um of it. Um, we did receive public comment from u a member um opposed to it and I I believe there was some public comment tonight.

Well, I don't think that was my question. My question was were disability community organizations, advocates, etc. consulted with uh or was it just like, hi, this is what we're planning on doing because you just said informed that's a little bit different. Um, yes. Um some alien Reynolds. Hi. Um so because the recommendation here is mainly about aligning the member body to with the rest of the commissions. It was more about informing the commission of this change. So we did not do any specific outreach to the community on this one.

And what was the feedback from the commission? um mostly mixed, but some folks feeling like they wanted to maintain the 11 member body, which is why we're recommending a phased roll out. Um and others um understanding that it would help meet quorum uh more easily, which would be a benefit to the commission. Okay. Um that's it. Are are folks in the queue for more questions? Are we ready for comments? Great. Council member Okay. Okay. Council member Zernaya,

sorry to follow up on your question, mayor, regarding the size of the disabilities commission. Um, if it is reduced to seven and with the phased approach, does the commission retain the ability to form subcommittees of folks who including folks who might not be on the commission to

advise on disabilities. Okay. So yes, there is still a possibility and still a pathway for people who might not be formally on the commission but still members of the uh disabilities community, I should say, uh to inform policy that we develop. Okay. Yeah. Right. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Council member Hall.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, one brief comment and then, uh, I'm going to attempt a motion. Um, on the arts commission, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate expanding the scope of the different genres of art, uh, and growing, uh, the scope there. So, that's really amazing. Um, I move the staff recommendation with one change. I'd like to read paragraph G of section one of resolution 1151, which is the anti- nepotism protections. I'll second that. Paragraph G of section one, which was the anti- neepotism protections. So, not allowing family members of council members to serve on commissions of boards.

I have a comment. Okay. Yeah. Oh, that's it. Okay. Council personal.

Um, and my my comment is directed subsection G prohibiting close family members. You know, one of the things that I always believe that with these commission is that we wanted to at least from my perspective uh appoint individuals that in some way have an expertise in the particular area to be able to give us a consciousness with respect to um all issues from the uh commission. um prohibiting close family relatives just because they're close family relatives but maybe have an expertise in a particular area. I find that kind of troubling from my standpoint and this is why I was supportive of uh eliminating deleting section subsection G. And so, um, I I heard Councilman Hall's, uh, position on it, and I'm going to have to, uh, uh, vote against that if that comes before us.

Did you substitute motion? You're saying he's proposing to remove that to allow family members. Oh, no. No, he's not. Opposite. The opposite. Saying add it back in. Add it back in. To not allow family members. I and I I'd like to well that's his motion and I don't support that emotion. I'd like to make a substantive motion to keep subsection GN. And the reason for it is because I believe that uh at the at a minimum that we should be electing individuals with expertise in that area regardless of their relationship with uh council members. I'll second that.

Is that a substitute motion? Okay. motion. You second it. Correct. Mayor seconded. Um, consistent with my my vote on this item previously, I seconded council member Hall's uh motion to add back in. Council member Snell has then now made a substitute motion which was seconded by Council Member Raskin and that would be in order right now.

Yeah, sure. We can take a vote. Do people want to make comments? Are we ready to vote on the substitute motion? Um well, who who would still like to make a um Council Rascin, do you need to discuss? And and may I just make one apologies for interrupting, but may I just make one clarification just to clarify that the Restorative Justice Commission is not part of this. Thank you. Council Raskin, would you like to comment?

Yeah, just a few brief comments. I mean, let's just be clear about what section 1G was. It was a targeted attack on a specific commissioner. uh you know that happened to be the husband of a former council member and former mayor. Um you know uh I I you know to be honest I I think I think it's it's discriminatory in a lot of ways to think that uh spouses and family members of of the people serving on this dis uh you know uh can't make substantial contributions to the community and you know I I trust that uh you know uh certainly the people here would would would take appropriate steps to insulate themselves from conflicts of interest. Uh you know the council member uh whose husband was removed through this process did recuse herself on the votes to appoint uh this person to that commission. Um so I I'm confident that there are safeguards in in place about this. Um just a few other just really quick well I I have some extra pieces of direction that I think maybe we can loop back on the end. I I just want to give a quick plug uh to um Marissa Rubin who was mentioned earlier by uh Jerry Rubin. Marissa attended I think every urban forest task force meeting uh diligently and was was truly a treasure to the community and uh I I do want to recognize her memory tonight as we take this action.

Council member Zernaya.

Yes. Um, so I I agree uh with the concerns expressed by Council Member Snell and and Council Member Rascin, but I also hear the community concerns and the concerns expressed by um by the mayor and council member Hall. So, I was wondering if uh y'all would be amendable to a a friendly amendment to make it a limited carve out where there may be situations where a family member may have some unique qualifications or there may not be a large number of applicants who may qualify or some sort when there is a unique situation to have like a case- by case carveout if that's I don't know if that would be legally feasible. So that might be something for the city to

not for me. And also that item's not in order right now. So we can talk about that when we um if we get to it. I But it's part of the substitute motion. Is it for a substitute? Oh, you're asking for an amendment to substitute asking us. Okay. No. Um Barry was and I guess my

if not that's fine. I guess my only question to that is how do we craft that out? I mean, you know, obviously that this item came up as you heard from Councilman Raskins, um the situation. I and I'll be full disclosure on it. Obviously, uh uh my wife was on the tourism board, uh has extensive 20 years of tourism experience for that particular board, but then when I got elected to city council, she had to leave. And I think from that standpoint alone, uh, gave us gives me concern that we're, you know, we're appointing people with expertise that had nothing to do with me getting elected to city council, but because of this ordinance, it it was uh, she had to leave and I just think that's what was inappropriate.

Okay, Council Member Negrosia. So, I will just say that notwithstanding um the obviousness of the targeted person before, I think there's over 90,000 residents in this city and there's an opportunity. We talk a lot about trying to get more people involved and I think a lot of distrust in government and the feeling of lack of transparencies. The feeling that there's a small group of people that are in local organizations and therefore boards and commissions and that is the feeder system to sitting up here on this day is there's only seven of us representing 90,000 plus people. And I think these boards and commissions, we just need to get better at modernizing how we really get into the community and do outreach to get more people involved. I think there's qualified people outside of our spouses. And I'd like to say on a personal note, I own a business in the city and I don't have a clock in clockout 9 to5. I do other things, running a nonprofit, a consultant. And let me tell you, it has impacted me because it's conflicted everywhere. You can hardly do anything. I mean, my business isn't part of all the Route 66 stuff. We're not able to enjoy all the music in the park stuff. It has hurt my business because I chose to serve this community and the broader concerns. So to the extent that our spouses have to come off of a border commission, I think we should look at it quite differently and look at the fact that we've got plenty of people in this community that we just need to get a hold of to serve on those boards and commissions and we will find um the valuable residents that can serve. So I don't see any um amendment carve out being any more transparent feeling. I would like to stick with the original motion.

Okay. Um, Council Member Mahal.

Yeah, thank you to my colleagues for bringing up your your uh points of opposition. Um, you know, I'm I'm very aware of the history and I think a compromise was proposed at the time to grandfather that specific commissioner in and the council at the time chose to not choose that. Um, you know, I I also have personal history with this. My partner was on the personnel board and he was one of two or maybe three people with actual HR professional experience serving on the personnel board. Um, and if you ask our HR department head, I believe she would say she misses that expertise greatly. Uh, but we ultimately made the decision even though we were not legally required to because we are not in a legal arrangement. Um, that out of an appearance of a potential conflict of interest, he chose to step down when I got elected. Um, so I I appreciate and understand the situation that you and your wife were in, Council Member Snell. Um, believe me. Um, and I I Council Member Rascin, like I appreciate your confidence in our judgment. Um, but as we've learned, authoritative bodies such as the FPPC or a judge involving a previous accusation against a council member, a past council member on conflicts of interest have had different opinions than members of this body. Um, so I I think as council member Negrete said, we have a city of 93,000 residents. Uh and and hopefully I'm not misremembering or misquoting here, but as then Mayor Prom Maccawan said at the time, we either believe in this policy or we don't. Um so, uh I would ask for your support in the original motion. Thank you.

Great. Okay, let's take a vote. I can't unlike do myself, so I'm just live mic all night. Okay, let's take a vote. Okay, so this is on the substitute motion, correct? Correct. Okay, council member Drete, this is on the substitute motion. No, this is the substitute. Yes. Yes. Council member Hall. No. Council member Rascin. Yes. Mayor Promwick. Yes. Council member Snell. Yes. Council member Zarncaya. Yes. Mayor Terosas. No. So that passes.

Okay. Great. Now, Council Member Snell will be recused. Thank you um to our team who came here and thanks for all of your thoughtful recommendations. I have my name in there, but I can't do it. Oh, I can't do anything. Sorry, Council Zaya.

Is there a question? Well, I I wanted to see if um it would be possible to give direction to the city attorney to come back with more information about how that anti- nepotism, anti- you know, policy has affected our ability to um appoint folks onto boards and commissions and clarify. Will we be able to would we hypothetically be able to change that policy in the future if we learn something that's not learn that it's not having the intended outcome? Hold on. I'm sure we can um always get more information from the city attorney as we work through this.

We're happy to do that and we can um work with the clerk's office to help track that information and um return with options if there's if there becomes an issue. Okay, great. And council member Negrete had wanted to talk. Well, you want to be on Do you have to go through you? Well, I just Are we now moving on to the Well, I think presentation on that one. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Council, I will just raise my hand. Council Rasian, were you trying to make a comment? Uh, I wanted to make some direction that's general and not specific to the restorative justice commission, but I can I'll defer to you. general in addition to what we just voted on. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Restorative justice.

Well, no, this is this is direction that's not specific to the restorative justice commission. It it'll be real quick. Okay.

Sorry. Um just that I I agree we need better online accessibility. Uh keep um getting minutes, recordings, video, everything. Uh I know that a lot of boards and commissions have not posted regularly uh missions uh minutes and videos. Uh um and um I I did I I searched before this meeting to try to find records of the predecessor commissions like the social services commission. Uh I couldn't find this anywhere on the city website. So uh let's just make sure we have a consistent record that's publicly accessible of those predecessor commissions. Um and uh just on the airport commission uh if we're looking into things, could we look into whether we can do without a charter amendment something like appoint a liaison like a you know an aeronautic expert liaison that's non- voting member?

Um is the question can a liaison be appointed? Um, I'm just saying in the future I I feel like we already I'm sorry. Point of order. That feels contrary to what the council has decided in its appointments. That feels stronger than direction. It should have been included in the motion. I would agree with that. This this feels like we're have back to discussion. Okay. All right. I'll Okay. I mean, I would say I'm you are happy to investigate options offline and and we can, you know, you can bring a 16 item. Yeah. I mean, I didn't want to incorporate all this originally in the motion because it's getting really

granular, but um I I trust that we're all in consensus on uh improved accessibility and trying to find ways like, you know, improved access to things, recordeping, things like that. Um but if it's not the consensus of the body to explore the airport commission thing, then I'll withdraw that. Okay, great. Um okay, let's move on to the presentation on the restorative justice commission. And are we going to go back to voting on the um first reading of the ordinance after

I think I think the way that council the council voted was basically the ordinance has itself has also been bifurcated. So what we can do is just vote on on what is remaining in front of the council which is anything related to the restorative justice commission. Okay. Um I'm I am done with mine. Um I I don't know if there was anything more that needed to be said on the restorative justice.

I'm I'm happy to provide the council with a brief overview of um the restorative justice commission matter. If the council recalls back in the end of January, um council did um authorize the establishment of the restorative justice program that overarching programs and expansion of our um DEI and restorative justice related programs. Some of the key elements of that overall program to address um past harms included the allocation of um $3.5 million towards the restorative justice program, that we reserve the additional $2 million that we'll be receiving from the Rand Corporation deal to support further expansion of that program, and that we formally establish a commission to upgrade the former staff develop landback and restoration reparations task force, excuse me. Um, pursuant to that request, as part of the boards and commission's update tonight, we're um requesting that the council add um chapter 2.74 to the Santa Monica Municipal Code. If approved, it would create a new seven member restorative justice commission. that commission would advise and also lead the development of the overarching restorative justice programs that we um do have resources allocated towards. Now, this seven member commission would ultimately be appointed by the city council after um a recruitment process. Those that are appointed will need to be a resident of the city and also have subject matter expertise relevant to restorative justice or lived experience representing communities that have been impacted by past and present inequities. Um staff is recommending that we do move forward with the formation of the restorative justice commission. Um if it is approved on first reading and adopted via second reading um staff would start

the recruitment process. Um and once we have satisfactory number of applicants and the application process closes, we'd bring the um applicants forward for council to appoint and then launch that commission later this year. Um it's a quick summary of what we're requesting on this particular matter. There are any questions? Staff is here and we're available. Yeah, I do have a question. I'm going to go back to my previous question. Um what's the anticipated timeline for the first appointments and the commission's first meeting? The community has been waiting since January and I know we've now gotten a lot of concerns from folks saying what's happening.

Yeah, this was approved at the end of January and because it's a formation of a new commission, we've been coordinating it through this boards and commission process. Um ultimately to come back on second reading at our next meeting if it is approved 30 days after that it would take effect. Once it takes effect we'd start the recruitment process. Um, probably I'm not we have to think through exactly how long we would have that recruitment process open, but once we do have that recruitment process closing, we'd bring the applicants back for council approval to form the commission. That would happen this year. So, you're basically saying that we would not even be able to have an application open until the end of June at the earliest.

Well, we can I I would I believe we can start a recruitment process, but um the ordinance doesn't take effect. the commission doesn't actually form um until the ordinance is is actually enacted. So we um Heidi, I do think we can probably start the recruitment process prior if that's the council's direction. Yes. And because of and because of the dates and the council's um normal appointment um cycle to be clear, this ordinance um actually uh does not become effective until June 30th um July 1. Um but yes, the recruitment process can begin and then you could make appointments along with your um annual appointments.

Okay. I would just say I would like to open the recruitment process ASAP and I think you know it would be good for us to see what questions are asking people. Um okay. I don't see any other qu any other comments. I will move Oh, comments are Oh, sorry. I don't see any other questions. Do people have comments? you can put yourself in the queue and negate.

I I don't know if this is the appropriate time to give like direction to the program. Um and we can talk about it later and I can come back with a fully baked item potentially with I don't other council members um who express interest. In the last few months, I've been working with and discussing the opportunity. I hope we can include in that that's like an educational opportunity for community members to learn, you know, financial literacy, first-time buying. Um, something I did in my work before years ago um in the housing projects is working with community members to learn how to save and um penny stocks and other skill sets that you don't often um have access to. So, and it could extend to a myriad of things and I'm hoping that we can give direction on those type of things. I don't know at some point like when would that happen?

The um overarching commission would be working to develop um programs and recommendations. So, certainly I think um that's been this has been a passion of yours, council member. I think the um comments today are certainly it's already set the table for a discussion with the restorative justice commission to begin that process. If there's further um direction um you know certainly we can either bring back an administrative item if the council would like to provide formal direction or um to your point if there's a 16 item or a joint council item that you'd like to um sort of lead we can help facilitate that also.

Okay. because I've met with like seven organizations including banks um that are willing to put up um both finances and the educational people support. So we'll love to bring back a directional item fully baked so that hopefully when the commission's formed that's something that they can they can look at. Uh council member Zerna. Thank you. Um I had I guess question slash comment. Uh so I recall, can someone please remind me on the reparations and land landback task force? Were we uh paying people for their time in participating on that task force?

And is it contemplated within the restorative uh justice commission to pay people for this their time serving on this commission as well? Or is there potential legal concerns about that? or would there be? Believe it's a council policy decision. The only other board or commission that I'm aware of that gets a stipen is the um planning commission. Yeah. And I I believe that's under the city charter. Charter. So as long as there's no as long as there's no conflict. Yeah. There there may be some questions about why certain commissions and not others.

Um so so that creating that record would probably be helpful if that's something that the council is interested in. Um, understanding that every border commission is unique, but just kind of creating that record would be helpful.

Yeah. understanding that um the restorative justice task force is something that is focused on restorative justice and trying to uh give voice to people of marginalized communities and being mindful of the fact that we're kind of asking folks from marginalized backgrounds to take on additional work for free. Um, if the council is amendable, I I would love to explore how we could um how we could compensate them for the time and energy spent. And I I recognize that might create some potential conflicts with others, but I just think that this is a very unique commission. And I want to be mindful of asking folks from marginalized backgrounds to doing do the heavy lifting without any sort of compensation.

Yeah, if I could just jump in here. Um, is was that the comment? Oh, okay.

If you wanted to respond to that, go ahead. Um, so I think you guys recall not all the people in the city administrative roles are here, but we were very insistent that um, these folks be compensated previously. Um, too often we are expecting people of color to do work for free and that is not acceptable to me. Um, especially if this is going to be a significant amount of time. I think the other part that's important here is like self-determination. and I want to make sure that we're not telling this these people what to do, but that they are coming up with what what repair looks like for them uh and their communities. So, I would just say I think that work takes time and is is intensive and people should be compensated for it.

Well, a couple things and I just would um you were starting to mention it, council members. Well, I appreciate all that there's disabilities boards and commissions. There's I mean I I I consider myself sitting up here in an awkward position financially given where I come from although we're paid a stipend but I would just say that there's lots of boards and commissions where marginalized people are serving um regardless of race and whatnot. People can of all sorts of races and backgrounds can um not have financial means but want to serve their community. So that's one thing. And then I would also just be careful of presuming that people of color always lack uh finances or resources cuz that should not be a presumption we're making. People could come from different backgrounds and lived experience and have arrived at a place where they're financially secure, but that um their lived experience is valuable on the board and commission. Uh, I just would be careful making a broad sweeping statement that everybody who's of color happens to be suffering from financial circumstances.

Yeah, madam city attorney. Yes, thank you. We were reviewing the um charter provision related to the planning commission stipend and it appears to place a limitation on any other border commission receiving a stipen. The issue before was that it was a task force. So, we would need to um look at this issue a little more to see what we can do to structure it and see what see what we can do around it. But I do just want to make everyone aware that there is that charter provision that perhaps limits um some of what we can do.

Thank you for that clarification. um, city attorney. And I just want to be clear, I I don't mean to presume or make it seem like uh, what I was suggesting is that folks who would be serving on this commission would be from uh, you know, like of just lower income um, folks cuz I I just strongly believe in paying people for their time when we're asking them to take on something really heavy. And I think that the commission is very is a very unique one and I am not aware of um what other cities may do or if they even have these types of commissions. So, I I would love for the city attorney to come back with some potential options and maybe some more research and um and if this does need to be a broader thing of paying people for their time for serving on commissions because I've I've heard of, you know, I've heard from um some other folks in the community, uh somebody who had been considering applying to the housing commission but said that they couldn't afford to do so because they had to find paid work and were not would not have been able to serve on the commission for for no compensation.

Thank you for bringing up the that context and and your thoughts on that, Council Member Negrete. Okay, Council Member Paul. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I sorry for bringing this up, but as someone who works in this industry, I would just please caution all of my colleagues to consider how they are speaking about potential appointments to this board uh, sorry, this commission um, with the current uh, uh, federal federal administration and how laws are being enforced and and appearing in court. Um, and I don't want us to step in anything that might cause litigation. Thank you.

Thanks. I think we're ready um with a motion. Uh I I will move it um to approve the commission. Does anyone want a second? Second. Great. Let's take a vote. Council member Sarnaya. Yes. Mayor Pompewick. Yes. Council member Rascin. Yes. Council member Hall, yes. Council member Negrete, yes. Mayor Terosas, yes. Great. Congratulations. Thank you guys. Appreciate you. Can someone tell Council Member Snell that he can come back? That's what I was going to say.

So, next we have item 16A and its appointment to one unscheduled vacancy for the measure GS resident oversight committee. Um, and we have one applicant, Dave Water Waterfall. He was here earlier, but he couldn't stay. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to continue this item to our first meeting in July to uh seek a broader pool of qualified candidates. I'll second that. Okay. Um, maybe Barry. Um, excuse me, Council Member Snell. We've made a motion on 16A to move this to July to get a broader uh pool of applicants.

Okay. And there's a second. Um do we need a roll call? No, you can. Okay. All those in favor? I I any opposed? Any abstensions? No. Okay, that carries. Housing authority board appointment for the housing. So 16B. Again, we have one applicant who's eligible is Jonathan Edy and he was the young I'm sorry, he was the gentleman who spoke tonight. Uh move appointment of Jonathan Edy to the housing authority board. Second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Great. Um Council Member Hall, your Lego club. Oh, I just move that we pass the 16 items on consent like we usually do. Second. All those in favor.

Well, it's money, right? Oh, yep. We got a vote. Thank you, Council Member Negrete. I remember. So, okay. was Hall and the mayor second. Yep. Okay. All right. Council member Negret. Yes. Council member Hall. Yes. Council member Raskin. Yes. Timswick. Yes. Council member Snell. Yes. Council member Zernis Gaya. Yes. And Mayor Terosas. Yes. Okay. So now we move on to the special special council meeting item is 16A. And this is what about 16 D? Didn't we do No. Well, oh, you did them both.

Yeah, we did both. Yeah. Sorry. I was like, what? Okay. Okay. So, 16A is request of Council Member Teros, Council Member Rascin, Council Member Snell, to hold a special meeting to receive a briefing on significant progress in the city on Santa Monica's long-standing pursuit of the certified local coastal program, LCP, to memorialize the work underway. And I'm sorry, Jane. And to provide council direction on how to carry this program forward. Um, council member Zwick or Mayor Promwick.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, it's hard to predict exactly where this conversation will go. Um, out of an abundance of caution, I will be recusing myself from the item due to my employment with the housing action coalition, which advocates for housing production. Although this item does not directly address housing production, direction given by the council this evening could lead to future actions related to housing production. Thus, in order to avoid any potential conflicts or even the appearance of impropriy, I will be recusing myself and uh I guess saying good night. Good night and good luck. So that's said for me.

Um while um Jen pulls it up, I'll just briefly state the reason um why we brought this forward if that's okay for the special meeting. Um, I think it's no surprise Santa Monica has been working towards a local coastal program since 2014 and really before that. This is not a new priority. This is a decadesl long commitment by multiple councils. Um, and it's certainly not for lack of effort by our staff uh that we have not, you know, fully had an LCP, a certified LCP. Um, this is truly about Santa Monica having its own authority to manage its coastal zone in a way that reflects our investments, our infrastructure, and our record as responsible stewards of the coast. Um, so following direct engagement by this council with the California Coastal Commission leadership, the city is in substantive discussions about a framework that could bring certification within reach on a defined timeline. Um and I thought it was best for given the um kind of emerging nature of these discussions and the fast pace that we uh convened to give direction in open session um in a transparent way to our staff uh to hopefully be able to go back on some deal terms and decision points um for a certified local coastal program. Um I just do want to note that Santa Monica is one of the most accessible coastlines in California. We have a free reach. We have 12,000 public parking spaces. We have zero emission buses, protected bike lanes, affordable housing near the water, and I believe that our record uh in the city as a coastal steward is not in question. So, I'm very excited to to hear from our esteemed staff about some of the options on the table.

Uh thank you, mayor. Um so tonight's uh overview really focuses actually just on a little bit of a primer um about the coastal act and you know how it works like what an LCP is um and is really focused on process. So I think just as a as a starting point it's important to kind of understand some of these foundational concepts about um what is the coastal act? Um so it was actually initially um established in 1972. The coastal commission was by voter initiative. Um and that was only for like a 4-year period. Um and then the state legislature 1976 passed the coastal act that then extended that coastal mission indefinitely essentially creating um this permanent state agency that is tasked with protecting coastal re resources. So what does the coastal act do? Um the coastal commission exercises its purview um through what's called a coastal development permit um process, but it also provides uh a pathway for local jurisdictions to develop what's called a local coastal program um for their coastal zones um which the coastal commission then has to certify um that the LCP complies with the state coastal act. Um and I'll talk a little bit more about what that means. Um the other piece that we've kind of heard questions around is you know how was the coastal zone boundary formed? Um and it was actually um enacted um as part of the coastal act of 1977 you know where the coastal commission was um directed uh to adopt detailed maps. So there's aboutund think it's like 120 um or so of them. Um there are these like milar maps that were made you know back then and every single one of them you know these like quadrangles were were adopted uh throughout the state. Uh state law defines the coastal zone as extending generally inland 1,000 yards from the mean uh high tide line. Um can the coastal zone boundary be changed? Um

it can but it's not there's a process for that. Um it's not meant to just be changed easily. um you know uh it's really meant to address like minor amendments to correct situations where parcels um you know are split by the coastal zone boundary because you imagine the scale at which they were drawing these maps you know certainly could run through someone's property or what have you um you know where it follows natural or man-made features. Um so under the coastal act um the coastal commission can adjust boundaries 100 yards landward or 200 yards seawward. If a local government has a surrogate LCP, then that local government can adjust up to 200 yards uh landward. And again, you know, the sort of history of this largely has been to correct situations where the the boundary sort of runs through uh you know, right through the mobile parcel or something like that. Um they are typically processed through LCP amendments, uh map updates or specific parcel correction, um requests. Here you can see a picture of um Santa Monica's coastal zone. So, um, this is just like a pointer or one of these things. Oh, there we go. Okay. Here is like the I 10 freeway. Um, essentially like the northern city limits, you know, where Riviera is to the south where Venice is. This is the Pacific Ocean. And the eastern boundary is basically Four Street until you get uh south of the freeway to Pico and then it jogs up to Lincoln Boulevard. Um so you can see this is the entirety um of the coastal zone. Um and the local coastal program when we use that term it's actually composed of two parts. So when we use that term LCP um it's actually consisting of the land use plan otherwise known as the LUP and the implementation plan otherwise known as the IP. You can think of that the LUP is kind of like the general plan. The IP is like the zoning ordinance. Um that would be the equivalent. Um both the LUP and

the IPM must be approved by the city council and then certified by the coastal commission. So that's how it works. Um so Santa Monica has a certified uh 1992 LUP. That's the last time you know we went through this process and that is what actually guides coastal approval. So that's what the coastal commission uses as what they call their standard of review. So when a coastal development permit comes before the commission, they review it actually against the policies of the 1992 LUP. Um what we do not have is we do not have an implementation plan. So we do not have this coastal zoning ordinance. Um what that means in practicality is that if applicants they must seek approvals from the coastal commission after they get their city approval. So it is this two-step process currently because there is not this second half um of the LCP. So, you know, that leads to, you know, why why update? What what is the advantage of updating the LCP? You can kind of, you know, see see there the the clear advantages um of doing that. So, Santa Monica last repaired and certified the LUP in 1992. The full LCP wasn't certified as I just explained. You know, we got the LUP done. The IP um was not completed. Um largely there were some fundamental policy disagreements there you know as as part of the reasoning for um why that did not advance. Um obviously you know 1992 is a long time ago. Um it no longer reflects um our current conditions or our kind of policy environment. You know you can imagine all the things that have happened um since there. Um and in order for the coastal commission to transfer that permitting authority to the city you need those two parts. you need the LUP and you need the IP um together. So you can see the diagram there of um how a new process would work. Um so I think one thing to understand is that the LCP update process is not a relegulation if

you will of um all of the policy documents the city's already adopted. Right? what it is like so our loose our downtown community plan um you know civic center specific plan um all of the zoning ordinance updates the implementation as part of the housing elma and you can think all of the strategic land use planning decisions all these policy documents that are foundational um that's only the development realm I mean we have many many other policies you know the bike action plan the pet action plan all the things that that we've done even our um our climate adaptation plan um that you know all of those things sort of like you know what were like subsequent to 1992 you know they're not reflected um in the '92 LUP this process doesn't relegulate all of that stuff you know what it is is an opportunity to update um our LUP to reflect all of our current conditions and policy objectives so you know it's not really changing all of the policies and standards you know and all of those adopted um land use uh and policy documents um And you know, I think that this two-step process, you know, certainly has been impactful. We we see it day-to-day. Um, you know, primarily in the permitting realm, but there are sort of, you know, other contexts to it. It certainly does impact the day-to-day operations, particularly when it comes to, you know, the homeowner, the small business owner, um, you know, that is, you know, just trying to add an addition to their home or an ADU or, you know, open a business, um, you know, somewhere in the coastal zone. um you know, we're kind of a big part of trying to guide people through that process because it's just um you know, not something they're they're familiar with. Um and so, you know, what we're seeing is kind of a lot of concern from a lot of these folks about, you know, not understanding it, the lack of predictability and uncertainty in the process. Um and that's where, you know, an LCP would provide that um in terms of establishing, you know, bringing it up to like modern times, right? in terms of

you know what's the policy environment what's the process by which um you get a permit uh in the city in the coastal zone. So as I said there you can see here in a new process you know once an LCP is certified the city then would review you know any project for consistency with a certified LCP. So, you know, what we look for is compliance, no different than now. You look at the zoning code, you look at consistency with the loose or what have you. You would look at all the policy documents. You know, there's just this additional layer of um you know, any um consistency with the coastal act. Um appeals would, you know, typically go to city council largely if if there was anything that was appealable. Um, however, within the area of like what's called original jurisdiction, so this the area within 300 ft of a coastal bluff edge, a beach or the mean high tide line or between the first public road in the sea or what's called an esha um an endangered uh species habitat um areas. So th the or extremely sensitive habitat are. So th those areas are where um permits can be appealed to the coastal commission. Um and the c the coastal commission retains authority over submerged lands and tidelands. Just to be clear, in no in no situation even with a certified LCP those areas, the coastal commission always retains that authority. That never passes down to the city. Um now just to jump into Santa Monica's LCP efforts. Um it's been probably about a decade um long process. So um our LUP update started actually in 2014. Um and uh you know there was a uh probably year and a half long outreach process. you know, that included presentations to boards, commissions, neighborhood groups, kind of we used it as an opportunity to educate people about uh coastal resources at the time. Uh we also got a grant to um you know, kind of study sea level rise. Um so we had some fun things, you know, pure visitor surveys. We had a little owl at the pier

to help visualize, you know, what does sea level rise look like? Um and practicality. There were presentations um just to kind of you know educate people again around coastal resources and what the LCP update was. Um that resulted in council uh actually adopting a comprehensive L leap update. Um this was in October uh of 2018. Um and that was you know subsequently submitted um to the coastal commission. Um however you know ultimately that that whole process ended up stalling um because you know as I indicated the adoption of the LOP doesn't stop just at city council. It then has to move on you know to the formal coastal commission for their certification. But you know without getting into any sort of you you know details on it. it really kind of ended up stalling due to just fundamental disagreements on policy approach um you know with with respect to policy that you know quite frankly didn't reflect um Santa Monica's unique urban multimodal coastal conditions um and so you know that effort uh stalled um and uh you know but we have formally resumed that update process as of uh May of 2023 um you know there was work been done with respect to new policies around environmental justice Um the science around sea level rise has changed and obviously you know the city's own uh change circumstances. Um so we've been having regular meetings you know with coastal staff um and you know this the city retains even over you know the last 10 years fully committed um to working towards uh certification of its LCP. um leading us you know to to recent conversations um and uh we were uh have been engaged with uh leadership at the coastal commission um and you know I can say they are very eager um and uh excited to move forward with this process you know so I think there's full alignment between the city um and staff

at the coastal commission uh to bring forward um you know to to to to process to to work towards uh a certification of uh the LCP and based on those conversations they've they've been positive in nature and really I think alignment towards a shared goal um you know to to get to this to get to this point and so there have been discussions about the possibility of bringing back um you know we use this term kind ofou um sort of loosely but you know the idea is you know can we kind of have you know agree on a set of principles right that allow um both parties to kind of move forward um in lock step. Um and as I said, you know, there's there's certainly been a lot of positive feedback and optimism um on both ends about uh moving this forward. Um so what does that look like? You know, this is just um you know, some thoughts around uh concepts um you know, that would help. And you know, I I think what's advantageous is the staff at the city um who have been through this process. Um there's actually staff at the coastal commission that have also been there as long you know that we've all been through this sort of tenure um process. So there's a lot of history there um and understanding as to areas you know where where um issues got stuck and you know a collective interest in you know how do we move forward so we don't get stuck um in it and you know I think the these ideas around a concept of aligning around Santa Monica's strong track record in being good stewards of the coast providing public access you know things that are not undermining um the coastal act or coastal resources to the contrary they you know the city has always acted to be protect perspective um of that um agreeing on a timeline and a process to get to LCP certification um using that council approved 2018 plan as a baseline so we're not starting from from scratch um you know would be something that's helpful and then

exploring kind of you know whatever the you know appropriate tools um under the the the coastal act that allow for you know certain kinds of projects you know that meet objective standards um to to move forward, you know. So, the sort of things as I reference to kind of like the day-to-day operational things, you know, that that allow us to kind of unstick, you know, what what we see every day from, you know, a lot just, you know, they're not like professional teams of applicants, right? It's it's the homeowner, it's the business owner that just doesn't quite know, you know, how to navigate the process and is is there something we can do to solve um for that process uncertainty. So, you know, these I think are just four four principles that we put forward as thoughts, you know, that that could be um inserted, you know, into MOU and for for council's consideration. Um so, as next steps, uh you know, based on the the language of the 16 item, we would request the council provide feedback um on our engagement efforts with the coastal commission, including you know, those ideas around concepts for the um this thisou. happy to answer your questions.

Council member Raskin.

Yeah, thank you to the team. Um, I know this is a long time coming. uh you know when I was first appointed to the planning commission in 2020 I remember we heard an LCP update at that time and that was predated by decades of history and uh really appreciate the work that everyone's put in uh over the past uh few weeks here um just by further background um you know most of or a lot of the work that I've done in my work has involved environmental law and specifically with respect to coastal projections. So, uh, a few weeks ago, I I, uh, uh, spoke with, uh, Dr. Kate Hucklebridge and facilitated an introduction to city staff. Uh, and I'm really glad to hear that this has, uh, resulted in some very fruitful conversations and productive steps forward. Uh, really appreciate the the many hours that people have have redirected towards uh, getting us towards this this outcome here. Um I I'm hoping you can just speak briefly to um uh you know what the process would look like on the back end after theou. Um I understand that you're talking a little bit about uh what a timeline could look like for bringing this to full certification. Um and um you know I know a lot there's still a lot to be decided but maybe maybe you can just share generally where you see this going after the Yeah, I I mean I think it's I will say it's a little hard to say that you know given that we've just kind of initiated these discussions and just talked conceptually like around principles. Um you know to be clear not one has not been drafted yet. You know we we haven't se seen that. I think our interest tonight is to get council's direction like you know do these concepts feel like they're landing in the right place

um with respect to how we move this process forward. Um I would imagine you know should we get to that point you know and city and coastal staff you know have alignment on that you know that things would be moving forward in earnest you know I think you know I can say within my team we have a planner that has been assigned to this and it's been you know quite literally like a 10-year labor of love you know so you know we would dedicate the resources they would dedicate the resources um it's really you know importantly there's agreement around process which is a really important thing right Um it's not just you know if if we have organizational focus you know on both sides to it you know it feels like we could we could move forward and get things done and sort of like you know open continue the dialogue and like a willingness to think outside the box and inside the box and all the ways around you know like how do you unstick these issues where we we all know where we got stuck before and you know an interest in it's it's now been you know many years later since we've had these conversations. Um, and just really thinking through, you know, how do we how do we move forward in a productive way?

Um, you know, I I understand that there is, you know, statewide legislation that, you know, was the subject of general comments tonight and that's not on our agenda tonight. So, I'm not going to comment on that. Um, but what I will say is that this does feel like a generational opportunity to make progress on some core issues that the city is is deeply interested in. And so, uh, I am really excited about the work you're doing and I'm so thankful for everyone and the work you put into this. Absolutely. Thank you, Council Member Snell. I'm I'm apologize. Council Rohal and see

Thank you, mayor. Um, just a quick question. uh you know what what is the relation of our local measure Proposition S from the from 1990 and how that beach overlay district relates to a potential LCP. Yeah. So uh props is uh for everyone's understanding voter initiative um that actually restricts like large hotel motel restaurant development um basically think of it like westward of Ocean Avenue essentially west you know Nielsson basically everything west of it doesn't allow

exactly and there's like a cap of like 2,000 square feet you know on restaurants it's implemented in the zoning code uh it's called the beach overlay district so it's it's already in our zoning code and that's what governs so as I explained like in an LCP it would basically incorporate props s um and and there's a there's some nuances around like props and the pure you know so we actually went down this road like in a deep way in the 2018 uh lup and we figured out you know a way to kind of like merge the two things um you know developed even policy around it that we could come back to so it's very much just about incorporating it you know into an updated LUP

got it and and would now be the appropriate time to add in our requests for what we would like to see in an LCP or

Okay. Um I think all the things that we are concurrently working on uh uh with other efforts around um the the business renovations and things to make things events businesses easier I think are really important. Um, obviously housing I think is the big uh uh um controversial item and I would say if if we aren't going to include all types of housing uh which I I understand concerns over um I would certainly like our LCP to or in our negotiations that we start from a place where um you know 100% deed restricted affordable housing in our coastal zone uh is is something that we would like local ministerial control over um as well as adaptive reuse of of buildings uh into housing. So, no new development, but if we have giant vacant buildings that aren't being put to use and someone wants to convert that to housing, I think that would be appropriate. Um uh you know, with with some sort of reasonable allowance for minor external uh renovations or whatever is needed to facilitate that without massive uh expansions. Um, and I would I would strongly prefer that we, you know, maintain that BJ overlay district um in in our in and codify that in our LCB.

Great. Council personnel. So, thank you. Um, and thank you for all the work on it. I I actually think this is an excellent time to to be discussing the LCP. I have some questions with respect to obviously thisou would not encompass the actual coastal boundaries that are in place based on what you said this evening. We wouldn't be discussing that at all. I'm just curious from um history. You said something about um the boundaries were approximately about a thousand yards from the coast. Is that something that thousand that that that's that's how it's defined? That's how it's defined in our boundaries particularly when it gets up to Lincoln. It's it's more than a thousand.

Yeah, I I think we've been asked that question a lot and honestly it's it's pretty hard to research so we're kind of speculating. Um you know Lincoln Boulevard used to be the old State Route 1. Um which is probably why you can imagine PCH used to go up and then you know turn the corner. Um we took that back you know from the state or responsibility from that you know a few years ago. Um you know but that's what we imagine. And then we can also see like we were looking at some of the maps, you know, it kind of followed like topography cuz you can see like where the contour lines, you know, sort of um uh showed up, you know, where where there was like slope. Um and you know, at the scale it was drawn, you know, I it seemed to follow like that topographic pattern, you know, as to where the lines ended up generally. And then that's, you know, so that's that's our best guess without knowing, you know, what was like governing all of it and who was drawing the map. And then my next question, thank you for that. And then my next question um we we talked about establishing anou and gave a timeline that was actually pretty um to establish theou I think I saw sometime in June or mand is that what I saw with respect to

yeah it's so this would be like roughly a year from now to do both the lup and the IP like to target you know bring basically bringing both components the so do you feel that that timeline is reasonable with with your understanding of the relationship that we have with the coastal commission. I think it's doable. Um, you know, like with the alignment, you know, and the interest in getting this done. Um, you know, it seems doable. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Other question? No. Okay. Council member Negrete,

I mean, I have questions, but they're sort of questions and comments and questions for the makers, maybe for yourself as well, Jing. Um, I'm obviously in support of a local coastal plan. I I think that that's been clear. I'm just a little befuddled as to how this became an emergency meeting. Um, I think the the community is right in asking, how it came about. And I think it's extremely difficult to not reference the assembly bill before us because it's very clear that that sparked this all of a sudden resurgence of expeditious conversations with Coastal Commission. Um my question for the makers is specifically council member Raskin, you had mentioned to me that we are aligned on this issue. Um you said that to me. um and the housing piece of it and and wanting to discuss it. I have been working and in public been bringing a commissioner who I have a relationship with to speak with community members, staff. I just it's it just befuddles me that if we're this is a collaborative effort, it feels very political in terms of the timing of it and the fact that you didn't include me in the in the conversation cuz we were discussing it. So, it's just hard for me to understand how it came about. Um, so what concerns me really is just like the process and the timing and the fact that we're trying to bifrocate it from this bill when clearly the public backlash is what kind of prompted I mean the city we were all promoting this or you guys were I was the only one saying I didn't support it and I respect um the assembly member um trying to do something that wasn't intended to just be focused on Santa Monica. I I really respect the fact that uh the commissioners from the coastal commission spent copious amounts

of times in in our neighborhood meetings and talking to advocates, but I do want I do think it's interesting that all of a sudden it's it's it's come up and and so residents are rightfully asking why this suddenly became so urgent only after the public backlash around AB740. Um, of course, I welcome transparency. In fact, I proposed an item, but because I'm not the mayor and I don't have the ability to create a special agenda item when I did that last year was because there was a fire, so it's like usually used for an emergency. But I just feel like this conversation probably could have happened. Was it really necessary? Or could we have handled this through like a different collaborative public process? Um, and and in fact, if this was all happening before, we could have had more time maybe to allow more council voices at the table and community voices. Um, so I am disappointed by the lack of collaboration surrounding the process. Um, specifically in reference to our conversation beforehand. Um, and my position hasn't been private. I've spoken publicly about supporting the local coastal plan and um, not supporting the council supported AB740 um, because I believed it went too far in housing and whatnot, which is what you and I had discussed. So I think it is fair to ask if there was alignment, why were broader collaborative conversations not happening earlier? Why was there an effort why wasn't there an effort to work together before this became a rushed special agenda item only after community backlash? It it's it's a there's a disconnect. It creates public skepticism and residents want to know that policy decisions are being driven by actually thoughtful governance and general collaboration and not political positioning after the fact. So, I believe we could have worked together sooner, more openly, and not so rushed in a way that strengthened public trust instead of raising more questions about process and urgency. At the end of the day, I don't care who gets credit. I just I I hope that we're genuinely positioned to protect our local coastal

authority while maintaining public trust on how decisions are made up here. Um, Council Member Snell was not publicly in supporting any of that. I I'm just so confused as to how that happened and why it needed to be this special agenda item at the last minute to discuss tonight. It feels it just it just feels interesting. I I'd like to speak to it.

Yeah. I mean I I mean I honestly from my position as to why I thought it was necessary is obviously because of public's concern about the particular item us dealing with the coastal commission. And then once I did my research, the fact that we have had this long period of time not being able to get to a cultural commission and and what I've heard from all of us on the council and from the community that it's something that they want to do, I think that with the um even though we're not talking about AB uh 1740, the reality of it is is that that particular item caused a lot of confusion within our community. And I thought it was really important for us one to educate the community as to where we stood with the coastal commission something that we saw tonight. So, we're are we are giving the community an ability to speak on it and for us to understand and two based on and I don't know how you feel about it, but based on our revitalization plan and what we've been trying to do to activate our downtown and the things that we've had to deal with with respect to the permit process and you've heard today from staff as to the the process of going through the coastal commission when something has to happen within their boundaries. I see the urgency. I see the urgency big time with respect to what we're trying to do to um increase our economic development area to be able to have um a cleaner uh process for permitting with different items. So for me, I think the urgency was much much much uh needed at this point. So that's just why my position and I'm glad that I was able to bring this forward with the mayor and council Rascin.

Yeah. I mean I think um picking up where council left off um I mean the the intent I don't think of any rand group is to exclude anyone. It's the nature of ran act that you can only work with a limited number of council members. uh with respect to the way in which this came about as a special uh agenda item. I mean there my understanding is there was a meeting today between the city staff and uh coastal staff or at least there's been there's been ongoing communication and um you know it felt important to me to make sure that we had buyin from the full council before we went too far down this road and we didn't have an opportunity I think to agendaize this is through like the usual agendaizing process uh that would have ordinarily put it on the agenda at the end of last week. Um but given that we're not going to have another meeting until um what is it May 26th, you know, it it only felt appropriate to me to to make sure that we have the buyin of all seven of us in this way. And I I think this was the only way to do it.

Yeah, that's so interesting. I just want to respond to that because I had proposed a 16 item which was to bring forward where we're at with the LCP but was told that I needed to wait because there's an update that would happen and then there was this special agenda item. So that's why I'm just confused as to like why all of a sudden this happened. It just feels I'll be honest with you. You said that brown acts aren't to exclude, but the reality is that that does happen often. And I mean, if I I don't need to point out the obvious.

So, I'm I just wanted to understand cuz I think there's a lot of public scrutiny on the fact that like yes, I proposed a 16 item about getting an update on where we were so that the public could have the information and follow along and was told, "Oh, you know, there's going to be an update." And then was told that the mayor said, "Well, Lana's going to put something on, so now I'm putting this agenda on." not not from this body in this office, but that's what I'm just asking like what when was the real goal of meeting urgency because if there was meetings today, it sounds like we needed staff needs more time to give us a true update and that in fact we didn't need to have this update tonight. So, I don't understand what specific timing we're up against because it sounds like we've been briefed on many things as a council as discussions are happening between staff and coastal commission before it comes forward. It just seemed ironic that tonight it it was like such an urgency. It was like an emergency and it had to be on at the very last minute.

Yeah. I mean, look, first of all, I don't know who told you that. That is absolutely incorrect. And I think we definitely will be having a discussion at our next meeting about this, but what I would say is that without without, you know, talking about 1740 bills are in their second house. Um, they went through appropriations. We have a limited window in which to potentially get a deal. Um we I I think it would be disingenuous for our staff to negotiate with the coastal commission to get a deal framework in place and an agreement on anou by the end of this month if the at the second meeting in May is what's the date today? How many days is the second meeting in May from the end of May? like the discussions have been working with the coastal commission staff have been working towards let's get a deal in place by the end of May because we want to try to solve this within this legislative session just being completely transparent. Um and so I think that that's why the urgency we we it wouldn't be right first of all this is not a close session discussion item. Second of all there's been a lot of scrutiny in the public so we didn't think we could go to close session. There's been a lot of scrutiny in the public about this. It makes more sense to have this discussion transparently which is what we're trying to do. And if we're giving direction to staff to negotiate, we should do that before the the the deal is done. Does that make sense?

I mean, sort of, except for that this this council took a public position supporting like things that are opposite of what's happening right now. So, I guess the next question I'll just say is, is there a way quickly without creating too much staff burden to put the historical facts update and where we're at on a on our website under following along like our local coastal plan? Cuz I know we already have some things already posted. Is there a way to have that so the public can follow along with where we're at since this is moving so rapidly like the time timeline kind of. Yeah. Yeah. And what's being proposed so that the language is very clear for everybody so that they can go look at it on the website. Is that possible?

Yeah, I I think the um the the these are live negotiations that are happening in real time. So certainly we can um make sure that as you know things are getting prepared over the next few weeks. Um background history um how this process can unfold, we can certainly get that all developed. Um there's been lots of conversations with you know various different um bodies. Definitely conversations with folks in Sacramento, definitely conversations with Coastal. I think all of those conversations have created this opportunity that, you know, however we got here, I think, um, from a staff perspective, we think the opportunity to get an LCP finalized is something that really is, you know, in the best interest of Santa Monica and everything we're trying to accomplish for the city. And so certainly I think um if the council's um comfortable with us moving forward in this direction we can get background information you know really put up on a dedicated website and as these discussions sort of evolve and mature um certainly continue to keep everything updated and I think our hope would be um Jing you think I mean really think before the end of this month likely at our meeting on the 26th we're hoping we can have some framework ready for the full council to consider. So,

so tonight was a question. There was really the need to have this because we were actually thinking that there was people on this council that would be opposed to having an LCP. Like you guys needed to hear us say, "Yes, we want one even though you've been working on it the entire time."

No, actually we we haven't been working well we restarted in 2023 and we've had information back to Coastal on a couple of different sections for the LEUP um as late as this past December. things that really haven't been moving. Um, it's a slow process. The investment of time from both Coastal and the city to get something like this accomplished in 12 months needs to get accelerated. Um, and everyone would need to be on board. the last week really um in the last week really there's been this revelation from Coastal and whatever the impetus was certainly 1740 is probably one of the reasons that triggered an interest from Coastal to say hey can we talk Santa Monica and try to solve for some of these issues in an accelerated time frame but really in the last week is when um at the staff level it became apparent that hey there might be something possible and and really you know it's There's multiple members on the council that have been playing a role in all of that. I know council member Negretti, you've been communicating with um you know, assembly members and and state legislators and commissioners. I know other members of the council have done so also via brown group and I think all of those collective efforts have brought us you know really to this point where um it does feel like a unique opportunity that we have in the next couple of weeks to see can we you know really get something something really difficult and hard done in the interest of of the city.

Okay, Council Member Zern Sky.

Thank you. Um, so I I just wanted to make sure I'm understanding the timeline that has led us up to here. I don't know if you would be able to go back. I I don't know if it's the slide before or the previous one. Yeah, I think this one. Um, so I recall during and I know it's not part of it, but um I I I recall during the assembly committee on housing's discussion of AB740, Assembly Member Zur um went over his understanding of Santa Monica's LCP timeline and um had mentioned something about us submitting it in 2020 and then being asked to um pull it back and I was wondering if you'd be able to maybe provide a little bit of color on that just so I I understand what I don't know what you're able to share. No, I mean I'm I'm happy to. I think I'm also like, you know, it's I think we're really trying to just move forward and

whatever occurred in the past, you know, did. But, you know, yes, I I think just to high level um you know, we we did submit um the council's adopted 2018 LUP. It took you know many months for it to be deemed approved and then uh you know essentially what happened is that there's a statutory time limit by which the coastal commission has to act um on something and it was reaching that time limit and there was you know mutual agreement to withdraw um and you know really I think in the spirit though of like you know the continuing good faith effort it's like hey we're going to run out of time here we're still stalled on things you know it's in no one's interest to like forge ahead you know, into a meeting where you're not in agreement on like foundational issues. So, you know, let's withdraw and restart this process and buy everyone more time. You know, that's really it it really is it really was a result of just, you know, being being stuck in like fundamental disagreements um on policy. So,

okay. And so, our intent is to move forward and try to, you know, have all the parties work in good faith together to try to get a

Yeah. and and that's really been the spirit of recent discussions and that's where I think I said you know the the longitudinal aspect of right and the the the staff from both coastal and city you know that have been at this it's the same people you know that have been involved in it there's there's a huge advantage to that and not wanting to kind of we all know where we got stuck you know and so the you know the principles I think that you know are you're seeing here the ideas around it are kind of growing out of that process like here are some is you know the root cause of if you will you know of these philosophical disagreements you know can we can we solve for that can we coales around this so it helps us move forward you know into the branches right that come from agreeing on that principle

okay thank you and um and I I had previously kind of discussed the situation of Santa Monica's LCP efforts uh with a coastal commissioner a while ago and um something that I think I was kind confused about coming away from that conversation is where state law may have already um preempted or provided exemptions to coastal commission um review. And I I I'm not, you know, I'm not sure what if any state laws there there have been that have been passed that um have I think it was specifically related to to housing. um if there's anything that has exempted certain types of projects from coastal commission review already and it if that is the case would it be possible to just create some clarity around that on you know whatever website we web page we put up or in the LCP or

yeah we we we have actually asked coastal staff to I think clarify you know what those tools are um doesn't always line up with, you know, actual experience, I guess I'll say, um, you know, in some some in some of those tools that are supposed to be available via state law. So, I think as an initial step, you know, we've invited that like, well, you know, help us help us understand more fully, you know, whether it's existing tools or new ones that are like being in in development, you know, that are the result of recent state law. um it's helpful for everyone to understand those pieces and also you know an openness on their part to kind of learn from the things that cities have to deal with right with the multitudes of state laws that we have to comply with we you know it's almost like you have two masters you know and um they they kind of conflict and we've seen this um you know I I I spoke at a coastal commission meeting in Santa Cruz that was addressing this very issue about you know how does the coastal commission work with like HD you know, on these things, right, where um you know, the legislature can direct what it does, but you know, how do you reconcile that with the coastal commission's process, you know, and there it's it's I think spurred like really great collaborative efforts, you know, between cities and HDs. They've been listening sessions, you know, and I think cities are feeling like really caught in the middle, you know, between it's like it's hard to comply with both, right? And so like these are the kinds of things you know that that we're solving for you know so yeah there's for sure been a lot of things around housing um and I think you know we we have invited I think more clarity around like what are those tools because you know maybe maybe they work for this right and like problem done you know kind of thing so

okay so if I'm understanding correctly there is already work underway to provide clarity and get clarity on where certain things may already be exempt under state law from coastal commission view and understanding how the coastal commission is see no what yeah yeah yeah streamlining it's not yeah it's not exactly yeah I I think that's where it's okay

I it it's hard to call it like fully exempt because there to our knowledge there aren't tools that just say you know like you're completely I think when you think about streamlining, you know, in our in our local context. It's like there's no public hearing. That's not the case in, you know, a coastal act context. And I think that's what we're trying to understand, you know, on reconcile. So, you know, even streamlined under that might still have, you know, that that additional um, you know, hearing component, right, that that isn't maybe present in in the local context. So, we're we're trying to in in in getting that clarity, we're likely are we including like the definitions of what the different terminology means for coastal versus local city versus state and all that fun stuff?

Yeah, I mean when you when you talk about a policy document like the LUP or the closest ordinance, you're talking about policy and implementation. So, absolutely. Yeah, this process will cover all of that. Do we need like a translation dictionary like French English but coastal commission city state? It's like part of the discussions to come. Thank you. Yeah. Um, council policy in the Cuba. Can I ask some questions or did you have questions? Okay, great. Um, so I just want to get clarification. Which of the long-standing policy disagreements that we're talking about here, because I know there are several parking pricing, home sharing, preferential parking districts, demolition definitions have been resolved. Are we still negotiating all of those things right now?

No, they're not resolved. Okay. So, I would I would like us to make sure that those are prior those items I just mentioned are prioritized. Um, I also think I agree on the adaptive reuse point as well. Mhm.

Um, I think no one mentioned this, but the bus only lanes and the bike lanes need to be prioritized like we talked about for streamlined approval. Um, commercial changes in use I think are important for our economic recovery. Um, so those need to be streamlined and then I think we need to have some sort of agreement with Coastal on some of these major events that are forthcoming. Um, and what that process looks like and I'm hoping that that could be in anou as I know we have several and more that could even potentially come that we talked about in close session today. Um, and so can you just explain to us what specifically is meant by ministerial CDP framework for certain categories of low impact projects? It's to to be honest it's a term of art you know um you know I think the the idea is I think the spirit of the idea is exploring just as I was saying you know what are the tools available you know that help advance some of these lower impact projects right can you know when you talk about commercial TI's um you know additions to homes I mean those are quite frankly those are the bread and butter of what we deal with a lot it's you know well over a third of our permit volumes um there's a way that you know we can solve for that kind of stuff um you know through a process you know other than this two-step process so you know it's it's really I think sort of an overarching term to use of like an openness to explore a little outside of the box you know what are the existing tools can we tweak them a little bit you know to to make them work

sure so I think that that's another point that I think is very important in theou is like what project categories are qualifying under a ministerial CDP framework what are the thresholds for those and who's going to determine that? Is it going to be us? Yeah, I I mean that's that that's going to be part of the discussion point and you know some of what coastal staff has shared with us is that that that tool is something that's available for example for like ADUs or SP9s um you know which was um you know I think we'd want to know more right about how that how that tool exists. Um so yeah I think it's it's part of the discussion. I don't have specificity about how that might work um because that's going to be part of part of the process.

So I don't know I mean if you're making a motion I don't know if that's important to my other council members but I think it's important to me and I think um specifically on the economic recovery piece of changes in use I think we've all heard anecdotal stories of how long that's taken and I would think that that ministerial framework or at least some sort of streamline framework for the um commercial changes in use would be quite important to us. Mhm. Um Okay. Thank you, Council Member Hall.

Thank you, Mayor. Um and and to add to that, if it wasn't clear, just the um not just the changes of use, but it the potential renovations that would be required to facilitate changes of use. I'm thinking like a lot of the outdoor bars and patios that businesses have proposed, but have chosen to not pursue because of the lengthy periods that Coastal uh puts them through. Um Oh, perfect. This is what I was going to ask you to pull up. Um, I move uh this path forward as our our direction. um and uh to continue exploring um uh with direction to continue exploring policies consistent with our legislative platforms and and um uh projects that we've, you know, been been seeking approval of recently.

I'll second that motion. Uh I just have one clarification with the mayor. Um, did you also include uh parking as you did? I didn't hear you say that. So, just to be clear. Oh, yeah. Preferential parking, parking pricing. Okay. Um, those two things I think have not been resolved. I didn't hear you say that. That's Yeah, I support the motion. And I think there's an outstanding question on home sharing as well. Correct. Yes. Yeah. So, there was a motion in a second. Did you want to say anything, Council Rasca?

Yeah, just to the I mean just for the sake of clarity here. Um I hope it's friendly to the maker and seconder that uh you know these are uh I guess policy objectives but not necessarily hill to die on if that's okay with folks. That is correct. Yeah. I mean, I think at the end of the day, my understanding is that there are like over 30 sub or there were over like 30 substantive policy dis disagreements previously

and we have the best staff in the nation. We trust you. You're very good at this. Um, I think we're going to defer to like the specifics that you need to achieve what we've just outlined right now without compromising like our policy objectives as Santa Monica. Yeah, we understand. Yeah. So, it sounds like we're ready for a vote. Council members Erneskaya. Yes. Council member Snail. Yes. Council member Rascin, yes. Council member Hall, yes.

Council member Negrete, yes. Mayor Terosas, yes. Great. That carries. Um, I believe we still have one public commenter that that did not get to be heard. And then, do we have any adjournments? Believe we have any. Okay. Okay, Mitchell, we're ready for the caller. All right, Miss Barton, you can press star six and your time will begin when you begin speaking.

Good evening. In watching your arguments and whether or not to accept grant funding for deescalation training for the police at the last city council meeting, what I saw was you putting your personal political preferences and Trump derangement syndrome which is considered to be a mental illness on display, not what's in the best interest of the city. making it seem like the safety of the city and those within it are not really one of your top priorities. Then you've also been I've also been wondering since you raised the water rates another 50% over 5 years if in 2021 the water rates were raised also around 50% over 5 years. Do you not think a 100% raise on water rates over 10 years might be seen as gouging the customer? But you keep siphoning from the water fund to pay to pay increases for city staff. And do you ever plan to return the 15 million of water fund?

The caller didn't announce their name. The caller was Denise Barton. Okay. Thank you, Mitchell. Have a good evening. Okay, the time is 12:14 and this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

See you May 26 with a full um LCPOU framework.