City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order.

Please take a seat. Please take a seat. Silence your cell phones or set them to vibrate so as not to disturb the meeting, please. We will begin with a Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember Negrete, will you lead us? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

Thank you.

Council Member Hall, will you lead us in the land acknowledgement?

The City of Santa Monica is located on the land of Tovongar. With great respect, the City acknowledges the Gabrielino Tongva as the first people of this ancestral and unceded territory of Curavanga, a village that we know as Santa Monica. We honor their elders past and present and the Gabrielino descendants who are part of the Gabrielino Tongva tribes. We recognize that these peoples are still here, and as settlers and kuyam, 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 Gabrieleno Tongva people to uplift their voices and visibility on their ancestral land.

Thank you.

Sorry. Mayor Pro Tem, let me ask the question. Does anyone have anything that requires themselves? I'm sorry. Let me start over again. Do any council members, will any council members be recusing themselves on any items on the agenda pursuant to the Levine Act? Nope. And before we go any further, I need to do the roll.

Did we skip that? Apologies.

Okay, no problem. Councilmember Negrete? Here. Councilmember Hall?

Present.

Councilmember Raskin? Here. Councilmember Snell? Here. Councilmember Zarniskaya? Here. Mayor DeRosas? We see you.

Here. Here.

There you go, good. Mayor ProTem Zwick?

Here.

Okay.

All right, so the next item we have is agenda management.

yes I'm gonna request a motion in a second to hear the city managers report and the proclamation before we hear general public comment and to one more item sorry and to continue the annual board and Commission appointments to the second meeting in July so moved I'll second it moved by councilmember Negrete seconded by councilmember Snell

Sorry, a quick point of order. On the published agenda, it says that the boards and commissions will be continued to August 11th.

It says it on the agenda right now?

Yeah.

I think the agenda management motion is likely because I will potentially not be available for the August 11th meeting.

Ken, just to let you know, we had to put, because these boards and commissions were noticed, is the reason that we put them on the agenda. So even though the date is in the future, you can go ahead and make the motion to change it.

Okay. Well, I would move that. I would add to the motion, I think it was already stated, but that we change the date from August 14th to whatever the date is of the second meeting in July. I'm not sure if we have that handy.

July 28th.

July 28th.

So moved with the modifications.

I'll second that.

Council Member Zerniskaya.

Sorry, point of order slash question. Would it, I'd like to make a friendly amendment, if friendly to the maker and the seconder, for a closed session, for us to do an hour of closed session and then return at the end if there's any other items remaining to be heard.

That's fine, that's friendly to me.

With me. Is there any reason, any other concern we might have about that?

None, thank you.

Okay, that's friendly then, so we can vote.

Okay. Council Member Zarniskaya? Yes. Council Member Snell?

Yes.

All right, I'm so used to this. Council Member Raskin? Yes. Council Member Hall?

Yes.

Council Member Negrete? Yes. Mayor Terrosis?

Yes.

And Mayor Pro Temswyk?

Yes.

Okay, so the first item we have is the City Manager's Report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. Good evening. We have a brief report from staff just to highlight a couple of different components for the Council and community. First, as the Council knows, the World Cup has arrived in Southern California, and our city has been just bustling with activity. We've seen our streets packed and our different watch venues really buzzing with life everywhere in the downtown core and at the pier. We've had some terrific activity during the last couple of weeks. I think really reinforces the plan that we have to try to realign right now so that we can help the city revitalize. We've seen thousands, tens of thousands of people come out to celebrate at events being hosted here in the city. We've had World Cup watch events. We've had activations at the promenade and at the pier. We've had the pride on the promenade block fest, the night market event that we coordinated a couple weeks ago. Make Music Day and Juneteenth this past weekend. So much happening. All of it seems to be driving a tremendous amount of activity, both in terms of people visiting and also people spending money at our local businesses. And certainly there's a vibe and an energy in the city that all of us are feeling. As we come up on this next weekend, we've got even more fun out here in Santa Monica, the annual Pier 360 Beach Festival. It's a free festival on Saturday and Sunday. We'll feature live music, roller skating, a bunch of different sports competitions, food giveaways, and more. The other thing we wanted to note for everyone as the World Cup continues, every single Team USA and Team Mexico game will be broadcast for free on the Promenade. We've got a new LED screen that's going to be live streaming the games. along with other activations on the 1300 block of the promenade starting this Wednesday, running through Saturday. We've also got a series of World Cup-related activations happening throughout the city. Golden Hour, one of the event activations associated with the World Cup, will be on the promenade this Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., The Pitchside Club is also going to be activated through this week, so everyone make sure you check it out before the Pitchside Club comes to a close. Finally, we're going to have a World Cup Fun and Watch Party on Thursday from 6 to 9 at the Annenberg Community Beach House and also at the Beach House this Friday. It's the Pride Sunset Swim from 6 to 9 p.m. for everyone 18 and over. So we've had a ton of activations, a ton of activity. We also had some really good economic activity that we wanted to share. The last couple of weeks, we've seen the opening of the official FIFA soccer store on the promenade, the window store. Everyone gotten your raising canes yet? Dragon Alley Coffee Shop and the much-discussed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizzeria, Cowabunga Dude. Everyone, make sure you get your merch and your pizza and have a terrific time everyone we hope you support these new businesses and all of our existing local businesses and of course we'll have more events and information all online at Santa Monica gov lastly I'm sorry we are sorry to announce our adoptable the pet could not make it to the meeting tonight but we did want to share with everyone we have a four-year-old pit bull mix named Pete Pete was taken to the animal shelter this past January, severely neglected, way underweight, truly unwell. But after being cared for and nourished by our animal shelter team, we're so excited to share Pete has regained his strength. He's got a spark for life. He's friendly, great on the leash, does well with children and other dogs. We will bring Pete back to meet everyone here at our next meeting. But if you're interested in meeting Pete before then, Please reach out to the Animal Shelter, and of course, you can always visit the Santa Monica Animal Shelter Foundation website to make a donation or shop the Chewy Wish List. That will turn it back over to you, Madam City Clerk.

Okay, so next we have the proclamation. It's the Wallace Annenberg Day.

Yeah, and may Sophia Klotzker, here you are. Thank you.

Uh, good evening mayor mayor pro tem council members and members of the community. Uh, I'm Sophia, I'm the head of cultural affairs in the city of Santa Monica. It's my pleasure to welcome Gregory. Chairman and director of the Annenberg foundation as we recognize the extraordinary legacy of his mother Wallace Annenberg and proclaim July 15th as Wallace Annenberg day in the city of Santa Monica. Gregory was raised in Los Angeles before beginning his career as a journalist in London and later pursuing his work as an artist in Paris. In 2015, he returned to Los Angeles with his family to take on a greater leadership role at the Annenberg Foundation. Today, Gregory serves alongside his siblings as chairman and director of the Annenberg Foundation, continuing the philanthropic vision established by his grandfather, Ambassador Walter Annenberg. Under Wallace Annenberg's remarkable leadership, beginning in 2009, the foundation expanded its impact in transformative ways, supporting communities through investments in the arts, education, environmental stewardship, health care, and animal welfare. Together, the foundation has contributed more than $5 billion to nonprofit organizations and institutions around the world. Here in Santa Monica, Wallace Annenberg's vision has left an enduring mark through the Annenberg Community Beach House, a place that welcomes residents and visitors of all ages to gather, learn, and enjoy our coastline. We are deeply grateful for the foundation's partnership and for the lasting legacy that continues to enrich our community. Please join me in welcoming Gregory Annenberg-Weingarten.

Thank you, Sophia, for that introduction and your words about my late mother. On behalf of the Annenberg Foundation and my fellow directors, Lauren Bon and Charles Annenberg-Weingarten, respectively sister and brother, I want to thank the mayor and the city council for this proclamation of Wallace Annenberg Day. As a director of the foundation, I saw firsthand the power of my late mother's philanthropy. From the Annenberg Community Beach House to the Annenberg Space for Photography to Wallace Annenberg Hall at USC, for the School of Journalism and Communication. Her generosity reached more than 2,700 organizations, mostly here in Los Angeles, which has been her home since 1967, coming from Philadelphia and a place which she loved and deeply cherished and really brought the foundation from Philadelphia here. In recognition of her life's work, President Biden awarded her the National Humanitarian Humanities Medal in 2024. But the numbers and awards aren't what I'll remember most. What stays with me is who my mother was, her bold spirit, her endless curiosity, and a wit so quick that, frankly, she'd probably tell me this speech is running too long. But she deeply loves Santa Monica, I can tell you since I'm here. at the City Hall. So I remember actually coming here from the east side when I was a kid, she used to take me, I don't know, you're probably all too young to remember, but Santa Monica Pier used to have a giant slide where you got into potato sacks So that's a very fond memory of Santa Monica as a childhood, as childhood coming to the pier. I'm not going to pass a motion to bring back that slide or the potato socks because I think there's a roller coaster there now. But and then, of course, the Beach House was really her vision and is, I think, you know, one of the most loved places in Los Angeles. And as none here, the director of the Beach House can attest to, We used to come over the last two decades or since it's been open incognito. It would just give her so much joy to see people of every age, every color, every persuasion using and, you know, in the pool and the playground. And we had been known incognito to go get a hamburger back to the beach. So it's really been a great experience. has been a great gift to the community and then personally has been a, I know was a great, gave her a great sense of joy and pride. July 15th would have been her 87th birthday, so that's just coming up soon. And I know she'd have been deeply moved by this honor. Lauren Charles and I are proud to mark this first Wallace Annenberg day to carry her forward with the same heart and conviction that she gave to everything she touched and to honor the philanthropic legacy that began with our late grandfather Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg who would also have been very proud to to see his daughter recognized this way and Thank you again for this recognition.

Thank you. And we have a proclamation here, which I'll read quickly. Whereas Wallace Annenberg made an extraordinary and enduring contribution to the Los Angeles region through her civic leadership, philanthropy, and unwavering commitment to the public good, and whereas her support for journalism, education, arts, and culture, health, civic institutions, and public space helped shape the social and cultural life of the region, And whereas the Annenberg Community Beach House is a lasting example of her many good works, whereas her example demonstrated how generosity, imagination, and public service can strengthen the civic fabric of a great country, and whereas July 15th, the anniversary of her birth, is a fitting date upon which the city of Santa Monica may honor her life and legacy, now therefore may it be resolved by the City of Santa Monica that July 15, 2026 is hereby proclaimed as Wallace Annenberg Day in recognition of her extraordinary civic, philanthropic, and cultural contributions to the region and the City of Santa Monica. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So now we're going to go to general public input and comment on, sorry, general public comment. And just so that you know, Mayor Pro Tem, there are five minors that have signed up to speak under this item, and it begins with Max Ehrman.

Five minors that begin with Max?

Yeah, Max Ehrman, Leo, is it Moravati, Miller Levine, Milan Ramesh.

OK. So if Max, Herman, Leo, Maravadi, Miller, Levine, Eleven, and Milan Ramesh are here, if they could come up first, you get to go first. And just state your name, and then you'll have two minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Max Ehrman. I'm a 15-year-old, and I've had a close connection to Santa Monica for most of my life. I went to Crossroads School here, and both of my brothers go to separate schools in Santa Monica currently. I've also grown up playing tennis and pickleball, so this issue has become very personal to me. I care deeply about the environment, and one thing I've constantly noticed is how many tennis and pickleballs get thrown away. I think that's funny. For a long time, I assumed there was already a system in place to recycle them. But when I found out that there really isn't a widespread solution, it honestly surprised me. That's when I realized this is a problem that needed action. Santa Monica has a reputation for being forward-thinking and exceptionally well-run. Because of that, I believe that Santa Monica is in a perfect position to lead on an issue like this. If Santa Monica were to implement an ordinance requiring the collection and recycling of used tennis and pickle balls at courts and facilities in the area, it wouldn't just make a local impact, it would set a standard that other cities would follow. This is an opportunity for Santa Monica to once again be the first and try to lead in a way that creates real environmental change. Another balance in habits of waste are starting to collect balls locally, and we hope that over time, this becomes a self-sustaining circular model that requires minimal ongoing support. It's something that local clubs and parks could easily participate in, so we hope that you can help us. Thank you for your time, and I really appreciate your consideration.

Thank you. So we're going to just do this now from now on. I know we cheered for the proclamation, but for the sake of time, we'll just express our appreciation with our happy hands. And from that, I'll call it Leo.

Good evening, council members and mayor. My name is Leo Moravati, and the reason I'm here tonight is because tennis is my passion and a very big part of my life. Some of my favorite matches have been through my school on courts right here in Santa Monica. As a 16-year-old, I understand how important it is for us to protect our planet. I'm so happy that the city of Santa Monica is partnering with us to set a Guinness World Record for the most tennis and pickleballs collected and recycled on September 19th. The reason we are setting this record is because tennis and pickleball waste is at an all-time high, and thanks to growing interest in these sports, the problem is only getting worse. The New York Times reported that there are approximately 27 million tennis players in the United States, a number which has grown 24% since 2024. In addition, tennis and pickleball are continuing to be the fastest growing sports. With just over 24 million players, this many players means there is also a lot of waste. And we know all this waste is avoidable. Just in my lifetime, 8 billion tennis balls have been discarded into our precious planet. And if any of you or your children played tennis throughout their lives, the balls they played with are still sitting in our landfills. We all believed that it would take an iconic city like Santa Monica to inspire the shift needed to change this common behavior. We are looking for leaders like you to help by considering a new ordinance requiring all clubs and parks to recycle tennis and pickleballs. Thank you so much for your time and attention. Thank you. Miller Levin.

Good evening council members, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. My name is Miller Levin. I'm 16. I'm the third member of Another Bounce. I've played tennis my entire life and I've begun to develop a sense of the waste that is overlooked in the tennis and pickleball community across the world. I really have admired this city throughout my entire life. I drive through all the time. I live in the Palisades, pretty close. And I really appreciate the city as a whole, especially when it comes to the leadership this city has shown for waste reduction. Climate change and waste are major problems in our world, as you all know. And together with my fellow board members, we are taking a stand on reducing tennis and pickleball waste. We've been working with a bunch of country clubs and calling out a lot of parks around the city and Santa Monica. And we believe that this city is in the perfect position to be the pioneer in this historic change that other cities globally can follow you guys. Tonight we ask that tennis and pickleball recycling be placed as an agenda item in a near future City Council meeting so that together we can draft an ordinance requiring ball recycling at Santa Monica, country clubs, and parks. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Milan Ramesh.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. I'M MILANDER MESH, I'M 15 YEARS OLD, AND I'M A FORMER RESIDENT OF SANTA MONICA. I'M ALSO A JUNIOR BOARD MEMBER OF ANOTHER BOUNCE. WE ARE HERE TODAY BECAUSE WE UNDERSTAND FIRSTHAND HOW COMMITTED SANTA MONICA IS TO THE ENVIRONMENT. AS YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY HEARD THIS EVENING, OVER 500 MILLION TENNIS BALLS AND PICKLE BALLS ARE SOLD EACH YEAR, BUT ONLY 1% OF THEM END UP GETTING RECYCLED. THE REST STAY IN LANDFILLS FOR OVER 500 YEARS. But this problem is already being solved right here in Santa Monica. Our group was excited to hear that the Jonathan Club is already recycling tennis and pickleballs, showing that this works. By partnering with Recycle Balls, they are making sure not a single ball goes to waste. If one club can do it, then every club and park can do it too. We ask that Santa Monica will be the first city in the country to pass an ordinance requiring tennis and pickleball recycling everywhere. You are leaders in this space, and we hope you'll take effort toward this initiative. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Now we'll go back to the top of the queue here. I see Kelly O'Hara, Denise Barton, and Sheila Moravati. You can come up.

Actually, there's one more student. Her name is Vivian.

Oh, I don't see that one, but I'm sorry, Vivian. My apologies. You go first.

good evening mayor and council members and thank you for your time this evening my name is vivian chow and i'm a 16 year old junior board member of another bounce Ever since I started at Crossroads School in sixth grade, I've been playing tennis with the school team on the public courts of Santa Monica. My experiences playing tennis have been some of the best parts of my life, arguing with my sister for like four hours every day, but I've realized that tennis and other racquet sports produce an extraordinary amount of waste. I can't believe that the sport I love so much has contributed over 300 million pounds of methane-producing waste to landfills, balls that take over 400 years to decompose. When I watch tennis on TV, I see the dozens of balls used per match, and it's the same way at tournaments I've played. There are expensive cases of hundreds of balls waiting to be used once and thrown away. With 27 million tennis players in the US and a rapidly growing amount of pickleballers, the amount of balls being thrown away increases exponentially every year. As a tennis player myself, I feel a responsibility to make my sport more sustainable. What many people don't realize is that these balls are actually recyclable. At Another Bounce, we've collected over 300 balls in less than a month, showing just how easy it is to obtain these balls to be recycled. We are here today to ask the City of Santa Monica to be the first city to pass an ordinance requiring all parks and private facilities to recycle tennis and pickleballs. In doing this, Santa Monica would have the opportunity to help the local environment and support our generation in finding solutions to combat climate change. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Kelly O'Hara.

Hi. So my concern is with Broadway and especially from 14th Street to 26th Street. And I just wanted to, I had written some questions, but I understand that you guys don't answer questions. Is that correct?

Not this time. This is your time to speak, and then we can try to connect with you afterwards.

Okay, I see. So I just wanted to ask, I guess, what traffic engineering studies and safety analysis for parking utilization studies or operational analysis were completed before the approval of Broadway and future bike lanes, the safety project where the public can review them? If California standard permits narrow bike lane facilities, would engineering analysis justified an approximately eight foot projected bike lane on Broadway and were alternative cross sections evaluated that would preserve parking while maintaining safety? And has the city model site distance impacts for drivers, existing parking spaces, driveways, and alleys after the parking lane relocation? What before and after collision data supports the chosen design and are you considering this as a arterial or residential street? I just my major concerns are for safety and for the accidents that have been happening in my presence on that street and being a former disabled person hopefully preventing y'all from a lawsuit that could impede the city again because it's very dangerous for somebody who was once in a wheelchair to try to get out of that car or street and try to navigate to get to a safety area so thank you thank you so much Denise Barton

Good evening. I thought it was very interesting that you were going for grant funding to make the airport into a park at the last City Council meeting, when the week before putting in 3,000 to 8,000 units at the airport was on the Housing Commission agenda. But what was even more interesting at the Housing Commission was the local 11 union member there announcing that all the units were going to union members. So is this your way of paying off them for door knocking and ballot harvesting for you for elections? Thank you.

Thank you. And before you come up, Sheila, I'll just call a few more names for people to line up. Victoria McDowell, Joe DeRosa, Ty Foreman, Morgan Hunter-Gross.

Good evening, Council Members and Mayor. My name is Sheila Moravati. I'm the founder of Habits of Waste. You may have seen me here before. I have spearheaded many bans on single-use plastics before, namely the plastic-strong cutlery ban in the city of Malibu. Today I'm here with these young individuals trying to teach them about advocacy and making change. Just because something is done a certain way doesn't mean that has to be the way it's done. And I believe that their passion for sport and learning about sustainability in sport is a very important part of their mission to change the world and the trajectory of climate change. On September 19th, we are going to be setting a Guinness World Record here at Reid Park. We invite all of you to attend. And I thought it might be an appropriate place to begin asking for an agenda item to be placed to discuss the possibility of single-use plastic pickleballs and tennis balls to be recycled and how we can tackle that issue. I believe it would be a wonderful day to announce something like that to happen on September 19th and you are all here in this beautiful city with the ocean right behind us and all of those 500 million balls do unfortunately end up in our oceans and waterways. So that is why I'm here today to make that request to see if we can make this an agenda item. I'm not sure if that's something we can do now and vote on that, but if it is, it is something that we would wish for greatly. Thank you.

Thank you. We can only speak to items that are already published on this agenda, but we appreciate the feedback. Next, I lost the queue here, sorry.

Victoria McDowell and then Jill DeRosa.

Good evening. My name is Victoria McDowell and I'm here to talk about permit enforcement My husband and family and I have lived in Santa Monica for over 20 years and on September 4th of last year We experienced a fire which led to water damage which led to mold and I was very concerned about the delay and lack of information from my landlord so I reached out to code enforcement and And on February 19th, a code enforcement officer issued a habitability determination, finding our unit uninhabitable and finding that we were not at fault and ordering our landlord to provide temporary benefits. which they did at first, but then on March 16th, they stopped. And it wasn't because there was an amendment to the relocation plan that was approved by the building department. The order wasn't lifted. Good afternoon, council members. My home is still uninhabitable.

My name is Jody Rosa, and today I'm presenting a vision to transform the underutilized Santa Monica Civic Auditorium site into a world-class Santa Monica Global Conference Center. The current facility is no longer viable as a concert venue, with construction of 200 residential units across the street and the improvements such as Belmar. Apologies, you'll have your time back.

Okay.

So sorry.

Okay, I need a time to breathe. All right. So we have sent, my husband and I have sent detailed emails, formal tenant harassment complaint. Our landlord continues to ignore a city approved plan and the city does not enforce it. So that's why I'm here today to please direct your staff to enforce the habitability termination and the city approved relocation plan in our case. And because this has been such a financial and emotional drain I'd like to ask that you consider requiring a public report on all the place tenants so no one has to experience this. And I thank you for listening to my concern.

Thank you. And I don't know, city managers, anyone who could make sure we have that information? Okay. Joe DeRosa.

Hi, City Council.

I have a video, as you probably guessed. I'd like to talk today about the Civic Auditorium. You guys have zoned residential apartments right across the street. You've made it Belmar Park, and it's pretty much made the property unusable as a concert venue. I'd like to discuss this video about turning it into a conference center, a Santa Monica Global Conference Center. What? No, that's...

Good afternoon, Council Members. My name is Joe DeRosa, and today I am presenting a vision to transform the underutilized Santa Monica Civic Auditorium site into a world-class Santa Monica Global Conference Center. The current facility is no longer viable as a concert venue, with construction of 200 residential units across the street and the improvements such as Belmar Park, the water treatment facility, and the new EV charging lot. Our proposal would deliver two 50,000 square foot ballrooms, capacity for up to 5,000 attendees, and over 150,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, comparable to successful waterfront centers like Harrah's in Atlantic City. This project would position Santa Monica as the premier coastal alternative for corporate conferences and conventions looking to avoid Las Vegas, generating significant economic impact through jobs, hotel nights, and local spending. The Santa Monica Global Conference Center would drive corporate conferences and conventions, while a Los Angeles artist series would generate cultural programming and celebrity-driven events, securing Santa Monica's economic future long-term. The project serves as an economic engine, projected to create over 1,000 jobs and generate significant hotel stays. We believe this is a once in a generation opportunity to activate a prime waterfront site and create lasting economic and cultural value for Santa Monica. I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss this further. Thank you. Good afternoon, council members.

Anyway, I think that's a much better use for the property and it's much more viable and nobody else is doing it. So I'd love to talk with somebody about the city, about trying to raise the money and figure a way to move forward with that project.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ty Foreman.

Hello. Thank you guys so much for the opportunity to speak. It's an honor really to be here at a bastion of American integrity and interaction with our government, our policymakers, and our citizens. I really, first things first, I want to commend the police staff here in Santa Monica. You guys do a really good job. I live in LA City, and having that perspective between police and LAPD and Santa Monica police. It's a beautiful thing to have this dance of civic harmony. What I really came here for is to connect A project that is in a feasibility stage with Los Angeles City and the Air Quality Management District, which is an active clean air defense system. I really believe that this system needs to be implemented in the United States. to ensure that the loss of life that happened during COVID-19 can never occur again so easily. And one of the key aspects of that project right now is a feasibility probe, which I'm leading, and I really hope to partner with the City of Santa Monica and the City of Los Angeles with. The structure is very decentralized in an effort in an effort to stimulate and invite innovators, Angelinos, students into the process of the formation of these units. Thank you guys so much, and I hope to be more present with you guys in the future. God bless. Thank you. Before Mr.

Gross, I'll call up Wade Kelly, Alexandra Dildine, John Medlin, and Zoe Montaner.

Hello, my name is Morgan Hunter Gross. Before I leave Santa Monica on my second transcontinental expedition, I have two requests. Please investigate Airbnb and 30-day stays, because my stay showed enough gaps in housing, lodging, cleaning standards, public health, taxes, inspections, smoke alarms, and guest protections to warrant city review. Please investigate Santa Monica Ford, sales and service, because fleet purchases, maintenance records, trim levels, emergency power options, and transparency matters when public money is involved. My larger request is this. Treat access as infrastructure and explain systems clearly before asking the public to trust them. Last summer, I studied California as a system. Monterey, Sacramento, Benicia, Fort Ross, Sonoma, Tahoe, rail, water, ports, missions, parks, fire, forests, mining, and public access. In Monterey, California, I learned that goods taxed entering the old capital was basically a tariff. That is president's school. It's not about winning. It's not about expect to win. It's about learning systems, using real world, changing what can be changed. Santa Monica needs the same clarity now. Airport land, measure LC, parks, housing, expo line consequences, tourism, leaded aviation fuel ending. The message is still too vague. My calendar failure with the city is a digital warning. A Microsoft export bug put 11 in the ICS calendar file. My iPhone showed 12 through daylight saving. That has national level implications. Scheduling is access. At the DMV, I saw legacy software issues. COBOL comes from 1959. Unix time is calculated from 1970 as a starting point. Old infrastructure sits under modern screens. Physical access shows the same pattern. City hall lights still flicker on the side. Broadway bike lanes change disabled access. City hall has a dirt ramp, a dirt with no ramp besides an accessible parking lot on the south side and needs pavement. Access is not just a sign, access is whether people can actually use it. My freshman year finished, my sophomore year starts, present school, lessons from Santa Monica to the nation, from sea to shining sea, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Thank you.

Thank you. Wade Kelly.

Hello. My name is Wade Kelly, and I'm running for Santa Monica City Council to stand up for human rights. Human rights. Because this city council has done a worse job than the last city council in standing up for human rights. And I didn't think that was possible. Last year, 75% of all the arrests in Santa Monica were of homeless human beings. and many of them for sleeping outdoor while being poor, sleeping outdoor while being poor. And still, Santa Monica has failed to build affordable housing, shelters, or safe spaces for homeless human beings. And you know, I am still the only candidate who would propose to use, I believe the only candidate who would propose to use any of that 192 acres of Santa Monica Airport property to build affordable housing. It's amazing. I heard the youngsters here today talking about environment and recycling tennis balls and pickleballs. I think that's great. But why don't we tear down the pickleball courts over on 4th Street that we've been waiting for and build some housing with pickleball and tennis ball, recycled tennis balls? What would that be? I mean, we have to show these people that the environment is important. But the environment for these homeless human beings is atrocious. And we have to think about the environment as it pertains to human beings. And if you have a life expectancy of 79 years old in the United States and only 50 years old for those living on the streets, we can do better. My name is Wade Kelly, and I'm running for Santa Monica City Council to stand up for human rights.

Thank you. Alexandra.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Alexandra Dildine, and I recently joined Assemblymember Rick Chavez-Zaburr's district office team. I wanted to introduce myself today because going forward, I will be working in conjunction with Robbie Steinberg, who some of you already know, to help cover the Santa Monica portion of the district. Our office can assist constituents with state agencies such as EDD, the Franchise Tax Board, and the DMV, among others. Constituents should feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, or concerns. I have my business card, so if anybody would like that afterwards, I'd be happy to give it to you. I'd also like to share that Assemblymember Zabur is hosting a virtual town hall tomorrow from 5.30 to 6.30 p.m. to discuss legislative issues that will also include a conversation with representatives from the city, including Mayor Tarosis, about the future of Santa Monica's local coastal program and AB 1740. If there are any constituents who are interested in attending but did not receive the link to sign up, please reach out to me and I will send it to you. Thank you.

Thank you so much and welcome. John Medlin.

Good evening. My name is John Medlin and I'm 81 years old and I've lived here for 30 years. The next time we're going to, you know, my understanding is we're still under a physical distress situation, nine months declared before, and yet we're gonna spend $600,000, up to $600,000 for a Rose Bowl parade. That makes me sound a little strange if we're under physical distress, so how are you gonna measure its success financially? That'd be interesting to see. You know, the lady they mentioned, they gave them $5 billion over the last X number of years from the Annenberg Foundation. We're almost on the hold for half a billion dollars on pedophiles. We've already paid out 300. We've got another 150 cases sitting. A couple of questions. Number one, when is the next court case to be heard? I understand we're actually going to take him to court now. When is it scheduled for? Now, representation. The next time we're going to have a scheduled vote, scheduled vote, lawsuit hearing for giving representation to neighborhoods is in October. We've already spent $15 million keeping people from having one person, one vote for their neighborhoods. Maybe we should consider that in our fiscal distress then. So that's basically it. Your fiscal distress, don't spend it with money we don't have. It's the first thing we had to worry about. I mean, I don't think I'll ever see a 500-year pickleball, but that's the way it goes. So please, physical distress, put the money first because we need it here. Thank you.

Thank you, Zoe Montaner. And then Harvey Etter.

I have a presentation, a PDF. And while she loads that, I want to agree with the vibe that city manager Chi spoke. I was listening on my way here. And it's great to be back in Santa Monica since the pandemic. I haven't seen the city and felt the city the way it has felt in the last couple of weeks. So I want to... Are we loading the presentation? Can you stop? Okay. As you remember, some of you were not in council yet. The city council voted unanimously to sign the Charter for Compassion in September of 2013. And the Charter for Compassion is an organization that promotes compassion, but the... United Conference of Mayors firmly embeds compassion as a guiding framework for urban policy. Through the initiatives like the Mayors and Business Leaders Center for Compassionate and Equitable Cities and the Compassionate USA program, mayors use empathy to tackle housing, policing, and community healing. You can learn more online on the key policy frameworks and the guide dedicated to assist city leaders in analyzing current local budgets and policies through a compassionate lens. I was arrested last Thursday, as you know, because I've been warning you that I have a narcissist sociopath as a roommate, and he played the police like a fiddle. I filed a police report for grand theft, and he filed a police report of grand theft, because that's what narcissists do, expose the city to litigation, You have seven items in closed sessions for litigation, and now you have another one because the way the police treated me and violated every single of my rights is embarrassing. It is a joke, especially after the mayor called me this person when she knows my name. Wait, I've been working pro bono for this city since 2013. It's an embarrassment. It's a ridicule. And we can do better. So you're sitting there to represent us. And now you're exposing the loss of budget.

Thank you.

There, we have one more. It's Mr. Ederman. Mr. Harvey Ederman.

HOWDY. GOOD EVENING. MY NAME IS HARVEY EDER. I'M SPEAKING FOR MYSELF AND PUBLIC SOLID POWER COALITION AND ESPECIALLY OUR PROJECTS ON HOUSING, HOMELESSNESS AND EQUITY, ET CETERA. I SEE I'M DOWN TO A MINUTE HERE. I JUST HAD FOUR MINUTES. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED. OKAY. YOU DON'T HAVE A HEALTH DEPARTMENT. I'VE BEEN DEALING WITH THE COUNTY. IT'S A MONTH AND A HALF. I GOT RATS. I got no heating. I got leaky faucets and no toilet. All right. This is outrageous. Okay. You got to deal with this yourself. I'm incorporating by reference the book of Esther from the Bible. The Straits of Hormuz is basically closed. We're threatened, as Trump says, with worldwide depression. The recessions have been four to seven years in the system. We haven't had one in 18 years. There's a guy, Kondratnev, predicted every 40, 60 years there'd be a depression. He was murdered, I believe, by the Russians. Okay. This is the real, the book of Esther shows how they tried to wipe us out 2,500 years ago. That's from the Bible. And that we took them out. This has been going on a long frigging time. We are native people, et cetera, et cetera. I've got one second.

Thank you. Do we have some callers as well, or is that for other items?

Yes, we have four callers.

All right. Should I read the first name here?

Okay, Stephen Price, you are now in the meeting. Press star six to unmute yourself and your two minutes start now.

Excuse me. Okay. So Jesse Zwick was elected to serve Santa Monica. We elected him here, not Los Angeles, but in Santa Monica. But Jesse Zwick chose to take a job with an organization that advocates for development projects across California, especially in Los Angeles. And if you spend a few minutes looking at his social media posts, it's obvious where his focus is. It's on his job. Santa Monica is Jesse Zwick's side hustle. So look at what he talks about. Look at what excites him. Look at where he spends his energy. He seems to care more about Los Angeles' mansion tax than our own. He seems more focused on building housing in LA than addressing the homeless issue here in Santa Monica, more interested in advancing the priorities of LA than addressing the challenges facing the people who elected him here. And that's the problem. We didn't elect Jesse Zwick here to represent us in the city of LA, but that's what we're getting. Everyone has a right to pursue a career, but when your public statements consistently centered on LA politics, L.A. housing policy and L.A. development debates, residents are entitled to ask whether Santa Monica is still your first priority. Because from my vantage point, it's obvious who and what Jesse Zwick puts first. It's not us. It's not this city. It's not the office he was elected to hold. It's the job he's paid to do. It's the city of L.A., and Santa Monica gets to see him every other Tuesday. Well, see you next Tuesday, Jesse.

Thank you. Mike Montgomery.

Mike Montgomery, you are now in the meeting. Press star six, unmute yourself, and your two minutes start now.

Hi, thank you. I just want to say that, you know, I respect Councilmember Carolin or Mayor Carolin Tressitz's commitment to housing and affordability, but I often wonder whether she's listening closely enough to the concerns of the broader community. For me, too often, it feels like the answer is always more housing, more density, more development, regardless of whether residents have concerns about public safety, quality of life, infrastructure, or even neighborhood impacts. I know I frequently talk about the Ocean Avenue controversy, but it's a really good example. Whether or not Mayor DeRosa said prior knowledge of the project, which I think she did, The episode left many residents feeling like decisions were being made behind closed doors and that transparency came only after public outrage. Even supporters of supportive housing acknowledged that the process damaged public trust, which really hasn't been rebuilt. But what concerns me is a pattern of governing that sometimes feels more focused on advancing policy goals than building public confidence. Residents want affordable housing, but they also want accountability. They want solutions to homelessness, but they also want transparency. They want growth, but they also want to know their voices matter. I don't question Mayor Trost's intelligence or dedication. My question is whether she has become too focused on a particular vision for Santa Monica and not focused enough on the people who disagree with that vision. Good government isn't just about getting the outcome you want. It's about bringing the public along with you. Too many residents like myself no longer feel that's happening. Thank you.

Thank you. Asus Harris.

Oh, okay. So David Watley, you're now in the meeting. Press star six unmute yourself in your two minutes. Start now.

David, are you there? David, can you unmute him?

He would have to unmute himself.

Okay, David, go ahead.

Hello, City Clerk. Hello, City Clerk, can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead. You have two minutes to start now.

Good evening, City of Santa Monica. This is David Watley again, alumnus, of UCLA Political Science Department Class of 2007. Now, I'm calling this evening to follow up on my public comments from the City of Santa Monica City Council meeting held earlier this month on June 9th, 2026, in which I mentioned former U.S. Attorney and former UCLA Senior Counsel, Ms. Lane Helen Gilk. Are my two minutes up? Okay. I'll finish my comments at the next agendized meeting. Thank you very much.

Thank you. There was one other caller listed. Are they still there?

No, they are not there.

All right. That should conclude general public comment.

Yes. So next we have public input. It's on items under consent calendar and closed session. And we have four speakers, beginning with Denise Barton, Brett Morrow, Morgan Hunter-Gross, and Zoe Montana.

Thank you.

Good evening. In the closed session tonight, I saw an article of Denise Anderson Warren has brought back a city clerk. She wouldn't be receiving health benefits. But if she already has a pension with health benefits from the city, if you hire her again, isn't she being paid twice by the city and still getting health benefits through the city? Thank you.

Thank you, Pat Moore. Good evening mayor and council. My name is Brett Moore. I'm speaking on item 5h I'm confused I don't know if anyone else is confused because back in April the owner Shawn a house came before this council and said quote the Proposal we currently have submitted to the city provides new jobs and full job training for every single former rusty workers but now we're seeing a legal threat claiming coercion or collusion between the city and the Union and from a meeting in December before he publicly agreed to hire back the workers. That doesn't make any sense. What does make sense is that this is an effort to gain leverage, litigation threats designed to raise the costs and pressure on the city until it abandons the workers. So let's see the stunt for what it is and not lose sight of what's at stake. The people who did the work and who deserve a fair shot at getting their jobs back. Thank you.

Thank you. Morgan Hunter-Gross.

Hello, my name is Morgan Hunter-Gross. I'm talking about item 4 alpha and 4 Charlie. I'd like to talk about the recycling vehicles that we're buying. We're spending Specifically, I think it's interesting that we're getting 11 of the front loaders for $7 million, and then we're getting one all-electric front loader for $1 million. So the electric one is clearly more expensive. And then I remember the previous electric one was not made in America, which I'll move on. In regard to recycling, those kids with the balls were incredible. I'm going to give a little how it's made. Used tennis balls are collected from courts in big bins or bags. First, they go into the sorting table, where better balls are pulled out for reuse. Lesson balls, machines, serve practice, schools, dog fetch, chair legs, walkers, and physical therapy. The truly dead balls go into cutting, crushing, and defelting machine. The machine breaks the ball open and tears and scrapes away the fuzzy felt, which is glued tightly to the rubber core. Next, the balls go into an industrial shredder or grinder. The machine chops the rubber into small pieces. The mix poses through a separator And screens out the pieces. The rubber crumb is screened by size. The recycled tennis ball rubber can become tennis court cushioning, playground surfaces, gym flooring, sports underlayment, horse area, blah, blah. My dad, he worked on the board of Santa Monica Hospital. When they replaced after the earthquake, they needed new signs. It was going to cost $300,000 to replace all the signs. He said, how much does the sign machine cost? The sign machine was $100,000. So they bought the sign machine. So that's in regards to recycling. The homelessness. We need a step in a procedure of actions like seaburn decontamination to go procedures. We have everything from skin-borne scabies to things going forward. I did some contact tracing yesterday and last session about scabies infection in Santa Monica, do some contact tracing and found a source. In addition to that, we need full seaburn, where you go in and you go one way through

Thank you.

Can you load the presentation again to the second slide, please, Ms. Warren? Second slide. We have a building in Santa Monica that was named after Michelle and Barack Obama, and this quote from Barack Obama that says, the most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says no, that's not right. Can you place the next one? The next slide. I brought this film in 2013, 2014 when I was running for city council to showcase the influence of money in politics. It was produced and directed by a friend of mine, Santa Monica resident, Holly Mosher, and I entered into an agreement with the Santa Monica Daily Press publisher and editor at the time, Ross Furukawa, because he told me that if I purchase a full-page ad he will give me the theater after the forum that he was hosting and then he published an ad without my authority and without me signing it and then he asked me for a sign check before and I said I don't I I don't want to give you a signed check because it's a pre-check. And if you do an error in my ad, then you are going to deposit it. And that's exactly what he did. And now he claims online and in his paper without asking for a comment that I gave him a bad check. I didn't. I didn't. I study communications and I work in the biggest newspaper in Puerto Rico that it was number 16 in the country. So I know the integrity of journalism. And when you have a paper...

Hold on, excuse me, the clerk.

I'm trying to find it. What item are you speaking on?

Oh, item, I'm sorry, 4C. So today I went to the Los Angeles City Council meeting because they have in item 50 an issue with homelessness that is like the Stay House LA Coalition was not being funded. So this is the agenda of the LA City Council. And I want to bring to your attention.

Thank you so much. I believe that closes public input on items under consent in closed session.

Okay, so next we'll go to the consent calendar. All items will be considered and approved in one motion unless removed by a council member for discussion. In accordance with the Charter Section 615, the adoption of all ordinances and resolutions shall be by reading of the title only unless the council member present dissents. No public discussion is permitted on ordinances for second reading and adoption. And currently, I have that Council Member Zarniskaya wants to pull Item 4I and 4K.

Yes, and I also know that Mayor Chorostas would like to pull Item 4H. Is there any other items that Council is wishing to pull?

I would just, can you hear me?

Yes.

I need to recuse myself from Item 4D, just as a note.

All right. May I have a motion or a second on the rest of the consent calendar?

I'll move the remaining items of the consent calendar. Second.

Moved by Councilmember Hall, seconded by Councilmember Raskins.

All right.

Councilmember Negrete?

Yes.

Councilmember Hall?

Yes.

Councilmember Raskins? Yes. Council Member Snell? Yes. Council Member Zarniskaya? Yes. Mayor Tarosas?

Yes.

And Mayor Potemciewicz?

Yes.

All right. So the first, did you guys want to do 4D and have Mayor Tarosas?

Sure.

Do you want to do the other ones?

We could start with that.

Do you want to do it?

We could start with that and Mayor Tarosas will recuse. However, that is.

Yeah. Can I just state why? Why I'm recusing? Yes. So I'm recusing myself from item 4D, which is an agreement with LA County, an abundance of caution. Although this contract will not have any direct impact on my salary or employment with the county, I will recuse in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.

Thank you. So item 4D, do we need any discussion or can we...

If there's no discussion, I'd like to move 4D. Second.

All right, moved by... Second. Moved by Council Member Snell, seconded by Council Member Hall.

Okay. Council Member Zarniskaya? Yes. Council Member Snell? Yes. Council Member Raskin? Yes. Councilmember Hall? Yes. Councilmember Negrete?

Yes.

And Mayor Potemciewicz?

Yes.

Okay, the next item was 4H, and that was pulled by the Mayor. Did you want to state why you were pulling that, Mayor?

Yeah, I just have a few questions about this item. I know it's been kind of long awaited, and this is for the commercial kitchen at Virginia Avenue Park. I don't need a staff report, but I just have a couple of questions for staff. I don't know who the most appropriate person is to answer those.

Madam Mayor, we have a couple of us here that are ready to answer and address any questions you may have.

Great. So we've been advertising since 2019, particularly to our PECO residents, that this kitchen is coming. And so I think we owe the community a real funding plan and a timeline. And so I want to know what the contingency plan is if the $500,000 federal earmark request isn't funded.

Sure. Okay. Yes, we have, so the first year, and I have a presentation if you want to bring it up, mostly because I wanted to show you pictures of how beautiful this picture is. But part of the reason, or a big part of the reason, rather, that we wanted to engage in a contract with Golden State CDC is their fundraising ability. They have already, because of the work that they do in this area, identified a possible funder for year two, in addition to running training programs. Do I have the ability to sort of zip through this? Yeah, just to see some pictures as I talk. In addition to running a training program for residents, they'll also be renting out this incredible, beautiful kitchen here that I took some pictures of a couple of weeks ago. And so we'll have a tiered approach to running out this commercial kitchen. There'll be a lower resident fee, there'll be an even lower low income resident fee most likely, and then there'll be a more market rate fee for non-residents. And so in addition to their fundraising, our fundraising, and kitchen rental, we are hoping that that will bring in the revenue that's needed to run this program.

Great. And so just another question. Do we have the ability to rent this out as commissary space, especially for like micro enterprise home cooks and other folks who need access to like certified commissary space to do entrepreneurship activities?

Yes, we do.

Great. And so additionally, I would say how many I think you put it up there on the screen, but you said eight to 10 or eight to 10 individuals that will go through the program. cohort in year one?

No. So that's about 40 people in year one. So you see it's a 12-week program of eight to 10 people and then up to about four cohorts per year.

Got it. And so I would just hope that we would track kind of metrics and outcomes from that. I think it's important to demonstrate what kind of success we're having there. So I would hope that we're going to kind of make that publicly available? Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yes, absolutely. And we can track how many receive microloans. Everybody graduates with a business plan, of course, and they'll get ongoing support from the program. And we can track metrics through our really ongoing relationship with them once they've graduated.

Great. And then I would love to see us use this as a training opportunity for entrepreneurs in food service and like business fundamentals. And then potentially scale them up and spin them out into placement in other like city supported or kind of community supported commercial spaces. Is that something that we plan to do to kind of develop out a pipeline?

Yes, we would love to be able to, if I'm understanding you correctly, folks that go through the program or people that qualify to use the program and sell their goods would be able to then bid on projects, events in the city to be able to provide food at events.

meetings, anything else that's... Yeah, I also meant like to scale up into brick and mortar if that's something that they're interested in doing as well, like that we would support that after they complete the cohort.

I got you. Yes, Golden State can help with brick and mortar and food trucks and stalls.

Okay, fantastic. I am just so delighted that this is coming forward. I think this is a great example of how we can use some of our city resources. So just thanks for all your work on this and looking forward to see this happen expeditiously.

Thank you. I know it was a long time coming. I appreciate everybody's patience and we'll inform the community when we have a ribbon cutting, hopefully later this summer, early fall.

Thank you. Council Member DeGrede, are you in the queue on this item?

Oh, before you go, I just had a question if you knew what percentage of participants are coming from the Pico neighborhood?

I do not know yet. We have a list of folks that have expressed interest, but it's Every time I go to a meeting in the Pico neighborhood, I have people asking me, especially now that Thelma Terry is back open, FYI, just not the kitchen yet, when the kitchen is going to be ready, when they can enroll. A lot of those are Pico neighborhood residents. So we are certainly going to do a lot of outreach to Pico neighborhood.

Okay. And then in terms of like reporting back these metrics, are we going to be reporting back like jobs created, businesses started, like all those things and who was utilizing the program?

Yeah, absolutely zip code information. So we can see how many residents are using the kitchen. How many people are renting the kitchen at different rates, whether they're outside Santa Monica within Santa Monica and then we can sort of tweak. our programming and outreach depending on, you know, first six months to a year information that we get back. We can put that on our website.

Obviously, are we prioritizing Santa Monica and then also Pico neighborhood residents? Yes, 100%. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Hall, you have a comment or question?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and thank you, staff, for this. I just wanted to say thanks and great work. A long time coming. I know this has been a lot of work, and with that, I'd like to move the item.

Second. Move by Councilmember Hall, seconded by myself.

Councilmember Negrete?

Yes.

Councilmember Hall? Yes. Councilmember Raskin? Yes. Councilmember Snell? Yes. Councilmember Zarniskaya? Yes. Mayor DeRosa?

Yes.

And Mayor Pro Tem Swick?

Yes.

That passes. Okay, the next item that was pulled was item 4i, and that was by Councilmember Czarnowskaia.

Thank you. I just wanted to basically understand the, so this is the Peer Corporation Fiscal Year 26-27 Budget and Work Plan, and I just wanted to kind of get a better understanding of why it's for one year rather than multi-year, like I believe it has been in the past, and kind of what work is underway to reconfigure the City's working relationship with the Peer and its constituents.

AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR EARLIER QUESTIONS TO HELP CLARIFY THE DETAILS. SO TONIGHT BEFORE YOU, ITEM 4I IS A ONE-YEAR EXTENSION OF THE PEER COURSE SERVICE AGREEMENT. IT'S BASICALLY AN AS-IS MODIFICATION, REALLY ONLY MODIFYING THE DATE OUT TO THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR. But the report itself does presage the exploration of changing roles and responsibilities between the city and the pure core that we are beginning to engage in conversations with the pure core. Now that the city has a major events division, there's a tremendous amount of global attention. And the nature of activation is seemingly changing on our oceanfront with the introduction of the Sandbox and the Golden Boys concert, for example. We will begin an exploration to define what are the roles and responsibilities that the City takes on in event deck programming. Um, and what are the roles and the responsibilities of the peer core? Um, it is a fairly complex conversation that we're about to have. It involves budgets and staff. Um, and so we would like to take our time in unwinding all of that, um, and clarifying what it is exactly. We're all signing up to do and also to align our city budget. With expected changes to city staffing resources that also runs parallel with looking at pure course budget and perhaps right sizing it. So, a little bit of history prior to the pandemic, the pure core received a sizable allocation of cash from the city. To essentially curate the visitor experience, conduct signature community events like Twilight Dance Series, Pier 360, a variety of other things, and really help manage the experience of the pier. During the pandemic, that budget was reduced down to $150,000, which began to transition the pier into more of a revenue generation model where the event rentals brought them the budget to pay for their operations. So in the new environment that we're operating in, we are considering is there a question that we need to ask about this relationship, both in terms of staffing, the responsibilities, as well as the operating budget to the Peer Corps.

Council Member Hall. Did everyone get the chance to ask questions? I just have one comment. Thank you, Mr. James, for the short brief and answering the questions. Just for my colleagues' information, the Peer Corporation has done a lot of work starting a few years back when I was on the board there to diversify their revenue sources away from just simple activations and the city grant funding. So I think the plan that you see tonight reflects that. And I'm really excited to hear that city staff is considering how the city can better partner with the peer corporation to align their budget with our goals for the peer and for the broader beach community. So thank you for that. With that, I'll move the item.

Thank you. I'll second.

Council Member Mazernis-Gaia? Yes. Council Member Snell? Yes. Council Member Raskin? Yes. Council Member Hall? Yes. Council Member Negrete? Yes. Mayor DeRosa?

Yes.

Mayor Potemcic?

Yes.

That item passes. Next, we have 4K, and that was also pulled by Council Member Zarnaskaya.

Council Member Hall, did you want to speak?

Thank you.

I just had one. I don't need a report. I just had a couple questions if some of your staff is available. Thanks, Erin. I noted in the license agreement that we are effectively mandating a closing time of 11 p.m. Recently, we've been experimenting with keeping the pier open past 11 p.m., past 10 p.m. And I noted that in the license agreement, we're also talking about potentially extending that to 1.30 a.m. for New Year's Eve, which I think is great. I'm just curious, is there a reason we went with that hard time as opposed to just a more broad, like letting it stay until the pier more broadly closes and giving them that flexibility if we choose to continue to extend pier hours past the summer or whatever?

Yes, thank you Councilmember Hall and for giving us this question in advance too I was able to reach out to the event producers who are absolutely on board with being flexible in continuing to a later date or a later time with depending upon the operating hours and how they are in the pier so we can make that language flexible in our license agreement going forward.

Councilmember Zinskaya did you have additional questions?

I just, I know it's in the staff report, but just for the public's benefit, I was wondering if you could quickly go over some of the community benefits that would be part of this agreement.

Oh, definitely. And I actually also have our team, production team here as well, if you wanted to get into some of those details.

High level is totally fine. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Megan Foster. I'm a senior project manager on this event. We have a number of community benefits that we're working into this. They include 1000 free tickets available to folks. We're looking both at foster children and foster families as well as. sort of any other recommendations that the Council and the Events Manager has of people that we think might benefit from this. We're also going to give a free candlelight concert series to the City of Santa Monica when you want, where you want. We're happy to make that happen. We had a Senior Golden Hour to help alleviate senior loneliness epidemics that happen during holiday times. So we're going to have earlier start times for seniors and we're going to partner with local senior centers and things like that to make free or reduced cost tickets available. We'll have earlier opening hours, as I was saying, so that they can come in during a time that's less crowded, give them more seating options so that they can come in and experience the event. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head, but we have a couple of other in the staff report as well.

Was there also something about a preference for local businesses? Oh, yes.

Thank you. We absolutely. So we have vendor booths that are going to be available within our space as well as food and beverage booths. We want to make a priority to Santa Monica businesses. We're actually going to have priority to Santa Monica businesses in our tiering structure to like for like a point system. So, yeah. People require an approval, and we're going to heavily weight local Santa Monica businesses to prioritize them in that vendor application process.

Sorry, final question. In terms of partnering with the other businesses on the pier, could you just briefly speak to that as well, please?

Yeah, absolutely. We've been speaking with the Lessees Association, I think is the formal title, as well as the Pacific Park. We have weekly activations with... Felicity's Association. So we're going to allow them priority to apply and reduced booth rental fees or if they're interested. We're also actively going to be trying to do like cross promotion so that people coming to the event are able to get eyes on the other businesses that are on the pier. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're cross promoting with them and we're good neighbors

That was all of my questions.

Great. I see Council Member Snell. Just one quick question with the cross-referencing brought to my attention. That's actually during the same time as our ice skating rink also. And even though this is on the pier, I would hope that maybe we would also try to communicate with the downtown Santa Monica board and see how we could have any kind of relationship with the ice skating at that time, too.

Sure.

So as part of this activation, we actually also have an ice skating element on the deck. And so I don't know if you want to talk to where you're at in that.

It's the very, yeah, go ahead. Hi, guys.

I'm the nuts and bolts. I'm Sarah Barson. I'm the senior producer. So our ice skating rink is actually a faux ice experience due to the weight limits on the pier. So I definitely think that there is room to discuss cross promotion with the traditional one downtown because I know that is a Santa Monica tradition. The one on the pier is really more for, you know, tourists, folks who are already going to be there to have that kind of experience. But it is, I think, substantially different than the one in the downtown.

Thank you.

Sounds exciting.

All right.

It looks like the mayor had a question.

Mayor?

No, Natalia asked it. Excuse me, Council Member Zerneske asked it and it's been answered. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Hall, are you still in the queue or are you good?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Rotem. I'd like to move the staff recommendation with direction to redline the license agreement to state a closing time of 11 p.m. or the pier closing time, whichever is later at the discretion of the vendors. Second.

All right. That sounds like it was seconded by Mayor Teresas.

Correct. Ready?

Yeah, I think seeing no one else in the queue, let's take a vote.

Council Member Negrete. Yes. Council Member Hall. Yes. Council Member Raskin. Yes. Council Member Snell. Yes. Council Member Zarniskaya. Yes. Mayor Tarosos.

Yes.

And Mayor Potemciewicz.

Yes.

And that passes. Okay, next we have closed session. We have several closed sessions. The first one we have is with several John Does. Then we have a conference, I'm sorry, existing litigation, and it's the city versus ICSOP. Then we have another existing litigation. It's Martha Garcia versus the city. Then we have another existing litigation, the city of Santa Monica versus Waymo. Then we have another existing litigation, Santa Monica EV Holdings versus the city. Then we have another one. Another existing litigation is Waymo LLC versus the city. Then we have a real estate negotiation, and the property is 1514 7th Street and 1238 7th Street. And the city negotiators will be Jing Yield, who is our Community and Development Director. The owner of the record is City of Santa Monica. Persons to be negotiated with is, I'm sorry, I'm not going to mess this last name up, but it's Baca, and they're the president of Hankey Capital. Under negotiation, price, term, and payment. Then we also have another real estate, and it's 256 Santa Monica Pier. The city negotiators are city manager. The owner of record is the city. The persons negotiated is Shawn Ahas, and this is California Roadhouse. And they're under negotiation price terms and payment for lease. Next, we have a conference, I'm sorry, legal counsel. It's one case, 256 Santa Monica Pier Roadhouse. And then we have a public employee appointment, and it's for the city clerk.

Thank you. And I believe we have a couple of recusals we'll announce before we close. Council Member Hall?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I will be recusing from item 5G because the properties being discussed are within 500 feet of my residence. Thank you.

Thank you. And I will be recusing from item 5G as well because it relates to potential housing production and my day job at the Housing Action Coalition. It's also about housing production. I think that wraps it up. City Clerk, I guess we said we'll go for an hour? So that has us back no earlier than 8.01?

8.01.

Sounds good. Thank you.

I'll see you guys on the other link.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

This is why Barry...

Okay.

Hello. It is 8-11. We are back in session. The next item. Oh, we need to start travel? Sorry.

If I may do the report out quickly. So for this portion of the closed session discussion, Council heard items 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5J with no reportable action taken. The remainder of the item was deferred until after the end of open session.

Thank you. And now the clerk.

Yes. Do any council members have anything to report on travel since the last meeting? Seeing none, OK. OK, next we're going to go to public input. And this is on the remaining agenda items. And we have one member of the public, Denise Barton.

good evening on item 11a let's start with your tactics to disincentivize the public from speaking at city council meetings instead of encouraging participation such as your awards and photo ops at the beginning of city council meetings or staying out at closed session for hours both make the meetings take longer for members of the public who wish to speak Yet you cut the public speaking time to one minute if there are over 25 speakers. When previously it was done at 100 speakers for any one item or loading up the agenda so the public can't speak on everything they want to. So my concern here would be the council using the audio and video problem to further prolong city council meetings and the time for the public to participate. I and others have been cut from city council meeting replays like the one more recently recent times when the audio was cut for the entire first public input agenda item but how can you lose audio without cutting it you wouldn't you want to reach out to the unrepresented and non-english speaking communities I do hope that means you're only reaching out to people in this within the city And you already give extra time to non-English speakers for translation, yet seniors and the disabled can't get reasonable accommodation at in-person city council meetings. It's only available by telephone or video, leaving people like me in danger when I have to walk home alone late at night because I like to participate in person. Other things I saw which need to be addressed in a timely manner include secret voting travel expenses you should not be getting, which I at least hope will be clawed back from the presently seated council members, and the number of times video conferencing can be used by seated council members in place of in-person attendance, and the forms that that should be used. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, we're on the next item.

Item 11a, adoption of a resolution to implement a policy addressing disruption of telephonic or internet services during public meetings and encouraging public participation pursuant to SB 707, amending government code section 54953.4.

And I don't have a PowerPoint, but a quick presentation. So at the June 9th Council meeting, Council considered options to amend the Council's Rules of Order. The proposed rules included additions required by Senate Bill 707 that recently amended the Brown Act or the State's Open Meetings Law. Council directed staff to return with a separate resolution with the required SB 707 policies at this meeting, as Council must adopt a technology disruption policy by July 1st. Because SB 707 prohibits policy from being approved under consent, this was submitted as a SAP admin item. And SB 707 reorganizes teleconferencing provisions for legislative bodies, requires remote participation and increased accessibility for the community, and adopting procedures in the event of a technological disruption of hybrid meetings. So for council, there are no changes to your teleconferencing requirements. For the community, SB 707 requires that council meetings include an opportunity for public members to attend via two-way remote public access and for council to make reasonable outreach efforts to invite community members who typically do not participate in public meetings. And examples of these efforts are in the resolution. If a disruption of telephone or internet service THAT PREVENTS THE PUBLIC FROM ATTENDING OCCURS DURING THE MEETING, THEN SB707 REQUIRES CALLING A ONE HOUR RECESS TO RESTORE SERVICES, DOCUMENTING DISRUPTION AND RESTORATION EFFORTS IN THE MINUTES, AND ADOPTING A FINDING THAT IF SERVICES CANNOT BE RESTORED AFTER RESTORATION EFFORTS WERE MADE, THEN RESUMING THE MEETING SERVES THE PUBLIC INTEREST RATHER THAN DELAYING IT. THIS CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS?

I see Mayor Trost, are you in the queue?

No, not a question. I'm ready to move the item.

If there's no other questions, I'll just ask one. The hour-long delay, that's mandated within SB 707 or that's our policy?

It's mandated, and the recess should be up to an hour. But of course, if we can restore it in less time, then we would just continue with the meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Mayor Trois, as you move the item? Yep. Second. Seconded by Councilmember Hall.

Okay. Ready for the vote? Council Member Negrete? Yes. Council Member Hall? Yes. Council Member Raskin? Yes. Council Member Snell? Yes. Council Member Zarniskaya? Yes. Mayor Tarosas?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Temswick?

Yes.

That item passes. Next, we have our public hearings, and this is a special joint meeting of the City Council, and I'm sorry, our... Now, hold on a second. Are the Housing Authority Board member, member Ely here? And is it Mosaic? Say that, all right. Okay, so this is a special joint meeting of the City Council, the Housing Authority and the Parking Authority. I need to announce that the council receives respective pay for meeting as the Housing Authority, $50 per meeting, the Parking Authority, $50 per meeting. Now I need to call the roll. Authority Member Negrete?

Here.

Authority Member Hall? Present. Authority Member Raskin?

Here.

Authority Member Snell?

Here.

Authority Member Zarniskaya?

Here.

Chair Terosas?

Here.

Vice Chair Prochera-Swick. Here. And HAB member, and I'm sorry, could you mosaic?

Hajar Mokhtasic.

Mokhtasic, okay. St. Clair and HAB member Eady. Yes. Okay. Okay.

Can you pull up the presentation?

Actually, I can't.

So good evening, mayor and council members. Oscar Santiago, the city's finance director. And being mindful of the Housing Authority board members' time, I want to begin this discussion about the budget adoption with the Housing Authority fund first. So this is the budget for the Housing Authority, which we're asking you to adopt tonight. This proposed budget is approximately 0.9% greater than the fiscal year 26-27 budget that was approved by the Board in June of 2025. The increase primarily reflects impacts of MOU agreements approved in last summer and the addition of a housing inspector position as part of the realignment plan. This action of adopting the Housing Authority budget aligns with the citywide budget adoption requirements under the city's charter and ensures that the Housing Authority programs have funding appropriations necessary to continue into next fiscal year. That's the end of my presentation on the Housing Authority and we're here for questions.

I see no one in the queue. Is that correct? All right. Does that mean we will take a vote on this item at this time?

Before we do that, we do have one caller on the phone.

Oh, apologies. We'll hear public comment.

David, is the caller there?

They are. I'm bringing them into the main room right now. Okay, David Wadley, you're in the main room. If you just press star six, unmute yourself and your two minutes start now.

Housing Authority Clerk, can you hear me?

Go ahead, Mr. Wadley, we can hear you.

Good evening, Santa Monica Housing Authority. My name is David Watley, and I'm an alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Political Science Department Class of 2007. I'm calling this evening to follow up on my public comments to the City of Santa Monica and Santa Monica Housing Authority from when Helen Lane Dilk served as legal counsel for both the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Housing Authority. And I am hopeful that my public comments can make a meaningful contribution to this evening's public hearing of the Santa Monica Housing Authority. Now, before I dive into the, for lack of a better word, thesis of my four minutes of public comments at this evening's public hearing of the Santa Monica Housing Authority, I want to give a special acknowledgement to the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, which is a subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, and also a special acknowledgement to the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies, which is a subcommittee of the United States Senate's Committee on Appropriations. U.S. House of Representative Chairman Steve Womack of Arkansas, U.S. House of Representative Ranking Member James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, and U.S. Senator Chairwoman Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and U.S. Senator Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, thank you for your service and the service of all your colleagues on your respective subcommittees.

Thank you, David. Your time is up.

Okay, we have three other public speakers on this item. We have Denise Barton, Matt Goldenberg, Karen Mellick,

Mr. Egger Good evening on the budget on item 12 a the budget I see no repayment of the money borrowed from restricted funds for the pandemic or a lawsuit I Next, the notation B on revenue and expenditure budget detail attachment, where it says citing double counting of revenue and expenses, would that be due to shuffling of funds? Or is it the continued draining of specified use grant funding left when the grant funded project is completed? Next, I have to ask if the cost of the city employees is being lowballed due to the total being done in May 2026 and not including the salary and classification changes in this item. And finally, the preceding comment is in reference to the part of the city of Santa Monica's 26-27 budget for city employees and overhead, which is over 50% of the budget, over $525 million. Let's look for a minute at who's really getting service because it's not the residents or general public. City Hall departments are still closed to walk in public except for... City Hall departments are still closed to the walk-in public except for development and housing. Could this be seen as showing residents not showing residents equal treatment? And the city's 311 system for information works as well as LA's. Nobody calls back. And from just these couple of examples, I hope you can see that residents are not getting their money's worth from City Hall. But city employees only have to come to work three days a week, if that. So might it appear as though the City of Santa Monica is serving city employees instead of the public when public service is supposed to be the city's mission? Thank you.

Can I have two minutes as well? Mack Goldenberg. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Taurosis, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members. My name is Mack Goldenberg. I'm the co-chair of NOMA, but speaking for myself tonight, I'm speaking in favor of item 12A, adoption of the budget. I know this budget carries a lot of hard choices, and I want to speak to one part of it that I'm particularly grateful for. This budget reflects real investment in our parks, and that deserves to be recognized. For decades, Santa Monica's parks have been overlooked. We have just 1.55 park acres for every 1,000 residents. This is the council that inherited that challenge and chose to act on it. You had the vision and courage to adopt a parks and recreation vision plan calling for five acres per thousand residents and the commitment to start delivering on it even in a difficult budget environment. Memorial Park is the clearest example. It's taken since the late 90s and this council has moved it forward. Airport park field is another important step in the right direction, and the community is behind you on these investments. As we look ahead, I hope the neighborhoods currently farthest from green space are part of the next chapter, and I'm hopeful we can make the Great Park a reality, bringing us closer to the future you boldly envisioned in your vision plan. Let's keep building toward the day when every child in this city can walk to a great park. Thank you.

Thank you. Karen Malik.

Good evening. I'm Karen Malik. I appreciate the follow-up on my comments on the aquatics fees increases at the May 26th Council meeting. The response in this meeting's staff report contains inaccuracies that, as a fact-checker, I have to respond to. The increases in fees for aquatics are not aligned with other recreation fees. Aquatics fees are being increased 8 to 10 percent. Most other increases are only 3 to 6 percent. Aquatics non-resident groups pay 100% more than the resident fee. Non-resident sports leagues pay only 25 to 30% more. For field and basketball courts, non-residents pay 21 to 53% more. The staff statement that the fee adjustments are reasonable and unlikely to cause significant hardship or displacement of users is not based on any financial analysis. SCAC and Swim With Heart have only recently gone in the black after years of deficits because of COVID. Both have significant debt from years in the red. They are small, local, nonprofit organizations who are significantly impacted by fee increases. The report says that staff found only a few nearby cities offer lane rentals. This is also inaccurate. Culver City, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, El Segundo, and more all rent lanes. The report says that Santa Monica lane rental rates remain below Long Beach, Torrance, and El Segundo. Santa Monica's adult permit fees are higher than all other cities, except for one fee that is lower than El Segundo and Torrance. Long Beach rates is lower than Santa Monica, and no other city has non-resident rates that are twice the resident rates. Santa Monica should be offering free swim lessons, not increasing that fee. Thank you.

Do we have one more speaker? Mr. Adder?

Howdy, good evening. My name's Harvey. I'm founder, director of Public Solar Power Coalition, et cetera. I've got two minutes on this, 2A and 2 and 2B, and one on 2C. There's discrepancy in the minutes, the agenda, versus having the budgets, versus the Housing Authority Board 12A from the book. Now, I'm incorporating by reference from CNN, CNBC, Mondami in the city of New York. And what they're doing is for the next couple of years, they're working on converting to co-ops. There was a co-op study done here by Santa Monica for Renters' Rights. I'm a member. And they came out supporting it for the 3,000 or whatever units go out to the park. And that's important. So that's something that should be considered for your $3 million or whatever else you want to put into it. Also, there is a concept, and it's on the left. I've heard it from this woman with a C that's running. that says there's 150 million units, it's valued at $60 trillion, and that's rents. Rents is a bad thing on the left Marxism stuff, okay? So they're saying this has to be remedied. They're building also, in the next 10 years, 400,000 units, 200,000 and 200,000 repair. And that has to do more with my second item, to be in your five-year plan. So this is important stuff, it has to be evaluated, and the programs that you got, the GS money, the one money, the H money, all these applications for this, there's a four million, a five million, and there's contradictions. Okay, so I've taken 12 minutes, I'm not sure what's happening on time here, if I'm onto another item, anyway. These applications have to be made available to us. I'm dealing with your analysts, with T, Martin, and with Stevenson. We got nothing, and they got to coordinate it with the home teams from the county. There's a 25 million unit. The county had it. Now y'all's got it, and there's a vacancy for two months, and people are going to be thrown out. I'm trying to get in there. Also, you've got eminent domain, all right? They've got 100 different properties. I forget the name of it. Anyway, this stuff, you just put 20, 30 million in bonds for a property at your last meeting, open up the bonding, low interest, equity has got to be dealt. That's like the problem in this culture and a threat to our democracy. Now, there's a discrepancy in 2B, and I'm on that now, that The word plan on the agenda is not mentioned. It's a five-year plan. You didn't even say call it a plan. That's got to be illegal. And everything in the meetings from March 13th are not in the book. I tried to get it. So this is a big problem and that we've got to change and look at what's happening. Now, I'm Brew, and all this stuff from Mondavi and the crew really pisses me off, okay? And the use of the word genocide taken from Hitler. My family was murdered, about half of them, and it's not going to happen again. We've got a right to defend ourselves. I lived in northern Israel. I heard the jets flying near Haifa in a kibbutz over at 4 o'clock in the morning when the PLO was up there. We've got a right to defend ourselves. And the stuff with the Strait of Hormuz and the inflation and housing and everything else – It's frigging outrageous. They're claiming that as international waters. Well, okay, we've got to take all of the oil that's threatened us from climate change. We're not talking trillions of dollars. We're talking quadrillions of dollars in damage. This has already been in litigation with Bloomberg five years ago. It was $600 million in derivatives. This stuff's the real, and the price of the dollar's gone down, and we're threatened, and this is what we've got to deal with now. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you.

I got one more minute on C. Hold on. Excuse me. Hold on one second. Two items, right?

No, we're on right.

It says six minutes. You gave me one minute. We're not on that item. When you get to C, let me know.

So, Mayor, I'm going to ask because we have the housing authority members here and we have the minutes for the housing authority once finance is done. WITH THE PORTION OF THE BUDGET RELATED TO THE HOUSING AUTHORITY, IF WE CAN ALSO, IF YOU GUYS CAN PAUSE AND GO TO THE MINUTES SO THAT WE CAN GO AHEAD AND MOVE THE MEETING ALONG WITH THEM AND NOT HOLD THEM UP.

SURE. THAT SOUNDS GREAT.

IS THAT OKAY WITH THE COUNCIL?

AND I WAS DONE WITH THE HOUSING AUTHORITY.

So, Mayor Pro Tem, I move that we divide the question on 12A to address the recommended action for the Housing Authority, move on to 12B, and pass those two items separately together before moving on to the remainder of 12A. Second.

Sorry, you guys, I have to call a roll on this.

Hold on, can I just pause and double check with our Housing Authority board members to make sure they don't have any questions?

Sorry, that was a procedural motion to hear those items together before moving on to the rest of this is they can do this is to hear this item and the minutes correct together.

Okay, which would then allow them to be discus recuse motion made by councilmember Hall seconded by mattresses.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. AUTHORITY MEMBERS ARNASKAYA. YES. CHAIR TAROSAS. YES. VICE CHAIR SWICK.

YES.

H.A.B. MEMBER SAINT CLAIR.

WE ARE APPROVING THE MINUTES FROM THE LAST MEETING.

THIS IS JUST A PROCEDURAL TO HEAR THE MINUTES.

YES.

AND THEN H.A.B. MEMBER EADY.

YES. Okay, those items are now combined and we are on to comments for 12A, the first portion. If anyone has comments on the Housing Authority budget or minutes, I believe now is the time to put yourself in the queue.

How do I put myself in the queue?

also just reckon oh there you go oh wait oh okay it says the name of the city attorney but i know it is uh miss mustache saint claire okay housing division staff and santa monica housing authority staff were meeting with rab members representatives on a quarterly basis and then stopped for over a year due to staffing within the department Please include these quarterly meetings with the RAB representatives in the Housing Authority budget. After four years of making requests for staff to provide a minimum of quarterly communications from RAB reps to RAB members, which should include all Santa Monica Housing Authority clients, not just HCV staff, have previously stated It's not in the budget, however, the Santa Monica housing authority is required to provide those communications and should be a part of housing authority budget per code of federal regulations title twenty four section nine oh three point one three subsection eighty two which states. The PHA shall allocate reasonable resources to assure the effective functioning of resident advisory boards. Reasonable resources for the resident advisory boards must provide reasonable means for them to become informed on programs covered by the PHA plan, to communicate in writing and by telephone with assisted families, and hold meetings with those families and to assess information regarding covered programs on the internet, taking into account the size and resources of the PHA. RAB is insisting that Santa Monica Housing Authority send out quarterly communications from the RAB representatives to all Santa Monica Housing Authority clients by both email and regular UPS or U.S. Postal Service mail with quarterly dates to be determined by staff and RAB representatives. Therefore, in order for the Santa Monica Housing Authority and the HAB to remain in compliance with the aforementioned federal regulations, these RAB recommendations I have stated should be implemented effective immediately.

Council Member Hall.

Thank you, Mayor Patem. Could someone from our Housing and Human Services Department or the City Manager or the City Attorney address our Board members' comments, please?

I see Natalie coming up right now, but certainly we can make ourselves available to participate in meetings. Perhaps Natalie can give some context to the overall situation.

Yeah, so, um, evening, my name is Natalie from the housing division manager overseeing the housing authority. Um, so they're through the regulatory federal requirements. We do have regular check ins throughout the year as part of the annual plan, which went. back in April and then we also have public hearings and public comments as part of that and that is open to all voucher holders as part of that and as mentioned we did have regular check-ins but with leadership and other changes have happened those have been paused because that was in a joint effort with the Housing Commission

Sorry, Ms. Villanage. Is there a plan to resume those meetings in regular communications, or are we still working through that?

So we're still working through it. We can definitely look at it, and that's something we're looking at.

Is the pause related to the fact that we're about to reconstitute the Housing Commission as our HHS Commission?

So we've had new leadership, and then there is a new commission coming on board, correct?

Okay, got it. Thanks. That's all my questions for now. I'll reserve my comments.

Housing Authority Board Member Edie, do you have?

No?

Okay. Council Member Hall.

Thanks. Just a quick comment on this. I'd love to see regular communication from our Housing and Human Services staff with our RAB. And as we reconstitute our Housing Commission as a newly established HHS Commission, to involve them in some way. So thank you.

Yeah, Board Member. Board Member McTossett.

I just had one comment to say is that what I'm asking about has nothing to do with the Housing Commission. The RAB is separate than the Housing Commission. I just wanted to make that clarification.

Seeing, you're in the queue or no? Sorry. Board Member Eadie.

Good evening and thank you. I just wanted to clarify with the Housing Authority whether it's aware that there were some changes made to the administrative plan after the 45-day hearing period in April. And if the Housing Authority is aware of those changes, how it intends to rectify the fact that those changes were not approved by the RAB or even summarized by the Housing Authority when brought to the Housing Authority Board.

Thank you. So tonight on the budget, the annual plan was actually approved back in April. So tonight the discussion is only on the budget.

I got you.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else in the queue, I would just echo the comments of my colleagues that it's clear that the spirit, I'm sorry, the law and the spirit of the law is that the rabbi, as a board member Muktasit Sinclair mentioned, be regularly informed. hold meetings with all members or all voucher holders within the body and also be generally able to take feedback and be informed in such ways. It doesn't seem like it speaks specifically to quarterly meetings, but I agree with Council Member Hall that we should be erring on the side of more communication feedback as best we can. And I would echo him in those sentiments. Seeing no one else in the queue, do I see any motions? Council Member Hall?

I'd like to move the staff recommendation for 12A, subsection 1. I'll second that. Seconded.

Seconded by Council Member Snell.

Are we ready for a vote?

On 12A, yes.

Karen Taurosis?

Yes.

Council Member Zarniskaya? Yes. I'm sorry, did I hear you? Yes. Council Member, I'm sorry, Authority Member Snell? Yes. Authority Member Raskin? Yes. Authority Member Hall? Yes. Authority Member Negrete? Yes. HAB Member St. Clair?

Yes.

HAB Member Eady?

Yes.

And Chair, I'm sorry, Vice Chair, Chair Pro Temswick?

Yes.

ALL RIGHT, NOW LET ME GO TO 12B, AND THAT IS APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE HOUSING AUTHORITY BOARD, AND THIS IS FROM THE APRIL 14, 2026 HOUSING AUTHORITY MEETING. AND I'M SORRY, WE HAVE ONE CALLER ON THE LINE FOR THIS ONE, AND HE HAS ONE MINUTE. DAVID, CAN YOU SEND THE CALLER THROUGH?

OKAY, DAVID.

Press star six to unmute yourself and your minute starts now.

Housing Authority Clerk, can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Go ahead, you have one minute.

Good evening, Santa Monica Housing Authority. My name is David Whatley and I am an alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Political Science Department class of 2007. I'm calling this evening to follow up on my public comments to the City of Santa Monica and Santa Monica Housing Authority from when Helen Lane Dilk served as legal counsel for both the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Housing Authority, and I am hopeful that my public comments can make a meaningful contribution to this evening's public hearing of the Santa Monica Housing Authority. Now, with respect to The board members, prospective board members, I first would like to...

Thank you, David. Your time is over.

All right. That wraps up public comment. Does anyone have a question or comment on the minutes? Hearing none. Sorry. Board member McDossett.

I didn't know if it's appropriate right now to comment on. The plan since these minutes are from the plan on April 14th there were changes made to the plan after this and I just wanted to know if the housing authority and the department we're going to rectify those changes since they were when we approved it. We didn't know the changes at that time.

not so I'm not aware but maybe we can get an answer as to whether or not there were changes made to the plan following the adoption sorry point of order can I just maybe have our city attorney apply on whether this is within the scope of what's what we can talk about so what's before the board this evening is the meeting minutes only which is just a ministerial approval that they are an accurate record of what occurred at the last board meeting

I mean, it does seem like a board member has questions about whether they accurately reflect the meeting.

If that is the issue, it sounds to me like there's also perhaps a subject issue about something that may have happened subsequently. So staff may answer that question and there could be some perhaps direction to staff as a result of this discussion.

Yeah, I'm interested in hearing the question. It seems germane.

Just a clarifying question. What exactly are you referring to? Because the plan, as it was approved, was submitted to HUD, if not the next day, the day after, and so there were no changes made as it was presented to the Housing Authority Board.

So the night of the approval, there were changes that were added to the administrative plan, not necessarily the annual plan, but the administrative plan, that were, as I mentioned before, not approved by the HAB and not brought to the attention of the HAB representative at that time. I'm wondering, well,

So the administrative plan is approved by the Housing Authority Board, which is this body right here. I can look further into it, but to staff's knowledge, there was no changes that were made to the plan as it was submitted to HUD before the deadline that was shortly after that.

So it is to my understanding that staff never notified the RAB that changes were made after the public comment period closed. So the RAB wasn't notified of the changes.

something about like you guys took it to the Disabilities Commission but we didn't actually hear the changes here is that not correct so again I'd have to look further into that to see exactly what that is as that was not I'd have to look exactly into what that is thank you thanks for answering that I guess to now to the

to the minutes themselves. Are there any additional comments or questions? Council Member Negrete, apologies.

Sorry, just to follow up on that, I'm just curious if whatever was approved, if it's available as a copy versus what then ended up getting approved, and then it's easy to see what differences, if any, are there. I'm assuming those documents are somewhere.

So it was approved by the Housing Board. The Housing Authority Board is what is final and what was submitted to HUD and what is our final document that is available online as part of the new fiscal year that is happening.

Is it possible to review if it's different from what was approved in the notes from that meeting that night? Because I think that's what I'm hearing, is that something was approved and that might be what was in the minutes, the discussion, but then it sounds like potentially there were some changes after the fact, and maybe the changes are what got submitted to HUD, but I think it sounds like there's a... feeling that maybe what's in these minutes is not what was submitted to HUD? I don't know if it's possible to have the both documents. I don't know how to look at what's in the minutes.

Certainly we can verify that the approved documents by the Housing Authority Board is actually what was submitted. I'm 100% confident that's accurate. I believe the question that related to prior to the document being approved were there adjustments in after doing outreach without going back to RAB before it came for final approval. And on that point, as Natalie described, let us look into what happened there, and we'll certainly double back and make sure we connect with RAB and provide an update on what exactly transpired.

Will we all get that update?

Certainly.

Okay.

Thank you. Council Member Hall?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. By my reading of the minutes, it seemed like an accurate reflection of what we discussed that night and what was approved. So I'd like to move the staff recommendation for 12B.

Second.

Move by Council Member Hall, seconded by Council Member Zaniskaya. Can we have a roll call vote?

H-A-B, Member St. Clair.

Yes.

HAB member Eady?

I'm going to have to abstain.

Authority members Arniskaya?

Yes.

Authority member Snell? Yes. Authority member Raskin? Yes. Authority member Hall? Yes. Authority member Negrete? Yes. Chair Terrosis?

Yes.

Vice Chair Pro Temswick? Yes. Okay, so that adjourns the special meeting with the Housing Authority members. We are still, we still have... Do we... Right, we're still with the Parking Authority and the... Do we adjourn, Ernie? Yes, we can adjourn.

Do I have to do anything or do I just say that portion is adjourned?

We can adjourn the Housing Authority.

Thank you.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. TONIGHT WE'RE ASKING COUNCIL TO ADOPT THE FISCAL YEAR 26-27 OPERATING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM BUDGETS AND ALSO TO APPROVE THE ANNUAL RESOLUTIONS THAT ACCOMPANY THE BUDGET ADOPTION. ON THE SLIDE OF TONIGHT'S AGENDA, I WILL SUMMARIZE THE FISCAL YEAR 26-27 OPERATING AND CAPITAL BUDGETS, INCLUDING THE THREE CIP ADJUSTMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED TO THE BUDGET SINCE I WILL ALSO PROVIDE CLARIFICATION ON THE QUESTION RAISED REGARDING THE PROPOSED INCREASES TO THE AQUATICS FEES, AND I WILL WRAP UP WITH THE REMAINING RECOMMENDED ACTIONS TO ADOPT THE BUDGET. AS YOU KNOW, THE CITY FOLLOWS A BIANNUAL BUDGETING PROCESS. THIS TWO-YEAR VIEW ALLOWS THE CITY TO PLAN MORE EFFECTIVELY AND ALSO COMMUNICATE UPCOMING INITIATIVES TO THE COMMUNITY. IN ODD YEARS, LIKE FISCAL YEAR 25-26, WE PRESENT YOU WITH A TWO-YEAR OPERATING BUDGET. This is the budget that funds city programs, services, and day-to-day operations. In the even years like this year, we bring you the two-year capital improvement program budget. This year's capital budget reflects the city's structural shift to relocate recurring maintenance technology and fleet replacement costs back into the operating budget. allowing the CIP to remain focused on true capital improvements, including park enhancements, major event readiness, mobility investments, and infrastructure renewal. Because the city charter requires that council approve and adopt a budget annually, we are here tonight for you to adopt only fiscal year 26-27 operating and capital improvement program budget, and to approve the fiscal year 27-28 capital budget plan. This timeline shows a brief recap of the key steps that led to tonight's final budget adoption. In June of 2025, Council adopted the first year of the operating biannual budget, but it also approved the fiscal year 26-27 operating budget plan, as well as adopted the second year of the Capital Improvement Program budget. Since that time, adjustments have taken place throughout the year that revised the operating budget plan as originally approved, including the realignment plan changes previously approved in October of 2025 and this year in March. At the May 26th budget study session, Council reviewed the fiscal year 26-27 proposed operating budget adjustments and the fiscal year 26-28 proposed biannual capital improvement program budgets. Following public comment and council deliberation, council expressed support for the proposed budget and directed staff to return with final documents for budget adoption. Tonight, we are requesting that council adopt the proposed budget. The proposed budget for fiscal year 26-27 totals $908.8 million across all funds. This includes $545.1 million in the general fund. with the CIP serving as a defining feature of this year's budget. Building on that foundation, after years in which the CIP functioned like a second operating budget absorbing maintenance, fleet, and technology costs, the realignment plan restored these recurring expenses to the operating budget and rebuilt the CIP as a focused, deliverable capital project portfolio. The result is a renewed capital program totaling $110.4 million in fiscal year 26-27 and $116.6 million in 27-28. This launches the long-deferred investments, including the Memorial Park redevelopment and expansion, major event and pier infrastructure upgrades for LA-28, and the Paralympic Games, renewal of the Camera Oscura building and the main library, PARKS IMPROVEMENTS AT TONVA PARK AND EDBURN PARK, STREETLIGHT MODERNIZATION AT MONTANA AVENUE AND MID CITY, AND A SLIGHT OF MOBILITY AND VISION IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, AS WELL AS UPGRADES TO THE YANNENBURG COMMUNITY BEACH HOUSE. WITH THIS, THE BUDGET PRESENTED TO YOU TONIGHT FOR ADOPTION IS UNCHANGED FROM WHAT YOU REVIEWED ON MAY 26TH AT THE STUDY SESSION. WITH ONLY THREE TARGETED NON-GENERAL FUNDS CAP REVISIONS, TOTALING APPROXIMATELY 600,000. AND I WILL SUMMARIZE THESE CHANGES FOR YOU IN THE NEXT SLIDE. THE REVISIONS TO THE CAP ARE ALSO DETAILED IN YOUR STAFF REPORT ON PAGE 6 AS WELL AS IN YOUR ATTACHMENT D OF THE STAFF REPORT. SO THIS SLIDE LISTS THE CAP REVISIONS. The first one is consistent with council direction. The grant funded Santa Monica neighborhood green waste project has been advanced from fiscal year 2728 to fiscal year 2627. The project is supported by a sustainable communities program grant. And while the total grant award is unchanged, the amount incorporated into the CIP has been reduced to reflect SCAC's decision to retain and directly manage the portion of the funding allocated for consultant-led design, engineering, and stakeholder engagement. The second change is the forestry transit priority improvements, which have been accelerated to fiscal year 26-27 to support transit efficiency and reliability ahead of LA-28. And the third change is funding for an AHSC-supported project in fiscal year 27-28, which has been reduced to align with updated scheduling, as well as reduced funding. And these three changes have no impact on the general fund. Regarding the aquatic fees, as discussed previously, the City routinely conducts comprehensive fee studies to calculate the full cost of delivering fee-for-service activities. These studies ensure that the fees remain current, fair, defensible, and align with the City's cost recovery goals. The proposed updates in our staff report continue this practice by aligning fees with the true cost of service, while also maintaining access in areas where Council has established policy priorities. During the May budget study session, Public Comment raised concerns about proposed increases to adult aquatics permit fees, specifically regarding the cost recovery levels and comparisons to other jurisdictions. And staff would like to address these concerns. Santa Monica's aquatic fees have not been increased since 2021. The proposed nominal adjustments bring aquatic fees into alignment with current program costs and with other Recreation and Arts Department program fees. via additional research staff found that only a limited number of nearby cities offer swimming rentals and even with the proposed adjustments Santa Monica's rates remain below those of comparable agencies including the cities of Torrance and El Segundo and also the general lane rental fee in the city of Long Beach staff believe that these increases are reasonable modest and consistent with the city's cost recovery objectives While the fiscal impact of these specific changes to the overall budget is not material, adopting the adjustments helps to maintain a fair and sustainable fee structure. Council retains the option to continue subsidizing these fees at the current levels by suspending the increases. The staff recommends moving forward with the adjustments to support long-term program stability as well as alignment with established cost recovery policies. And staff from RAD is here in case you have any questions regarding these fees. And in closing, I'll leave you with a slide listing the remaining recommended actions which you have before you tonight, which include adoption of two resolutions required to formally adopt the fiscal year 26-27 operating and capital budgets and approve the year two of the biannual capital improvement program budget. We're also asking you to adopt several annual resolutions that set local fees, fines, and rates, Ensure compliance with state requirements, including the annual Gantt appropriations limit and SB1 state gas tax allocations. We're also asking you to approve a resolution to establish salary rates and approve position and classification changes. And finally, we're asking you for approval to update the city's fiscal policies to include the revised procurement policy. And that concludes my presentation. Staff is here for questions from council. Thank you.

Thank you. Chair Zwick, I wanted to also note that as we consider the budget deliberation, staff is requesting that as part of the deliberation, we consider the totality of the budget, save for discretionary funding in the amount of $20,000 that's provided to the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District. for high school grad night, a member of the council needs to recuse from that particular discussion and vote on that segment of the budget. And so what we'd ask is as we have deliberation and then eventually move towards consideration of a vote, that we segment the discretionary funding that's provided to the school district and allow that to be taken as a separate vote.

Okay. Anyone in the queue? Council Member Snell.

Thank you for this report. I just would like for you to kind of go over a little bit with the Gantt limit and kind of explain as to how it's calculated. And it seems like we are in accordance with it also. So I'd like to have a little bit more information on it with respect to it.

Sure. We are definitely under the GAN limit. We look at the GAN limit. The GAN limit is adjusted annually by the changes in population and inflation. And basically that's compared to the the tax levels that we charge tax revenues that we charge and based on the calculation We determine whether we're still within the GAN limit or we're above the GAN limit right now based on the calculation Which is on page 10 of our staff report. We are actually We are actually way with the proposed Gantt limit is 3.5 million. And the appropriations that we have that are subject to the Gantt limit are only $357 million. So we're way below the Gantt limit.

And that's calculated each year with respect to?

Each year we calculate it based on construction, assessed valuation, city population. And there's a calculation that we're provided with to be able to come up with that number.

Mayor Chavez is in the queue, though she's not able to press the button. So I'll ask that we go to her next.

I mean, I can go last, but since you're chairing the meeting, I'll let you do that. Thank you so much. I do want to go back to this aquatics fees issue because we've had, you know, subsequent communication. Aquatic fees are increasing from what I can tell, eight to nine percent with a stated cost recovery rate of 58% for adult programs. So can you talk to us about what the city's target cost recovery rate is for any of our adult recreation programs generally? And is 58% where we intend to land or are we making a step towards a higher target?

Yeah, I can ask Jenny.

Like, I guess I'm saying I don't want to, you know, try to increase these fees on the backs of the people who are renting our swim lanes.

Thank you, Mayor Taurosis. Jenny Rogers, your Director of Recreation and Art. We actually are looking at, across the board, cost recovery in the 80 to 90% for most of our recreation activities. Aquatics is actually an area where we've, by design, had a lower cost recovery rate. we acknowledge that it's very expensive to run an aquatic center. Over the course of the last five years when we have not had any increases in our fees, just to give context to what it costs to operate a swim center, our costs have actually gone up by 20% in terms of our maintenance and by 20% approximately in terms of our staffing. And so that equals about $270,000 when you break out, what does $20,000 mean? With that said, we are looking across the board at all of our recreation programs and trying to find modest increases in terms of cost recovery. So for the aquatic permit groups, both youth and adult, that's roughly 4%. So we're looking at an increase from, say, 58% to 62% for our adults, and for youth, that's 44% to 48%. What that means in terms of the cost to the actual groups is essentially a dollar a lane per hour and what we would collect over the course of time in terms of the adult permit groups is essentially uh twenty eight thousand dollars will that make up the difference on what it costs to operate the pool no But in terms of a larger picture for the city, this is an issue of fairness across all the groups. In actuality, most of the groups are much closer to a cost recovery rate, and those groups are seeing also modest increases across the board. To Manager Chee's point, we want to look at these things holistically. We want to acknowledge that everybody has a part to play. We feel that this is a very modest increase. When we look across other agencies in our area, we've got a couple that are below us, which would be LA Culver City. We've got a couple that are more expensive than us, which would be Torrance and El Segundo. We have Long Beach, which generally has a higher rate, but there's one pool where there's a lower rate than ours. And then we have someone like WeHo that's currently lower, going through a fee increase, and they're gonna be higher in October when they adopt those fees. So we feel we've landed in a good spot, We don't expect to be able to, you know, cost recover on the backs of our aquatics recreators, and that's never been our goal. Just to address one thing, which is that, you know, as a philosophy, we've always said that we're going to have lower rates for youth and higher rates for adults. And I would say as your director, I stand behind that. I also stand by the philosophy that we have a lower rate for our residents than we do for our non-residents. That's just been a philosophy in Santa Monica for decades. We want to encourage our residents to recreate and make it more affordable for those that live in the city to do so. And so that kind of just gives you a broad picture of you know, we're taking, I think, a very reasonable approach. I think our team from RAD has worked really closely with the finance team, which has done an outstanding job at trying to really be mindful that, you know, cost increases do impact people's pocketbooks, and we want to make sure we have a very measured approach when we're talking about fee increases.

Thank you. That was such a helpful answer, and it does sound like we're taking an equity based approach, which I think is important to me and hopefully to the rest of the council. And I know I said I only had one question, but I just have to ask one more. I'm so sorry. So not of you. I think this would be for Jing. The new $500 tenant protection during construction fine, I think is really a meaningful enforcement tool and something that's really important for us. But a fine only really works if it's enforced. So I just wanted to ask what code enforcement's current capacity was to investigate and cite the type of protection during construction.

Yeah, it's a great question. We've actually been completely reworking our process with respect to what we call our MMP process, so the Means and Methods Plan, which is sort of what guides tenant protections during construction. We've brought together all of the groups that need to be involved in really building a much better process around this neighborhood preservation coordinator position, you know, to really set that up for success. Because at the end of the day, that is one person. One person is not going to solve really, you know, what is a, it's a systemic issue, you know, and we're looking at it, you know, I think what we see with all of the issues that we're caught in is, you know, oftentimes you can see where earlier communication between tenant and landlord can solve so many things, you know, and not have the situations you have right now where, It's the city is intervening at a very, very late stage when things have gone completely, you know, not in the right way. And so I think, you know, having the NPC involved, you know, we're instituting kind of like pre-construction meetings, making sure there's appropriate review of MMPs, reframing even who fills that out, you know, so it's not permit expediters, it's the property owner and the contractor. So people who are actually responsible for implementation. So, you know, it's really a process wide view and looking at that issue and just like habitability in general, creating the right systems and, you know, even involving our inspections team earlier in the process. So we're sort of ground truthing, like construction sequencing, you know, and what they're showing on the plan to make sure that it actually makes sense. You know, so all of that, we've been working on that probably for like the last four months, you know, in preparation to launch that with the new clarity system. Amazing. Thank you. Sure.

Thank you. Council members are in the sky.

Thank you. I had three quick, hopefully quick questions. So the first one is about the reduction of one FTE from the peer fund. Could you please clarify kind of what that role that's being eliminated is and if it's currently a vacant role or if there's somebody in that position that would be transitioned potentially to another role?

It is a vacant position.

Yeah, thank you.

So what we are doing is we've added in the second realignment update, we added an administrative analyst. And we're using that as a pathway for our current business assistant. to grow into. So we're deleting the business assistant position, but we are underfilling the administrative analyst position with that individual.

And while you're still up here, could I also please ask, the transition from a real estate or property management role to the economic development role change in the FTE, could you kind of just speak to what the thinking behind that is and how that's going to help us achieve our goals that are laid out within the realignment plan?

Sure, I'd love to. So within the economic development division, the current hierarchy is that we have a single economic development manager that is managing both the bids, the business concierge, the relationships with all the individual tenants, And also overseeing the city's real estate assets, the leasing and the property management. So it's quite a wide spectrum of responsibilities and everybody within the greater economic development division has a handful of roles that are cross trained to kind of do everything. So nobody's really focused on doing one thing. The idea with the restructure is that we create 2 managers within economic development. 1, that is focused on more of the day to day interface with the local businesses. And we have a manager that is solely focused on the city's real estate, that's disposition, acquisition, working up some future plans for the city's assets, as well as dealing with leasing, property management, the pier and beach governance review that we discussed within the context of PeerCorps earlier this evening. So the individual that was presently the senior real estate property manager, we hope to transition that person into the economic development manager role within the real estate team.

Thank you, Mr. James. And then I have a question on the procurement policy and those updates. I recognize there's a lot of it. There's a lot to the procurement policy. Could Mr. Santiago, could you please just give a brief overview of how the changes to the procurement policy will enable us to more effectively address community needs?

I think it gives us the flexibility to move projects faster. Right now, the timeline to get a procurement out through the existing process takes a long time. There's a lot of controls in there, which we still have in place. It's just that we streamline some of these things where the approvals maybe are too many, one too many. And so we reduce all that stuff. We've also changed the thresholds, which actually will give us some flexibility in terms of how much room we have for us to purchase services in a faster way. So those are mainly the types of changes that we made. We've also separated our policy in three areas where we have the duties and powers in our charter. And then now our policy basically talks about our thresholds, what's required, what the competitive process is, multiple different types of competitive processes there are, including exceptions to the competitive process. That's all outlined in our policy. And then our AI is basically the operational guide, really guiding departments on how to make your day-to-day procurement and how to make it easier for them. So we're spending a lot of time on those changes. And our next phase of this is to train staff and really talk to them about the flexibility and the controls that we have in place to make sure that we're still accountable and transparent with our purchases.

And the public would still be able to see all of the contracts that are executed, any agreements, what we're spending on what, that kind of thing?

That's still all in place. One of the things that we're doing now is we are posting everything on our online bidding platform so that we really reach wider net of vendors by doing that. We get people from all over the country to bidding on our projects by doing that. So we've moved into that now for several years. We're trying to refine that so it's faster for our departments to do businesses. We're also giving, we define our public works projects in a different way to give public works departments for public works projects more flexibility to move on their construction projects. And so I think overall it's going to help us. One of the statistics that I had given you I think before was that On average, over the last six years, on average, about 31 items come to council when maybe it wasn't necessary to go through that process. Bringing a staff report to council takes about a month in our process, and so it delays a lot of these projects, and that's what we hear from our clients in finance.

Great. Thank you. And one final question for now about the parking fee changes and the parking resolution. It includes an extension of the, quote, downtown employee discount program for one additional year. Is that the same as the pilot parking program that we did for the downtown fitness and wellness businesses?

That is not. That's a different program.

That's a separate one?

That's a separate program.

And is that one still active, just not included by name in this?

It's still active as a pilot.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That's all my questions. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Council Member Hall?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And thank you director Santiago for your presentation. So, uh, as part of our recent realignment plan update, we've been working on here at city hall. We now have rosier projections about our budget being structurally balanced for the 1st time since pre covid, uh, as early as next summer. But there's a pretty big caveat with that projection, right? Can you remind us what that projection is assuming?

Yeah, the projection assumes that, um. Our school district agreement, the facility use agreement expires in 2027. That's a $12 million expense. So that goes off the books. We revise it or there's a potential parcel tax, I think, going around that if it gets approved, it would be used for that purpose, to fund the agreement.

Okay. So just to restate what you said there clearly so the public hears, we are assuming that the Citizens Initiative parcel tax gets approved by the ballot or to go on the ballot. And if that passes, that will help us reach that projection of a structurally balanced budget.

And continue to fund the school district. Without that, it's tough decisions ahead of you.

Okay, thank you. So you're saying if that parcel tax does not pass, or for some reason it doesn't qualify for the ballot, that we will face some pretty difficult decisions ahead with regards to supporting our schools and potentially continuing the level of services that we provide our community through any number of programs?

That is correct. That'll be a trade-off moment. Schools for the city's programs, and it'll be a decision for council to make.

Got it. Thank you, Director.

Thank you, Council Member Raskin.

Thanks. Just one question. At some point, this came up in our last budget discussion, but at some point in the future, we're going to take a comprehensive look at landmarking stuff. And I'm just curious, to what extent will we have an opportunity to look at fees related to the landmarking process as part of that future examination?

I think the short answer is that authority rests with the council at any point in time to bring back a fee for review. And as part of the overall landmarking program that the city operates, an assessment of that fee level is something that will be engaged as part of that process.

Okay, thanks. I'll have more to say in discussion.

Council Member Nogueira?

So I know we're tracking, so to speak, right? And so as it pertains to how the community is feeling, especially when it comes to safe, clean homelessness, these top priorities, how are we going to measure those results? I don't know. That's not really like a budget question, but I know where we have a few positions that are being added. We have some technology being added. I know we've got this dashboard. But in reality, how are we going to go back and really assess if our return on investment with all these different things are being felt in the community? Because we can say it up here. And I know sometimes there's a lag between implementation and actually having it be seen and felt in the community. And as we track it, I think something I would want to know is not just how it looks good for us and if we're checking boxes, but if it's how do we. Are we going to do a community survey? I don't know for the businesses as well. Like, are we going to do a business survey and say, do you feel that the red tape we talked about has been cut back? Do you feel that it's easier to do business in Santa Monica?

No, I think there's certainly output measures and outcome measures that we're going to be monitoring. Certainly, I think as we continue to execute the specific realignment work plan items, we are going to be refining. We've actually been working through an update of an expansion of outcomes that are being delivered, whether that's a number of the level of part one crime part two crime in the city the number of traffic citations for example being written levels of enforcement officer engaged enforcement proactive enforcement are we delivering capital projects at scale how many tons of debris are being removed these are all things that we will absolutely continue to refine and measure There's specific projects that we've committed to as part of the realignment plan. Are those projects being executed? And also our processes internally measuring those a little bit more specifically on how long it takes to get through our internal processes. Also something that's viable. I think the ultimate measure, though, is. over the course of the next couple of years are we going to see renewed growth in town real economic growth are the things that we're doing creating an environment that is encouraging folks to come back to the city to spend money in the city to hang out in the city so there will be also that ability to monitor and measure you know our revenue streams increasing really as we've looked at balancing the budget right now that's before you We are relying on programmatic revenue growth, but when you look at where we're projecting the real growth in actual economic activity, sales tax is fairly flat, TOT is fairly flat. We are seeing a rebound, but all of those things I think ultimately feed into, are we going to see the kind of return to the growth that we had in Santa Monica prior to the pandemic?

So I know the reporting is great and we received a message the other day from an individual who's continuously said that he hasn't seen a lot of change from the public safety. And then he said, I'm starting to feel and see that change to that extent when we have a scorecard. Is it possible, though, to consider with whatever technology and new positions that are there that we are asking for that score from the community and the business community and stakeholders?

Yeah, certainly. I think one of the things we've been talking about is part of a continual assessment. Do we do more community surveying on the state of where we're headed, being wrapped into sort of an overarching program to get feedback on a regular basis? That will all be part of what we develop over the course of the next year.

I think that's one other way to outreach and find out where we're missing the mark on certain things. So one of my other questions is about the Housing Trust Fund and the amount that we talk about paying back. I know that I think one of the new positions comes from the Housing Trust Fund. What do we owe the Housing Trust Fund now? $50 million?

The last was, I think it was $47 million, the last number that we did.

$47 million?

$47 million.

Yeah. So, and I think we're on track at what the amount was we'd be back in 115 years.

We are making the transfers. We're budgeted to make the transfers to the GSH, GSH transfers to the Housing Trust Fund. The repayment will come when we do have more funds available. Right now, one of the priorities is also rebuilding our general fund reserves, so that also is something that we consider. We do have a payment plan in our fiscal policies that outline how we're going to repay back the housing trust fund, but that is also in our mind.

I saw the payment plan. I think we would be paid back in like over 115 years or something. When we originally did our budget for 27, what was the original revenue forecast then versus the forecast now when we take out the realignment plan?

I would have to look that up. At least I'm trying to look at that. Yeah, I can tell you that.

So, yeah, the Housing Trust Fund is an interesting one. I still... curious on how we're going to move forward. And I'm hoping that that number gets addressed at some point. But there is a few other positions in there. There was seven, I believe, that were new. And we discussed a couple. I know that one of them that's included is paid by the Housing Trust Fund. And I know there's been some movement around EDD, correct? Right? How many positions were added to EDD?

I think in this budget, it's really just the add-delete of the business assistant and the admin analyst and the add-delete of the senior property manager.

So it's not really a new position?

They're not new, net new positions.

Okay.

But in previous realignment budget discussions, we did add several positions, again, to bring more focus to the distinct columns that make up the Economic Development Division. So I'd have to go back and look at my notes, but we probably added two or three additional positions to our original staff of eight.

From Economic Development?

From Economic Development, correct.

So original staff of eight, now we're looking at...

I think we're like at 11.

Okay. And the concierge program I know is Jennifer Taylor and Wendy

Right, that's correct. We refer to that as team one. Yeah. And to your previous question about sort of like qualitative experience that people are feeling. That's the team that's really keyed into the pulse of the business community, and what you'll see coming forward in the next fiscal year is not just a concierge program, but like a business ambassador program, so more proactive outreach. How can we help? What's going right? What's going wrong? And converting that information into new programs and new ways of supporting the business community.

Perfect. Thank you.

There aren't any more questions. I'd like to move this item. I'd like to move the second year of the 25-27 bi-annual budget and also adoption of the fiscal year approved for the second year for the 26-28 capital improvement program budget.

I'll second. All right. Ms. Fontenglen, do you have a comment here?

Yes, we have some additional language to add to one of the attachments as part of this item that we'd like to read into the record. So, in light of concerns raised earlier in the day arising out of an existing contractual relationship between a franchise holding utility and the City, Staff recommends that the following language be added as a notation to the bottom of page two of exhibit E1, civil engineering, of attachment E, which is the master fee resolution. The language would read as follows. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this schedule, fees subject to franchise holding utilities operating under existing agreements shall, nope, excuse me, I apologize, that is the wrong language. It is the same place, but let me just get the correct language. We updated it. My apologies. This is attachment E. Pardon. No. Here it is. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary on this schedule, terms and conditions of existing agreements between franchise holding utilities and the city shall control.

Thank you for that. We have a motion from Council Member Snell. I'm not sure if there were comments that were also, maybe those were resigning to make before we pick a vote here. I see Council Member Raskin is in the queue.

Yeah, I just want to make two brief comments, and thank you to the entire team for your work on this. I know this is a lot, many, many long nights working on this. Just two real quick points. So the landmarking issue, I hope we can collectively as a team put a pin in that for our future discussion on that topic. And then... I don't think it seems to be direction, but with respect to the fines for some of our parking violations or traffic violations, I would hope that we are continuing to evaluate whether those are sufficiently framed to disincentivize violations uh for example i noticed there's a 350 violation for intentionally forged disabled parking placards like that's something that feels like a really um egregious violation that should potentially be more uh or um you know illegally blocking disabled parking uh or even parking a car publicly uh just to put up an advertisement as a penalty in the ballpark of 100 bucks. So, you know, I don't think now's the time to, you know, redline any of these, but I hope that we can continue to make sure that these are sufficient to, you know, disincentivize this behavior.

Thank you. Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, Mayor Patem. I just want to make sure that the motion contemplates moving all of the staff recommended actions inclusive of City Attorney Van Tongen's edits for Attachment E, as well as the recused section regarding the funding transfer to SMMUSD so Council Member Negrete can recuse. Is that accurate? That is accurate. Okay, thank you. If there wasn't a second, I'll second that.

I seconded it.

Got it. And for clarity, as Councilmember Hall said, that will be inclusive of the written language that was added to the Attachment E and separate from that one item mentioned around school funding. Yes. Do I have anyone else in the queue? I see none. I think we can vote on that.

Okay. Before we do that, I did have one question. So this includes the parking authority as well, correct?

Yeah, this is all, just to be clear, these are all the remaining items separate from that? Except for the discretion. Yes.

Okay. All right. Okay, then I'll have to group you up. Okay, Authority Council Members Zarnaskaya?

Yes.

Authority Member Snell?

Yes.

Authority Member Raskin? Yes. Authority Member Hall? Yes. Mayor, Chair, Terosis?

Yes.

Mayor, I'm sorry, Vice Chair, Chair Pro Tem, Mayor Pro Tem, Swick.

Yes.

Okay, so now we're going to do the discretion.

That passes, and Council Member Noguera? Okay.

I am recusing myself from the discussion on whether to approve council discretionary funds to the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District for Santa Monica High School Grad Night out of an abundance of caution. The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District purchases musical instruments, supplies, and services from the Santa Monica Music Center, which I own. The money used to purchase goods and services from the music center is not from the district's general fund, but I will recuse myself, because everybody else does, to avoid the appearance of a conflict.

Thank you. And congrats to your family and all the other graduating seniors too.

All right. I think it's safe to have this remaining discussion. This is just specifically around the $20,000 that are allocated for Grad Night as part of this budget?

Correct.

i'll i'll move up go ahead go ahead council member i'll move move this item is there a second date moved by snell seconded by pterosis council member negrete i'm sorry she's up sorry hold on a second mayor pterosis yes council member hall yes council member raskin yes council member zwick yes Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Snell. Yes. Council Member Zarniskaya.

Yes.

I apologize. Did I miss anyone? We are still on.

That concludes item 12.

Sorry, Mayor Pro Tem. I have some direction once Council Member Negrete comes back. Return. Now that we are complete with all of 12A, I know staff didn't have a recommendation around the council member discretionary funds for this fiscal year that you're potentially seeking some direction on. So I would offer if my colleagues are in agreement that the funds, the allocations that were not spent roll over for up to a year to the same council member. And for those who are up for reelection, THEY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND THAT UNTIL THEY ARE EITHER RESEATED OR LEAVE THE DIAS. AND THEY GET A PRORATED AMOUNT TO DECEMBER WHEN THEY WOULD EITHER BE RESEATED OR LEAVE THE DIAS.

NEW SPEAKER I'LL SECOND THAT. BUT I WOULD JUST SAY FOR THE FUTURE CONSIDERATION, I THINK IF COUNCILMEMBERS WANTED TO ROLL OVER THEIR for more than a year in order to fund something much bigger than what our current discretionary money allows us to in planning and conjunction with staff contemplation of major projects, I would be willing to revisit the conversation around only rolling over for one year

All right, I don't know if we need to vote, because this isn't on, I know it was more a direction, but it sounds like the direction that was proposed is to allow for unspent monies to roll over for up to one year, and then with specific pro rata allocation through December for those that are up for reelection or cycling off. And I'm not sure if there's any other comments on that, but it's amenable to me. And I don't see anyone else in the queue. Councilmember Vasquez?