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
Welcome to the city council
meeting.
Before we call the meeting to
order, I
d like to read the
city
s land acknowledgment.
The West Hollywood City Council
acknowledges that the land on
which we gather and that is
currently known as the City of
West Hollywood, is the occupied,
unseeded, seized territory of
the Gabrieleno Tongva and the
Gabrieleno Quich peoples. I
ll
call this meeting of the
OCTOBER 6, 2025 City Council
meeting to order. It is 6:08.
Thanks for your patience.
We are joined by a very special
guest, will Colette Collar.
Please join us to recite the
Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to public for which it
stands, one nation under GOD
indivisible with liberty and
justice for all.
Thank you, Colette
City clerk, MAY we please have
a roll call. Yes, thank you,
Mayor. Councilmember Erickson.
Councilmembur Hang here
Councilmember Meister, here,
Vice Mayor Heilman, and Mayor
Byers. Here we have a quorum.
Thank you very much. City
Attorney, will you please
provide us with a report of
closed session.
Yes, hi, good evening. The city
council convened a closed
session this evening at 5 P.M.
There were no members of the
public here to speak on the
closed session agenda. The
council spoke about the two
items listed on the Posted
agenda and took no reportable
action and concluded a few
minutes after 6 P.M. That
concludes my report.
Thank you. We
ll move to
approval of the agenda. City
clerk, are there any changes
from staff to tonight
s agenda?
Yes, Mayer, staff is requesting
we table item f8.
There is an f8. The appointment
to the planning commission,
correct.
There
s some time sensitive
voting matters coming before
the planning commission though,
so.
Additional time for applicants
to submit
um, but it
s at the desire of
the council. They have like
several big items coming before
them.
So if we don
t have a 9th
person and something
s 44, it
could be a problem.
I actually support waiting
until we have more applicants
and
um, I, I think the clerk
s
office actually neglected to
notify us that there was a
vacancy, so the first time I
heard about it was when we were
communicated two by one of the
applicants. So I would support
holding that for 2 weeks.
I don
t support that. And also
typically the city clerk will
send out a notice to various
planning that did go out
Association did that go out?
Yeah, we do have two applicants.
It
s not posted and we do have
two applicants. Ok.
My concern is also the agenda
for the planning commission
that is coming up.
And timing of appointment to
those meetings.
I, I don
t think it
s, we
ve
given it enough time for
applications, but
I, I also didn
t hear anything
until I saw the email from one
of the applicants.
Yeah, I don
t support it
So the idea, so there
s 3
people who want to keep it on
the agenda and 2 people who
want to keep it off the agenda
for tonight.
I think that means we keep it
on the agenda tonight.
Um, are there any other changes
for my colleagues?
Ok
Wonderful. MAY I begin? Sorry,
before I want I
ll start at the
end, um, I would like to see if
we can move f6 for serving
entertainment studios in West
Hollywood.
Um, f5, the audit of vacant
residential and commercial
units.
I knew, I knew one of my
colleagues. I actually don
t
support moving that to, um, f4,
the sponsorship of the
community event, uh, with Cindy
Handler.
Yes
Um, f2 cx1 youth group holiday
event.
Um, the sober drag bingo event
with um Ite for Public
Strategies.
I know f3 is your item. Could
we also move f3 to consent?
Sure.
There was one other item he
skipped because it was his.
F7, the amendment to the
pre-approved lists. Oh, you
have questions? Ok.
Um, is there uh
is there, um, uh
regarding pride
Do people find moving prior to
consent I e e3, sorry.
It
s up to you. We
re on the
planning. You
re good with
moving it to consent.
And are we ok moving d1 to
consent?
The uh cannabis security item.
Yeah, I was just
we discussed it and that
s how
it just for the sake of ok.
Do we want to talk about out
athletes fund, e4? Ok.
Ok.
Do we need to do a review of
that city clerk.
Yes, Mayor, I do have items
d3e3f1f2, f4, and f6 moving to
consent.
Did I MISS Any? D1
and d1
Sorry, it was d1 not d3.
Sorry, my apologies
So again, that was d1, e3, f1,
f2, f4, f6.
3
Thank you. F3
on item f6, I do have some
comments about the timing, um,
in the staff report. So I would
like to address that, and I
will address it under um uh
public or under councilmember
comments later.
But I
m fine with leaving the
item on the
consent calendar.
Yeah.
Ok
Thank you
We
ll, uh, go to Levine Act
disclosures. Can my colleagues
review the agenda and report
any Levine Act disclosures. I
have none. None. None. Ok,
seeing none. We
ll move to
adjournment motions. Do any of
my, I know we have some
adjournment motions tonight. A
Councilmember, I
m sorry,
Icemeil Heilmann, do you want
to begin? Yes, I
d like to
adjourn tonight
s meeting in
memory of Rob Henig. Rob was a
devoted husband, son, a loyal
friend to many, he lectured at
ucla political
Science department for 6 years.
He opened his own law firm
specializing in employment law.
Throughout his life, he served
as a mentor for many young
attorneys, and he left a
lasting impression on both his
colleagues and community. He
was known for his integrity,
his grit, and his determination.
He presented at various legal
education programs, including
the la County Bar, the Beverly
Hills Bar, he served on the
board of the aclu of Southern
California. He was the past
president of the lgbt rights
chap
ter He was a founding board
chair of what would become
equality California. He served
the la lgbt Center
s legal
referral program and on the
board of the Tom Finland
Foundation.
A celebration of, of Rob
s life,
as planned on Sunday, OCTOBER
26th in the Doheny room of the
ark, the West Hollywood Rec
Center at 6:47 North Sambaende
from 2:30 to 4, and I would
request we adjourn in Rob
s
memory. Thank you. I think
Councilmember Erickson would
like to add, yeah, I would just
like to thank my colleague for
adjourning in Rob
s memory. I
got the chance to serve when I
was board PRESIDENT Of the aclu
of Southern California with Rob
and
he was just a delight to work
with and a true savant when it
came to matters of the law, but
matters of social justice, and
I was so shocked to see this
when he passed from our board
alumni list serve, but he
s
touched so many lives and
organizations and um he is
truly someone that just helped
shape what our community is
today, and he will be deeply,
deeply missed. Thank you very
much, Mayor. Thank you, and
I
ll turn it to Councilmember
Meister for our final
adjournment.
Thank you, Mayor. I
d like to
adjourn this evening, uh, in
memory of Jane Goodall. Jane
Goodall was a trailblazing
naturalist whose intimate
observations of chimpanzees in
the African wild produce
powerful insights that
transform basic concepts of
humankind. Tenacious and keenly
observant Goodall paved the way
for other women in primatology.
Though she is most well known
for her 65 year study of wild
chimpanzees in
Tanzania. In the latter part of
her life, she expanded her
focus and became a global
advocate for human rights,
animal welfare, species and
environmental protection and
many other crucial issues. In
her 80s, she continued to
travel 300 days a year to speak
to schoolchildren and others
about the need to fight
deforestation, preserved
chimpanzees
natural habitat
and promote sustainable
development in Africa. She was
91
years old when she passed.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.
Ok, we
ll turn tonight
s
meeting to presentations and
first we
ll recognize Colette
who did such a tremendous job
of leading us in the Pledge of
Allegiance tonight. Please join
us up here for a photo and
collect your certificate.
Ok. And I
ll turn it to
Councilmember Erickson for our
next presentation on ageism
Awareness Day. Thank you so
much, MADAM Mayer. Um, I am so
excited to print, uh, to
proclaim this month on behalf
of ageism Awareness Day, as my
good friend Barbara Meler in
the crowd has helped make sure
educating our community on for
many years. Adism refers to
stereotypes, prejudice and
discrimination towards others
based on age. This applies to
interpersonal institutional
cult
ural and structural levels.
Ages negatively affects older
adults across healthcare,
employment, housing, culture,
and education, and addressing
these biases benefits people of
all ages by fostering dignity,
respect, and equity across
generations.
Ageism often intersects with
other forms of bias, including
racism, sexism, and ableism,
and these compounding
inequities reinforced the
urgency of eliminating
age-based, age-based bias as
part of a broader inclusion
goals. In 1987, the city
established the senior advisory
Board, now known as the Older
Adults Advisory Board or the oa,
something very important to
know because Barbara Meltzer
herself will glare at you from
across the room
if you don
t say the word older
adults, uh, to ensure that
older residents, and she
s done
a lot in educating that. So
it
s very good that we make
sure we make that distinction.
Um, have the opportunities for
meaningful community engagement
in the city
s decision making
processes and serve as a key
advocate and liaison between
the older adults, community
organizations, the city council,
city officials, and the broader
community. The city of West
Hollywood embraces aging as
part of its commitment to being
caring, inclusive, and
prioritizing the well-being and
quality of life
of older residents. The city
council would like to proclaim
OCTOBER 9, 2025 as ages of
Awareness Day in West Hollywood
encourages residents and
community members to join in
raising awareness, advocating
for the elimination of ageism
and fostering a society that
respects and empowers older
adults. I would love to now
invite up my dear friend, our
former commissioner in the
Human Services Commission, as
well as a commissioner on the
county board on ages of an
older adults and the
incomparable Barbara Meltzer.
Yeah, it
s your show.
It
s my show and what pressure,
blood pressure, my gosh, thank
you, thank you so much for this.
Um, this is really, really an
important issue for me and for
many people. And while I am
here, I would thank you for
this, by the way. I would like
just to give us a list of four
forms of Aegisa, ok, it
s like
just a little education.
Internalized
is one way. How we feel about
ourselves as aging people and
ageism of which older adults
marginalize and discriminate
against other older people.
Implicit
the unconscious by it that
includes attitudes, feelings,
and behaviors towards people of
other age groups that operates
without conscience, awareness,
or intention.
Cultural
the everyday invisible
profoundly ingrained and
normalized negative messages
about ageism and old people
embedded in movies, television,
songs, jokes, and many other
things.
Benevolent
per pattern, I can
t say the
word, benevolent patronizing
beliefs that older people need
to be protected
and taken care of by younger
people because they are no
longer able to make decisions
for themselves, and those are
just some of the things we
re
fighting against. So thank you
so much.
Thank you.
Thank you for your leadership,
Barbara
There are several significant
awareness commemorations taking
place in OCTOBER. In addition
to ageism Awareness Day,
OCTOBER marks National
Disability Awareness Month.
National Disability Awareness
Month is a time to increase
awareness about people living
with disabilities and
emphasized the importance of
inclusive policies and
practices. Since 1945, the
month of OCTOBER has been
observed as a way to pay
tribute to all who fought for
better laws, demanded better
treatment, overcame ignorance,
and indifference to make our
communities better. In
recognition of this month, the
city of West Hollywood, in
partnership with the Disability
Advisory Board will host the
diss
ab il ities Health and Wellness
Fair on Thursday this week,
OCTOBER 9th, 2025 at Plummer
Park. And on Wednesday, OCTOBER
202, 2025. The city will also
host the 27th annual Disability
Service Awards, where we will
recognize the leadership of so
many incredible individuals in
this community and beyond. We
would like to take this
opportunity to recognize and
thank our disabilities advisory
board for all the work they do
to bring awareness during this
month and all year round. So
please
join us up here for a photo.
Thank you.
I kid.
Thank you so much to the mayor
and the city council. This is
one of my favorite months of
the year. The weather is
gorgeous. I spent Sunday
afternoon at the Aquatic Center.
We get to have the health fair
this Thursday, which is a great
event. It
s a perfect time to
get your flu shot, and to find
out about many services the
city offers, including ambiance
transportation, dial a ride, so
many things that are taken care
of here.
I grew up in Seattle. I
ve
lived in New York and San
Francisco, and hands down, this
is the best place to live if
you
re a person with
disabilities. The city of West
Hollywood cares and takes many
actions that improve the
quality of life for people
living with disabilities. I
thank you so much for promoting
our health fair this Thursday.
And I know we
ll see some of
you on OCTOBER 22nd, as we
celebrate
services and people that do an
outstanding job in our
community. Thank you so much
for having at Disabilities
Advisory Board, and I
m very
honored and pleased to be the
CHAIRMAN This year. Thank you
so much.
Thank you so much
Thank you, Counsel Chair. Just
to reminder that uh during
disabilities Awareness Month
that, uh, disabilities come in
all
uh forms, uh, many of which are
visible, many of which are not,
and GOD willing, we all live
long enough that, uh, virtually
all of us will experience one
or more forms of disabilities,
either permanent or temporary.
Um, and, uh
the, the, the mark of a of a of
a good society that that that
well serves its members is how
it treats those who uh are the
most vulnerable among us, and I
think this city does its best,
um, to, uh, uh, to serve and to
watch out for for persons with
disabilities, although we MAY
have some disagreements, uh,
obviously, and, and that
s,
that
s natural and to be
expected in a part of democracy
Um.
uh, I, I think we, we all have
the, the, the best interests of
the city at heart in trying to
work together to best serve the
needs of all of its citizens,
and I thank you very much. And
again, we hope to see you on,
uh on Thursday and also on the
22nd. Thank you.
We think the disability
advisory Board for joining us
for this special commemoration,
and we
re also lucky to be
joined by another fabulous
board here in the city. The
city
s Women
s Advisory Board.
They
re here tonight to receive
proclamations for two other
awareness commemorations taking
place in the month of OCTOBER.
It sure is a busy and special
month. Breast cancer awareness
and domestic partner and
intimate partner violence
awareness month or this month
as well. So OCTOBER is national
domestic Violence Awareness
Month in recognition of
domestic violence and intimate
partner violence
as a national issue that
affects people of all ages,
genders, races, cultures,
religions, educational
backgrounds, sexual
orientations, gender identities,
and marital statuses. Domestic
violence is also referred to as
intimate partner violence and
can take many forms. In
addition to physical abuse, it
can include sexual abuse,
verbal abuse, emotional abuse,
intimidation, controlling
behaviors, isolating behaviors,
and economic abuse. Over 80
million people across the
nation have
experienced intimate partner
violence in their lifetimes,
with 10 million adults annually,
nearly 20 people per minute are
physically abused by an
intimate partner.
People from marginalized groups,
including women and members of
the lgbtq plus community are at
an increased risk for
experiencing intimate partner
violence as abusers will often
capitalize on existing social
and economic vulnerabilities to
wield control.
This month, the city
s lanterns
along Santa Monica Boulevard
will glow in the color purple
to recognize domestic violence
awareness and intimate partner
violence Awareness Month and in
remembrance of those who have
died because of domestic
violence, honor those who
survived and to encourage those
who work to end violence, to
unite and stand with domestic
violence and intimate partner
violence survivors.
OCTOBER is also national Breast
Cancer Awareness Month, an
annual campaign aimed at
raising awareness of this
disease and increasing public
knowledge about the importance
of early detection, diagnosis,
and treatment of breast cancer.
About every 2 minutes, 1 case
of breast cancer is diagnosed
in the United States, and in
2025, more than 310,000 new
cases of invasive breast cancer
are expected to be diagnosed in
women, and about 2800 cases in
men. Additionally, nearly 4
3000 women and men are expected
to lose their lives from breast
cancer this year. While the
breast cancer death rate in the
United States has greatly
declined in recent years due to
advancements in early detection
and treatment. Breast cancer
mortality remains
disproportionately high in
black women, and awareness and
stigma can be barriers to
detection and care in men,
trans men, and nonbinary people.
National Breast Cancer
Awareness Month serves as a
reminder to educate ourselves
about breast cancer, assess
personal risk factors, conduct
regular self-exams, schedule
timely breast cancer cancer
screenings and contribute to
fundraising efforts for breast
cancer research. Early
detection saves lives, and
scheduling a mammogram, an
appointment that can take as
little as 15 minutes could save
your life. Numerous free and
low-cost services are available
for those in need. So we thank
and invite the Women
s Ad
vi s ory Board to join us for a
recognition of these two
awareness months. Thank you.
2.
The
Uh, on behalf of the Women
s
Advisory Board for the city. I
thank you all for this, uh, for
making awareness so important.
Uh, just, I don
t want to
repeat anything that was said,
but I just want to say one
thing in regards to domestic
violence, uh, our
we
re 3 women standing here
right now. 1 out of 3 of us
will either experience or have
experienced either physical or
sexual violence with an
intimate partner. That is a
global statistic 1 in 3, think
about that, or have experienced
or will experience that and
that doesn
t even include the
more subtle abuse that happens
when there is a partner that is
abus
ive that is abusive and with
abusive behavior, controlling
behavior, which is something
that often leads to physical
violence. Um, I do know that
there is one other board member
that would like to address this
issue, so, uh, can I invite you
to yes, thank you. Hi. So as
our board is going to be
focusing on dv this month. We
are rolling out a campaign to
express a raise awareness for
the emotional abuse that
happens, we
re gonna have a
social media graphic
explaining all the different
nagging, love bombing with a
linked for people to get more
resource resources also we
wanna work with you more
closely to help form
legislation to help with
resources such as the abuse in
the family court systems, pets
aren
t allowed at shelters very
often, so people, a big
majority of the time people
can
t leave or don
t want to
leave. So you will be hearing a
lot more from us and hopefully
we can work with you and this
county and the state to really
have more resources available
and against the really
importantly, stop the abuse in
the court systems. Thank you.
And addressing breast cancer
awareness, uh, and again, I, I
don
t want to repeat any of the
statistics, but you cannot go
into a room today and say, do
you know someone that has
breast cancer or has had breast
cancer without every single
hand going up immediately.
And I
m old enough to know that
that wasn
t always the case.
You could ask in the same room
and have maybe a third, maybe
not even that, of people
raising their hands. Uh, breast
cancer is very pervasive and it
is going now spreading as you
have said to further groups
than just women who have breast
cancer, so we are really
pushing very hard, um, would
you like to? Sure.
Sure
Hi, Kat, how are you doing? Um,
there
s some information in the
back for everybody. Um, we
re
doing something which at the
point you brought up about
self-checking. We, uh, campaign
we are starting is the
buddyCheck campaign. So this,
one of the things that, um,
we
re trying to educate is that
not only women over 40 can have,
have, uh, can get breast cancer.
So, um, the thing you should do
is your friend, your mom, your
sister, your aunt, anybody, any
woman, woman, and
id ent ify ing our non-binary
persons should definitely
um, check in with your friend.
It
s very important. It saved
two of my friends
lives when
they were in their 30s. Um, but
we also wanted to segue into
something really fast that this
is also menopause awareness
month. And, um, menopause
Awareness Day will be on the
18th, and we are doing a
campaign called Is It Happening?
And you can find some
information in the back of some,
um, excuse me, I have a little
weird, of symptoms that um lead
to, um, perimenopa
use and menopause. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much
for your work.
Ok, we will now move into
public comments. The city
council values your comments.
However, pursuant to the Brown
Act, the council cannot take
action on items not listed on
the posted agenda. The public
comment period is limited to 20
minutes with 2 minutes allotted
for each speaker. This public
comment period is to address
the city council on consent
calendar items, other agenda
items if members of the public
cannot be present at the time
the item is considered, or
items of general interest
within the jurisdiction of the
city council.
Another period is also reserved
for general comment later in
the meeting for those that
could not be heard at this time.
Public hearing testimony will
only be taken at the time of
the hearing, which we do have
one tonight. City clerk, how
many speakers do we have in
chambers on Zoom? We have 17 in
chambers and 2 on Zoom. Ok, so
as that stands, that would take
us beyond our 20 minute limit.
If there are a number of
speakers signed up for consent
items. We
ll see how quickly
we
re able to move through
those, and then we
ll, um,
encourage members of the public
to keep your comments concise
with the idea that we are able
to hear from as many people as
possible in this first period,
and I will keep track of time
to see where we
re at and maybe
my, my colleagues will be ok
with continuing. We
ll see how
we
re going through this list
though.
Um, ok, uh, let
s start with
the
speakers signed up here. I have
Kathy Blavis first, followed by
Stephanie Harker, followed by
Anita Goswami.
Me
Good evening, Kathy Blaviss
City of West Hollywood. I
wanted to thank the city for
acknowledging disability aware
awareness month.
And um
I did not know that it was
ageism, uh, awareness day.
I, I just want to comment
that
there seems to be a dichotomy
with celebrating disability
awareness month and ageism Day
and
the concept of aging in place
when so many people are
affected by the scooters that
are left on sidewalks. The
delivery robots that block
people
s way.
And now
sadly
the bike lane on Fountain
Avenue in terms of the loss of
parking.
A lot of people who park are
either
elderly
excuse me, older adults,
seniors.
There are disabled people that
park a long fountain.
And in terms of the bike lane,
the mitigation would have
people walking from Crescent
Heights
would have them walking from
Plumberer Park parking. So as
we celebrate disabilities
and we celebrate ageism, and we
celebrate the concept
of aging in place
There are things and obstacles
put in the place of all of
those things, that kind of
contradict the celebratory
aspect of what the city council
is doing and
um, I just find that to be a
shame.
Stephanie Harker, followed by
Anita Goswami, followed by
Scott Schmidt.
Good evening, Stephanie Harker,
City of West Hollywood. The
disabilities Awareness Month
should be a priority for all of
us. The health fair is great
and the awards event is always
inspiring. The dabs staffed by
dedicated hardworking group of
appointed members. Quite
frankly, every month we should
be aware of people living with
disabilities. It
s why the ada
was passed in Congress in 1990.
I am also speaking on the
Fountain Avenue Streetscape
project, formerly known as the
Bike Lane Project. Just last
year, an item on the agenda
sailed through on consent to
not install an additional
traffic signal and new
crosswalks with handicap ramps.
It was essentially voted down
as the staff report said one of
the disadvantages would be that
it would encourage motorists to
cut through fountain from
fountain to Santa Monica
Boulevard on a quiet side
street.
Fast forward to the bike lane
project, the majority of you
approved two weeks ago, which
will cause 900 cars per hour.
The staff
s number 900 cars per
hour to cut down side streets.
The current plan as it stands
is not safe for everyone. Not
even bike riders, asking
cyclists to cross 120 active
driveways, many of which
require blindly backing out
across the bike lanes. That is
not safe. I
m calling for you
to put the plan on hold so it
can be redesigned as a truly
safe street. Further, let
s put
this fountain plan on the
NOVEMBER 2026 ballot. So every
resident can let their
preferences be known. Thank you.
Anita Goswami, followed by
Scott Schmidt, followed by
Chris Baldwin. Hi there,
Anitaaswami. I am the longtime
resident of West Hollywood. I
m
speaking on item d1 that was
actually moved
to the consent calendar
regarding removing the
neighborhood security guard
patrol requirement for cannabis
licensees. Um, I think this
requirement should not be moved.
These businesses by nature are
cash-intensive. Customers are
at a higher risk for robbery,
especially with the changing
economic conditions. We often
hear the issues of public
safety coming on. We, we see a
lot more assaults going on. We
just have that rise in crime,
um, I
m concerned about that.
Having the additional security
gu
ard helps these businesses keep
their reputation and keeps
their customers safer. It
s a
known risk for this type of
business, and frankly, a cost
of doing that kind of business.
The safety record they have is
in no small part due to having
security guards outside with
what seems to be a continuing
effort and a concerted effort
by the city to reduce parking.
It
s even more important to
keep that security at a
1,000-foot radius, finding
parking near those stores is
challenging and increases that
customer vulner
ability This is something, you
know, again, talking whether
it
s seniors, disabled, whoever
it is, those customers need to
be able to get to that store
and that
s, again, part of that
cost of doing business, but the
city should be looking in terms
of viable businesses, can we
get there and park a, you know,
uh, closely enough to keep
those businesses in business.
We need more safety in West
Hollywood. I appreciate that
the cannabis businesses
recognize their risks and take
those actions to keep it safe.
We need to keep
that security guard. Thank you
Scott Schmidt, followed by
Chris Baldwin, followed by
Gabby Rojas.
Good evening, Scott Schmidt,
resident of West Hollywood,
executive director of Emerald
Village West Hollywood, uh,
first to talk about item d1,
the security guard, uh, mandate
we
ve just, you know, discussed
this, I think, for 2 years
almost. Uh, I want to thank the
council for directing staff to
bring it back. Thank the staff
for bringing it back in a
timely manner and um and thank
Danny for meeting with the
licensees last week to discuss
all all of the issues, you know,
this was something that was
initially, I think it was in a
response
to challenges that there was on
Melrose, a dispensary just
outside the city borders and
there was uh nuisances that
were caused by that. What we
ve
seen in more than 5 years in
West Hollywood is, you know,
our businesses aren
t having
that problem for whatever
reason. I
m not going to get
into speculation about what it
is, but you know, this is a
mandate that um has been
extremely costly costly and
burdensome, and so we
appreciate the council
s
willingness to work with this
industry to relieve that
um, that burden. There will
still be security guards when
the businesses are open. Uh,
this will actually keep the
security guards there so
they
re not walking around the
whole time. Uh, so that
s great.
The other thing I wanted to
weigh in on was since you also
moved the pride item to consent.
I saw a little peach in there
about World Pride 2026 being in
Amsterdam, uh, that would be a
wonderful place for us to help
spread those story of West
Hollywood and what we
re doing,
specifically in the cannabis
industry. And uh if y
all wanna
talk about ways that we might
do that.
Uh, give me, uh, some, some,
some ideas. I will be there in
a month uh for the Amsterdam
Coffee Shop Awards, uh,
spreading the word about West
Hollywood. So, um, hopefully
there
s an opportunity to
leverage all of the winter
things, wonderful things that
we have in our city, uh, next
year. Thank you. Thank you.
Chris Baldwin, followed by
Gabby Rojas, followed by
Ventura Griswold.
Good afternoon. Uh, uh, good
evening, actually.
City Council, it
s a pleasure
to see you all, um,
uh, good evening, Honorable
Mayor Byers and the esteemed
council members. I
m here today
as the PRESIDENT Of the ll
Project to urge you to maintain
the $100,000 funding, uh,
allocation for women, the
women
s Freedom Festival and
MARCH as part of WeHOpe
Pride 2026. The ll project has
been filling a critical void in
our community since the closure
of the Palms in 2013 when
lesbians and queer women lost
their gathering spaces. We
stepped
up. Today, the Women
s Freedom
Festival in
MARCH represent
more than events. They are
lifelines for visibility,
community, and artistic
expression for those who have
historically been marginalized
even within lgbtq spaces. But
before I move on to why this
funding is essential. I
d first
like to thank everyone on the
special events team, Cleo,
Megan, and Carrie for their
exceptional professionalism,
guidance and support to ensure
why to
ensure we have a successful
ride event. Now, why do I
believe this funding is
essential. First, the economic
and cultural impact. These
these events draw thousands of
attendees to West Hollywood,
supporting our local businesses
and reinforcing, uh, who
s
reputation as a welcoming,
inclusive destination. Second,
it
s a platform for emerging
talent. That
s what we do at
the l Project. Third, community
building and action. Since 2015
the el project has created
multicultural intergenerational
spaces where people connect
beyond the bar scene. These are
free, accessible events.
That welcome everyone fostering
the kind of inclusivity
community, West Hollywood
champions. Fourth of
preservation of lesbian and
queer women
s history. And
before my time is over, thank
you very much.
Gabby Rojas, followed by
venture Griswold, followed by
Carlos Sosa.
Um, hi folks, good evening. My
name is Gabri Rojas. I
m from
the Institute for Public
Strategies are good. Um, and
the safer weho Coalition, um, I
just wanted to get up here and
thank you folks for continuing
to find and create cyber spaces
in West Hollywood, um, as we
know, folks are straying away
from the usual drug and alcohol
centered spaces whether it be
to due to sobriety, safety, or
the economy because drinks be
expensive. Um, we know these
sober spaces mean so much to
our community, especially our
youth. Um, we
re seeing so
Sober third spaces pop up
all over the country and we
truly believe that we have has
the power to really uplift
these spaces and be an
innovator when it comes to
their establishment as a norm,
um, in our communities. So
thank you for your time and I
truly hope we see more of them
pop up. Thank you.
Apologies for saying your name
incorrectly 4 times.
Venture Griswold, followed by
Carlos Sosa.
Hi everyone, my name is Venture
Griswold. I
m a representative
for Institute for Public
Strategies and the SaferEHOpe
Coalition. Thank you so much
for moving our item to the
consent calendar. We
re really
honored that you continue to
trust us to create these sober,
safe spaces in West Hollywood
for folks. As you know, ips has
been a long history of bringing
sober events to West Hollywood,
including our Fridayf concert
this summer, which had over 100
folks on the rooftop right here
at the, the Aquatic Center and
last DECEMBER, we held our
first Slay the Night holiday
drag bingo with
Pickle, the drag laureate of
West Hollywood, who is coming
back for this event, NOVEMBER
fast to sober, Octoberfest
alternative, drag bingo. Uh,
it
s going to have substance
use prevention throughout it.
It
s going to have like themed
bingo that relates to substance
use prevention. It
s going to
have a community resource fair
that
s carnival themed, and we
think it
s going to be a really
good resource for the community.
So thank you again for your
continued support and we hope
to see some of you there. Thank
you, Carlos Sosa, followed by
Mark Lee Lumpkins, followed by
Michael Sedich.
We
re about halfway through our
time, just as a time check.
Good evening, Carlos Sosa,
executive director of the City
x1 Youth Group and uh
organization locally here that
services uh lgtb homeless youth,
and I
m here to speak on behalf
of item f2, which is
specifically for funding of our
annual holiday events which
mark uh their 23rd and 24th
anniversary this year. It
s, uh,
as we approach the holiday
season, it is probably uh
amongst the city
s most unique
events as we
re getting ready
with our meal deliveries for
Thanksgiving week
to local encampments where
we
ve identified where local,
uh, youth, uh, lgbt youth that
are homeless are being as uh.
Moving around, so we uh make
delivery meals to them. And
then on Sunday, DECEMBER 7th,
we have a very special event,
the tamale Wars, which is a
Star Wars-themed event, uh,
that has like Star Wars
characters, Christmas trees,
all sorts of amazing activities
and our council members who
attended last year can uh
attest to that and we
ll
continue it again this year and
we do all of this, uh, for our
homeless youth, for our trans
youth and our immigrant youth,
all which are under attack by
the current
administration. We want to let
them know we are their extended
family. We are a community here,
uh, for them and that we are
partnering with a number of
local organizations to provide
them with transitional living,
ged training, hiv testing, all
types of amazing services for
them as uh we
re talking about
ageism and youth as well this
meeting, uh, the suicide rate
amongst our uh older adults and
our youth is really high during
the holidays. So this is a, uh,
opportunity to bring him to
special
events to let them know that
we
re here for them as a
community and if anybody wants
to sponsor us or uh help out
beyond that, let us know. Thank
you for your continued support.
Thank you. Mark Lee Lumpkins,
followed by Michael Sedich,
followed by m. John Larsen.
Hello, my name is Mark Lee
Lumpkins, and I
m PRESIDENT Of
the Lot at Formosa Studios in
West Los Angel in, uh, West
Hollywood, excuse me. Um, I
m
speaking in opposition of these,
uh, city councils, uh,
directing a draft ordinance to
evaluate other methods to
preserve the entertainment
industry and ancillary uses of
the City of West Hollywood
studio. Um, primarily, um, this
has come to light only this
afternoon by sheer coincidence,
we were, uh, part of the survey
of the East
um, Economic Development of, uh,
West Hollywood, as you MAY all
know, for the last 5 years, the
industry has been in the desert
with regards to, uh, bringing
entertainment to, um, West
Hollywood and in, in that
matter to the United States or
California, uh, we feel that
this ordinance and this study
will undermine the flexibility
and the growth and changes that
we
re still in the middle of
evaluating. Um, there seem, is
there confusion? I
m sorry. Oh,
ok, I wasn
t sure
if I was speaking on the right
thing. Um, in general, um,
right now, the lot, uh, in
particular, and our industry
has been in such a matter of
drastic change. We are looking
at aai. We are looking at labor
concerns, and this study and
the questionable changes to the
way that we use our space will
be detrimental in what we are
attempting to sell to the
industry itself, which is a
changing studio environment
with the flexibility and the
amount and the ability to pivot.
For example, we are current
ly in the midst of negotiating
or and attempting to sell deals
to the Olympics on various
opportunities here at the lot
with some of the restrictions
that could come with this
ordinance, it could impact
those types of decisions so
that we do ask that there be
careful consideration with
changing an industry that is
already in a tremendous amount
of change, trying to find
itself again, not only for the
labor, but the industry itself
and the technology that
s
coming at us so quickly. I do
appreciate your time and
listening
Mark, uh, Michael Sedi,
followed by m. John Larsen.
And then we
ll do a time check
I, um, I think I can
confidently speak for all of us
opposed to the Fountain
Streetscape project that we are
tired of being accused of not
caring about safety. Opposition
to this ill-conceived design
should never be mistaken for
indifference to safety.
It is not safe to create
congestion and gridlock by
eliminating lanes, fueling
driver frustration and pushing
people into reckless maneuvers.
It
s not safe to leave trash
and delivery vehicles with no
choice but to stop in traffic
lanes, forcing drivers to
swerve around them into
oncoming traffic. It is not
safe to send thousands of
frustrated drivers onto smaller
feeder streets as they
desperately try to escape
gridlock on Fountain. It is not
safe to give cyclists a false
sense of security by running a
so-called protected bike lane
across 120 driveways were
crashes with vehicles are
inevitable
Putting bike lanes on Santa
Monica Boulevard is safe
I agree that this plan needs to
be paused and alternate designs
need to be studied, and this
divisive project should be put
on the ballot. Thank you.
M. John Lauren will be next.
And then we
ll go to the Zoom
speakers and then see if we can
come back to the chambers.
Hello. Hi, my name is John
Larson. Uh, I, my building has
16 units in it, and I, I moved
to that building in, in 1994
after the earthquake in
Northridge. I lived there for
32 years.
We haven
t had on-site
management health for about 4
years, and I went to City Hall
to try to find out what to do.
And, um, I was told to just
tell the owners that we should
have a manager or I, I got a
piece of paper with lawyers on
it to contact them to see if
they could help, and I called
every one of them and no one
called me back.
Um, I was
uh
that
s sorry here
Uh, about 2 years ago, there
was a gentleman came to our
building. His name was Blair,
and he said he was with Sarat
and he was managing another
building and he was in be paid
to watch ours as well, but he
s
not an onsite manager. Um,
there
s many things that have
not been addressed. Our manager
used to do before, um,
the services and so forth. I, I
did have a hearing on JULY 15th
asking the court the the
hearing why there
s not on site
manager and I have not heard
back from that either. So I,
I
m just asking for any help
you can give me. I thought it
was a law on the books, but
apparently it
s, it
s not being
enforced. I
m not sure, but um
I
d like to have an onsite
manager back is what I
m trying
to get.
Thank you very much. Thank you
Jonathan, you can probably go
talk to our staff in the back,
so if someone could come help
this nice man.
We
ll go to Zoom for our next.
For me to get this together, to
get
here.
We
re at time for the council
chambers. We
re going to go to
Zoom Zoom Tom, we
re going to
go to Zoom and then we
ll come
back. Thank you, ma
am
I appreciate your time
Joy this Mayor, we have one
speaker in Zoom for the consent
calendar items. Genevieve
Morrow, please put a star 6.
Genevieve, if you can hear us,
here the next speaker for
public comment.
Can you hear? Yeah, go ahead.
Yes, ok, sorry, I apologies,
I
m technically challenged.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor
and Counciluncilmembs got to be
moral PRESIDENT And uh
president ceo for the West
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
and bid manager for the Sunpi
strip and the design district
that we thank you for your
support of our cannabis
business and removal of the
requirement for the security
guard that goes into the
neighborhood. Um, it was uh
something
that was, uh, you discussed
last time, so it doesn
t need
any more conversation, um,
you
ve all received our letters
for all of these items, but we
do want to reiterate that we
support gathering data for our
vacancies. We
ve asked that any
regulation be passed based on
clear data that supports any
actions by the city and that
the findings are not always
evidence of something malicious
by the landowners. Commercial
real estate models are complex.
I need to be carefully
evaluated. You heard earlier
from cim and the lot, and we
encourage that you
have courage, as you have
stated to that that we look
into how we protect our
entertainment studios, but at
the same time in here we
balance preservation with
flexibility, allowing for
continued and continued
innovation, economic vitality,
and adaptability to industry
shifts. And finally, we thank
you for your support of our
next activation on Sunset Strip,
spinning sunset, spooky edition
on OCTOBER 20th at pink. And
then we
re going to have a
Halloween crawl on the stradd
d les both weekends through
Halloween weekend, and you can
go to wwubdub the
sunsetstrip.Com for more
information. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We do have about 7
speakers left in council
chambers, I think, in with the
time available, we
ll go ahead
and continue to hear public
comment rather than moving
everyone to the end of the
agenda. So apologies to the
speaker who didn
t hear that at
the top, that we would be
coming back. It was important
to get through the consent in
the 1st 20 minutes. The call,
the council is supportive of
continuing public comment. I
don
t see Tom DMille in the
back anymore, so we
ll go to
Michael, Mike Nuttall, followed
by Raphael Landen and then lit,
etc.
Hi the last meeting that we
were at, I sat in my normal
section, and this goes to you,
Mayor Byers, but someone kept
on calling you crazy over and
over again for you just stating
your opinion, and it took me
back to my middle school days
when I did a report in
Elizabeth Packard. So I want to
read this in 1860, after 21
years of marriage and six
children, Elizabeth Packard
s
life shattered in an instant.
Her husband had her locked away
in an asylum, not for violence,
not for instability, but for
daring to disagree. She
questioned his rigid
caviism faith, and in Illinois
at the time, husband needed
no proof.
No trial, not even a wife
s
consent to declare her insane.
Inside, Elizabeth uncovered a
grim truth many women confined
beside her were not mad at all,
or crazy. They were wives who
resisted daughters who
disobeyed, women who dared to
speak.
Where others broke,
Elizabeth
sharpened her pen as
she observed, she wrote, she
waited. After 3 long years, she
stood in court and defended her
right to think for herself, and
won, but freedom was only the
beginning. She exposed the
asylum system in her books,
fought Lamiki face to face and
forced reforms that curbed the
power of women, of men to
silence women under the
disguise of madness. Elizabeth
Packard refused silence. Her
defiance nearly cost her
everything, yet it
s secured
protections for
generations of women to come,
and I think today she
s smiling
Dan you.
Thank you
Raphael Landen, followed by
Lynn, etc. Followed by Andrew
Vee.
Good evening, City Counciluncil
members at this time I
m, uh,
against the bicycle lane
project to fountain.
In social teachings, there
s
one principle called the common
good.
implies equality.
However, if you favor uh the
bicycle lane, um, bicyclist,
and this favor.
The people that live there, the
residents
that would be
inequality that wouldn
t be
equality
residents like me would lose
the opportunity to lose uh
parking spaces, also for my two
tenants.
So that would be again a
perfect example of
inequality versus equality in
the principle in social
teachings.
Of the common good
Thank you
Lynne, etc. Followed by Andrew
v, followed by David Eckert.
And then we have 2 more after
that
etc. West Hollywood, Dear John
Erickson, Chelsea, and Danny,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Have some fountain coincidence
to tell you about later.
Tonight I want to talk about
the largest threat to democracy,
in my opinion, the world has
seen on NOVEMBER 5th, the
Supreme Court will begin
hearing arguments on the king
s
terrace. This isn
t hard to
understand. The king and his
two-bed court of zero
prestige are out to cause a
huge worldwide depression
whereby
the billionaires would buy up
everything on the cheap.
Instant worldwide oligarchy. I
was blessed to be friends of
gay liberation founders. Harry
Hay and archives founder Jim
Kepner. Harry was brilliant at
understanding politicians. If
Harry were here now, he would
be saying, we need to have a
MARCH on the Supreme Court on
NOVEMBER 5th when they start
the tariffs debate. The king is
sending
troops to cities nationwide the
law, he
s attempting to use is
in case of national emergencies
and then, and doesn
t mention
tariffs. At worst, every
democratic Democrat senator and
congressperson should be on the
steps of the Supreme Court
NOVEMBER 5th, chanting, whose
constitution. We, the people
s
constitution, the absurdity
that this nut case
is sending troops to aggravate
uh people the law that he
s
using for these tariffs is
illegal. The absolute absurdity
that we
re going through. So on
OCTOBER 18th, there
s a no
king
s MARCH and we the people
Andrew v, followed by David
Eckert, then we have Virginia
Gili as our last speaker in
chamber.
With Andrew v, there you are
Thank you. It
s ok
My name is Andrew, and I live
on Fanton and Daon Creek Corner
and I
m not here to
uh charge anyone about the
phantom project, but I do have
a plumbing uh um parking issue,
uh, on Delore, um, I don
t know
if there
s anything that can be
done to restrict the parking
because if you leave that place,
I don
t know, 8 o
clock, do not
come back until 7 because
people are going to take it. I
mean,
this is only yesterday, $350. I
had to bail my car out because
they towed it. On the top of
the citation, yada yada yada. I
got 2 sons and a wife, so I
m
accumulating a whole lot of
parking, uh, tickets. I
m
contributing a whole lot to
this building and into West
Hollywood because of those
parking tickets, but I cannot
help it. There
s just no place
to park.
And uh if you guys will be able
to just simply leave us at
least a half a block for
residents or one side of the
street or something, but if you
leave that place, I live in the
corner exactly at Fountain and
Dolores. And if you leave that
place at 8 o
clock, 9 o
clock,
do not come home. You will have
no space, period. That
s it.
The.
David Eckert, followed by
Virginia Gilli
and then we have one more
speaker in Zoom. We
ll conclude
our public comment.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,
and distinguished City
Counciluncil members. Tonight
i
d like to talk about a couple
of issues. One, the Allied
security uniforms. I think we
as a city need to look at their
universal a little better.
There is a lot of black and
with the hours being cut late
at night, they
re very hard to
notice and they don
t have any
reflective quality to them, so
they get lost in the mix. So I
think that can be improved on,
uh, Secondly,
I
d love to see if the city
could start uh doing mobility
classes on bicycles, scooters,
and just in general safety, I
think it
s important that we
move forward with these
different mobility options, but
I don
t think people truly know
all the rules and of how to
safely use any of them at this
point. They
ve been cut off
many times by um cyclists that
feel they have the right of way
always and I, I
m concerned
about that. Lastly, I just want
to make
uh, the ce or uh the public
know that Metro is considering
a drastic change to Sunset
Boulevard, where they
re going
to remove all permanent parking
from Vermont to Havenhurst to
make permanent bus lanes and
remove one lane of uh traffic
and and directions and I think
at that point if that is their
plan, I would love to see Santa
Monica Boulevard did the same
respect and with the issues
that are being brought up about
Fountain Avenue. I would love
to see that street remain as a
residential street. Yes, uh,
slow it down and everything,
but the parking, make that
street again a parking thing. I
think parking at that
s what
s
going to happen at sunset. We
really need to start looking at
an overall picture of what
s
going on around us. Thank you.
Virginia Gilli, and then we
ll
go to our final speaker in Zoom.
Good evening. Excuse me, good
evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor
and councilmembers. I
m
Virginia Gili, resident of West
Hollywood for 35 years. And, um,
I
ve had, I had quite a little
list of things to talk about,
but I only have a couple left
because other people covered
them.
But, um, one of my concerns is,
is that so many residents that
I talked to have no idea that
this is going on about Fountain
Avenue.
And um I think that, that, that
that is the responsibility of
the council.
To get more information out. I
really do.
And um I was gonna speak about
the bus company too. And I
m
wondering about when the, when
the bikers get to La Cieicca,
do we have any ideas for
remediation on that. It
s a
very steep hill, so going up is
impossible, and going down, so
that eliminates a lot of people
that don
t don
t have a lot of
strength to use.
Uh Fountain Avenue is going
west to get off of it, you know.
And um
yeah, I just think that, um, I
really think we should try and
put this on the ballot about
Fountain Avenue. I don
t know
if you folks have discussed
that, but I think it
s
something that
you know, would be good to
decide. I, I know that money
has already been allotted for
it, but there must be some way
to reconfigure that.
So, thank you. Thank you. We
ll
go to Zoom for our final
speaker on public comment.
Thank you.
Adam Darvish is our last
speaker. Adam, go ahead. You
ll
have 2 minutes.
Good
Good evening. I
ll make it
short. Good evening, uh, Mayor
Byers was mayor and counsel and
staff. I
m just calling about
Halloween event, the upcoming
event, and as a as a resident,
I know many many residents just
above Santa Monica Boulevard in
the rainbow District have
experienced a lot of activities
after hours, after midnight,
just asking the council for a
better plan of managing through
code compliance managing noise
after midnight or even after 2
a.M. There were a lot of people
just hang out and party. You
cannot sleep. The other comment
I had was we
re waiting for
your plan on, on, um, managing
the accident from Larrabee and
Clark, I mean, I
m sorry,
Laurby on Palm Avenue and Park.
Um for the recent events that
happened are colliding with
other cars or cars hitting
condominiums or buildings on
both streets. So thank you so
much.
Ok, that concludes our public
comment. Thank you all so much
for your comments and for your
patience. That was a long
period. We appreciate you all
coming out tonight. Um, we will
move to city manager
s report.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor. Good evening,
Mayor, Vice Mayor,
councilmembers, and community
members. Um, thank you for all
of the public commenters this
evening. I just have a few
announcements. The city is
excited to announce the pickup,
the city
s free weekend ride
will return to service
beginning Thursday, OCTOBER 9th,
2025 as part of the relaunch,
the city is unveiling a fresh
updated vehicle design and they
debuting a, a pilot program
a Thursday night rides from
MARCH through OCTOBER as part
of the Rainbow District
initiatives. Uh, for more
information, please visit
www.Heehopepickup.Com.
The city is inviting the
community to learn more about
and provide feedback on the
zoning improvement program for
West Hollywood
s housing
element as part of the program,
the city is evaluating future
zoning updates to reduce
barriers to creating affordable
housing and diverse housing.
Join us for the in-person
meeting on OCTOBER 8th, or
online meeting on OCTOBER 16th
for the second round of
community workshops. The city
will present the findings of
for enhancement opportunities
in residential and commercial
priority areas.
Um, and lastly, uh, Aides Walk
Los Angeles will take place in
the city of West Hollywood on
Saturday, OCTOBER 13th,
beginning at West Hollywood
Park at 10 A.M. Due to the aids
walk, there will be limited
street and lane closures. For
more information regarding the
event or street closures to
please visit the city
s website
at www.Weeho.Org and search for
aids Walk.
That concludes my comments.
Um, thanks, David. It
s nothing
to do with what you said, um,
but, um, I
ve been noticing in
a lot of the larger rooms,
specifically the back room, the
technology for conferencing and
meetings is very outdated, um,
and it doesn
t work and we have
to use a laptop screen that
then doesn
t work and the audio
doesn
t hook up and there
s a
little side computer that goes
missing. I don
t know. I
m sure
it
s somewhere, but the same
thing goes for the really
what was redone part in the
first floor in the meeting room
in the city hall, but could you
just before you know you depart
in many ways. Could you just
spruce up the spaces just a
little bit so these tech issues
don
t go beyond your your
tenure because I know you
always want to leave us better
than you found us. Yes, we are
continuing to look at the
technology in those rooms
unfortunately, technology
changes really fast, and we
haven
t been keeping up. I know
there
s been a
number of issues, so we are
certainly looking at that.
Thank you
Any other comments or questions
for city manager? Thank you for
the report. We
ll move to the
fiscal impact on consent
calendar city clerk.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, the
fiscal impact on consent
calendar with the addition of
items d1e3f1f2, f3, f4, f 6 is
881,440 foreign expenditures,
$0 in revenues and 13,0023 and
waived fees. I also want to
take this opportunity to read
uh the ordinance of d1 into the
record. Um, this
is ordinance d on item d1, an
ordinance of the City Council
of the City of West Hollywood,
California, amending Chapter
5.70 cannabis uses of the West
Hollywood municipal code to
remove the neighborhood
security guard patrol
requirement for cannabis
licensees.
Thank you. We have a motion in
a second
I
ll move to a full vote
Thank you. Thank you. Ok, we
ll
move to item c1, the public
hearing, item c1, Zoneex
amendment to the accessory
dwelling unit regulations and
compliance with state law and
implementation of the city
s
housing element program, the
public hearing is now open. Are
there any disclosures from
Counciluncilmembs?
Seeing none. Um, how, Si Clerk,
how was his hearing noticed as
required by law. Terrific. And
um we have staff
representatives here for a
staff report to my colleagues,
first, we need a full staff
report? Can we do an
abbreviated report tonight,
abbreviated is terrific. I
don
t think I need a report at
all.
It
s, do you want to just let
the public know what we
re here
to do tonight so we can move
through this quickly then.
Thank you. Mayor Nick Marisic,
director of Community Develop.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice mayor,
councilmembers. I
m joined by
my colleagues from the
Community Development
department and maybe I
ll just
jump right over to Associate
Planner Michel Montenegro to
provide an overview of the item.
We know this is in compliance
with state law, so go ahead and,
yeah, yes, so the city council
adopted an ad ordinance back in
FEBRUARY. There are minor
changes requested by hcd once
it
was submitted. So we
re back
here as a cleanup ordinance to
update and compliance with
state law.
Thank you very much. Do my
colleagues have any questions
for staff?
I have a question, and it isn
t
related to the substance of the
ordinance. This to me seems
like a perfect example where
unfortunately a lot of your
time is wasted. The planning
commission
s time is wasted.
The council
s time is wasted.
We have to do advertisements in
the newspaper for something
that we have no choice. This is
something that is required by
state law that we have to do to
have our ordinance be in
compliance. So is there a way
for us to avoid all of that
time being wasted, and
soliciting comments from the
public when again we have no
choice but to comply with the
state mandate. Is there
something that we can do to
speed up the process for these
kind of, and it seems like an
almost annual change to the
state law here.
Yes Vice Mayor, um, I, you know,
we
re happy to certainly
explore if there are other ways
we could go about this type of
thing. I think this was
somewhat unexpected given the
communication from hcd um,
following the submission of the
more of the annual process that
we went through previously, but
we could certainly talk with
the city attorney and
brainstorm other ideas to
address the issues that you
just described. I mean, at a
minimum, I think we should
change the noticing
requirements in terms of
newspaper ads
and spending that money, um,
and things when we don
t have
any choice.
Thank you. I see a motion, um,
on the table and just to be
clear, there are no members of
the public who have signed up
to speak on this item. Terrific.
So I will go ahead if there
s
no other questions or comments,
we
ll close the public
testimony portion of this
public hearing. It seems that
there are no other questions
from staff, or I
m sorry, from
the council. Nope.
So we have a motion and a
second.
And a vote. Thank you very much.
Thank you to staff for the
presentation tonight.
We
ll move to, yeah, we
re all
set.
We voted.
This past 50
We
re gonna move to item e1
under unfinished business, the
continued discussion of
expanded noticing requirements
for projects requesting
development agreements.
We
ll hand this back over to
our staff to present. Thank you.
Good thing we stayed. Good
evening, Jennifer Alaer,
Assistant Director of Community
Development. I
m joined still
by the Long Range Planning team,
including long range planning
Manager Francisco Contreras and
associate planner.
Paige Portwood. I check who
s
this swapped, who will be
giving the staff report. Thank
you.
Thank you
Good evening, City Council. My
name is Paige Portwood. Um,
tonight
s, uh, item before you
is a continued discussion of
expanded noticing requirements
for projects requesting
development agreements.
Here is an overview of the
presentation.
On MAY 19, 2025, staff
presented its own text
amendment to expand the
noticing requirements, um,
requiring a community meeting
for projects seeking a
development agreement. Um, City
Counciluncil voted 5 to 0 to
adopt an ordinance requiring a
neighborhood meeting for
projects, but city council did
not elect to expand the
noticing radius, thereby
maintaining the current 500 ft
radius for public hearings and
community meetings for all
projects. The city council
directed
staff to return with maps
showing 500, 500, 750 in a 1000
ft radii for a few previously
approved sunset arts and
advertising projects, including
standalone billboards to
visualize the reach of each of
the radius.
The staff report, um, depicts
some of the neighboring
jurisdictions and their
requirements for development
projects, which has been
included in previous reports
but might be printed to
tonight
s discussion.
Um
and to share the data that
staff collected, we selected 5
previously approved Sunset arts
and advertising program
Billboard projects and two
development agreement projects,
um, that aren
t associated with
billboards, um, 89, 20, and 90,
40 sunset Bill Boulevard are
shown with the two asterisks
while the data indicates
expanding the radius to 750 or
1000 ft does increase the
number of noticed properties
overall. The percentage
increase
among the project addresses is
inconsistent, where, for
example, you
ll see highlighted
on the screen could range from
a percentage increase of 45% to
143%.
So tonight
s recommendation is
to receive this information and
provide feedback.
Um, that really concludes our,
um, presentation. We are
available for any questions.
Thank you and thank you for
providing the side by side
comparisons for the cities and
the percentage calculations in
that chart. I really found that
useful information and as
somebody who requested more
information about this specific
item before making a decision
the night it originally came to
discussion. Those items
particularly very much helped
me. I will see who which of my
colleagues would like to begin,
Councilmember Meister.
Thank you, Mayor, and as you
know, this came from an
initiative that I had brought
forward to increase the radius
to 1000. Uh, square feet. Um
so, so it
s, you know, it
s
fine to compare our policies
with other cities, but it
s
also like comparing apples and
oranges because not one of
those cities has the density
that we have and projects that
intensify the use affect our
residents differently, um, than,
then they might um affect, uh,
a less dense city. Um, the cost
of increasing the radius is, is
really negligible compared to
the benefit of a development
agreement. I mean, development
agreement basically increases
the value of the properties by
millions and millions of
dollars. So the fact that, you
know, you
re increasing, uh,
the cost on, on this by, you
know, a couple of 500 to $1000.
Compared to the 500 square foot,
500 ft radius, uh, doesn
t,
doesn
t seem like um a
burdensome request, uh, and
then finally this is about
transparency, uh, I guess I
m
speaking and not asking
questions. Did we have speakers
on this? I don
t have any, so
you
re totally ok, ok, I just
thought I
d bring that up. Um,
and again, uh, last but not
least, this is about
transparency and West Holl
y wood is known for its engaged
community, except that, except
when we don
t tell them what
s
going on. And so, uh, I don
t,
I don
t see where this is such
a large burden for its somebody
who is applying for a
development agreement that is
going to increase the value of
the property by millions and
millions of dollars, whereas
the, the impacts of a project
that
s going to be much larger
than what was uh was in our
zoning ordinance, or in our
general plan is um
you know, that, that impact is
also much, much greater than
than an impact that everyone is
expecting because that
s what
the zoning is. Um, so, you know,
I think that
I know that in uh staff report,
it said something about some of
the views that people don
t
have the view of, say, the
billboard, but you know, you
re
going all the ways around and
there is, there is going to be
somebody who is impacted by by
the light of that billboard or
by the traffic that
s generated
by a project or uh you know,
whether it
s parking impacts or
or whatever the impacts are, uh,
light, parking, traffic,
whatever.
Um, I know that people have
been affected by sunset
billboards on De Longres, uh,
and yet we don
t consider them
in, in our, in, in, in the um
because of the radius. So, um,
I would ask that my colleagues
consider, you know, 1,000-foot
radius and if not at least
consider a 750 as a compromise.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember
Councilmember Erickson or Vice
Mayor Heman? I don
t support
this. I, I don
t want to get
into the guise of I, I
ve been
serving on the planning
commission, as I know Coner
Meister has, as well as seeing
how this gone. I think that
what staff provided uh more
than answered any additional
questions I have, and I would
like to keep it at 500 ft and
that
s where I
m at tonight.
Hang jumped up. So Vice Mayor
He Councilmember Hang He
s in
the bathroom. Oh, ok. Um, so,
um, I, I agree with
Councilmember Erickson, um, we
previously approved a 500 ft
radius. We asked staff to give
us more information based on
this information. I don
t think
we should change our 500 ft
radius, um, to me this is not a
question about the cost of the
noticing
which I agree with
Councilmember Meister is a
relatively negligible. To me
it
s more about is it necessary,
I don
t think this is about
transparency. We already uh
notice a radius of 500 ft
around the development. We also
require the site to be noticed.
We do have public hearings for
these projects with development
agreements, not only does it
have to go to the planning
commission, but
the development agreement has
to be approved by counsel, so
it will necessarily come before
the city council. I, I
m fine
with leaving the radius at 500
ft. The notion that um
development agreements increase
the value. That
s true of all
developments. They increase the
value of the property. So it
would make no sense to me to
increase the radius for
projects with development
agreements and not do it for
other projects that result
in significant increases in
value for the property owner.
Thank you, Vice Mayor.
Councilmembur Hang.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, is there
any like tangible proof that um
or evidence that increasing it
$750 or 1000 would increase any
type of participation at all.
Not to our knowledge at this,
no.
Thank you. So what is the state
minimum requirement?
Can you repeat the question?
What does the state minimum
requirement? 300 ft. And what
is our requirement here? 500 ft.
So does that mean that we are
meeting the state
s minimum
requirement and then some
correct? We
re exceeding the
state
s minimum requirement.
Great, thank you. Um, yeah, I
just, I feel that we should
leave this policy as is.
Increasing it would not yield
additional results and could be
burdensome on staff time. Thank
you.
Thank you for the discussion. I
see a motion in a second. I am
in agreement with the 500, and
as someone who was interested
in seeing this information, I
feel like the decision to make
to leave it at the 500 ft
continues to serve our city
well. I, you know, we heard
tonight in a number of ways
that despite citywide mailers,
despite numerous postings,
years of conversation about a
topic in town. There are still
people who are saying that
community members don
t hear
about things, and I believe
that there is just a bigger
barrier of
engagement that the public sits
with that regardless of how far
we extend radii, there
s other
things that are those barriers.
So I think the 500 ft has
served the the Billboard
project, especially when it
comes to this conversation.
Well, and I saw a motion in a
second already for a vote, but
wanted to make sure we
re
wrapped with discussion, Vice
Mayor. I just want to clarify
the motion is to just receive
and file the report and not
change. Ok, thank you.
I don
t even think we needed
a real vote on that, but that
s
right.
Ok, terrific.
Thank you, Steph
Uh, we
ll move to item e2,
Progress, updates, and material
selection for the Hart Park
Improvement Project.
I see our staff representative
team coming down for this item.
And I do see one member of the
public signed up to speak. Was
there a presentation that
you
re providing us tonight?
We would like the brief
presentation. I
m seeing yes
from one member of council. So
we
ll go ahead and take the
presentation and then we
ll
invite our member of the public
to come speak.
And then we
ll get into it
It was brief.
Right
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor
and council Rick Abramson,
manager of the urban design and
architecture studio. I
m here
with Helen Collins, our
director of public works, and
Steve Campbell, our deputy city
manager.
Uh, tonight before you is a
progress update and um
discussion of the material
selection for Hart Park, uh, we
appeared previously and the
council approved the design, uh,
and so the one remaining
element of discussion that
evening was whether to go as
synthetic turf or wood chips or
some alternative. The council
directed staff to do additional
research and outreach and look
at if there were any other uh
materials
other than wood chips that are
organic or natural and would be
acceptable. Working with the
consultant team.
Um
staff was able to identify one
other potential system that
seems to hit at least as many
of the markers as possible in
terms of being uh uh organic
and safe and readily
maintainable. There is no
perfect material in this case.
There
s pros and cons to each,
um, but it
s part of the, uh,
updates we met with the ad hoc
council
s ad hoc
Har Park subcommittee, uh, two
meetings to discuss
alternatives, some minor
adjustments to the
reconfiguration and the
recommendation tonight is to
move forward with an engineered
wood fiber system, which is
about a 12-inch thick system
still with a wood chip type of
material, but it has
underlayments and drainage
built into it, and it
s a dense
material that when compact
actually meets disability
needs as needs needs as well
needs needs as well needs for
needs for mobility
considerations. Uh, it is a
little bit uh more of an
installation, but the long term
maintenance apparently is less.
We have talked to other
jurisdictions who seem to be
very happy with the material,
um, but it is natural and
organic, so it will need to be
raked and sort of leveled uh on
occasion too, and I think the
manufacturer says
it can be replaced up to 24
months. I think that would be
longer than we anticipate. I
think it might be a couple of
times a year, but still fewer
cycles than perhaps what is
happening right now.
Um, we
ve worked with the
subcommittee and as I said,
there have been some
adjustments. There have been a
number of comments received
from the public over the course
of this, uh, and we
re happy to
answer any specific questions
that counsel MAY have. I will
show you one image of the um
the recommended material
tonight, the engineered wood
fiber and how it
s a layered
system but effectively looks
like very similar to the wood
chips that are out there right
now.
Uh, we
ve also got some updated
renderings that we thought we
would share with the council
too of how the design is
progressing. We
re hoping to be
into plan check prior to the
end of the year, uh, with
bidding following that and help
to be under construction next
year.
Thank you.
Thank you. Um, unless there
s
any questions at this time from
the council, we
ll go to the
member of the public who signed
up to speak. I see just one
number, Bob Klaer. If you
ll
join us for public comment.
And then we
ll get into any
discussion up here.
Hi
Great shirt
says I like dogs for those who
can
t see.
So did Jane Goodall, by the way.
She liked dogs better than
chimps, she said.
All right, wait, don
t, I
haven
t started yet. That
s not
fair.
Can you start me over there
with that timer, please?
It MAY be difficult to clear at
this point because we started,
but I
ll acknowledge your six
seconds. Before I begin, I
d
like to thank council for
finally, after exhaustive
evidence was presented and many
months of campaigning and
protest, acceding to the
community
s overwhelming desire
not to have artificial turf
polluting our park. They are to
be congratulated and thanked
for in most cases considering
the overwhelming scientific
evidence doing the research and
finding an acceptable and
organic altern
ative We do not understand why
this alternative is not also
being used at Plumberer Park or
West Hollywood Park, but that
s
a little beside the point
tonight.
I want to speak from the heart
about this entire process.
Throughout it, the vibrant and
active community of Hart Park
users has been excluded from
the planning process, and when
we did show up, we were treated
as inconvenient adversaries. At
no time was there ever an
atmosphere of collaboration,
cooperation, or participation
with us. Plans were drawn up
that were not posted at the
park so that the community
could make their feelings known.
Meetings were held for which
there was no outreach to the
user
community. I recognize none of
my fellow community members
here tonight, and I can tell
you that that
s because the
overwhelming sentiment among
those I talked to is one of
fatalism and resignation.
They
re just going to do what
they want to do and they don
t
care what we want. Did anyone
ask for a plaza, which will
only attract the unhoused and
require additional security. Of
course not. Had any of you ever
actually spent time with us and
our dogs at the park, you
d see
how utterly unnecessary it is
to
divide the dog play area into
two separate smaller sized
separated areas, but it has
been painfully obvious that
you
re gonna do what you want
to do regardless of our
feelings. Hell, one of the two
councilmembers on the Park
subcommittee doesn
t even have
a dog, respectfully.
It
s very disheartening and
utterly democratic, and it has
really
bummed us all out because it
feels like
Nobody cared what we felt
Thank you.
With that, we
ll come back to
council discussion and
deliberation.
Would any of my colleagues like
to begin and specifically
thinking about the two members
who served on that subcommittee.
If there
s any comments or
reflections you
d like to begin
with. You don
t have to.
Just didn
t know world to start.
I
m just glad the debate about
the chips is done. It
s over.
Um, and also I just want to
bring up that the idea of um
one of the exciting things
about the dog area areas is
that it
s separated by a fence
that
s going to be movable. And
so another discussion that can
be had as this, you know, once,
once we get there is program
m ing of the, of the two parks
whether they should be open
most of the time and then have,
you know, these separation so
that people who aren
t
comfortable with being in a, in
a one size fits all park, um,
we
ll have that opportunity to,
to play, um, or, or the
opposite. So those are still
questions that um I think we
can still address um it
s, it
s
too soon to worry about it
right now.
But I
m very supportive. It
s,
I think it
s going to be
beautiful.
Thank you, Councilmember
Meister. Councilembur Hang.
Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thank you
very much for the, uh, robust
presentation. Um, how many
meetings have been held
regarding this
design. We
re running in the
park
including this one, I think we
counted 18 total meetings on
Hart Park, um, that includes
not only city council meetings,
public facilities, disability
advisory Board, older advisory
board, historic Preservation
Commission, uh, we also met
with the sunset bid folks. We
met with the actors studio. We
met with a group from the Dog
Guardian advocates, um, so
we
ve, we
ve tried to do, um,
this intensive
outreach from as many voices as
possible.
Thank you. And it
s to my
understanding that a sign has
been posted at the park, right,
to update the community in
terms of what the city is doing.
Yes, there were both flyers on
the entry gates posted and then
a poster showing the latest
images that are in the staff
report as well.
So I do appreciate that taking
that direction from the
community members, and that
s
just another layer of outreach
that staff has been doing to
outreach to the community. So
thank you. Um, I
m actually
really excited about the design
of the park. And um
can you confirm if the the play
area was expanded in this most
recent design
iteration. Yes, it
s part of
the process. There were
comments about the size of the
park, and we went, went back to
the consultant and tried to
adjust the geometries as best
we can, but in the end, the new
park cumulatively will be 23%
bigger than the current area.
Um, the larger dog play area
will be slightly smaller than
the current overall, um, but
when you take the small and the
large together, it
s it
s going to be significantly
bigger and as Councilmember
Meister said, one of the
sort of creative moves in the
design was to create an opening
between the two so that there
could be opportunities to have,
um, a very large player with
the length, like if you
re
playing with the ball right now,
we measured the diagonal about
85 ft. I think the new length
is going to be something like
140 ft, so it
s, it
s
significantly, um, enlarged as
a whole.
And then if, if I recall
correctly from the last
subcommittee meeting, um, there
were community members that
were that had expressed
excitement for the retractable
gate because some of those
owners, some of those pet
parents had small dogs that
they were afraid, you know, to
be in the same play area as
larger dogs, right? Am I
recalling that correctly?
Yes, Cosmer, we have heard from
small dog guardians, um, and in
fact, uh
temporarily the aids Memorial
area was fenced with a gate to
grow grass because it had
eroded and it was mistaken as a
small dog park and so we
ve
found a number of small dog
guardians going in there
because they didn
t want to
interact with the larger dogs.
So um we have heard that voice,
yes.
And I actually also want to
thank you and your team for
bringing samples of the
engineered wood fibers to pass
along to show members of the
community who were at the
meeting so they could touch it,
see it, feel it, etc. So I
think that was very helpful for
the community members.
And, um, yes, I don
t have a
dog, but I have a cat, and I do
walk my cat sometimes. So thank
you.
Councilmember Erickson. We
would just like to say the city
of West Hollywood unequivocally
supports cats as well as other
animal companions of all sorts.
So your cat is love is love at
Danny. So whatever type of
animal you want to have and
take it to the dog park if you
want. Um, I hate wood chips, um,
so I think they are disgusting,
um, and I would never take
Winnie to Hart Park. Bob, you
know this. I said this to you
when we had a lovely meeting
and we talked about many things,
but
I do want to thank Bob and the
community members for their
activism and the work that they
did. Bob actually helped
educate me on more things than
I actually cared to know about
and the binder that you
provided, I think last year as
well. Um, I am disappointed
with some of the processes that
have gone out in the community
meetings. I remember I did go
to a community meeting in 2020
right before the pandemic at
Hart Park and things obviously
go with the flow and how things
happen, but I do think the
community, you know, uh
ultimately does feel left out,
and I understand that was never
the intention, but as we do
more infrastructure and
projects, the more we can get
out, the better. Um, I
m glad I,
I don
t know what the synthetic
wood chip looks like, um.
So I
m just going to trust my
two colleagues on the
subcommittee for it and glad
that this can get done, maybe
you could put it in my mailbox
and I can touch it when I go in
the next time. Um, but I hope
that we can bring this uh
this uh dog war uh to uh to an
end woodchip war to an end here.
Vice Mayor Heilman, no comments?
Ok, terrific. I want to first
start by thinking staff for
your work, 18 meetings is no
small feet and all the prep
that goes into it and the many
years of planning to get to
this point. I want to also
thank the subcommittee for your
leadership, and it sounds like
you
re a disbanded subcommittee,
maybe after this decision. So
kudos to you and of course the
community who I certainly hear
the frustration about what the
feeling of engagement and
extension
of information and outreach has
looked like, but I also want to
thank you because you took a
hold of the moment and you
really steered the ship in a
different direction and had it
not been for that surge of
energy that came in and the
intention that you brought to
making sure that we all had
that education. This could have
looked a very different way at
the end of the day. So we sit
here with a project that I
think reflects the voices that
we
ve heard from, from the
community and creates a very
different and unique space in
the city, one that I
m looking
forward to spending more time
in. I know when we
inaugurated the Rainbow Dog
neon sign. It was a very
special moment for the
community and one of very few
moments that the city really
has to rally in that very
special space. So as the plaza
gets updated as that very
incredible aids monument gets
updated and as the whole park
gets this refresh, I believe
it
ll serve the folks who have
been there and who know how
special it is and invite a
bigger sense of community into
that space as well. So I
m
really grateful that this
project is moving forward and
looking forward to seeing its
next steps. Thank you so much
And I also want to thank our
government affairs liaison
Hernan Molina, who
s not
represented at this table but
has certainly been a part of
the project team in advocating
for funding for this project
from all various levels of
government. So shout out to
Hernon for that work too.
Ok, I think we have a motion in
a second. We
re ready for a
vote.
Terrific
Thank you once again
Uh, we moved item e3 to consent.
So we
re moving to item e4, the
agreement without athlete fund
to sponsor Pride House, la,
West Hollywood.
Wait for our team to join us.
Ok, yeah, I don
t know that we
need a whole presentation. We
held it back for a question, so
we
ll allow Councilmember
Meister to jump in.
Thank you. There
s no public
comment, so we
re clear. Ok,
good. Um, so I just, I, I went
through the agreement. I just
want to make sure and also so
that the community hears that
the, the two, since we
re
talking about dog parks, that
the dog parks will not be
impacted by this, by this, uh,
you know, any of the events
that Pride House does, because
you know to a dog 17 days is
like 4 months.
So
Thank you. Good evening, Megan
Reath Event Services supervisor.
Um, so subsequent to the
agreement before you tonight,
we will execute a use a permit
to use city property agreement
without athlete fund, and that
will define the dog park
impacts. Um, I don
t think we
anticipate that the dog parks
will be closed for the duration
of the event, but with any
large
event during the build, there
MAY be intermittent impact at
times. We will, as we, you know,
work with the producers to
schedule um large
infrastructure coming into the
park. There MAY be times that
the dog parks do need to be
closed intermittently, like
with any major event, we will
make sure that um, you know,
they are accessible to the
public as long as is safely
possible. So
what I would suggest, since
we
re a ways out from this is
to ask Helen
s team to to look
at it and see how the entrances,
uh, they can put, uh,
alternative entrances on the
other side of each of the dog
parks. I know one would be
fairly easy. The other 1 MAY be
not as easy.
Um, a small dog park, you know,
could go on the north side, um,
and I don
t know about the
large dog park, but, but we did,
uh, we were able to keep it
open by having that, that
extra sort of gate on the uh on
the east side of yes. I had my
direction straight. So, um, so
that was one of my concerns.
And then, um, in the, um, in
the agreement, uh, an
attachment a, um, on page 5, we
talk about, or I should say the,
hang on one second, let me just
get there.
Um, we, we talk a lot about
what the eligible uses of the
sponsorship fee and, and what
it
s, what it cannot be used
for, but you don
t really talk
about what it can be used for.
Is that pretty standard to not,
to not include that.
Do you know what I
m talking
about? I, I do know what you
re
talking about. So we have gone
through the eligible uses
without athlete fund this
agreement this evening, we
re
asking that the council approve
it as to form as final
negotiations take place, and we
can certainly work with the
city attorney
s office to see
if they advise being more
explicit in that area, ok,
because that would, that would
be one of my concerns. Um, and
then I
page 6 and page 11, where you
talk about cancellation or
termination. Um, I just want to
also confirm there and again
maybe you talked to the city
attorney about it is that any
funds that were dispersed, but
not spent should be returned to
the city. I know you, you bring
it up in other places, but
specifically on, on page 6
where you talk about
cancellation and page 11, where
you talk about termination. It
isn
t, it isn
t explicit. And
that
and to me, I just want, I want
us to be um very specific about
it, and the same thing on page
7, on, on uh the uh paragraph c,
um, it says that the producers
shall provide financial
performance data within 30 days
of the event, and I
m just
wondering, can we also make
sure that that
s if it, if
there
s cancellation or
termination that that same
requirement that within 30 days
of cancellation or 30 days of
termination that um they
provide financial performance
data as well.
Absolutely, we can work with
the city attorney
s office on
those items. Those are my
concerns.
Thank you.
Are there any other comments or
concerns to address, Vice Mayor?
No, I
m moving that we approve
with the direction that
s been
given by our colleague.
Thank you
See a second to that motion as
well, MADAM, MAY I say one
thing? Oh, please, I would just
like if it
s, it
s possible to
give direction in this item or
for the council just to have
the coms department, make sure
that they
re doing all that
they can to cross promote Pride
House through city channels
since it literally says Pride
House la weho on it, um, and so
I would love to make sure some
of the programming that they
re
doing leading up to the events.
Um, also go to our channel
specifically given the great
staff
report regarding pride itself
and the impressions that was
able to occur um talking about
Pride House in terms of the
Olympics might be a great
tie-in. So if my colleagues are
ok with it, just general
direction for Pride House
cross-communication as their
events specifically around
fundraising as well as other
community opportunities. I know
there
s an incredible event
with speed skater coming forth,
uh, first openly gay speed
skater, Sid, Well, correct me
if I
m wrong, um, coming forth
and it
s a great opportunity
for further aware
ness about Pride House. So if
my colleagues are ok with that,
the coms department to put that
stuff out um would be helpful.
Great. Thank you.
Ok, we
ll move to a vote
Thank you to the staff team and
thank you to the champions of
Pride House.
Uh, we
ll move to, um, item f5.
Seeing a number of these items
under f move to consent f5 is
the audit of vacant residential
and commercial units.
Councilmember Meister, I know
this is your item. We do have a
number of public comments. So
would you like to give us a
brief description and then
we
ll move into public comment
before we come back to
deliberation. Yeah, I mean,
basically I
ll talk about the
benefits of doing this. Um,
first of all, as we all know,
vacant units impact community
vitality and long-term
vacancies, both residential and
commercial
diminish neighborhood, uh,
vibrancy, hurt local businesses
and can contribute to blight
and nuisance conditions. Um,
economic and public safety
concerns, empty storefronts,
weakened business corridors,
reduced foot traffic, and
increased demands on code
enforcement and public safety
resources, and we
re all very
well aware of that. Um, housing
supply implications, uh,
residential units left vacant
for extended periods, reduce
the supply of available housing
and distort
our understanding of actual
rental market conditions. Um,
current, uh, our current
tracking has some gaps. Uh, we
have, um
the existing, we have the
vacant property registry, but
that only captures properties
that are substantially vacant.
There
s no system to track
individual vacant units within
occupied buildings, um, the
audit will fill a key
information gap. It will
quantify how many units
commercial and residential, are
sitting empty and where they
are located, uh, understanding
why units remain vacant.
Hopefully, the audit will
explore reasons for long-term
vacancies such as pending
redevelopment, market
speculation, or ownership
strategies helping the city to
design targeted policy
responses. Um, it supports
broader city goals, uh, the
data will inform initiatives
like the zoning Improvement
Project and other housing and
economic development efforts.
It will actually give us a um
uh
a better understanding of the
current situation and uh
data-driven policymaking. You
know I
m all about the numbers,
the audit provides a factual or
will provide a factual
foundation for potential
programs or regulations to
discourage unnecessary
vacancies and promote active
use of property, and it will
promote a more complete picture
of our community by
understanding the full extent
and causes of vacancy, the city
can better
plan for economic resilience,
housing availability, and
neighborhood will be.
Thank you for the presentation.
Appreciate that. Um, we
ll go
to public comment now. I see
Wendy Goldman, followed by
Anita Goswami, and then we have
a number of citizen position
slips. Ok.
Hang.
Good evening, Wendy Goldman,
Cynthia Sunset Neighborhood
Watch, resident of West
Hollywood.
The assessment of vacancies is
important now more than ever.
We don
t have a housing
shortage. We have a crisis of
unlisted residential vacancies.
Landlords have found a way to
circumvent policies by keeping
units unlisted without an
accurate count of the vacancies
developers take advantage of
state laws and tenants lose
amenities. For example, in my
38 unit building on the 9000
block of Herot Street, at least
19 units
are vacant. No new tenants have
moved in for 5 years, 16 of us
are over 60 and face safety
risks.
There are other vacant
properties on Herod, including
the long abandoned craftsman
and duplex where 18 tenants
were evicted more than 20 years
ago in an eight unit building
at 99,004 Herot has remained
vacant for years. An easier way
to collect residential data is
via us Postal Service carriers.
They know exactly how many
vacancies exist, who has moved
in or out, and whose mail is
undeliverable or forwarded.
After lengthy periods of
uncertainty
it
s time for the city to hold
owners liable and to enforce
vacancy tax policies that
reduce the number of units kept
off market. The artificially
inflate the ability of new
residents to move in and give
an unrealistic economic picture
to investors. Earlier this year,
in response to local wildfires,
council voted to allow
short-term rentals for less
than one year. Did the city
manager provide follow-up
report of this urgency policy.
Our short term rentals
providing
housing to those displaced by
the fires or vacationers.
Compounding the off-market
problem is the development of
ADUs. Please prevent renters
from losing amenities like
parking, as 80Us are permitted.
Our city streets cannot
accommodate additional vehicles.
Thank you.
Anita Goswami
Anita Anita Kiswami, longtime
resident of West Hollywood. Um,
I strongly support this because
the city is spending
significant resources of staff
time and money to review and
approve development projects.
You
re pushing densification.
You
re ruining neighborhoods
via reducing planning reviews,
notification, stripping parking.
This is all ruining
neighborhoods. What you
re
doing is you are taking away
and you
re taking away based on
some fluffy idea. Actually, uh,
but anyway
these efforts, this is back to
what is the city actually doing?
What city staff doing? You
spoke earlier about, you know,
time being wasted a planning
commission and at city council.
Well, let
s start focusing that
time and that effort on what we
really have, getting a real
baseline of what
s going on in
the city. I
ve been walking
around the city a lot lately,
all over the city, not just my
local neighborhood, and I
m,
yes, I
m wearing my
neighborhood watch t-shirt, but
looking at other neighborhoods
because we are all residents
of West Hollywood. It is not
one specific area. It
s across
all of West Hollywood, and we
need to understand how much of
that space is actually vacant
because we can walk by it and
we see it. I see it every day,
but we need to look into why we
have so much of it. We don
t
need more development. We need
to better use what we have. And
that
s both on a residential
and a commercial level. We
don
t want West Hollywood to
become a ghost town full of
empty storefronts and empty
apartments priced too high
to rent. We
re already seeing
that with businesses on Sunset
and Santa Monica as well as the
residential streets. Again,
looking for a clear, realistic,
transparent baseline and
analysis, and that means
transparency throughout the
process, not just direction and
then a PowerPoint several
months later. We
ve got
excellent city staff. Let
s get
them working on what really
matters to this city. What
really matters to the people
here and put on hold the
outside interests that just
look at us as a piggy bank
to take over. Let
s do this for
us. Thank you.
Thank you both for your public
comments. We
ll go to Citizen
position slips.
Mayor, we have one, Kevin
Burton in support of item f5.
Thank you.
Uh, we
ll come to Counciluncil
for discussion and deliberation.
Uh, yeah, Councilor Erickson.
So, um, well, I, I remember, I
don
t know if we both did the
apartment registry together
ages ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um,
so I
m generally in support of
this. How do we get um as
something that came in from the
Chamber of Commerce. How do we
make sure that
uh larger building units that
were addressed in that letter
can comply and we can use that
data.
Correctly and not have a skew
anything. And see, this is the
one of the gaps is that the
registry is great because when
someone moves in, but when
someone moves out, we don
t
know that. There
s no
registration when they move out.
So that
s part of this, the
issue, um, and, and why we need
to look at what is actually
vacant. We cannot tell that
from the registrations.
Vice Mayor Heilman
Yeah, I, I support the goal,
but not necessarily the
mechanism that is reflected in
the staff report. We already
get information sort of
collective information from our
economic development, um, uh,
leader Laura is here on what
our vacancy rate is, what our
commercial vacancy rate is. My
concern, and I think the
concern that you
re trying to
address is
the, the notable commercial
vacancies that uh seem to be
vacant for a long periods of
time that um maybe being kept
off the market, those are the
ones that I
m concerned about.
I
m not concerned about a
vacancy that is temporary where
one business goes out and
another one is working on its
tenants
improvements, and it
sometimes takes longer than we
would like for them to get
up and running. Um
and the same and it
s true with
the residential units. I
m, I
m
not concerned with the vacancy
that occurs because somebody
moves out and two months later
somebody moves in, that
s gonna
occur in, in any healthy
environment with apartments.
What I think we
re concerned
about and what you
re concerned
about is what Wendy is
identifying property owners who
are keeping residential
units off of the market and not
renting them out, not making
them available for rent.
So the, the idea of an audit
seems like a different
or or a mechanism that might
spend a lot of time and money
looking at units that were not
really concerned about. I
m
concerned and I, I wanna figure
out a mechanism and ask our
staff to figure out a mechanism,
how do we identify
um residential units that are
being kept off the market for a
substantial period of time. How
do we identify those commercial
units that are being kept off
market and there don
t appear
to be any realistic efforts to
rent them. Those are the things
that I think contribute to our
our, our concerns in the
community
s concerns, not the,
the occasional vacancy that
s
gonna occur no matter what.
Yeah, and I agree with you that
the part of the problem is,
again, it
s uh if you look at
uh whatever the numbers are
from that from the organization
that puts out what the vacancy
rates are, at least with the
residential, they don
t know
because again, they
re going by
what
s what
s been registered
and
and since something was
registered, someone MAY have
left. I can tell you even just
in my, in just within 3 blocks,
where I walked the dog. There
is a building that has been
vacant. It
s a 3-unit, uh, it
s
a triplex that
s been vacant
for over 5 years. No, no, no,
no signs of anything like
anything happening. On my
street, a single-family home,
uh, the person had uh was asked
to move when the property
changed hands. It has been
vacant since mid-covid with a
sign coming soon. Um, and then,
uh, even on, and then on
Huntley, another, uh, building
that has 2 units, vacant. I
mean, for years, it just, so
I
m just trying to figure out
how, I agree, I don
t want this
to be an expensive endeavor,
but I want it to be an
effective, accurate endeavor so
that we can really see what our
current situation is, and
especially as
we go into talking about Zip,
you know, we need to know what
the actual, what the reality is
and not base it on, on some,
you know, magic number that
happens from, you know,
percentages that some real
estate uh organizations send
sends us so are you comfortable
with asking our staff to come
up with a mechanism to identify
what I think we
re trying to
identify as you described the
rental units that are being
kept off the market for long
periods of time. I don
t with
no sign of development, with no
sign of movement, and, and I
know we
ve had concerns in the
past with new developments and
the
the slow time it takes them for
what they call absorption and
and getting new tenants in
there. I think if they
re
actively trying to lease those,
those are not concerned. Yeah,
that
s not the target, ok.
I see Councilembur Hang and I
have some comments as well.
Councilor Burhang.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to
thank my colleague for bringing
this item forward. Um, I do
appreciate the spirit of the
item and you know we can
t fix
what we can
t measure, right?
So that
s the whole purpose of
this item. Um and I think it
s
a good proactive step forward
for the city. Thank you.
I have some concerns based on
what was written in the staff
report, mostly with regards to
the timing. We have agreed as a
matter of council priorities to
make sure that these aren
t
things that staff would set off
to do in this moment, and this
is very much a crisis of in
this moment and as you said,
because of the pandemic. So my
concern with what the mechanism
might look like could be very
different in a moment of time
that is different from where
we
re currently at. So that
it
s the timing
of what this would look like
and the idea that we
re going
to try to measure vacancy,
which is going to take time to
do, and that could change over
that course of time. So we
re
not going to be able to get a
point in time count of vacancy,
and that this is coming from
what feels like a momentary
crisis. It
s not real, so
that
s, I have a challenge
about that. We
re not going to
be, it
s unlike the
homelessness count where we
re
going to go out one night and
count and then have a sense of
what that data looks like. Yeah,
I guess what I would
say is that like if you look at
what Wendy Goldman brought up,
uh, her building, you know,
half empty for how many years.
It
s not really, it
s not
something that
s happening over
one night. This is, this is
years in the making. So I, I
don
t, I don
t see it as a
point of time, in time, I see
this as we need to do something
about this now because it, it
is continuing and it
s getting
worse. And I, uh, the
commercial vacan
c y aspect of it, I think, is
differently complicated. I hear
you on the residential side of
it. I would wonder in a similar
approach that we took when we
started to rein in short term
rentals and Airbnbs, code
enforcement was looking at this
in a much more significant way.
I wonder if there is some sort
of call out mechanism that the
community could help with. We
sort of had been community
members that were identifying
potential short term violation,
rental violations within their
own buildings, and that helped
us create a
paper trail, you know, a trail
to follow for some of that
enforcement mechanism. It does
feel a bit like whack a mole,
but what I
m hearing in the
staff report is how difficult
it
ll be to, you know, comb
over all of the city, and I
think what we are trying to get
to is an understanding of why
this is occurring and what
controls we have as a city to
change that, and I don
t think
it
s going to take an entire
city review to understand some
of that scale of control that
we MAY be able to differently
impose, so just trying to see
down the road, what are we
trying to get to? We
re trying
to get to a situation
where we as council are able to
do something differently about
the circumstances and with
enough data and information we
MAY be able to determine that.
I don
t know that we need a
full vacancy count of the city
or that that is the thing that
will become helpful to our
information. Is that making
sense? Am I saying that well,
like anything like market
research, it
s, you know, you
can,, you can take a sample of
that, um, and, and project, um,
if you
re comfortable with that
sample, um, and, and it should
be scientifically done and not
like
not an engaged, uh, you know,
um, online survey that anybody
can can answer. Uh, we should
make sure that it is, you know,
residents and and business
people that are that are
responding from the city.
Were there any other comments
from my colleagues? Um, so yeah,
I
m, it sounds like the
direction that we
re getting
towards is to not maybe follow
what is directly outlined in
this report, but ask staff to
come back with something that
would help us better assess
vacant residential units and
commercial units without maybe
a whole citywide approach to
that, but some sort of
mechanism that we can use to or
to capture the information
that
s happening potentially
from community
you know, outreach to us as a
city and then staff can pursue
that and
look into that more. Yeah, and
I
m happy to work with them if
they want to bounce ideas off
me. That, that
s fine. Ok, and
you
re supportive of that vice
mayor. Is that ok?
Any
disagreementer, yeah, city
manager, just to go back to the
timing aspect um so it
s stated
in the staff analysis section
right now, as you all have said,
we don
t have a current
mechanism and so that would
have to be developed and that
s
going to take some time. Um, as
stated in the staff analysis
that section this will be part
of the work plan for fiscal
year 2027. So at that time we
d
come back with the mechanism,
the only problem with
that is that, you know, we
re
talking about changing our
zoning over across the entire
city possibly, possibly.
So, in order to do that,
realistically, and to to to do
something that
s fair, you know,
you really need to have an idea
of what the existing condition
is. So I, I
m just concerned
that that
s not going to, you
know, in some ways, maybe it
will help, you know, counsel
and in 2040, but it
s not going
to help us with direction for
policies that we
re making
you know, this year and next
year, but if I MAY, the zip
zoning improvement program is a
mandate under our housing
element, which is part of a
state, a statewide requirement
for us as a city. That
requirement includes 3,966 new
units of building. It doesn
t
say that we can apply existing
units that happen to be found
vacant towards that count. It
is about new I understand that,
but it also will, it would help
us to know where they are
and, and what and what
affordability level they are,
because even though we have
requirements from the state, I
don
t know. I think we have, we
know our city better than our
state does, or, or we should
want to know our city better
than our state does, that we
should have that information.
We should, we should be able to
say, you know, we have enough
luxury units
10% of them are vacant because
they
re waiting for a $4500 a
month rent to come around, um,
but we have a shortage of
affordable housing. So, I mean,
I just, I just think we, we
needed to inform our policies
moving forward. That
s, that
s
the bottom line for me. And I
don
t disagree with that. I
just don
t want it to get
conflated with the aim of Zip
and where that
s coming from
because that is about
recognizing the state
s overall
housing shortage, the region
s
overall
housing shortage, which is in
the 600 thousands of units. So
regardless of how many units we
MAY find vacant in this city,
that context still exists in
the bigger region and so I do
agree that it is important to
have an understanding of what
is creating the long term
vacancies in some of these
residential properties, and my
guess is it has largely to do
with the decision making of
property owners and some of
their poor decision making
processes and, you know,
selfishness that isn
t
contributing to the larger
beneficial, you know, what
s happening in the city in a
beneficial way, but I don
t
know that that is something
that we should think about when
it comes to zip and the zoning
improvement process. It just,
they should be kept separate
and I want to say that for the
public
s knowledge too, so
we
re not conflating this idea
of enough vacancy existing to
account for the housing that we
need to account for.
I, I agree with you, Mayor, but
I also think this is an issue
certainly for people in Wendy
s
building. It
s a crisis in that
building, and we need to get to
the bottom of it, and with
respect to commercial vacancies,
we, we need to address the
areas where there have been
long term vacancies that um
adversely impact the vitality
of our community. Laura was
kind enough to email me
or send me the current vacancy
rate, which is about 10.5 for
retail 12.7 for office, so it
has come down from the last
report we saw. I know that we
made some changes to the
Pacific Design Center, Master
plan to help address some of
the office vacancies at their
facilities, um
and clearly we need to keep
working at it, but our vacancy
rates for the commercial and
retail are not that out of line
with other communities that
doesn
t mean that there aren
t
areas that are of significant
concern as well as properties
that seem to be kept off the
market for long periods of time
that creates problems for the
community. So I, I agree with
Councilmember Meister that we
need to try to move this
forward as quickly
as possible. Councilor Erickson,
and I just think the ultimate
thing that we have to realize
is that people are sitting on
vacant properties just because
it
s cheaper to keep building
vacant than it is to actually
put people in it most of the
time and when we see a lot of
the vacancy tax conversations
and as we have kind of talked
about here multiple ways, um,
most of those costs on the
taxes get just passed through
to the other tenants as a
result. And so tenants actually
ended up paying more, um, and I,
and,
and you know, I don
t want to
call it my my friend Wendy, but
you know people aren
t moving
into her building, not because
it
s not, you know, a place
where you can live and be in
West Hollywood. It
s because
there
s
problems that I think have
persisted and thankfully with
her work in the neighborhood
watch and trying to improve our
street and the city needs to
play a part in that. It
s tried
to help the vitality of the
neighborhood, but her building
is more
uh costly just sitting there,
no matter if there are people
there or not, because it
s
worth a lot of money sitting
right below sunset, and having
people in there is one thing to
provide homes, but we aren
t
landlords are trying to cash in
on a lot of different ways and,
and frankly the the social good
of actually providing housing
isn
t being done and no matter
what they do. And so, you know,
I, I don
t want to place the
blame all on one entity, but
rents are too high and the
state is the one that controls
a lot of commercial as well as
residential rent restrictions.
That
s why we need to overturn
Costa Hawans, the Ellis Act,
and advocate for continued
commercial lease, uh, rental.
Uh, ways in which we can adopt
those locally. So and that
s
never going to change until the
state actually moves.
What I
m hearing from staff is
that the soonest this would be
able to move forward is 2027,
but you
re requesting it move
sooner. How, how do we square
that?
Maybe we, we refer it to our
budget subcommittee and asked
the city manager to look at
this in the context of the
other programs and ask our
budget subcommittee if there
are ways to expedite this.
But it does sound like there
s
agreement by everyone on the
council that this is valuable
information that we need to
gather, um, and how quickly we
can do that depends a lot on
our other priorities. So, um, I,
I
m at least expressing the
view that we should try to move
it forward as quickly as
possible, but rather than
trying to
prioritize it with our other
priorities right now. Maybe
that
s the appropriate way to
move this forward tonight.
Councilor Meister, you
re in
agreement. Any, ok.
Are there any other comments or
questions?
Do you have clarity on the
direction and the motion, City
clerk. Yes, Mayor. So this will
be, um
deliberated with our budget
subcommittee to expedite the
process, um, and we are all in
agreement. The council is in
agreement that this needs to
move forward, yeah, to discuss
avenues for expediting.
And this meaning some rever
yeah, potential version of a
mechanism, not yeah, this is
the report was given. Great.
I think the city attorney. Oh,
I
m so sorry I was
Yeah, I, yeah, ok.
Ok, thank you. Um, well, item 4
or f6 was moved to consent.
We
re on item f7, and I believe
Councilmember Meister, you had
some questions on this item,
and I see a public commenter.
Was that correct, Anita? Did
you sign up to speak on this?
Do you want to allow public
comment. Anita Goswami, please
come up for your public comment.
Hi there, Anita Kiswami,
longtime resident, uh, I agree
with the person who submitted
public comment against this. I
don
t want my city to taxes
going for this. West Hollywood
is the city that was built on
activism. That
s exactly what
we did. This is how we started.
I
ve been around since the
early days of West Hollywood.
We don
t need to go elsewhere
for this. Um, one of the things
that I feel is if our city
s
leadership feels they need to
network and connect
more if you need to be out
there, and that
s what you
think is important for your
career, and that
s what you
think is important for you
personally. Have those
organizations like Neroots come
to West Hollywood. We
ve got
plenty of hotel space. We
ve
got great conference space.
Come here and hold your
conference. You can all go and
do that there. That
s, you know,
and then you can go and do that
networking here locally. I
think that
s something that we
should really look at
encouraging and promoting that
this is what West Hollywood
does. Um,
also, I strongly review,
reviewing that list of
organizations on a, on, um, a
regular basis as far as who
went, what funds were spent,
because when I went to
conferences, I had to submit a
report of what I accomplished,
whom I met, and the benefits to
my funding organization. And I
think for all of these, like
whether it
s Netroots Nation,
any of these kinds of
organizations that I see there
because I was looking at, I was
looking at them and looking at
their conferences. Ok, if West
Hollywood is paying for those,
then
let
s look at what kind of
benefit that we are getting for
that. Um,
I appreciate your time. Thank
you.
Councilmember Meister. Yeah,
and this is just a general
question, not necessarily um
directed at Neroots, uh,
although I don
t really know
what they do, but um so it says
in the staff report that um you
know, it
s a nonprofit
organization that provides
training resources and
networking opportunities. My
question, I guess, is to this
maybe the city attorney is that
I
ve always been under the um
assumption that we, or I
ve
been told that we
re, we can
t
say, for example, take classes,
educational classes because
it
s for, for public officials,
it
s considered a gift of
public funds. So why we
training at a conference be any
different than being able to
take a class at ucla or
something. Uh, in, in land use
or something that
s that
applies to, you know,
being a, being a public
official at a in a city, which
you can do for the benefits
that you get as a city
councilmemb thanks to the
organizational standards that
we
ve approved. So you actually
do get to take those
educational classes for free.
That
s, that
s not what I
ve
been told. Well, I helped
negotiate that when I was a
Labor PRESIDENT. I think staff
can do it, but I don
t know
that counsel can
I
ll leave it to the city
attorney training classes and
conferences that have
educational components to them.
I don
t know exactly the
specific classes that you
wanted to take at different
educational um
facilities that I, I
m not
familiar with that issue having
come up before.
I, I know I, I
m sorry, just as
an example, as soon as I became
a councilmember, I participated
in usc
s executive leadership
curriculum, which is a program
for elected officials out of
usc, but that was paid for by
the city in order to help
support my leadership on this
council, and I think a number
of the conferences that we
attend have that sort of baked
in training and education as
part of what it means to serve
your role in the city, and I
think the opportunity of going
to a conference wherever it MAY
be
is about helping bring back
things to the city as I think
we
ve done in many cases here,
which is why I would support,
you know, bringing more
opportunities to this body and
the future bodies. Ok, well, I
was then I either misunderstood
was given wrong information
when I first became a
councilmember. I asked if
counsel was allowed to get
tuition reimbursement, ok? And
I was told no, that it
s
considered a gift of public
funds. So that
s, that
s my
point.
I thought we were, but maybe I
can, you know, well
but, but not counsel. Hey, I
don
t believe councilmembs get
tuition reimbursement, but
we
ll verify that. But that
s
different than the training
that conferences and things for
the idea being that you
re
getting educated. The reason
you had to pay tuition for
something is to get educated in
an area, say, that is, that is,
um, you know, applies to what
we
re doing here and obviously
trainings at conferences and
conferences are not
cheap. Um, so that is my point.
Vice Mayor Heilman.
Yeah, the, the list of
organizations that we have is
quite long and it allows the
council members to go to
various organizations to
conferences where there are
workshops and training programs,
um, and there are, you know, as
you can see in the agenda item,
a number of different
organizations. Um, I, I think
it is valuable for councilmembs
to go and to learn from other
elected officials and from
other experts in the field on
different issues, a number of
us have gone to the Victory
Fund Conference where there are
a lot of focus on lgbtq issues,
but sometimes on other issues
like housing issues, a number
of us have gone to the National
League of Cities or the League
of California Cities. I
m
supportive of this. My one
concern is that this
seems like it
s very close to
the edge to something that is
more political rather than uh
more generally educational, so
I think that
s something that
we all need to be careful about
moving forward that we
re
attending conferences on behalf
of the city that are really
designed to be more generally
educational on city issues and
public service rather than
that is really enhancing our
roles in the political realm
because we shouldn
t be
sponsoring, you know, we, we
wouldn
t support the
councilmember going to the
Democratic Party convention or
the Republican convention or
any other political convention.
So that, that was my only
concern about this, but I
looked over the program and it
does appear that there are
significant substantive
workshop
s that focus on issues. So I
m
comfortable with this.
Thank you, Councilmember Hang.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I am
generally in support of this
item. Like the mayor, I
d
actually just attended the usc
Executive Education Forum over
the weekend, and I learned a
lot in terms of public policy
and what the knowledge I will
bring back to the council here
of my colleagues, so I look
forward to Councilor Merrickson
going to this event and then
sharing what he learns with us.
Thank you.
It
s for everyone, so you want
to go together, let
s go
together. I do support, you
know, I mean, look, you
re
serving in the city council are
my whatever $250 paycheck ain
t
paying my rent, right? So I
would fully, I mean, I know
it
s a hold someone will call
me a socialist eventually, but
I think that if you
re up here
and you
re serving your
community, you want to go
further education. I think
cities, states, schools should
be free, so I support you in
whatever way we can figure that
out. But yeah, this is for
everybody. I mean, that
s the
best part about
this list is, you know, um,
a lot of the work that we do is
doing it and the reason why
this came to my attention is
because I had flagged it
earlier this year when
registration was open, but of
course completely forgot
because I was looking at the
program and then when I was
looking at the program like
Weiser Hemann said, and then
when I noticed a bunch of my
colleagues from across the
country going to a very
specific of panels on housing
affordability, trans rights
issues and other things that
seemed like a different flavor
than the victory fund. That
s
where
I flagged for me and I, I put
it on the agenda for that way,
that reason. I
ve attended
Neroots several times prior to
my role in this council, and I
think it should have long been
on this list. I
m really glad
that you thought to do that.
Thank you. Um, ok, I think we
have a motion in a second.
Thank you. That is our votes.
We
re on our last item, item f8,
appointment to the planning
commission.
Um
this item did not get tabled
and just speaking to my desire
to see it not tabled. I do know
that the planning commissioners
have a heavy agenda. It has
been a very full, the
commission has been in practice
for a while and to MISS An
individual is a challenge for
that commission, and I think
that we have and people have
applied to it. It was posted.
It went through that process to
delay the process as a
disservice to the commission,
and I know we
re also
nearly at the place of having
full appointments to all the
commissions, which would allow
us to then recognize the
outgoing commissioners, and
I
ve been getting a few
questions from the community
about when we
re going to be
acknowledging our outgoing
commissioners because it has
taken us a very long year to
fill these commission and
advisory board roles and make
an appointment. So that is what
is prompting my feeling of we
have an opportunity to take
action. Let us see if we are
able to take action tonight.
Let
s keep this on the agenda
and see how we can move forward.
So I just wanted to speak to
that
I, there
s no need for a staff
report on this? No? Ok, we do
have a public comment and then
Vice Mayor Heilmann, do you
want to speak with I
ll wait
until the public, we
ll go to
Mark Edwards who signed up for
public comment. We
ll come back
to Vice Mayor Heilman just
after that.
That
s, that
s
All right. Uh, Mayor, Vice
Mayor, and councilmembers. I am
Mark r. Edwards. I am a renter
in West Hollywood and I love
the city.
A city built on creativity,
courage, and community.
As a community advocate in the
land use practitioner for 20
plus years.
I experienced how thoughtful
planning can shape lives. How a
zoning change could make
housing more affordable.
How design could welcome rather
than divide how policy could
breathe life into art, small
businesses, and sustainability.
My work in land use, workforce
development, housing,
homelessness, and the arts has
shown me that every decision we
make about space
is really about people
and who we include
I realized that the best way to
keep serving the city I love
was to help guide his future
through the planning commission,
which I previously served on,
and I have strived in my
efforts to listen, learn, read
in partnership with others.
I came here tonight ready to
work collaboratively with
fellow commissioners.
City staff, residents to
continue the plan of a West
Hollywood that is equitable,
vibrant, and resilient.
Lastly
I
ve carried the words of Bell
Hooks to my heart.
To tend the earth
is always then to tend our
destiny.
Our freedom, and our hope.
Mayor, Vice Mayor and
councilmembers.
Thank you for considering my
appointment, and I asked for
your I vote.
So that together we can tend
this city
s destiny.
It
s freedom and hope through
planning rooted in
wholeheartedness. Thank you.
Thank you. I saw, uh, we have
another public speaker added to
the list, David Eckert, please
join us.
Hi, good evening again, David
Ecker, uh, resident of West
Hollywood. I
m a little just
concerned with that public
comment. It just felt like a
speech of please endorse me,
and I, I did never, I, I would
have loved to be on this
commission. I never saw any
posting whatsoever, so it just
feels a little biased and this
rush to uh put a committee
together. You, your thought is
that
we need a ninth-member to split
a vote, but you don
t know how
people are going to vote. So
why are we rushing to fill out
a nine-person agenda on
something that seems very
biased at this point. Thank you.
Thank you
Vice Mayor Heilmann, back to
you. Yes, and I want to echo um
MR. Eckert
s comments, uh, and
Mayor, you spoke about um
making sure that we
uh, make an appointment because
otherwise it would be a
disservice to the planning
commission that has a number of
important issues to address,
but I think rushing an
appointment to
um the planning commission is a
disservice to the community
that the planning commission is
supposed to serve. I also feel
a great deal of trouble given
the fact that the applicant who
spoke tonight is already a
declared candidate for the city
council, so it seems to me that
this is um a very clear effort
to rush through a political
appointment before
the community has really had
notice that there
s a vacancy
as I indicated the city clerk
didn
t notify the council of
the vacancy. I only found out
about it last week, and that to
me is problematic, but I know
the majority has spoken and
they want to move forward with
this, but I am very
uncomfortable with it.
Thank you, Councilmember
Erickson, and then I have a
question for staff. Yeah, thank
you very much. Um, I just want
to say that we have a number of
commissioners who have already
practically declared their
candidacies for council
elections, so let
s not mix,
you know, bananas and apples
together, um, so just want to
say that especially if you
watched the Public Safety
commission meeting last week.
Um, additionally, um, I just
want to also ensure that, you
know, not
to speak to the character in
the room, but you know Mark
served on the planning
commission before. He has
extensive knowledge and land
use and has been in the city
for a number of years and only
actually had to step off the
planning commission, so I don
t
mean to tell your business
because you got a very esteemed
job working for Mayor Bass and
sadly with la City, you know,
first in, first out, but that
type of knowledge is actually
very much needed when we have
zoning improvement issues,
housing issues, and really
critical issues before the city
that
frankly if you watched the
planning commission meetings,
they are a little bit divided
with where they go. And so I
fully support Mark Edwards
appointment to the planning
commission. He served his time
and I believe he
s a uh uh of
current historic preservation
commissioner, but his ability
to step up in this needed time
for our city is is much needed.
I don
t see this as a political
appointment. I kind of take
issue with that. I see it as
pointing someone who frankly
based on not to disqualify
anyone else that would apply
um
I won
t be voting for anyone
else, so more people can apply.
I
m supporting Mark. So um
that
s just where it
s gonna go
because I believe he
s the best
person to fit this job at this
time and can step in on day one
and really get to work. So
that
s my, that
s my opinion
and I know we
re not
questioning his character
because we all like Mark and
he
s a great guy. So I don
t
want to say that out loud, but
um, I just want to say that out
loud because I know that wasn
t
your intention, Vice Mayor, but
I, I intend to support Mark
Edwards tonight, and I
m happy
to make that motion.
I wanted to just quickly ask
the, the, my understanding was
the planning commissioner who
resigned resigned the night of
his meeting and then staff
became aware that night. I
don
t know what requirements
there are to tell the council,
but it was at that time that
the notices went out and I see
that a number member, another
member of a commission, Adam
Bass, also appointed. That
s
what I have in the application.
So if it was just one applicant
tonight. I can understand it
feeling rushed, but there are
two individuals, both
who have applied previously,
and I believe both who have
served previously on the
planning commission, which
tells me that we are doing the
thing that we often have
trouble doing when we post
these notices and hold them
open for extended amounts of
times in that we have
difficulty finding applicants
who are well suited for the
role, and we have waited many
weeks to make decisions because
we hope to see a different pool
of applicants, but both of
these individuals would likely
be a part of any pool of
applicants, likely be the you
know
especially given the experience
they have serving on a
commission that needs people to
jump in and be ready to go on a
number of really tough issues
coming up that that these would
be the candidates that would
rise to the top likely, so I
just, I
m, I don
t, I don
t
feel that this is rushed. I
feel like we
re moving swiftly
to meet the moment, and I
understand that that can feel
rushed, and I don
t, I feel
especially tender that people
who have indicated that they
feel left out of this process.
It is very wonderful to hear
more people indicate interest
in serving in these
roles and that interest is
always well received, and these
roles are opening up
unfortunately quicker than we
can fill them in some cases, so
I appreciate hearing from
members of the community and
want to continue to find more
ways to keep people involved.
So I just want to sort of make
that statement. Councilor Bur
Hang.
Thank you, Mayor. I
d like to
nominate Mark. Mark was a
former planning commissioner
for the city. He is currently
my appointee on the historic
Preservation Commission. He has
experience in land use and can
step into the role that he
previously filled on the
planning commission without
further training. That
s what
we need at this time. There
s a
lot of work that the planning
commission does, and Mark has
the expertise to carry that out.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilor
Meister. Yeah, I have a
question. I don
t know if you
can answer this or not, city
clerks, um, but how many years
did Adam Bass serve on the
commission, and how many years
did uh MR. Edwards
Apologies, Councilmember, I
don
t have that information in
front of me. I
d have to
research.
Ok, we
re talking about
experience here, and I believe
that Anam Bass was on the
commission for a longer period
of time then then Mark, so if
you
re going to go with
experience, then I would
nominate Adam Bass. Thank you.
Um
so, uh, we have, uh, 10 yeah,
you
ll have to run a vote then.
We have nomination for both
Adam Baths. Yeah, that
s right.
So we can remove
And then no way shape and form
does this mean we do not like
Adam Bass. I still love you,
Adam, and I know you
re
watching this.
And Adam is my current uh
appointee on the rent
stabilization Commission.
Ok, so I call upon you,
councilmembers, please provide
a name for me.
Councilmember Hang
Mark r. Edwards
Thank you
Councilmember Erickson. Mark
Edwards.
Camember Meister
Adam Bass, but still a protest
vote.
Vice Mayor Heilman.
And Mayor Byers, Mark Edwards.
Thank you. Thank you. He
s been
nominated, uh, to fill the, uh
unscheduled vacancy to 2027.
Terrific. And with that, um,
just to speak to the thing I
had named already, the
challenge that we
re having in
filling all the commission
roles. So Councilmember Hang
then would have an appointment
to make to historic
Preservation Commission, and
then I believe we
re full,
we
re done with the commission
and advisory board appointments
for this current moment of time.
That
s correct. So we
ll have
to post the unscheduled vacancy
that just occurred due to this
appointment. Ok.
Ok. Thank you. Thank you very
much and congratulations. Um,
ok, we
ll move to excluded
consent, which I don
t believe
we have any, so we
ll move to
our final public comment period,
which do we have any?
Ok, we have one member of the
public signed up for the final
public comment period, which I
can
t quite see yet.
Go ahead, I
ll have you call
them up. I can
t see them yet.
Oh, Lena Lee. Yeah, come on up.
Hi there. Hi. Uh, Mayor, vice
mayor, and, um, esteemed
councilmembers
s My name is Lena and I
m
speaking on behalf of cim Group.
Um, I
m going back to item f6,
which was uh on consent, and I
couldn
t make the cutoff
earlier. Um, along with a
colleague of mine who commented
earlier, we are the proud
owners and stewards of the lot
at Formosa. Um, we do have,
however, serious concerns about
the framing uh of the study and
the proposal ordinance and
wanted to share some of those
today.
Uh, preserving production is an
important intention, but if not
weighed equally, it would
stimulating and adding
flexibility for the related
industries. We fear these
efforts will have unintended
adverse consequences. Uh, for
the past 5 years, we
ve watched
operators and occupiers
evolving their business models
and so must we.
For our facilities to remain
relevant and economically
viable. In order to maintain
and preserve the physical
condition of the, of the
facilities. They require more
flexibility and creative use is
not less. So to highlight some
of our, our caution on the
initial staff report. When do
policies initiate from
preservation lens. It often
yields additional protectionist
restrictions.
Production, entertainment are
ever evolving, any stricter
definition of ancillary uses
will absolutely be limiting as
the industry adapts.
The mere rumor of the study
will hurt us in active
discussions with decision
makers in the business
community, we are trying to
keep local to West Hollywood.
Concerned also that the study
isolates our property and the
facilities at the lot, um,
without more active
participation prior to today.
So before any additional city
time and dollars are spent and
this effort is underway. We
re
advocating for a more thorough
dialogue with staff to shape
the framework and methodology
of the study.
So we urge you to take these
apprehensions, um, into
consideration. Thank you.
Thank you
Uh, and then I see Kyle Brazil.
Apologies if I
m not
pronouncing that correctly.
Yeah, Kyle Brazil, uh, live in
West Hollywood, was unable to
attend the last city council
meeting where the Fountain
Avenue project was discussed. I
had hoped common sense would
prevail, but it did not. We saw
the city council choose
disingenuous performative
arguments for a bike lane to be
put into Fountain Avenue rather
than considering actual studies.
I think the city has failed to
address the safety issues
created by that project, for
example, traffic getting
directed into oncoming traffic
as a result of one lane in each
direction when garbage trucks
are stopped, when Amazon
deliveries are on the road. The
city council members that voted
for that proposal offered
nothing about the safety issues
created by the proposal.
They
ve said nothing about the
fact that more cyclists will be
placed in driveways and in
graduate like the, the safety
concerns have just been
completely ignored. MR.
Erickson, I
m troubled by your
phone call to me prior to the
election, where you told me
this was a non-issue, this
wouldn
t happen
for years there
d be no impact,
and now you
re a proponent of
expediting this. I think you
re
willingness to mislead voters
prior to an election and then
double like completely flip
your position is troubling. Um,
I think it speaks a lot to your
character. MISS. Byers, I think
you
ve spoken a lot about the
need to educate the public on
the matter. Yet there were
multiple situations where you
couldn
t state basic facts
about this. For example, you
were like, I don
t know that I
agree or that you don
t know
how many bikers commute
down Fountain Avenue. Have you
looked into that to discover
that 1% of commuters are
cyclists, or are you still
unaware? You also mentioned MR.
Hang, you talked about your
partner
s collision, which I
m
sorry for, but I don
t think
you explained how a bike lane
prevents a collision for
someone making a left hand turn.
You all ignore the fact that
the same type of solution
implemented on Venice Boulevard
actually resulted in more
collisions, fewer cyclists, and
continued deaths. So again, I,
I mainly speak
to just say, I get it that you
think this is done. We
ll
continue to fight. I hope
common sense and compromise
will prevail, but I doubt it
with this group. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other
members of the public sign up
to speak? No? Ok.
Thank you all for the meeting
tonight. It
s only 8:36. It
s
amazing. Um, we will move into
councilmember comment and
meeting attendance reports.
Who would like to begin
No one
s Councilmember Meister,
over to you. Thank you. Sure
thing, um.
Attendance, uh, quake heroes,
which was a great um
documentary on and film about,
about the Northridge earthquake
and the, uh, citizens and just
people who were living in those
uh in those buildings who
became heroes, uh, for their
neighbors, and it was really
amazing and very, very
emotional and touching. Uh,
Holloway interim housing
project ribbon cutting. That
was very, very exciting to see.
Uh, I believe when it was like
2015 or 2016
when uh uh the council at the
time started talking about, you
know, places that would make
sense, uh, to be, uh, an
interim housing project, and
that was one of the locations
that we had identified and so
very excited to see that happen.
Um, Halloween, well, you know,
all the dogs were out, not the
cats, but the dogs and uh we
missed the cats
um and but it was very, it was
a fun event for everyone, for
the dogs, for the guardians,
and for the cats, for the um
and for the children that were
there. Uh, announcements, I
think that the city manager
talked about this, but there is
a zip in-person community
meeting on OCTOBER 8th at 6
P.M. At Plumberer Park
Community Center, room 5 and 6,
and an online community meeting
on OCTOBER 16th at noon. And if
you go to the city
s website,
you should be able to register.
You can go to Engageweho for
more information. Um, please
also check out the calendar for
all of the even
t s happening, uh, with our
disabilities advisory Board for
Disabilities Awareness Month
and also want to wish uh uh my
friends and family and and
anyone who was observing a
happy New Year. Thank you.
Thank you.
We
ll go over here to Council
Burhang.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, as far as
my meetings and attendance are
concerned. I attended the Art
Walk opening reception at the
Laika Gallery where I saw our
my colleague Counciluncilmember
Meister and her sister there.
We were all tasting caviar,
looking at art. I also attended
Counciler Meister
s Quake
Heroes screening. I thought I
was very educational, and it
actually just reminded me how
far this city uh has come in
terms of being the first, I
think, to offer earth to
promote earthquake retrofitting
for our many apartment
buildings, so I want to thank
our incredible city team for
that. I attended the hall in a
room housing, Grant opening. It
was a beautiful event. Thank
you to all the staff who were
involved in making that happen,
and it
s a great step forward
for our city. Um, I attended
the remodel and grand opening
of West Hollywood
s only
McDonald
s. Um, I attended the
la County next chapter
writer
s summit at West
Hollywood Park. It was great. A
lot of community members came
out. Supervisor Horvat came out,
which was fantastic too, and I
also attended the Voices of
Recovery symposium that they
had in the ark, and it was
great to see the recovery
community come out to support
one another in terms of
educational awareness, you know,
to come together as a community
to help save lives, and that is
Ally. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilorrickson.
Thank you so much, Mayor. Thank
you to my colleagues and all
their agenda items tonight. Um,
I don
t, I didn
t read Vice
Mayer Heilman
s item as a
punitive item, but I know there
are a couple of public comments
tonight. So maybe further
discussion can occur because I
know when things happen at 5
P.M. And I know Lena and all
them and we
ve met before, so I,
I maybe there
s some
conversations that still need
to occur, but I didn
t read it
as punitive and so I just
hopefully there can be some
correction or understanding
or connections with staff on
that moving forward um to make
sure we addressed that because
that
s not how I read it and I,
knowing the Viceman, I don
t
think that was his, his
intention, um, so I just wanted
to start there. Um, I have, I
attended a number of city
events just to highlight a few,
obviously, um, the next chapter
la County Library event
yesterday was wonderful. Thank
you to all that attended as
well as the Holloway open house.
Thank you again to all the
staff who worked tirelessly to
get the open house
going. It was really a shining
moment for the city and
something for many years to
come that I
ll be very proud of.
I also attended the Contract
cities board of directors,
executive board meeting, um,
and then additionally, um, in
my hometown press, the Rippon
Press, there was an article
written about when all of the
students from my high school
came to West Hollywood to learn
about the lgbtq community. So
if you
re interested, you can
go on and look, but they had a
great time and I want to
again thank staff and everyone
who came about, including the
mayor and my colleagues who
might have met them when they
were here, uh, including end
the top of it was they really
loved meeting Winston,
Supervisor Ho talk at the la
County Board of Supervisors.
I
m glad that
s what they took
away from it. Um
Additionally, um, Kyle, I
recall our conversation a
little differently, and when I
said the project was going to
happen, voila, here we are. Um,
and additionally, when it comes
down to Fountain Avenue safety,
I believe since the last
meeting there have been
Danny, I
m looking at you, 78,
crashes, complete total wrecks
on fountain.
I think my last count, give or
less, maybe 10, who knows, we
can maybe provide extra numbers,
uh, speeding, traffic
enforcement. So my comments to
our dear friends who continue
to come and talk about the same
thing, maybe go out and hold
signs and tell people to slow
down and to pay attention
rather than coming here and
understanding that traffic
violence is true violence
impacting our community members.
We did so much outreach on
Fountain Avenue, including an
election that it is getting to
be a little repetitive.
And additionally, if you
re not
doing anything to help people
on Fountain Avenue slowdown,
maybe you should go out and pay
your respects to Blake
s
Memorial, which was vandalized
immediately following the
fountain vote.
It was a memorial for an
individual that was killed on
Fountain Avenue was completely
vandalized. Now I
m not saying
anyone here had anything to do
with that, but it
s disgusting
that a memorial like that would
be vandalized, and knowing that
corner like I do because I walk
my dog there all the time. It
is shocking that that is some
levels of which we would be
having the conversation going
on today and so I would hope
maybe people would go pay their
respects there then coming to a
council meeting to
further cause deaths and
traffic accidents to occurring
in the city rather than tra
traffic.
Inclusionary measures and
preventing more traffic deaths
from occurring in the future.
So understanding your
frustration, but I would urge
you to check your priorities
and figure out what you would
like to do next.
Thank you, Councilor Burks, and
Vice Mayor Heilman.
Thank you. I also attended the
Holloway Ho House opening, and
it was great. I want to thank
Se for their engagement with
that. Um, I also participated
in the homeless subcommittee.
We will be coming back with
some discussion of homeless, uh,
priorities and services. There
is a bit of a disagreement on
the subcommittee on some issues,
um, and I think we need to get
greater clarity from the
council and make sure uh staff
is understanding the view of
the majority on the council. I
attended the 30th anniversary
of the Rocky Horror Show
produced by West Hollywood
s
own Lou Adler. Um, I do want to
follow up on the concerns, uh,
that John Larson raised about
no on-site manager. I know that
Andy spoke to him in the
hallway, but this is just
another example to me of a
department that has lost its
focus, not having an on-site
manager is a violation of state
law. I don
t understand why a
tenant has to file a petition
to have that issue addressed. I
don
t know why our rent
stabilization attorney isn
t
sending them a letter saying
that we are going to
prosecute them for that
violation, so I just feel that
our department has consistently
put the burden on tenants when
there are violations, clear
violations by the landlord, and
I think the department has lost
its original focus, which was
to protect tenants from
violations by landlords. Um,
finally, on item f6, I would
like us to um
also ask that to be reviewed by
the council of Budget
Subcommittee because I did not
agree with staff
s, um,
suggestion that this needs to
be deferred the public speakers,
I appreciate them coming out,
but part of the reason to
initiate this was because of
rumors that the lot wants to um
completely change what it
s
doing there and replace the
studio uses with completely
different type of use, and
there are other studios in the
city where if we are really
serious about protecting the
entertainment industry. Our
entertainment industry is under
attack right now. We cannot
allow those facilities to be
converted to non-entertainment
uses. I think that would really
send a message to
the entertainment community
that we aren
t really serious
about protecting the
entertainment industry, so I
m
certain that as this moves
forward, we will dialogue with
the people at the lot, um, and
with all of the other owners of
studio properties, but we need
to move forward with um
protection before all of the
studio and ancillary uses get
demolished in our city, and
then where are we going to be
with our entertain
ment industries? So thank you.
Thank you. Thank you again to
the public for your engagement
in the meeting tonight. Thank
you to staff for your great
work. Uh, my meeting attendance
report includes the Los Angeles
County Affordable Housing
Solutions Agency board meeting
last month in the Clean Power
Alliance Energy Committee
meeting, as well as a number of
wonderful community events, and
the Holloway, the Holloway, the
Holloway, what an amazing
success. It was such a joy to
be surrounded by so many in the
community, just a big thank you
and kudos to
the many, many staff stewards
of that work over the many
years it
s taken and so many of
those staff are even no longer
with the city, so it was just
such a great moment to see some
of those folks come back and to
celebrate the work that has
taken so long to achieve so
much for the unhoused community,
and we
re so grateful to our
partners at Enciia for their
leadership now taking that into
its next chapter, but really
what a gem in our community and
just a tremendous source of
pride. I also wanted to thank
our staff and our partner
s that visit West Hollywood for
the amazing work on the who
Loves Locals program and this
2.0 rollout, the billboard, the
mailers, the texts, it just
felt like it
s really getting
out there and we
ve also seen a
tremendous amount of media
coverage about it. People
really healing this as a
meaningful sort of discount
program to provide to residents,
and I
m really looking forward
to getting reports and data
back from the usage and utility,
but just seeing businesses
embrace the program with big,
you know, signs that they
re
posting themselves or added
little
memos in the checks. It goes a
long way and to my knowledge,
the program
s still open, so if
you haven
t got your gift card,
you can still do that. There
s
a lot of different range of
amounts available and it
downloads to your phone in many
cases, so I encourage you to
check that out and go enjoy the
businesses with support from
the city. And finally just I
wanted to mention I was really
thrilled to see news this week
about San Francisco
s speed
cameras being effective tools
to mitigate safety concerns on
specific corridors, that
is one of the major concerns we
have in the city when it comes
to street safety, and we
ve
been limited our ability to
bring those speed cameras
online due to state policy, but
the pilot that is currently
online in cities is what is
supposed to create data and a
pathway for more cities to be
able to bring those speed
cameras online. So I was very
encouraged to see that
information come out of San
Francisco. Hopeful that our
legislature will start taking
that seriously and continue to
hear the calls of cities like
West Hollywood who want to see
those cameras
come into effect. The tickets
are issued through Department
of Transportation. It
s a very
different sort of program than
I experienced when I was living
in Arizona when, yeah, other
things were happening, so I
m
very hopeful about this program
and want to continue our
advocacy as a city to bring
that because I think that will
be another realm of solutions
that we
ll be able to engage to
address many of the concerns we
continue to hear plague our
community. Thank you all for a
great meeting tonight, a great
start to OCTOBER. Many
awareness month that we
re
making, yeah, it
s 9 o
clock
and we are adjourned. We
ll see
you next meeting
OCTOBER 20th back here in
Counciluncil chambers. Thank