[1:39] Before we call the meeting to

[1:40] order, I would like to read the

[1:41] city

[1:42] s land acknowledgment.

[1:44] The West Hollywood City Council

[1:45] acknowledges that the land on

[1:47] which we gather and that is

[1:48] currently known as the City of

[1:51] West Hollywood is the occupied,

[1:53] unseeded, seized territory of

[1:56] the Gabrielenino Tova and the

[1:57] Gabrielinouh peoples. I

[1:57] m

[2:00] calling the DECEMBER 15, 2025,

[2:01] City Council meeting to order.

[2:03] It is 6:01 P.M. Final council

[2:05] meeting of the year. We have

[2:07] two very special, oh yes,

[2:07] that

[2:08] s worth applause.

[2:10] We have two very special guests

[2:11] with us tonight to lead us in

[2:14] the Pledge of Allegiance. Will

[2:18] Amani, Jane Gist and Sarah Lima

[2:20] Almeida. Please join us in the

[2:21] front of the room to lead us in

[2:34] the Pledge of Allegiance.

[2:36] States of America and to the

[2:38] Republics for which it stands,

[2:39] one nation

[2:42] under GOD indivis

[2:48] and military.

[2:50] Good job. Thank you so much.

[2:51] All right, c clerk, MAY we

[2:53] please have a roll call? Yes,

[2:58] Mayor, thank you, Councilmember

[3:00] Erickson, Councilmember Hang

[3:02] Councilmember Meister here,

[3:03] Vice Mayor Heilmann, Mayor

[3:04] Byers, I am here. We have a

[3:05] quorum. Thank you. We

[3:06] ll move

[3:07] to approval of the agenda. Are

[3:09] there any changes from staff

[3:10] tonight on the agenda.

[3:11] There are no changes from staff

[3:12] this evening. Ok, I

[3:13] ll look to

[3:14] Councilmember Erickson to make

[3:16] some changes on our end. Thank

[3:18] you very much, MADAM Mayer. I

[3:21] was wondering if we would move

[3:24] f3, consider consider revisions

[3:24] to the city

[3:25] s policy for

[3:27] recognition and memorials to

[3:28] consent.

[3:30] Okie dokie

[3:32] Um, I was hoping we could move

[3:34] f2, the construction agreement

[3:37] to consent. Ok. I love it. And

[3:40] I would love to see if we could

[3:42] move item f1 appointment of the

[3:44] city manager, adoption of the

[3:46] resolution improving Employment

[3:47] Agreement and amendment to the

[3:49] salary schedule to the to

[3:50] consent.

[3:52] Are there any public speakers

[3:53] on that?

[3:55] There are no public speakers on

[3:57] that item. I just have to read

[3:58] the compensation and benefits

[4:00] for the public before the

[4:01] contract is adopted, but you

[4:03] can move it to consent, ok, and

[4:07] Meyer, can I, uh, note my no

[4:09] vote on b7, b as in boy, that

[4:09] s

[4:10] on the delivery device

[4:11] ordinance.

[4:12] Yes, and I think we

[4:12] ll make

[4:14] sure we have you say that again

[4:15] when the consent agenda is

[4:18] formally adopted. I will.

[4:20] Ok

[4:24] So we have f1 with a note f2

[4:29] and f3 going to consent?

[4:31] He had a motion and a second to

[4:32] adopt the agenda. Thank you

[4:37] both.

[4:41] Yeah.

[4:43] Motion passes 50. We have an

[4:45] adopted agenda. Can we get any,

[4:46] um, uh, any reports of any

[4:48] Levinac disclosures that MAY be

[4:50] here tonight? No, seeing none.

[4:51] And then we

[4:52] ll go straight to

[4:53] our adjournment motions. I know

[4:55] Councilmember Meister, you have

[4:55] a few we

[4:56] ll get started with

[5:02] you. Thank you.

[5:04] Thank you, Mayor. Um, first, I

[5:06] would like to, uh

[5:07] adjourn in memory of the

[5:10] victims of the Bondi Beach mass

[5:11] shooting in Sydney. I would

[5:13] like to adjourn in memory of

[5:14] the victims of the mass

[5:15] shooting that occurred this

[5:18] past weekend on DECEMBER 14th

[5:19] at Bondi Beach in Sydney,

[5:21] Australia, during a Hanukkahh

[5:23] celebration attended by

[5:25] hundreds of people in this

[5:27] tragic attack, at least 15

[5:29] people were killed and more

[5:30] than 40 were injured, including

[5:32] members of the community and

[5:34] emergency responders.

[5:35] We extend our deepest

[5:37] condolences to the families and

[5:38] loved ones of those lost and to

[5:40] all those affected in the Bondi

[5:42] and Greater Sydney communities

[5:44] as they mourn this senseless

[5:46] act of violence. Our thoughts,

[5:47] our thoughts are with them

[5:49] during this difficult time.

[5:49] I

[5:51] d also like to adjourn

[5:51] tonight

[5:52] s meeting in

[5:54] recognition, uh, in memory of

[5:56] Rob Reiner and his wife

[5:58] Michelle Singer Reiner, who

[5:59] were tragically killed this

[6:02] past weekend. Rob Reiner has

[6:05] made an indelible mark on the

[6:06] arts and entertainment industry,

[6:08] directing and producing beloved

[6:10] films such as When Harry Met

[6:13] Sally, the Princess bride, Stan

[6:15] stand by me and a few good men.

[6:17] Michelle Singer Reiner was a

[6:18] talented photographer and film

[6:20] producer who met Rob on the set

[6:23] of When Harry Met Sally. She

[6:24] creatively contributed to film

[6:26] and media throughout her career.

[6:29] Beyond their cinematic

[6:30] contributions he and Michelle

[6:32] have been active in civic

[6:33] engagement and advocacy on

[6:35] important social issues.

[6:37] Locally in West Hollywood in

[6:40] 2018, I organized a rally

[6:41] entitled Families Belong

[6:43] Together actually it was it was

[6:45] a rally for sane policies, uh,

[6:47] also known as Families Belong

[6:49] Together, which were rallies

[6:51] that were happening all over

[6:52] the country to oppose the

[6:54] immigration crisis caused by

[6:56] the Trump administration

[6:56] s

[6:57] inhumane family separation

[6:59] policy. Rob proudly

[7:01] participated as a speaker at

[7:02] this event, lending his voice

[7:04] and platform to this critical

[7:06] cause. We extend our heartfelt

[7:08] condolences to Rob and Michelle

[7:08] Reiner

[7:09] s family and friends who

[7:11] are mourning this tragic loss,

[7:13] and we honored their lasting

[7:15] contributions. Thank you, Mayor.

[7:17] Thank you. Do any of my

[7:18] colleagues have other

[7:20] adjournment motions? No. If I

[7:21] um would like to then adjourn

[7:24] in the memory of the Brown

[7:25] University students who were

[7:26] killed in the shooting over

[7:29] this weekend. The two students,

[7:31] Ella Cook and Muhammaded Aziz

[7:33] Umar Khazov, were tragically

[7:34] killed following a mass

[7:35] shooting that occurred on

[7:36] DECEMBER 13th at Brown

[7:38] University during a final exam

[7:41] review session the same day the

[7:43] Sandy Hook Anterbuversary took

[7:44] place. 9 others were also

[7:45] wounded in the shooting

[7:46] We extend our deepest

[7:48] condolences to the families and

[7:49] loved ones of those affected

[7:50] and to the entire Brown

[7:51] University community as they

[7:53] mourn this senseless act of

[7:54] violence.

[7:55] Thank you all

[7:57] We will turn now to our

[7:58] presentations for the evening.

[8:00] First, recognizing the two

[8:02] fabulous young people who led

[8:03] us in the Pledge of Allegiance

[8:04] this evening. Thank you both

[8:05] Amani and Sarah, so much. Come

[8:06] back up here and we

[8:06] ll take a

[8:07] photo with you and give you

[9:04] these certificates.

[9:06] Absolutely one of the best

[9:07] traditions this council has

[9:08] done. I really enjoy the

[9:09] students. Thank you so much for

[9:10] coming out and being a part of

[9:12] it.

[9:13] Ok, and we

[9:14] ll move into our

[9:16] next presentation this evening.

[9:17] I think for many of us, we know

[9:17] what

[9:20] s coming.

[9:22] Tonight is truly bittersweet.

[9:24] It does mark the final city

[9:26] council meeting for our city

[9:28] manager David Wilson. We are

[9:29] truly so grateful for his

[9:30] leadership and service to the

[9:31] community here in West

[9:33] Hollywood and of course beyond

[9:34] across this whole region as he

[9:36] has made tremendous impact.

[9:36] And before myself and my

[9:38] colleagues share some remarks

[9:39] about David. I wanted to share

[9:42] this video from our supervisor

[9:48] Lindsay Horvath.

[9:51] Good evening. I am so pleased

[9:52] to congratulate city manager

[9:55] David Wilson on his retire.

[9:57] After 5 years of city manager

[9:59] and so many more serving the

[10:01] city of West Hollywood. I

[10:03] joined so many others in saying

[10:04] what we all know well.

[10:06] The city of West Hollywood is

[10:08] better because of you, David.

[10:09] During my time on the city

[10:11] council and as mayor, I was

[10:13] proud to work alongside you to

[10:15] steer the city through

[10:17] post-covid challenges, and your

[10:19] work to keep the city solvent

[10:21] and to navigate important

[10:22] fiscal challenges, a minimum

[10:25] wage increase, and the hotel

[10:26] workers protection ordinance

[10:28] made West Hollywood a more

[10:29] reliable partner for so many.

[10:31] David, while all of us are

[10:32] undoubtedly going to feel your

[10:33] absence.

[10:35] I wish you the best in

[10:37] retirement, and I wish the best

[10:38] to your family too. I know

[10:38] you

[10:40] ve been through a lot.

[10:41] This next chapter is going to

[10:44] be so great. I just know it.

[10:45] After giving so much to our

[10:47] city and to our region, I hope

[10:47] you

[10:49] ll have plenty of time to

[10:50] give back to yourself. I

[10:51] especially appreciate that

[10:53] amidst it all you took time to

[10:55] join our Blue Ribbon commission

[10:57] and to provide your expertise

[10:58] and support at a time that was

[11:00] so personally difficult, um,

[11:02] that you stepped up even bigger

[11:04] to help a broader region of

[11:05] folks. I just can

[11:05] t thank you

[11:07] enough for who you are and who

[11:08] you

[11:09] ve chosen to be for as long

[11:09] as I

[11:10] ve known you.

[11:11] Thank you so much

[11:13] All my best to you and to your

[11:20] family, and congratulations.

[11:23] And now I would like to read a

[11:26] proclamation prepared for David

[11:28] Wilson. Whereas David has

[11:31] dedicated more than 25 years of

[11:33] exemplary service to the city

[11:34] of West Hollywood, beginning

[11:37] his career in 1998 as an intern

[11:38] in the economic development and

[11:40] housing division, and in 1999,

[11:42] David was hired as a

[11:43] development specialist 1, where

[11:45] he played a key role in the

[11:46] East Side redevelopment project

[11:49] area and contributed to the

[11:49] city

[11:50] s influential economic

[11:52] summit report, and whereas

[11:53] through his professionalism,

[11:55] leadership, and commitment to

[11:56] public service. David has

[11:58] earned numerous promotions,

[11:59] including development

[12:02] specialists 2 in 2001. Project

[12:03] Development Administrator in

[12:05] 2003, Management analyst in

[12:08] 2004, senior management analyst

[12:10] in 2007, Budget and

[12:12] Compensation Manager in 2008

[12:14] and director of finance and

[12:15] technology in 2012, guiding the

[12:18] city through multiple two-year

[12:21] budget cycles, strengthening

[12:22] organizational operations and

[12:23] helping

[12:23] maintain the city

[12:24] s prestigious

[12:26] aaa bond rating. And whereas

[12:26] David

[12:28] s exceptional abilities

[12:29] and forward thinking leadership

[12:31] led to his appointment as

[12:33] deputy city manager in 2016.

[12:36] Assistant city manager in 2018

[12:37] and ultimately to his service

[12:39] as city manager beginning in

[12:41] 2021. And whereas, upon

[12:43] assuming the role of city

[12:45] manager, David provided calm,

[12:47] steady, and capable leadership

[12:48] through one of the most

[12:50] challenging periods in recent

[12:51] history, guiding the city

[12:52] through the covid

[12:54] -19 pandemic and its recovery

[12:55] while safeguarding public

[12:58] health, maintaining services,

[13:00] and preserving fiscal stability.

[13:01] And whereas under David

[13:02] s

[13:03] stewardship, the City of West

[13:04] Hollywood emerged from the

[13:06] covid-19 crisis with a balanced

[13:08] budget and a solid financial

[13:09] foundation, enabling the city

[13:11] to invest in infrastructure,

[13:13] community safety, human

[13:15] services, capital projects, and

[13:17] sustainable growth for the

[13:19] benefit of all residents and

[13:22] community members. And whereas,

[13:22] David

[13:23] s leadership in advancing

[13:25] major citywide initiatives,

[13:27] including the who 40 strategic

[13:28] Plan and the city

[13:29] s involvement

[13:30] with the government alliance on

[13:32] Race and Equity has

[13:32] strengthened the city

[13:33] s

[13:34] commitment to equity, inclusion,

[13:36] and community well-being that

[13:37] will benefit West Hollywood for

[13:39] years to come.

[13:41] And whereas throughout his

[13:43] tenure, David has fostered a

[13:45] culture of collaboration,

[13:47] compassion, transparency, and

[13:49] responsiveness to empower city

[13:51] staff, engage community members,

[13:52] and ensure that local

[13:55] government serves all segments

[13:55] of West Hollywood

[13:55] s

[13:57] constituency. Now, therefore,

[13:58] be it resolved that the city

[14:00] council of the City of West

[14:02] Hollywood hereby recognizes

[14:03] David Allen Wilson for his

[14:05] outstanding leadership and

[14:06] commitment to service and

[14:08] wishes him the absolute best in

[14:09] his retirement.

[14:10] And at this time, I would like

[14:11] to open it up for my colleagues

[14:12] for any remarks that they would

[14:17] like to make as well.

[14:17] We

[14:18] ll start with Councilmember

[14:19] Meister.

[14:23] Thank you, Mayor, and David, um,

[14:23] I didn

[14:24] t prepare anything.

[14:26] But, uh, you know, during a

[14:28] very uncertain time you

[14:30] provided the stability that the

[14:32] city needed and, and I really

[14:34] appreciate that. I also

[14:35] appreciate our phone calls

[14:37] every other Friday morning, uh,

[14:37] even when you probably didn

[14:38] t

[14:40] want to talk to me. Um, knowing

[14:42] that there would be a difficult

[14:44] council meeting coming up the

[14:46] following Monday. I appreciate

[14:48] that you took the time to

[14:50] listen and also to look into

[14:53] things to be able to respond,

[14:54] and so, um, again

[14:58] I just, I really appreciate

[15:01] that um that you know, you, you

[15:02] were there, and you were

[15:06] present, um, and I also wish

[15:08] you the best in the next

[15:10] chapter, and hope you get your

[15:11] house rebuilt quickly, that the

[15:12] county doesn

[15:13] t hold you up too

[15:16] too much with all of their

[15:19] codes and um and that you get

[15:20] to really enjoy retirement

[15:22] because you deserve it.

[15:25] Thank you, Vice Mayor Heilman,

[15:27] David, I, I know you well and I

[15:29] know you hate this kind of

[15:30] public attention, so I

[15:31] m going

[15:33] to keep my remarks very, very

[15:37] brief. First of all, thank you

[15:39] for your incredible service to

[15:44] the city and to our community,

[15:45] um, rent stabilization,

[15:47] redevelopment, finance,

[15:48] everything you

[15:50] ve done, um,

[15:52] helping out during several

[15:53] lawsuits that we were

[15:54] involved with. You

[15:55] ve just been

[15:56] an incredible, incredible

[15:58] public servant, and I really,

[16:00] really thank you. And on a

[16:01] personal level it

[16:02] s been such a

[16:04] delight to work with you and

[16:06] run with you and run marathons

[16:09] and get to meet Jody and your

[16:12] kids and to share good times.

[16:14] You deserve your retirement and

[16:16] I look forward to keeping in

[16:18] touch and continuing to have a

[16:20] great relationship. Thank you

[16:21] for everything. Thank you,

[16:22] Councilor Erickson.

[16:25] Uh, thank you so much, David,

[16:28] you know, we go back quite a

[16:30] ways from when I was a little

[16:33] old intern, um, and you have

[16:35] just always been such a

[16:37] positive person, a solid voice

[16:40] of reason, and someone that

[16:42] never really rattled very

[16:44] easily. I knew that if

[16:45] something brought a little

[16:47] alert to your voice. I would go,

[16:48] Oh, ok, we should probably be

[16:50] paying more attention to that,

[16:50] but you

[16:52] re always very cool.

[16:53] You kept things together

[16:56] during some of the most um

[16:58] awful times that our city has

[17:01] faced, you know, whether that

[17:03] be what you shared at our

[17:05] holiday party working through

[17:07] 9/11 all the way up to covid to

[17:09] so many other things that

[17:09] you

[17:10] ve really seen our city

[17:12] through through the your

[17:14] executive leadership, as well

[17:16] as then moving into the city

[17:17] manager role. I

[17:18] ve always

[17:19] gotten to see your beautiful

[17:21] family and how they

[17:22] ve grown

[17:25] and your daughter who would

[17:26] contribute to my growing

[17:27] waistline with her cookies

[17:28] that she would sell through her

[17:30] red wagon that she would go

[17:32] through City Hall because I was

[17:34] always working past 6. I still

[17:35] remember the email I got from

[17:36] you saying John can

[17:36] t work

[17:38] anymore overtime hours. His

[17:39] internship is pretty much done,

[17:40] so we have to figure out what

[17:41] we

[17:42] re going to do here, um, but

[17:42] I

[17:44] ll never forget your

[17:45] attention to detail even back

[17:49] then, and then when I was first

[17:51] elected, seeing you not only

[17:53] rise up to become our next city

[17:55] manager, but truly becoming our

[17:56] city manager at a time of

[17:57] crisis when

[17:58] we had to make sure our

[17:59] employees were safe, our

[18:01] community was safe. The funding

[18:03] that we had was safe. You

[18:05] really saw a plan and a vision,

[18:07] and we would not be, and I say

[18:10] this, we as a city would not be

[18:13] where we are today without your

[18:16] financial stewardship of our

[18:17] dollars, as well as telling us

[18:18] no when we

[18:19] re spending too much

[18:21] and you always do that very

[18:23] tactfully, but on a personal

[18:26] level, the man that you are is

[18:27] truly a

[18:30] m ir able Um, when we met Becky

[18:31] when I was leaving the

[18:36] mayorship, um, and everything

[18:38] was happening with your family,

[18:39] um, you know, I, I had said to

[18:40] you, I think, well, David, you

[18:41] can

[18:42] t leave, you know, I, I

[18:44] need you. We need you. The city

[18:46] needs you, and you literally

[18:48] said, my family needs me.

[18:50] And

[18:53] man at that moment I knew that

[18:59] you were just a man. I hope and

[19:00] I hope that we can always

[19:01] continue to look up to that

[19:03] moral courage, and it means a

[19:05] lot, and I know out there it

[19:07] means a lot to everyone and

[19:08] even when people didn

[19:09] t agree,

[19:11] you always steadied the ship,

[19:13] and I appreciate that so much

[19:15] about you, and I will MISS You.

[19:16] I was already telling people

[19:17] you weren

[19:17] t showing up tonight

[19:18] because, you know, hey, we got

[19:19] Jackie and we

[19:19] re going

[19:21] to vote on it. But you know Kat

[19:21] knows. I said I don

[19:22] t think

[19:22] he

[19:23] s coming, but you know,

[19:23] we

[19:25] ll see you here, um, but

[19:27] first and foremost, thank you

[19:28] for being a friend. Thank you

[19:30] for being a mentor, and thank

[19:34] you for making my first term in

[19:36] office successful because you

[19:37] guided me through some really

[19:38] tough conversations, and I

[19:39] really appreciate you, and I

[19:39] ll

[19:40] never forget that.

[19:42] Congratulations, David.

[19:44] Councilembhang, thank you,

[19:47] Mayor. David, thank you for

[19:49] helping me get through my

[19:50] freshman year with patience,

[19:55] with love, with kindness and um,

[19:56] I mean, uh

[19:58] as soon as I got sworn in, the

[19:59] fires happened and you helped

[20:00] steady the ship.

[20:01] When the immigration rates

[20:02] happen, you helped steady the

[20:05] ship for our city. So thank you.

[20:06] Thank you for teaching me how

[20:07] to be a better person.

[20:10] And thank you for giving me

[20:11] advice and guidance, even

[20:12] sometimes when I didn

[20:12] t want it

[20:15] but knew they had to hear it.

[20:18] Um so that I really appreciate.

[20:19] I remember a month, not even a

[20:20] month after I was sworn in I

[20:22] went to dinner with you.

[20:22] And that

[20:23] s when you had said,

[20:24] you know, I

[20:24] m going to retire,

[20:27] and I was like, I just got here.

[20:27] You

[20:28] re already leaving and my

[20:31] eyes started tearing up at the

[20:32] table, um, you

[20:32] ve been a Steady

[20:34] presence sitting on my right

[20:35] side, um, and I

[20:35] m going to MISS

[20:37] You. Thank you for all you

[20:37] ve

[20:40] contributed to our city.

[20:41] Thank you, David, we

[20:44] re so, so

[20:46] grateful for you, personally,

[20:47] as the first councilmember

[20:49] sworn in since you became city

[20:51] manager to really get to work

[20:54] with you to be onboarded, to

[20:56] really understand what it means

[20:58] to support staff through your

[21:00] vision to support the city. I

[21:01] feel so supported and so lucky

[21:03] to have grown in my leadership

[21:04] under your tenure as city

[21:06] manager these 1st 3 years, and

[21:08] have served as mayor in your

[21:09] last year, we know

[21:11] how fortunate we are as a city,

[21:13] but I think we cannot impress

[21:15] it upon the public enough what

[21:17] it means to be a city so well

[21:19] situated financially to be able

[21:21] to take on the ambitious, you

[21:23] know, projects that we do,

[21:24] capital projects, but also

[21:26] having an ice rink in the park

[21:28] for our holiday season. We are

[21:30] able to do so much and give so

[21:31] much to the community because

[21:33] of the financial health that

[21:33] you

[21:33] ve brought and the

[21:34] stability you

[21:35] ve brought to the

[21:36] city through really difficult

[21:38] times, and it was an honor, so

[21:39] everyone knows we were able to

[21:39] give the

[21:42] key to the city to David at the

[21:44] Cityhood celebration, an event

[21:45] that he really helped imagine

[21:47] and dream up, and his family

[21:49] was present with us that night,

[21:50] a family that I think has

[21:52] really also invested so deeply

[21:54] in this city by way of your

[21:56] commitment being here. It truly

[21:58] takes everyone to support your

[21:59] ability to take those phone

[22:00] calls in the middle of the

[22:01] night or early in the morning

[22:03] or on the weekends, and so we

[22:04] think your family also for

[22:07] their support of the city

[22:08] through so much, and you

[22:09] re

[22:10] fully

[22:12] dedicated presence through all

[22:13] this time that you

[22:13] ve also been

[22:15] dealing with. We really

[22:17] appreciate you so much. So, um,

[22:19] we will wrap up the

[22:22] celebrations for you, but it

[22:24] will continue to ring very true

[22:25] that we are so grateful for all

[22:25] you

[22:26] ve given to the city and

[22:27] the legacy you

[22:28] ve built, and to

[22:30] hear that you recognize that

[22:31] legacy more than any of that

[22:32] sort of financial strength or

[22:33] health where all the things

[22:33] we

[22:34] re celebrating, but what

[22:34] you

[22:35] ve invested in the staff

[22:37] and the team here hearing those

[22:38] words from you at the holiday

[22:39] party meant so much. So it is

[22:40] truly

[22:41] an honor, and I will ask the

[22:42] whole council to join me at the

[22:44] dais to accept the proclamation

[22:45] and to take a photo with you

[22:47] and celebrate you one last time.

[24:20] Thanks, David.

[24:22] Well, so, as, as you all know,

[24:26] I am a person of few words. Um,

[24:29] fortunately, WeHhovie put my

[24:31] entire presentation at the from

[24:33] the 40th anniversary, I posted

[24:34] it online and so I won

[24:35] t make

[24:37] you all suffer through me going

[24:37] through another long

[24:38] presentation.

[24:40] But I do want to thank the city

[24:43] council. Thank you all for your

[24:46] kind words and all the memories

[24:48] that we shared and that brought

[24:52] to me, um, as well as our

[24:54] previous council members for

[24:55] their support, um, not only for

[24:56] me as city manager, but

[24:58] throughout my career here with

[25:00] the city. I also want to thank

[25:02] all of you community members,

[25:05] um, especially those who have

[25:07] reached out and thanked me for

[25:08] my service here and said

[25:09] goodbye

[25:11] and showed appreciation and all

[25:11] of those who haven

[25:12] t had the

[25:14] opportunity to do that. I truly

[25:16] do love this city and I

[25:17] ve

[25:18] really loved my experience here

[25:20] and all the time providing

[25:21] service to this community, and

[25:23] I know this community is really

[25:25] grateful for the service that

[25:27] we as a whole, the city staff

[25:29] provides and finally I just

[25:30] want to thank our city staff.

[25:32] It is an amazing staff. Thank

[25:35] you all for working so hard and

[25:37] making me look good because

[25:38] quite frankly, that

[25:38] s hard to

[25:39] do

[25:40] but I thank you all. I know I

[25:41] d

[25:42] leave the city in really good

[25:44] hands with this staff and with

[25:46] Jackie Rocco at the helm as

[25:49] city manager, um, as I retire,

[26:00] so thank you.

[26:02] I know we have a few

[26:04] dignitaries here to share

[26:05] remarks as well, and we

[26:05] ll do

[26:07] that under our public comment

[26:08] section, so we

[26:09] ll get into that.

[26:11] Uh, the city council values

[26:12] your comments. However,

[26:14] pursuant to the Brown Act, the

[26:15] council cannot take action on

[26:16] items not listed on the Posted

[26:18] agenda. The public comment

[26:20] period is limited to 20 minutes

[26:21] with 2 minutes allotted for

[26:23] each speaker. This public

[26:25] comment period is to address

[26:26] the city Counciluncil on

[26:28] consent calendar items. Other

[26:30] agenda items if the member of

[26:31] the public cannot be

[26:32] present at the time the item is

[26:34] considered or items of general

[26:34] interest within the

[26:35] jurisdiction of the city

[26:37] council. Another period is also

[26:38] reserved for general comment

[26:39] later in the meeting for those

[26:40] that could not be heard at this

[26:41] time. In public hearing

[26:43] testimony will only be taken at

[26:45] the time of the hearing. So

[26:45] we

[26:47] ll start first with

[26:49] Lieutenant Fannny Lapkin.

[26:50] And then we

[26:52] ll go to Mandy. I

[26:52] m

[26:54] sorry.

[26:54] I

[26:55] m sorry. It says lieutenant

[26:55] here. I

[26:56] m just reading the

[26:58] screen. Captain Fanny Lapkin,

[27:00] everyone knows and everyone can

[27:01] correct the record.

[27:05] I respond to all of it. Lanny

[27:07] Lapkin Captain Lieutenant, um

[27:10] David, um, this is a, a, a

[27:12] small token of our appreciation

[27:13] from the Alley County Sheriff

[27:14] s

[27:16] Department. We have a

[27:18] proclamation for your amazing

[27:20] leadership, mentorship that

[27:20] you

[27:21] ve had throughout the city.

[27:22] I know me being young here on

[27:24] the with the city, you

[27:24] ve been

[27:25] an amazing friend and a great

[27:27] mentor. Um, in recognition of

[27:28] your outstanding leadership as

[27:30] city manager of West Hollywood.

[27:31] Your partnership over the years

[27:32] has brought meaningful and

[27:34] lasting improvement to the

[27:35] community. On behalf of the men

[27:36] and women of Los Angeles County

[27:37] Sheriff

[27:37] s Department. We

[27:38] appreciate your commitment to

[27:40] the community and the role you

[27:41] have played in keeping West

[27:42] Hollywood safe. So this is on

[27:45] behalf of our Sheriff Fluna.

[27:48] Proclamation. Can I approach

[27:51] and just take a clerk.

[27:52] Thank you. We

[27:53] ll MISS You and

[27:56] we love you. Thank you.

[27:58] Next we have Mandy Laughlin

[27:59] representing Supervisor

[27:59] Horvath

[28:05] s office.

[28:06] Hi, David and Joshua

[28:07] s gonna

[28:07] come up with me too. We

[28:07] re

[28:08] we

[28:08] re gonna, we

[28:10] re gonna speak

[28:12] together, um, on behalf of

[28:14] myself as a resident, I want to

[28:16] say thank you for, um, for all

[28:16] the support that I

[28:17] ve seen you

[28:18] give the city while I

[28:18] ve lived

[28:20] here and also while I was a

[28:21] commissioner here, um, your

[28:23] leadership is a parent and I, I

[28:25] feel that you bought a a

[28:26] certain calmness to, um,

[28:27] operations in the city too that

[28:29] I know is really well

[28:31] appreciated and then be on

[28:33] behalf of um la County, I want

[28:34] to thank you for your service.

[28:36] 25 years is a really

[28:38] long time. And, uh, I know that

[28:39] you are a big part of what

[28:41] makes West Hollywood so special

[28:41] and what

[28:43] s made West Hollywood

[28:44] so successful for, for the

[28:45] tenure that you

[28:47] ve been here.

[28:49] Thank you, Mandy, and, uh,

[28:49] David, I

[28:50] ll say I

[28:50] ve I

[28:50] ve only

[28:51] been in Wehho for about a

[28:53] couple of years now, but I

[28:54] quickly learned just how big

[28:56] your impact and your legacy has

[28:58] been here in this city, so it

[28:58] s

[28:59] been an honor to get to know

[29:01] you and on behalf of Assembly

[29:02] Members of birth, thank you for

[29:11] your many years of service.

[29:11] We

[29:12] ll continue with public

[29:14] comment. I have Kevin Burton,

[29:15] then followed by Darius

[29:16] Anderson, followed by Wendy

[29:27] Goldman.

[29:28] Good evening, Councilmembers

[29:30] Kevin Burton, City of West

[29:31] Hollywood.

[29:32] I just don

[29:35] t want to say a few

[29:37] comments on item f3, which is

[29:38] the city

[29:40] s policy on

[29:43] recognitions and memorials and

[29:46] that includes plaques and

[29:49] certification and other honors

[29:51] um, I represent the West

[29:52] Hollywood Bicycle Coalition,

[29:55] and we would like to urge the

[29:58] city to add another type of

[29:59] memorial to the array you

[30:01] already offered to the city,

[30:06] and that is memorial sign at

[30:08] locations of traffic deaths due

[30:11] to crashes. This is done by

[30:12] several cities around the state.

[30:13] You

[30:16] ll see these signs in la

[30:18] and Pasadena, Pasarobos up

[30:19] in the Central Coast. Several

[30:21] other cities, and they serve

[30:24] two purposes. One is to

[30:26] memorialize the people who

[30:28] suffered those tragedies at

[30:30] those locations and to show

[30:31] that we don

[30:32] t forget them. The

[30:35] second is as a reminder to

[30:38] drivers to drive carefully.

[30:40] That people can get killed when

[30:40] you don

[30:42] t drive carefully and

[30:43] in la you

[30:45] ll see messages very

[30:48] brief on such signs to that

[30:48] effect, and it

[30:49] s usually

[30:51] related to what happened.

[30:51] So

[30:54] we hope that you will consider

[30:57] adding that kind of memorial to

[30:59] your recognitions program.

[31:02] And so that the city will make

[31:04] a statement that those who have

[31:07] died tragically are not soon

[31:08] forgotten. Thank you.

[31:09] You.

[31:11] Darius Anderson, followed by

[31:12] Wendy Goldman, followed by

[31:20] David Eicman.

[31:22] Esteemed members of West

[31:25] Hollywood. I wanna talk to you

[31:27] about b5 um.

[31:29] Which particularly pertains to

[31:31] unhoused individuals in West

[31:32] Hollywood. Uh, myself having

[31:34] been an unhoused individual in

[31:36] West Hollywood. I would like to

[31:38] say that I understand that the

[31:40] issue is a concern for personal

[31:43] property in this city, um

[31:44] I would also like to mention

[31:45] that the mission of the

[31:47] Environmental Quality Act is to

[31:49] preserve the ecology of this

[31:50] environment. Uh, and the

[31:51] welfare of the people. It is

[31:53] the intent of this council to

[31:55] identify critical thresholds

[31:56] for the health and safety of

[31:58] the people of West Hollywood,

[31:59] uh, we are a community. More

[32:00] than that, we

[32:01] re a team. I

[32:04] believe that the unhoused Bill

[32:06] of Rights introduced by

[32:07] Representative Corey Bush in

[32:10] 2021, intended to stop the

[32:11] criminalization and mandate

[32:12] federal actions to end

[32:13] transience by the end of

[32:15] this year. I would remind you

[32:17] guys that uh we

[32:18] re a community

[32:21] and that the unhoused made

[32:22] simply need a place to store

[32:24] their property during this time

[32:27] and that there are um

[32:29] organizations out there willing

[32:31] to help. Uh, those including

[32:34] the bin by the by Chrysalis, um,

[32:35] which could be implemented in

[32:37] the city to help preserve some

[32:39] of the property of the unhoused

[32:40] while they

[32:41] re here. Um, again,

[32:41] that

[32:41] s all I

[32:42] d like to say.

[32:44] Thank you

[32:45] Wendy Goldman, followed by

[32:47] David Eicman, followed by David

[32:50] Eckert.

[32:52] Good evening, Wendy Goldman,

[32:54] City of West Hollywood, on

[32:55] behalf of Cynthia Sunset

[32:57] Neighborhood Watch. I would

[32:59] like to publicly thank

[33:01] Genevieve Morell for her

[33:04] unending support for us, for

[33:05] Sunset Strip, restoration, and

[33:07] for her humor during the 15

[33:08] years that she has been

[33:10] PRESIDENT Of the West Hollywood

[33:13] Chamber of Commerce. While we

[33:15] have disagreed on occasion. Jen

[33:16] has proved to be a woman of

[33:18] valor who strives for the best

[33:20] in dealing with business

[33:21] leaders, community members

[33:23] and city council. Her values

[33:25] are top-notch, and I admire the

[33:27] way that she has led since the

[33:29] pandemic and recovery from the

[33:31] tremendous economic loss to our

[33:33] local businesses. As the sunset

[33:35] strip continues to face

[33:36] uncertainty with many

[33:39] struggling or closed businesses,

[33:40] pedestrian obstructions,

[33:42] stalled developments galore and

[33:44] a severe lack of green space. I

[33:45] trust that the work that

[33:48] Genevieve has done will be

[33:51] continued by new ceo Len Ladzy

[33:51] in the

[33:52] same good faith. I

[33:53] d also like

[33:54] to thank the members of the

[33:54] city

[33:56] s boards and commissions

[33:57] who invest in improving many

[33:59] aspects of life in West

[34:00] Hollywood in partnership with

[34:03] city staff. Your service is so

[34:04] appreciated. Happy holidays to

[34:06] all and remember to stay aware

[34:08] of your surroundings and help

[34:10] improve public safety. Thank

[34:11] you.

[34:12] David Ekeman, followed by David

[34:13] Eckert, followed by Scott

[34:17] Schmidt.

[34:19] Good evening, MADAM Mayer, MR.

[34:20] Vice Mayor, Councilmember David

[34:23] Eichman, chair of the city

[34:23] s

[34:25] transportation and mobility

[34:26] Commission. I too want to first

[34:28] thank David Wilson for his many

[34:30] years of service to this

[34:31] community, and I want to

[34:34] commend the council on its

[34:36] wisdom in selecting Jackie

[34:39] Rocco as our next city manager.

[34:40] Um, she has already served the

[34:41] city admirably, and I look

[34:42] forward to working with her.

[34:44] Congratulations, Jackie.

[34:46] On a somber note, um, my heart

[34:49] also goes out to the Jewish

[34:52] community in Australia. So to

[34:53] show what a small world we live

[34:54] in

[34:56] one of my Dartmouth classmates

[34:57] is on the town council in

[34:59] Waverley, which is the area

[35:00] that includes Bondi Beach. He

[35:02] is Jewish. The mayor had asked

[35:05] him to go to two events that

[35:07] night celebrating Hanukkah. He

[35:09] was finishing his speech at the

[35:11] first event and about to head

[35:13] over to the beach. Um,

[35:15] thankfully, he is ok, but as

[35:16] you can imagine, he is shocked.

[35:16] It

[35:17] s a, it

[35:19] s a fairly small

[35:21] Jewish community in Sydney. Um,

[35:23] so everyone there is impacted

[35:24] and

[35:25] this just shows this can happen

[35:28] anywhere. So my charge to

[35:30] everyone tonight is if you hear

[35:33] someone make an anti-Semitic

[35:35] comment. Call it out, please,

[35:36] by being silent, you

[35:37] re not

[35:39] helping. Rid the world of

[35:41] anti-Semitism. So with that in

[35:43] mind, happy holiday.

[35:45] David Eckert, followed by Scott

[35:46] Schmidt, followed by Rich

[35:50] Magana.

[35:52] Good evening, City Council.

[35:53] David Eckert, uh, resident of

[35:55] West Hollywood. Uh, this is the

[35:57] time of the year where I just

[36:00] want to uh say I am grateful

[36:01] for every single one of you. Uh,

[36:03] you are all beacons of lights.

[36:05] You have all such great souls.

[36:07] You inspire me daily. We might

[36:10] disagree at times, but I so

[36:11] value each and every one of you.

[36:13] You make the world a better

[36:15] place, and I hope people

[36:17] watching at home realize how

[36:19] selfless every one of these

[36:21] people are. They represent our

[36:21] city.

[36:22] This includes everyone at city

[36:23] staff that I

[36:24] ve ever dealt with,

[36:25] um, it

[36:26] s time that we all look

[36:27] at each other in this world

[36:28] with everything that

[36:29] s happened

[36:31] lately, it breaks my heart that

[36:31] we as individuals can

[36:32] t look at

[36:35] people and see the differences

[36:37] you do. I so appreciate that.

[36:39] David Wilson, I hope that when

[36:40] you build a home, you build a

[36:41] bigger wall for all the

[36:43] accolades that you have

[36:44] received, um.

[36:45] And again, I just from the

[36:47] bottom of my heart, I want to

[36:49] say thank you. Um, and for

[36:50] something to look forward to

[36:52] next year. I would love the the

[36:54] lights along Santa Monica

[36:55] Boulevard are beautiful. I

[36:57] would love for the park to be

[36:58] lit up just as well. We get

[37:01] people out of the cars. Let

[37:01] s

[37:03] become a community where we

[37:05] actually come together and

[37:07] celebrate, um, thank you again

[37:08] from the bottom of my heart.

[37:09] Love you all.

[37:11] Scott Schmidt, followed by Rich

[37:13] McGonna, followed by Nick Royal.

[37:16] Good evening. Scott Schmidt,

[37:17] resident of West Hollywood,

[37:19] executive director of Emerald

[37:20] Village West Hollywood. Uh,

[37:21] first, let me thank you, Dave,

[37:22] for your service. It was a

[37:24] pleasure serving alongside you

[37:26] for 91 days as a colleague, and

[37:27] the last couple of years, uh,

[37:29] working with Emerald Village,

[37:31] uh, the staff has been, uh,

[37:32] wonderful to work with and also

[37:33] to you, Genevieve Moorrell in

[37:34] the audience, thank you for

[37:37] your service to West Hollywood.

[37:38] Uh, if I look forward to

[37:40] working with Lynn Lanzey at the

[37:41] Chamber. I

[37:42] ve known him for

[37:43] since

[37:44] the turn of the century and uh

[37:44] i

[37:46] m excited about him coming

[37:46] here and I think he

[37:46] s going to

[37:48] be an asset to the city as well.

[37:50] And also before I get going, I

[37:52] realized just now Lauren and

[37:54] and and John Heilman. A year

[37:54] from now we will be here

[37:56] celebrating your service to

[37:57] this city, uh, and honestly

[37:58] some o the best public

[37:59] servants that West Hollywood

[38:01] has known, and I hope maybe we

[38:03] take a whole night to celebrate

[38:04] them separate from the council

[38:06] meeting because, uh, we

[38:07] couldn

[38:08] t do them justice in

[38:11] just the the this part. Uh, now,

[38:13] moving on, a year ago, uh, you

[38:14] renew you, you gave us a

[38:16] contract for Emerald Village,

[38:17] uh, to fund through the first

[38:18] of the year. I said that I hope

[38:19] I could come back and tell you

[38:20] that we had improved cannabis

[38:23] sales in West Hollywood by 10%

[38:24] compared to the statewide

[38:26] average. In the third quarter

[38:28] of this year from JULY to

[38:29] SEPTEMBER.

[38:31] Cannabis sales were up 4.8% in

[38:36] West Hollywood, down 5.4%

[38:37] statewide compared to where we

[38:38] were a year ago. We

[38:40] re selling

[38:43] $82 more per capita than the

[38:45] rest of the state. And

[38:46] to do the math, that translates

[38:50] to about 3000 or $3 million in

[38:51] additional revenue that has

[38:53] been generated in the last year,

[38:54] um, in the last since I last

[38:55] saw you, we

[38:56] ve done a lot. We

[38:57] crowned a new Queens of Emerald

[38:59] Village Paradisa Darling. We

[39:00] judged the Amsterdam Coffee

[39:02] Shop Awards. We spoke at mj

[39:04] BizCon and we hosted the first

[39:07] ever Rainbow Royale lgbt after

[39:08] hours party at mj BizCon, and

[39:09] we

[39:10] ve got some great things

[39:12] coming up in 2026, including

[39:13] thanks to your support,

[39:15] FEBRUARY 28th, the

[39:16] Cannabis Culture and Change

[39:17] Conference in this very

[39:18] building. Thank you.

[39:20] Rich McGona, followed by Nick

[39:22] Royel, followed by Genevieve

[39:25] Morrell.

[39:26] Greeting council members. My

[39:26] name

[39:27] s Rich Mganny. I

[39:27] m the

[39:29] founder of Queer and Cannabis.

[39:29] We

[39:32] re an organization focused

[39:34] on preserving um the extensive

[39:36] lgbtq history specifically

[39:38] within the cannabis space. Um,

[39:39] as, as Scott mentioned, we are

[39:40] partnering up with him for the

[39:44] cannabis, um, culture and

[39:46] change symposium where we

[39:47] ll be,

[39:48] um, screening the unreleased

[39:50] documentary of Join the Club,

[39:52] which is a documentary focused

[39:54] on the intersection of the lgbt

[39:56] community, cannabis and hiv aid

[39:56] d s It

[39:58] s often an under an

[39:59] untold story. It

[40:00] s definitely a

[40:01] story that, uh, the majority of

[40:03] people within my industry know,

[40:05] so I just wanted to thank

[40:06] everyone here for giving us the

[40:07] platform to be able to share

[40:09] this story, um, to, to a larger

[40:12] population. So thank you very

[40:14] much. Nick Royel, followed by

[40:21] Gevieve Murrell.

[40:22] Hi, Mayor and vice mayor and

[40:24] council.

[40:24] I don

[40:27] t know about any of you,

[40:28] but this weekend has been

[40:29] really tough.

[40:30] Um

[40:33] in many

[40:36] areas, um, I teach

[40:38] um first year students at

[40:39] CalArts English.

[40:42] And the incidents at Brown

[40:44] shook me. I, I have friends who

[40:47] also teach at Brown.

[40:51] On the 2nd night of Hanukkah

[40:53] in these moments, I often turn

[40:56] to a rabbi

[40:59] by the name of Abraham Joshua

[41:00] Heschel.

[41:02] Rabbi Heschel

[41:04] often

[41:05] helps me connect with my heart

[41:08] and my soul.

[41:09] And gives me the grounding that

[41:11] I need when my nervous system

[41:12] is bumped up.

[41:13] When I don

[41:14] t quite have a

[41:17] language

[41:19] for these difficult incongruous

[41:20] feelings, right? These feelings

[41:22] that are scared and lonely.

[41:24] And and tired

[41:25] So

[41:28] to the city of West Hollywood,

[41:30] I share this from Rabbi Hasel

[41:33] on the 2nd night of Hanukkah.

[41:37] I would say about individuals.

[41:39] Uh individual dies

[41:42] when they cease to be surprised.

[41:46] I am surprised every morning

[41:48] when I see the sun

[41:51] shine again.

[41:55] When I see an act of evil.

[41:55] I don

[41:58] t accommodate.

[41:58] I don

[42:00] t accommodate myself to

[42:02] the violence that goes on

[42:03] everywhere.

[42:06] I am still so surprised.

[42:11] That is why I am against it.

[42:16] We must learn to be surprised

[42:17] City of West Hollywood and

[42:19] council

[42:21] I am constantly surprised by

[42:24] the depths of our love and care.

[42:25] MAY we extend that more than

[42:28] ever tonight. Thank you.

[42:30] Genevieve Moorrell, we are our

[42:33] final speaker in Chambers.

[42:36] Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor,

[42:37] councilmembers, Genevieve Morre,

[42:39] PRESIDENT And ceo of the West

[42:40] Hollywood Chamber for another,

[42:41] I don

[42:42] t know how many days,

[42:45] hours, or seconds. Uh, but

[42:46] until JANUARY 12th when Len

[42:50] comes in, um, but I, I know you

[42:50] haven

[42:51] t taken action on it yet,

[42:53] but I wanted to thank outgoing

[42:56] Mayor Byers for her service was

[42:58] stellar, exceptional, and

[43:01] welcome, uh, Mayor, uh, the new

[43:02] Vice Mayor Heilmann, to be our

[43:03] new mayor. Hopefully,

[43:05] if you vote on it, I, um, I

[43:06] ve

[43:08] seen, uh, Councilmember

[43:09] Heilmann, Vice Mayor Heilmann,

[43:11] many times over as mayor, so I

[43:11] know you

[43:13] ll do a great job. And

[43:16] then, um, I also just wanted to

[43:19] thank our outgoing city manager

[43:20] David Wilson. David, uh, you

[43:22] came in on a really tough time.

[43:24] It was a tough time for the

[43:27] business community as well. Um,

[43:31] you, you got through with such,

[43:33] um, respectful, stellar, dign

[43:36] ity with my emotional craziness

[43:39] and how many battles we waged,

[43:41] but you took it all in and you

[43:43] were just amazing and helping

[43:44] us get through all that. Um,

[43:46] thank you, Councilmember

[43:48] Erickson, uh, for all the years

[43:49] and I

[43:50] ve known you a very long

[43:52] time as well through some of

[43:54] that internship you talked

[43:56] about and Councilmember Hang as

[43:57] the new council, we

[43:57] ve just

[43:58] started to get to know each

[44:00] other, so thank you. Andelember

[44:02] Meister, thank you so much.

[44:03] Sorry about your eyes. You will

[44:04] see later, so there

[44:05] s just too

[44:06] much to say. And then, of

[44:09] course, welcoming Jackie Rocco,

[44:11] um, Jackie is just the best

[44:13] thing ever. Um, so I just want

[44:13] to say it

[44:14] s my last meeting and

[44:16] I only have 19 seconds left, so

[44:18] not a lot of time, but my last

[44:19] council meeting here, next

[44:21] council meeting, I MAY come in

[44:23] JANUARY with our new person,

[44:24] but I

[44:25] ve created a

[44:26] relationships I treasure. Thank

[44:28] you so much for 25 years in

[44:30] West Hollywood. It

[44:31] s been the

[44:33] most important moments in my

[44:34] life have

[44:35] been here, and the

[44:36] relationships all treasure

[44:37] forever. Thank you so much.

[44:43] Thank you

[44:44] You got to come back for your

[44:45] reward, Jen. So I guess we

[44:47] ll

[44:49] see you in MARCH.

[44:50] I don

[44:51] t believe we have any

[44:52] speakers signed up in Zoom, so

[44:53] we can go straight into our

[44:54] city manager

[44:58] s report.

[45:02] Thank you, Mayor, uh, Vice

[45:04] Mayor and Counciluncilmembs.

[45:05] Thank you, community members

[45:06] for your public comment. Um,

[45:09] tonight, we only have an update

[45:10] from our community safety

[45:12] department and our public

[45:14] safety partners on the work

[45:14] that they

[45:15] ve been doing, um,

[45:16] and so it

[45:18] ll be a very brief,

[45:20] maybe 10 minute update um an

[45:22] overview of some of our

[45:23] community safety projects and

[46:03] programs.

[46:04] Great, sorry about the delay.

[46:06] Um, and good evening, Mayor,

[46:07] Vice Mayor and members of the

[46:08] city council. I

[46:09] m Danny Revis,

[46:10] director of Community safety

[46:12] for the city. I

[46:13] m also joined

[46:15] this evening with various

[46:17] members of our community safety

[46:18] team, our West Hollywood

[46:20] sheriff station captain,

[46:23] Captain Fannie Lapkin. We have

[46:25] our assistant division fire

[46:27] chief who serves as our fire

[46:28] chief for West Hollywood, Drew

[46:30] Smith, and then we have um

[46:32] Anita Shandy, our public safety

[46:34] manager. We also

[46:36] have our general manager of our

[46:38] allied security services, which

[46:40] provides oversight of our

[46:42] security ambassador program,

[46:43] and then we have Jessica

[46:45] Benitez and Alisa Lopez, who

[46:47] are both a code enforcement

[46:48] supervisors in our neighborhood

[46:50] and businesss Safety division.

[46:52] Um, so essentially, the

[46:53] community safety department

[46:55] does provide public safety

[46:57] services to protect life and

[46:58] property and to improve the

[47:00] quality of life for residents,

[47:01] businesses, and visitors in

[47:03] West Hollywood. So up on the

[47:04] screen is essentially the

[47:05] structure and the

[47:07] representatives that I just

[47:09] explained. Um, this

[47:10] presentation is focused on

[47:11] measurements that were

[47:13] established as a part of the

[47:15] department as part of the

[47:16] current budget cycle that we

[47:16] re

[47:19] in, um, and in addition to that,

[47:19] you

[47:19] ll see

[47:21] 11 priorities that are outlined

[47:24] as well. Again, all of this

[47:25] information is directly tied to

[47:26] the work plan for the

[47:27] department that highlights,

[47:29] right, what measurements,

[47:31] performance metrics, etc. That

[47:33] we are looking to acquire

[47:35] throughout the year, as well as

[47:37] the priorities that each of the

[47:39] functions in the community

[47:40] safety department are focused

[47:42] on.

[47:43] And so for our neighborhood and

[47:46] business Safety division, most

[47:47] community members are

[47:48] accustomed to that being called

[47:50] a code compliance, but we did a

[47:52] name change of the division,

[47:54] maybe about 2, 2.5 years ago as

[47:56] a part of that process. And so

[47:57] our operations though have not,

[48:01] have not changed. And so that

[48:03] includes code enforcement that

[48:05] provides 7-day services. Our

[48:07] business license and permitting

[48:08] function, um, serving as the

[48:09] liaison to the business license

[48:12] commission and it also includes

[48:12] oversight

[48:14] of our animal care and control

[48:16] contract that we have with Los

[48:18] Angeles County.

[48:20] Ares of focus and you

[48:21] ll see in

[48:23] parentheses for each of uh of

[48:25] these areas of focus, whether

[48:25] or not it

[48:26] s tied to a

[48:27] measurement or whether it

[48:27] s

[48:28] tied to a priority that I

[48:30] mentioned early on. If you see

[48:31] the check mark to the box to

[48:32] the left, that

[48:33] s meaning that

[48:34] we are meeting that um and if

[48:35] you just see the box without

[48:38] the check mark, that means that

[48:40] we are working towards that

[48:41] goal, or we are, um, you know,

[48:43] in progress or or maybe it

[48:43] s

[48:44] something that we haven

[48:44] t yet

[48:46] got to. So you are seen as a

[48:47] part of our measurement in the

[48:48] neighborhood and business

[48:50] Safety division that

[48:52] maintaining respond times is

[48:54] being met. Um, we also are

[48:55] continuing to look at municipal

[48:58] code amendments, you know, we

[49:00] recently did I won

[49:00] t say too

[49:02] recent, but we did make an

[49:03] amendment to our vacant

[49:04] property ordinance, and I know

[49:05] our city council

[49:05] s familiar

[49:06] with that because obviously we

[49:08] brought that item forth and as

[49:10] a part of that item, it

[49:13] included the ability to issue

[49:15] demolition orders as part of

[49:17] vacant properties due to calls

[49:19] for service, um, and ultimately

[49:20] as it relates to an umbrella

[49:21] right through our public safety

[49:22] agencies. So if our fire

[49:23] department, our sheriff

[49:23] s

[49:24] department, our code

[49:26] enforcement folks are receiving

[49:27] calls for service, then that

[49:29] amendment allows us now to

[49:31] exercise the ability to um

[49:33] order a property to be

[49:36] demolished under that. Policy

[49:37] program compliance is currently

[49:39] being met. You know, the focus

[49:41] in code enforcement in

[49:43] neighborhood business safety is

[49:45] high on vacant properties as

[49:46] well as short-term rentals,

[49:47] which have been a number of

[49:48] items that had come before

[49:49] council as well.

[49:50] Our licensing permitted and

[49:51] code enforcement case

[49:53] management systems. That

[49:53] s

[49:54] something that staff continues

[49:57] to work with our it division on

[49:59] um in terms of making

[49:59] improvements, trying to

[50:02] streamline processes, but

[50:03] ultimately um updating our

[50:05] current system from where it

[50:08] currently is right now. Um, our

[50:09] multi-family proactive

[50:11] inspection pilot program is

[50:13] something that the council

[50:15] provided direction on and there

[50:17] has been an update earlier this

[50:18] year as a part of the

[50:19] semi-annual Community Safety

[50:21] Update. And so right now we

[50:21] re

[50:23] in our 2nd year of that program.

[50:25] Um, staff has essentially gone

[50:28] through about 50% of a

[50:30] multi-family properties in the

[50:31] city and we

[50:33] re on track to

[50:34] completing the four-year cycle.

[50:36] So essentially we got another 2

[50:39] years to complete the

[50:40] multi-family proactive

[50:42] inspection pilot program, and

[50:42] we

[50:43] ll continue to provide

[50:44] updates to the city council as

[50:47] part of semi-annual updates.

[50:48] Major event compliance, you

[50:48] know, our

[50:49] neighborhood and business

[50:50] safety division issues special

[50:52] event permits to brick and

[50:54] mortar businesses. Obviously

[50:54] there are a number of

[50:56] businesses that activate during

[50:58] Pride and Halloween. And so, um,

[50:59] that is what that is

[51:00] referencing in addition to

[51:01] making sure the business is

[51:02] closed when they

[51:03] re supposed to,

[51:05] that the occupancy levels are

[51:07] being maintained and so forth

[51:08] and then trying to do their

[51:10] very best to address any sort

[51:12] of unpermitted street vending

[51:13] or other types of activities

[51:14] that aren

[51:16] t approved. Um, there

[51:17] is a box here that you

[51:17] re

[51:18] seeing on this

[51:20] this page here, the update to

[51:22] park rules. Um, that is a

[51:23] shared responsibility between

[51:24] both neighborhood and business

[51:26] safety and public safety. It is

[51:27] in progress. We

[51:28] ve gotten some

[51:29] input and feedback from our

[51:30] city prosecutor

[51:31] s office, and

[51:31] then the next step is we

[51:32] re

[51:33] going to be working with our

[51:34] city attorney

[51:36] s office, holding

[51:37] meetings internally with

[51:39] various different departments,

[51:40] recreation, public works, right?

[51:42] All of the folks that we know

[51:44] have input and feedback or are

[51:45] going to be directly impacted

[51:47] by that. And the idea behind

[51:48] this is to

[51:50] codify this in our municipal

[51:52] code, which it currently is not.

[51:55] Our park rules and regulations

[51:57] are in place and are adopted by

[51:58] resolution, but what we

[51:58] re

[52:00] looking to do is transfer that

[52:01] on over right and codify that

[52:03] in the municipal code.

[52:04] Um, here

[52:05] s a snapshot in terms

[52:07] of calls for service. We did

[52:10] provide data going back to 2019,

[52:12] which is prior to the pandemic.

[52:14] It is a little unusual when you

[52:16] look at other slides as it

[52:17] relates to data, um as you

[52:18] ll

[52:20] see in 2020 as a result of the

[52:21] covid-19 pandemic, you

[52:22] ll see

[52:24] calls for service a drop, but

[52:24] we

[52:25] ve seen an increase, and the

[52:27] reason for that is our code

[52:30] enforcement team actually was

[52:31] responding and enforcing

[52:33] various health orders adopted

[52:34] at the time and

[52:35] were quite busy. The folks, as

[52:38] we know, were at home and

[52:40] teleworking, etc. And so there

[52:41] were a lot of noise related

[52:43] calls and various calls that

[52:44] code enforcement responded to.

[52:45] You

[52:47] ve seen we had our greatest

[52:49] uptick in 2023. Um, but last

[52:52] year we seen a slight decrease

[52:53] and then this year

[52:54] s data, what

[52:54] you

[52:56] re seeing here to date is

[52:59] from actually JANUARY to today.

[52:59] Um, so it looks like we

[53:00] re

[53:01] going to be under where we were

[53:05] at for for last calendar year.

[53:07] So now as it relates to our

[53:09] public safety division and

[53:11] community safety department.

[53:13] And so this division is small

[53:14] but very mighty. It has our

[53:16] division manager, emergency

[53:18] management coordinator and

[53:20] public safety specialists, and

[53:21] they really serve as the

[53:23] liaison and oversight of our

[53:24] contract with the Los Angeles

[53:25] County Sheriff

[53:25] s Department,

[53:27] liaison to La Sanches County

[53:29] Fire Department, Oversight and

[53:31] contract management to our

[53:32] security ambassador program,

[53:34] serves as a liaison to the

[53:35] public safety commission and

[53:36] then emergency

[53:37] preparedness both internally

[53:39] within the city with city staff,

[53:41] as well as out in the community

[53:43] is their primary focus.

[53:45] Um, that includes also

[53:46] engagement with the community

[53:47] as it relates to liaison and

[53:49] and hosting meetings with our

[53:51] neighborhood watch groups,

[53:53] homeowners Association boards,

[53:54] and again providing the

[53:56] training that I mentioned Cert,

[53:58] which is offered twice a year,

[54:01] cpr, aed first aid training, uh,

[54:01] community academy training

[54:02] that

[54:02] s in partnership with the

[54:04] West Holly Sheriff Station, our

[54:06] public safety awards, of course

[54:07] our national night out, and we

[54:09] just recently have an actor

[54:10] shooter training as well and

[54:12] any sort of public safety town

[54:13] hall meetings at the community

[54:15] requests or that neighborhood

[54:16] watch groups or homeowners

[54:18] associations invite us to

[54:19] participate in.

[54:21] Um, so there are areas of focus

[54:23] again tied to measurement and

[54:25] priority is ensuring that

[54:26] response times with our various

[54:28] public safety agencies, so

[54:29] security ambassadors, West

[54:30] Hollywood Sheriff Station, fire

[54:32] department, etc. Are being met.

[54:36] Um, and we are meeting that, um,

[54:38] providing major event safety,

[54:39] including event action plans,

[54:41] and so we work with all those

[54:42] partners very closely and spent

[54:45] a significant amount of time

[54:47] ensuring that events and

[54:48] prevention of any sort of

[54:49] activity, right?

[54:51] That is unwanted is is

[54:52] addressed and able to be

[54:53] responded to, um, and that we

[54:56] have a plan for that. Um,

[54:57] providing emergency

[54:58] preparedness trainings to the

[54:59] community. I mentioned some of

[55:02] those, sir, um, aed first aid

[55:04] training, etc. And of course

[55:05] crime and reporting, so that

[55:05] s

[55:07] working directly with our

[55:09] public safety agency partners.

[55:10] This is provided on a monthly

[55:13] basis to our public safety

[55:14] commission and other

[55:15] commissions and advisory boards

[55:17] and so making sure that that

[55:19] data is being provided on a

[55:20] monthly

[55:21] basis, timely, and that it

[55:21] s,

[55:21] it

[55:23] s easy to follow and easy to

[55:25] read and able to identify and

[55:26] allow the community to identify

[55:28] trends as well. Um, the local

[55:29] hazard mitigation plan and

[55:31] emergency preparedness training.

[55:32] I think that goes without

[55:32] saying, but that

[55:33] s definitely a

[55:35] priority, and all of these are

[55:36] currently being met. Um, what

[55:36] isn

[55:38] t being met at this time,

[55:41] and these are all um in

[55:43] progress, um, is our unarmed

[55:44] alternative programs. Um,

[55:44] that

[55:46] s relating to our security

[55:48] ambassador program and our

[55:49] community safety officer

[55:50] program. So

[55:50] as the council

[55:51] s aware, we did

[55:55] a request for proposal process.

[55:58] We selected vendors at that

[55:59] point. We

[56:00] ve implemented the

[56:01] Security ambassador program,

[56:02] but on the community safety

[56:02] officer

[56:04] s side in that program,

[56:04] we

[56:06] re still in the works as a

[56:08] part of that process and so

[56:08] that

[56:09] s the reason why that box

[56:10] is not checked off. Public

[56:12] safety technology is also

[56:13] something that has come before

[56:15] the city council several times.

[56:16] So that relates to our drone as

[56:18] first responder program that we

[56:19] are currently working with our

[56:21] West Hollywood Sheriff Station

[56:23] and the department as a whole.

[56:24] And so the the latest and

[56:27] greatest as it relates to that

[56:30] update is that um they are at

[56:33] the 9090 percentile rate if you

[56:36] will, of 100% of of coming back

[56:38] and providing us with a draft

[56:41] of what that department policy

[56:42] would look like. I know that

[56:44] they need to get some input and

[56:45] some feedback from the

[56:47] bargaining units within the

[56:48] department as well. And so, uh,

[56:49] hopefully we

[56:49] ll be able to

[56:51] receive an update um by the end

[56:52] of this month in terms of what

[56:54] that looks like. And so we are

[56:56] eager, of course, to get the

[56:58] drone as first responder

[56:59] program up and running and so

[57:01] as soon as we hear from the

[57:02] sheriff

[57:03] s department, on where

[57:03] they

[57:03] re at. And so we

[57:04] re

[57:05] looking at hopefully the the

[57:07] first quarter of next calendar

[57:09] year of being able to come back

[57:11] with the city council with some

[57:13] updates. Um, our emergency

[57:15] response plans and

[57:16] communication, the sheriffs,

[57:17] sorry, our Public Safety

[57:18] division, of course, that is a

[57:19] priority for them

[57:21] working in tangent with our

[57:21] sheriff

[57:22] s station and our fire

[57:24] department as well in terms of

[57:25] continually updating that,

[57:28] there was a report and update

[57:29] that community safety

[57:30] department was involved with,

[57:32] with communications in all the

[57:33] departments and that update, of

[57:35] course, was presented to the

[57:39] city council this year.

[57:41] So our security ambassador

[57:45] program is a 24/7 operation

[57:46] with the transition that

[57:48] occurred in OCTOBER this year.

[57:49] Nothing has changed in terms of

[57:50] the level of services that have

[57:52] been provided aside from the

[57:54] change in uniforms. We did a

[57:56] rebranding of the kiosk that

[57:57] you see out and about. You see

[57:58] the number that we have

[58:03] highlighted in red as well, the

[58:06] 323-8486500 number and that

[58:08] provides the ability for folks

[58:10] to call in and also text. The

[58:11] community locations of where

[58:14] you see ambassadors has not

[58:15] changed either.

[58:17] Uh, Ares of focus for them is

[58:20] maintaining major event safety

[58:21] reporting on a monthly basis,

[58:24] ensuring that their ambassadors

[58:27] are trained adequately to the

[58:27] city

[58:29] s expectations, and so all

[58:30] of those are currently being

[58:32] met. Um, the citywide mailer

[58:33] with a magnet. I wanted to

[58:34] highlight that because that was

[58:35] a request that we

[58:35] ve heard not

[58:36] only from the city council but

[58:37] from the public safety

[58:39] commission as well. It is a

[58:39] priority and I

[58:41] m happy to

[58:42] report that the mailer should

[58:44] be going out next week, and so

[58:45] folks would be able

[58:46] to replace this new magnet with

[58:50] their older magnet that will

[58:53] highlight that 323-848-6500

[58:53] number.

[58:55] Uh, maintaining public safety

[58:56] response time for security

[58:58] ambassadors. This is still a

[59:00] work in progress under our

[59:02] current agreement, the Security

[59:04] ambassador program is expected

[59:06] to respond within 15 minutes,

[59:08] so the bulk of those instances

[59:09] are being met, but there are

[59:11] some instances that we

[59:11] re

[59:13] finding via text message that

[59:15] there is a delay and so we

[59:15] re

[59:16] continuing to work that with

[59:18] our partners and so that is why

[59:20] you are not seeing that box

[59:22] checked off.

[59:23] And now with our Los Angeles

[59:25] County Fire Department. We are

[59:26] serviced by fire stations 7 and

[59:28] 8, you know, I want to say on

[59:32] the east side of the city,

[59:34] obviously for Fire Station 8

[59:36] and then Fire Station 7 more

[59:38] towards the west side of the

[59:41] city. It is 24/7 operations and

[59:42] of course our fire department

[59:44] partners provide services to

[59:45] protect lives, property, and

[59:46] the environment. They do

[59:48] collaborate with our cities on

[59:50] how services program as well

[59:53] and are a huge component to our

[59:54] major events and the safety and

[59:56] our event action plans that we,

[59:57] we bring forth. Um, I don

[59:57] t

[1:00:00] have a slide as it relates to

[1:00:02] um their calls for service, but

[1:00:03] I will tell you that looking at

[1:00:05] the year to date from this year

[1:00:09] compared to last year, we are

[1:00:12] over a 6600 calls for service.

[1:00:14] The bulk of those calls are

[1:00:16] trending and have always been

[1:00:16] trending towards

[1:00:19] medical-related calls. Um, so

[1:00:19] nothing has changed

[1:00:21] significantly in terms of what,

[1:00:21] what we

[1:00:22] re seeing, what we

[1:00:22] re

[1:00:23] observing.

[1:00:25] And how our firefighters, of

[1:00:27] course, are responding.

[1:00:29] And then we have our, our West

[1:00:30] Hollywood sheriff station.

[1:00:31] These are the last couple of

[1:00:34] slides, of course, the

[1:00:37] operation 24/7. We have

[1:00:39] maintained our three special

[1:00:40] teams. So we have a

[1:00:42] community-oriented policing and

[1:00:43] problem solving team, our cops

[1:00:45] team, they operate Monday

[1:00:47] through Friday, traditionally

[1:00:49] or primarily from, you know, 8

[1:00:50] A.M. To 5 P.M. I know those

[1:00:51] aren

[1:00:52] t their specific hours,

[1:00:53] but more or less that

[1:00:53] s when

[1:00:55] you typically will see our our

[1:00:57] cops team, and then we have our

[1:00:58] entertainment policing

[1:01:00] team deputy, um, deputies, and

[1:01:02] they operate from Wednesday

[1:01:04] through Saturday in the later

[1:01:05] part of the hours, um, you know,

[1:01:08] and get off around 4 A.M. Um

[1:01:08] and we

[1:01:10] ve also maintained our

[1:01:11] mental evaluation team and so

[1:01:14] West Hollywood continues to be

[1:01:17] the sole contract city still at

[1:01:18] this time that is maintaining a

[1:01:21] mental evaluation team, um, and,

[1:01:22] and that is as a result of

[1:01:23] their currently being a

[1:01:26] moratorium still in place that

[1:01:27] does not allow contract cities

[1:01:29] to add any

[1:01:31] additional sworn or non-sworn

[1:01:33] personnel to their contracts. I

[1:01:34] know there have been some other

[1:01:35] contract cities that have

[1:01:36] expressed interest, of course,

[1:01:38] of creating their own met unit,

[1:01:40] but we are still the only

[1:01:42] contract city to maintain that.

[1:01:44] Um, and of course the major

[1:01:47] events is a huge component as

[1:01:49] well of our emergency

[1:01:50] operations bureau with our

[1:01:50] sheriff

[1:01:51] s department and our

[1:01:52] station staff as well. They do

[1:01:54] a great job in terms of

[1:01:55] providing input and feedback

[1:01:57] and developing of that event

[1:01:58] action plan.

[1:01:59] Um, areas of focus, you

[1:01:59] re

[1:02:01] seeing, uh, the bulk of these

[1:02:03] measurement and priorities that

[1:02:04] are currently being met. Um,

[1:02:07] you know, with, uh, the

[1:02:09] incident that that did the

[1:02:10] tragic incident that occurred,

[1:02:13] um, in, in Australia, with our

[1:02:14] Jewish community and the

[1:02:16] importance, right, and the

[1:02:18] priority that we provide to our

[1:02:20] community here. We did develop

[1:02:22] a Jewish community safety plan.

[1:02:24] That plan is currently in place.

[1:02:27] Um, and so deputies are, are on

[1:02:28] alert and and prioritizing

[1:02:29] making

[1:02:30] contact with our Jewish faith

[1:02:32] groups here in the city of West

[1:02:33] Hollywood and making sure that

[1:02:35] additional patrols are

[1:02:36] occurring and of course our

[1:02:38] crime prevention plan, ensuring

[1:02:39] that any issues that we

[1:02:40] re

[1:02:41] coming across or identifying or

[1:02:43] seen on a weekly, monthly basis

[1:02:44] are being responded to

[1:02:46] appropriately. So here is our

[1:02:50] Part one crime, which is a huge

[1:02:52] factor in priority within our

[1:02:54] measurement that we decrease

[1:02:56] our Part 1 crime levels, and

[1:02:57] these are, these are the

[1:02:59] serious crimes that

[1:03:00] every police department and

[1:03:05] agency supplies to the fbi on a

[1:03:06] regular basis. And so you can

[1:03:09] see from 2019 on 4th in 2020,

[1:03:13] it took a dip. Um, 2022, we

[1:03:13] definitely seen the highest

[1:03:15] that we

[1:03:16] ve seen and experienced,

[1:03:18] but things that have continued

[1:03:20] to trend downwards. Um, year to

[1:03:22] date that does not include the

[1:03:23] month of DECEMBER, so we

[1:03:24] re

[1:03:26] still one month out, um, but

[1:03:26] that

[1:03:27] s 11 months

[1:03:28] worth, and it

[1:03:28] certainly

[1:03:30] looks like based on the trends

[1:03:30] that we

[1:03:32] ve seen for this year

[1:03:32] that we

[1:03:33] re going to be actually

[1:03:35] under where we were at last

[1:03:37] calendar year. So that is a

[1:03:39] great testament to the great

[1:03:40] work that our sheriff station

[1:03:42] deputies, as well as our

[1:03:43] security ambassadors, our

[1:03:44] community members as well,

[1:03:46] right, that report on

[1:03:48] suspicious activity, etc. And

[1:03:49] so I just wanted to highlight

[1:03:52] that as well. Um, Ares of focus,

[1:03:52] um, you

[1:03:53] re seeing all of these

[1:03:55] boxes are checked off because

[1:03:55] they

[1:03:57] re currently being met, um,

[1:03:58] and that con

[1:04:00] clu de s the presentation and

[1:04:01] updates for community safety,

[1:04:01] and we

[1:04:02] re of course happy to

[1:04:03] answer any questions the

[1:04:05] counsel MAY have.

[1:04:06] Thank you very much. Are there

[1:04:07] any questions from the council

[1:04:09] at this time?

[1:04:10] Councilor Berrickson Councilor

[1:04:11] Councilor Berrickson, thank you

[1:04:12] so much for that report and

[1:04:13] thank you for all the proactive

[1:04:14] work you

[1:04:15] re doing. I had the

[1:04:18] great chance to do a ride along,

[1:04:19] most recently with Gregor right

[1:04:20] there. No, I don

[1:04:20] t know why

[1:04:20] he

[1:04:21] s here. Maybe he wants to

[1:04:22] keep an eye on me, but no, I

[1:04:22] m

[1:04:24] joking. But, um, and I just

[1:04:27] want to say I really want to

[1:04:30] thank the deputies for the

[1:04:33] advanced knowledge and

[1:04:33] attention they

[1:04:34] ve been provided

[1:04:35] to the community. I also

[1:04:37] publicly want to shout out my

[1:04:38] friend over there because I

[1:04:40] have never seen a deputy who

[1:04:42] knows every individual on our

[1:04:43] streets who connects with them

[1:04:45] and who provides care and

[1:04:46] compassion and connects them

[1:04:47] with services, and I know

[1:04:47] that

[1:04:49] s the type of work you all

[1:04:50] promote and I

[1:04:50] m really thankful

[1:04:52] for that personally, especially

[1:04:54] during really trying times in

[1:04:56] terms of the ongoing incidents,

[1:04:58] many of which were eluded here

[1:05:00] today by some of our public

[1:05:01] commenters. Have you been

[1:05:03] getting any more calls or have

[1:05:05] you been in direct contacts

[1:05:07] with Temple Kol Ami or other

[1:05:08] individuals to make sure that

[1:05:08] we

[1:05:09] re

[1:05:10] proactively doing everything we

[1:05:11] can. I think I know the answer,

[1:05:12] but just for the public

[1:05:13] certainty, that

[1:05:14] d be great. I

[1:05:14] don

[1:05:15] t remember and maybe the

[1:05:17] mayor does or someone does when

[1:05:19] the next when the Chabad

[1:05:21] lighting is but wanted to make

[1:05:21] sure we

[1:05:23] re in touch with Rabbi

[1:05:25] Morty to make sure that he

[1:05:26] knows because that

[1:05:26] s a very

[1:05:28] highly visible event at the

[1:05:29] location, I won

[1:05:30] t say publicly,

[1:05:30] but it

[1:05:31] s available if people

[1:05:32] want to go look, but I just

[1:05:32] want to make sure we

[1:05:32] re being

[1:05:34] as proactive as we can,

[1:05:36] especially during heightened

[1:05:39] times of hatred and um target

[1:05:40] attacks

[1:05:41] on our communities. Absolutely.

[1:05:42] One of the things I got on

[1:05:43] Director Rivas has mentioned,

[1:05:45] the Jewish safety plan, so on

[1:05:47] the onset of the unfortunate

[1:05:48] tragedy in Australia, we

[1:05:49] implemented that, so our

[1:05:51] deputies increased their patrol

[1:05:53] checks to all of our, um,

[1:05:55] Jewish organizations and our

[1:05:56] schools. As a matter of fact,

[1:05:57] today they were at one of our

[1:05:58] schools, you know, welcoming

[1:06:00] the kids, uh, you know, and the

[1:06:02] rabbis and the parents were

[1:06:04] extremely grateful for to see

[1:06:05] the deputies there, but that

[1:06:05] s

[1:06:08] something a plan that um we

[1:06:09] initiate the minute that

[1:06:09] s

[1:06:09] something

[1:06:11] that happens. So we increase

[1:06:12] our patrol checks. We have

[1:06:13] deputies park in certain

[1:06:15] locations if they need to write

[1:06:16] a report. Um, so that um the

[1:06:17] community feels that they

[1:06:17] re

[1:06:19] safe and there are no threats

[1:06:22] here, you know, in our city or

[1:06:23] um I know that the fbi put

[1:06:24] something else on coming out

[1:06:25] for New Year

[1:06:26] s just, you know,

[1:06:27] have the community be safe,

[1:06:29] that there are no threats in

[1:06:31] our city and also in the

[1:06:31] sheriff

[1:06:32] s department

[1:06:33] jurisdiction. So, but we have

[1:06:36] crime analysts that throughout

[1:06:38] the department that scour the

[1:06:39] internet and all the different

[1:06:39] platforms

[1:06:40] that we have to see if there

[1:06:40] s

[1:06:42] are, there are any threats, and

[1:06:42] that

[1:06:43] s something that we put

[1:06:44] out to our community to

[1:06:44] increase our patrol checks.

[1:06:46] Have we been able, thank you

[1:06:47] very much for that. Have we

[1:06:48] been able to, or I

[1:06:49] m guessing

[1:06:51] we have reached out to all of

[1:06:53] our nightlife um bar,

[1:06:54] restaurant owners, especially

[1:06:56] along the strip to make sure

[1:06:59] that their heart keenly aware

[1:06:59] of what

[1:07:00] s going on, especially

[1:07:01] going to the holidays and the

[1:07:01] New Year

[1:07:04] s. I know sometimes

[1:07:07] our city dips in attendance for

[1:07:08] nightlife activity. Doesn

[1:07:09] t

[1:07:09] feel that way.

[1:07:10] if you

[1:07:12] ve driven down, um, but

[1:07:12] specifically are we in

[1:07:14] proactive touch with them? Are

[1:07:15] they aware that, you know,

[1:07:17] keeping your cameras on and

[1:07:18] everything else so that way we

[1:07:19] can have more eyes on the

[1:07:21] streets, and those are things

[1:07:22] that we communicate with them

[1:07:23] even without any heightened

[1:07:25] threats. So our entertainment

[1:07:27] policing team, they actually

[1:07:28] conduct foot beats and check in

[1:07:30] with management and security

[1:07:31] staff there to see if there

[1:07:31] s

[1:07:33] any issues that they have and

[1:07:34] they, they exchange phone

[1:07:37] numbers, they exchange um

[1:07:38] information, and we do. I mean

[1:07:40] we rely like Danny said, we

[1:07:41] rely on our community, um,

[1:07:41] because we can

[1:07:42] t do it alone,

[1:07:43] so we rely on the business

[1:07:44] owners so if they see any

[1:07:46] trends or if they see any, you

[1:07:47] know, suspicious individuals,

[1:07:48] they, they know that they have

[1:07:49] to call us so that we can flush

[1:07:51] that out, so we can figure out

[1:07:51] whether or not there

[1:07:52] s a threat

[1:07:52] or not. But no, yes, our

[1:07:53] entertainment police and our

[1:07:55] patrol deputies are in constant

[1:07:57] contact with them. Great. And

[1:07:57] the last thing I

[1:07:58] m saying, and

[1:08:00] this is not planned, I

[1:08:02] apologize, but I, um, I

[1:08:02] ve been

[1:08:05] seeing

[1:08:08] an alarming amount of traffic

[1:08:10] collisions on everyone

[1:08:10] s

[1:08:13] favorite street.

[1:08:16] Fountain Avenue, um, alarming

[1:08:17] to the point where even i

[1:08:18] m

[1:08:20] going, what is, what are people

[1:08:20] drinking? It

[1:08:21] s in the water.

[1:08:24] Like I mean I like

[1:08:26] we saw something at 6 in the

[1:08:27] morning on Fountain Avenue and

[1:08:29] I was doing my ride along or

[1:08:32] half of a car was taken out.

[1:08:33] Half of our car, I don

[1:08:33] t know

[1:08:35] what they were doing at 6 A.M.

[1:08:36] But like

[1:08:37] I know I

[1:08:38] ve expressed this to

[1:08:39] you privately, but publicly I

[1:08:40] know people have been reaching

[1:08:42] out to me, but

[1:08:44] are we looking at increasing, I

[1:08:45] know you

[1:08:47] re doing the proactive

[1:08:48] drinking and driving campaign

[1:08:50] as you always do, but I mean,

[1:08:50] I

[1:08:51] m asking you a big question

[1:08:52] here about what

[1:08:53] s going on? How

[1:08:54] can we help?

[1:08:56] Patrol more in that area, but I

[1:08:58] have a lot of residents coming

[1:09:00] up to me going, Look, we

[1:09:00] ve

[1:09:02] lived here for 30 years, and

[1:09:02] it

[1:09:04] s always, you know, bad, but

[1:09:05] like it seems like people are

[1:09:06] like, you know, I

[1:09:06] m not going

[1:09:08] to get in an accident on Santa

[1:09:09] Monica right now. I

[1:09:09] m going to

[1:09:11] drive up to Fountain and do it.

[1:09:12] I mean, it

[1:09:13] s been really wild.

[1:09:13] I don

[1:09:14] t know if my colleagues

[1:09:16] would read. I mean, we all read

[1:09:17] the reports regardless how we

[1:09:18] feel, it

[1:09:18] s, it

[1:09:19] s a, it

[1:09:20] s a lot.

[1:09:22] So I do want to make sure we

[1:09:24] stay higher level because we

[1:09:24] don

[1:09:26] t have any individual

[1:09:28] projects or programs agendas

[1:09:28] for this item. It

[1:09:29] s supposed to

[1:09:31] be a high level overview of

[1:09:32] what the department

[1:09:33] s doing. So

[1:09:34] Fannny can certainly ask answer,

[1:09:36] but I just want to make sure

[1:09:37] that we stay very high level

[1:09:40] and not like focus on

[1:09:42] particular areas or sites. So

[1:09:42] I

[1:09:44] ll rephrase my question for

[1:09:44] David

[1:09:46] s direction as his last

[1:09:49] meeting, jeez Louise, thank you.

[1:09:51] Could you explain why

[1:09:51] everyone

[1:09:52] s losing their minds

[1:09:54] on our streets of the city of

[1:09:55] West Hollywood in the

[1:09:57] last couple of months, um, in a

[1:09:59] very broad, open-ended way. So

[1:10:01] all I could, I can tell you is

[1:10:02] that it doesn

[1:10:03] t matter the date

[1:10:05] or time or it just, it

[1:10:06] s

[1:10:08] inattention, um, drivers are

[1:10:10] not paying attention. It

[1:10:10] s not

[1:10:12] speed has not been a factor.

[1:10:12] It

[1:10:14] s been inattention, failing

[1:10:17] to change lanes, um, not, um,

[1:10:19] looking before turning onto a

[1:10:21] crosswalk. I mean, those have

[1:10:23] been from seeing the reports,

[1:10:23] but it

[1:10:24] s not like you could see

[1:10:24] from the public safe

[1:10:25] ty you know, commission report

[1:10:28] that we sent out. We 61 total

[1:10:32] citations and found, but 88

[1:10:34] overall traffic collision. So I,

[1:10:36] we continue to, um, enforce, we

[1:10:38] continue, we focus on specific

[1:10:41] street, but I, I can give you a

[1:10:43] reason because it does, if I

[1:10:43] could tell you it

[1:10:44] s only

[1:10:45] happening at night, then we can

[1:10:46] focus, but it

[1:10:47] s throughout the

[1:10:48] day and it

[1:10:49] s, and unfortunately

[1:10:49] it

[1:10:49] s, it

[1:10:50] s a lack of attention.

[1:10:50] That

[1:10:51] s the end of the day, it

[1:10:53] s,

[1:10:55] um, um, you know, a card

[1:10:56] traveling and wants to make a

[1:10:57] left and the vehicle behind

[1:10:57] them doesn

[1:10:58] t check. It doesn

[1:10:58] t

[1:10:59] look at the distance. I mean, I

[1:11:01] can go on on those, but, but

[1:11:02] those are, uh, so that, that

[1:11:03] s

[1:11:04] the only trend is the lack of

[1:11:06] attention from our drivers.

[1:11:07] Great. And my last question and

[1:11:07] the mayor

[1:11:08] s going to kill me,

[1:11:09] but because I said, I want to

[1:11:12] be done by 7, but at 7:10.

[1:11:14] Um is having been issuing a lot

[1:11:17] of citations in regards to

[1:11:18] people when they

[1:11:18] re driving,

[1:11:19] touching their phones. Have you

[1:11:21] been noticing an uptick on that

[1:11:22] at all? I don

[1:11:23] t have the answer

[1:11:24] to that, but let me double

[1:11:25] check on that, and I can, I can

[1:11:25] present that. I don

[1:11:26] t have an

[1:11:27] answer. Thank you.

[1:11:28] Thank you. We

[1:11:28] ll go to

[1:11:29] Councilmember Hang. Thank you,

[1:11:30] Mayor. Thank you, Director

[1:11:33] Rivas, for the, uh, very robust

[1:11:34] presentation. I wanted to say

[1:11:36] thank you, um, about 2 or 3

[1:11:37] weeks ago, a lot of the

[1:11:38] businesses in the Rainbow

[1:11:39] District reached out to me.

[1:11:40] They were concerned with crime

[1:11:43] on the streets, with people

[1:11:45] being overserved and

[1:11:47] overintoxicated, causing fights

[1:11:48] in the middle of the street, so

[1:11:50] you, we had a call with

[1:11:51] yourself and the assistant city

[1:11:54] manager, and thank you for uh

[1:11:55] increasing the foot beats. The

[1:11:57] business owners have called me,

[1:11:57] um,

[1:11:59] they have said that they, that

[1:12:00] they have that there are deputy

[1:12:02] sheriffs going into their

[1:12:04] businesses to talk to the

[1:12:05] managers, what

[1:12:06] s going on? Is

[1:12:08] everything ok? Um, so your

[1:12:09] presence is noted on Santa

[1:12:10] Monica Boulevard, so thank you

[1:12:13] so much um for all that and um,

[1:12:15] you know, thank you for keeping

[1:12:16] our community safe. I do

[1:12:17] appreciate seeing the

[1:12:19] statistics that crime is going

[1:12:22] down, and I hope that continues

[1:12:23] and

[1:12:23] thank you. That

[1:12:24] s all

[1:12:27] Councilmember Meister

[1:12:30] Thank you. Um, so in the, in,

[1:12:32] in your report, I didn

[1:12:33] t see

[1:12:36] anything about um the

[1:12:38] communications. We were looking

[1:12:41] at uh in the it was a couple of

[1:12:43] years ago talking about getting

[1:12:46] a communications person, a

[1:12:47] non-sworn for local, for the

[1:12:50] local station. I just wondered,

[1:12:52] uh, what the status was on that.

[1:12:53] Yeah, and i

[1:12:53] ll I

[1:12:54] ll let if

[1:12:55] Captain Lapkin has anything to

[1:12:58] add, um, so the moratorium that

[1:13:00] I mentioned that the sheriff

[1:13:01] s

[1:13:02] department has been exercising

[1:13:04] with all the contract cities,

[1:13:06] right, us included, prevents us

[1:13:08] from adding any non-sworn. So

[1:13:08] originally when we did bring

[1:13:10] this to council, the thought

[1:13:11] was that we were going to be

[1:13:13] able to bring on a pio of some

[1:13:15] sort, right, or a community

[1:13:18] liaison that would be a

[1:13:20] non-sworn position and that

[1:13:20] s

[1:13:21] just not something, you know,

[1:13:23] with our discussions with the

[1:13:23] sheriff

[1:13:23] s department that

[1:13:23] they

[1:13:24] re that they

[1:13:25] re able to

[1:13:26] provide us at this time, um,

[1:13:29] let alone, you know, a sworn

[1:13:31] deputy as well. And so right

[1:13:31] now we

[1:13:33] re at a standstill. We

[1:13:35] did have a law enforcement

[1:13:37] technician which is a non-sworn

[1:13:40] position, um, assisting with

[1:13:42] that effort along with our

[1:13:43] sergeant of one of our special

[1:13:44] teams. That wasn

[1:13:45] t the primary

[1:13:46] function, of course, but it was

[1:13:48] just a kind of assist, get some

[1:13:50] information out on social media,

[1:13:51] be a little more present on

[1:13:52] social media.

[1:13:54] Being able to send out Nixel

[1:13:56] alerts, etc. Right, in a timely

[1:13:57] manner and so I

[1:13:57] ve been trying

[1:13:59] to work that through the best

[1:14:00] that we can in terms of working

[1:14:00] with the sheriff

[1:14:01] s station, but

[1:14:02] of course we don

[1:14:02] t want to take

[1:14:04] away or pull from their, their

[1:14:05] primary duties as well. And so

[1:14:05] it

[1:14:06] s, it

[1:14:07] s, it

[1:14:07] s really been

[1:14:09] juggling in terms of doing that,

[1:14:11] but in terms of hiring a

[1:14:12] dedicated person. The reason

[1:14:12] why we haven

[1:14:13] t been able to do

[1:14:14] that is because the moratorium

[1:14:17] in place. Ok, so since we ended

[1:14:18] up paying for it anyway, maybe

[1:14:20] there is something we can do in

[1:14:23] the new year where our staff

[1:14:23] and I

[1:14:24] m not sure if that would

[1:14:26] be communications or public

[1:14:27] safety can take on some of the

[1:14:28] that role if it

[1:14:29] s, if it

[1:14:29] s

[1:14:31] appropriate. Um

[1:14:32] because, you know, we

[1:14:32] re we

[1:14:33] re

[1:14:34] paying for it and we would be

[1:14:38] paying for it anyway if that if

[1:14:40] that staff person was, was

[1:14:41] there at the sheriff

[1:14:41] s station,

[1:14:43] so whether we pay for it with

[1:14:44] the

[1:14:46] there or we have a non, uh, you

[1:14:48] know, a civilian person here

[1:14:50] working in uh at, you know, at

[1:14:51] the city, that

[1:14:51] s something to

[1:14:53] think about. Um, the other

[1:14:55] thing I wanted to bring up is

[1:14:56] that we know that there

[1:14:56] s

[1:14:58] always an uptick of crime

[1:15:01] during the holidays. Uh, so I

[1:15:03] just wanted to mention that and

[1:15:03] make sure that we

[1:15:04] re

[1:15:06] doing whatever we need to do

[1:15:09] So we do just to, um, we have a

[1:15:09] holiday car that

[1:15:10] s going to be

[1:15:13] focused on, on patrolling

[1:15:15] during business hours on, on

[1:15:15] the major business

[1:15:17] thoroughfares. So that holiday

[1:15:19] car is going to be um a

[1:15:20] vigilant and parking lots

[1:15:20] because that

[1:15:21] s what we see

[1:15:22] unfortunately we see the

[1:15:24] vehicle that you know, the

[1:15:25] vehicle thefts, um, the thefts

[1:15:27] of, of proper of property

[1:15:29] packages, that kind of stuff in

[1:15:30] the vehicles because they

[1:15:31] re

[1:15:32] visible and their vehicles, and

[1:15:33] those are the things that these

[1:15:34] deputies are going to be trying

[1:15:36] to address when they see

[1:15:37] individuals, um,

[1:15:38] leading packages that are

[1:15:40] visible in their in their

[1:15:42] backseat of their vehicles or

[1:15:44] people that go shopping, drop

[1:15:46] all their, their packages and,

[1:15:47] and, um, in the trunk of the

[1:15:49] car, people are constantly

[1:15:51] watching. So if if we recommend

[1:15:51] that you don

[1:15:53] t do that, and if

[1:15:54] you do move your vehicle so

[1:15:56] nobody sees where you parked,

[1:15:58] but again, parking is, is, uh,

[1:15:59] uh, an issue, but we are

[1:16:02] focusing on the major major

[1:16:03] businesses and we

[1:16:03] re, we

[1:16:04] re, um,

[1:16:05] the, the holiday car is going

[1:16:06] to be working during the

[1:16:07] business hours.

[1:16:07] What we

[1:16:07] ve, what I

[1:16:08] ve seen in

[1:16:12] the past is an uptick of

[1:16:15] residential burglaries. So in

[1:16:16] the past during the holiday

[1:16:18] season, so it would be great if

[1:16:20] we had increased visibility of

[1:16:22] patrol cars in our residential

[1:16:24] areas.

[1:16:24] I

[1:16:25] ll go back to Councilmemberur

[1:16:27] Hang

[1:16:29] Thank you, Mayor. Um, Director

[1:16:33] Revas, uh,

[1:16:35] obviously our community

[1:16:35] anti-Semitism

[1:16:36] s on the rise

[1:16:39] everywhere. When

[1:16:42] will the city reevaluate the

[1:16:43] Jewish safety plan because

[1:16:43] there

[1:16:44] s other organizations

[1:16:46] other than koame. We have Jindi

[1:16:47] imamorists, that

[1:16:47] s an

[1:16:49] elementary school here, um, so

[1:16:50] that, you know, it, it, it is

[1:16:52] pretty scary out there, um, do

[1:16:53] we know when we

[1:16:54] re going to

[1:16:56] revisit that plan, maybe update

[1:16:57] it to um

[1:16:58] to further protect our

[1:16:59] community members. We

[1:17:00] d look at

[1:17:00] updating, I

[1:17:00] m sorry, I

[1:17:00] m gonna

[1:17:01] add, I

[1:17:02] m gonna add to this

[1:17:03] because we update it every year.

[1:17:04] So JANUARY, it

[1:17:04] s something that

[1:17:07] as a matter of fact, I spoke to

[1:17:08] the sergeant um earlier today

[1:17:08] that that

[1:17:09] s something that we

[1:17:10] look at every year. We contact

[1:17:11] every organization, make sure

[1:17:12] that the contacts are still the

[1:17:13] same. Make sure that the emails

[1:17:14] are still the same, so every

[1:17:16] year is something that that we

[1:17:18] update. We update the dates of

[1:17:20] the holidays so that when the

[1:17:22] deputies have to look at that

[1:17:23] um Jewish plan. They have all

[1:17:24] the, the most current

[1:17:25] information. So it

[1:17:25] s something

[1:17:26] that we

[1:17:26] ll have to update.

[1:17:27] Thank you. And so I

[1:17:27] m, I

[1:17:28] m

[1:17:29] hoping there will be a

[1:17:31] continued presence, not just

[1:17:31] when there

[1:17:32] s a high holy days

[1:17:33] of obligation. No, absolutely.

[1:17:35] Thank you.

[1:17:38] Vice Mayor Heilman. Yeah, I

[1:17:40] want to echo Councilmember

[1:17:41] Hangs, thank you for all of

[1:17:43] your work, all year long. I

[1:17:45] just hope that you will be able

[1:17:48] to give us an update at some

[1:17:51] point on the status of the

[1:17:54] drones and the security cameras.

[1:17:56] So, um, when you have that

[1:17:57] information, if you can provide

[1:17:58] that to the council, it would

[1:18:00] be really useful. Thank you.

[1:18:01] We do have comments from a

[1:18:02] member of the public, David

[1:18:03] Eckert. I

[1:18:03] ll bring you to the

[1:18:07] mic.

[1:18:09] Good evening, David Ecker once

[1:18:11] again. Uh, just a comment on

[1:18:13] the security ambassadors, just

[1:18:15] a comment and maybe a

[1:18:17] suggestion for for their safety,

[1:18:18] for the ambassadors and for the

[1:18:20] public. I was wondering if the

[1:18:22] kiosk won, it gets dark very

[1:18:25] early, and many of these kiosks,

[1:18:27] the poor, ambassadors are

[1:18:28] standing in the dark. You can

[1:18:28] t

[1:18:29] see them whatsoever. I don

[1:18:29] t

[1:18:30] know if there

[1:18:30] s a way we can

[1:18:32] get some light to them. Also,

[1:18:34] if the vinyls on those kiosks

[1:18:36] could be changed over to

[1:18:37] reflective vinyl that you can

[1:18:38] actually read the numbers at

[1:18:38] night

[1:18:40] Might be a little helpful for

[1:18:42] the community. Um and then with

[1:18:43] the Jewish community, I don

[1:18:43] t

[1:18:44] know if any of those kiosks can

[1:18:47] be moved in front of the

[1:18:49] synagogues and things as a uh

[1:18:51] you know, proactive measure

[1:18:53] just for safety and concerns at

[1:18:56] this time. Thank you.

[1:18:59] Thank you, Councilor Meister.

[1:19:00] I, I appreciate, uh, David

[1:19:00] s

[1:19:02] comments, but I can tell you

[1:19:04] that for example, Mammonides, I

[1:19:06] did see a patrol car there this

[1:19:06] morning. I don

[1:19:07] t know if it was

[1:19:08] the sheriff or lapd since

[1:19:09] they

[1:19:10] re in both cities, but

[1:19:12] they have security. They, a lot

[1:19:14] of the places do have their own

[1:19:16] security as well, that should

[1:19:17] be working, you know, in

[1:19:20] conjunction with you, um, and,

[1:19:22] and Hemanides their security

[1:19:26] has has uh guns, so

[1:19:29] thank you. I wanna comment

[1:19:30] response. Ok, thank you. Um,

[1:19:31] thank you so much for this

[1:19:34] update. I know this is part of

[1:19:35] what the city manager had

[1:19:37] brought forward as part of

[1:19:38] regularly scheduled department

[1:19:39] updates, but can you remind us

[1:19:42] of when the next regularly

[1:19:43] scheduled community safety

[1:19:44] update will also take place.

[1:19:45] Absolutely, Mayor. It

[1:19:46] ll be the

[1:19:47] first meeting in FEBRUARY. I

[1:19:48] have to look at the calendar,

[1:19:48] but we

[1:19:49] re definitely shooting

[1:19:50] for that. And, and the reason

[1:19:52] why is because we want to give

[1:19:55] our public safety agencies

[1:19:56] enough time to close out the

[1:19:57] end of the year with

[1:19:58] the statistics, etc. And so we

[1:20:00] will be presenting the next

[1:20:01] semi-annual and having updates

[1:20:03] and responses to the comments

[1:20:04] made. Terrific. So the

[1:20:05] community can look forward to

[1:20:06] FEBRUARY 2nd, I think, is that

[1:20:08] first meeting in FEBRUARY. I

[1:20:09] know last year it took place

[1:20:10] the same night that I was sworn

[1:20:12] in as mayor on top of the fires

[1:20:13] happening, so there

[1:20:13] s a lot

[1:20:15] going on that night, but

[1:20:16] looking forward to that more

[1:20:17] full update taking place and

[1:20:19] thank you all so much for a

[1:20:21] really tremendous year of work,

[1:20:22] and it was council we get the

[1:20:23] regular updates and what I

[1:20:24] m

[1:20:27] really moved by is these

[1:20:28] incidents happen, the robber

[1:20:29] ies burglaries, but we see the

[1:20:31] follow through and that your

[1:20:32] detectives are truly doing the

[1:20:33] work, finding these people,

[1:20:34] apprehending them, putting them

[1:20:36] through the process, so that

[1:20:38] has given me real strength that

[1:20:40] this is working with

[1:20:42] unfortunate incidents happen

[1:20:42] and we

[1:20:43] re on the downside of

[1:20:44] that happening, but that the

[1:20:46] work all the way through is

[1:20:47] really there and so I just want

[1:20:48] to really give kudos to the

[1:20:49] detectives at the la Sheriff

[1:20:50] s

[1:20:51] Department, but also the fire

[1:20:52] department for what a

[1:20:52] tremendous year you

[1:20:53] ve all

[1:20:56] taken on, and we know in many

[1:20:57] ways the winds are still to

[1:20:57] come

[1:20:59] and for this region. So just

[1:21:00] again thank you so much for all

[1:21:01] the diligent and hard work you

[1:21:02] do on behalf of this community.

[1:21:04] We appreciate you so much.

[1:21:06] Ok. With that, I think that

[1:21:07] concludes our city manager

[1:21:07] s

[1:21:09] reports. Um, we will go to the

[1:21:10] fiscal impact on the consent

[1:21:12] calendar and during this time

[1:21:12] I

[1:21:13] ll also make sure our city

[1:21:14] attorney has a chance to read

[1:21:15] those terms of the contract

[1:21:17] into the record.

[1:21:19] City clerk will go to you first.

[1:21:22] Ok, thank you, Mayor. The

[1:21:24] fiscal impact on tonight

[1:21:24] s

[1:21:26] consent calendar with the

[1:21:33] addition of items f1, f2, and

[1:21:40] f3 is $17,329,755 in

[1:21:44] expenditures, $0 in revenue and

[1:21:46] $0 in waived fees. Terrific.

[1:21:48] Thank you. Um, with approval of

[1:21:50] the agenda, item f1 was also

[1:21:51] moved to the consent calendar,

[1:21:53] which would include appointment

[1:21:54] of city manager and adoption of

[1:21:56] a um employment agreement for

[1:21:58] the new city manager upon city

[1:21:58] manager Wilson

[1:22:01] s retirement. So

[1:22:02] before you vote on it, I just

[1:22:03] have to read the terms of the

[1:22:04] agreement into the record. The

[1:22:06] agreement would take take

[1:22:08] effect JANUARY 8th, 2026.

[1:22:10] Um, the term would be for 24

[1:22:12] months with a renewal of 12

[1:22:13] months beginning available on

[1:22:15] JANUARY 8th, 2028. Uh, the

[1:22:20] salary would be $368,500 with

[1:22:21] cost of living increase

[1:22:22] provided annually and a

[1:22:24] discretionary 5% annual

[1:22:26] increase. There will be no

[1:22:28] change to the Calpers terms

[1:22:29] because MS. Rocco is a

[1:22:31] long-term city employee. Same

[1:22:32] with the benefits vacation and

[1:22:33] sick leave, except for an

[1:22:35] additional city manager life

[1:22:36] insurance policy. The Deferred

[1:22:37] Compens

[1:22:38] ation will be 3% of the base

[1:22:40] salary. Um, auto and business

[1:22:42] expense reimbursement, $250 a

[1:22:43] month, which is no change for

[1:22:45] the current employment. Cell

[1:22:47] phone allowance, $100 a month.

[1:22:49] Also no change and a severance

[1:22:52] of 6 months, and those would be

[1:22:54] the terms of the employment

[1:22:55] agreement if you approve it on

[1:22:56] consent, and we have a motion

[1:22:58] and a second to adopt the

[1:23:04] consent calendar.

[1:23:06] And the consent calendar passes

[1:23:10] 50, noting the no vote of

[1:23:11] Councilmember Meister on item

[1:23:13] b7. Thank you. And an official

[1:23:15] congratulations to Jackie Rocco.

[1:23:34] We will go to item c1, the

[1:23:36] first of two public hearings.

[1:23:38] These are public hearings

[1:23:40] brought on urgency ordinance,

[1:23:40] so we

[1:23:42] ll have the first reading

[1:23:43] and as vice mayor always

[1:23:45] reminds us these are things the

[1:23:47] state is basically making us do,

[1:23:47] so we don

[1:23:48] t need too much or

[1:23:50] any presentation at all, maybe

[1:23:51] just a quick sentence of what

[1:23:51] we

[1:23:52] re doing here in that regard,

[1:23:53] but I

[1:23:54] ll officially open the

[1:23:56] public hearing, c1 urgency

[1:23:56] ordinance, and first reading of

[1:23:58] an ordinance adopting the

[1:24:00] reference titles 26, 27, 28, 29,

[1:24:01] 30, 3

[1:24:03] 1 and 33 of the Los Angeles

[1:24:04] County Municipal code

[1:24:06] incorporating the California

[1:24:08] State Building Code standards,

[1:24:10] or any disclosures from

[1:24:12] councilmembs? No? Ok. City

[1:24:13] clerk, how was this hearing

[1:24:15] noticed as required by law.

[1:24:16] We have our staff

[1:24:17] representatives here. I

[1:24:17] ll turn

[1:24:18] it over to you quickly.

[1:24:20] Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,

[1:24:21] councilmembers, and community.

[1:24:22] Nick Meisic, director of

[1:24:23] Community Development. I

[1:24:23] m

[1:24:25] joined by Jennifer Alkayer, our

[1:24:26] assistant director, and Ben

[1:24:27] Galan are building and safety

[1:24:29] manager, also the city

[1:24:29] s

[1:24:30] building official who will be

[1:24:31] providing the overview. Thank

[1:24:34] you. Thank you.

[1:24:35] Good evening by Mayor Byers,

[1:24:37] Vice Mayor Hellman, and City

[1:24:37] Council. Again, my name

[1:24:38] s Ben

[1:24:38] Galan. I

[1:24:40] m the building and

[1:24:41] safety manager. Uh, the item

[1:24:43] before you is a routine code

[1:24:45] adoption. Uh, every 3 years,

[1:24:47] the state updates and adopts

[1:24:49] new building codes because our

[1:24:50] city is also serviced by the

[1:24:52] county of Los Angeles, West

[1:24:53] Hollywood also adopts the

[1:24:54] county amendments to the stake

[1:24:55] codes.

[1:24:57] Traditionally, the board of

[1:24:58] supervisors adopts their

[1:25:00] amendments a few weeks before

[1:25:02] the new code becomes effective

[1:25:04] on JANUARY 1st. The recent

[1:25:06] amendments were adopted on

[1:25:08] NOVEMBER 25th. Uh, this code

[1:25:10] cycle, the division is

[1:25:11] introducing an administrative

[1:25:12] amendment to the expiration

[1:25:13] period of Plant check

[1:25:14] applications.

[1:25:16] Currently, the building code

[1:25:18] requires applicants to pull

[1:25:21] permits within 12 months of

[1:25:23] their project submittal or

[1:25:25] either their application

[1:25:25] expires or they

[1:25:26] re required to

[1:25:28] pay extension fees.

[1:25:29] Applicants have been

[1:25:31] experiencing review delays with

[1:25:33] our outside agency partners,

[1:25:34] and this amendment will extend

[1:25:36] the expiration period from 12

[1:25:37] months to 18 months.

[1:25:39] The amendment will benefit our

[1:25:42] homeowners, developers, and

[1:25:43] businesses experiencing

[1:25:45] prolonged reviews by utilities

[1:25:46] and county agencies.

[1:25:47] Due to the county

[1:25:47] s year-end

[1:25:49] adoption, the city is faced

[1:25:52] with very short time period to

[1:25:53] update its building municipal,

[1:25:53] it

[1:25:54] s building and municipal

[1:25:56] code and have them ready for

[1:25:57] enforcement.

[1:25:59] By JANUARY 1st

[1:26:01] Staf requests that City Council

[1:26:04] approve the urgency ordinance

[1:26:07] 25-25u adopting reference title

[1:26:12] 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 33

[1:26:13] of the la County municipal code.

[1:26:15] Incorporating California that

[1:26:16] incorporate the California

[1:26:18] State Building Standards Code

[1:26:21] and introduced for first

[1:26:23] reading ordinance 25-26. Thank

[1:26:23] you and we

[1:26:24] re open for any

[1:26:26] questions. Thank you. I don

[1:26:26] t

[1:26:27] see any questions from the

[1:26:27] council, and I don

[1:26:28] t see any

[1:26:29] members of the public who wish

[1:26:30] to speak, so I will go ahead

[1:26:32] and close the public testimony

[1:26:34] portion of this public hearing,

[1:26:36] and we do have a motion to

[1:26:38] adopt in a second. Was there

[1:26:40] any other questions? I think

[1:26:40] we

[1:26:41] re ready to move forward

[1:26:42] with the vote then. Thank you

[1:26:43] very much.

[1:26:44] I will actually just quickly

[1:26:46] say in seeing some of the

[1:26:48] progress in Culver City on

[1:26:50] single staircase, a policy that

[1:26:51] they were able to move forward

[1:26:52] with because they are outside

[1:26:54] of the county building codes. I

[1:26:56] want to continue our city

[1:26:56] s

[1:26:59] advocacy for these issues, and

[1:26:59] we

[1:27:00] ll make sure that in this

[1:27:00] coming year we

[1:27:01] re submitting a

[1:27:04] letter of advocacy to the

[1:27:05] county for these measures that

[1:27:06] I think we would want to see at

[1:27:08] the city level. I know Culver

[1:27:09] City was able to do it

[1:27:10] themselves. Santa Monica found

[1:27:12] a different method. I know we

[1:27:13] were working to see

[1:27:13] what might be possible here in

[1:27:15] our city and the county

[1:27:15] s

[1:27:16] building codes that we

[1:27:16] re

[1:27:18] having to adopt are restrictive

[1:27:18] in that way. So that

[1:27:19] s a piece

[1:27:20] of advocacy I just want to name

[1:27:21] here, make sure we can continue,

[1:27:22] but other than that, there

[1:27:22] s

[1:27:24] nothing really to do with this,

[1:27:25] just the circumstances. So

[1:27:26] thank you for letting me say

[1:27:26] that. We

[1:27:28] ll go to the vote.

[1:27:29] Does the motion include closing

[1:27:30] the public hearing? That

[1:27:31] s

[1:27:35] right. Thank you.

[1:27:38] Forever

[1:27:41] And the motion passes 50 and

[1:27:43] the urgency ordinance will go

[1:27:44] into effect on JANUARY 1st,

[1:27:47] 2025, and then we will come

[1:27:48] back for a second reading at

[1:27:50] the next meeting. Thank you.

[1:27:50] We

[1:27:52] ll go to our next public

[1:27:53] hearing, item c2, another

[1:27:54] urgency ordinance in first

[1:27:54] reading. I

[1:27:56] ll turn this back

[1:27:57] over to Director Meisic. The

[1:27:59] public hearing is now open, and

[1:27:59] I don

[1:28:00] t believe there are any

[1:28:01] disclosures from this council?

[1:28:02] No.

[1:28:03] Ok, and city clerk, will you

[1:28:04] let us know how this hearing is

[1:28:06] noticed.

[1:28:08] Yes, Mayor, as required by law.

[1:28:10] All right, over to you,

[1:28:12] Director Meeric. Good evening

[1:28:14] again, Mayor Counsel. Uh, I

[1:28:14] m

[1:28:15] joined by Francisco Contreras,

[1:28:17] our long range planning manager,

[1:28:19] and Adria Stauer, assistant

[1:28:20] planner who will be giving the

[1:28:21] presentation for this item.

[1:28:25] Thank you.

[1:28:27] Uh, good evening, Mayor, Vice

[1:28:28] Mayor, councilmembers, and

[1:28:29] members of the public. I

[1:28:30] ll try

[1:28:32] to keep this short. Um, the

[1:28:33] item before you this evening is

[1:28:35] his own text amendment to

[1:28:36] update West Hollywood zoning

[1:28:37] code in accordance with state

[1:28:41] laws, which amend existing adu

[1:28:43] and j adu regulations. The cta

[1:28:44] is a technical update. The item

[1:28:46] does not create or cite new

[1:28:47] programs, and it updates the

[1:28:49] zoning frameworks that our land

[1:28:50] use regulations reflect current

[1:28:55] state mandates.

[1:28:58] Um, so I can do just a really

[1:28:59] quick brief overview, um,

[1:29:01] earlier this year, the city

[1:29:02] council did approve, um, two

[1:29:05] ordinances, um, of a similar

[1:29:07] state to comply with State adu

[1:29:09] law as required by the state,

[1:29:11] the staff then submitted the

[1:29:12] newly adopted ordinance to hcd

[1:29:14] within 60 days for review, um,

[1:29:17] in late 2025, 4 new bills were

[1:29:18] signed by the governor, and

[1:29:19] these bills have the potential

[1:29:21] to make our local adu ordinance

[1:29:22] null and void if the city is

[1:29:24] not in compliance by Janey 1,

[1:29:29] 2026.

[1:29:31] Um, ab 462 is the urgency

[1:29:33] measure, um, it includes

[1:29:34] requirements for processing

[1:29:35] coastal development permits for

[1:29:38] ADUs in the coastal zone and it

[1:29:40] also includes um

[1:29:41] and allows a detached adu to

[1:29:43] receive a certificate of

[1:29:45] occupancy before the primary

[1:29:46] dwelling under certain

[1:29:49] emergency conditions. Ab 1154

[1:29:51] updates regulations specific to

[1:29:56] j Junior ADUs, sb 9 and 543

[1:29:56] strengthen hcd

[1:29:57] s authority to

[1:29:58] review local ordinances and

[1:30:00] also imposing penalties on

[1:30:03] noncompliance, and sp 543 uh

[1:30:04] mandates specific changes to

[1:30:06] adu laws, um, a few are listed

[1:30:06] here.

[1:30:08] Um, so our staff recommends a

[1:30:10] city council adopt the urgency

[1:30:12] ordinance and introduce on

[1:30:13] first reading, um, an ordinance

[1:30:16] amending, um, the chapter 19.36

[1:30:19] of the West Hollywood Municipal

[1:30:21] Code regarding adunjad

[1:30:22] regulations. The proposed

[1:30:24] update, um, will essentially

[1:30:24] just bring the city

[1:30:25] s ad

[1:30:26] ordinance into compliance with

[1:30:28] hcd and will also formally

[1:30:30] resubmit to hcd, um, to bring,

[1:30:31] um, once the council has

[1:30:32] adopted it.

[1:30:34] Thank you. I don

[1:30:35] t see any

[1:30:36] questions from the council, and

[1:30:38] there are no public commenters

[1:30:39] signed up to speak at this time.

[1:30:41] Vice Mayor Heilman, yes, I made

[1:30:43] the motion that we close the

[1:30:47] public hearing, uh, adopt the

[1:30:49] urgency ordinance and also

[1:30:51] introduce on first reading the

[1:30:52] regular ordinance.

[1:30:53] But that

[1:30:54] s

[1:31:00] Yes, that was included.

[1:31:03] And the motion passes 50. Thank

[1:31:05] you.

[1:31:07] We will move to our unfinished

[1:31:09] business item e1, the economic

[1:31:10] impact analysis of major

[1:31:12] special events in the city of

[1:31:19] West Hollywood.

[1:31:21] Give our staff team a few

[1:31:23] minutes to get settled and then

[1:31:24] they can take it away with the

[1:31:44] presentation.

[1:31:46] Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,

[1:31:47] and members of the city council.

[1:31:47] I

[1:31:49] m Laurayre, director of

[1:31:50] economic development for the

[1:31:51] City of West Hollywood. I do

[1:31:53] apologize. I have strained my

[1:31:54] vocal cords, so I

[1:31:55] m going to be

[1:31:56] deferring this presentation

[1:31:58] over to Paolo Kesridit, who is

[1:31:59] our business development

[1:32:01] manager. He is also joined by

[1:32:02] our consultants from Civil

[1:32:04] Economics, and we also have

[1:32:05] several of our staff that

[1:32:07] helped contributed to this

[1:32:08] cross-departmental team effort

[1:32:09] for this study. Joining us in

[1:32:11] the audience today. Paolo, I

[1:32:13] will let you and your much

[1:32:14] stronger vocal cords take it

[1:32:15] from here.

[1:32:17] Thank you so much. Hello, Paula

[1:32:18] Kasperdit, business development

[1:32:19] manager here for the City of

[1:32:21] West Hollywood. Um, I will be

[1:32:21] doing tonight

[1:32:23] s presentation,

[1:32:26] which is a report from Civil

[1:32:27] Economics of the city

[1:32:28] s major

[1:32:30] events and calendar year 25. Uh,

[1:32:32] those events include the Mishka

[1:32:34] Festival, Weh Hope Pride, uh,

[1:32:35] aids Walk, and also the

[1:32:36] Halloween carnivals. So today

[1:32:37] s

[1:32:38] presentation will consist of an

[1:32:40] overview, uh, looking at the

[1:32:41] economic impact, the net fiscal

[1:32:43] benefit, uh, the city

[1:32:43] s brand

[1:32:45] and the business community and

[1:32:45] its benefits.

[1:32:46] S as well as some

[1:32:48] recommendations.

[1:32:53] Ok, so at a high level, uh, the

[1:32:55] events that the civil team

[1:32:59] looked at estimated 379,000

[1:33:02] attendees who generated

[1:33:06] approximately $993.7 million in

[1:33:08] direct spending across Los

[1:33:09] Angeles County and also

[1:33:12] supporting 993 jobs in Los

[1:33:13] Angeles County.

[1:33:14] There was a significant

[1:33:16] economic activity across a few

[1:33:17] key sectors, including food and

[1:33:20] beverage at $41.6 million.

[1:33:21] Hospitality and lodging at

[1:33:23] $26.2 million and retail at

[1:33:25] $11.8 million.

[1:33:28] Um, and this slide here shows

[1:33:29] uh some of the community

[1:33:30] engagement and business

[1:33:31] engagement that was conducted

[1:33:33] as part of the study. There

[1:33:36] were 2800 event intercept

[1:33:37] surveys where we had people out

[1:33:38] in the field conducting surveys

[1:33:39] with people who attended the

[1:33:40] event, uh, for business and

[1:33:42] resident surveys, 8 on-site

[1:33:44] visits, uh, with our business

[1:33:46] task force, our business

[1:33:47] improvement districts, our

[1:33:48] commissions and advisory boards,

[1:33:49] the West Hollywood Chamber of

[1:33:51] Commerce, as well as visits

[1:33:52] West Hollywood.

[1:33:55] Uh, 17 business interviews, uh,

[1:33:57] by industries. And finally some

[1:33:58] document reviews which

[1:33:59] consisted of staff reports that

[1:34:01] were conducted from 2016 to

[1:34:04] 2025. Uh, the who 40 strategic

[1:34:05] plan and the economic study

[1:34:06] which both were approved last

[1:34:09] year.

[1:34:12] Uh, so this slide here shows

[1:34:14] just an overview of the city of

[1:34:16] West Hollywood with the four

[1:34:18] major events outlined here on

[1:34:20] the screen with aidswla Wehh

[1:34:22] Hope ride, and Hoing Carnival,

[1:34:23] um, being focused within the

[1:34:25] Rainbow District area and then

[1:34:26] Mishka Festival, uh, focused at

[1:34:31] Plummer Park on the east side.

[1:34:33] This slide here shows the

[1:34:35] overall attendee direct

[1:34:36] spending that happened, and so

[1:34:37] that means it

[1:34:38] s a comprehensive

[1:34:40] measure of all the attendee

[1:34:42] related expenditures. Uh, so

[1:34:43] when we talk about attendee

[1:34:44] expenditure, um, that

[1:34:45] s

[1:34:46] something that can occur both

[1:34:47] within the city of West

[1:34:49] Hollywood, um, but also outside

[1:34:51] of the city of West Hollywood

[1:34:53] during the event. Um, so

[1:34:54] attendees direct spending, uh,

[1:34:55] from WHOpe ride, as you see on

[1:34:58] the screen here was

[1:35:00] approximately $56 million. Um,

[1:35:01] and Halloween carnival was 37

[1:35:01] million

[1:35:03] dollars, um, with that general

[1:35:04] number that was on the lower

[1:35:07] right hand side of the screen

[1:35:10] at 93.7 billion with

[1:35:13] approximately 379,000 attendees.

[1:35:17] So this side looks at the total

[1:35:19] total economic impact of those

[1:35:20] four major events that we

[1:35:20] looked at. You

[1:35:21] ll see three

[1:35:22] different categories on here

[1:35:24] employment for jobs, labor

[1:35:26] income, um, and the value added.

[1:35:27] And within each of those

[1:35:29] categories, we have the direct,

[1:35:31] indirect and induced items. So

[1:35:32] the direct is what gets

[1:35:34] affected in West Hollywood. The

[1:35:36] indirect and induced is what

[1:35:37] happens outside of the city of

[1:35:40] West Hollywood, so the county,

[1:35:41] um, mainly and across the

[1:35:44] region. Um, so for employment,

[1:35:46] there was an estimated 99

[1:35:48] 3 jobs supported across the

[1:35:51] county, including 727 jobs

[1:35:51] within the City of West

[1:35:55] Hollywood, um, and 266 indirect

[1:35:56] and induced jobs across the

[1:35:58] regional economy.

[1:35:59] For labor, um, the combined

[1:36:02] events are generated roughly

[1:36:04] $53.3 million in total labor

[1:36:07] income, including $33.5 million

[1:36:08] earned directly by workers in

[1:36:11] West Hollywood, um, and 19.8

[1:36:12] million from indirect and

[1:36:14] induced efforts from the larger

[1:36:15] la area.

[1:36:19] Uh, for value add, um, in who

[1:36:21] ride and Halloween Carnival.

[1:36:23] These events contributed $88.2

[1:36:25] million in value added total of

[1:36:27] that, the attendee spending

[1:36:29] contributed $52.8 million to

[1:36:31] West Hollywood with another

[1:36:33] $35.4 million produced through

[1:36:35] spillover activity across the

[1:36:37] county.

[1:36:39] Uh, this slide here looks at

[1:36:42] the net fiscal benefit of that.

[1:36:42] So we

[1:36:43] re taking a look at our

[1:36:45] revenues, which primarily for

[1:36:47] our major events are our tot or

[1:36:48] transit occupancy tax, and

[1:36:50] sales tax and then expenditures.

[1:36:52] Um, so whenever the city is, uh,

[1:36:54] producing an event through

[1:36:55] event programming that might be

[1:36:57] public safety or any type of

[1:36:58] event cleanup associated with

[1:36:58] that.

[1:37:02] Um, so these four signature

[1:37:06] events generated about $902,000

[1:37:07] in general fund revenue through

[1:37:09] tot and sales tax, uh, compared

[1:37:09] to the city

[1:37:11] s total cost of $8

[1:37:12] million which results in a net

[1:37:15] fiscal cost of $7.1 million. Um,

[1:37:17] and so as you can see here, the

[1:37:18] percentage of expenditures

[1:37:19] Halloween, Carnival achieved

[1:37:21] the highest cost recovery rate

[1:37:23] at 18%, while weh Hope ride, um,

[1:37:26] was in 2nd at 10%. Um, I think

[1:37:28] it should be noted that, you

[1:37:29] know, the events that

[1:37:31] any MISS Pelly puts on is not

[1:37:32] supposed to be typically a cost

[1:37:34] neutral, one for one exchange,

[1:37:35] um, but there

[1:37:35] s definitely a

[1:37:36] lot of benefits associated with

[1:37:37] that, which we

[1:37:37] ll go on to the

[1:37:39] next slide.

[1:37:41] Um, so as mentioned, the city

[1:37:41] s

[1:37:44] investment in these events, uh,

[1:37:45] solds multiple public

[1:37:46] objectives, um, including some

[1:37:47] social and community

[1:37:50] development, um, some business,

[1:37:51] uh, development and economic

[1:37:53] activity associated with that.

[1:37:55] Um, and also just generally the

[1:37:55] city

[1:37:57] s brand recognition and

[1:37:57] reputation.

[1:37:59] Um, in addition to that, uh,

[1:38:01] these major events really do

[1:38:02] support the city

[1:38:02] s already

[1:38:04] adopted plans, including the

[1:38:05] who 40 strategic plan, as well

[1:38:08] as the economic study, which

[1:38:09] really focuses on prioritizing

[1:38:11] community placemaking and

[1:38:11] economic development, which

[1:38:14] these events all do. Uh, and

[1:38:16] these events generate

[1:38:18] substantial media coverage in

[1:38:20] 2025, uh, the events produced

[1:38:22] billions of media impressions

[1:38:24] which equated it to about $16

[1:38:26] million in um media value, uh,

[1:38:27] for the city. Um,

[1:38:28] and if the city were to

[1:38:28] purchase, let

[1:38:30] s say $16 million

[1:38:31] in ad revenue, that wouldn

[1:38:31] t

[1:38:33] equate to the same amount of

[1:38:34] eyes. So certainly this is

[1:38:36] something that our major events

[1:38:38] are unique in producing and

[1:38:39] doing here for the city and its

[1:38:41] brand work.

[1:38:44] Next, um, as we look at just

[1:38:45] kind of some also the other

[1:38:46] benefits from a business and

[1:38:48] community side, you know, our

[1:38:50] business community also reports

[1:38:51] uh increased sales during these

[1:38:52] major events, particularly

[1:38:53] during Weh Hope Pride and

[1:38:55] Halloween Carnival, um, with

[1:38:56] businesses reporting that

[1:38:56] they

[1:38:57] re adding shifts or

[1:38:57] they

[1:38:58] re at capacity. Um, this

[1:39:00] is in line with some of the

[1:39:01] work that we did during the

[1:39:03] Rainbow District outreach that

[1:39:04] was conducted where we asked

[1:39:05] businesses what would be

[1:39:06] helpful, um, and major events

[1:39:08] was certainly one of those. Um,

[1:39:09] you know, this increased

[1:39:11] revenue and volume during these

[1:39:12] events helped sustain business

[1:39:13] es during maybe some of the

[1:39:15] slower times of the year that

[1:39:18] they might experience. Also,

[1:39:18] we

[1:39:19] ve targeted through

[1:39:20] community and stakeholder

[1:39:21] feedback that these events are

[1:39:23] meaningful and strengthening

[1:39:24] these local connections with

[1:39:26] 93% of stakeholders agreeing

[1:39:28] that major events strengthen

[1:39:29] community connections. Um, and

[1:39:30] you know, although the city

[1:39:30] doesn

[1:39:31] t realize the full

[1:39:32] recovery.

[1:39:34] On the days that these events

[1:39:36] are being conducted. Uh, there

[1:39:38] is an important piece with the

[1:39:39] marketing that we

[1:39:39] re media

[1:39:41] coverage, um, and the visitor

[1:39:42] experience influenced future

[1:39:44] travel decisions. Um, and so

[1:39:46] that these produce benefits

[1:39:48] beyond this current calendar

[1:39:49] year that we looked at it, um,

[1:39:50] and a more sustained for the

[1:39:53] longer term period of time.

[1:39:55] Um, and so as we move on to the

[1:39:57] recommendations, these were

[1:39:59] provided by the civil Economics

[1:39:59] team. They

[1:40:01] ve conducted work

[1:40:03] for various municipalities to

[1:40:05] take a look at what the city

[1:40:06] could potentially do, um, to

[1:40:07] either increase revenue or

[1:40:08] provide just some general

[1:40:10] recommendations. Uh, first is

[1:40:12] established a unified event

[1:40:12] typology for strategic

[1:40:13] alignment. And what that means

[1:40:15] is the city does a lot of

[1:40:17] events. Uh, we do events from

[1:40:19] our large major events, uh, to

[1:40:21] community, a specific events, a

[1:40:23] cultural events. And so

[1:40:24] how do we deploy resources that

[1:40:26] are in line with those type of

[1:40:27] category events, um, you know,

[1:40:28] how do we streamline services

[1:40:31] and how do we um produce some

[1:40:32] KPIs that

[1:40:33] ll let the city know

[1:40:34] whether or not some of the

[1:40:35] events are giving a good return

[1:40:37] back on some of this

[1:40:37] information.

[1:40:40] Uh, next would be explore a

[1:40:41] centralized citywide

[1:40:42] sponsorship strategy. Currently,

[1:40:44] how our sponsorships, uh,

[1:40:45] sponsorship structure works is

[1:40:46] that each event, it works on

[1:40:48] its own kind of sponsorship and

[1:40:50] so centralizing that in one

[1:40:51] area maybe a brand sponsor

[1:40:53] wants to come and dive all the

[1:40:54] way into West Hollywood and so

[1:40:55] we can provide them an

[1:40:57] opportunity at Weh Hope Pride,

[1:40:59] at Halloween Carnival, um, at

[1:41:01] maybe a recreation division

[1:41:02] specific event, um, something

[1:41:05] that they can cater to that

[1:41:07] partic particular brand. Um,

[1:41:08] and third

[1:41:09] is consider a trademark and

[1:41:11] brand strategy, uh, a brand

[1:41:13] licensing strategy. Uh, so as

[1:41:13] mentioned, West Hollywood

[1:41:14] s

[1:41:16] name has a very big, big, uh,

[1:41:18] brand. Um, and certainly our

[1:41:19] logo Halloween Carnival, and

[1:41:21] Weh Hope Pride specifically

[1:41:22] also have very big brand names.

[1:41:23] Um, and so being able to

[1:41:25] capitalize that monetarily will

[1:41:28] help kind of um, uh, provide a

[1:41:30] new revenue source for the city.

[1:41:32] And so with that, that ends our

[1:41:33] report. Uh, staff is here and

[1:41:34] also the civil team is here. If

[1:41:36] there are any questions, the

[1:41:37] council should have. Thank you.

[1:41:38] Thanks so much. I don

[1:41:38] t see any

[1:41:39] members of the public signed up

[1:41:41] to speak, so we can just get

[1:41:42] into our comments and

[1:41:43] deliberations. I saw a Vice

[1:41:44] Mayor Heman you put your name

[1:41:46] up first. Let you go ahead.

[1:41:47] Yeah, thank you, Paulo. Thank

[1:41:49] you, Laura. Thank you to the

[1:41:51] consultants. I just had, um, 3

[1:41:53] or 4 things that I want to

[1:41:56] mention. One, it sounds like uh

[1:41:59] for our major events, Halloween

[1:42:00] and

[1:42:03] ride that there are real

[1:42:05] opportunities for us to

[1:42:08] increase, uh, West Hollywood

[1:42:11] Hotel usage by visitors, so

[1:42:13] that MAY be something that

[1:42:15] needs to be included in your,

[1:42:17] uh, upcoming work plan. I noted

[1:42:22] that one of the concerns of the

[1:42:24] business community was delivery

[1:42:27] routes when Santa Monica

[1:42:29] Boulevard is closed, so making

[1:42:31] sure that our businesses

[1:42:34] are able to get deliveries of

[1:42:36] of goods and uh they

[1:42:36] re able to

[1:42:38] deliver as well, so maybe

[1:42:39] working with the business

[1:42:41] community on that.

[1:42:45] Um, the big events result at

[1:42:48] least in some businesses

[1:42:50] turning away customers and

[1:42:52] maybe this is an opportunity

[1:42:54] for us to work with some of

[1:42:57] those businesses in finding

[1:43:00] additional space or utilizing

[1:43:02] additional space or converting

[1:43:04] street space as has been done

[1:43:06] on other occasions, so I

[1:43:07] m

[1:43:09] hoping that that can be a part

[1:43:10] of what you

[1:43:11] re looking at. I

[1:43:13] fully support the citywide

[1:43:16] sponsorships. I think that

[1:43:17] s a

[1:43:20] missing piece in terms of uh

[1:43:22] getting outside dollars to

[1:43:24] support our events and then

[1:43:29] finally, um, I think maybe we

[1:43:31] need to, I know you wanted to

[1:43:33] compare to the 2014 study.

[1:43:36] Maybe we need to look at what

[1:43:39] events should be included as

[1:43:40] part of this going forward

[1:43:42] because

[1:43:44] obviously the Mishka event is a

[1:43:46] very small, more community

[1:43:48] focused event, although it does

[1:43:50] attract a lot of people from

[1:43:52] outside of West Hollywood.

[1:43:56] Maybe that is uh it should be

[1:43:58] it should be included, but

[1:43:59] there are other events in the

[1:44:01] city that are comparable in

[1:44:04] terms of size that it might be

[1:44:07] interesting to look at how do

[1:44:10] those compare, um, to that

[1:44:11] scale of events.

[1:44:13] So those were my only thoughts,

[1:44:15] but thank you for, for the

[1:44:16] report.

[1:44:17] Council Meister, we

[1:44:18] ll go to

[1:44:19] you.

[1:44:20] I, I

[1:44:22] ll add that I don

[1:44:23] t really

[1:44:25] understand why the aids walk is

[1:44:26] included in that, and I don

[1:44:26] t

[1:44:28] just based on the numbers that

[1:44:29] we saw, I don

[1:44:30] t know that it

[1:44:33] needs to be a part of, you know,

[1:44:35] moving forward in terms of

[1:44:36] surveys or whatever, looking at

[1:44:37] it because we don

[1:44:38] t really

[1:44:38] it

[1:44:41] s not really our event, and

[1:44:41] it doesn

[1:44:42] t look like we spend

[1:44:43] much money on it and it doesn

[1:44:43] t

[1:44:44] look like there

[1:44:45] s, you know,

[1:44:46] that we, that there

[1:44:47] s ways that

[1:44:50] we can leverage it like we can

[1:44:52] the other two events. Um, what

[1:44:54] I thought was missing in terms

[1:44:56] of the recommendations was

[1:44:59] looking at the business survey

[1:45:01] overall assessment, and the

[1:45:02] items that the business

[1:45:04] community brought up when asked

[1:45:06] what single change could most

[1:45:08] increase economic benefits next

[1:45:09] year. So you,

[1:45:11] you have public safety,

[1:45:13] marketing, local regulatory

[1:45:15] conditions, operational

[1:45:16] conditions, and I think, you

[1:45:17] know, those are some things

[1:45:19] that need to be incorporated

[1:45:21] into um

[1:45:23] into this, uh, and then I just,

[1:45:25] I kind of wanted to go back to

[1:45:25] the, I

[1:45:26] m sorry, I have to find

[1:45:29] it, uh, the memo that was sent

[1:45:33] to us with the previous

[1:45:36] results from the uh from the

[1:45:37] other study

[1:45:40] Uh, just bear with me a second.

[1:45:43] Yeah

[1:45:47] So I guess, um, in terms of

[1:45:49] a comparison, uh, with, with

[1:45:52] the previous study, I, I kind

[1:45:55] of want to understand, uh, from

[1:45:57] your perspective, if we learned

[1:45:59] anything new, you know, that we

[1:45:59] didn

[1:46:01] t know from the previous

[1:46:04] study and from what, what was

[1:46:06] it 2015, 2014

[1:46:08] I mean, I, I mean, I saw a lot

[1:46:09] of the same

[1:46:10] results

[1:46:13] Um, so I just wondered if

[1:46:15] you know, if, if we learned

[1:46:18] anything new in this particular

[1:46:20] study, uh, and are we surprised

[1:46:21] at any of the differences if

[1:46:23] there are, there are some

[1:46:24] differences between the earlier

[1:46:26] survey and this one.

[1:46:28] Yeah, thank you so much for

[1:46:29] that question, Councilor

[1:46:31] Meister. Um, definitely, we did,

[1:46:32] uh, learn some things in

[1:46:35] regards to the 2014 to the 2025

[1:46:36] study. One, it was done 10

[1:46:38] years ago when the modeling was

[1:46:39] a little different for some of

[1:46:41] these events. For example, Weh

[1:46:43] Hope Pride was, um, la ride

[1:46:44] back in the day at the modeling

[1:46:46] structure in which, um, the

[1:46:46] city

[1:46:50] s uh uh uh production was

[1:46:51] a little different compared to

[1:46:53] those. Um, so we are seeing,

[1:46:55] you know, people are coming out

[1:46:56] for Weh Hope Pride and

[1:46:57] Halloween Carnival

[1:46:59] still. Um, we are seeing that

[1:47:01] people are spending more from

[1:47:02] the 2014 numbers that were

[1:47:03] conducted, um, in the previous

[1:47:06] study, and there were more jobs

[1:47:09] being um uh having a direct

[1:47:10] impact as a result from that.

[1:47:13] Um, I think, you know, we, the

[1:47:14] recommendations that civil

[1:47:15] provided are probably the the

[1:47:16] biggest learning components of

[1:47:17] that, you

[1:47:18] re looking at the

[1:47:19] sponsorship, looking at the

[1:47:22] event typology, um, as well as

[1:47:24] looking at the trademarking

[1:47:26] associated with that, just to

[1:47:27] look at some additional revenue

[1:47:30] sources for the city as we

[1:47:32] continue to produce events, um,

[1:47:34] that get inter international

[1:47:36] traction. And, and I mean,

[1:47:39] looking at um the memo and it

[1:47:40] s

[1:47:40] page 6

[1:47:44] of uh of the pdf that was sent

[1:47:45] to us, um, I

[1:47:46] m looking at the,

[1:47:49] you know, the differences

[1:47:52] between 2014 and 2025 spending

[1:47:53] per attendee. I mean, they

[1:47:53] re

[1:47:54] and they

[1:47:55] re fairly significant,

[1:47:56] but I would imagine that some

[1:48:00] of this is due to inflation, um,

[1:48:01] but I thought it was

[1:48:03] interesting that the Halloween

[1:48:05] carnival, the differences, the

[1:48:07] difference, it was really

[1:48:09] significant compared to the

[1:48:10] other three

[1:48:11] events. Um

[1:48:14] I mean, you have spending per

[1:48:18] attendee at $45 at Halloween

[1:48:21] carnival in 2014 and in 2025 it

[1:48:23] was 225, and I

[1:48:24] m wondering what

[1:48:26] part of that was the ticketing

[1:48:27] prices.

[1:48:28] Well, when it comes to

[1:48:28] Halloween carnival in

[1:48:30] particular, this year it was

[1:48:34] held on a Friday, and so having

[1:48:36] it held on a day where it

[1:48:36] s a

[1:48:37] weekend, uh, more people are

[1:48:38] likely to come, um, and spend

[1:48:40] more money. I believe the one

[1:48:42] in 2014 was held on a weekday.

[1:48:42] I don

[1:48:43] t know exactly what

[1:48:45] weekday it was. Um, I can go

[1:48:48] double check the files. But um

[1:48:50] that is part of what is leading

[1:48:53] to increased spending. Did, did,

[1:48:54] did

[1:48:56] the spending per attendee

[1:48:58] include ticket tickets that

[1:48:59] were purchased if they

[1:49:01] purchased a ticket from

[1:49:02] from uh

[1:49:04] you know, for the, for to be

[1:49:07] able to enter into the oh for

[1:49:10] for WeHil ride. Oh, I will have

[1:49:12] uh Adam from Civil Economics.

[1:49:13] Go ahead and respond to that

[1:49:14] question.

[1:49:16] We are talking about pride, not

[1:49:17] he. Well, now I

[1:49:19] m, yeah, I

[1:49:21] moved quickly to ride. So my

[1:49:23] question was that with regard

[1:49:25] to Weh Hope ride and looking at

[1:49:28] the difference between 2014 and

[1:49:31] 2015 is what is tickets

[1:49:33] included in that cost per

[1:49:36] attendee in your, in your in

[1:49:37] your calculations. We don

[1:49:38] t

[1:49:39] specifically ask if they are

[1:49:40] buying a ticket. It

[1:49:41] s uh

[1:49:42] everyone where we positioned

[1:49:44] the intercept surveys, so it

[1:49:44] s

[1:49:45] their total uh

[1:49:45] spend that

[1:49:46] s basically

[1:49:48] remaining. So we asked him a

[1:49:50] series of categorical questions,

[1:49:52] uh, leisure, hospitality, hotel,

[1:49:54] um, food and beverage, um,

[1:49:55] retail, and then anything

[1:49:56] remaining, they

[1:49:57] ll put into a

[1:49:58] miscellaneous category. It

[1:49:59] s a

[1:50:01] very truncated survey. So, um,

[1:50:03] it could in the way they

[1:50:04] respond, include a ticket, yes.

[1:50:05] Ok, and then, and then I

[1:50:07] ll go

[1:50:10] back to Halloween carnival.

[1:50:12] That difference between 45 and

[1:50:14] 225 when the others aren

[1:50:15] t just

[1:50:15] they

[1:50:17] re more, but it

[1:50:19] s not as

[1:50:21] significant an increase, and

[1:50:21] I

[1:50:22] m just curious of your, your,

[1:50:26] um, what you, what you think my

[1:50:29] best guess is that for this

[1:50:29] year

[1:50:31] s report. This is the

[1:50:33] largest, I would say globally

[1:50:35] in terms of pride, especially

[1:50:37] um data collection effort. So I

[1:50:38] think the sample size was quite

[1:50:41] a bit smaller in the 2014

[1:50:43] survey. It was a very small um

[1:50:45] intercept survey. So my

[1:50:46] guess is there might have been

[1:50:48] some kind of variables that

[1:50:48] weren

[1:50:49] t picked up in the

[1:50:52] smaller footprint. I, I think

[1:50:52] we

[1:50:54] re pretty comfortable given

[1:50:56] the larger sample size, um,

[1:50:59] that the spend has just shifted.

[1:51:01] I would also imagine, um, you

[1:51:03] know, we looked at a few, uh,

[1:51:05] correlated variables, you know,

[1:51:08] there was the, the way ride

[1:51:09] shares were, um, venture backed

[1:51:10] at the time. They didn

[1:51:11] t pass

[1:51:13] along the actual cost, and my

[1:51:14] guess is there

[1:51:14] s probably some

[1:51:15] weirdness

[1:51:17] around the transportation

[1:51:18] reporting, uh, just because

[1:51:19] those were below market value

[1:51:21] back in 2014 for the attendees,

[1:51:22] if that makes sense.

[1:51:25] Well, knowing how much

[1:51:28] rideshare costs this year, um.

[1:51:30] Just going from, from

[1:51:31] Westbourne to the, the hotel

[1:51:34] was like $20.01 way. So yeah, I

[1:51:35] could see where that would,

[1:51:37] that would be something. And

[1:51:39] then my last question is, how

[1:51:40] many actual business people did

[1:51:41] you talk to because I was

[1:51:43] confused whether it was 17 or

[1:51:54] it was 17 per industry

[1:51:55] Um, so the, there

[1:51:56] s a

[1:51:57] difference between the

[1:51:58] interviews and the folks that

[1:51:59] wanted to do a digital survey.

[1:52:01] So each of the, you

[1:52:01] ll see in

[1:52:03] the column where we were at

[1:52:05] bids, Chamber of Commerce,

[1:52:06] those meetings where there

[1:52:07] s

[1:52:10] multiple sectors and businesses.

[1:52:12] Those were conversations and

[1:52:13] some of those were one on one

[1:52:14] interviews. The each of those

[1:52:15] folks had an opportunity to do

[1:52:17] the digital survey. That was a

[1:52:19] mixed, uh, set of feedback on

[1:52:21] if they wanted to report out

[1:52:23] for various reasons digitally

[1:52:24] and kind of had that.

[1:52:26] Um captured or if they wanted

[1:52:28] to do um anonymous

[1:52:30] conversations in the one on one.

[1:52:31] I would say across each of

[1:52:33] these sectors it was probably,

[1:52:34] I would say 45. I don

[1:52:34] t have

[1:52:38] that number in front of me. Um,

[1:52:40] of different individual

[1:52:41] businesses with individual

[1:52:43] feedback. Um, I would say there

[1:52:45] was two sets of uh feedback

[1:52:47] criteria that kind of fell out.

[1:52:48] Um, you see in the report,

[1:52:51] given the scope of work that

[1:52:53] was contracted for was

[1:52:54] System-wide reporting

[1:52:57] We had a lot of very um

[1:53:00] specific event specific like

[1:53:02] this went wrong with the very

[1:53:03] specific logistics that didn

[1:53:03] t

[1:53:04] get put in because we were

[1:53:05] running out of pages in it.

[1:53:06] That wasn

[1:53:06] t in the specific

[1:53:08] scope, but we do have that

[1:53:09] available. So you

[1:53:09] re getting a

[1:53:12] readout on things that are like

[1:53:13] system-wide sets of questions

[1:53:15] on special events and event

[1:53:16] activation.

[1:53:19] Ok, thank you

[1:53:22] Did you want to share that

[1:53:25] Well, the numbers seemed

[1:53:28] strange to me for 2014

[1:53:30] Halloween because that was the

[1:53:31] year it rained. It was a Friday.

[1:53:32] It was a Friday night, but it

[1:53:35] rained, so I think we probably,

[1:53:37] we probably need to look at

[1:53:39] those numbers again in terms of

[1:53:42] attendance. Countemb Hang.

[1:53:44] Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you

[1:53:46] for the report. As I mentioned

[1:53:48] to you during my call with you.

[1:53:49] I think it

[1:53:50] s incredible that

[1:53:53] just two events had brought

[1:53:55] 379,000 people to West

[1:53:57] Hollywood. That accounted for

[1:54:00] 99%.Rent generate a revenue of

[1:54:03] 93.7 million, of which 88

[1:54:05] million went to the county or

[1:54:07] went to the surrounding region.

[1:54:07] Like I mentioned during the

[1:54:09] call, I think those areas

[1:54:11] deserve to, they should give us

[1:54:12] a basket of muffins for that,

[1:54:13] because we definitely helped

[1:54:14] them with that. So thank you.

[1:54:16] And I wanted to commend your

[1:54:18] team. I was at the Mishka

[1:54:20] Festival, as I said during the

[1:54:22] call, your consultants,

[1:54:24] cornered me and my partner. We

[1:54:25] filled out the surveys, and we

[1:54:27] were very happy to do so, and

[1:54:27] we look forward to filling out

[1:54:30] the next ones. Thank you.

[1:54:32] Councilmember Erickson. The

[1:54:33] data must be skewed. I can only

[1:54:34] imagine. Like, I don

[1:54:35] t know

[1:54:35] who

[1:54:37] s filling out this survey.

[1:54:38] Like I

[1:54:38] m, I

[1:54:38] m not involved with

[1:54:40] the city at all. Um, that

[1:54:40] s

[1:54:42] great. I love o. I love being a

[1:54:44] secret shopper. It

[1:54:45] s fun. Um,

[1:54:46] thank you so much for this

[1:54:47] report. I really want to thank

[1:54:48] you for the work that you put

[1:54:50] into it. A couple of things

[1:54:51] that I was looking at that I

[1:54:54] want to just piggyback off of

[1:54:56] the vacant lot activation is

[1:54:58] really critical, especially in

[1:54:59] our beautiful rainbow district

[1:55:02] I will say I had a fun time

[1:55:04] dancing in the lot where

[1:55:06] Beaches was during Halloween,

[1:55:07] but other activations like that

[1:55:09] can use that space. It

[1:55:09] s a

[1:55:11] parking lot. It just sits there.

[1:55:13] Um I know beaches and other

[1:55:15] businesses are always looking

[1:55:16] for something to do outside.

[1:55:17] Not right now, maybe it

[1:55:18] s a

[1:55:19] little chilly. Heat lamps go

[1:55:21] far, but those opportunities

[1:55:23] can can be used as well as

[1:55:25] activations on streets that

[1:55:28] really, you know, for lack of

[1:55:29] better word, um, you know,

[1:55:30] between

[1:55:33] Jim Barr and Bank of America.

[1:55:33] You know, it

[1:55:34] s a tight street.

[1:55:34] There

[1:55:35] s a lot of people there

[1:55:36] that oftentimes sees a lot of

[1:55:38] high traffic and cars are

[1:55:39] trying to turn right or

[1:55:41] residents. However, we could

[1:55:43] maybe shut down that street on

[1:55:45] high visibility nights would

[1:55:47] allow Jin bar and other bars to

[1:55:48] expand and use street

[1:55:48] opportunities. I

[1:55:49] m not saying

[1:55:50] Robertson Lane 2.0, but I

[1:55:51] m not,

[1:55:54] not saying Robertson Lane 2.0c.

[1:55:56] Councilmember Meister, give me

[1:55:57] the look. Um, but additionally,

[1:55:58] how we could utilize some of

[1:56:00] those spaces just once in a

[1:56:00] while

[1:56:02] to to promote business space in

[1:56:03] the way that they can allows

[1:56:05] for those sponsorships. Um, I

[1:56:06] would love, and I kind of

[1:56:07] talked about this with a few

[1:56:09] individuals before. I would

[1:56:11] love for Halloween to be longer.

[1:56:14] Um, these events should not end

[1:56:16] at 11. I mean, people are still

[1:56:16] like saying, I

[1:56:17] m coming out to

[1:56:18] West Hollywood at 11 o

[1:56:19] clock,

[1:56:20] right? I know I, I wasn

[1:56:20] t, I

[1:56:22] was at home, um, well, a little

[1:56:25] bit after midnight, but I think

[1:56:26] that especially on weekend

[1:56:29] events, Friday, Saturdays,

[1:56:31] having Halloween go a little

[1:56:33] bit longer, makes sense because

[1:56:34] people, as I think one of my

[1:56:35] colleagues mentioned, are

[1:56:37] trying to get into the

[1:56:37] businesses and they

[1:56:38] re busy and

[1:56:39] they can

[1:56:40] t, but they

[1:56:40] re all out

[1:56:42] there dealing with, you

[1:56:43] know, wonderful costumes in

[1:56:44] every way. So I would like to

[1:56:46] see that as a potential and I

[1:56:47] think that brings in more

[1:56:48] revenue or allows us more

[1:56:50] flexibility. Additionally, you

[1:56:52] know, pride is another one, how

[1:56:54] we can continue to use that

[1:56:57] space or activate that space,

[1:56:58] um, for a longer duration is

[1:56:59] good. I know I

[1:57:00] m, I remember

[1:57:01] when I was mayor and I think it

[1:57:04] was Kylie Minogue on

[1:57:05] Sunday and, you know, I said,

[1:57:06] one more song, and they said,

[1:57:08] David said no and I said, Who

[1:57:08] s

[1:57:08] David Wilson? I

[1:57:09] ve never heard

[1:57:11] of him before, but you know,

[1:57:11] you

[1:57:12] re good. You have 3 members

[1:57:13] of the council up here, no

[1:57:15] violation of the Brown Act, but

[1:57:17] I say that if we have, and we

[1:57:19] always do have an amazing act

[1:57:21] in whatever way, you know, that

[1:57:22] flexibility. Our neighborhoods,

[1:57:24] we ask them for grace. A couple

[1:57:25] of times a year, maybe more,

[1:57:27] some of them would argue, um,

[1:57:29] but you know that economic boom

[1:57:31] to the industry will help and

[1:57:34] how we can continue to promote

[1:57:36] um, uh, Carlis streets and the

[1:57:38] ways that people love walking

[1:57:39] and and coming about here and

[1:57:41] it is a walkable city in that

[1:57:42] way where people know don

[1:57:42] t, if

[1:57:43] you want to get in your car,

[1:57:43] that

[1:57:44] s, you know, you

[1:57:45] re either

[1:57:46] going to pay and I know coemb

[1:57:49] my story says this $20.35

[1:57:52] dollars at the pdc to park or

[1:57:53] you can walk and you know, or

[1:57:55] take rideshare safely. So how

[1:57:57] we can continue to do stuff

[1:57:59] like cyclovvia but other spaces

[1:58:01] like that bring in a lot of

[1:58:02] activation for our businesses.

[1:58:04] So those are just a few of my

[1:58:05] suggestions, long term planning,

[1:58:07] I see my friends Cleo and Meg

[1:58:08] over there going, Halloween

[1:58:09] later. What? Let

[1:58:09] s start

[1:58:11] talking about it. The meeting

[1:58:11] s

[1:58:12] probably tomorrow being

[1:58:13] scheduled right now, but um I

[1:58:14] just think that when I hear

[1:58:15] from businesses, they would

[1:58:17] like things to go a little bit

[1:58:18] longer just to help them in

[1:58:20] that way. And, and again, Paula,

[1:58:22] Laura, your entire team. I mean,

[1:58:25] you all worked so hard with

[1:58:25] everything you do with our

[1:58:27] business community. I really

[1:58:29] see it. You respond to the

[1:58:31] smallest to the largest

[1:58:33] business with vigor and just

[1:58:34] true passion and it

[1:58:34] s

[1:58:35] just want to thank you from

[1:58:36] this day for all the work that

[1:58:37] you do and, and everyone on

[1:58:38] your amazing team.

[1:58:40] Thank you. Thank you all for

[1:58:41] this report. I think it

[1:58:42] s

[1:58:43] really exciting to have a

[1:58:44] clearer sense of what we are

[1:58:45] investing in when it comes to

[1:58:47] these events and what the

[1:58:49] return looks like, and it is

[1:58:52] really incredible. I hear the

[1:58:53] op opportunity to maybe review

[1:58:54] other events in the future,

[1:58:55] seeing, you know, sunset Strip

[1:58:56] doesn

[1:58:58] t have an event reflected

[1:58:59] here and knowing that our

[1:59:00] hotels are really a part of the

[1:59:01] economic engine of the city,

[1:59:03] connecting those dots feels

[1:59:04] really important. I

[1:59:05] m wondering

[1:59:07] already with so many major

[1:59:08] events happening, you know, in

[1:59:09] the next 3 years, how

[1:59:11] we can promote early some of

[1:59:12] the major, you know, West

[1:59:14] Hollywood events in the hotels

[1:59:15] remind people that if they love

[1:59:15] their stay, here

[1:59:16] s a great

[1:59:19] reason to come back later. It

[1:59:20] seems clear that a lot of the

[1:59:21] events that we have right now

[1:59:22] are serving the region really

[1:59:24] well, but bridging to the

[1:59:25] broader community, getting

[1:59:27] people to travel and come to

[1:59:29] West Hollywood to be a part of

[1:59:31] these events is part of what

[1:59:33] will help fuel this economic

[1:59:35] engine. I

[1:59:36] m also recognizing

[1:59:38] ways that we can piggyback off

[1:59:40] of existing event structures. I

[1:59:41] know of the cannabis community

[1:59:42] has tried and sometimes

[1:59:44] struggled to always build their

[1:59:45] special events around some of

[1:59:47] these events, but finding the

[1:59:48] ways that we can make those

[1:59:51] links happen, feels important,

[1:59:51] um, I, I skipped one note of

[1:59:53] mine, but in the interest of

[1:59:55] thinking about sunsets,

[1:59:56] opportunities, similarly, the

[1:59:58] art walk and Design Week feel

[1:59:59] like a tremendous opportunity

[1:59:59] where we

[2:00:00] re probably naturally

[2:00:02] leaning into a more

[2:00:04] international audience, an

[2:00:04] audience that

[2:00:05] s certainly

[2:00:06] coming to think about a

[2:00:07] different level of economic

[2:00:09] investment in the city and the

[2:00:09] resources

[2:00:10] that are available here. Um, so

[2:00:11] I

[2:00:11] d be really curious about

[2:00:12] that, and I know they

[2:00:12] re moving

[2:00:15] to later in the year next year,

[2:00:16] but ultimately hearing that

[2:00:18] there are opportunities ahead

[2:00:21] for us to enable stronger

[2:00:22] partnerships through brand

[2:00:24] sponsorships and communicate, I

[2:00:25] think what the real value of

[2:00:26] these events are to the

[2:00:27] community is tremendously

[2:00:30] exciting um and the last note I

[2:00:33] think because the the data on

[2:00:34] transportation MAY not be

[2:00:35] totally clear. To me, I think

[2:00:37] that the takeaway is finding

[2:00:38] more opportunities that we can

[2:00:39] leverage public transport

[2:00:41] ation systems, connecting, you

[2:00:42] know, our city line to the red

[2:00:43] line, getting people to not

[2:00:44] have to invest in that

[2:00:46] rideshare, although rideshare

[2:00:47] is better than driving their

[2:00:49] own personal vehicle, but we

[2:00:49] ll

[2:00:50] keep a little bit of extra

[2:00:51] money in their pocket that they

[2:00:52] MAY be more willing to spend

[2:00:53] here. I recognize that this

[2:00:55] report is about capturing the

[2:00:56] total economic investment and

[2:00:57] that investing in that

[2:00:59] rideshare is part of that, but

[2:01:00] I know our businesses would

[2:01:02] probably be happy to have those

[2:01:05] dollars on their bar bar tops

[2:01:06] instead, so I just thank you

[2:01:07] all so much for the work on

[2:01:08] this. It definitely helps tell

[2:01:08] the

[2:01:09] story of what we

[2:01:09] re investing

[2:01:11] in as a city and really clear

[2:01:12] ways to the business community,

[2:01:14] especially when they ask us

[2:01:14] what we

[2:01:15] re doing as a city that

[2:01:16] we can point to this is

[2:01:17] tremendous, and I think it

[2:01:19] gives us a lot of great

[2:01:21] roadmaps ahead for how we can

[2:01:22] strengthen our events programs

[2:01:23] here. So I appreciate you all

[2:01:24] so much and thank you to the

[2:01:25] consultant team who

[2:01:25] s a part of

[2:01:27] this work as well.

[2:01:27] There

[2:01:28] s no final comments on

[2:01:30] this. I believe this is just a

[2:01:31] receive and file. We don

[2:01:31] t have

[2:01:33] to take a formal motion on this.

[2:01:34] Is that correct?

[2:01:35] Ok.

[2:01:36] Oh, we do have a motion coming

[2:01:37] in. No, we do not. It

[2:01:38] s just a

[2:01:40] receive and file, ok.

[2:01:41] Thank you

[2:01:42] for wanting to do a motion.

[2:01:48] Thank you all so much.

[2:01:50] Um, we are, yeah, we are moving

[2:01:52] towards the end of our agenda.

[2:01:56] We are looking at item f4, very

[2:01:58] exciting item tonight. Uh, the

[2:02:01] election of mayor and vice

[2:02:02] mayor. So I

[2:02:02] m gonna turn this

[2:02:03] over to our city clerk to

[2:02:05] administer the election. We do

[2:02:06] have a public commenter signed

[2:02:08] up to speak. What order would

[2:02:09] you prefer this happening in?

[2:02:11] We should take the speaker

[2:02:13] first, and then we can proceed.

[2:02:17] Uh, Joshua Baum.

[2:02:19] We were just told that this is

[2:02:21] the order. If you want to speak

[2:02:23] at the end of the agenda during

[2:02:24] the final public comment period,

[2:02:26] that would be your other option.

[2:02:30] Yeah, I can move you. Ok.

[2:02:34] Ok

[2:02:35] ok, so seeing no public

[2:02:36] speakers, we

[2:02:37] ll move straight

[2:02:38] into the election. Thank you,

[2:02:41] Mayor. The item before you is

[2:02:43] the election of the new mayor

[2:02:46] and vice mayor, who will be

[2:02:48] installed at the JANUARY 12th

[2:02:51] City Council meeting, and so I

[2:02:53] will open up nominations for

[2:02:55] mayor. I would like to nominate

[2:02:56] Vice Mayor John Heilman. I

[2:02:56] ll

[2:02:58] second that.

[2:03:03] We have a motion and a second.

[2:03:05] To be sure.

[2:03:08] Are there any other nominations?

[2:03:09] Seeing none, I will take a

[2:03:11] voice vote just so we have it

[2:03:13] on the record. Councilmember

[2:03:15] Erickson, enthusiastically, yes.

[2:03:17] Councilmember Hang, yes,

[2:03:19] Councilmember Meister, yes,

[2:03:22] Vice Mayor Heilman, Mayor Byers,

[2:03:23] yes, congratulations, our next

[2:03:27] marriage.

[2:03:29] Ok

[2:03:32] And now I will open nominations

[2:03:33] for Vice Mayer.

[2:03:35] I would like to nominate

[2:03:37] Councilmember Danny Hang.

[2:03:37] I

[2:03:38] ll second that. We have a

[2:03:40] motion in a second. Do you

[2:03:41] accept Councilmember Hang? Yes,

[2:03:44] ok, I will take a voice vote.

[2:03:45] Councilmember Erickson, we

[2:03:45] ll

[2:03:46] get in trouble for this, but

[2:03:46] I

[2:03:49] m going to say hell yes. Ok,

[2:03:51] Councilmemb Hang. Yes,

[2:03:53] Councilmember Meister, yes,

[2:03:55] Vice Mayor Heilman. Yes, Mayor

[2:03:57] Byers, yes, congratulations,

[2:03:58] Councilembhang.

[2:04:01] S.

[2:04:04] And again, our new

[2:04:07] incoming mayor and incoming

[2:04:09] vice mayor will be installed at

[2:04:11] the JANUARY 12th City Council

[2:04:12] meeting. MAY, can we, can I,

[2:04:13] MAY I say one thing? I just

[2:04:14] would like to think. I know

[2:04:15] we

[2:04:15] ll have much more to say,

[2:04:17] but I want to thank our current

[2:04:20] mayor, uh, Chelsea Byers for

[2:04:21] her leadership throughout this

[2:04:23] past year. I literally

[2:04:25] mentioned to our colleagues

[2:04:28] that I literally cannot believe

[2:04:28] it

[2:04:29] s been a year, but you have

[2:04:31] been a steward of the city in

[2:04:33] every way, shape, and form, and

[2:04:33] I

[2:04:34] m just so proud of you, and

[2:04:34] I

[2:04:35] ll have much

[2:04:36] more to say. Congratulations,

[2:04:38] Mayor, for the next few more

[2:04:46] weeks. Thank you.

[2:04:49] Thank you all very much.

[2:04:51] We are done with this agenda,

[2:04:51] and I

[2:04:52] m also saving my words

[2:04:55] till JANUARY, so I mean, truly

[2:04:55] I will just say it

[2:04:56] s been a

[2:04:56] remarkable year. I

[2:04:57] m so

[2:04:58] grateful for everyone. All the

[2:05:01] support has meant the world. I

[2:05:02] will enjoy the holiday break

[2:05:04] with this title for the last

[2:05:06] few weeks, um, but really

[2:05:08] looking forward to John

[2:05:09] Heilmann becoming our mayor.

[2:05:10] What a special year we have to

[2:05:11] look forward to ahead. Truly,

[2:05:12] we are so fortunate as a city

[2:05:13] to be served under this

[2:05:15] leadership to come. So really

[2:05:17] tremendously grateful. Thank

[2:05:19] you. Ok, ok, one more

[2:05:21] And with that, we

[2:05:22] ll go to

[2:05:23] excluded consent, which we have

[2:05:24] none, so we

[2:05:25] ll move into our

[2:05:26] final public comment and we

[2:05:26] ll

[2:05:28] have Joshua Baum join us at the

[2:05:29] microphone. Are there any other

[2:05:31] speakers signed up for the

[2:05:32] final public comment? No, Mary,

[2:05:32] we don

[2:05:33] t have anyone else

[2:05:38] signed up. All right.

[2:05:40] I mean, I was going to wait

[2:05:40] until Ja, but I

[2:05:41] ll, I

[2:05:41] ll

[2:05:42] see what I

[2:05:44] m gonna say tonight.

[2:05:46] Um, good evening, good evening,

[2:05:47] Mayor and Counciluncil. I want

[2:05:49] to thank outgoing Mayor Chelsea

[2:05:50] Byers. Chelsea is someone I

[2:05:53] first met at the very end of

[2:05:55] 2018, almost exactly 7 years

[2:05:56] ago when I was recruiting the

[2:05:58] first board from the West Side

[2:05:59] Young Democrats and looking for

[2:06:01] people who cared deeply about

[2:06:02] local issues like housing,

[2:06:04] public transit, and where young

[2:06:06] people actually had a voice in

[2:06:08] government. Chelsea showed up

[2:06:10] already allen. Later passing

[2:06:12] the presidency of the club to

[2:06:13] her was one of the easiest and

[2:06:14] proudest decisions I

[2:06:16] ve ever made. But I also want

[2:06:18] to see something more personal.

[2:06:19] A few years ago during one of

[2:06:21] the lowest moments of my life

[2:06:23] when very few people were there.

[2:06:25] Chelsea was.

[2:06:25] I

[2:06:26] ve never forgotten that.

[2:06:28] Watching her go on to serve the

[2:06:29] city includes including as

[2:06:31] mayor, has meant more to me

[2:06:32] than I can really put into

[2:06:33] words. Chelsea, I

[2:06:34] m grateful

[2:06:35] for you. I

[2:06:36] m glad to call you

[2:06:40] my friend, and I love you.

[2:06:42] And congratulations to incoming

[2:06:44] Mayor John Heilman. John is a

[2:06:46] true civic icon. He helped

[2:06:47] found the city and his

[2:06:49] fingerprints are everywhere in

[2:06:51] it, especially in what West

[2:06:53] Hollywood represents for lgbtq

[2:06:54] people. It feels right to see

[2:06:55] him stepping into this role

[2:07:01] again. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:07:04] Seeing no final public speakers.

[2:07:04] We

[2:07:05] ll move to Councilmember

[2:07:06] comments and meeting attendance

[2:07:07] reports. We

[2:07:07] d like to begin?

[2:07:08] Can I have you start, Councilor

[2:07:09] Burhang?

[2:07:11] Soon to be Vice Mayor. Thank

[2:07:12] you, Mayor. As far as meetings

[2:07:14] and attendance are concerned, I

[2:07:16] attended the world

[2:07:17] s aids Day

[2:07:19] celebration at Stors aids

[2:07:21] Monument. Um, I attended the

[2:07:24] Victory Fund in dc where Vice

[2:07:26] Mayor soon to be mayor, John

[2:07:27] Heilman was inducted into the

[2:07:29] Victory Fund Victory Institute,

[2:07:31] lgbt Hall of Fame for his over

[2:07:34] 40 years of service to our

[2:07:36] community and for being the

[2:07:38] longest serving lgbtq out

[2:07:40] elected official in the United

[2:07:41] States of America

[2:07:42] Thank you

[2:07:45] And also at this conference are

[2:07:47] wonderful mayor was on several

[2:07:49] panels talking about housing as

[2:07:51] well as supporting lgbtq

[2:07:52] candidates, which was fantastic

[2:07:54] to see her speak, and I

[2:07:56] attended the Winter Wonderland

[2:07:58] Market. Um, I had to use the

[2:07:59] blue seal because I didn

[2:08:00] t want

[2:08:03] to fall again and break my leg,

[2:08:04] and I was proud to use that

[2:08:07] blue seal, um, and also I

[2:08:09] attended the 25th annual Paul

[2:08:11] Stark Awards, that ceremony was

[2:08:13] led by the new chair

[2:08:14] of the Human Services

[2:08:15] Commission, Chair Anne Marie.

[2:08:17] Thank you.

[2:08:19] Thank you, Councilmember

[2:08:20] Erickson. Thank you so much. I

[2:08:22] attended various events and

[2:08:24] community gatherings since our

[2:08:26] last meeting, um, and I just

[2:08:28] want to again thank David for

[2:08:29] his service and Jackie, you

[2:08:30] ll

[2:08:32] be right up here in JANUARY

[2:08:35] starting and I just want to

[2:08:36] again congratulate you, moving

[2:08:38] it to consent just shows the

[2:08:41] community not only how much we

[2:08:42] trust you about how much this

[2:08:43] full council is behind your

[2:08:45] incoming leadership as city

[2:08:47] manager, um, and as someone

[2:08:50] who has known you since my very

[2:08:51] first day at City Hall. You

[2:08:53] have been a mentor and a friend

[2:08:55] to me, many much like much like

[2:08:57] David has been, and I just want

[2:08:59] to thank you for my progress.

[2:08:59] And if you don

[2:09:00] t like me, you

[2:09:02] can blame Jackie, but um, you

[2:09:04] know, but whatever, but I don

[2:09:04] t

[2:09:05] think, I don

[2:09:06] t think there

[2:09:06] s

[2:09:07] any, there are people in this

[2:09:10] city and I want to echo what

[2:09:11] our community member David

[2:09:12] Eckert, and I didn

[2:09:12] t know you

[2:09:13] had an Emmy, by the way, so I

[2:09:15] need to like dude, there you go,

[2:09:17] see, he just goes like this too.

[2:09:18] Like

[2:09:18] that

[2:09:19] s why I love you, David,

[2:09:20] because you, I like, I love

[2:09:22] finding out new things, but I

[2:09:23] digress, but I just wanted to

[2:09:25] say Jackie

[2:09:26] you invested in me when I was

[2:09:29] moving on from an intern to

[2:09:30] becoming then

[2:09:31] Counciluncilmember at la

[2:09:32] s

[2:09:34] Deputy, you invested in so many

[2:09:36] of us, and that vision is

[2:09:37] something that you didn

[2:09:38] t do to

[2:09:39] get ahead. You did it because

[2:09:41] you truly believe in making the

[2:09:42] world a better place, and there

[2:09:46] are people who do not agree on

[2:09:48] anything, but I know they agree

[2:09:50] on how much they just adore you

[2:09:51] and your service to the city.

[2:09:53] So congratulations again. I

[2:09:55] cannot wait to look over at you

[2:09:56] and give

[2:09:57] you my eye roll or because I

[2:09:57] don

[2:09:59] t really have a poker face,

[2:09:59] but I

[2:10:00] m really excited to see

[2:10:01] what you

[2:10:02] ll do in the city, and

[2:10:04] then congratulations to my

[2:10:06] incoming colleagues. Our first

[2:10:08] soon to be aapi Vice Mayor, as

[2:10:10] well as just overall amazing

[2:10:11] guy. I

[2:10:12] ll have more to say then

[2:10:13] and to someone that has been a

[2:10:15] mentor, and again, if you also

[2:10:15] don

[2:10:17] t like me, I was his intern

[2:10:19] and hired in that way as well,

[2:10:21] but a true legend and I have

[2:10:22] missed going to many

[2:10:23] conferences in the past, but

[2:10:24] I

[2:10:25] ve never missed more going to

[2:10:25] the

[2:10:27] Victory Fund this past year to

[2:10:29] see him get a well-deserved

[2:10:31] award and standing in the

[2:10:33] footsteps and the path that you

[2:10:36] have led for so many of us, and

[2:10:36] I

[2:10:37] ll have much more to say, but

[2:10:39] I did watch your speech that

[2:10:40] was put out there. It was

[2:10:41] eloquent. It was fairy John

[2:10:43] Heilman, but it was class all

[2:10:45] the way, and congratulations

[2:10:47] incoming mayor John Heilman.

[2:10:50] Councilmember Meister

[2:10:52] Thank you, Mayor. Um, I

[2:10:55] attended the graduation of the

[2:10:57] Fall 2025 Civic Academy

[2:10:59] participants, and it

[2:10:59] s been

[2:11:01] great to see how popular this

[2:11:02] course has been, and I thank

[2:11:04] staff for putting together an

[2:11:06] interesting and informative

[2:11:07] curriculum that seems to be

[2:11:08] getting around because you keep

[2:11:10] getting people to come to the

[2:11:11] next one. So if you thought you

[2:11:12] were getting out of it, it

[2:11:12] doesn

[2:11:14] t look like it. Uh, I

[2:11:18] want to repeat my, uh, no vote

[2:11:21] on item b7, uh, in case it

[2:11:21] wasn

[2:11:22] t recorded

[2:11:23] although I know it was recorded.

[2:11:26] Uh, I also want to congratulate

[2:11:29] uh Weis Vice Mayor Heman on his

[2:11:32] recognition at the Liberty Fund,

[2:11:33] uh, very well deserved, and I

[2:11:35] also want to congratulate him

[2:11:38] on being our next mayor and

[2:11:40] congratulate Danny for to be

[2:11:42] our next vice mayor. You

[2:11:42] couldn

[2:11:44] t have a better mayor to

[2:11:49] learn from, uh, as, as you join

[2:11:51] every subcommittee that um that

[2:11:52] the city has.

[2:11:52] So you

[2:11:54] re going to be busy. I

[2:11:55] also want to um

[2:11:57] just to say that, uh, both

[2:11:58] Genevieve and David that I wish

[2:12:02] you both the best as you move

[2:12:04] into your next respective

[2:12:06] chapters, and David, does this

[2:12:08] mean our calls stop every other

[2:12:09] Friday.

[2:12:09] You

[2:12:10] re changing your cell phone

[2:12:13] number.

[2:12:14] Uh, and, um, that

[2:12:15] s, I just

[2:12:17] also want to wish everyone a

[2:12:18] very happy holiday to please

[2:12:20] stay safe out there and a happy

[2:12:24] New Year. I really felt awful,

[2:12:25] uh, at, you know, that I, I

[2:12:25] didn

[2:12:29] t, I could not say happy

[2:12:31] Hanukkah on that uh after

[2:12:32] hearing what happened at Sydney,

[2:12:34] I was, it was just, I couldn

[2:12:34] t

[2:12:35] say it. I just couldn

[2:12:36] t say the

[2:12:38] words, um, because it was such

[2:12:40] a shocking thing to happen. And,

[2:12:42] uh, and a horrible

[2:12:44] and tragic thing to happen, and

[2:12:47] as well as what happened at at

[2:12:49] Brown University, uh, so I

[2:12:50] ll

[2:12:51] say it now. Happy holidays to

[2:12:53] everyone and happy New Year.

[2:12:56] Thank you, Vice Mayor Heman,

[2:12:59] thank you, and I, I will say

[2:13:00] happy Hanukkah and merry

[2:13:02] Christmas to everyone. We can

[2:13:03] t

[2:13:05] allow people to rob us from our

[2:13:08] joy, and I want to wish

[2:13:10] everyone a wonderful holiday. I

[2:13:11] also want to thank my

[2:13:13] colleagues for

[2:13:16] um the vote earlier, and I know

[2:13:18] we will all say a lot more on

[2:13:20] JANUARY 12. I want to

[2:13:22] especially thank Chelsea for

[2:13:25] leading us this last year with

[2:13:29] such a grace and aplomb and um

[2:13:31] moving through some very

[2:13:33] difficult issues, really

[2:13:34] appreciate not just your

[2:13:36] leadership here, but your

[2:13:37] leadership in the community and

[2:13:38] in the county we

[2:13:40] re so lucky to

[2:13:42] have you. Um, I also

[2:13:45] attended World aids Day, I

[2:13:47] attended the Paul Stark Warrior

[2:13:50] Awards. I attended the city

[2:13:53] holiday party for the employees.

[2:13:56] I, um, was, as was mentioned, I

[2:13:58] was honored at the Victory Fund,

[2:14:01] and it was a great conference,

[2:14:03] want to thank Chelsea for

[2:14:07] speaking. I also got to um go

[2:14:08] out on the ice skating rink

[2:14:10] again and so far I haven

[2:14:10] t

[2:14:12] fallen, which is a good thing

[2:14:16] Um, and I know that Lauren, uh,

[2:14:18] you continue to deal with the

[2:14:20] eye issues and I know you have

[2:14:23] some procedures upcoming in. I,

[2:14:24] I think I speak for all of us

[2:14:28] in saying we wish you a speedy

[2:14:29] recovery, and we

[2:14:30] re all here

[2:14:31] for you if you need anything.

[2:14:33] Thank you. Thank you. I

[2:14:33] ll

[2:14:34] begin with my meeting

[2:14:36] attendance reports. I was at

[2:14:38] the Clean Power Alliance Energy

[2:14:40] Committee meeting, the La Casa

[2:14:41] Renter Protections and

[2:14:42] Homelessness Prevention

[2:14:44] Committee meeting in addition

[2:14:45] to the human capital meeting at

[2:14:47] La Casa. I attended the Victory

[2:14:48] Institute and served on the

[2:14:49] panels. Thank you for your kind

[2:14:51] words about those moments. And

[2:14:53] I also had the great joy of

[2:14:55] traveling 6 hours to Lakewood

[2:14:57] round trip with Helen Collins

[2:14:58] to receive the American Public

[2:15:00] Works Association Award for the

[2:15:02] Holloway, one of many awards to

[2:15:02] come, I

[2:15:03] m sure, for such a

[2:15:04] special project here in the

[2:15:07] community, but truly thrilling

[2:15:08] to first receive recognition

[2:15:10] for the public works side of

[2:15:11] that because it was daunting

[2:15:12] and harrowing and

[2:15:14] many ways, and Helen and her

[2:15:15] team let us remarkably. We

[2:15:16] re

[2:15:17] so grateful to you, Helen, for

[2:15:18] your leadership on that project

[2:15:20] and to celebrate with that

[2:15:23] award was very meaningful.

[2:15:27] It was a long one. I recognize

[2:15:28] that we

[2:15:29] re at a transition

[2:15:31] point in the year, turning

[2:15:33] point JANUARY is coming up. New

[2:15:33] Year

[2:15:36] s, so many holidays ahead

[2:15:37] and many transitions with us in

[2:15:39] the city is David leaves us as

[2:15:41] city manager with in great

[2:15:43] hands with Jackie Rocco. We are

[2:15:44] truly so fortunate, but the

[2:15:45] Chamber is transitioning

[2:15:47] leadership as well. We

[2:15:48] recognize and thank Genevieve

[2:15:49] Morell for years and years of

[2:15:51] service and look forward to

[2:15:53] Lenn as he joins us in the city

[2:15:53] soon, and

[2:15:54] this council as well will have

[2:15:56] new leadership in just a few

[2:15:57] weeks, and with this we should

[2:15:59] feel a great spirit of

[2:16:02] excitement and joy to come

[2:16:03] Transitions can be scary and

[2:16:04] daunting with much uncertainty,

[2:16:05] but we have great confidence

[2:16:06] that these transitions and

[2:16:08] leadership in the city will be

[2:16:09] remarkable and lead us in a

[2:16:11] really great year ahead. We

[2:16:14] started this year, 2025, and

[2:16:16] really tough times in many ways

[2:16:17] those tough times are still

[2:16:19] sitting with so many people

[2:16:21] here in the city and across the

[2:16:22] region, and as far as the

[2:16:23] federal administration

[2:16:23] s

[2:16:24] concerned

[2:16:26] these tough times still MAY be

[2:16:27] ahead, but I think the

[2:16:28] resilience that we

[2:16:28] ve shown,

[2:16:29] the spirit of joy that we

[2:16:29] re

[2:16:31] sitting in this end of the year.

[2:16:31] All we

[2:16:32] ve accomplished in the

[2:16:34] face of it all really shows

[2:16:34] what we

[2:16:35] re capable of, and I

[2:16:37] think if we can continue this

[2:16:39] trend, then we will continue to

[2:16:40] have much to be proud of as a

[2:16:43] city. I really wish everyone a

[2:16:44] beautiful and joyous and

[2:16:46] restful end of year. I think

[2:16:47] about our city staff who, while

[2:16:49] many of us will be enjoying the

[2:16:50] holidays. They will still be

[2:16:52] making sure the city runs very

[2:16:53] well, and we thank them

[2:16:54] tremendously for

[2:16:57] that. But everyone truly

[2:16:59] deserves a spirited and happy

[2:17:00] celebration at the end of this

[2:17:01] year. So happy holidays, happy

[2:17:03] Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and

[2:17:04] looking forward to seeing

[2:17:05] everyone back here JANUARY 12th

[2:17:06] in council chambers. I

[2:17:07] ll

[2:17:08] adjourn this meeting then to 6

[2:17:10] P.M. On JANUARY 12th. It

[2:17:10] ll be

[2:17:11] a fun night. Look forward to

[2:17:13] being there. Mayer, could we

[2:17:14] get a photo with Jackie and

[2:17:19] David maybe down there just for

[2:17:20] fun times. Yes, we

[2:17:21] ll do that,

[2:17:22] but this meeting is officially

[2:17:23] adjourned. Thank you all so

[2:17:23] much.

Regular City Council Meeting - Dec 15th, 2025

Agenda

Transcript