Before we call the meeting to
order, I would like to read the
city
s land acknowledgment.
The West Hollywood City Council
acknowledges that the land on
which we gather and that is
currently known as the City of
West Hollywood is the occupied,
unseeded, seized territory of
the Gabrielenino Tova and the
Gabrielinouh peoples. I
m
calling the DECEMBER 15, 2025,
City Council meeting to order.
It is 6:01 P.M. Final council
meeting of the year. We have
two very special, oh yes,
that
s worth applause.
We have two very special guests
with us tonight to lead us in
the Pledge of Allegiance. Will
Amani, Jane Gist and Sarah Lima
Almeida. Please join us in the
front of the room to lead us in
the Pledge of Allegiance.
States of America and to the
Republics for which it stands,
one nation
under GOD indivis
and military.
Good job. Thank you so much.
All right, c clerk, MAY we
please have a roll call? Yes,
Mayor, thank you, Councilmember
Erickson, Councilmember Hang
Councilmember Meister here,
Vice Mayor Heilmann, Mayor
Byers, I am here. We have a
quorum. Thank you. We
ll move
to approval of the agenda. Are
there any changes from staff
tonight on the agenda.
There are no changes from staff
this evening. Ok, I
ll look to
Councilmember Erickson to make
some changes on our end. Thank
you very much, MADAM Mayer. I
was wondering if we would move
f3, consider consider revisions
to the city
s policy for
recognition and memorials to
consent.
Okie dokie
Um, I was hoping we could move
f2, the construction agreement
to consent. Ok. I love it. And
I would love to see if we could
move item f1 appointment of the
city manager, adoption of the
resolution improving Employment
Agreement and amendment to the
salary schedule to the to
consent.
Are there any public speakers
on that?
There are no public speakers on
that item. I just have to read
the compensation and benefits
for the public before the
contract is adopted, but you
can move it to consent, ok, and
Meyer, can I, uh, note my no
vote on b7, b as in boy, that
s
on the delivery device
ordinance.
Yes, and I think we
ll make
sure we have you say that again
when the consent agenda is
formally adopted. I will.
Ok
So we have f1 with a note f2
and f3 going to consent?
He had a motion and a second to
adopt the agenda. Thank you
both.
Yeah.
Motion passes 50. We have an
adopted agenda. Can we get any,
um, uh, any reports of any
Levinac disclosures that MAY be
here tonight? No, seeing none.
And then we
ll go straight to
our adjournment motions. I know
Councilmember Meister, you have
a few we
ll get started with
you. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, first, I
would like to, uh
adjourn in memory of the
victims of the Bondi Beach mass
shooting in Sydney. I would
like to adjourn in memory of
the victims of the mass
shooting that occurred this
past weekend on DECEMBER 14th
at Bondi Beach in Sydney,
Australia, during a Hanukkahh
celebration attended by
hundreds of people in this
tragic attack, at least 15
people were killed and more
than 40 were injured, including
members of the community and
emergency responders.
We extend our deepest
condolences to the families and
loved ones of those lost and to
all those affected in the Bondi
and Greater Sydney communities
as they mourn this senseless
act of violence. Our thoughts,
our thoughts are with them
during this difficult time.
I
d also like to adjourn
tonight
s meeting in
recognition, uh, in memory of
Rob Reiner and his wife
Michelle Singer Reiner, who
were tragically killed this
past weekend. Rob Reiner has
made an indelible mark on the
arts and entertainment industry,
directing and producing beloved
films such as When Harry Met
Sally, the Princess bride, Stan
stand by me and a few good men.
Michelle Singer Reiner was a
talented photographer and film
producer who met Rob on the set
of When Harry Met Sally. She
creatively contributed to film
and media throughout her career.
Beyond their cinematic
contributions he and Michelle
have been active in civic
engagement and advocacy on
important social issues.
Locally in West Hollywood in
2018, I organized a rally
entitled Families Belong
Together actually it was it was
a rally for sane policies, uh,
also known as Families Belong
Together, which were rallies
that were happening all over
the country to oppose the
immigration crisis caused by
the Trump administration
s
inhumane family separation
policy. Rob proudly
participated as a speaker at
this event, lending his voice
and platform to this critical
cause. We extend our heartfelt
condolences to Rob and Michelle
Reiner
s family and friends who
are mourning this tragic loss,
and we honored their lasting
contributions. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Do any of my
colleagues have other
adjournment motions? No. If I
um would like to then adjourn
in the memory of the Brown
University students who were
killed in the shooting over
this weekend. The two students,
Ella Cook and Muhammaded Aziz
Umar Khazov, were tragically
killed following a mass
shooting that occurred on
DECEMBER 13th at Brown
University during a final exam
review session the same day the
Sandy Hook Anterbuversary took
place. 9 others were also
wounded in the shooting
We extend our deepest
condolences to the families and
loved ones of those affected
and to the entire Brown
University community as they
mourn this senseless act of
violence.
Thank you all
We will turn now to our
presentations for the evening.
First, recognizing the two
fabulous young people who led
us in the Pledge of Allegiance
this evening. Thank you both
Amani and Sarah, so much. Come
back up here and we
ll take a
photo with you and give you
these certificates.
Absolutely one of the best
traditions this council has
done. I really enjoy the
students. Thank you so much for
coming out and being a part of
it.
Ok, and we
ll move into our
next presentation this evening.
I think for many of us, we know
what
s coming.
Tonight is truly bittersweet.
It does mark the final city
council meeting for our city
manager David Wilson. We are
truly so grateful for his
leadership and service to the
community here in West
Hollywood and of course beyond
across this whole region as he
has made tremendous impact.
And before myself and my
colleagues share some remarks
about David. I wanted to share
this video from our supervisor
Lindsay Horvath.
Good evening. I am so pleased
to congratulate city manager
David Wilson on his retire.
After 5 years of city manager
and so many more serving the
city of West Hollywood. I
joined so many others in saying
what we all know well.
The city of West Hollywood is
better because of you, David.
During my time on the city
council and as mayor, I was
proud to work alongside you to
steer the city through
post-covid challenges, and your
work to keep the city solvent
and to navigate important
fiscal challenges, a minimum
wage increase, and the hotel
workers protection ordinance
made West Hollywood a more
reliable partner for so many.
David, while all of us are
undoubtedly going to feel your
absence.
I wish you the best in
retirement, and I wish the best
to your family too. I know
you
ve been through a lot.
This next chapter is going to
be so great. I just know it.
After giving so much to our
city and to our region, I hope
you
ll have plenty of time to
give back to yourself. I
especially appreciate that
amidst it all you took time to
join our Blue Ribbon commission
and to provide your expertise
and support at a time that was
so personally difficult, um,
that you stepped up even bigger
to help a broader region of
folks. I just can
t thank you
enough for who you are and who
you
ve chosen to be for as long
as I
ve known you.
Thank you so much
All my best to you and to your
family, and congratulations.
And now I would like to read a
proclamation prepared for David
Wilson. Whereas David has
dedicated more than 25 years of
exemplary service to the city
of West Hollywood, beginning
his career in 1998 as an intern
in the economic development and
housing division, and in 1999,
David was hired as a
development specialist 1, where
he played a key role in the
East Side redevelopment project
area and contributed to the
city
s influential economic
summit report, and whereas
through his professionalism,
leadership, and commitment to
public service. David has
earned numerous promotions,
including development
specialists 2 in 2001. Project
Development Administrator in
2003, Management analyst in
2004, senior management analyst
in 2007, Budget and
Compensation Manager in 2008
and director of finance and
technology in 2012, guiding the
city through multiple two-year
budget cycles, strengthening
organizational operations and
helping
maintain the city
s prestigious
aaa bond rating. And whereas
David
s exceptional abilities
and forward thinking leadership
led to his appointment as
deputy city manager in 2016.
Assistant city manager in 2018
and ultimately to his service
as city manager beginning in
2021. And whereas, upon
assuming the role of city
manager, David provided calm,
steady, and capable leadership
through one of the most
challenging periods in recent
history, guiding the city
through the covid
-19 pandemic and its recovery
while safeguarding public
health, maintaining services,
and preserving fiscal stability.
And whereas under David
s
stewardship, the City of West
Hollywood emerged from the
covid-19 crisis with a balanced
budget and a solid financial
foundation, enabling the city
to invest in infrastructure,
community safety, human
services, capital projects, and
sustainable growth for the
benefit of all residents and
community members. And whereas,
David
s leadership in advancing
major citywide initiatives,
including the who 40 strategic
Plan and the city
s involvement
with the government alliance on
Race and Equity has
strengthened the city
s
commitment to equity, inclusion,
and community well-being that
will benefit West Hollywood for
years to come.
And whereas throughout his
tenure, David has fostered a
culture of collaboration,
compassion, transparency, and
responsiveness to empower city
staff, engage community members,
and ensure that local
government serves all segments
of West Hollywood
s
constituency. Now, therefore,
be it resolved that the city
council of the City of West
Hollywood hereby recognizes
David Allen Wilson for his
outstanding leadership and
commitment to service and
wishes him the absolute best in
his retirement.
And at this time, I would like
to open it up for my colleagues
for any remarks that they would
like to make as well.
We
ll start with Councilmember
Meister.
Thank you, Mayor, and David, um,
I didn
t prepare anything.
But, uh, you know, during a
very uncertain time you
provided the stability that the
city needed and, and I really
appreciate that. I also
appreciate our phone calls
every other Friday morning, uh,
even when you probably didn
t
want to talk to me. Um, knowing
that there would be a difficult
council meeting coming up the
following Monday. I appreciate
that you took the time to
listen and also to look into
things to be able to respond,
and so, um, again
I just, I really appreciate
that um that you know, you, you
were there, and you were
present, um, and I also wish
you the best in the next
chapter, and hope you get your
house rebuilt quickly, that the
county doesn
t hold you up too
too much with all of their
codes and um and that you get
to really enjoy retirement
because you deserve it.
Thank you, Vice Mayor Heilman,
David, I, I know you well and I
know you hate this kind of
public attention, so I
m going
to keep my remarks very, very
brief. First of all, thank you
for your incredible service to
the city and to our community,
um, rent stabilization,
redevelopment, finance,
everything you
ve done, um,
helping out during several
lawsuits that we were
involved with. You
ve just been
an incredible, incredible
public servant, and I really,
really thank you. And on a
personal level it
s been such a
delight to work with you and
run with you and run marathons
and get to meet Jody and your
kids and to share good times.
You deserve your retirement and
I look forward to keeping in
touch and continuing to have a
great relationship. Thank you
for everything. Thank you,
Councilor Erickson.
Uh, thank you so much, David,
you know, we go back quite a
ways from when I was a little
old intern, um, and you have
just always been such a
positive person, a solid voice
of reason, and someone that
never really rattled very
easily. I knew that if
something brought a little
alert to your voice. I would go,
Oh, ok, we should probably be
paying more attention to that,
but you
re always very cool.
You kept things together
during some of the most um
awful times that our city has
faced, you know, whether that
be what you shared at our
holiday party working through
9/11 all the way up to covid to
so many other things that
you
ve really seen our city
through through the your
executive leadership, as well
as then moving into the city
manager role. I
ve always
gotten to see your beautiful
family and how they
ve grown
and your daughter who would
contribute to my growing
waistline with her cookies
that she would sell through her
red wagon that she would go
through City Hall because I was
always working past 6. I still
remember the email I got from
you saying John can
t work
anymore overtime hours. His
internship is pretty much done,
so we have to figure out what
we
re going to do here, um, but
I
ll never forget your
attention to detail even back
then, and then when I was first
elected, seeing you not only
rise up to become our next city
manager, but truly becoming our
city manager at a time of
crisis when
we had to make sure our
employees were safe, our
community was safe. The funding
that we had was safe. You
really saw a plan and a vision,
and we would not be, and I say
this, we as a city would not be
where we are today without your
financial stewardship of our
dollars, as well as telling us
no when we
re spending too much
and you always do that very
tactfully, but on a personal
level, the man that you are is
truly a
m ir able Um, when we met Becky
when I was leaving the
mayorship, um, and everything
was happening with your family,
um, you know, I, I had said to
you, I think, well, David, you
can
t leave, you know, I, I
need you. We need you. The city
needs you, and you literally
said, my family needs me.
And
man at that moment I knew that
you were just a man. I hope and
I hope that we can always
continue to look up to that
moral courage, and it means a
lot, and I know out there it
means a lot to everyone and
even when people didn
t agree,
you always steadied the ship,
and I appreciate that so much
about you, and I will MISS You.
I was already telling people
you weren
t showing up tonight
because, you know, hey, we got
Jackie and we
re going
to vote on it. But you know Kat
knows. I said I don
t think
he
s coming, but you know,
we
ll see you here, um, but
first and foremost, thank you
for being a friend. Thank you
for being a mentor, and thank
you for making my first term in
office successful because you
guided me through some really
tough conversations, and I
really appreciate you, and I
ll
never forget that.
Congratulations, David.
Councilembhang, thank you,
Mayor. David, thank you for
helping me get through my
freshman year with patience,
with love, with kindness and um,
I mean, uh
as soon as I got sworn in, the
fires happened and you helped
steady the ship.
When the immigration rates
happen, you helped steady the
ship for our city. So thank you.
Thank you for teaching me how
to be a better person.
And thank you for giving me
advice and guidance, even
sometimes when I didn
t want it
but knew they had to hear it.
Um so that I really appreciate.
I remember a month, not even a
month after I was sworn in I
went to dinner with you.
And that
s when you had said,
you know, I
m going to retire,
and I was like, I just got here.
You
re already leaving and my
eyes started tearing up at the
table, um, you
ve been a Steady
presence sitting on my right
side, um, and I
m going to MISS
You. Thank you for all you
ve
contributed to our city.
Thank you, David, we
re so, so
grateful for you, personally,
as the first councilmember
sworn in since you became city
manager to really get to work
with you to be onboarded, to
really understand what it means
to support staff through your
vision to support the city. I
feel so supported and so lucky
to have grown in my leadership
under your tenure as city
manager these 1st 3 years, and
have served as mayor in your
last year, we know
how fortunate we are as a city,
but I think we cannot impress
it upon the public enough what
it means to be a city so well
situated financially to be able
to take on the ambitious, you
know, projects that we do,
capital projects, but also
having an ice rink in the park
for our holiday season. We are
able to do so much and give so
much to the community because
of the financial health that
you
ve brought and the
stability you
ve brought to the
city through really difficult
times, and it was an honor, so
everyone knows we were able to
give the
key to the city to David at the
Cityhood celebration, an event
that he really helped imagine
and dream up, and his family
was present with us that night,
a family that I think has
really also invested so deeply
in this city by way of your
commitment being here. It truly
takes everyone to support your
ability to take those phone
calls in the middle of the
night or early in the morning
or on the weekends, and so we
think your family also for
their support of the city
through so much, and you
re
fully
dedicated presence through all
this time that you
ve also been
dealing with. We really
appreciate you so much. So, um,
we will wrap up the
celebrations for you, but it
will continue to ring very true
that we are so grateful for all
you
ve given to the city and
the legacy you
ve built, and to
hear that you recognize that
legacy more than any of that
sort of financial strength or
health where all the things
we
re celebrating, but what
you
ve invested in the staff
and the team here hearing those
words from you at the holiday
party meant so much. So it is
truly
an honor, and I will ask the
whole council to join me at the
dais to accept the proclamation
and to take a photo with you
and celebrate you one last time.
Thanks, David.
Well, so, as, as you all know,
I am a person of few words. Um,
fortunately, WeHhovie put my
entire presentation at the from
the 40th anniversary, I posted
it online and so I won
t make
you all suffer through me going
through another long
presentation.
But I do want to thank the city
council. Thank you all for your
kind words and all the memories
that we shared and that brought
to me, um, as well as our
previous council members for
their support, um, not only for
me as city manager, but
throughout my career here with
the city. I also want to thank
all of you community members,
um, especially those who have
reached out and thanked me for
my service here and said
goodbye
and showed appreciation and all
of those who haven
t had the
opportunity to do that. I truly
do love this city and I
ve
really loved my experience here
and all the time providing
service to this community, and
I know this community is really
grateful for the service that
we as a whole, the city staff
provides and finally I just
want to thank our city staff.
It is an amazing staff. Thank
you all for working so hard and
making me look good because
quite frankly, that
s hard to
do
but I thank you all. I know I
d
leave the city in really good
hands with this staff and with
Jackie Rocco at the helm as
city manager, um, as I retire,
so thank you.
I know we have a few
dignitaries here to share
remarks as well, and we
ll do
that under our public comment
section, so we
ll get into that.
Uh, the city council values
your comments. However,
pursuant to the Brown Act, the
council cannot take action on
items not listed on the Posted
agenda. The public comment
period is limited to 20 minutes
with 2 minutes allotted for
each speaker. This public
comment period is to address
the city Counciluncil on
consent calendar items. Other
agenda items if the member of
the public cannot be
present at the time the item is
considered or items of general
interest within the
jurisdiction of the city
council. Another period is also
reserved for general comment
later in the meeting for those
that could not be heard at this
time. In public hearing
testimony will only be taken at
the time of the hearing. So
we
ll start first with
Lieutenant Fannny Lapkin.
And then we
ll go to Mandy. I
m
sorry.
I
m sorry. It says lieutenant
here. I
m just reading the
screen. Captain Fanny Lapkin,
everyone knows and everyone can
correct the record.
I respond to all of it. Lanny
Lapkin Captain Lieutenant, um
David, um, this is a, a, a
small token of our appreciation
from the Alley County Sheriff
s
Department. We have a
proclamation for your amazing
leadership, mentorship that
you
ve had throughout the city.
I know me being young here on
the with the city, you
ve been
an amazing friend and a great
mentor. Um, in recognition of
your outstanding leadership as
city manager of West Hollywood.
Your partnership over the years
has brought meaningful and
lasting improvement to the
community. On behalf of the men
and women of Los Angeles County
Sheriff
s Department. We
appreciate your commitment to
the community and the role you
have played in keeping West
Hollywood safe. So this is on
behalf of our Sheriff Fluna.
Proclamation. Can I approach
and just take a clerk.
Thank you. We
ll MISS You and
we love you. Thank you.
Next we have Mandy Laughlin
representing Supervisor
Horvath
s office.
Hi, David and Joshua
s gonna
come up with me too. We
re
we
re gonna, we
re gonna speak
together, um, on behalf of
myself as a resident, I want to
say thank you for, um, for all
the support that I
ve seen you
give the city while I
ve lived
here and also while I was a
commissioner here, um, your
leadership is a parent and I, I
feel that you bought a a
certain calmness to, um,
operations in the city too that
I know is really well
appreciated and then be on
behalf of um la County, I want
to thank you for your service.
25 years is a really
long time. And, uh, I know that
you are a big part of what
makes West Hollywood so special
and what
s made West Hollywood
so successful for, for the
tenure that you
ve been here.
Thank you, Mandy, and, uh,
David, I
ll say I
ve I
ve only
been in Wehho for about a
couple of years now, but I
quickly learned just how big
your impact and your legacy has
been here in this city, so it
s
been an honor to get to know
you and on behalf of Assembly
Members of birth, thank you for
your many years of service.
We
ll continue with public
comment. I have Kevin Burton,
then followed by Darius
Anderson, followed by Wendy
Goldman.
Good evening, Councilmembers
Kevin Burton, City of West
Hollywood.
I just don
t want to say a few
comments on item f3, which is
the city
s policy on
recognitions and memorials and
that includes plaques and
certification and other honors
um, I represent the West
Hollywood Bicycle Coalition,
and we would like to urge the
city to add another type of
memorial to the array you
already offered to the city,
and that is memorial sign at
locations of traffic deaths due
to crashes. This is done by
several cities around the state.
You
ll see these signs in la
and Pasadena, Pasarobos up
in the Central Coast. Several
other cities, and they serve
two purposes. One is to
memorialize the people who
suffered those tragedies at
those locations and to show
that we don
t forget them. The
second is as a reminder to
drivers to drive carefully.
That people can get killed when
you don
t drive carefully and
in la you
ll see messages very
brief on such signs to that
effect, and it
s usually
related to what happened.
So
we hope that you will consider
adding that kind of memorial to
your recognitions program.
And so that the city will make
a statement that those who have
died tragically are not soon
forgotten. Thank you.
You.
Darius Anderson, followed by
Wendy Goldman, followed by
David Eicman.
Esteemed members of West
Hollywood. I wanna talk to you
about b5 um.
Which particularly pertains to
unhoused individuals in West
Hollywood. Uh, myself having
been an unhoused individual in
West Hollywood. I would like to
say that I understand that the
issue is a concern for personal
property in this city, um
I would also like to mention
that the mission of the
Environmental Quality Act is to
preserve the ecology of this
environment. Uh, and the
welfare of the people. It is
the intent of this council to
identify critical thresholds
for the health and safety of
the people of West Hollywood,
uh, we are a community. More
than that, we
re a team. I
believe that the unhoused Bill
of Rights introduced by
Representative Corey Bush in
2021, intended to stop the
criminalization and mandate
federal actions to end
transience by the end of
this year. I would remind you
guys that uh we
re a community
and that the unhoused made
simply need a place to store
their property during this time
and that there are um
organizations out there willing
to help. Uh, those including
the bin by the by Chrysalis, um,
which could be implemented in
the city to help preserve some
of the property of the unhoused
while they
re here. Um, again,
that
s all I
d like to say.
Thank you
Wendy Goldman, followed by
David Eicman, followed by David
Eckert.
Good evening, Wendy Goldman,
City of West Hollywood, on
behalf of Cynthia Sunset
Neighborhood Watch. I would
like to publicly thank
Genevieve Morell for her
unending support for us, for
Sunset Strip, restoration, and
for her humor during the 15
years that she has been
PRESIDENT Of the West Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce. While we
have disagreed on occasion. Jen
has proved to be a woman of
valor who strives for the best
in dealing with business
leaders, community members
and city council. Her values
are top-notch, and I admire the
way that she has led since the
pandemic and recovery from the
tremendous economic loss to our
local businesses. As the sunset
strip continues to face
uncertainty with many
struggling or closed businesses,
pedestrian obstructions,
stalled developments galore and
a severe lack of green space. I
trust that the work that
Genevieve has done will be
continued by new ceo Len Ladzy
in the
same good faith. I
d also like
to thank the members of the
city
s boards and commissions
who invest in improving many
aspects of life in West
Hollywood in partnership with
city staff. Your service is so
appreciated. Happy holidays to
all and remember to stay aware
of your surroundings and help
improve public safety. Thank
you.
David Ekeman, followed by David
Eckert, followed by Scott
Schmidt.
Good evening, MADAM Mayer, MR.
Vice Mayor, Councilmember David
Eichman, chair of the city
s
transportation and mobility
Commission. I too want to first
thank David Wilson for his many
years of service to this
community, and I want to
commend the council on its
wisdom in selecting Jackie
Rocco as our next city manager.
Um, she has already served the
city admirably, and I look
forward to working with her.
Congratulations, Jackie.
On a somber note, um, my heart
also goes out to the Jewish
community in Australia. So to
show what a small world we live
in
one of my Dartmouth classmates
is on the town council in
Waverley, which is the area
that includes Bondi Beach. He
is Jewish. The mayor had asked
him to go to two events that
night celebrating Hanukkah. He
was finishing his speech at the
first event and about to head
over to the beach. Um,
thankfully, he is ok, but as
you can imagine, he is shocked.
It
s a, it
s a fairly small
Jewish community in Sydney. Um,
so everyone there is impacted
and
this just shows this can happen
anywhere. So my charge to
everyone tonight is if you hear
someone make an anti-Semitic
comment. Call it out, please,
by being silent, you
re not
helping. Rid the world of
anti-Semitism. So with that in
mind, happy holiday.
David Eckert, followed by Scott
Schmidt, followed by Rich
Magana.
Good evening, City Council.
David Eckert, uh, resident of
West Hollywood. Uh, this is the
time of the year where I just
want to uh say I am grateful
for every single one of you. Uh,
you are all beacons of lights.
You have all such great souls.
You inspire me daily. We might
disagree at times, but I so
value each and every one of you.
You make the world a better
place, and I hope people
watching at home realize how
selfless every one of these
people are. They represent our
city.
This includes everyone at city
staff that I
ve ever dealt with,
um, it
s time that we all look
at each other in this world
with everything that
s happened
lately, it breaks my heart that
we as individuals can
t look at
people and see the differences
you do. I so appreciate that.
David Wilson, I hope that when
you build a home, you build a
bigger wall for all the
accolades that you have
received, um.
And again, I just from the
bottom of my heart, I want to
say thank you. Um, and for
something to look forward to
next year. I would love the the
lights along Santa Monica
Boulevard are beautiful. I
would love for the park to be
lit up just as well. We get
people out of the cars. Let
s
become a community where we
actually come together and
celebrate, um, thank you again
from the bottom of my heart.
Love you all.
Scott Schmidt, followed by Rich
McGonna, followed by Nick Royal.
Good evening. Scott Schmidt,
resident of West Hollywood,
executive director of Emerald
Village West Hollywood. Uh,
first, let me thank you, Dave,
for your service. It was a
pleasure serving alongside you
for 91 days as a colleague, and
the last couple of years, uh,
working with Emerald Village,
uh, the staff has been, uh,
wonderful to work with and also
to you, Genevieve Moorrell in
the audience, thank you for
your service to West Hollywood.
Uh, if I look forward to
working with Lynn Lanzey at the
Chamber. I
ve known him for
since
the turn of the century and uh
i
m excited about him coming
here and I think he
s going to
be an asset to the city as well.
And also before I get going, I
realized just now Lauren and
and and John Heilman. A year
from now we will be here
celebrating your service to
this city, uh, and honestly
some o the best public
servants that West Hollywood
has known, and I hope maybe we
take a whole night to celebrate
them separate from the council
meeting because, uh, we
couldn
t do them justice in
just the the this part. Uh, now,
moving on, a year ago, uh, you
renew you, you gave us a
contract for Emerald Village,
uh, to fund through the first
of the year. I said that I hope
I could come back and tell you
that we had improved cannabis
sales in West Hollywood by 10%
compared to the statewide
average. In the third quarter
of this year from JULY to
SEPTEMBER.
Cannabis sales were up 4.8% in
West Hollywood, down 5.4%
statewide compared to where we
were a year ago. We
re selling
$82 more per capita than the
rest of the state. And
to do the math, that translates
to about 3000 or $3 million in
additional revenue that has
been generated in the last year,
um, in the last since I last
saw you, we
ve done a lot. We
crowned a new Queens of Emerald
Village Paradisa Darling. We
judged the Amsterdam Coffee
Shop Awards. We spoke at mj
BizCon and we hosted the first
ever Rainbow Royale lgbt after
hours party at mj BizCon, and
we
ve got some great things
coming up in 2026, including
thanks to your support,
FEBRUARY 28th, the
Cannabis Culture and Change
Conference in this very
building. Thank you.
Rich McGona, followed by Nick
Royel, followed by Genevieve
Morrell.
Greeting council members. My
name
s Rich Mganny. I
m the
founder of Queer and Cannabis.
We
re an organization focused
on preserving um the extensive
lgbtq history specifically
within the cannabis space. Um,
as, as Scott mentioned, we are
partnering up with him for the
cannabis, um, culture and
change symposium where we
ll be,
um, screening the unreleased
documentary of Join the Club,
which is a documentary focused
on the intersection of the lgbt
community, cannabis and hiv aid
d s It
s often an under an
untold story. It
s definitely a
story that, uh, the majority of
people within my industry know,
so I just wanted to thank
everyone here for giving us the
platform to be able to share
this story, um, to, to a larger
population. So thank you very
much. Nick Royel, followed by
Gevieve Murrell.
Hi, Mayor and vice mayor and
council.
I don
t know about any of you,
but this weekend has been
really tough.
Um
in many
areas, um, I teach
um first year students at
CalArts English.
And the incidents at Brown
shook me. I, I have friends who
also teach at Brown.
On the 2nd night of Hanukkah
in these moments, I often turn
to a rabbi
by the name of Abraham Joshua
Heschel.
Rabbi Heschel
often
helps me connect with my heart
and my soul.
And gives me the grounding that
I need when my nervous system
is bumped up.
When I don
t quite have a
language
for these difficult incongruous
feelings, right? These feelings
that are scared and lonely.
And and tired
So
to the city of West Hollywood,
I share this from Rabbi Hasel
on the 2nd night of Hanukkah.
I would say about individuals.
Uh individual dies
when they cease to be surprised.
I am surprised every morning
when I see the sun
shine again.
When I see an act of evil.
I don
t accommodate.
I don
t accommodate myself to
the violence that goes on
everywhere.
I am still so surprised.
That is why I am against it.
We must learn to be surprised
City of West Hollywood and
council
I am constantly surprised by
the depths of our love and care.
MAY we extend that more than
ever tonight. Thank you.
Genevieve Moorrell, we are our
final speaker in Chambers.
Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor,
councilmembers, Genevieve Morre,
PRESIDENT And ceo of the West
Hollywood Chamber for another,
I don
t know how many days,
hours, or seconds. Uh, but
until JANUARY 12th when Len
comes in, um, but I, I know you
haven
t taken action on it yet,
but I wanted to thank outgoing
Mayor Byers for her service was
stellar, exceptional, and
welcome, uh, Mayor, uh, the new
Vice Mayor Heilmann, to be our
new mayor. Hopefully,
if you vote on it, I, um, I
ve
seen, uh, Councilmember
Heilmann, Vice Mayor Heilmann,
many times over as mayor, so I
know you
ll do a great job. And
then, um, I also just wanted to
thank our outgoing city manager
David Wilson. David, uh, you
came in on a really tough time.
It was a tough time for the
business community as well. Um,
you, you got through with such,
um, respectful, stellar, dign
ity with my emotional craziness
and how many battles we waged,
but you took it all in and you
were just amazing and helping
us get through all that. Um,
thank you, Councilmember
Erickson, uh, for all the years
and I
ve known you a very long
time as well through some of
that internship you talked
about and Councilmember Hang as
the new council, we
ve just
started to get to know each
other, so thank you. Andelember
Meister, thank you so much.
Sorry about your eyes. You will
see later, so there
s just too
much to say. And then, of
course, welcoming Jackie Rocco,
um, Jackie is just the best
thing ever. Um, so I just want
to say it
s my last meeting and
I only have 19 seconds left, so
not a lot of time, but my last
council meeting here, next
council meeting, I MAY come in
JANUARY with our new person,
but I
ve created a
relationships I treasure. Thank
you so much for 25 years in
West Hollywood. It
s been the
most important moments in my
life have
been here, and the
relationships all treasure
forever. Thank you so much.
Thank you
You got to come back for your
reward, Jen. So I guess we
ll
see you in MARCH.
I don
t believe we have any
speakers signed up in Zoom, so
we can go straight into our
city manager
s report.
Thank you, Mayor, uh, Vice
Mayor and Counciluncilmembs.
Thank you, community members
for your public comment. Um,
tonight, we only have an update
from our community safety
department and our public
safety partners on the work
that they
ve been doing, um,
and so it
ll be a very brief,
maybe 10 minute update um an
overview of some of our
community safety projects and
programs.
Great, sorry about the delay.
Um, and good evening, Mayor,
Vice Mayor and members of the
city council. I
m Danny Revis,
director of Community safety
for the city. I
m also joined
this evening with various
members of our community safety
team, our West Hollywood
sheriff station captain,
Captain Fannie Lapkin. We have
our assistant division fire
chief who serves as our fire
chief for West Hollywood, Drew
Smith, and then we have um
Anita Shandy, our public safety
manager. We also
have our general manager of our
allied security services, which
provides oversight of our
security ambassador program,
and then we have Jessica
Benitez and Alisa Lopez, who
are both a code enforcement
supervisors in our neighborhood
and businesss Safety division.
Um, so essentially, the
community safety department
does provide public safety
services to protect life and
property and to improve the
quality of life for residents,
businesses, and visitors in
West Hollywood. So up on the
screen is essentially the
structure and the
representatives that I just
explained. Um, this
presentation is focused on
measurements that were
established as a part of the
department as part of the
current budget cycle that we
re
in, um, and in addition to that,
you
ll see
11 priorities that are outlined
as well. Again, all of this
information is directly tied to
the work plan for the
department that highlights,
right, what measurements,
performance metrics, etc. That
we are looking to acquire
throughout the year, as well as
the priorities that each of the
functions in the community
safety department are focused
on.
And so for our neighborhood and
business Safety division, most
community members are
accustomed to that being called
a code compliance, but we did a
name change of the division,
maybe about 2, 2.5 years ago as
a part of that process. And so
our operations though have not,
have not changed. And so that
includes code enforcement that
provides 7-day services. Our
business license and permitting
function, um, serving as the
liaison to the business license
commission and it also includes
oversight
of our animal care and control
contract that we have with Los
Angeles County.
Ares of focus and you
ll see in
parentheses for each of uh of
these areas of focus, whether
or not it
s tied to a
measurement or whether it
s
tied to a priority that I
mentioned early on. If you see
the check mark to the box to
the left, that
s meaning that
we are meeting that um and if
you just see the box without
the check mark, that means that
we are working towards that
goal, or we are, um, you know,
in progress or or maybe it
s
something that we haven
t yet
got to. So you are seen as a
part of our measurement in the
neighborhood and business
Safety division that
maintaining respond times is
being met. Um, we also are
continuing to look at municipal
code amendments, you know, we
recently did I won
t say too
recent, but we did make an
amendment to our vacant
property ordinance, and I know
our city council
s familiar
with that because obviously we
brought that item forth and as
a part of that item, it
included the ability to issue
demolition orders as part of
vacant properties due to calls
for service, um, and ultimately
as it relates to an umbrella
right through our public safety
agencies. So if our fire
department, our sheriff
s
department, our code
enforcement folks are receiving
calls for service, then that
amendment allows us now to
exercise the ability to um
order a property to be
demolished under that. Policy
program compliance is currently
being met. You know, the focus
in code enforcement in
neighborhood business safety is
high on vacant properties as
well as short-term rentals,
which have been a number of
items that had come before
council as well.
Our licensing permitted and
code enforcement case
management systems. That
s
something that staff continues
to work with our it division on
um in terms of making
improvements, trying to
streamline processes, but
ultimately um updating our
current system from where it
currently is right now. Um, our
multi-family proactive
inspection pilot program is
something that the council
provided direction on and there
has been an update earlier this
year as a part of the
semi-annual Community Safety
Update. And so right now we
re
in our 2nd year of that program.
Um, staff has essentially gone
through about 50% of a
multi-family properties in the
city and we
re on track to
completing the four-year cycle.
So essentially we got another 2
years to complete the
multi-family proactive
inspection pilot program, and
we
ll continue to provide
updates to the city council as
part of semi-annual updates.
Major event compliance, you
know, our
neighborhood and business
safety division issues special
event permits to brick and
mortar businesses. Obviously
there are a number of
businesses that activate during
Pride and Halloween. And so, um,
that is what that is
referencing in addition to
making sure the business is
closed when they
re supposed to,
that the occupancy levels are
being maintained and so forth
and then trying to do their
very best to address any sort
of unpermitted street vending
or other types of activities
that aren
t approved. Um, there
is a box here that you
re
seeing on this
this page here, the update to
park rules. Um, that is a
shared responsibility between
both neighborhood and business
safety and public safety. It is
in progress. We
ve gotten some
input and feedback from our
city prosecutor
s office, and
then the next step is we
re
going to be working with our
city attorney
s office, holding
meetings internally with
various different departments,
recreation, public works, right?
All of the folks that we know
have input and feedback or are
going to be directly impacted
by that. And the idea behind
this is to
codify this in our municipal
code, which it currently is not.
Our park rules and regulations
are in place and are adopted by
resolution, but what we
re
looking to do is transfer that
on over right and codify that
in the municipal code.
Um, here
s a snapshot in terms
of calls for service. We did
provide data going back to 2019,
which is prior to the pandemic.
It is a little unusual when you
look at other slides as it
relates to data, um as you
ll
see in 2020 as a result of the
covid-19 pandemic, you
ll see
calls for service a drop, but
we
ve seen an increase, and the
reason for that is our code
enforcement team actually was
responding and enforcing
various health orders adopted
at the time and
were quite busy. The folks, as
we know, were at home and
teleworking, etc. And so there
were a lot of noise related
calls and various calls that
code enforcement responded to.
You
ve seen we had our greatest
uptick in 2023. Um, but last
year we seen a slight decrease
and then this year
s data, what
you
re seeing here to date is
from actually JANUARY to today.
Um, so it looks like we
re
going to be under where we were
at for for last calendar year.
So now as it relates to our
public safety division and
community safety department.
And so this division is small
but very mighty. It has our
division manager, emergency
management coordinator and
public safety specialists, and
they really serve as the
liaison and oversight of our
contract with the Los Angeles
County Sheriff
s Department,
liaison to La Sanches County
Fire Department, Oversight and
contract management to our
security ambassador program,
serves as a liaison to the
public safety commission and
then emergency
preparedness both internally
within the city with city staff,
as well as out in the community
is their primary focus.
Um, that includes also
engagement with the community
as it relates to liaison and
and hosting meetings with our
neighborhood watch groups,
homeowners Association boards,
and again providing the
training that I mentioned Cert,
which is offered twice a year,
cpr, aed first aid training, uh,
community academy training
that
s in partnership with the
West Holly Sheriff Station, our
public safety awards, of course
our national night out, and we
just recently have an actor
shooter training as well and
any sort of public safety town
hall meetings at the community
requests or that neighborhood
watch groups or homeowners
associations invite us to
participate in.
Um, so there are areas of focus
again tied to measurement and
priority is ensuring that
response times with our various
public safety agencies, so
security ambassadors, West
Hollywood Sheriff Station, fire
department, etc. Are being met.
Um, and we are meeting that, um,
providing major event safety,
including event action plans,
and so we work with all those
partners very closely and spent
a significant amount of time
ensuring that events and
prevention of any sort of
activity, right?
That is unwanted is is
addressed and able to be
responded to, um, and that we
have a plan for that. Um,
providing emergency
preparedness trainings to the
community. I mentioned some of
those, sir, um, aed first aid
training, etc. And of course
crime and reporting, so that
s
working directly with our
public safety agency partners.
This is provided on a monthly
basis to our public safety
commission and other
commissions and advisory boards
and so making sure that that
data is being provided on a
monthly
basis, timely, and that it
s,
it
s easy to follow and easy to
read and able to identify and
allow the community to identify
trends as well. Um, the local
hazard mitigation plan and
emergency preparedness training.
I think that goes without
saying, but that
s definitely a
priority, and all of these are
currently being met. Um, what
isn
t being met at this time,
and these are all um in
progress, um, is our unarmed
alternative programs. Um,
that
s relating to our security
ambassador program and our
community safety officer
program. So
as the council
s aware, we did
a request for proposal process.
We selected vendors at that
point. We
ve implemented the
Security ambassador program,
but on the community safety
officer
s side in that program,
we
re still in the works as a
part of that process and so
that
s the reason why that box
is not checked off. Public
safety technology is also
something that has come before
the city council several times.
So that relates to our drone as
first responder program that we
are currently working with our
West Hollywood Sheriff Station
and the department as a whole.
And so the the latest and
greatest as it relates to that
update is that um they are at
the 9090 percentile rate if you
will, of 100% of of coming back
and providing us with a draft
of what that department policy
would look like. I know that
they need to get some input and
some feedback from the
bargaining units within the
department as well. And so, uh,
hopefully we
ll be able to
receive an update um by the end
of this month in terms of what
that looks like. And so we are
eager, of course, to get the
drone as first responder
program up and running and so
as soon as we hear from the
sheriff
s department, on where
they
re at. And so we
re
looking at hopefully the the
first quarter of next calendar
year of being able to come back
with the city council with some
updates. Um, our emergency
response plans and
communication, the sheriffs,
sorry, our Public Safety
division, of course, that is a
priority for them
working in tangent with our
sheriff
s station and our fire
department as well in terms of
continually updating that,
there was a report and update
that community safety
department was involved with,
with communications in all the
departments and that update, of
course, was presented to the
city council this year.
So our security ambassador
program is a 24/7 operation
with the transition that
occurred in OCTOBER this year.
Nothing has changed in terms of
the level of services that have
been provided aside from the
change in uniforms. We did a
rebranding of the kiosk that
you see out and about. You see
the number that we have
highlighted in red as well, the
323-8486500 number and that
provides the ability for folks
to call in and also text. The
community locations of where
you see ambassadors has not
changed either.
Uh, Ares of focus for them is
maintaining major event safety
reporting on a monthly basis,
ensuring that their ambassadors
are trained adequately to the
city
s expectations, and so all
of those are currently being
met. Um, the citywide mailer
with a magnet. I wanted to
highlight that because that was
a request that we
ve heard not
only from the city council but
from the public safety
commission as well. It is a
priority and I
m happy to
report that the mailer should
be going out next week, and so
folks would be able
to replace this new magnet with
their older magnet that will
highlight that 323-848-6500
number.
Uh, maintaining public safety
response time for security
ambassadors. This is still a
work in progress under our
current agreement, the Security
ambassador program is expected
to respond within 15 minutes,
so the bulk of those instances
are being met, but there are
some instances that we
re
finding via text message that
there is a delay and so we
re
continuing to work that with
our partners and so that is why
you are not seeing that box
checked off.
And now with our Los Angeles
County Fire Department. We are
serviced by fire stations 7 and
8, you know, I want to say on
the east side of the city,
obviously for Fire Station 8
and then Fire Station 7 more
towards the west side of the
city. It is 24/7 operations and
of course our fire department
partners provide services to
protect lives, property, and
the environment. They do
collaborate with our cities on
how services program as well
and are a huge component to our
major events and the safety and
our event action plans that we,
we bring forth. Um, I don
t
have a slide as it relates to
um their calls for service, but
I will tell you that looking at
the year to date from this year
compared to last year, we are
over a 6600 calls for service.
The bulk of those calls are
trending and have always been
trending towards
medical-related calls. Um, so
nothing has changed
significantly in terms of what,
what we
re seeing, what we
re
observing.
And how our firefighters, of
course, are responding.
And then we have our, our West
Hollywood sheriff station.
These are the last couple of
slides, of course, the
operation 24/7. We have
maintained our three special
teams. So we have a
community-oriented policing and
problem solving team, our cops
team, they operate Monday
through Friday, traditionally
or primarily from, you know, 8
A.M. To 5 P.M. I know those
aren
t their specific hours,
but more or less that
s when
you typically will see our our
cops team, and then we have our
entertainment policing
team deputy, um, deputies, and
they operate from Wednesday
through Saturday in the later
part of the hours, um, you know,
and get off around 4 A.M. Um
and we
ve also maintained our
mental evaluation team and so
West Hollywood continues to be
the sole contract city still at
this time that is maintaining a
mental evaluation team, um, and,
and that is as a result of
their currently being a
moratorium still in place that
does not allow contract cities
to add any
additional sworn or non-sworn
personnel to their contracts. I
know there have been some other
contract cities that have
expressed interest, of course,
of creating their own met unit,
but we are still the only
contract city to maintain that.
Um, and of course the major
events is a huge component as
well of our emergency
operations bureau with our
sheriff
s department and our
station staff as well. They do
a great job in terms of
providing input and feedback
and developing of that event
action plan.
Um, areas of focus, you
re
seeing, uh, the bulk of these
measurement and priorities that
are currently being met. Um,
you know, with, uh, the
incident that that did the
tragic incident that occurred,
um, in, in Australia, with our
Jewish community and the
importance, right, and the
priority that we provide to our
community here. We did develop
a Jewish community safety plan.
That plan is currently in place.
Um, and so deputies are, are on
alert and and prioritizing
making
contact with our Jewish faith
groups here in the city of West
Hollywood and making sure that
additional patrols are
occurring and of course our
crime prevention plan, ensuring
that any issues that we
re
coming across or identifying or
seen on a weekly, monthly basis
are being responded to
appropriately. So here is our
Part one crime, which is a huge
factor in priority within our
measurement that we decrease
our Part 1 crime levels, and
these are, these are the
serious crimes that
every police department and
agency supplies to the fbi on a
regular basis. And so you can
see from 2019 on 4th in 2020,
it took a dip. Um, 2022, we
definitely seen the highest
that we
ve seen and experienced,
but things that have continued
to trend downwards. Um, year to
date that does not include the
month of DECEMBER, so we
re
still one month out, um, but
that
s 11 months
worth, and it
certainly
looks like based on the trends
that we
ve seen for this year
that we
re going to be actually
under where we were at last
calendar year. So that is a
great testament to the great
work that our sheriff station
deputies, as well as our
security ambassadors, our
community members as well,
right, that report on
suspicious activity, etc. And
so I just wanted to highlight
that as well. Um, Ares of focus,
um, you
re seeing all of these
boxes are checked off because
they
re currently being met, um,
and that con
clu de s the presentation and
updates for community safety,
and we
re of course happy to
answer any questions the
counsel MAY have.
Thank you very much. Are there
any questions from the council
at this time?
Councilor Berrickson Councilor
Councilor Berrickson, thank you
so much for that report and
thank you for all the proactive
work you
re doing. I had the
great chance to do a ride along,
most recently with Gregor right
there. No, I don
t know why
he
s here. Maybe he wants to
keep an eye on me, but no, I
m
joking. But, um, and I just
want to say I really want to
thank the deputies for the
advanced knowledge and
attention they
ve been provided
to the community. I also
publicly want to shout out my
friend over there because I
have never seen a deputy who
knows every individual on our
streets who connects with them
and who provides care and
compassion and connects them
with services, and I know
that
s the type of work you all
promote and I
m really thankful
for that personally, especially
during really trying times in
terms of the ongoing incidents,
many of which were eluded here
today by some of our public
commenters. Have you been
getting any more calls or have
you been in direct contacts
with Temple Kol Ami or other
individuals to make sure that
we
re
proactively doing everything we
can. I think I know the answer,
but just for the public
certainty, that
d be great. I
don
t remember and maybe the
mayor does or someone does when
the next when the Chabad
lighting is but wanted to make
sure we
re in touch with Rabbi
Morty to make sure that he
knows because that
s a very
highly visible event at the
location, I won
t say publicly,
but it
s available if people
want to go look, but I just
want to make sure we
re being
as proactive as we can,
especially during heightened
times of hatred and um target
attacks
on our communities. Absolutely.
One of the things I got on
Director Rivas has mentioned,
the Jewish safety plan, so on
the onset of the unfortunate
tragedy in Australia, we
implemented that, so our
deputies increased their patrol
checks to all of our, um,
Jewish organizations and our
schools. As a matter of fact,
today they were at one of our
schools, you know, welcoming
the kids, uh, you know, and the
rabbis and the parents were
extremely grateful for to see
the deputies there, but that
s
something a plan that um we
initiate the minute that
s
something
that happens. So we increase
our patrol checks. We have
deputies park in certain
locations if they need to write
a report. Um, so that um the
community feels that they
re
safe and there are no threats
here, you know, in our city or
um I know that the fbi put
something else on coming out
for New Year
s just, you know,
have the community be safe,
that there are no threats in
our city and also in the
sheriff
s department
jurisdiction. So, but we have
crime analysts that throughout
the department that scour the
internet and all the different
platforms
that we have to see if there
s
are, there are any threats, and
that
s something that we put
out to our community to
increase our patrol checks.
Have we been able, thank you
very much for that. Have we
been able to, or I
m guessing
we have reached out to all of
our nightlife um bar,
restaurant owners, especially
along the strip to make sure
that their heart keenly aware
of what
s going on, especially
going to the holidays and the
New Year
s. I know sometimes
our city dips in attendance for
nightlife activity. Doesn
t
feel that way.
if you
ve driven down, um, but
specifically are we in
proactive touch with them? Are
they aware that, you know,
keeping your cameras on and
everything else so that way we
can have more eyes on the
streets, and those are things
that we communicate with them
even without any heightened
threats. So our entertainment
policing team, they actually
conduct foot beats and check in
with management and security
staff there to see if there
s
any issues that they have and
they, they exchange phone
numbers, they exchange um
information, and we do. I mean
we rely like Danny said, we
rely on our community, um,
because we can
t do it alone,
so we rely on the business
owners so if they see any
trends or if they see any, you
know, suspicious individuals,
they, they know that they have
to call us so that we can flush
that out, so we can figure out
whether or not there
s a threat
or not. But no, yes, our
entertainment police and our
patrol deputies are in constant
contact with them. Great. And
the last thing I
m saying, and
this is not planned, I
apologize, but I, um, I
ve been
seeing
an alarming amount of traffic
collisions on everyone
s
favorite street.
Fountain Avenue, um, alarming
to the point where even i
m
going, what is, what are people
drinking? It
s in the water.
Like I mean I like
we saw something at 6 in the
morning on Fountain Avenue and
I was doing my ride along or
half of a car was taken out.
Half of our car, I don
t know
what they were doing at 6 A.M.
But like
I know I
ve expressed this to
you privately, but publicly I
know people have been reaching
out to me, but
are we looking at increasing, I
know you
re doing the proactive
drinking and driving campaign
as you always do, but I mean,
I
m asking you a big question
here about what
s going on? How
can we help?
Patrol more in that area, but I
have a lot of residents coming
up to me going, Look, we
ve
lived here for 30 years, and
it
s always, you know, bad, but
like it seems like people are
like, you know, I
m not going
to get in an accident on Santa
Monica right now. I
m going to
drive up to Fountain and do it.
I mean, it
s been really wild.
I don
t know if my colleagues
would read. I mean, we all read
the reports regardless how we
feel, it
s, it
s a, it
s a lot.
So I do want to make sure we
stay higher level because we
don
t have any individual
projects or programs agendas
for this item. It
s supposed to
be a high level overview of
what the department
s doing. So
Fannny can certainly ask answer,
but I just want to make sure
that we stay very high level
and not like focus on
particular areas or sites. So
I
ll rephrase my question for
David
s direction as his last
meeting, jeez Louise, thank you.
Could you explain why
everyone
s losing their minds
on our streets of the city of
West Hollywood in the
last couple of months, um, in a
very broad, open-ended way. So
all I could, I can tell you is
that it doesn
t matter the date
or time or it just, it
s
inattention, um, drivers are
not paying attention. It
s not
speed has not been a factor.
It
s been inattention, failing
to change lanes, um, not, um,
looking before turning onto a
crosswalk. I mean, those have
been from seeing the reports,
but it
s not like you could see
from the public safe
ty you know, commission report
that we sent out. We 61 total
citations and found, but 88
overall traffic collision. So I,
we continue to, um, enforce, we
continue, we focus on specific
street, but I, I can give you a
reason because it does, if I
could tell you it
s only
happening at night, then we can
focus, but it
s throughout the
day and it
s, and unfortunately
it
s, it
s a lack of attention.
That
s the end of the day, it
s,
um, um, you know, a card
traveling and wants to make a
left and the vehicle behind
them doesn
t check. It doesn
t
look at the distance. I mean, I
can go on on those, but, but
those are, uh, so that, that
s
the only trend is the lack of
attention from our drivers.
Great. And my last question and
the mayor
s going to kill me,
but because I said, I want to
be done by 7, but at 7:10.
Um is having been issuing a lot
of citations in regards to
people when they
re driving,
touching their phones. Have you
been noticing an uptick on that
at all? I don
t have the answer
to that, but let me double
check on that, and I can, I can
present that. I don
t have an
answer. Thank you.
Thank you. We
ll go to
Councilmember Hang. Thank you,
Mayor. Thank you, Director
Rivas, for the, uh, very robust
presentation. I wanted to say
thank you, um, about 2 or 3
weeks ago, a lot of the
businesses in the Rainbow
District reached out to me.
They were concerned with crime
on the streets, with people
being overserved and
overintoxicated, causing fights
in the middle of the street, so
you, we had a call with
yourself and the assistant city
manager, and thank you for uh
increasing the foot beats. The
business owners have called me,
um,
they have said that they, that
they have that there are deputy
sheriffs going into their
businesses to talk to the
managers, what
s going on? Is
everything ok? Um, so your
presence is noted on Santa
Monica Boulevard, so thank you
so much um for all that and um,
you know, thank you for keeping
our community safe. I do
appreciate seeing the
statistics that crime is going
down, and I hope that continues
and
thank you. That
s all
Councilmember Meister
Thank you. Um, so in the, in,
in your report, I didn
t see
anything about um the
communications. We were looking
at uh in the it was a couple of
years ago talking about getting
a communications person, a
non-sworn for local, for the
local station. I just wondered,
uh, what the status was on that.
Yeah, and i
ll I
ll let if
Captain Lapkin has anything to
add, um, so the moratorium that
I mentioned that the sheriff
s
department has been exercising
with all the contract cities,
right, us included, prevents us
from adding any non-sworn. So
originally when we did bring
this to council, the thought
was that we were going to be
able to bring on a pio of some
sort, right, or a community
liaison that would be a
non-sworn position and that
s
just not something, you know,
with our discussions with the
sheriff
s department that
they
re that they
re able to
provide us at this time, um,
let alone, you know, a sworn
deputy as well. And so right
now we
re at a standstill. We
did have a law enforcement
technician which is a non-sworn
position, um, assisting with
that effort along with our
sergeant of one of our special
teams. That wasn
t the primary
function, of course, but it was
just a kind of assist, get some
information out on social media,
be a little more present on
social media.
Being able to send out Nixel
alerts, etc. Right, in a timely
manner and so I
ve been trying
to work that through the best
that we can in terms of working
with the sheriff
s station, but
of course we don
t want to take
away or pull from their, their
primary duties as well. And so
it
s, it
s really been
juggling in terms of doing that,
but in terms of hiring a
dedicated person. The reason
why we haven
t been able to do
that is because the moratorium
in place. Ok, so since we ended
up paying for it anyway, maybe
there is something we can do in
the new year where our staff
and I
m not sure if that would
be communications or public
safety can take on some of the
that role if it
s, if it
s
appropriate. Um
because, you know, we
re we
re
paying for it and we would be
paying for it anyway if that if
that staff person was, was
there at the sheriff
s station,
so whether we pay for it with
the
there or we have a non, uh, you
know, a civilian person here
working in uh at, you know, at
the city, that
s something to
think about. Um, the other
thing I wanted to bring up is
that we know that there
s
always an uptick of crime
during the holidays. Uh, so I
just wanted to mention that and
make sure that we
re
doing whatever we need to do
So we do just to, um, we have a
holiday car that
s going to be
focused on, on patrolling
during business hours on, on
the major business
thoroughfares. So that holiday
car is going to be um a
vigilant and parking lots
because that
s what we see
unfortunately we see the
vehicle that you know, the
vehicle thefts, um, the thefts
of, of proper of property
packages, that kind of stuff in
the vehicles because they
re
visible and their vehicles, and
those are the things that these
deputies are going to be trying
to address when they see
individuals, um,
leading packages that are
visible in their in their
backseat of their vehicles or
people that go shopping, drop
all their, their packages and,
and, um, in the trunk of the
car, people are constantly
watching. So if if we recommend
that you don
t do that, and if
you do move your vehicle so
nobody sees where you parked,
but again, parking is, is, uh,
uh, an issue, but we are
focusing on the major major
businesses and we
re, we
re, um,
the, the holiday car is going
to be working during the
business hours.
What we
ve, what I
ve seen in
the past is an uptick of
residential burglaries. So in
the past during the holiday
season, so it would be great if
we had increased visibility of
patrol cars in our residential
areas.
I
ll go back to Councilmemberur
Hang
Thank you, Mayor. Um, Director
Revas, uh,
obviously our community
anti-Semitism
s on the rise
everywhere. When
will the city reevaluate the
Jewish safety plan because
there
s other organizations
other than koame. We have Jindi
imamorists, that
s an
elementary school here, um, so
that, you know, it, it, it is
pretty scary out there, um, do
we know when we
re going to
revisit that plan, maybe update
it to um
to further protect our
community members. We
d look at
updating, I
m sorry, I
m gonna
add, I
m gonna add to this
because we update it every year.
So JANUARY, it
s something that
as a matter of fact, I spoke to
the sergeant um earlier today
that that
s something that we
look at every year. We contact
every organization, make sure
that the contacts are still the
same. Make sure that the emails
are still the same, so every
year is something that that we
update. We update the dates of
the holidays so that when the
deputies have to look at that
um Jewish plan. They have all
the, the most current
information. So it
s something
that we
ll have to update.
Thank you. And so I
m, I
m
hoping there will be a
continued presence, not just
when there
s a high holy days
of obligation. No, absolutely.
Thank you.
Vice Mayor Heilman. Yeah, I
want to echo Councilmember
Hangs, thank you for all of
your work, all year long. I
just hope that you will be able
to give us an update at some
point on the status of the
drones and the security cameras.
So, um, when you have that
information, if you can provide
that to the council, it would
be really useful. Thank you.
We do have comments from a
member of the public, David
Eckert. I
ll bring you to the
mic.
Good evening, David Ecker once
again. Uh, just a comment on
the security ambassadors, just
a comment and maybe a
suggestion for for their safety,
for the ambassadors and for the
public. I was wondering if the
kiosk won, it gets dark very
early, and many of these kiosks,
the poor, ambassadors are
standing in the dark. You can
t
see them whatsoever. I don
t
know if there
s a way we can
get some light to them. Also,
if the vinyls on those kiosks
could be changed over to
reflective vinyl that you can
actually read the numbers at
night
Might be a little helpful for
the community. Um and then with
the Jewish community, I don
t
know if any of those kiosks can
be moved in front of the
synagogues and things as a uh
you know, proactive measure
just for safety and concerns at
this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilor Meister.
I, I appreciate, uh, David
s
comments, but I can tell you
that for example, Mammonides, I
did see a patrol car there this
morning. I don
t know if it was
the sheriff or lapd since
they
re in both cities, but
they have security. They, a lot
of the places do have their own
security as well, that should
be working, you know, in
conjunction with you, um, and,
and Hemanides their security
has has uh guns, so
thank you. I wanna comment
response. Ok, thank you. Um,
thank you so much for this
update. I know this is part of
what the city manager had
brought forward as part of
regularly scheduled department
updates, but can you remind us
of when the next regularly
scheduled community safety
update will also take place.
Absolutely, Mayor. It
ll be the
first meeting in FEBRUARY. I
have to look at the calendar,
but we
re definitely shooting
for that. And, and the reason
why is because we want to give
our public safety agencies
enough time to close out the
end of the year with
the statistics, etc. And so we
will be presenting the next
semi-annual and having updates
and responses to the comments
made. Terrific. So the
community can look forward to
FEBRUARY 2nd, I think, is that
first meeting in FEBRUARY. I
know last year it took place
the same night that I was sworn
in as mayor on top of the fires
happening, so there
s a lot
going on that night, but
looking forward to that more
full update taking place and
thank you all so much for a
really tremendous year of work,
and it was council we get the
regular updates and what I
m
really moved by is these
incidents happen, the robber
ies burglaries, but we see the
follow through and that your
detectives are truly doing the
work, finding these people,
apprehending them, putting them
through the process, so that
has given me real strength that
this is working with
unfortunate incidents happen
and we
re on the downside of
that happening, but that the
work all the way through is
really there and so I just want
to really give kudos to the
detectives at the la Sheriff
s
Department, but also the fire
department for what a
tremendous year you
ve all
taken on, and we know in many
ways the winds are still to
come
and for this region. So just
again thank you so much for all
the diligent and hard work you
do on behalf of this community.
We appreciate you so much.
Ok. With that, I think that
concludes our city manager
s
reports. Um, we will go to the
fiscal impact on the consent
calendar and during this time
I
ll also make sure our city
attorney has a chance to read
those terms of the contract
into the record.
City clerk will go to you first.
Ok, thank you, Mayor. The
fiscal impact on tonight
s
consent calendar with the
addition of items f1, f2, and
f3 is $17,329,755 in
expenditures, $0 in revenue and
$0 in waived fees. Terrific.
Thank you. Um, with approval of
the agenda, item f1 was also
moved to the consent calendar,
which would include appointment
of city manager and adoption of
a um employment agreement for
the new city manager upon city
manager Wilson
s retirement. So
before you vote on it, I just
have to read the terms of the
agreement into the record. The
agreement would take take
effect JANUARY 8th, 2026.
Um, the term would be for 24
months with a renewal of 12
months beginning available on
JANUARY 8th, 2028. Uh, the
salary would be $368,500 with
cost of living increase
provided annually and a
discretionary 5% annual
increase. There will be no
change to the Calpers terms
because MS. Rocco is a
long-term city employee. Same
with the benefits vacation and
sick leave, except for an
additional city manager life
insurance policy. The Deferred
Compens
ation will be 3% of the base
salary. Um, auto and business
expense reimbursement, $250 a
month, which is no change for
the current employment. Cell
phone allowance, $100 a month.
Also no change and a severance
of 6 months, and those would be
the terms of the employment
agreement if you approve it on
consent, and we have a motion
and a second to adopt the
consent calendar.
And the consent calendar passes
50, noting the no vote of
Councilmember Meister on item
b7. Thank you. And an official
congratulations to Jackie Rocco.
We will go to item c1, the
first of two public hearings.
These are public hearings
brought on urgency ordinance,
so we
ll have the first reading
and as vice mayor always
reminds us these are things the
state is basically making us do,
so we don
t need too much or
any presentation at all, maybe
just a quick sentence of what
we
re doing here in that regard,
but I
ll officially open the
public hearing, c1 urgency
ordinance, and first reading of
an ordinance adopting the
reference titles 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 3
1 and 33 of the Los Angeles
County Municipal code
incorporating the California
State Building Code standards,
or any disclosures from
councilmembs? No? Ok. City
clerk, how was this hearing
noticed as required by law.
We have our staff
representatives here. I
ll turn
it over to you quickly.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,
councilmembers, and community.
Nick Meisic, director of
Community Development. I
m
joined by Jennifer Alkayer, our
assistant director, and Ben
Galan are building and safety
manager, also the city
s
building official who will be
providing the overview. Thank
you. Thank you.
Good evening by Mayor Byers,
Vice Mayor Hellman, and City
Council. Again, my name
s Ben
Galan. I
m the building and
safety manager. Uh, the item
before you is a routine code
adoption. Uh, every 3 years,
the state updates and adopts
new building codes because our
city is also serviced by the
county of Los Angeles, West
Hollywood also adopts the
county amendments to the stake
codes.
Traditionally, the board of
supervisors adopts their
amendments a few weeks before
the new code becomes effective
on JANUARY 1st. The recent
amendments were adopted on
NOVEMBER 25th. Uh, this code
cycle, the division is
introducing an administrative
amendment to the expiration
period of Plant check
applications.
Currently, the building code
requires applicants to pull
permits within 12 months of
their project submittal or
either their application
expires or they
re required to
pay extension fees.
Applicants have been
experiencing review delays with
our outside agency partners,
and this amendment will extend
the expiration period from 12
months to 18 months.
The amendment will benefit our
homeowners, developers, and
businesses experiencing
prolonged reviews by utilities
and county agencies.
Due to the county
s year-end
adoption, the city is faced
with very short time period to
update its building municipal,
it
s building and municipal
code and have them ready for
enforcement.
By JANUARY 1st
Staf requests that City Council
approve the urgency ordinance
25-25u adopting reference title
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 33
of the la County municipal code.
Incorporating California that
incorporate the California
State Building Standards Code
and introduced for first
reading ordinance 25-26. Thank
you and we
re open for any
questions. Thank you. I don
t
see any questions from the
council, and I don
t see any
members of the public who wish
to speak, so I will go ahead
and close the public testimony
portion of this public hearing,
and we do have a motion to
adopt in a second. Was there
any other questions? I think
we
re ready to move forward
with the vote then. Thank you
very much.
I will actually just quickly
say in seeing some of the
progress in Culver City on
single staircase, a policy that
they were able to move forward
with because they are outside
of the county building codes. I
want to continue our city
s
advocacy for these issues, and
we
ll make sure that in this
coming year we
re submitting a
letter of advocacy to the
county for these measures that
I think we would want to see at
the city level. I know Culver
City was able to do it
themselves. Santa Monica found
a different method. I know we
were working to see
what might be possible here in
our city and the county
s
building codes that we
re
having to adopt are restrictive
in that way. So that
s a piece
of advocacy I just want to name
here, make sure we can continue,
but other than that, there
s
nothing really to do with this,
just the circumstances. So
thank you for letting me say
that. We
ll go to the vote.
Does the motion include closing
the public hearing? That
s
right. Thank you.
Forever
And the motion passes 50 and
the urgency ordinance will go
into effect on JANUARY 1st,
2025, and then we will come
back for a second reading at
the next meeting. Thank you.
We
ll go to our next public
hearing, item c2, another
urgency ordinance in first
reading. I
ll turn this back
over to Director Meisic. The
public hearing is now open, and
I don
t believe there are any
disclosures from this council?
No.
Ok, and city clerk, will you
let us know how this hearing is
noticed.
Yes, Mayor, as required by law.
All right, over to you,
Director Meeric. Good evening
again, Mayor Counsel. Uh, I
m
joined by Francisco Contreras,
our long range planning manager,
and Adria Stauer, assistant
planner who will be giving the
presentation for this item.
Thank you.
Uh, good evening, Mayor, Vice
Mayor, councilmembers, and
members of the public. I
ll try
to keep this short. Um, the
item before you this evening is
his own text amendment to
update West Hollywood zoning
code in accordance with state
laws, which amend existing adu
and j adu regulations. The cta
is a technical update. The item
does not create or cite new
programs, and it updates the
zoning frameworks that our land
use regulations reflect current
state mandates.
Um, so I can do just a really
quick brief overview, um,
earlier this year, the city
council did approve, um, two
ordinances, um, of a similar
state to comply with State adu
law as required by the state,
the staff then submitted the
newly adopted ordinance to hcd
within 60 days for review, um,
in late 2025, 4 new bills were
signed by the governor, and
these bills have the potential
to make our local adu ordinance
null and void if the city is
not in compliance by Janey 1,
2026.
Um, ab 462 is the urgency
measure, um, it includes
requirements for processing
coastal development permits for
ADUs in the coastal zone and it
also includes um
and allows a detached adu to
receive a certificate of
occupancy before the primary
dwelling under certain
emergency conditions. Ab 1154
updates regulations specific to
j Junior ADUs, sb 9 and 543
strengthen hcd
s authority to
review local ordinances and
also imposing penalties on
noncompliance, and sp 543 uh
mandates specific changes to
adu laws, um, a few are listed
here.
Um, so our staff recommends a
city council adopt the urgency
ordinance and introduce on
first reading, um, an ordinance
amending, um, the chapter 19.36
of the West Hollywood Municipal
Code regarding adunjad
regulations. The proposed
update, um, will essentially
just bring the city
s ad
ordinance into compliance with
hcd and will also formally
resubmit to hcd, um, to bring,
um, once the council has
adopted it.
Thank you. I don
t see any
questions from the council, and
there are no public commenters
signed up to speak at this time.
Vice Mayor Heilman, yes, I made
the motion that we close the
public hearing, uh, adopt the
urgency ordinance and also
introduce on first reading the
regular ordinance.
But that
s
Yes, that was included.
And the motion passes 50. Thank
you.
We will move to our unfinished
business item e1, the economic
impact analysis of major
special events in the city of
West Hollywood.
Give our staff team a few
minutes to get settled and then
they can take it away with the
presentation.
Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,
and members of the city council.
I
m Laurayre, director of
economic development for the
City of West Hollywood. I do
apologize. I have strained my
vocal cords, so I
m going to be
deferring this presentation
over to Paolo Kesridit, who is
our business development
manager. He is also joined by
our consultants from Civil
Economics, and we also have
several of our staff that
helped contributed to this
cross-departmental team effort
for this study. Joining us in
the audience today. Paolo, I
will let you and your much
stronger vocal cords take it
from here.
Thank you so much. Hello, Paula
Kasperdit, business development
manager here for the City of
West Hollywood. Um, I will be
doing tonight
s presentation,
which is a report from Civil
Economics of the city
s major
events and calendar year 25. Uh,
those events include the Mishka
Festival, Weh Hope Pride, uh,
aids Walk, and also the
Halloween carnivals. So today
s
presentation will consist of an
overview, uh, looking at the
economic impact, the net fiscal
benefit, uh, the city
s brand
and the business community and
its benefits.
S as well as some
recommendations.
Ok, so at a high level, uh, the
events that the civil team
looked at estimated 379,000
attendees who generated
approximately $993.7 million in
direct spending across Los
Angeles County and also
supporting 993 jobs in Los
Angeles County.
There was a significant
economic activity across a few
key sectors, including food and
beverage at $41.6 million.
Hospitality and lodging at
$26.2 million and retail at
$11.8 million.
Um, and this slide here shows
uh some of the community
engagement and business
engagement that was conducted
as part of the study. There
were 2800 event intercept
surveys where we had people out
in the field conducting surveys
with people who attended the
event, uh, for business and
resident surveys, 8 on-site
visits, uh, with our business
task force, our business
improvement districts, our
commissions and advisory boards,
the West Hollywood Chamber of
Commerce, as well as visits
West Hollywood.
Uh, 17 business interviews, uh,
by industries. And finally some
document reviews which
consisted of staff reports that
were conducted from 2016 to
2025. Uh, the who 40 strategic
plan and the economic study
which both were approved last
year.
Uh, so this slide here shows
just an overview of the city of
West Hollywood with the four
major events outlined here on
the screen with aidswla Wehh
Hope ride, and Hoing Carnival,
um, being focused within the
Rainbow District area and then
Mishka Festival, uh, focused at
Plummer Park on the east side.
This slide here shows the
overall attendee direct
spending that happened, and so
that means it
s a comprehensive
measure of all the attendee
related expenditures. Uh, so
when we talk about attendee
expenditure, um, that
s
something that can occur both
within the city of West
Hollywood, um, but also outside
of the city of West Hollywood
during the event. Um, so
attendees direct spending, uh,
from WHOpe ride, as you see on
the screen here was
approximately $56 million. Um,
and Halloween carnival was 37
million
dollars, um, with that general
number that was on the lower
right hand side of the screen
at 93.7 billion with
approximately 379,000 attendees.
So this side looks at the total
total economic impact of those
four major events that we
looked at. You
ll see three
different categories on here
employment for jobs, labor
income, um, and the value added.
And within each of those
categories, we have the direct,
indirect and induced items. So
the direct is what gets
affected in West Hollywood. The
indirect and induced is what
happens outside of the city of
West Hollywood, so the county,
um, mainly and across the
region. Um, so for employment,
there was an estimated 99
3 jobs supported across the
county, including 727 jobs
within the City of West
Hollywood, um, and 266 indirect
and induced jobs across the
regional economy.
For labor, um, the combined
events are generated roughly
$53.3 million in total labor
income, including $33.5 million
earned directly by workers in
West Hollywood, um, and 19.8
million from indirect and
induced efforts from the larger
la area.
Uh, for value add, um, in who
ride and Halloween Carnival.
These events contributed $88.2
million in value added total of
that, the attendee spending
contributed $52.8 million to
West Hollywood with another
$35.4 million produced through
spillover activity across the
county.
Uh, this slide here looks at
the net fiscal benefit of that.
So we
re taking a look at our
revenues, which primarily for
our major events are our tot or
transit occupancy tax, and
sales tax and then expenditures.
Um, so whenever the city is, uh,
producing an event through
event programming that might be
public safety or any type of
event cleanup associated with
that.
Um, so these four signature
events generated about $902,000
in general fund revenue through
tot and sales tax, uh, compared
to the city
s total cost of $8
million which results in a net
fiscal cost of $7.1 million. Um,
and so as you can see here, the
percentage of expenditures
Halloween, Carnival achieved
the highest cost recovery rate
at 18%, while weh Hope ride, um,
was in 2nd at 10%. Um, I think
it should be noted that, you
know, the events that
any MISS Pelly puts on is not
supposed to be typically a cost
neutral, one for one exchange,
um, but there
s definitely a
lot of benefits associated with
that, which we
ll go on to the
next slide.
Um, so as mentioned, the city
s
investment in these events, uh,
solds multiple public
objectives, um, including some
social and community
development, um, some business,
uh, development and economic
activity associated with that.
Um, and also just generally the
city
s brand recognition and
reputation.
Um, in addition to that, uh,
these major events really do
support the city
s already
adopted plans, including the
who 40 strategic plan, as well
as the economic study, which
really focuses on prioritizing
community placemaking and
economic development, which
these events all do. Uh, and
these events generate
substantial media coverage in
2025, uh, the events produced
billions of media impressions
which equated it to about $16
million in um media value, uh,
for the city. Um,
and if the city were to
purchase, let
s say $16 million
in ad revenue, that wouldn
t
equate to the same amount of
eyes. So certainly this is
something that our major events
are unique in producing and
doing here for the city and its
brand work.
Next, um, as we look at just
kind of some also the other
benefits from a business and
community side, you know, our
business community also reports
uh increased sales during these
major events, particularly
during Weh Hope Pride and
Halloween Carnival, um, with
businesses reporting that
they
re adding shifts or
they
re at capacity. Um, this
is in line with some of the
work that we did during the
Rainbow District outreach that
was conducted where we asked
businesses what would be
helpful, um, and major events
was certainly one of those. Um,
you know, this increased
revenue and volume during these
events helped sustain business
es during maybe some of the
slower times of the year that
they might experience. Also,
we
ve targeted through
community and stakeholder
feedback that these events are
meaningful and strengthening
these local connections with
93% of stakeholders agreeing
that major events strengthen
community connections. Um, and
you know, although the city
doesn
t realize the full
recovery.
On the days that these events
are being conducted. Uh, there
is an important piece with the
marketing that we
re media
coverage, um, and the visitor
experience influenced future
travel decisions. Um, and so
that these produce benefits
beyond this current calendar
year that we looked at it, um,
and a more sustained for the
longer term period of time.
Um, and so as we move on to the
recommendations, these were
provided by the civil Economics
team. They
ve conducted work
for various municipalities to
take a look at what the city
could potentially do, um, to
either increase revenue or
provide just some general
recommendations. Uh, first is
established a unified event
typology for strategic
alignment. And what that means
is the city does a lot of
events. Uh, we do events from
our large major events, uh, to
community, a specific events, a
cultural events. And so
how do we deploy resources that
are in line with those type of
category events, um, you know,
how do we streamline services
and how do we um produce some
KPIs that
ll let the city know
whether or not some of the
events are giving a good return
back on some of this
information.
Uh, next would be explore a
centralized citywide
sponsorship strategy. Currently,
how our sponsorships, uh,
sponsorship structure works is
that each event, it works on
its own kind of sponsorship and
so centralizing that in one
area maybe a brand sponsor
wants to come and dive all the
way into West Hollywood and so
we can provide them an
opportunity at Weh Hope Pride,
at Halloween Carnival, um, at
maybe a recreation division
specific event, um, something
that they can cater to that
partic particular brand. Um,
and third
is consider a trademark and
brand strategy, uh, a brand
licensing strategy. Uh, so as
mentioned, West Hollywood
s
name has a very big, big, uh,
brand. Um, and certainly our
logo Halloween Carnival, and
Weh Hope Pride specifically
also have very big brand names.
Um, and so being able to
capitalize that monetarily will
help kind of um, uh, provide a
new revenue source for the city.
And so with that, that ends our
report. Uh, staff is here and
also the civil team is here. If
there are any questions, the
council should have. Thank you.
Thanks so much. I don
t see any
members of the public signed up
to speak, so we can just get
into our comments and
deliberations. I saw a Vice
Mayor Heman you put your name
up first. Let you go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, Paulo. Thank
you, Laura. Thank you to the
consultants. I just had, um, 3
or 4 things that I want to
mention. One, it sounds like uh
for our major events, Halloween
and
ride that there are real
opportunities for us to
increase, uh, West Hollywood
Hotel usage by visitors, so
that MAY be something that
needs to be included in your,
uh, upcoming work plan. I noted
that one of the concerns of the
business community was delivery
routes when Santa Monica
Boulevard is closed, so making
sure that our businesses
are able to get deliveries of
of goods and uh they
re able to
deliver as well, so maybe
working with the business
community on that.
Um, the big events result at
least in some businesses
turning away customers and
maybe this is an opportunity
for us to work with some of
those businesses in finding
additional space or utilizing
additional space or converting
street space as has been done
on other occasions, so I
m
hoping that that can be a part
of what you
re looking at. I
fully support the citywide
sponsorships. I think that
s a
missing piece in terms of uh
getting outside dollars to
support our events and then
finally, um, I think maybe we
need to, I know you wanted to
compare to the 2014 study.
Maybe we need to look at what
events should be included as
part of this going forward
because
obviously the Mishka event is a
very small, more community
focused event, although it does
attract a lot of people from
outside of West Hollywood.
Maybe that is uh it should be
it should be included, but
there are other events in the
city that are comparable in
terms of size that it might be
interesting to look at how do
those compare, um, to that
scale of events.
So those were my only thoughts,
but thank you for, for the
report.
Council Meister, we
ll go to
you.
I, I
ll add that I don
t really
understand why the aids walk is
included in that, and I don
t
just based on the numbers that
we saw, I don
t know that it
needs to be a part of, you know,
moving forward in terms of
surveys or whatever, looking at
it because we don
t really
it
s not really our event, and
it doesn
t look like we spend
much money on it and it doesn
t
look like there
s, you know,
that we, that there
s ways that
we can leverage it like we can
the other two events. Um, what
I thought was missing in terms
of the recommendations was
looking at the business survey
overall assessment, and the
items that the business
community brought up when asked
what single change could most
increase economic benefits next
year. So you,
you have public safety,
marketing, local regulatory
conditions, operational
conditions, and I think, you
know, those are some things
that need to be incorporated
into um
into this, uh, and then I just,
I kind of wanted to go back to
the, I
m sorry, I have to find
it, uh, the memo that was sent
to us with the previous
results from the uh from the
other study
Uh, just bear with me a second.
Yeah
So I guess, um, in terms of
a comparison, uh, with, with
the previous study, I, I kind
of want to understand, uh, from
your perspective, if we learned
anything new, you know, that we
didn
t know from the previous
study and from what, what was
it 2015, 2014
I mean, I, I mean, I saw a lot
of the same
results
Um, so I just wondered if
you know, if, if we learned
anything new in this particular
study, uh, and are we surprised
at any of the differences if
there are, there are some
differences between the earlier
survey and this one.
Yeah, thank you so much for
that question, Councilor
Meister. Um, definitely, we did,
uh, learn some things in
regards to the 2014 to the 2025
study. One, it was done 10
years ago when the modeling was
a little different for some of
these events. For example, Weh
Hope Pride was, um, la ride
back in the day at the modeling
structure in which, um, the
city
s uh uh uh production was
a little different compared to
those. Um, so we are seeing,
you know, people are coming out
for Weh Hope Pride and
Halloween Carnival
still. Um, we are seeing that
people are spending more from
the 2014 numbers that were
conducted, um, in the previous
study, and there were more jobs
being um uh having a direct
impact as a result from that.
Um, I think, you know, we, the
recommendations that civil
provided are probably the the
biggest learning components of
that, you
re looking at the
sponsorship, looking at the
event typology, um, as well as
looking at the trademarking
associated with that, just to
look at some additional revenue
sources for the city as we
continue to produce events, um,
that get inter international
traction. And, and I mean,
looking at um the memo and it
s
page 6
of uh of the pdf that was sent
to us, um, I
m looking at the,
you know, the differences
between 2014 and 2025 spending
per attendee. I mean, they
re
and they
re fairly significant,
but I would imagine that some
of this is due to inflation, um,
but I thought it was
interesting that the Halloween
carnival, the differences, the
difference, it was really
significant compared to the
other three
events. Um
I mean, you have spending per
attendee at $45 at Halloween
carnival in 2014 and in 2025 it
was 225, and I
m wondering what
part of that was the ticketing
prices.
Well, when it comes to
Halloween carnival in
particular, this year it was
held on a Friday, and so having
it held on a day where it
s a
weekend, uh, more people are
likely to come, um, and spend
more money. I believe the one
in 2014 was held on a weekday.
I don
t know exactly what
weekday it was. Um, I can go
double check the files. But um
that is part of what is leading
to increased spending. Did, did,
did
the spending per attendee
include ticket tickets that
were purchased if they
purchased a ticket from
from uh
you know, for the, for to be
able to enter into the oh for
for WeHil ride. Oh, I will have
uh Adam from Civil Economics.
Go ahead and respond to that
question.
We are talking about pride, not
he. Well, now I
m, yeah, I
moved quickly to ride. So my
question was that with regard
to Weh Hope ride and looking at
the difference between 2014 and
2015 is what is tickets
included in that cost per
attendee in your, in your in
your calculations. We don
t
specifically ask if they are
buying a ticket. It
s uh
everyone where we positioned
the intercept surveys, so it
s
their total uh
spend that
s basically
remaining. So we asked him a
series of categorical questions,
uh, leisure, hospitality, hotel,
um, food and beverage, um,
retail, and then anything
remaining, they
ll put into a
miscellaneous category. It
s a
very truncated survey. So, um,
it could in the way they
respond, include a ticket, yes.
Ok, and then, and then I
ll go
back to Halloween carnival.
That difference between 45 and
225 when the others aren
t just
they
re more, but it
s not as
significant an increase, and
I
m just curious of your, your,
um, what you, what you think my
best guess is that for this
year
s report. This is the
largest, I would say globally
in terms of pride, especially
um data collection effort. So I
think the sample size was quite
a bit smaller in the 2014
survey. It was a very small um
intercept survey. So my
guess is there might have been
some kind of variables that
weren
t picked up in the
smaller footprint. I, I think
we
re pretty comfortable given
the larger sample size, um,
that the spend has just shifted.
I would also imagine, um, you
know, we looked at a few, uh,
correlated variables, you know,
there was the, the way ride
shares were, um, venture backed
at the time. They didn
t pass
along the actual cost, and my
guess is there
s probably some
weirdness
around the transportation
reporting, uh, just because
those were below market value
back in 2014 for the attendees,
if that makes sense.
Well, knowing how much
rideshare costs this year, um.
Just going from, from
Westbourne to the, the hotel
was like $20.01 way. So yeah, I
could see where that would,
that would be something. And
then my last question is, how
many actual business people did
you talk to because I was
confused whether it was 17 or
it was 17 per industry
Um, so the, there
s a
difference between the
interviews and the folks that
wanted to do a digital survey.
So each of the, you
ll see in
the column where we were at
bids, Chamber of Commerce,
those meetings where there
s
multiple sectors and businesses.
Those were conversations and
some of those were one on one
interviews. The each of those
folks had an opportunity to do
the digital survey. That was a
mixed, uh, set of feedback on
if they wanted to report out
for various reasons digitally
and kind of had that.
Um captured or if they wanted
to do um anonymous
conversations in the one on one.
I would say across each of
these sectors it was probably,
I would say 45. I don
t have
that number in front of me. Um,
of different individual
businesses with individual
feedback. Um, I would say there
was two sets of uh feedback
criteria that kind of fell out.
Um, you see in the report,
given the scope of work that
was contracted for was
System-wide reporting
We had a lot of very um
specific event specific like
this went wrong with the very
specific logistics that didn
t
get put in because we were
running out of pages in it.
That wasn
t in the specific
scope, but we do have that
available. So you
re getting a
readout on things that are like
system-wide sets of questions
on special events and event
activation.
Ok, thank you
Did you want to share that
Well, the numbers seemed
strange to me for 2014
Halloween because that was the
year it rained. It was a Friday.
It was a Friday night, but it
rained, so I think we probably,
we probably need to look at
those numbers again in terms of
attendance. Countemb Hang.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you
for the report. As I mentioned
to you during my call with you.
I think it
s incredible that
just two events had brought
379,000 people to West
Hollywood. That accounted for
99%.Rent generate a revenue of
93.7 million, of which 88
million went to the county or
went to the surrounding region.
Like I mentioned during the
call, I think those areas
deserve to, they should give us
a basket of muffins for that,
because we definitely helped
them with that. So thank you.
And I wanted to commend your
team. I was at the Mishka
Festival, as I said during the
call, your consultants,
cornered me and my partner. We
filled out the surveys, and we
were very happy to do so, and
we look forward to filling out
the next ones. Thank you.
Councilmember Erickson. The
data must be skewed. I can only
imagine. Like, I don
t know
who
s filling out this survey.
Like I
m, I
m not involved with
the city at all. Um, that
s
great. I love o. I love being a
secret shopper. It
s fun. Um,
thank you so much for this
report. I really want to thank
you for the work that you put
into it. A couple of things
that I was looking at that I
want to just piggyback off of
the vacant lot activation is
really critical, especially in
our beautiful rainbow district
I will say I had a fun time
dancing in the lot where
Beaches was during Halloween,
but other activations like that
can use that space. It
s a
parking lot. It just sits there.
Um I know beaches and other
businesses are always looking
for something to do outside.
Not right now, maybe it
s a
little chilly. Heat lamps go
far, but those opportunities
can can be used as well as
activations on streets that
really, you know, for lack of
better word, um, you know,
between
Jim Barr and Bank of America.
You know, it
s a tight street.
There
s a lot of people there
that oftentimes sees a lot of
high traffic and cars are
trying to turn right or
residents. However, we could
maybe shut down that street on
high visibility nights would
allow Jin bar and other bars to
expand and use street
opportunities. I
m not saying
Robertson Lane 2.0, but I
m not,
not saying Robertson Lane 2.0c.
Councilmember Meister, give me
the look. Um, but additionally,
how we could utilize some of
those spaces just once in a
while
to to promote business space in
the way that they can allows
for those sponsorships. Um, I
would love, and I kind of
talked about this with a few
individuals before. I would
love for Halloween to be longer.
Um, these events should not end
at 11. I mean, people are still
like saying, I
m coming out to
West Hollywood at 11 o
clock,
right? I know I, I wasn
t, I
was at home, um, well, a little
bit after midnight, but I think
that especially on weekend
events, Friday, Saturdays,
having Halloween go a little
bit longer, makes sense because
people, as I think one of my
colleagues mentioned, are
trying to get into the
businesses and they
re busy and
they can
t, but they
re all out
there dealing with, you
know, wonderful costumes in
every way. So I would like to
see that as a potential and I
think that brings in more
revenue or allows us more
flexibility. Additionally, you
know, pride is another one, how
we can continue to use that
space or activate that space,
um, for a longer duration is
good. I know I
m, I remember
when I was mayor and I think it
was Kylie Minogue on
Sunday and, you know, I said,
one more song, and they said,
David said no and I said, Who
s
David Wilson? I
ve never heard
of him before, but you know,
you
re good. You have 3 members
of the council up here, no
violation of the Brown Act, but
I say that if we have, and we
always do have an amazing act
in whatever way, you know, that
flexibility. Our neighborhoods,
we ask them for grace. A couple
of times a year, maybe more,
some of them would argue, um,
but you know that economic boom
to the industry will help and
how we can continue to promote
um, uh, Carlis streets and the
ways that people love walking
and and coming about here and
it is a walkable city in that
way where people know don
t, if
you want to get in your car,
that
s, you know, you
re either
going to pay and I know coemb
my story says this $20.35
dollars at the pdc to park or
you can walk and you know, or
take rideshare safely. So how
we can continue to do stuff
like cyclovvia but other spaces
like that bring in a lot of
activation for our businesses.
So those are just a few of my
suggestions, long term planning,
I see my friends Cleo and Meg
over there going, Halloween
later. What? Let
s start
talking about it. The meeting
s
probably tomorrow being
scheduled right now, but um I
just think that when I hear
from businesses, they would
like things to go a little bit
longer just to help them in
that way. And, and again, Paula,
Laura, your entire team. I mean,
you all worked so hard with
everything you do with our
business community. I really
see it. You respond to the
smallest to the largest
business with vigor and just
true passion and it
s
just want to thank you from
this day for all the work that
you do and, and everyone on
your amazing team.
Thank you. Thank you all for
this report. I think it
s
really exciting to have a
clearer sense of what we are
investing in when it comes to
these events and what the
return looks like, and it is
really incredible. I hear the
op opportunity to maybe review
other events in the future,
seeing, you know, sunset Strip
doesn
t have an event reflected
here and knowing that our
hotels are really a part of the
economic engine of the city,
connecting those dots feels
really important. I
m wondering
already with so many major
events happening, you know, in
the next 3 years, how
we can promote early some of
the major, you know, West
Hollywood events in the hotels
remind people that if they love
their stay, here
s a great
reason to come back later. It
seems clear that a lot of the
events that we have right now
are serving the region really
well, but bridging to the
broader community, getting
people to travel and come to
West Hollywood to be a part of
these events is part of what
will help fuel this economic
engine. I
m also recognizing
ways that we can piggyback off
of existing event structures. I
know of the cannabis community
has tried and sometimes
struggled to always build their
special events around some of
these events, but finding the
ways that we can make those
links happen, feels important,
um, I, I skipped one note of
mine, but in the interest of
thinking about sunsets,
opportunities, similarly, the
art walk and Design Week feel
like a tremendous opportunity
where we
re probably naturally
leaning into a more
international audience, an
audience that
s certainly
coming to think about a
different level of economic
investment in the city and the
resources
that are available here. Um, so
I
d be really curious about
that, and I know they
re moving
to later in the year next year,
but ultimately hearing that
there are opportunities ahead
for us to enable stronger
partnerships through brand
sponsorships and communicate, I
think what the real value of
these events are to the
community is tremendously
exciting um and the last note I
think because the the data on
transportation MAY not be
totally clear. To me, I think
that the takeaway is finding
more opportunities that we can
leverage public transport
ation systems, connecting, you
know, our city line to the red
line, getting people to not
have to invest in that
rideshare, although rideshare
is better than driving their
own personal vehicle, but we
ll
keep a little bit of extra
money in their pocket that they
MAY be more willing to spend
here. I recognize that this
report is about capturing the
total economic investment and
that investing in that
rideshare is part of that, but
I know our businesses would
probably be happy to have those
dollars on their bar bar tops
instead, so I just thank you
all so much for the work on
this. It definitely helps tell
the
story of what we
re investing
in as a city and really clear
ways to the business community,
especially when they ask us
what we
re doing as a city that
we can point to this is
tremendous, and I think it
gives us a lot of great
roadmaps ahead for how we can
strengthen our events programs
here. So I appreciate you all
so much and thank you to the
consultant team who
s a part of
this work as well.
There
s no final comments on
this. I believe this is just a
receive and file. We don
t have
to take a formal motion on this.
Is that correct?
Ok.
Oh, we do have a motion coming
in. No, we do not. It
s just a
receive and file, ok.
Thank you
for wanting to do a motion.
Thank you all so much.
Um, we are, yeah, we are moving
towards the end of our agenda.
We are looking at item f4, very
exciting item tonight. Uh, the
election of mayor and vice
mayor. So I
m gonna turn this
over to our city clerk to
administer the election. We do
have a public commenter signed
up to speak. What order would
you prefer this happening in?
We should take the speaker
first, and then we can proceed.
Uh, Joshua Baum.
We were just told that this is
the order. If you want to speak
at the end of the agenda during
the final public comment period,
that would be your other option.
Yeah, I can move you. Ok.
Ok
ok, so seeing no public
speakers, we
ll move straight
into the election. Thank you,
Mayor. The item before you is
the election of the new mayor
and vice mayor, who will be
installed at the JANUARY 12th
City Council meeting, and so I
will open up nominations for
mayor. I would like to nominate
Vice Mayor John Heilman. I
ll
second that.
We have a motion and a second.
To be sure.
Are there any other nominations?
Seeing none, I will take a
voice vote just so we have it
on the record. Councilmember
Erickson, enthusiastically, yes.
Councilmember Hang, yes,
Councilmember Meister, yes,
Vice Mayor Heilman, Mayor Byers,
yes, congratulations, our next
marriage.
Ok
And now I will open nominations
for Vice Mayer.
I would like to nominate
Councilmember Danny Hang.
I
ll second that. We have a
motion in a second. Do you
accept Councilmember Hang? Yes,
ok, I will take a voice vote.
Councilmember Erickson, we
ll
get in trouble for this, but
I
m going to say hell yes. Ok,
Councilmemb Hang. Yes,
Councilmember Meister, yes,
Vice Mayor Heilman. Yes, Mayor
Byers, yes, congratulations,
Councilembhang.
S.
And again, our new
incoming mayor and incoming
vice mayor will be installed at
the JANUARY 12th City Council
meeting. MAY, can we, can I,
MAY I say one thing? I just
would like to think. I know
we
ll have much more to say,
but I want to thank our current
mayor, uh, Chelsea Byers for
her leadership throughout this
past year. I literally
mentioned to our colleagues
that I literally cannot believe
it
s been a year, but you have
been a steward of the city in
every way, shape, and form, and
I
m just so proud of you, and
I
ll have much
more to say. Congratulations,
Mayor, for the next few more
weeks. Thank you.
Thank you all very much.
We are done with this agenda,
and I
m also saving my words
till JANUARY, so I mean, truly
I will just say it
s been a
remarkable year. I
m so
grateful for everyone. All the
support has meant the world. I
will enjoy the holiday break
with this title for the last
few weeks, um, but really
looking forward to John
Heilmann becoming our mayor.
What a special year we have to
look forward to ahead. Truly,
we are so fortunate as a city
to be served under this
leadership to come. So really
tremendously grateful. Thank
you. Ok, ok, one more
And with that, we
ll go to
excluded consent, which we have
none, so we
ll move into our
final public comment and we
ll
have Joshua Baum join us at the
microphone. Are there any other
speakers signed up for the
final public comment? No, Mary,
we don
t have anyone else
signed up. All right.
I mean, I was going to wait
until Ja, but I
ll, I
ll
see what I
m gonna say tonight.
Um, good evening, good evening,
Mayor and Counciluncil. I want
to thank outgoing Mayor Chelsea
Byers. Chelsea is someone I
first met at the very end of
2018, almost exactly 7 years
ago when I was recruiting the
first board from the West Side
Young Democrats and looking for
people who cared deeply about
local issues like housing,
public transit, and where young
people actually had a voice in
government. Chelsea showed up
already allen. Later passing
the presidency of the club to
her was one of the easiest and
proudest decisions I
ve ever made. But I also want
to see something more personal.
A few years ago during one of
the lowest moments of my life
when very few people were there.
Chelsea was.
I
ve never forgotten that.
Watching her go on to serve the
city includes including as
mayor, has meant more to me
than I can really put into
words. Chelsea, I
m grateful
for you. I
m glad to call you
my friend, and I love you.
And congratulations to incoming
Mayor John Heilman. John is a
true civic icon. He helped
found the city and his
fingerprints are everywhere in
it, especially in what West
Hollywood represents for lgbtq
people. It feels right to see
him stepping into this role
again. Thank you. Thank you.
Seeing no final public speakers.
We
ll move to Councilmember
comments and meeting attendance
reports. We
d like to begin?
Can I have you start, Councilor
Burhang?
Soon to be Vice Mayor. Thank
you, Mayor. As far as meetings
and attendance are concerned, I
attended the world
s aids Day
celebration at Stors aids
Monument. Um, I attended the
Victory Fund in dc where Vice
Mayor soon to be mayor, John
Heilman was inducted into the
Victory Fund Victory Institute,
lgbt Hall of Fame for his over
40 years of service to our
community and for being the
longest serving lgbtq out
elected official in the United
States of America
Thank you
And also at this conference are
wonderful mayor was on several
panels talking about housing as
well as supporting lgbtq
candidates, which was fantastic
to see her speak, and I
attended the Winter Wonderland
Market. Um, I had to use the
blue seal because I didn
t want
to fall again and break my leg,
and I was proud to use that
blue seal, um, and also I
attended the 25th annual Paul
Stark Awards, that ceremony was
led by the new chair
of the Human Services
Commission, Chair Anne Marie.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember
Erickson. Thank you so much. I
attended various events and
community gatherings since our
last meeting, um, and I just
want to again thank David for
his service and Jackie, you
ll
be right up here in JANUARY
starting and I just want to
again congratulate you, moving
it to consent just shows the
community not only how much we
trust you about how much this
full council is behind your
incoming leadership as city
manager, um, and as someone
who has known you since my very
first day at City Hall. You
have been a mentor and a friend
to me, many much like much like
David has been, and I just want
to thank you for my progress.
And if you don
t like me, you
can blame Jackie, but um, you
know, but whatever, but I don
t
think, I don
t think there
s
any, there are people in this
city and I want to echo what
our community member David
Eckert, and I didn
t know you
had an Emmy, by the way, so I
need to like dude, there you go,
see, he just goes like this too.
Like
that
s why I love you, David,
because you, I like, I love
finding out new things, but I
digress, but I just wanted to
say Jackie
you invested in me when I was
moving on from an intern to
becoming then
Counciluncilmember at la
s
Deputy, you invested in so many
of us, and that vision is
something that you didn
t do to
get ahead. You did it because
you truly believe in making the
world a better place, and there
are people who do not agree on
anything, but I know they agree
on how much they just adore you
and your service to the city.
So congratulations again. I
cannot wait to look over at you
and give
you my eye roll or because I
don
t really have a poker face,
but I
m really excited to see
what you
ll do in the city, and
then congratulations to my
incoming colleagues. Our first
soon to be aapi Vice Mayor, as
well as just overall amazing
guy. I
ll have more to say then
and to someone that has been a
mentor, and again, if you also
don
t like me, I was his intern
and hired in that way as well,
but a true legend and I have
missed going to many
conferences in the past, but
I
ve never missed more going to
the
Victory Fund this past year to
see him get a well-deserved
award and standing in the
footsteps and the path that you
have led for so many of us, and
I
ll have much more to say, but
I did watch your speech that
was put out there. It was
eloquent. It was fairy John
Heilman, but it was class all
the way, and congratulations
incoming mayor John Heilman.
Councilmember Meister
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I
attended the graduation of the
Fall 2025 Civic Academy
participants, and it
s been
great to see how popular this
course has been, and I thank
staff for putting together an
interesting and informative
curriculum that seems to be
getting around because you keep
getting people to come to the
next one. So if you thought you
were getting out of it, it
doesn
t look like it. Uh, I
want to repeat my, uh, no vote
on item b7, uh, in case it
wasn
t recorded
although I know it was recorded.
Uh, I also want to congratulate
uh Weis Vice Mayor Heman on his
recognition at the Liberty Fund,
uh, very well deserved, and I
also want to congratulate him
on being our next mayor and
congratulate Danny for to be
our next vice mayor. You
couldn
t have a better mayor to
learn from, uh, as, as you join
every subcommittee that um that
the city has.
So you
re going to be busy. I
also want to um
just to say that, uh, both
Genevieve and David that I wish
you both the best as you move
into your next respective
chapters, and David, does this
mean our calls stop every other
Friday.
You
re changing your cell phone
number.
Uh, and, um, that
s, I just
also want to wish everyone a
very happy holiday to please
stay safe out there and a happy
New Year. I really felt awful,
uh, at, you know, that I, I
didn
t, I could not say happy
Hanukkah on that uh after
hearing what happened at Sydney,
I was, it was just, I couldn
t
say it. I just couldn
t say the
words, um, because it was such
a shocking thing to happen. And,
uh, and a horrible
and tragic thing to happen, and
as well as what happened at at
Brown University, uh, so I
ll
say it now. Happy holidays to
everyone and happy New Year.
Thank you, Vice Mayor Heman,
thank you, and I, I will say
happy Hanukkah and merry
Christmas to everyone. We can
t
allow people to rob us from our
joy, and I want to wish
everyone a wonderful holiday. I
also want to thank my
colleagues for
um the vote earlier, and I know
we will all say a lot more on
JANUARY 12. I want to
especially thank Chelsea for
leading us this last year with
such a grace and aplomb and um
moving through some very
difficult issues, really
appreciate not just your
leadership here, but your
leadership in the community and
in the county we
re so lucky to
have you. Um, I also
attended World aids Day, I
attended the Paul Stark Warrior
Awards. I attended the city
holiday party for the employees.
I, um, was, as was mentioned, I
was honored at the Victory Fund,
and it was a great conference,
want to thank Chelsea for
speaking. I also got to um go
out on the ice skating rink
again and so far I haven
t
fallen, which is a good thing
Um, and I know that Lauren, uh,
you continue to deal with the
eye issues and I know you have
some procedures upcoming in. I,
I think I speak for all of us
in saying we wish you a speedy
recovery, and we
re all here
for you if you need anything.
Thank you. Thank you. I
ll
begin with my meeting
attendance reports. I was at
the Clean Power Alliance Energy
Committee meeting, the La Casa
Renter Protections and
Homelessness Prevention
Committee meeting in addition
to the human capital meeting at
La Casa. I attended the Victory
Institute and served on the
panels. Thank you for your kind
words about those moments. And
I also had the great joy of
traveling 6 hours to Lakewood
round trip with Helen Collins
to receive the American Public
Works Association Award for the
Holloway, one of many awards to
come, I
m sure, for such a
special project here in the
community, but truly thrilling
to first receive recognition
for the public works side of
that because it was daunting
and harrowing and
many ways, and Helen and her
team let us remarkably. We
re
so grateful to you, Helen, for
your leadership on that project
and to celebrate with that
award was very meaningful.
It was a long one. I recognize
that we
re at a transition
point in the year, turning
point JANUARY is coming up. New
Year
s, so many holidays ahead
and many transitions with us in
the city is David leaves us as
city manager with in great
hands with Jackie Rocco. We are
truly so fortunate, but the
Chamber is transitioning
leadership as well. We
recognize and thank Genevieve
Morell for years and years of
service and look forward to
Lenn as he joins us in the city
soon, and
this council as well will have
new leadership in just a few
weeks, and with this we should
feel a great spirit of
excitement and joy to come
Transitions can be scary and
daunting with much uncertainty,
but we have great confidence
that these transitions and
leadership in the city will be
remarkable and lead us in a
really great year ahead. We
started this year, 2025, and
really tough times in many ways
those tough times are still
sitting with so many people
here in the city and across the
region, and as far as the
federal administration
s
concerned
these tough times still MAY be
ahead, but I think the
resilience that we
ve shown,
the spirit of joy that we
re
sitting in this end of the year.
All we
ve accomplished in the
face of it all really shows
what we
re capable of, and I
think if we can continue this
trend, then we will continue to
have much to be proud of as a
city. I really wish everyone a
beautiful and joyous and
restful end of year. I think
about our city staff who, while
many of us will be enjoying the
holidays. They will still be
making sure the city runs very
well, and we thank them
tremendously for
that. But everyone truly
deserves a spirited and happy
celebration at the end of this
year. So happy holidays, happy
Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and
looking forward to seeing
everyone back here JANUARY 12th
in council chambers. I
ll
adjourn this meeting then to 6
P.M. On JANUARY 12th. It
ll be
a fun night. Look forward to
being there. Mayer, could we
get a photo with Jackie and
David maybe down there just for
fun times. Yes, we
ll do that,
but this meeting is officially
adjourned. Thank you all so
much.