If you can please take your seats, we're going to get started.
Good evening, everyone. We're going to call the meeting to order and the lists are you going to do the land acknowledgement tonight?
Yes, Mayor. Thank you.
Thank you. 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 unceded cease territory at the Gabrioling Tongva and the Gabrioling O'Keech peoples.
Thank you. We are now in order and I am going to ask land, our new chamber director, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance tonight?
Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you very much, and Alyssa, can we have a roll call?
Yes, Mayor, thank you. Council member Byers. Here. Council member Ericsson. Here.
Council member Maester. Here. Vice Mayor Hang. Here. Mayor Highman. Here. And we have a quorum.
Great. Thank you. Now we'll turn to the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff tonight?
There are no changes from staff, Mayor, but I didn't want to indicate that item E3 cannot be moved to consent this evening.
We have to keep that as a business item, even if the council doesn't need a staff report, it just legally has to say as a business item.
Great. Thank you.
Let's turn to my colleagues to see if anyone has any changes. Council member Ericsson. Thank you very much, Mayor Highman.
I would like to see if we could move item. I'll start in the back. Sorry. F3, a resolution affirming the city of us,
Hollywood's commitment to upholding the constitution of the United States and urging Congress to challenge unconstitutional actions taken by Trump.
Are you comfortable with that? Everyone comfortable? Okay. So F3 can be moved to consent.
F2, the pre-approved organization list.
Any objection to moving that to consent? Hearing none.
The is F1 something we have an appetite to the resolution adopting the program planning summary for community development block grant funds.
Any objection? No, we'll move that to consent.
All right. I was wondering if E4, the residential construction minimum wage services agreement.
I have a couple of comments on that. Can we leave that on? Okay.
And then I have a feeling you want to need to. My colleagues might want to keep on consent. I mean, keep on the agenda.
But if there wasn't appetite, I was prepared to make that motion.
Okay. So we'll leave E2, E1. I have a couple of comments as well.
So if we can, I think there's maybe general support for those items.
So we can ask our staff to abbreviate the staff report if that's okay.
And then the last one as I was going to see if there was an appetite to move the preferential parking D1 on Alfred Street between San Monica and the city of Los Angeles.
Do we have any public speakers on that item?
We do. We have, I want to see one individual.
Actually, we have two individuals sign up to speak on that item.
Okay. So if we move it to consent, we'll hear those public speakers at the beginning of public comment.
And if those race concerns, we can always move this back to the regular agenda.
So if that's, if people are comfortable with moving the one to consent, we will do that as well.
Okay. Any other changes?
I don't hear any. So I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended.
Okay. The motion on the floor would move items D1, F1, F2 and F3 to the consent calendar.
And we have a motion in a second.
And the motion passes five zero.
That's great. Thank you. Everyone.
And now do any of my colleagues have any Levine active disclosure?
Yes. I'll be recusing from C1.
Okay. So we want to note council member Erickson's refusal from C1.
Any other disclosures?
Okay. So we'll now move on to any adjournment motions.
Do my colleagues have any adjournment motions?
I have one tonight. I would like to request that we adjourn in the memory in memory of Raymond calmly who passed away on January 12th at the age of 76.
He was a dedicated teacher, a committed volunteer soccer coach and referee, a loving family man who brought joy and mentorship to so many in his community in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ray was also an amateur chef who got his start at the Waffle House and was happiest when sharing meals with others.
In retirement, he completed a master's degree in social work, living out his belief that it's never too late to reflect and grow.
Ray was sober for most of his life and it was one of his proudest achievements.
Ray has survived by his wife and devoted partner more than 30 years, Sharon Safriott.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to our own Christine Safriott, his stepdaughter, to their family and to all of those who were touched by his kindness.
Without objection, we'll adjourn in Raymond Connelly Junior's memory.
All right, now we'll turn to presentations. Do any of my colleagues have presentations tonight.
Wow, it's amazing. No presentations tonight.
We want your first meeting to go very well.
Mayor Highman.
Or you wanted to go very fast.
All right, we'll now turn to public comment.
Public comment is a time for all of you to give us comments on matters that are not listed on the posted agenda or comments on consent calendar items.
Your period is limited to two minutes.
Please address the council as a whole and note that because your comments may be addressing things that are not on our agenda, we will not be able to take any action on the items you present tonight.
Melissa, how many speakers do we have tonight?
We have ten speakers including those we moved from business items.
Great, and do we have any on Zoom?
We have no one on Zoom this evening.
All right, so we'll now turn to public comment.
The first person I see is Shannon Houston to be followed by Stephanie Harper.
Good evening, council members.
My name is Shannon Houston.
I am the Director of Family and Child Care Provider Services for Pathways LA.
Tonight I am commenting on your social services reports and just wanted to thank you for your investment in early child care and education.
We have been a partnership with you for many years and currently we just are hoping to expand our services to provide care to additional age groups, infants and toddlers.
As currently we only provide care to preschool age children.
We also want to implement a mixed delivery program which would allow families of upper economic groups to join us in a fee based model.
So a subsidized and fee based mixed delivery program would meet more needs in the community.
And I just wanted to comment why this is really important to me on a personal level.
When I was young my mother was unaware of the subsidized care options available to her.
And unfortunately as a single mom she had to make a very difficult choice to place me in the care of someone she thought she could trust.
And then the care of that person I was abused.
And so that's why this is very important to me because we advocate for high quality early learning environments with educators that we know can be trusted and who have support.
And have high quality trainings to ensure the safety of children.
Every parent deserves to have the peace of mind knowing that their child is protected and cared for in a safe environment.
And that is something that pathways LA is committed to and something that we know that we can provide and that we want to continue providing in this community.
Thank you.
Stephanie Harker to be followed by Karen Ayers and then Kim Rivera.
Good evening city council members and staff and members of the public.
I just wanted a quick comment on B10.
The school grants which were $48,000.
However, I hope that in the future we can raise that amount when we spend 500,000.
And have a million on three weeks for the ice skating ring.
Somehow 48,000 for kids at school seems out of balance.
I am prone to remaining calm cool and collected at this podium but reason activity by the planning commission and the council concerning streamlining.
Streamlining the building process and the interest of building bigger and more housing anywhere the developers down well please.
Basically has me bordering on rage.
Particularly when the public is being cut out and now the commission is basically being cut out as well.
There are outside interest groups who three of them, a button housing LA, not West Hollywood.
Yambi Los Angeles, not West Hollywood.
And housing action coalition, both of whom two of the commissioners are affiliated with.
Victor Omachenko did the math for the previous meeting showing verified people opposed to and in support of the zone text amendment.
Overwhelmingly 108 opposed and 22 were in support.
I was counting on the presentations to finish.
You were elected to represent all of the residents.
Not just those who agree with you and I believe that that's not happening when we were told that well only two groups were opposed to the zone text amendment.
Not good.
Thank you.
Karen Eres to be followed by Kim Rivera and then share a war.
Karen Eres first then Kim Rivera.
Sorry.
Good evening council.
Tonight I'm speaking on behalf of the Human Services Commission.
I wanted to let you all know that the commission supports approval of item B9 which is now in consent.
And that's the 2025 26 social services agency development grants at our meeting last week.
The commission received a presentation on this recommendation from staff.
And we agreed to support it.
This funding is intentionally one time and focused on building long-term organizational capacity rather than supporting day-to-day operations.
This year seven qualified agencies applied and staff is recommending that two of them receive it that's pathways LA and healthcare and action.
So these projects do different focus, but they share a common goal.
Stronger organizations delivering more effective and responsive services to West Hollywood residents.
I also came up to speak on my own behalf as a citizen.
I want to thank you for putting item F3 on consent.
This resolution to stand up for our constitutional rights is part of a nationwide effort to have local governments speak out in support of the constitution,
which is under attack by the current administration.
We all know how important it is that we individually and collectively speak out in support of our constitution, the right, it grants us the rights, it grants us.
And the rule of law that flows from it, especially in this very moment.
So thank you.
Thank you, Karen, and now Kim Rivera to be followed by share a roar and you're speaking on D1, which has been moved to consent.
And that will be approved without discussion unless you convince us otherwise.
Yes, okay. Thank you. No, you can please, you have two minutes, you can tell us. Well, if you've approved it, I think you all have lived on that street for about 20 years, and it's gotten progressively more difficult to park. We've got some pretty businesses there, especially on the weekend. So basically, if you've approved, I just have to thank you, so thank you for that.
We haven't officially approved it. Well, thank you.
All right, thank you. Thank you.
Share a rarer to be followed by Anne Giangi, or Gianni? Sorry.
Hi, so just like Kim, I'm here on behalf of D1. So I wanted to thank you all for, I suppose, pre-approving it.
But really mean the whole world, if you fully approve it, it really is. I love this street, I'll appreciate it. It's a beautiful street, and it's just like, it's a very great area and everyone likes to come and park there and go shopping.
I'm Santa Monica Boulevard and you know, do everything but live there. So, you know, I'm really a long day of, you know, working and just having a long hard day. It's just nice to come and find a spot.
And I'll have to, like, spend the block a hundred times. So it would be very, very much appreciated. We love it here. We are West Hollywood members and we will forever be.
What's Hollywood? And welcome, Mayor. I know it's your first meeting. Yeah, thank you.
Thank you, Chair. And Gianni, to be followed by Abby Land and then Mike Nuddle.
Thank you. My name is Gianni and I want to thank you for considering the resolution to support our constitution.
It's a nationwide effort as was said and you'll be joining Santa Fe County, New Mexico, Boston, Massachusetts, St. Paul Minneapolis, Amherst, Massachusetts and a number of cities in California.
In addition to approving the resolution, I urge you to, if possible, to inform state officials and to urge them to pass a similar resolution.
It is so important that we let our federal officials know that we support the constitution.
We want them to support the constitution and do everything possible to move back towards a more rule of law country. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Abby Land to be followed by Mike Nuddle.
Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor and City Council, Abby Land.
And I am here to follow the speakers on item 4F3, which is about protecting our constitution.
I want to thank Vice Mayor Hanging Council member, buyers for bringing it and the council for putting it on consent.
Though you haven't officially voted on it yet, I feel very confident that this is going to be passed.
And I also just want to thank you because it is a really wonderful staff report.
You really cite all the many ways that this constitution is not being followed and how it is going against the very reason we are here, not only as a country, but why we're here as a city.
And so I really appreciate that because I'm going to send that staff report to a number of other cities in the area.
So they can hopefully follow the lead of West Hollywood and really defending our constitution and standing up for what we believe is right.
So thank you very very much for your leadership tonight.
Thank you, Abby. Mike Nuddle to be followed by Ali Shahidi and then Lynn et cetera.
Hi, my amazing city council. I just wanted to chat about a few articles I've seen in the press lately.
It's about the flock safety system that we use in our city.
Politico and KQED both reported on this subject.
flock is a system that uses its surveillance systems as a program to read out criminal activity on the local level with its cameras in more than 6000 municipalities.
With that orange turd and office, the federal government is using the system to track residents' movements.
To go around those who are vulnerable in our cities, flock has a national sharing model that is in question.
It allows local law enforcement or federal agencies access data across state lines of the 30 days to help solve crimes.
Or in our current environment, attack people across the United States, including right here in our wonderful West Hollywood.
flock has shared the data with the Department of Homeland Security that's confirmed.
Even if if local officials think the information is not being shared, it doesn't mean it's not happening.
With companies like flock or just the federal government, it's under the current administration.
We can't be sure what is happening with the information and who is getting access to it.
Logically, we might think our information is safe and have no idea what is happening behind closed doors.
We have all seen the horrors unfolding right before our eyes in Minnesota and even how people are being terrorized right here in West Hollywood.
Santa Cruz just voted six to one to terminate the city contract of the flock.
Santa Cruz found out that the system between June and October 2025, federal law enforcement, including eyes, access the flock data almost 4,000 times in violation of California's SB 34.
I bring this all up because our elected officials and I think that this should be some discussion around how we use this information and what's happening with it.
I trust my local officials, I trust my local law enforcement.
I just don't trust the federal government right now and I'm concerned what's happening with this information.
Thank you.
Ali Shahidi to be followed by Lynn et cetera.
Good evening.
Happy New Year.
My name is Ali Shahidi.
I've been a residence of the city of Osali for 14 years.
I'm here to address a comment made on the record on January 15 by Member of the Planning Commission.
Mark Edwards.
He said that we hold us and normal triangle residents, quote, only account for 0.003% of the votes.
And therefore our views don't count.
He's statements are deeply disappointing and insulting.
His words contradict the spirit of public service and basic premise of democratic participation.
That every resident who shows up, testifies in good faith and engages in the process deserves to be heard on the merits.
We hope us and no more triangle may be small in size, but we are large in public civic engagement.
We show up, we read the staff reports, we walk the blocks, we live with the consequences of your decisions.
Reducing our participation to a fraction of the city wide votes by Mark Edwards sends a dangerous message.
If the commission's message today is that our voices can be ignored, the message tomorrow can be that in any minority viewpoint is visible.
I asked both the commissioner Mark Edwards who made the offending remark and the Planning Commission to acknowledge it was inappropriate and apologize.
Second, I asked the City Council and the Planning Commission to reaffirm on the record that all neighborhoods and all speakers will be evaluated on the substance of their testimony,
not on the perceived political cloud or water share.
Mark Edwards or anyone who be little, even a single vote, does not deserve to have a seat on the Planning Commission.
Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Sheidi.
Lynn, etc. to be followed by Michael Ferreira.
Lynn, etc. West Hollywood.
I wasn't here.
It was a huge meeting, and so I am asking if it's okay if I had my name.
In memory of Renee Good.
More videos are coming out and it's me Justice Preveil.
And then I'd like to thank Mackenzie Scott for her incredible gift of 45 million to the anti-Syllis side prevention project Trevor.
I was suicidal for 15 years and lived in Europe and it completely cured me.
So thank you Mackenzie Scott.
And we did adjourn in memory of Renee Good at our last meeting.
Thank you.
Michael Ferreira, to be followed by Kathy Bel Davis, and I think that's our last speaker, correct.
Thank you.
Good evening. Congratulations Mayor and Vice Mayor.
I'm here to speak on behalf of the members of Roar.
We founded our group in February of 2017 because we sensed what was coming from the Trump administration at that time.
Fast forward all these years and it's just truly frightening.
So I appreciate West Hollywood taking the lead again and speaking out as a city always does.
And lighting an example for everybody to not remain silent in the face of our constitution being violated on a daily basis.
Thank you.
Kathy Blavis is our last public speaker.
Good evening Kathy Blavis city of West Hollywood.
I'd like to just kind of pick up where Mr. Shahidi left.
Left off, I should say.
So many of us feel beyond impident in what's going on on our national level with the Trump administration.
And Mayor Heilman, you made a very valid point since spoke so eloquently about what's happening from the Trump administration, especially in our community.
And though to some it might seem trivial to bring up the following after speaking about that.
But the idea of streamlining, I know that item is going back again to planning and they'll come back to you.
Anything, especially in this political climate that leaves the public out.
It's just really bad timing to say basically what Mr. Shahidi said that our voices don't matter whether there's two people show up or 50 people that show up or a thousand people show up.
We have the right to comment.
We have a right to state how we feel something's going to happen and affect us in our community.
And if you want to streamline the process, then streamline it from the developers point of view.
Don't take away what little voices, what little rights we still feel we have.
And again, especially as a result of what's going on nationally, thank you.
That completes our public comment.
So I wanted to thank everyone for their comments tonight.
We will now turn to our city managers report.
Jackie Roko.
Good evening, Mayor.
Vice Mayor, council members, members of the public.
I just have a few announcements.
I do want to share that the city has received some concerns from residents regarding the two true,
replacement planting project and the northeast side of West Hollywood.
I understand how upsetting it can be to see mature trees removed.
I just want to share with all of you that these trees are being removed and replaced because they are infested with a non-native pest and declining over time.
The city has been very active in exploring treatment options, but we have not been successful in eradicating or controlling.
Populations of the pest.
While preserving mature trees is always important and we support that.
The city has a responsibility to protect public safety and property when trees become compromised.
Tree removal and replacement plantings are a key part of a healthy and vibrant urban forest.
And this project will help maintain long-term canopy coverage with species better suited to current conditions and less vulnerable
to pests.
This project has gone through an ongoing public process and has been reviewed at publicly noticed meetings in accordance with the city's urban forest management plan.
The current work represents the third and final phase of removals for the northeast sector of the city.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our facilities manager,
Philip Tycoon, our public works director Helen Collins.
We understand the concerns and we welcome your input.
I also want to share that the city has a few exciting events we would like to make sure the community is aware of.
The city of West Hollywood and partnership with LA County Library will co-host the launch of WeHo Stories,
a limited edition coffee table book and website that capture the voices and experiences of people who shaped our city's early history.
The event will take place tomorrow on Wednesday, January 21st at 7pm with doors opening at 630pm right here in the council chambers.
It's free and open to the public.
The event will feature a panel discussion exploring the power of storytelling in building community and preserving history.
Also join us later this month on Saturday, January 24th at 7pm at live at the Sunrose located inside the Sunrose hotel and sunset.
For the first concert of our free winter sounds concert series,
the January 24th concert will include performances by Ghost Note and Catalyst Collective.
For details on these and other upcoming events in West Hollywood, please visit the city's calendar at WeHo.
Dash.org slash. This is a long explanation here. Go to WeHo.org slash calendar. You can get all the information, it's much easier.
Our website news page at WeHo.org slash news. We really encourage you to participate in these events.
And just two more quick updates. The city audit, I am thrilled to announce that the city has completed its annual audit on schedule and in full compliance.
The process was smooth and highly collaborative. The results confirm the city's strength and its own internal controls and offered valuable insights to guide us into the new year.
As a new addition, this year, finance will be presenting an overview of the audited financials to city council and the public as part of the mid-year budget presentation plan for March.
So stay tuned. And the economic development department, we recently started a new initiative to provide monthly departmentful updates during the city manager's report.
And tonight's update will be from the economic development department and I will now turn it over to our economic development director Laura Byre.
Thank you, Jackie. Good evening, Mayor and council. I'm Laura Byre director of economic development for the city.
I am joined tonight by Paulo Kestford at our business development manager as well as Rebecca Eman, our arts manager.
We're going to keep the presentation brief for multiple reasons.
I'll first start by going over the arts division and overview of the programs, the 2025 year in review, and I'll look ahead to 2026 and beyond.
And then we'll talk about how you can connect with the arts.
In West Hollywood, where identity, self-expression, and visibility truly matter, the arts is not just a nice extra here. It's part of our public good.
It's one of the things that our community really, really appreciates.
Festivals, exhibitions, performances, and public art, they help shape West Hollywood's identity as a creative, inclusive, and culturally significant place to live, work, play, and visit.
Building that foundation, the city's arts division supports a wide range of programs, and I assure you I will not go one by one through all of these.
But it includes things like our poet, laureate, and drag, laureate programs, our grants, our live music, and literary, public art, temporary exhibitions, and more.
When you look back on 2025, it was quite the year. The stats truly just speak for themselves.
You can see the number of artists that we worked with, the audience members that we reached, and the grants that we awarded.
It was a dynamic year. We all sounds to continue to grow at the popular live music series, bringing people together in public spaces, while supporting working musicians, and adding to the city's nighttime and weekend energy.
The WeHo Pride Arts Festival remained a cornerstone of our cultural calendar, activating multiple city locations with visual art, performance, installations,
that reflected the LGBTQ plus histories, identities, and futures, and created space for those celebration and reflection.
Art and odd places, voice, which happened to Summer and July, commissioned in celebration of the city's 40th anniversary, transformed every day locations into unexpected encounters with art, encouraging people to see the city a little differently, and sparking curiosity and conversation.
And at the same time, the arts grant program continued to provide critical support to artists, and organizations across multiple disciplines, helping to ensure our cultural landscape remains diverse, innovative, and community centered.
As we look ahead to 2026, our focus is on building what is working, building on what is working while continuing to grow.
We're strengthening core programs, we're exploring new partnerships, advancing public art projects that respond to the city's evolving landscape,
and completing various initiatives and directors from the city council, and working closely with our Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.
You'll see lots of important dates up on the screen. I encourage our community members if you're looking to get engaged with our arts programming,
scan the QR code that you see up on the screen now, and then you, too, can participate in some of these many programs that we have.
In additionly in looking ahead in 2026 and beyond, we're participating in the development of the city, playhouse, the Laurel House and Park Arts Residency, and of course the 2025-2028 Creative Plan, while we implement and into items for the upcoming major regional sporting events.
Now, what looks like the screen might have gone dark for those in the room?
Am I confirming that correctly?
Yes.
All right.
We thought this was some kind of art project actually.
Well, yes.
How did you guess?
It was just at the point where I was going to say how to connect with us.
Well, I'll go ahead and let you know, because you asked.
You can email us at artsthatweho.org.
You can subscribe to the monthly newsletter at weho.org slash arts.
You can also join us on our social media platform that's at weho arts on your favorite social media platform.
And of course, you can watch arts programming from home on youtube.com slash weho arts.
I'm going to keep talking.
If you guys are good with that.
All right.
We will continue on.
Our business development division is the other division as part of the economic development department.
I'm going to be going over the division programs, our 2025-year-in review.
Some business openings that happened.
Look ahead at 2026 and beyond.
And then, of course, how you can connect with us.
Our business development division programs fall around three key pillars.
That's business attraction, business retention, and business expansion.
And what that means is that these efforts not only create jobs, but also support the broader economic ecosystem and build community
by creating third places where our residents and visitors can connect and feel welcome.
The business development division work program is comprised based on nine council initiated items.
So, these are directives from the city council.
Six small business initiative items.
You might recall proving these small businesses initiative that was done in partnership with the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
28.
Weho 40 strategic plan.
Act items.
That is your retail 40 strategic plan.
And 20 action items from the economic study that was adopted by the city council in December of 2024.
Continue?
We're okay.
We didn't lose the broadcast.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
You're missing the beautiful visuals, but you're getting the audio version.
It's like listening to a podcast.
All right.
So, our 2025-year-in review, recognizing the importance of hearing directly from businesses and stakeholders,
your business development division team had 170 business outreach meetings in 2025 alone.
They held four commercial brokers round tables, had 21 business improvement district meetings, and 33 business organization meetings.
The team also engaged with labor and workforce during this time and participated of course in the economic impact as special events study.
Our 2025-year-in review also included our quarterly economic data updates that you now get regularly at city council as part of council directors initiatives.
You might have seen this winter, the Santa Monica Boulevard Winter themed lighting all new with a fun flashing show over on the palm trees on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Our WeHo loves locals program continued with resident offers and WeHo locals 2.0 with the gift card program.
The business tax credit program for commercial lease renewals was accomplished in 2025 and implemented our business task force kicked off.
The Rainbow District designation and pilot programs began.
We held a California State Resources for West Hollywood businesses workshop.
We had the WeHo Wednesdays in partnership with the West Hollywood Chamber for Free Parking.
We did our Know Your Rights event for employers and employees and economic impact of special events report.
Not to mention kicking off the year back in January with the beganuary.
And throughout the year, our cannabis business marketing.
I would show you something up on the screen that lists some businesses that opened in 2025, but I'll just let you know that West Hollywood continues to be a destination of choice.
And we know that we've also lost some businesses this year as well and those decisions are not made easily.
The business development team reaches out to businesses that are announced that they are closing or those that have expressed the potentially needing to relocate elsewhere and does exit interviews with those businesses as well.
We also do ribbon cuttings and partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and we welcome new businesses to our community.
I was also going to show you a list of upcoming business openings, but you'll just have to stay tuned.
There's some exciting ones coming later this month and next month.
Laura, maybe you can circulate the power point to the council later and also we can post it on the website to make it available to members of the public.
Happy to do so.
Mayor.
Yes, do we know how long the wonderful technology in this from is going to not be working for?
So we need to restart the system in the room.
So our thought was that once economic development was done with our presentation, we'd recess for a second so that we could restart the system.
The only reason I asked that mayor is because we always get such lovely comments about businesses and everything.
It might be great to have the population here actually see some of the things that I think I know Laura is going to be talking about because if I went home after a six hour council maybe two hours.
You know I'm free tonight.
I might not go to the website or the link or go I know some members will but it might just be useful to have this time to do it.
So I say hit restart and then you know do it again, but that's my opinion.
Do we want to take a brief recess now.
Okay, and that would give you the opportunity to restart the system.
So I didn't want to do it in the middle of your report, Jackie, but let's go ahead and take a few minute recess.
You'll let us.
Do everyone for your patience.
It appears that we are now back in video heaven.
So Laura, I'm going to let you resume your report and maybe just focus on the news that you're about to tell us.
Of course, thank you so much mayor and welcome back in the show biz world it's back to one here we go.
So we're going to skim through these these were the lovely visuals that you didn't get a chance to see about our three pillars of business attraction retention and expansion that we focus our work program on.
Different initiatives that make up that work program.
So these are all directed and approved by city council.
Our year in review we talked about all of our different outreach and the importance of hearing directly from our stakeholders.
This also includes meetings with the labor groups as well.
We talked about the wonderful we hope lives locals program and how you can get your gift card.
Plug for that we hope locals dot com still available.
And much anticipated.
Here we are.
For some of the business openings that happen in 2025 I will say this is not represent a comprehensive list of the business openings.
But is here meant to be used as a sampling of some of the business openings that happen in 2025 that we welcome to our community.
As mentioned the city does in partnership with the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ribbon cuttings for many businesses when they come into the city and we did some ribbon cuttings for some of these as well.
Coming business openings these were the ones that I tease during my podcast time.
Some of the ones of note that we're very excited about and I know our community is very excited about coming up in February is Erawan, guest jeans later this month.
Public West Hollywood which is the hotel that we'll be taking over for the standard up on sunset as well as the Drake on sunset.
Again, not a comprehensive list but meant as just a sampling of showing that West Hollywood continues to be a destination of choice.
Now looking for head to 2026 and beyond I want to note that for the audience at home as well as for the city council there's going to be a larger review of the 2026 and beyond work plan items for the business development division.
It's part of agenda item E2 so we won't be going over those as part of today's report.
And finally as promised how can you connect with us?
You can email us at business that we ho.org and you can also go to our website we ho.org slash business.
And thank you so much for bearing with us for tonight's technology excited to turn it back over to City Manager Jackie Roko.
Thank you for that report.
Thank you Lauren team and this concludes my presentation tonight.
Thank you Jackie questions.
Thank you Jackie for the comments about the trees we've been getting a lot of emails about them.
And to all the members of the community I think it's really important to know that we have an arborist we have we employ a lot of people who other cities do not to really make these painful decisions.
Has our arborist and I don't I think I was Helen told me this answer maybe once before but we're guarding these trees that often come become disease.
Do we have like an audit of how many in the city there are that might become potential to be might have the potential to be removed in any way shape or form to get ahead of.
The issues of removal I will defer to the Helen Collins who's joining us our public works director.
We do have an inventory of all of our trees throughout the city that particular area of town the northeast corner has had the most trees we have other ones throughout the city.
I think it was a and don't quote me on this number over 200 trees that we had to remove in that particular neighborhood and we did it over a three years span.
And we do have a total of a little over 400 I believe typos throughout the city so we concentrated on the area where we had the largest quantity of trees so that we could start to quickly repopulate that area there before send that area.
I think it's a little bit more about 20 they're planned about 25 years ago and then we will start to look at the other areas that are impacted in the city but it's not as large of us of a grouping of trees and the other areas of the city so.
Thank you and then I just had one more question not responding to public comment but regarding the communities and grants programming.
I believe there is extensive outreach done to the communities and the schools and they actually were the ones that provided the amounts that are being awarded tonight and when offered more money they said actually we don't we don't know what we would do with that is that correct for my understanding.
Yes that is correct.
Great so just for the public's information this has had extensive community input and it's not just something that we're really nearly.
Doing up here, and so we want to make sure our priorities are in fact straight.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for our city manager? Then we will turn to our vice mayor.
I'm sorry.
Thank you, Mayor. I just had a quick question for our Director of Public Works Helen. Sorry.
You, I know you. Just a very quick question. These trees that are pretty much a sick.
If the city does not take action, will it affect other trees surrounding those trees?
The emphasis in the facilities, which are the little white bugs, they tend to only like to boost,
or it's one of the trees that they like, and that's a tree that's impacted.
It's not going to necessarily impact the other trees in the neighborhood, and we're making sure that trees that we're planting
are considered trees that are currently causing having disease or things like that.
But no, it wouldn't impact the other trees in the neighborhood per se.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Well, now we'll move to our consent calendar.
And Melissa, can you give us a fiscal impact on the consent calendar?
Yes, Mayor. The fiscal impact on tonight's consent calendar with the addition of items D1,
F1, F2, and F3 is 836,261 dollars in expenditures,
226,896 dollars in revenue and zero dollars in waived fees.
There is a motion in a second to approve tonight's consent calendar.
And the motion passes five zero.
And now item D1 has been formally approved.
Thank you, everyone. We will now move to our public hearing for the evening.
And Melissa, are you going to tell us how this public hearing was noticed?
As required by law, Mayor.
Okay. And do we have any disclosures?
Yes. I have to recuse myself under provisions provided in the Lovina.
Okay. And.
Do you do a contribution here? Yes.
And does that require him to leave the day as well?
Okay. So while this hearing is going on, council member Ericsson has excused himself.
Are there any other disclosures?
I chatted with the representative of the applicant and the neighbors.
All right. So we are now ready to open the public hearing.
And I do we have speakers, Melissa?
Yes. We have Jeff T. Morris here on behalf of the applicant and
Leonard Lungzi on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce as here as well.
Okay. And first we're going to get our staff report.
So Nick.
Jennifer.
Good evening.
Jennifer Alkair assistant director of community development.
I'm here joined by my colleagues Jennifer Davis, senior planner, who is on zoom.
And I'm here with Paul Capparoso, who is a senior planner with the Sunset Arts and advertising program.
And they will be giving the presentation.
Thank you.
Sorry about that.
Good evening Mayor Haulman, vice mayor,
Hang and members of the city council.
As Jen said, my name is Paul Capparoso and I'm the senior planner for the Sunset Arts and advertising program.
Item 3C before you is for a development agreement, zoning map amendment and sign permit for the project.
Located at 9200 Sunset Boulevard also referred to as the legacy loop.
The legacy loop project has been revised following input from the city council at its meeting on February 3rd, 2025.
The project was formerly comprised of one full motion.
Sorry, two full motion.
One static digital and one full motion sign face and is now being proposed with one full motion animated sign face on November 6th, 2025.
The planning commission reviewed the revised project and recommended approval to the city council.
The previous iteration of the legacy loop included one static and one full motion sign face both facing east stacked on top of each other and connected via the loop structure.
The previous project measured approximately 100 feet from grade and included pauses with displays of the history of billboards along the Sunset strip in addition to a landscape tomato.
The revised legacy loop project is comprised of a single 1500 square foot full motion animated sign face.
Further changes from the previous iteration of the project are listed on the slide in white and include the removal of the mesh on the rear of the structure.
The addition of a mature tree behind the sign face and a modified structural design of the loop element.
The revised project would maintain the proposed height from grade of 100 feet would include pauses with the display of the history of the billboards along the Sunset strip in addition to a landscape meto and would be constructed from a glare resistant steel.
Slide 5 demonstrates a side by side comparison of the previous and revised project with the previous on the left and the revised on the right.
As shown the most substantial revisions include the reconfiguration of the sign face and the reconfiguration of the structural design of the loop element.
Additionally the design of the rear of the billboard facing west towards the city of Beverly Hills has been revised to remove the previously proposed mesh and to incorporate the addition of a mature tree within the center of the loop element and the center of the project site.
The site plan shown on slide 7 displays a site improvements that will contribute to the enhanced pedestrian experience along the project's frontage.
A primary plaza with bench seating and displays of the history of billboards along the Sunset strip would be adjacent to an 88 compliant access path that also creates a setback between the existing building and the project.
A smaller secondary plaza would be located to the rear of the project facing west and would provide additional seating.
The landscape meta which occupies the majority of the project site would be beneath the project structure.
Additionally the entirety of the project would be built within the existing property line and would not encroach in the public right of way.
The revisions to the project required updates to the development agreement terms specifically with regard to revenues and extraordinary public benefit payment and the fair market value of the public arts programming.
As such the revised project would provide an estimated $47.7 million in city revenue over the 30 year term of the agreement.
In addition to a $500,000 payment and an extraordinary public benefits and an estimated fair market value of 39,800,000 for public arts programming.
Additionally the project would provide a $300,000 public realm enhancement in loop payment.
Lastly the development agreement includes an occupancy requirement to ensure the building is at least 50% occupied and if that requirement is not met requires a 25% increase in the annual revenue until the property owner owner demonstrates compliance.
Assistant with the negative declaration prepared for the policy in 2019, the 2021 addendum found the previous project would not create new environmental impacts and therefore does not require new mitigation measures.
To account for the revision to the project a conformance memo was prepared in 2025 to demonstrate that the revised project was in full compliance with the 2021 addendum.
The 2019 negative declaration 2021 addendum and 2025 conformance memo are included as attachments k l and m respectively of the staff report.
Following the publication of the agenda for this meeting and the staff report additional comments were received by residents and a representative for the Sierra towers.
The questions included the projects lack of reference to the 2025 billboard policy amendments that were included in the 2025 addendum and the lack of cumulative impact analysis in the related sequence documents.
As such staff would like to clarify these concerns on the record for the council and members of the public.
As around one project the project was subject to the policies 2019 negative declaration and was included in the analysis for the 2021 addendum to that initial sequence document.
Further the 2025 addendum to incorporate and codified new lighting standards were not applicable to round one projects although all round one round one projects were analyzed under the 2025 addendum as part of the policy's development baseline.
However, while the project was not subject to the amendments analyzed in the 2025 addendum the project is conditioned to meet the new lighting standards for a maximum of 200 nighttime candellas.
Regarding cumulative impacts but the 2021 addendum which is a secret document included in the approval of all round one projects and the 2025 addendum which was adopted for the policy amendments by the city council on October 20, 2025 included an accumulative impact analysis.
In addition the most recent lighting study prepared for an adopted as part of the 2025 addendum considered all round one 1.5 and two projects in the analysis.
While this project was analyzed under the 2021 addendum and does not rely on the 2025 addendum the 2025 addendum includes analysis of non-secret traffic impacts and the potential for driver distraction.
This was presented to the council on October 20, 2025 and as demonstrated there in there is no substantial evidence that full motion animated billboards cause an increase in traffic accidents.
To conclude staff recommends that the city council adopt the ordinances and resolution to approve the project and associated entitlements.
Stock staff are available to answer any questions.
And I just have one clarification earlier in the staff report.
The first iteration of this project that the council saw was partially full motion.
There's been a lot of iterations of this project but the one that went to plan to council last February was fully static to face static sign.
Just wanted to clarify that.
Thank you.
Do any of my colleagues have questions?
Councilmember Meister.
Thank you.
You said that this project is under 2021 rules because it was in the first round.
However, this is not the same project that was awarded the right to move forward.
So why would it be under the 2021 rules when it's not the same project?
Projects are reviewed under the rules that were in place when they were deemed complete even when they are revised somewhat.
So those rules apply.
However, as Paul mentioned, we have conditioned the project so that it is also consistent with the new rules.
And we have had a consistent, a conformance memo prepared to ensure that it still is consistent with the 2021 sequence.
Okay.
I do also have some questions about the lighting but I know that wasn't under staff's preview that was something that the applicant did on their own.
So I'll ask them the questions about that.
That's it for now.
Other questions for staff.
No.
Okay.
So we have a number of public speakers.
I think the first one I see is Jeff Seymour on behalf of the applicant.
And Melissa how much time do we give?
I gave him five minutes.
That's what our bylaws say about.
Okay.
I promise mayor, I will be blessedly brief.
It's hard to hear you.
If it's on or you just gotten too tall for it.
Is that better?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Mayor Highman.
Members of the City Council.
My name is Jeff Seymour.
We see more consulting group by reside in West Lake Village.
First and foremost, I want to thank staff, especially as Davis, who had been very helpful as we move this process forward.
And I also want to thank the City Council for the opportunity to bring this reimagined project to you.
To you for a final consideration.
We are going to be very brief in relation to our presentation tonight.
Ben Anderson from office on title.
We'll be making a short comment.
And then Spencer Callick from Alec Mackins.
We'll be here to respond to questions regarding the DA.
Dawn Hollingsworth from Dark Horse Light.
Works will be here to respond to all of your questions regarding.
Our lighting study.
And we'll all be here to be able to ask respond to any of the questions you may have.
So.
Ben.
So it's the other members of your team want to come forward and use the remainder of your time.
That's fine.
Good evening.
Council Ben Anderson with office on title.
I did want to add one comment to Jeff's.
Just comments.
In that in the time.
Last month and early this month we have met with the representative of residents of Sierra Tower.
And shared the lighting study from Dark Horse Lighting.
And there were no further comments or concerns from that representative.
And our lighting designers here speak with you if you have any questions.
Spencer, do you want to.
You're good.
I believe my colleague has some questions for the lighting.
Study expert if they would like to come forward and then.
You want to share your.
Comments, if you have any. Otherwise, maybe we can just turn to council member, my sir's questions.
I have no, my name is Dawn Hollingsworth, I'm with Thark Horse Lightworks, and I reside in Sherman Oaks.
So thank you for having me.
Thank you, and thank you for doing the lighting study. I appreciate it and excuse the dark glasses, but the light in here is enough to kill anybody.
So my questions, I have several about the lighting study. First of all, originally the original project, the light, the study showed that light did trespass to Sierra Towers.
Like the first three floors or something like that. What changed in terms of the billboard that that made it so that it supposedly does not trespass.
Well, I did not do a study for the original design. So the only study that I did was the most recent one that was dated in January and that was for the single static, the single, instead of the full motion, in addition to the static.
So I believe probably I can only guess that the impact would be from removing the upper static portion of the project that was originally proposed.
But I was not involved in that, so I can't really answer that, and he's going to answer that.
But don't go away.
Yeah, well, yeah, I can bring that up.
Also, I will say that we did comply with the 200 nighttime candela.
So that was, I think, an update in the, you know.
So that was a difference from the first, from the first round.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, so the first round would have been under a 300 and nighttime candela and we reduced this study is at 200.
So can you tell me as a lighting expert?
You use the white, just the white screen, which I've read in other studies as well that that's like the brightest.
But how does that actually compare to full motion in terms of impacts?
Because it seems to me that if you have a static screen that that's not going to have the same impacts as a full motion no matter how many
colors are in that full motion.
I think that's a great question.
But white obviously is going to be the, the most light.
So any other color because LED full motion products are a combination of white.
There's no such thing as a white LED.
Okay, there's no such thing.
To get white, you have to combine the primary colors of light, which are red, green and blue.
So any time you add, and this is an additive system, any time you add red and blue, you get magenta.
Any time you add red and green, you're going to get an amber or yellow color.
So that's how the colors are created.
So once you get, so in order to get white, you add all three of those colors.
So you're adding energy.
So that's why white is going to be the brightest that it's going to be.
So once it goes to color in any kind of an image, it's going to be less bright than you see.
The animation, I can't really speak to, that's really not anything like this.
Okay, so we don't really know then the impact of full motion compared to static based on your study.
That's correct because that's not what I, that's not what I have the ability to study.
I'm sorry, but it's a static image and that's, we can only take a snapshot at any moment in time.
Got it.
Thank you.
Okay.
Did you want to answer?
Okay.
Any, is there anything else?
I think we have one more speaker.
I think did that include conclude the five minutes for the applicant?
I indicated how much time they have left if they want to add any additional comments.
Okay.
I only see one other speaker tonight is that correct?
Why don't we take that and then we can get back to questions.
Leonard Lanzi on behalf of the chamber.
Thank you, Mayor Highland.
My name is Leonard Lanzi.
I'm the President CEO of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and also the Executive Director of the Sunset Strip Business Improvement District.
Council members, I'm here tonight to speak in support of this proposal at 9200 Sunset Boulevard.
Known as the legacy loop.
This project reflects where the city is headed with its updated billboard policy.
It brings new, creative digital imagery to the strip and a way that supports the Los Angeles Broder Digital Art Program and keeps the Sunset Strip at the forefront of global outdoor media.
But what's really important is that this project isn't just about a billboard.
It makes meaningful improvements at street level.
Adding pedestrian classes, seating and landscaping that invite people to slow down, gather and actually enjoy and experience the strip rather than just pass through it.
I also want to highlight the interactive plaques that tell the story of the Strip's iconic billboard history.
This is a great example of celebrating what made the Sunset Strip famous while tying into the efforts like the legends of the Sunset Strip to preserve and share that legacy.
For visitors and residents alike.
Overall, the legacy loop improves the site and enhances the visitor experience and delivers real community benefits for local businesses, residents, and the city as a whole.
At a time when revitalizing the Sunset Strip is more important than ever.
For all of these reasons, the chamber and the Sunset Strip Business Improvement District strongly support this project and respectfully urge your approval.
Thank you.
And there are no other speakers, Melissa?
No, Mary.
We have no other speakers.
Okay.
I'm going to leave the public hearing open in case anyone has additional questions.
Does anyone have additional questions?
Yes.
Councilmember Meister.
So my question is to stand.
What have you mentioned that you or it might actually be for the applicant that it was presented.
The lighting study was presented to see our towers and they were satisfied with it.
That was the applicant that mentioned that.
So they may have an answer for that.
Because we did get a letter an email today about the lighting of a concerned letter of concern.
Yes.
We've done you told who was a representative of certain residents of Sierra Towers.
It was not the official Homeland Association, but I believe that was shared with them at some point.
I'm not understanding your answer.
The lighting study was shared with.
You told who was a representative of certain residents of Sierra Towers.
Okay.
Did you meet with the HOA itself?
No.
Okay.
Because it sounded like you talked to the president of the not the president, the manager, the HOA manager,
Barbara, something.
Okay.
No.
Thank you.
That through Don, you told that may have been shared, but that was not through my team.
I'm just trying to find that email that we received.
I think we actually received several from Sierra Towers residents.
I don't know if it was.
I don't know that it was from the association itself.
Thank you.
Are there other questions?
Are we ready to move into discussion?
Yes.
So why don't we go ahead and I'll go ahead and close the public hearing now and let's move into discussion.
Any one want to start?
I see Council Member Fires.
Happy to jump in.
Yes.
I was also trying to find those emails.
So Council Member Meister, if you're able to pull them up please do.
But I did.
No.
At least one email from one individual at Sierra Towers who did right into a pose.
So I appreciate the information shared tonight about conversations with other members of the building.
I know that the conversation shift from a full static to full digital is really sort of the discussion tonight as this Council's reviewed so much of this project last February when the Council made the direction to the applicant to come back with a digital billboard knowing that that would be ultimately a better financial deal for the city.
So I'm thrilled to see the math doing its job and producing what is a better deal financially for the city.
So the concern really comes down to whether or not the impacts on the community are going to be felt and I appreciate it hearing directly from the lighting study lead itself.
Thank you, Dawn, for being here tonight with us.
And to hear from some of those distinctions between the lighting impact and then the movement and motion impact.
So in hearing that the the amount of light that would be felt by the residents in that building is below a threshold that's even noticeable is really comforting to me to hear.
I think that's sort of the challenge as we're navigating more digital billboards along the sunset strip.
But what I'm really thrilled to see before us is a much more elegant and efficient design presented something that is really I think helpful on the outskirts of our city edge.
Just sort of tell the city story and to shine something back to us that's really valuable so I'm grateful for what you've brought forward.
I am supportive of the project tonight, but do you want to make sure that we clear up the questions around what we have learned from the residents if there's an opportunity to make sure that we're sharing with them the information that we're seeing tonight that's giving confidence to council around the lighting study.
I wouldn't make sure that that goes back to the residents itself, but other than that I'm feeling really good about what's before us.
Thank you.
I don't know that I can read this. I might have to take these off. Oh god.
All right, so so I did find the email from Douglas Ross and who you know since he's not anti billboard and he grew up loving signage from the strip.
He said because my unit sits high above the street I fall directly into the horizontal beam path of the proposed LED display.
No amount of shielding designed for street level mitigation will prevent light trespass flicker and motion intrusion into my home.
Full motion digital signage produces continuous movement and high intensity illumination that blinds or curtains can simply cannot block at elevation.
The result would be persistent visual distraction, nighttime light intrusion and a degradation of my ability to use and enjoy my living space, including impacts on sleep privacy and basic data date comfort inside my own home.
And that's really why I brought up my concerns or questions about the lighting study because although it's great that you know maybe the light is not as you know bright or doesn't directly go in.
The fact that it's a full motion billboard now rather than static makes a difference and it does have an impact on on neighbors and I can't even imagine what kind of impacts it's also going to have on the businesses that are surrounding although you know we may not have received letters but then again there's plenty of times we don't receive letters and we find out about it afterwards.
So I'm personally not supportive of this change to full motion video I understand that we get a lot more as a city but I also think that it's a balanced for us to help out residents maintain some quality of life and they deserve to have that.
Thank you thank you vice mayor hang.
Thank you mayor I want to thank staff for the very thorough report I want to thank the representative the applicants representative and also members of the community who came and voice their concerns with this project.
As far as I'm concerned I thought this design was really cool much better than the first few iterations I came through and the public benefit share of 47.65 million dollars over 30 years is a really good deal of a city.
At a time when there's economic uncertainty at the federal level when the government's cutting budgets for cities across the country and this deal basically.
It gets us a good amount of money for our city to help fund our programs to help fill our streets to help fill our pod holes to trim our trees which we heard was in facet's nine or city.
And it also helps with fund our social services programs here in the city.
President Trump has cutting social services left and right cuts to HIV testing prevention and treatment women's reproductive health trans medicine.
And we're lucky that we have revenue generating sources in this city that's creative and cool and I appreciate the fact that this project has an occupancy requirement to it.
The fact that the developer was able to work with staff to come up with that.
And also the use of private land to make it a public benefit.
The building of a walkway, the building of benches, a hot private land for the public to use.
So I think this project is great.
I'm in full support of it.
I think this project will affect the overall quality of life for the entire community over the next 30 plus years given that all of the revenue.
New generating that it will have for our city. So I'm in full support. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. As I look at this project, I want to make sure that we have complied with all of our
requirements under CEQA and staff let me know if I'm incorrect here in any way, but for the billboard
program overall we had an environmental study back in 2019. We then updated it and did an
agenda in 2021. We did more projects specific analysis in 2025 and completed a memorandum.
We required the project to comply with the updated standards that are being imposed on the new round of applicants.
And that included a lighting study that showed that there were no adverse impacts on seeratowers or other adjacent properties.
As I read the emails from our residents at seeratowers, I was picking up a sort of a general disagreement with the billboard program overall.
And concerns legitimate concerns about the impact on particular dwelling units.
But when I went to the actual site and looking at how the sign is angled and noting that there are there's a very large building to the north of this sign in between the sign and seeratowers.
It's hard for me to envision how this would actually impact the residents in that building because the sign is not facing the building.
It's facing the eastern portion of the street. So while I do appreciate and understand people's concerns about the signage program generally in terms of the specific impacts that people are concerned about.
I think the lighting study and the environmental report and the location of the sign tells me that those impacts are not real.
The revenue is very important to the city, but I don't think any of us would want to sacrifice the well being of our residents for revenue.
But I think the revenue that this sign generates compared to the previous sign that we were largely ready to approve.
I think this to me is an improvement. We get more revenue.
There's less impact in my mind on the residents based on the way the sign is configured and it's a nicer design. So I am prepared to support this as well.
I do think council member buyers concern to make sure that seeratowers and the residents there do have information about the updated lighting study and they understand exactly what is being approved tonight if we go ahead and approve it.
I think that's something that we can ask our staff to coordinate that kind of discussion and make sure that they are apprised of all the information that we now have.
Vice Mayor.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if there are complaints there will be a mechanism in place where residents can contact city staff to report anything is there.
Yes, that's correct.
Thank you. Councilmember Mister.
I have a quick question for staff.
When we did this the sequence analysis for round one.
When we talked about digital signage weren't we talking about static digital signage and not full motion because I know we had the conversation after that years later saying wait a minute.
We never said full motion and now everything's changed and you've revised the wording on that on the you know the more recent changes.
I.
I can't speak exactly to what was started in 2019 but I know that 2021 a denim and further more of the conformance memo that was prepared specifically for this project did contemplate the full motion animated sign.
Thank you.
Okay, we've prepared to take some action.
I don't think we have unanimity tonight but I do think that there's sounds like there's support for moving forward.
We've given some direction to staff to follow up with some of the people who sent letters in so I think we now need a motion to.
The staff's recommendation which is to introduce the ordinance on first reading.
Do I need to go through all of this, Lauren, or can it just be approved the staff's recommendation.
You want me to read them?
Yes.
Let's have a little read the title.
The first ordinance for this item is an ordinance of the city council of the city was Hollywood approving you.
Proving you development agreement in conjunction with the new offsite advertising billboard and site improvement at 9200 sunset boulevard West Hollywood California and these second one.
Sorry about that.
And have it on that page.
Is the resolution.
We have two ordinance of the city council of the city was Hollywood approving a zoning map amendment and conjunction with the new offsite advertising billboard and site improvement at 9200 sunset boulevard West Hollywood California.
There is a resolution as well and we have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the item.
And the motion passes three to one.
Thank you everyone and thank you for those who spoke tonight.
Before we move to the next item, I did want to read the title of the ordinance for item D1 into the record.
Since we moved it to consent and so the ordinance title for D1 is an ordinance of the city council of the city was Hollywood amending section 10.08.240 West Hollywood preferential parking district number nine of chapter 10.08 preferential parking districts.
Title 10 vehicles and traffic of the West Hollywood municipal code implementing district nine preferential parking regulations on the 1000 block of Alfred Street between Santa Monica Boulevard and the city of Los Angeles slash West Hollywood border north of Romain Street.
Thank you so much.
Thank you Melissa. I'm sorry we skipped that earlier.
We will now move on to unfinished business. E1 is our next item.
And both E1 and E2 I think council was desiris of a brief report.
Unless council members would like to just turn directly to questions. Let me ask my colleagues. Do we need much of a report?
Okay. They're just questions on this item.
So will you be offended if we deprive you of your ability to give a report tonight?
I can't find it on the computer anyways.
Okay. So we're having technical difficulties again.
All right. So why don't we turn to questions and then if you find the report and there are salient things you need to show us you can do that.
So vice mayor, hang you had questions. I believe.
Thank you, Mayor.
Yeah, I just had a question in regards to the budgeted amounts for the World Cup fans owns.
I just wanted to get a breakdown of what is $250,000 for and what $275,000 for with a detailed breakdown.
Yes, sure. Good evening. I should introduce myself.
My name is Andy Lavano. I'm the assistant to the city manager.
And I am joined by my colleagues back at Eman, the arts manager and Laura Byrie, director of economic development.
So this is really a interdepartmental effort.
As we work our way to 2028 with all of these events tonight we're focusing on World Cup in particular because it's coming up quickly.
So we're very excited about that.
The $250,000 is for the event production services agreement that we're proposing to partner with the very creative firm.
That is specifically for the planning and production elements, creative services, marketing and promotion, event management and sponsorship recruitment.
That will be the main production of the events that are taking place at West Hollywood Park and Palmer Park.
So the main elements of the fan zones will include large viewing screens, seating, shade structures, food and beverage vendors, family activity zones,
and the playing field for disco foot.
We're also planning additional partnerships with local organizations and other partners who will be engaged in some of the activities that are going to be happening throughout the weekends.
And for the 275,000, I'll let Becca respond to that part.
Sure. Hi, Becca Eman, Arts Manager.
The 275,000 is to present disco foot and that includes the choreographer fee.
They will be traveling over from France.
They will be working with 24 professional dancers from Los Angeles.
We'll all be paid to participate, rehearse, participate in the production.
It's about a five week rehearsal lead up to the performances.
Local DJ, referee, judges.
So that's kind of all encompassing of that performance fee.
Thank you.
So in terms of the $250,000 for the very creative firm for the Wilcoff fans and itself, are we talking one screens?
Are we talking two screens?
Are we talking about accommodating 2,000 people, 3,000 people?
Like, was there an initial feasibility study that was kind of completed prior to the contracting executed
to see what was possible with different threshold amounts?
The amount of the budget of $250,000 is based on some of our prior knowledge and expertise of major events in West Hollywood.
We have a lot of experience with putting on events of various sizes.
The idea is that the West Hollywood Park fans' own will be longer.
It's going to be four days, Thursday through Sunday.
We've timed it at a time of the World Cup where there's multiple games happening throughout the day.
The USA Men's team is still going to be, we know for sure, playing at that time.
So we're hoping that that fans' own has a larger attendance.
There's going to be at least one large screen, like 40 foot.
And then probably other smaller screens at the park as well.
And then Plumber Park will be a much smaller activation that's anticipated to be more local, very family-friendly.
West Hollywood Park is anticipated to draw more of the visitors who are here for the games, as well as people throughout the Los Angeles region who want to watch the games.
And then in terms of the disco foot for 275,000, do we know how many performers it is per day?
What's going to happen when there's a game or I'm just trying to get an idea?
Sure, disco foot will perform up to four times in the fam's own at West Hollywood Park.
And we don't have exact dates or times for those, but it'll be coordinated to not conflict with any of the live events.
And then how long is the performance?
Each performance is one hour.
Okay, so there'll be performing 12 shows, there's three days.
No, four times total.
Four times total.
Correct.
Okay, got it.
So I guess I sort of have, I appreciate this idea, I think staff are bringing everything forward.
But I kind of have a little bit of issue when the cost of the show is more than the production of the event itself.
We have $250,000 going to go in your mark to it.
I guess I'm at the sentiment where if we're going to do it, we got to do it right.
Because this is supposed to be the prelude for the Olympics.
And this is a chance for our city to show the world that, yeah, we can handle it,
be exploiting it like this or a big enough.
So I'm just not sure from my perspective, the now testing span and in terms of production.
But thank you.
Are there other questions?
Yes.
Com some members.
In questions.
Thank you so much.
My question is involving the other local businesses that are in this running area.
I randomly was watching the Patriot.
It's play, the Texans. Ednose, we were there. Thank you. I actually get it. Go back go. They were in the playoffs and I'm legally required as Wisconsin resident to support the Packers. They don't let you back in the state if you don't.
But I noticed as I was watching, and it was Sunday, it was like the height of drag queen, you know, time, and every bar was like watching the games. Good game.
Are we, are they all planning strategic things? I think the answer is yes, but I've noticed more and more of them doing that type of thing.
But are we in touch with them? Will that be a future kind of outreach?
Yes, thank you, Councilman Richardson. Our businesses are very excited about the upcoming sporting events.
And as you saw, they do live watch parties for many different shows as well as live sporting events.
We are going to be talking with our businesses about opportunities for exploration related to special event permits.
We've already heard from some that want to expand their footprint for things such as Super Bowl, World Cup, and more.
And so we'll be working with those businesses to find solutions that are safe and accommodatable for them.
And correct me if I'm wrong, if it's in the staff report to say it's in the staff report.
So when I went to, well, you all did as well. Andy, weren't in Paris, I apologize.
But when you, when we were there, you know, every other corner had screens, projections, you know, blow up screens in that way.
That is still part of this work that we're doing to have our parks be activated and that big centralized way for the World Cup.
So if people wanted to come to We Hope Park, for example, there would be a big projector, stuff like that for people to go watch.
I'll let Andy speak to the We Hope Park in Plumber Park, but with regard to the businesses like you saw in Paris.
We have an outreach plan to talk to the businesses because as we saw in Paris, small cafes that didn't normally have TVs rolled in TVs.
I'm like thinking back to the days when they would roll in the TV into your classroom.
I'm dating myself here, but they would, they rolled in TVs to these little cafes and everyone was glued.
And that was during the Olympics, but the same is true for the World Cup.
And so we plan to work with our businesses to help them understand how can they, even as a small cafe, activate in some way, so that everyone feels like they're part of the games.
And then I'll turn over to Andy with regard to Plumber Park and We Hope Park.
Yeah, so for the park activations are primary focus right now is on two weekends, one at West Hollywood Park and one at Plumber Park.
If there's an interest from the council for activations on different days or, you know, just a screen, maybe something on a much more smaller scale that's like a organic feel that we just kind of put up the screen and people can gather.
We can look into that as well. Right now we, we don't have that as part of the plan, but I will say that we are also kind of in a testing ground right now we really haven't done this before.
And we also haven't been in the situation where we have all of these major events coming to our areas.
So we're really looking at this as sort of a round one test for what we're going to see for the Olympics, which is really on the short horizon at the top.
Thank you.
And if this beer, why does this still be a question? Is there a way in which we're testing out during the Super Bowl?
In the sense that like, could we do a pop up at We Hope Park and see what the reaction is?
I mean, it's during the day, so it's hard. I mean, I don't know this is an idea, but people would do it.
But I don't want to take away business from the bars because I know they get pretty wild and it's a fun time.
But I do think everyone will benefit from from this way.
So I don't know if that's something potential that we could still do for the Super Bowl.
That's too soon probably because it's February.
I think it's the third. Thank you Ed.
I knew it was coming. I'm just waiting for the bad bunny performance.
You know, so I don't know if that's potential, but maybe for the future it's just a suggestion.
But I would love the reason why I bring up the screens as Plumber Park's ability to have that.
I feel like so many people live in such a dense area over there that being able to go to your park when we have movies in the park that recreation does.
I'm really well attended and and then my next question is, is what about alcohol sales and classifying these as zones?
I mean, it's great to be able to come out to the park and have all that fun.
There are some people that want to engage in having a beverage or two and then some that don't have soda and water, but is that on the horizon for this or what are we thinking of?
So the entertainment zone was a direction from the council and more of feel free to jump in.
It is an extensive process to get those approved that requires an ordinance to be approved and then additional noticing for when they're activated.
So it's a short timeline to get it approved between now and the world cup, but it's something that we're looking into.
And regardless of that, we are looking into having a beer garden of some kind at the West Hollywood Park activation.
Yeah, I mean, I think that makes the most sense.
The people will come, they'll hang out, but you can only have so much diacoke, you know, or whatever you're drinking, like.
And I just think that, you know, people a beer garden, people want to have it, you know, and you're having a drink, you know, in that way.
So I would, if my colleagues after their comments are more amenable to that, like I just think that general direction for you to do it.
I mean, Beverly Hills had it at their art show earlier last year and it was, yeah, music and there, lots of it was fairly popular.
Some of those are comments on questions, Mary.
Yes, I know, I was going to, I know, I felt the burning eyes in the back of my head, but you put me over here now, so now I can't see you.
So there you go.
Are there other questions?
Okay, so are we ready to move to comments?
I see council member, biores is eager to comment.
I'm so excited about these plans since the time we approved them and re-approved the name.
I've been really looking forward to what's to come starting this year.
I know this is about launching into the World Cup, which feels imminent right around the corner.
Superbowl already happened in my mind, so we're definitely not talking about a pop up in the park.
That's crazy.
But I think looking to the World Cup, everything that's put together feels really exciting.
So part of what I've been looking forward to is that partnerships in the community support of this.
The West Hollywood soccer club is so excited for what we're building here, just saying this sort of out loud.
We know that many of the members of the club will be participating in the gay games and leaving for the weekend that we've chosen.
So I want to make sure that the July weekend that we pick that is meant to be very local and for our community.
It can be a date after most of them return, which I think is July 5th, which probably works out really well for our calendars.
So just putting a note out because they know members of that club have offered and want to be a part of supporting the family part of the activations kids pop up, whatever it may be.
So I just appreciate your work with them to make sure that our local athletics are out in front of part of this.
I think that the June date weekend is fabulous actually looking at the schedule for events 7 p.m. Thursday night United States plays.
So it kicks off a four day fest in West Hollywood.
It drags people out on that Thursday night gets them looking at the schedule of events that's posted in the park and help them reimagine what it looks like to keep coming back out or you know spread the word that was a great place to be.
We know screens work really well. We've seen them during Pride all day long movies in the park happen on the lower budget.
So not really worried about what it looks like for us to pop up and make this happen.
But thrilled about the disco foot part of this. I think there's something really sweet about our tiny local city making a European connection in this moment ahead of the Olympics coming to.
So I just really appreciate the thoughtfulness of this plan the way that you're slowly and thoughtfully building and getting the broader business and community based organizations to understand that the roles that they can play to.
And I think it's going to be a really exciting summer and multiple summers ahead.
I don't want to also lose the work around the root 66 and 10 year old that's buried in here and all the great are activations. There's so many murals that are going to be both temporary and long term installations.
And so there's just so much baked into this item that we almost just pushed a consent and I really hope the community gets a chance to wrap their minds around it and start calendaring all these dates. So I think you all for your work on this.
I can watch it.
Thank you. Vice Mayor, hang.
Council member, my sir would you like to go.
We're so polite to one another.
Thank you, Mayor. I'm actually I had a question for Andy.
I think it's important if we have some sort of FIFA affiliation or connection.
Is that something that the city looked into to further mark at this event so to speak?
Yes, so there are some official FIFA fans owns and there are strict requirements.
There was an RP that went out in the fall. So they had to have minimum attendance of 5,000 plus.
And we just didn't feel like the scale of that is kind of what we were looking for for this at this time.
There is a FIFA has a lot of strict guidelines.
So we are following those guidelines. We'll probably have a licensing agreement to just even show the games.
And so we're working closely with partners at LACCC who's the L.A. Host committee.
They do like a monthly Zoom for stakeholders.
We just participated in one last week.
And every time there's more information that's coming out.
So we're staying very closely informed on all of those connections.
I know there's also working on a website that you can submit your events to that will be kind of throughout the L.A. region.
All of the things that are happening. So we'll definitely do that.
Metro is also working on promoting events that are transit friendly.
So we'll definitely do that as well.
So we're connected but we're not an official FIFA fan zone.
Thank you. And then what type of scale are we looking at here for our city?
I think the West Hollywood Park fan zone.
I mean, it could be like up to 2,500 people.
Pummer Park will probably be less than 1,000.
Okay, because the ABC book festival had 15,000 people and was highly park.
15,000 is like pride level for out loud.
But I think ABC book festival did have close to like 1500 maybe.
Okay, got it.
So I'm in support of this. I think it's really great.
I want to express with the caveat if you need more money.
I don't know what we can do here as the council.
So that way they're not boxed in to that amount because I don't feel like that's going to be enough.
I don't want to do anything half-baked, so to speak.
And I want to give staff the resources to be able to pull off and elite event.
Nobody wants to come to West Hollywood and experience something janky.
They won't come back.
So I would, you know, see how we're my colleagues land on this.
But I think we have to invest in our project.
We have to put our money where our mouth is.
You don't have to for something to be successful.
And I think it might be a little more than what is being requested.
Thank you.
Thank you. Councilmember Meister.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you for this report.
And I'm supportive, but the item obviously.
My concerns look at the political landscape.
And I just want to make sure that we, you know, are realistic and are following what's going on.
Because, honestly, we don't know what's going to happen.
And tourism can go either way with, you know, what's happening with our federal government and the person who calls himself president.
So I just want to make sure we're just very hyper aware and thinking about, you know, alternatives if we have to.
And I'm also very supportive of making sure that our businesses are part of this effort.
And my personal feeling is that, you know, we want to push the alcohol to the bars.
So that we are not in competition with our, our businesses.
And that's, that's pretty much it. Thank you.
So what I've heard is maybe increasing the budget if necessary.
I've also heard two different views about alcohol sales at the, the park as part of the fan zone.
One, making it a desirable venue for people who want to come out.
On the other hand, we don't want to compete with our local businesses.
So that's something that I think council's going to have to resolve.
My comments echo some of my colleagues very excited about a lot of these, these proposals and the work that's been done.
I wouldn't know that as I read the report, it seemed very, very developed in terms of the arts programming.
And maybe not as clear about the economic development aspect of it, and maybe the tourism aspect of it.
So maybe we need to get a little bit more information.
And it was great to hear your report tonight, Laura, about the interaction you're already having with businesses.
And of course, a lot of times the businesses are planning with a much shorter timeframe than we would like.
So hopefully those kind of plans with the existing businesses, they gel and we see the kind of activity that you're trying to promote.
It would be useful, I think, for me, separate from this item, to know more about what's being done to attract visitors.
From out of town to our hotel rooms and to our businesses during that period. So maybe that's something
that we can get a report on when we talk about renewing the bit.
So are we, yes, John, what type of outreach have we done to sense that bill of art? I know
activating people down in Plumber park or we hope park is important but understanding some of
the critical spaces that are available and sensible of art. There is opportunity up there. We've
done activations at the, I wish we could get what that beautiful thing is called. The sense
that's spectacular. But there is also some other open parking lots. And I'm just thinking about
the availability to do things in those spaces that are also kind of cool for people that are
staying in the hotels kind of to point out what some of my colleagues are saying. If that is an option
as well to make sure sunset is included to include the people who may be staying at the hotels to walk
across the street or walk down across the street and have that ability to activate those dormant spaces as well.
Okay, so I see that there are a number of things that you would like us to
to approve tonight. One is to receive and file the update, but also to authorize the city manager
to execute various documents, authorize the city manager or designate to execute documents with respect
to another contract for services, approve the waiver of facility use fees, etc. Are we ready to make
a motion to that effect and then keep in mind the comments that if the city manager needs more money
that she has heard at least one council member say that he would entertain that. Our vice mayor would
entertain that. And I don't know that we're prepared to make any decision regarding alcohol sales
because it doesn't seem like that's been analyzed by staff and what the requirements would be for that.
So why don't we approve what we can approve tonight and if there's need for an additional discussion
we can bring this matter back. So I see that there's a motion and a second to approve the recommendations
before us tonight. Let's go ahead and vote on that. All right, that has been approved and
do we want to have further discussion about alcohol sales or just let staff think about that and
bring it back at a later date? My understanding was we're exploring an entertainment district,
but we could separately still do a beer garden so it's really a decision for council to make now
whether we want that. I think there's value in it. I would hate for people to want to come to the park
and then also want a libation and have to turn somewhere else. So I think there's value to it and I
don't think it's truly competitive. It's 90 minutes again. It's really about not losing people for that moment.
They thought they were coming to the park for their full experience. So that would be my concern. I think we go for it.
Yeah, and if I may mayor, I agree. And I think the people that would come hang out there. They also then, as we've
seen at Pride or Halloween or every other event, they do go over to the bars. They do hang out there and they
do stay for a little bit longer of a time because if they're outside, they might want to go inside after that.
And so I think it's worth exploring with the beer garden and I'm supportive of that as well tonight.
Thank you, Mayor. Is there any way where we can actually involve our business owners here in the city?
Some of the nightclubs in the bars so that they have an opportunity to have a booth where they can sell alcohol.
So that way we're not just giving them a chance at the app as well.
You can look at Mayor. If I may. Is there any manager?
Yeah, we just wanted to share that since we are exploring what the requirements would be for a beer garden.
And that may also trigger some additional expenses that we bring that back since you are open to that.
And we can bring that as a follow up with more specifics.
And it does sound like there is at least support from a majority of the council to consider that.
And so you'll get additional information and bring that back to us.
And then I have a random question that came up in November when we were discussing the Sunset's
Trip Music Festival and all of us I think agreed to give the city manager a higher authorization amount for
contracts to move things faster. I rightfully predicted that that would not be on our agenda any time soon.
It'll be February and a week or two. But do you city manager have a timeline from then that's coming back
because that also may help solve some of these issues that Vice Mayor Hain brought up with higher expenditures that occur?
Yes, and in fact I got an update from on experience our interim finance director today about bringing an item.
To we're hoping that we can bring that as part of the mid year of date next month because it is.
An area that we all have explored as a as a limitation that we have especially when we want to consider some of these events and options going forward.
Okay, so I think we've concluded this item. Thank you and now we'll move on to E2 and I just wanted to ask if they
Council wanted to follow up item to come back as an unfinished business item or with the council be comfortable if it came back on consent.
It sounds consent fine. It sounds like there are three of us that want it. Okay, thank you or maybe more. So I think consent would be fine.
Okay, I think I just want to I just want to say one thing that the inclusion of a beer garden can can happen in the current budget. So
That's already something that's contemplated. So I just want to put that out there. I'm not sure if that was clear. Thank you.
Thank you and now we'll now we will move to E2 and again this was something we were prepared to move to consent. Although some of us had some questions or comments. So do we need a staff report on this item?
No, I don't think anyone.
And needs the staff report. Any questions that people have?
Councilmember Meister and I also have a question and concern. I want to raise.
Okay, so on page 4 of the staff report. You have some bullet points about industry studies and
percentages of for example labor represents 30% of total costs.
And then you talk about commercial rents that it should be no more than five to eight percent.
I guess on the labor question, is that what it is or is that what it should be?
And if it's what it is, then what should it be? Does that make sense? And then the same thing for the
commercial rents, it seems to me that you're saying that it should be five to eight percent of gross sales, but I don't, but what is it, if it's not that?
Thank you, Councilmember Meister. Laura Byrie, Director of Economic Development,
joined by Paolo Casper to our Business Development Manager. The staff that you're referring to on page 4 of the report
come from the California Restaurant Association. This is giving you a guideline as to what percentage of costs
are associated with each different category. Each business model, each business that operates here in the
city of West Hollywood, some will fall within this range and some will fall well outside of it.
We don't have the specifics on the individual businesses where each of them fall within these ranges.
This was given as context and background. When our businesses talk about the thin margins that they operate on,
or particularly our restaurant industry, and they wanted to explain to us as we were meeting them as part of
these stakeholder outreach, what it was that was causing those thin margins and how the different costs
increasing and what levers could be pulled or adjusted in order to help them continue to be profitable in our
community. These are not actual, these are what restaurant industry is saying they are typically,
they are typically, that's what the industry says that they typically see across the nation.
So in California, but I guess what I'm trying to say is if we're asked is it might be helpful to know
what our West Hollywood restaurants are in those categories to see how if there are other policies or
things that we want to bring forward that might address specific issues. So that's why I'm asking.
And then my other question is, when we did the small business grants,
I don't remember if it ever came back to us and staff told us it was successful and we,
those businesses are still in existence or it wasn't successful and those businesses died shortly thereafter,
but you're asking us to approve grants and they're not, it's not a substantial amount of money
in the big scheme of things, but I just want to make sure that if we tried this before, it was an initiative,
we did after COVID or during COVID, was it a successful initiative that would make us want to do it again?
Yeah, so the grant that was entering COVID was a $5,000 grant up to $250,000 for businesses that were
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but as a result of the qualifications that we had put on
being the business could not get any other type of funding from an outside source so it would be the federal
government or the state or any type of county grant funds that were happening, a lot of the businesses
were not able to qualify for that, we did get four that we awarded as part of that process.
I don't necessarily have a statistics on where the businesses are now but there were four that were awarded
the $5,000 at that time. Are there other questions or comments?
I guess my concern about this is that I think for some of the larger restaurants,
15,000 is really not a lot of money. If it's a business that is generating, let's say,
two or three million dollars annually and they're still having trouble making it as a business,
that I don't know that 15,000 is likely going to make a difference to keep them operational.
I do understand the point you made in the staff report that allocating funding based on
the amount of taxable sales essentially gives the money to the businesses that are doing better than
those that are doing poor, but I don't know this amount doesn't seem to be really responsive.
I know we're concerned about spending public money but we also have to keep in mind that
these businesses are generating money and if they're failing or do fail, that's tax revenue that we don't
get and it's tax revenue that we often don't get for several years because once there's a vacancy,
it's often one to two years before a new business goes in there. So I'm supportive of everything
that you've proposed tonight. I just worry that it's not enough and I'm not sure it's fully responsive
to the direction that was given previously. That's my concern. Mayor. We do have one speaker.
Okay. All right. So thank you. I'm sorry that we started our public comment or council discussion
before public comment. Thank you. I see it now. Leonard, thank you.
Thank you and good evening. I'm going to get well practiced at this, I think. So good evening, Mayor
Hammond, Vice Mayor Hague and Council members. I'm speaking on behalf of the West Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce and strong support of this agenda item. Restaurants are foundational to West
Hollywood's identity and economy. With roughly 250 restaurants, the sector employees, thousands of
workers and represents more than a quarter of our local workforce. Beyond the numbers, restaurants are
community gathering spaces and a key driver to tourism, especially as recovery means uneven.
Today, these businesses face serious and compounding pressures, rising rents and insurance costs,
labor challenges, shifting consumer habits and declines in international tourism. We are increasingly
we are seeing increased instability and local closures and without action, we are risking losing
establishments that define West Hollywood's character. The Chamber appreciates that item
E2 proposes a proactive collaborative approach, starting with the direct outreach to business owners
and developing targeted supports till to the realities of our local market. We also strongly support
the focus on independently operated non-hotel restaurants that are most vulnerable to closure. This item
is an important step to stabilizing one of our city's most critical industries. The Chamber stands ready to
partner with the city on outreach and engagement and to help shape a program that delivers real
timely impact. We urge the Council to support agenda item E2, move this work forward. Thank you.
And now, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So the initial intent and spirit of the item was a
percentage of the sales tax rate. So how did
Thank you guys. How did staff come up with the figures that came up, because different businesses
paid different rents, so to speak. And like the mayor said, they had different numbers of employees,
and you have a restaurant like Lavo that made a lot of money that unfortunately didn't make
it right. So, how did you come up with your figures?
Well, the figures that were in the staff report are basically an average of the current available price
for a footage that is publicly available. That is based on the thresholds that are before you. As
staff came up with a cap for the program of $250,000, using those kind of thresholds for square foot to
provide some equity as far as the process. So, businesses that typically are larger square footages,
have a larger operating house, and so providing a more tiered structure to the grant program.
Instead of a universal concept is how that approach was given. Thank you. I mean, I would like
additional direction to be given to come back with options on a percentage of the sales tax,
which was the initial intent of the item. Thank you. Thank you. Count to my verbiers.
Thank you. I will come back to the bisonerings comments, but wanted to just sort of focus in on the
aspects of the report that spoke about the removal of fees for special events. And wanted to also
understand what it would look like to remove or spend sort of adjust the processes for special events in general.
I know the fees are a barrier, but we've looked and given the business community and I can't even
remember exactly where it's at right now, but a certain limit or number of special events each year.
And I think part of the creativity and innovation of the business industry, and especially as they're trying
to meet the moment, isn't being able to pull events together really quickly. So, I would be curious about
how our permit process itself is a barrier to something like a live, you know, music event, on this
set strip happening, a quick dance performance, something that feels very to the essence and
spirit of what we are as a city, but maybe bureaucratically burden some for a business. And I know I've
heard from some, they've just sort of pushed off those opportunities that may be those creative and
financial opportunities for them. So, I think it's sort of a future future request and is probably
frankly already one of the items on your very busy workload. So, I forgive me if that is, in fact,
something you're already working on, but I'm just thinking about those opportunities that businesses
may have that could generate revenue for them. That was something I wanted to uniquely look at.
And then, going back to the point that Vice Mayor Hames just brought up, I thought the sales tax was
something you addressed in the staff report as a barrier, because I remember it really specifically at the
December meeting, being a part of the conversation, but there was something you named in the staff report that
was a reason why we couldn't go that route. Yeah, and the staff report we itemized out several reasons
why a rebate program probably isn't the best way to kind of help restaurants who need it the most.
We really wanted to have a program that benefits restaurants who are most need of an infusion of
capital as quickly as possible. And so, only with along with the CDTFA guidelines, usually those
kind of sales tax rebates are brought in for larger kind of developments that we're trying to bring
into the city, and we're giving a portion of the sales tax back as a job retention or some type of
program in that sort, and so they're kind of one off programs. This would require us to potentially
enter into a agreement with all restaurants who are part of that, which again is not only administrative
burdensome for the city, but also for the restaurant itself who are trying to fill out these agreements.
Second, secondly, the sales taxes use for our general fund dollars, which go to a myriad of expenses,
the city uses, and then, you know, finally, I believe the mayor had mentioned in the staff report that
sales tax is a number of things, but it's where people purchase things, and we get a percentage of that
sales tax, something in the staff, where we said 1.75%. And so the restaurants that are doing quite well are
obviously generating more sales tax dollars, and the restaurants that maybe are having some difficulty at
this time, you know, getting customers in the door, getting them to spend as much money,
aren't generating as much sales tax revenue, and so in a way to kind of look at how do we help
restaurants that need the most, the grant program was the way that we kind of focus that target on there.
Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Councilmember Erickson. Thank you so much, and I know this is an issue that
comes up every single day. With our restaurants, and look, we know that we know the, what's the
right word, the issue that people want to blame is the minimum wage, but I want to go back to the
report that I believe you did or the survey of business owners was about a year, two years ago,
that FM 23 did, and I believe the minimum wage was listed as fourth or fifth, actually on that list,
and the number one issue is actually commercial rents, cost of goods, insurance, one other thing,
and then the minimum wage. So in reality, looking at what we can do versus what we should do,
and I understand some of the comments up here, we can't do anything about commercial rents,
so that's off the table, we can't do anything about insurance, so that's off the table,
we can't do anything about the cost of goods, so that's off the table. The minimum wage was
approved as part of this council, and it can only be unapproved by the voters, so I'm guessing that's
off the council. So in reality, these subsidies that you're looking at business fees being waived,
parking requirements, I mean it's the little things that we can help try to figure out. I'm supportive
of what council member buyers was talking about specifically regarding a lot of the events and
activations that happen throughout our business, nightlife, a co-coffony that is out here of amazing
things, but I do know for a fact that I think some businesses can only get one business permit to have a
dry queen, like once a month or twice a month, I can't remember the exact wording, I mean the exact
wording of their CUPs, but that's the type of stuff that we should and I believe in the rainbow
district item we just said we wanted to get rid of, because if there's not a dry queen on the boulevard
every single night we're doing something wrong as the gayest city in America, frankly, but I think those are
the things that help when they have to understand the different costs of businesses. I really appreciate places
like beaches, well little beaches, or what's it called? Beach is traffic. Well that's the big beaches,
little beaches is I go on the other side, that's what I call it. But that beaches has completely
redone Monday nights with what they do with drag performers, but I know that takes a permit away from them
to do stuff the other nights of the week. And so my encouragement to you is to continue with what
council member buyer said is the long list of things on your reports. But to look at these simple things
that we hear of every single day, I can't get this permit, I can't do this, I can't do that, I know
Jackie's looking into that as well, but that's part of where my direction is, it's just get rid of that stuff.
I just cannot believe that we have these rules still in place where you can only have certain activations
every single night. I think we're just, that's just as a nine in 2026 when we're trying to do these things.
So my, that's my general recommendation is to take every low-hanging fruit and cut it. There's no reason
that we are wasting people's time and dollars and wave the fee for Pete's sake. Like no one,
I don't care, is it a hunt? How much is a fee for a special event permit? I sound like, I sound like a
arrested development where the seal belief is like, how much is a banana? $20? Like, I don't know.
But like, these are the things that like, if a business is paying $500 for drag queen bingo and they can
just, I just think it's wasted money that they could put somewhere else. So that's my recommendation.
So to respond to your question, council members, and our director of community safety,
Danny Reeve, I think we're. Oh great. What is the price of a banana?
Well, thank you. I just wanted to rest in development at the same time, but there you go.
But I do also want to share touching on some of the comments made by the council tonight. You'll
notice in the staff report there was also additional economic relief programs as part of a larger
economic stimulus package. This takes into consideration for staff to evaluate further some of the items
that you had mentioned here tonight. That includes reduction in waivers of the city business
tax certificates, reductions in waivers for our city public eating, outdoor dining, other business
license fees, the reductions or waivers of city special event permit fees, parking meter and parking
lot fees if we want to bring back we happy Wednesdays, and increase funding for we hope locals give
car program. These would all be evaluated as part of our midyear budget and come back after talking
with council, our finance team and council to come back to a later date with a larger economic stimulus
package for restaurants. And we looked at some of the last couple of times that we did these kind of
economic hardship packages 2009, the COVID-19 pandemic, 2024 with the critical state of business letter,
and really tried to find solutions that the businesses felt resonated with them and worked
and what could we put our repeat and implement quickly. So I'll turn it over to our director of community
safety, Danny Revis, to give us the magical price. Good evening, Mayor of members of the city council,
so Danny Revis directed community safety. So an activation special event permit is free of cost and
so that an example of that is if somebody is trying to do food and beverage for a grand opening like
in a retail space then they would still need to submit an application but there would be zero cost to
the business to do that. If somebody wanted to take it a step further and maybe do like a partial
sidewalk activation, a step and repeat use of the public right away maybe valet so that would
elevate that level permit and that can range from as low as $200 to as high as $300 and it's depending on
when a business actually submits their application. So the earlier that they submit they get the $200
cost the later that they submit it could elevate because there's some expediting right foot staff
processing that and then the more elevated permit let's say somebody wants to activate their
parking lot space now they're having a pool building permit right and you're having a stage of some sort now
that's a little higher those permits can start under special events as low as a thousand and can go as high
as $1,500 again depending on when somebody submits their application. Great and I'll just finish my
comment was saying that if the council decides to move forward and there's more activation and we get
more complaints they can go to the business license commission and deal with it there. I mean if
Santa Monica Boulevard becomes Hooverville you know in that way then you know we will understand that
it's no longer bedford falls but I say this in that way that I know it's not going to happen and the
complaints that we already get are based on very different things and so I would just say that the more
things that we can do to help the clubs activate which is what I know they need more so $200 $300
$300 that all adds up so that's my recommendation. Thank you I'm going to turn it over to Vice Mayor
hang and then I have a few comments. Thank you Mayor is there any way we could increase the threshold and
are we legally bound to a one off payment? Sorry for clarification and one off payment for
progress runs that yeah that will qualify based on the thresholds at step but for the grant so
I think the council can direct staff to change the word plan or change the recommendations that are in
the staff report as needed and then are we legally bound to a one off payment because that was mentioned in the
set of work. I think he's asking can we repeat this could it be an annual if we continue to see
the economic conditions be challenging for our restaurants? Yes I think you can create the grant
program that you want as long as there's public purpose with using the public funds and you're continuing
to see the benefit or you have the same issues. I'm not from an exactly with what language you're
referring to in staff report but you can create the grant program as long as there's the public purpose.
So it's not limited to just a one-time payment and then you can't you can't all claim anymore after
following that. What I think staff was trying to create a program see how it works see if it's
a successful program and then revisit whether businesses could be eligible a second time but the proposal tonight is
one-time for each business. Understood and then I appreciate my colleagues mentioning the reduction of fees
I believe that falls in line with what the mayor was saying during his installation speech to reduce fees
I don't want to speak for you I'm wrong but to help reduce fees for people across the city. Thank you.
Thank you. The one I have two comments and one is I wanted to share with my colleagues I've been
working with our new city manager on an idea to change the definitions in our zoning code in terms of
what the allowable activities are in restaurants and other businesses some of the things that require
a special permit may no longer need to if we change our definitions in the zoning code
and specify that these activities are permitted restaurant activities and don't require a special
permit there may be things that we want to retain requiring a special permit but I think that's one way
that we could address this more comprehensively and retail businesses if they're having an activation
and they're having a cocktail party to launch a new line of clothing that doesn't typically impact
anyone if it's fully inside the building
So maybe we don't need to require special event permits for those. They can just simply be ancillary events that are permitted as part of their basic definition. So we're working on that and we'll bring that forward. This is a minor source of irritation for me.
We have an annual holiday party for our employees and we used to have it in the city of West Hollywood.
And for whatever reason we decided that it was better to move it outside of the city of West Hollywood so there would be no appearance of conflicts.
I think that in my mind is ridiculous. I think we should be having that annual event at a West Hollywood venue and spending our city revenue at our city businesses, not businesses just outside our border.
So I hope that's something that maybe there are other reasons for that policy that I'm not aware of, but it never struck me as making a lot of sense and I hope we go back to having the annual party in the city of West Hollywood and giving that business to our own businesses.
So I think it sounded like there was support for all of the recommendations, but there was some additional direction that was given and I know that you're going to continue doing that kind of work.
Are we prepared to approve the recommendations that staff gave us tonight?
If so, I see there's a motion from council member fires and council member Mister has a question or issue.
Yeah, I just want to make sure that what we approve does include it does include the you know the gift cards and the you know the Wednesdays the free parking Wednesdays those that seem to be very successful and maybe we expand upon that during the week.
We're proving tonight does include that that you know that we support that I didn't read it that way just I read that those were recommendations for what had been successful programs throughout the last year that the council could continue to invest in.
If they're if among that list we want to give direction now to do that I just thought there were.
That's exactly why I'm bringing it up because I think we should I don't know why we would have to wait I mean if if those items those initiatives worked then let's include them.
What I heard staff saying was that they were going to continue to evaluate whether they worked and that was part of their work plan but Laura is eager to.
Share her expertise with us happy to so we with the approval of the item tonight would be direct us to explore these other options of repeating them.
And we would do that in conversation with our finance team in order to ensure there was budgetary allocations available for all of these we would come back to you have your midyear budget presentation coming up and you have your full budget presentation that will be coming up in the next few months.
So these your direction tonight would tell us to work with the budget team in our finance director to identify the funding sources the opportunities what's feasible and then bring that back to you for approval.
Okay.
Okay, we're all clear now on what is being recommended and I saw a motion in a second and we are prepared to vote.
Is there any further direction anyone wants to give tonight?
I think there have been some comments and I see staff shaking their heads they've heard those comments and they will take them into account moving forward.
So I believe we can now move on to E3 which we were prepared to move to consent but for legal reasons we're not allowed to.
Correct and Laura are you giving the staff report on this item.
We we can do a very brief staff report and we can also respond to your questions from earlier mayor that you had requested about visit West Hollywood's efforts related to the world cup as well as the business development divisions efforts related to the world cup and.
Other sporting events.
I'm going to turn over to Palo Caspada to give a brief report on this so that it is part of the public record then we'll update you on those items.
Mr. Tom Kiwis also out in the audience from visit West Hollywood and available as well.
Great we'll make this 60 seconds so tonight's meeting is just to hear public testimony regarding the renewal of the of the tourism improvement districts.
Visit West Hollywood does manage the tourism improvement district and this item is to request the district be renewed from April 1st of 2026 through June 30th at 2035.
It would set the tourism improvement district assessment rate to 4% from its current 3% with the ability to increase it to 5%.
And so this would generate 2.6 million dollars which is really timely given our major events that are coming to the city.
Very soon and that ends the report.
Less than a minute thank you.
Questions for.
Did you want the additional updates on World Cup.
Yes just briefly.
Because I wanted to lay my colleagues.
So the brief update this it was Hollywood has been working with our local hotels and the LA Sports Entertainment team and commission on room blocks.
They've also been working with on location which is the hospitality partner.
We also have businesses in the city that have identified corporate sponsors that want to host hospitality houses at their locations.
And then staff has been working collaboratively with LA Sports Entertainment Commission ensuring that our activations are hotels represented in the fan guides as well.
Great.
Other questions.
And you would ask about hospitality houses with other countries.
I wanted to let you know that we did have discussions.
Unfortunately they have not taken us up on those offers.
We've met with them but they have not selected West Hollywood.
We won't name the city that they selected.
We're very disappointed.
Okay but you can continue to work with them and work with other.
Countries that might be interested in having hospitality house in West Hollywood.
Most certainly.
On the subject of sporting activities can we ask the visitors bureau to also try to work with the marathon people who.
Don't seem to bring any hotel business to West Hollywood even though they go through the city.
Okay.
I see a motion and a second.
Any further discussion.
I just want to quickly think the visit was Hollywood for being great partners.
I know I brought items that began you very education.
You've all been great partners.
The we ho loves locals though it is especially to run it twice in the last year to work with the community through all the different hiccups which were very few and minor.
But I really appreciate all of that work this year.
Thank you.
All right we're ready to vote.
And the item is unanimously approved and this will come back to us because we need to have a public hearing and a later date.
Okay.
Thank you.
So we have one last item or two more items.
E4 we're okay with just continuing.
All right.
E4.
And I don't know that we need a staff report on this.
I had a question or a comment on this.
I'm supportive of doing this economic analysis.
But one of the things that seemed missing from the report and maybe I just missed it was an analysis of the wages that are currently being paid.
I just didn't see that in the in the proposal of what we were going to get and that seemed like it would be a pretty important basic information for us.
So is that included in the study that's going to be conducted?
Yes it'll be included and if it's not itemized in the scope of work we'll make sure it's included as part of the study that comes back to the council.
Okay.
Are there other questions or comments on this item?
So I know we were prepared to move this to consent.
So if I can get a motion to approve and a second.
With the direction that's been given we'll go ahead and approve this item.
We're missing one person here.
There we go.
All right.
It's been approved.
Thank you.
And then the last item that we have a business item is an appointment and that is yours council member.
Yes, yes it is it's for public safety commission.
Just so you know I had ten very good applicants.
And one of the things that I did to make my decision since we had so many good applicants is I asked staff to map out the existing or current commissioners to see where they were.
And what I found out was actually a little surprising.
We have four commissioners that are east of Fairfax and I believe north of Santa Monica Boulevard.
We have two commissioners that are east of Lascianica between Lascianica and Crescent Heights.
Both are around fountain and so what I saw was a need to have someone.
From the south west portion of our city in order to have some representation there.
And my my choice is Kimberly Winnick.
She fits the bill for for both west and south as well as being well qualified to be commissioner as she has been on other another commission previously.
And I just also wanted to suggest so congratulations Kim Winnick wherever you are and I also want to thank all of the applicants.
Like I said, I had a lot of good applicants and the way that I felt was best to make my decision was to look at.
Where everyone lived even though all of our commissioners are supposed to represent all of our residents and all of our city.
Especially with public safety each one is coming with their own experience their own living experience their neighborhoods and I felt that it was important to have neighborhoods in the southwest area represented.
I would also like to suggest for future that when we look at at larges at large appointments and this you know may not include.
The mayor and I but as all of you move forward that when we look at at larges that we also look at where existing commissioners are located where they reside so that we can see.
If there is representation across the city and that would be a great thing for our city clerk to.
To do when we do have open at large positions and even when we have any open position because I think it's helpful for that decision making for all council members so.
Congratulations Kim and again thank you to all the applicants.
I appreciate your time and.
I'm sure that if there's another opening I'd be happy to to look at you for one of those other positions thank you.
So congratulations to Kimberly who's with us tonight.
And that completes all our agenda items except excluded consent calendar we don't have any do you have any additional public comment.
No mayor we do not okay so we'll now turn to council member comments and meeting attendance reports council member buyers.
First congrats on a great first meeting mayor so happy to have you the day is my attendance reports I attended the first Los Angeles County affordable housing solutions agency board meeting of the year.
I'm going to need to remember had asked me to share a little bit more about those meetings in tail so I will do that especially because the work of the agencies heating up and a really exciting way.
Folks may remember or not but the measure that was passed by ballot county wide.
So we're going to remember 24 measure a funds this agency LaCosta LaCosta was created by a statewide piece of legislation SB 679 and 2022 so the agency's been forming.
With the mandate to finance housing across the county of Los Angeles.
We're going to remember a financial tools including a social bond which will build public housing finance fire public tax dollars really exciting and in December the agency began.
We're going to be meeting funding to the number of service provider organizations across the county organizations like path that provide the direct.
Rent her assistance and homeless prevention work to people so it's both a vision homeless prevention work with rental voucher assistance.
Work of developing and building affordable housing across the region so dollars went out in December to both fund the number of social service agencies with those rent her vouchers.
And dollars are starting to out from the agency to help fund a number of different projects including money that was allocated under the West Side Cities Council of Government in December to a few projects including some here in West Hollywood.
So it's really exciting work that the agency's undertaking to build affordable housing this region has long needed but also finance those rental vouchers that are becoming more difficult for people to find.
So really great work really proud to be a supervisor Lindsey Horvass alternate and appointment on that board where I spent a lot of my time.
And I'm just wanted to also mention looking forward to the Martin Luther King day of service at West Hollywood Elementary next weekend that will all participate.
As far as council comments I wanted to thank this council again for the adjournment and memory of Renee Nicole good and was especially grateful for community member speaking about it tonight.
I wrote these notes before that even happened but after that meeting and even during the meeting felt the amount of support echoed for that and we know here in West Hollywood the very same day that that tragedy occurred in Minneapolis.
I picked up a community member of our own I've seen people share updates about this individual online and very grateful for that news continuum to spread this work.
Here continues to protect ourselves to care for each other up against this craziness that we're experiencing, but just want to continue to make sure that the city and our community knows that this council is fiercely with them on this issue.
And I also wanted to think this council for the support of the adding to the travel list, the housing California panel.
I have been invited to speak about the city's rent control and rent stabilization ordinance, which I'm looking forward to digging into more as those at home committee meetings start sometime this year. That's all for me. Thank you very much for getting me.
Council member, myster. I'm going to be so brief because the last meeting was just last week and I don't have anything to report.
Council member Erickson.
Thank you so much.
I'm a sad matter, but Mr. Mayor.
I've got to get out of that habit very quickly and congrats on another great meeting.
In regards to B10 the grants and schools program, I want to thank city staff.
This was my item from a few a year and a half ago and working extensively with the children's round table from those groups and community members.
I provided these critical updates and what was needed and what they could actually do with any type of additional money.
And I'm glad to see it was increased as well and making sure that these are attainable grants that they'll be able to use and thank you Christine and others who worked very hard and social services staff.
So really want to appreciate that.
Additionally, I want to say I attended a few random city events that were happening.
It's only been a week and then see if we could talk later on or if the city manager could come back with an update to the King's Road usage policy.
I understand that King's Road can only be used the first Saturday of every month from like one to two PM or whatever it is.
But these restrictions seem a little bit outdated in terms of the great space that that provides to people.
And so if we meet and I think if I watched or read the meeting minutes from the public facilities commission correctly and that's the wrong name of the commission but apologies Melissa.
The answer to staff regarding that staff gave to the commission regarding the usage was specifically when they made that agreement with the individuals it may be mere highly and can talk more about this was in the 90s.
So I wasn't the fourth grade.
So I think some of these things need to be updated as things and people move on a lot of more families and individuals have moved into those spaces.
It was so great to see it full of life and continue to see it full of life.
So if that thing could be reevaluated for additional usage and I'd say over usage but I think opening it up to a second Saturday or something like that might be fair to people.
And also alleviate space from Plumber Park and we help park at the same time so that's just general direction I'm happy to do an item but I don't know if I need to do an item but maybe city staff could look into that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you vice mayor.
Thank you mayor I have nothing to report congratulations on your solution and councilmember Mister work glad that you're back and okay.
So I have a few things to report I attended the council subcommittee on homelessness with council member buyers as well as the council subcommittee on the code of conduct with council member buyers.
I hope to update that we received at the subcommittee on homelessness is the successful launch of Holloway House and within the first month of it opening.
The facility was full we've already seen at least one individual transition to permanent shelter there are several others who are in line to do that and almost without fail all the.
The 20 people who were in there initially have been working with service providers to transition to get permanent housing so a lot of good work that's being done there and I think we should all be proud of the success of that program so far.
I as councilmember buyers note it we'll have the Martin Luther King volunteer event at.
We hope elementary on the 31st this Thursday will be the homeless count and a number of community members will be at city hall to go out and help the county count the number of individuals who are homeless.
Our staff does that on a regular basis even without the county's.
Coordination but this is an important event that occurs on an annual basis I do want to address the comments that were made earlier in the meeting about.
Feeling that public commenters felt disrespected at the planning commission I just want to say that from my standpoint I don't think that is the view of the council we welcome people's comments at our council meetings.
Whether we agree with you or disagree with you regardless of what neighborhood you're from we want you to feel free and welcome to comment on matters and express your views about the city's business.
And there was one other thing I was going to comment on but I think I have forgotten so I think that's it we will stand adjourned for the evening and.
You're looking like you turned in a speaker's slippers we will and tonight's meeting so thank you everyone we are adjourned.