Thank you everyone. Before we get started, could the City Clerk read the land acknowledgement?
Yes, Mayor, 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, unseated, seized territory of the Gabrioling, Yotanga and Gabrioling, Yokeesh peoples.
Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order, and tonight we have a special guest,
Elasia Dunlap is going to come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Elasia,
your brother, Elasia, was here before, right?
We go right to the mic.
The agents to the flag of the United States come and get into the public for which is
stand one nation under God and a visible with the brilliant justice for all.
And stick around.
We have a special presentation for you as well.
City Clerk, can we have a roll call please?
Yes, Mayor.
Thank you.
Councilmember Biers.
Councilmember Ericsson.
Here.
Councilmember Maester.
here. Vice Mayor Heng is absent this evening. He is attending a family funeral.
Mayor Hengling here. And we have a quorum.
All right. So let's move to the approval of the agenda. I believe the City Clerk has one
item that is being continued correct. Yes, item C6 is being continued to our next meeting on June 29,
2026. Thank you. So if you're here for C6, that item is continued. Let's turn to my
colleagues to see if there are items that might be moved to consent. Council Member
Ericsson is eager to move items to consent. Always eager and happy to help. I was
wondering if I'll start at the back of Melissa, the community preparedness regarding
the Andy's virus, a haunt of virus Ebola and other potential emerging public health threats
item?
That's a seven.
That's seven.
Okay.
You know objection?
Wonderful.
Is there any objection to F6?
The direction to evaluate potential modifications to the temporary advertisement installations
under the Sunset Arts and Advertising Program and Special Event permits related to long-term
activations.
I have a couple of questions.
I am going to make my direct appointment to the Social Justice Advisory Board.
I am appointing Jonathan Harling to the Social Justice Advisory Board, but I don't know if
we want to do the rest.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Let's all do our appointments and then we can move at five to consent.
Yes, so I will be appointing Joseph Soto to the Social Justice Advisory Board.
That's great.
And I'll be appointing Alexis Ybarra to the Russians speaking advisory board.
And I'll be appointing Ed Holman to the older adults advice for you folks.
And I think that completes our appointment, so F5 will be moved to consent.
Yes, and that is for a term ending February 28th, 2027.
Thank you.
Is there any objection to F4 the housing element implementation?
Yeah, I figured.
Okay, the levy of assessment for Santa Monica Boulevard meet means district for fiscal year 2026 to 2027?
No objection.
The consideration of the annual report of the Sunset Strip Business Improvement District,
an adoption of the resolution of intent and to levy an assessment for fiscal year?
No objection.
And then last but certainly not, well, I might have some more.
The consideration of the annual report for the advisory board to the West Hollywood design district
and adoption of the resolution of intention to let be an assessment F1?
No objection that can be moved to consent.
What about item D2, the ordinance of the city of West Hollywood amending the
municipal code to increase compensation for us, sadly, but it's state law?
I think we should just leave that on regular agenda just for transparency purposes.
And then I think, sorry, and then D1, an ordinance of the city of West Hollywood amending the portions of Title II article 1 of the West Hollywood Municipal Code.
No objections, that will move to consent.
I think that's all I'm allowed to do.
Do they want to do all of that?
Are there any other changes?
Okay, if not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as it's been amended.
I'll second that.
Be me to it.
All right.
If we can take our vote on that, and it passes noting Vice Mayor's absence tonight.
Melissa, do you get all of those?
Do you want to summarize for the public?
Yes.
I can summarize for members of the public.
So the following items are moving to the consent calendar.
So if you signed up to speak on these items,
we will move you to the first public comment period.
So items D1, F1, F2, F3, F5 and F7.
Great, thank you.
Thank you.
We'll now turn to Levine Act Disclosure.
Any of my colleagues have any disclosures tonight?
No, okay.
So we'll move to adjournment motions and do any of my colleagues have adjournment motion.
I have two, I would request that we adjourn in memory of former representative Barney Frank, who was a long time congressman, also a strong advocate for the LGBT community and one of the first openly gay members of congress, he also came to West Hollywood and participated in our meetings of openly LGBT
elected officials, and so I would request that we adjourn in his memory.
Secondly, I would request that we adjourn in memory of David Hockney,
the famed artist who also had a studio here in West Hollywood for many, many years,
and I would request that we adjourn in his memory.
We do have a number of presentations tonight, and I think we'll start with
The first one I have here, which is to a lasia.
I hope I'm saying it, right, a lasia done lab, who honored us tonight by leading us
in the Pledge of Allegiance, a lasia is at West Hollywood Elementary School, and I think
your brother is too, right, all right, you're running the school, is that,
oh, okay.
So, well, please come up and everyone if my colleagues could come down and honor Olaisha for doing such a great job.
And I'm going to ask Council Member Meister to help me with this one.
We have the honor of being joined tonight by Pickle.
the West Hollywood Dragloria,
our first dragloria, and Pickle was selected as the Dragloria
to serve a two-year term but we couldn't let Pickle go, so we extended it to three, and Pickle
has been representing the city and as a singer, entertainer, a storyteller, representing the city
at major cultural events such as We Hope Pride,
the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival National Night out
and really strengthening the visibility
of drag within public life and municipal events.
Pickle also produced educational programming
on drag history at our Harvey Milk Day events
has led initiatives such as free sewing workshops,
because you make all of your gowns correct, amazing.
So we just wanted to honor you.
It is bittersweet that you're rotating out of this position,
but we want to just honor you for successfully fulfilling your role
as West Hollywood's drag laureate with creativity,
leadership, commitment, and a great deal of compassion. Thank you, Pickle. Please join me in
on me.
Thank you. I didn't
prepare.
All I can say is thank you. I mean,
thank you to the art staff
of the city of West Hollywood for guiding me through this process for allowing me to do this role
Thank you to the council members and the mayor and the vice mayor and all of the staff and everyone
in the government
For being a part of this. It's weird because it's
like
I've remarks to people because like the number one question I got from people is like what is that?
What do you what is a drag what so tell me what is a drag lawyer? And what do you do and I just never came up with
I've got enough answer, you know, I think that when we, it seems so silly, but these things are important.
And I get to work with children and sometimes I feel very silly because it's like,
well, what is this? I'm the only one really. But I always tell my friends and people that I'm like, in 60 years.
I'll be so proud to have been this person and I know the odious are you pending your approval.
We'll do such a great job and it's been my honor, it's been the greatest honor of my life so far.
To be a part of this and just to leave like a tiny little mark on a tiny little town.
And, you know, like, we get to show up and be a part of something that is a part of something
even bigger, and especially right now, I think things like this are really valuable and important,
and it's been a pleasure and an honor, so thank you.
And thank you, pickled don't go away.
I believe my colleagues want to say a few words, but it isn't a small market, it's a huge mark. Thank you for leaving a huge mark on our community and there are many good things to come. I know that you're going to continue to be a great leader in our community. Thank you.
Oh boy, I mean, pickle, you are just the best.
I mean, I know council member Lauren Myster always says it's probably like the best thing we've ever done.
I mean, we've done some good things, but like you are sunshine, rainbows, joy, personified,
and you know, like, maybe we won't approve her.
What does have you for another three years?
I mean, by who knows?
Time to start.
But the coup begins, but Hickle, you saying somewhere
over the rainbow when I became mayor, you were at contract cities,
and people didn't know what a drag lawyer it was then,
but they do now, and that's 84 cities across LA County.
You were there at the Academy Museum when I brought all of my kids
from my high school, and they only wanted to see you.
I mean, they were like, his pickle here is pickle here.
I mean, there are so many amazing memories that we all have and we will have many, many more
because you're not going anywhere, we won't let you. Literally, we won't let you,
we'll put up gates and we'll say, you can't go and all the things, but pick up,
I know you had to endure some things and you came out just so more amazing than we could ever have
So thank you for all the joy you have brought every single person in the
entire city.
Yeah.
Pickle, sunshine, rainbow, bubbles, all the things.
Watching you with kids is a true magical moment.
The way kids understand the world differently because of who they're looking at and seeing
it.
It's really amazing that we get to have this in our community.
And I know you've been somebody who's brought drag and it's leadership in so many different
corners of this county, and with that we're so proud of the way that you've been a vehicle
for West Hollywood's values, all across this county, shining that light everywhere.
And I think it's so incredible that not just through the sewing workshops and the sort
of drag workshops, but the leadership development pipeline that you really created for
drag queens and kings to see themselves as bigger than performers and stars and bars, but
really like leaders in our community and advocates for change
and visionaries and how they see the world
and are able to help us all build it.
So I just thank you so much for starting this spark
that is going to turn into a bonfire
and we really have so much to be grateful to you for
for helping us define what seemed undefinedable in this city.
It's because of you that we're able to help keep this going
and we just thank you so much for starting something
unbelievable here.
Thank you.
Pickle, you know, I had brought this initiative forward with one of my former colleagues.
And honestly, I don't think we could have ever imagined how amazing this program would be.
And that really is you. It really is.
You've just been not only an amazing drag-lory, but an amazing first drag-lory,
you have, as Council Member Bias said, really defined this role, but to a level that I don't think any of us ever could have expected, when you took the mic that first time, and you sang, and I was like, wait, she's singing, she's really singing, you just, you just blew us all away, and I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this initiative one that I can be so proud of,
and I will be proud of it for rest of my days.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
We have one other presentation tonight
and it's still pride month in the city of West Hollywood.
So, each month I've been trying to honor
one of the organizations that serves our community
and also donating my salary to them.
So this month we get to honor the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
And the Los Angeles LGBT Center is the largest organization in the world that believe
serving the LGBT Q plus population.
It's also one of the largest providers of HIV care in all of California.
We're very fortunate tonight to be joined by Joe Hollandonner, the CEO of the LGBT Center.
And I just want to take a moment to bring awareness to the outstanding services that the center provides.
It was providing services before we became a city and then once we became a city, we began contracting with them for their services.
comprehensive healthcare social services, advocacy, education, cultural programming, it has
been a national leader in terms of advancing LGBTQ plus civil rights, working tirelessly
and advocating for our community. Their commitment to youth experiencing homelessness, seniors,
seeking community and support, individuals, navigating critical moments in their lives.
The center is there for so many members of our community, and I'm so proud to be honoring
the center tonight.
If my colleagues could come and join me, please join me in honoring the LGBT Center of
Los Angeles.
First, I want to thank the Mayor and City Council for this very lovely honor.
It's not often that I come to council meetings and feel a motion of joy and fight back tears for good reasons
So thank you to pickle and thank you for that pledge of allegiance
You know the Los Angeles LGBT Center is in fact
The world's largest LGBT serving organization
But we are also the first LGBT community center ever created and there is a reason for that
And it's because of the residents of the fierce residents of Los Angeles County in general who stood behind the work of our founders back in 1969.
And so thank you for this honor.
Thank you for your continued investment in our work in our communities.
It's enabling us to serve 35,000 unduplicated people each year providing them with health care, housing, and hope.
So, and honor and pride month, I appreciate everything that you all do.
Thank you.
All right, it's now time for public comment.
Madam City Clerk, how many speakers do we have in chambers and how many do we have on Zoom?
We have 25 individuals in chambers and none in Zoom.
Okay, I am going to limit us to the 20 minutes that we normally allocate.
So I would ask people to cooperate and if somebody has said what you want to say,
If you could abbreviate your remarks, that would be helpful.
Tonight, we do need to get to the budget.
It's required that we get through that by the end of this month.
So that's why I want us to move to the agenda as quickly as possible.
If we don't get you in the first round of public comments,
there will be a second round if you're able to stay.
And the names aren't appearing, so can you call them?
Yes, I can. The first speaker is Helen Krieger to be followed by Tom Demell.
And are these consent calendar? Are there no consent calendar?
There, we have 10 consent calendar speakers.
Thank you.
It's showing now.
Hello, Council. I'm here to speak about B10 on the consent calendar.
SB9 readiness and incorporating it into our zip zoning.
My name is Helen Krieger. I'm a resident of West Hollywood and I'm a payer of our significantly high rents.
We know that regardless of what happens with the Skag Maps, we desperately need more housing.
And putting that housing near transit will be good for everybody.
Through our zoning, we may be unintentionally made housing and unnecessarily scarce resource in West Hollywood.
In the 40 years since we've become a city, we've built 70% less housing units than in the 40 years before we were a city.
It's gone from 16,500 housing units, down to about 5,000.
So this is why the majority of people who work in West Hollywood have to live somewhere else.
It's because we haven't built enough housing here.
This is why people pay half of their income in rent every month.
According to our census data, almost 20% of West Hollywood residents pay half or more of their income in rent every month.
And that number is not theoretical to me because that number includes me.
Like a lot of West Hollywood residents I work in a creative industry and that has highly variable income.
That works fine when I was in my very affordable rent control department.
But then that building got eliced and I had to see how high the market rents have gotten in West Hollywood.
SB 79 has some of the best protections that we've seen for rent stabilized units while allowing the housing that we desperately need to be built and doing it near transit which will cut down on traffic.
We have a chance to our zip process to create SB 79 ready zoning that's adapted to the unique needs of our community.
My ask for you here tonight is to please not make this process never ending.
Please respect all the people in West Hollywood who are paying so much and rent.
Please respect the feedback you've already gotten on ZIP and all the residents who have taken time out of their schedules to participate in that.
And given the extreme housing crisis, please set a deadline for staff to incorporate the resident feedback they've already received.
And to get an SB 79 ready ZIP item on your council agenda.
Let's start treating our housing like the human right that it is.
Thank you.
Tom Jamil to be followed by Mike Holtzman.
I'm in the dark here.
My name is Tom Jamil.
I'm a 33 year resident in West Hollywood.
Before I came here, I lived with Bonnie Frank for three years.
And I didn't know until he died.
The things he taught me, as I remember,
he said, Tom, never take a dollar.
Seventh campaign up.
And never take a dollar.
That's so great.
And the other thing he says, if you want to be mayor,
he says you don't have to run.
Just be mayor and after a while, people will notice.
Well, 33 years later, I've been the cop and boys town.
And I just want to let the mayor know
and the council members know that I understand the $36,000
in my fellow residents.
You're afraid to come to the Rainbow District
after dark.
And I understand that because physically,
I only have a couple of wins left, as you can see.
But my heart's still there, they, I had two different homeless persons, a pummel me.
In front of a hundred of my friends and guests at Mickey's because I stopped him from stealing a purse and across the street a woman that morning was screamed bloody murder, and I went over to say, are you okay?
And she hit me over and over again. After that she walked towards Trader Joe's before she got there, she assaulted 10 residents.
We
have a budget later on that I'm all in favor at this point if I win that I'm going to cut the shares budget
Because they haven't provided a safe place for us to go more over
Because those homeless here and violent people there will losing 10 million dollars every year in our budget
Because of it. No movie stars no rock stars no dancers. No singers nothing
I'm going to bring it back.
We'll build bunkers along that whole side, doubling the sidewalk, and make it Butler's service
only.
We'll get a pick it up in West Hollywood.
We'll do the sidewalks over with gay-eyed walk-of-fame, and so on.
Thank you so much.
November 3rd.
Thank you.
Mike Holtzman to be followed by Jonathan Wilson and then Kathy Walgmett.
Good evening, Mayor and Council members.
The micoltsman of 39, 39 year member or 39 year resident of West Hollywood.
I appreciate Skaggs' recent decision to exclude the four proposed metro-k line stations
affecting West Hollywood from its current SB 79 maps.
However, that decision should not be viewed as a reason to delay planning.
Rather it provides a valuable, potentially limited window for the city to prepare for
the likelihood that these stations will eventually be mapped.
to direct staff to begin developing a totap, right away.
Given the complexity of the process and the importance of meaning,
meaningful public engagement,
waiting until the stations are officially mapped,
could significantly reduce the city's flexibility
and residents' ability to help shape future growth.
Totap is not about opposing housing,
it is about planning growth responsibly.
The TOTUP would allow West Hollywood to directly direct growth to appropriate commercial
corridors and transit-servant areas while protecting neighborhood character and respecting
community priorities expressed during the ZIP process.
And I couldn't at TOTUP.
The public is consistent with the proactive approaches that Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and soon to be called for city have taken.
By acting now, the council can create a balanced approach that accommodates new housing while preserving the qualities that make what's Hollywood unique.
Thank you.
Jonathan Wilson, to be followed by Kathy Waldman.
All right, Mayor, I'm forcing the Vice Mayor's
now here, but council members, good to see you.
Thank you for your opportunity to speak.
I want to speak a little bit about the Tota app,
and I want to say thank you again for presenting
what you presented on May 18th.
Unfortunately, it looks like we have decided
to move that into consent, and we have approved that.
What that said, I still think there's a need
to have intentional and deliberate housing
within our city.
And what that said, I mean, it is extremely important,
we think about not only what our city looks like in the future, but what our residents want
as well.
There's a bunch of residents are asking for a tot up at this moment and they're feeling
unheard of at the moment.
When we make sure that we hear, we have strong persecution, I think what would our city, our
city, of 1.99 square miles, looks like a 9 square miles, looks like a 9 square miles,
looks like a strong, strong, I think heard a city council to make sure that we are thinking
thoughtfully about the impacts that we are making, also maintaining some control on West
We can't leave our city development up to the state.
Let's ask ourselves why Los Angeles is delaying the implementation
and also why cities like Culver City and Beverly Hills
have created it to it up.
Let's be intentional about where and how we develop in this city.
And again, the idea is not about not developing.
It's about being an intention about where we develop and how we develop.
Thank you.
Thank you Kathy Waldman to be followed by Jacob Shaw.
My name is Kathy Wall.
Kathy, can you pull the mic down a little bit?
I'm a 30-year West Hollywood resident in the WeHo Heights neighborhood.
NSEES member.
I'm here to urge the approval of SB79 Todap, given the vital protections it would afford
our communities.
The property street conditions and neighborhood impact are key factors in project evaluation.
with the tow-dap our city gains the exact framework to use local context rather than passively
proving projects that result in a natural hardship. SB 79 undermines local governments control over
its land use decision making, our existing RSO affordable housing is under threat from this,
likely leading to displacement and intensifying the gentrification of our city, which will make it
challenging for low-income residents, seniors, on fixed incomes, the disabled, and working
individuals to stay in or move to West Hollywood.
SB 79 is a boon for developers looking to boost profits, but detrimental to our residents.
A grim truth and is that the majority of this council supported this bill failing to protect
its constituents.
You'll be abandoning the residents once again if the toadap isn't supported.
Please approve SB 79 to give City of West Hollywood the tools to protect our community.
Thank you.
Jacob Shaw to be followed by great rain.
All right, good evening.
Mayor, not vice mayor.
Council members city manager and city staff.
My name is Jacob Shaw and I'm honored to come to you today as the interim president and CEO of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
I'm here tonight to express the Chamber's strong support for the continued renewal of both the
Sunset Ship Business Improvement District and the West Hollywood Design District.
These organizations are invaluable partners in advancing the economic vitality of West
Hollywood through destination marketing, business advocacy, special events, and stakeholder
engagement.
Both districts help strengthen the commercial corridors that contribute significantly to the
city's identity and economic success.
The Sunset Strip and Design District are not only important business centers, they are internationally recognized brands that helped to find West Hollywood.
They're efforts attract visitors, support local businesses, generate economic activity, and reinforce the city's reputation as a global destination for entertainment, hospitality, design and culture.
The chamber as manager of both organization has seen first hand the positive impact they have on our businesses, property owners, residents, and visitors alike.
Their work extends beyond their individual boundaries and the benefits the broader West Hollywood community as a whole.
As we continue to navigate economic challenges and increasing competitive marketplace, it is critical that we support organizations that have a proven track record of promoting investment,
driving visitation and fostering collaboration amongst stakeholders. On behalf of the West
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, I respectfully urge the Council to support the continued
renewal of both the Sunset Shrip Business Improvement District and the West Hollywood
Design District. I also want to thank the City for its continued cooperation with the
Chamber and our business community. Together we are helping ensure that West Hollywood
remains one of the most vibrant, innovative and economically successful cities in our region.
Thank you. Thank you Greg Graham to be followed by Christopher Clap.
Good evening, not our
bold mayor. Hielman, the steam city council and city staff. Greg Graham, resident of Los Angeles
and current executive director of the West Hollywood design district. I submitted a public comment
so I will keep it brief. I just wanted to show up in person as you all do to say thank you for
your continued support of the design district of our past fiscal year. Encouraging engagement and
for collaboration in the upcoming fiscal year.
And I also wish to pull forward for those in the chambers
that don't know that 30 years ago,
the design district was established
as a business improvement district.
And I wish to celebrate the leadership,
the combined leadership of those on the day as tonight,
particularly Honorable Mayor Heilman,
his signature is on the founding documents of the design district.
It is my absolute pleasure and privilege
to represent this community, and I thank you for your support.
Thank you.
Christopher Clap, to be followed by Scott Epstein, and then Nicole Payton and Wendy Jane Carrell.
Good evening, Mayor and esteemed members of City Council.
I am Christopher Clap.
I've worked in the neighborhood 18 years of patrosion on the street.
I'm a current vice chair and treasurer of the West High Design District,
just asking for your continued support.
We had our best year yet, I think our best year is ahead of us.
I have to give a special thank you to Jackie Ranko,
public, desperate at Laura Byre and Laura D'Ambrosia for all their support.
We love to do the work, we're a lot of volunteers.
We just look forward to the opportunity to continue that work.
So thank you for your support.
Thank you.
Scott Epstein to be followed by Nicole Payton and Wendy Jane Carroll.
Good evening, Council members.
Scott Epstein Director of Policy and Research with the Bunden Housing L.A.
Here to speak in favor of SB 79 implementation and also parking reform.
So your council showed remarkable courage in supporting SB 79.
And you did so because you understand the depth of the housing crisis in the city,
how many renters are burdened by the cost of housing here, and you wanted to solve it.
and you were one of few cities to do so.
Now it's time to move forward on that commitment
by implementing the law.
Unfortunately, Skag has introduced a lot of uncertainty
into the process by making up a new criterion
for plan rail out of thin air.
There is nothing in statute or in HECD's guidance
that says that plan rail stations need to have a completed environmental review process only that
a locally preferred alternative have to have been selected, which it has. I strongly urge you
to accept SB 79 projects when the bill goes into effect. It will also put you at less legal
jeopardy. And then I also want to talk about parking reform. You would be the second city in
County to support the complete elimination of parking minimum city wide. This is a bedrock of
pro housing policy and really it's just clean up in the city of West Hollywood, right? Because
the vast majority of your city is early part does not have to have parking requirements because of
AB 297. But you will be saying firmly that this is a progressive policy that incentivizes driving
and drives up the cost of housing for no reason.
So please support both of these
pro housing progressive policies
appreciate your leadership.
Thank you.
Nicole Payton and Wendy.
Jane Carroll.
Good evening Mayor.
Hielman.
Council members and staff.
I'm here with Wendy Jane and
unfortunately Catherine in can't be here tonight.
We're here to be able to share as community members
and to five planners and deaf dualists that we're partnering with the library next door for two events that are upcoming as deaf cafes.
This Saturday, June 20th and August 22nd, from 1030 to 12, it'll be a conversation over T and cake.
Where we can talk about death with no agenda, no objectives and no set themes.
It's not a great counseling or support session. It is simply conversations about death.
And it really is a way of our bring community together to think about living life more fully.
Happy to cheer for you.
Thank you, Nicole.
Good evening, everyone.
Thank you very much.
There are 24,000 death cafes in the world.
They started in 2011.
And we are really excited because there are 93 countries.
And now West Hollywood is joining in this opportunity to discuss living well.
Well, quality of life through the end of life.
So if you're able to attend, you will be very welcome.
Thank you.
And good luck tonight.
Thank you.
Ignacio, Ignacio, Darnaudi, yes, to be followed
by Kyle Brazil, and then Hernan Molina.
Their council, as a long time resident of West Hollywood, I support
Scacks methodology requiring environmental analysis and reliable funding
before potential metro stops are placed on the map.
West Hollywood faces serious financial and environmental challenges.
I am concerned that the city may not be able to fund the billions required
for the K-Lun extension, but I am even more troubled by a council members
attempt during the SCAC meeting to eliminate the essential environmental review before subway stops
are assigned towards Hollywood. Our city sits on a high-water table, La Sienaga means
the swamp in Spanish. Large-scale underground construction in this environment presents
extraordinary engineering and environmental challenges. Moving forward with a proper environmental
review would expose West Hollywood to catastrophic, legal, financial and infrastructure risks.
Also, requesting a toad up now is not about opposing SB 79.
It is a tool allowed by SB 79 to ensure that future housing growth happens in a way
that is thoughtful, balanced and responsive to the needs of our city.
Proceeding with a toad up would invite hails and displacement decades before the subway even
arrives.
As an example, our 1133 yearly placeable rent stabilized units would become prime targets for
predatory redevelopment.
The good news is that Skack's current mapping decision gives West Hollywood time to plan
responsibly.
Please protect the weed in WeHo, not developers' profits.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle Brazil, to be followed by her non-malina and then Mike Nudel.
I think we hear often that this is a debate about pro versus anti-housing and development, and that's simply not the case.
I think we all want housing supply, we all want to see rents come down, but we need to be realistic about the solutions that will deliver that affordability.
There was a paper released earlier this year by UCLA that says, quote,
It is unrealistic to think that we can deregulate and build our way out of the affordability crisis with market rate housing,
even with large positive supply shocks in any reasonable timeframe.
I think we've got to be nuanced about the conversation here.
This is about responsible development versus irresponsible development.
This is about local control over our community
and protecting the interests of our residents
versus allowing Sacramento and other special interest groups
to mandate density in all parts of our city.
We also need nuance around locations, right?
This is in an LA County conversation.
West Hollywood is one of the densest cities in the country.
We are 70% more dense than Santa Monica.
We are as dense as San Francisco.
We've got to be thoughtful and responsible
in our development and our community.
I appreciate the folks that have turned up to the council tonight to advocate for housing supply but I don't think we can let that come at the expense of doing it responsibly and thoughtfully
So I just want to say again while I appreciate and want to be part of the creation of affordable units in housing in West Hollywood
We really need to be thoughtful about the way we do that. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hernan Lina, to be followed by Mike Nadal.
My name is Havran Molina, and I'm not here tonight as your governmental efforts this
long. I am here as a resident, but also as the president of the Osholygur Municipal
Employees Association. We, from the largest bargaining unit of the city, Osholygur. And I'm here
because I see everyone. I see everyone. Could I ask everyone, we've seen you? Could you
all sit now? So everyone else can see the speaker. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Sorry
And I'm here because we are certainly disappointed to hear that the city, and I was able to get a copy of the letter that this temporary workers who are seeking voluntary recognition by this city.
The city was holding, that has advocated for human rights since its incorporation, that has
recognized for the first time as no other local government, LGBT couples.
The city's most progressive, the most progressive city in southern California, is refusing
to voluntarily accept and recognize the temporary workers desire to become unionized.
The worst part of it is that I worked with all of you.
Not once, one person came to ask, is we from willing to agree with these workers?
I heard about this second hand.
I was out on this ability for two months, but neither none of my colleagues on the executive board
were notified. That is this hardening, but most this hardening and really unbelievable is that the
city that I go around advocating as the governmental affairs is on will not do this for its own workers
We will not recognize these folks, and if you are being told that we should, I agree
them, we cannot, they are a very large group of people that will, we share this in
values.
And I know I have to wrap up, while we share the same values, they are two different
universities.
Thank you very much.
I should be recognized.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Hanna.
Thank you, everyone.
Mike Nudel, to be followed by Anita's guest, Swami.
I might not all try West residents being in support of the lifeguard's effort to unionize.
I help spearhead the effort to unionize lifeguards to help get the ball rolling, because
I saw a need for these dedicated and hardworking individuals to have protections and have
a voice regarding the way that they've been treated.
I was shocked about what I learned about the West Hollywood poll has been operating.
I would have spoken publicly sooner, but I wanted these employees to first have protections
in place, so they wouldn't be subject to retaliation.
As part of this effort, I listened to employees what they had to say, investigated concerns
that were brought to me and spoke with numerous individuals, both past and present, including
lifeguard, city employees, and others who communicated with the city with these concerns.
Tonight, I want to raise some of these concerns, and I intend to discuss additional matters
at a future meeting when some individuals can be present. First, lifeguard's loss alert paid
lunch benefit. In fact, they are being paid significantly less because city decided to
to benefit. Second, I understand there have been complaints involving the poll supervisor for
Ted Jordan concerning inappropriate images that allegedly became accessible on a city
iPad used by employees. It's my understanding that you may resources as aware of these concerns,
and I question whether the response was adequate. Third, employees have been told that when
management, including Cretes Jordan, Kim Hubbard, become upset with workers. These employees
are removed from the schedule without notice. Workers simply receive an automated email and
them that they are no longer scheduled. Imagine what that does to someone who was relying on
that income to survive, particularly when the only thing that they did was speak up for
expressed in the opinion. I've been made aware of allegations involving Cortes Jordan making
inappropriate late-night tone calls to a young female lifeguard. Since she became a liability,
she was just a then terminated. These are serious concerns that it deserve to be thoroughly
investigated. These hard-working individuals deserve protections. They deserve a voice,
and they certainly should not be treated in the manner that they have been.
I not only support their effort to unionize, but I think it's essential that they do
so in a very speedy manner.
Thank you.
Anita, Guestwami.
Anita, after you, I'm going to call Lincoln Bone and then we're going to put everyone else
at the end of the meeting for council comments for public comments.
I'm sorry to interrupt.
No worries.
so make it really quick. First, Pride Parade was so much fun.
We had it felt like a neighborhood again,
and it was just wonderful to have a neighborhood Parade night,
friends who were here and reminded me of the joy and wonder
of what is here in West Hollywood. It truly is unique.
Secondly, really quickly, 55 other people in myself
wrote letters to Skag, supporting their methodology.
I attached all those letters in the public comment that I submitted
in writing so that you can get a chance to look at that. There were 75 comments and of those,
me, pardon me, more than 10 were not about the actual SB79 maps, but 55 of them were
from West Hollywood. They weren't from other places. There were residents of West Hollywood
who feel strongly about that. It's not sensible to make decisions when there's no funding.
Those who are concerned about climate change should be thrilled that the process isn't
place, and ecstatic that environmental concerns, including our historical water issues, that
these concerns are being understood and addressed.
That's what this is about.
Thirdly, from active citizen report, West Side City Council of government meeting was in
lightning.
Charles Eutida, a great job sharing it, was great to hear what other cities are doing who
listen to the residents and act for the needs of their residents, such as Beverly Hills
with their towed app, Los Angeles with their ordinance, local control matters to those cities.
And I hope that we can, except that report, and we work together with zip to make it happen
to bring local control back to West Hollywood.
Thank you.
Lincoln, and that will be our last speaker during this session.
Good evening, city council and mayor.
My name is Lincoln Bon.
I am a temporary lifeguard at the city of West Hollywood.
also a UCLA employee and an organizer with WeHo Temps United.
The aquatic workers chose to form a union of our own.
We asked the city to recognize it and the city manager said no.
This reason was unit appropriateness.
That is a legal question about whether we are the right group to bargain together.
But I am here to speak about how we work together at the same pool, the same water, the same shifts.
These are the same working conditions.
If we're not a group with a shared interest, I don't know who it is.
And whether we want a union and what shape it takes is our decision to make, not the
cities.
That is what autonomy means.
This kind of denial is a familiar move.
USC recently tried it with its faculty.
He called them the wrong kind of group and said that the adjunct faculty was managers.
This legal technicality was an attempt to block their union, but the labor board rejected that.
The faculty voted, and they are asking the University of respect the result now.
That is the same thing we are asking of you.
For big employer, hoping the small group gets discouraged and walk away.
That is not what's going to happen here.
We are not walking away.
We will continue to keep the pressure on.
And I just want to state as well, the City of West Hollywood signed a neutrality pledge early in July.
I'm sorry, January of this year.
And this feels like not honoring that neutrality pledge at all.
So please city council override the denial, recognize the union that we chose, and let us get to the table.
Respect our choice.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
We're going to move on to the city manager's report.
Thank you.
have a report tonight. I apologize. I do have three citizen positions
lips for consent calendar item. I apologize. Can you read them into the
records? Yes, I can. Thank you. I'm Elise Eisenberg in support of item
B10. C. Dent in support of item B10 and Ed Hallman in support of item B10.
Thank you. Thank you. Now our city manager, Jackie. Good evening, Mayor. Council
members of the public. I just want to give you a few updates and just share with you that
I'd like to take a moment to celebrate the tremendous success of WeHo Pride Weekend
2026. WeHo Pride is a powerful reflection of who we are as a city and it takes a village to
make it happen and I want to thank the City Council, our event services team and staff from every
Department and Division in our city, our event production partners at JJLA, the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, our medical teams, and all of our
public safety partners. It was an extraordinary and safe weekend. That once again showcase the
very best of West Hollywood. Thank you all for helping make. We hope ride 2026 such an incredible
success. And to celebrate World Cup, I like to share that this past weekend, the city's
summer of soccer fan zone at Plumber Park was a tremendous success. I hope many of you had a chance
to visit the fan zone because it was amazing. Attendance was outstanding and it was a wonderful,
it was wonderful to see families and fans of all ages coming together in the excitement and spirit
of World Cup Soccer.
Thank you to our city staff, community partners,
and everyone who helped make the fan zone
such a memorable experience.
The celebration will continue at West Hollywood Park
from June 25th through June 28th
with additional fan zone soccer match viewing.
As part of the arts component of the fan zone,
we'll be hosting the US premiere of disco foot,
a hybrid dance soccer performance,
And at this time, I'd like to welcome the creators of Disco Foot to share briefly more about this exciting program.
Council and the Arts Council with Rebecca Eman for having invited us to come to your city and present our performance Disco Foot.
Disco Foot was created 10 years ago, and I would like to point out that you are the first city in the US that we are being presenting this performance.
This is a performance which is with mixed genders, it's essentially a soccer match, but the rules are a bit different. You cannot run. You have to dance.
Also, it's not, of course, the same rules as exist in soccer, you have to make goals.
But we also have three judges that judge how your team dance.
So basically you can win the match by dancing better than the other team.
So it's not a given that just because you scored that you win.
We thought this was an important one. When we created it about 10 years ago, we thought this was also a politically important to show that this type of sport, which can often be seen as something hard and hyper masculine, we wanted to show that because it's very difficult to dance and play soccer at the same time.
So we wanted to show the importance of mixed mixed gender teams, but also we looked at other things in society that have changed over the years.
We looked at, for example, the costumes that how football plays used to wear much shorter shorts in the 70s.
And we wanted what has happened to the thighs
why have they become so dangerous suddenly.
So we have gone back to a 70's look,
and we hope that that can be also something to think about
how things change in society and why do they change?
And I'm here with my colleague Thomas.
We'd just like to add just another thank you
for the opportunity to find a manner to collect other artists.
these are local artists, local dancers,
is a local DJ, and as our production team is also local.
So the entire focus on this project is a local project.
And I thank you for that, because most of these people
have not met before.
So suddenly even though they come from the Los Angeles area,
they get a chance to meet.
And we all know today how important it is to find a place
to meet.
We've been working quite a lot at the gymnasium,
the aquatic center, is an extraordinary space.
The staff can love it.
It's going to just a lovely experience to be in your city.
We don't know LA at all, and we don't know we hope,
but we love it now, and we thank you so much for this opportunity.
And I would just like to add on a little short thing.
Today, it's important.
Everybody's looking for meeting places.
And was Thomas said about that we have been using the great hall,
the gymnasium for us.
we think that to bring in an arts project into a sports hall, basically, is an excellent way
of maybe in the future also meeting of different interests if I put it like that. So why not in the future?
We hope that we can be able to mix up these kind of places, also for other types of arch and sports.
And this could be a natural way in the future for people to recognize each other.
Thank you, Mayor, in the council.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Yes, they got me.
No, we did not.
Thank you, Mr.
We just want to encourage everyone to join us at the upcoming We Hope Park Fan Zone and for
more information, please visit go.wehole.org forward slash fan zones.
So we hope to see you all there.
Thank you very much.
This concludes my remarks.
All right.
Now we'll turn to the consent calendar.
Melissa, the fiscal impact of the consent calendar as it was amended.
What is that tonight?
Thank you, Mayor.
as amended with the addition of items D1, F1, F2, F3, F5, and F7 is $2,300, $8,663 in expenditures,
$940,000, $2,300, $8 in revenue, and $0,000 in waived fees.
Before we take our vote on tonight's consent calendar item D1 was moved to the consent calendar.
It is an ordinance and I'm going to read the title into the record.
And ordinance of the City of West Hollywood amending portions of Title 2, administration and personnel, article 1, city administration, section 2.08, 0.030, city offices, hours of the West Hollywood municipal code, and with that I will entertain, we have a vote, let me start.
We have a motion in a second.
and I'm guessing it's going to be approved. It is and it is approved. Thank you for that.
We do have a couple of public hearings tonight. They are fairly routine.
We will turn to our first public hearing which is item C1, the collection of
solid waste recycling and organic waste charges on the tax roll for fiscal years
2026 to 2027, do any of my colleagues have any disclosures?
No, and can I ask how this public hearing was noticed?
Yes, thank you, Mayor.
Typically, I would just say it's required by law,
but being that these are the collection of fees.
And it was posted and published on May 28th, as well as June 4th.
And do we have any speakers on this item?
Tom DeMell has signed up to speak on this item.
All right, is he still here?
Okay, great.
But before you come and speak, can we have a brief report from our engineer?
Good evening, my name is John Gilmore.
I am the Engineering Division Manager.
The city has a contract with Athens to provide solid waste, recycling, and
organic collection services to the public.
For the contract, Athens rates that are charged to the public for these services increase each year based on CPI,
which for this year is 5%, also for the contract Athens in 2022,
had to embark upon a major overhaul to comply with the new state law regarding organics recycling implementation.
For the contract, the rates also increase each year to cover that overhaul, which for this year is 3.6%.
Note that this year's increase is the final adjustment for this special provision.
Lastly, the city's costs for operating the program also increase each year based on CPI, which for this year is 3.02%.
This is the public hearing wherein Council will approve the increase in rates and the placement of charges on the property tax bill accordingly.
This concludes the presentation for this item.
Thank you.
Do any of my colleagues have any questions?
No.
The public hearing is now open.
We do have one speaker on the item.
Mr. Demil.
Thank you, Mayor.
John Demil was Hollywood.
Oh, I only have one question.
Just one.
It's just one, why you keep increasing the amount of money you're getting to these folks,
where it's increasingly during the disgusting in our city?
I mean, why are you doing that?
It's like paying for 18 holes and only doing six and saying I scored a 65.
It's just wrong.
And look at our alley.
Just look at our alley from Palm Avenue to,
you know,
It's I don't think any of you have walked the alley. They've not walked the alley. I know you have. It's full of homeless. It's full of glass. It's full of time.
Please address the council.
I'm addressing address the council.
I have to address you and the residents. May I address the council?
36,000 people want to hear what I say.
Tom addressed the council.
I can't look there.
All right.
Okay.
Why does my alley look like crap?
You have your parades.
Everything's beautiful on the other side.
If you want to just tend to be behind you,
oh my god.
Is that the way we want to live?
Is that the way of what we're paying?
Is that what they doing for cleaning?
Fire of them.
Say, do what just obligated you contract did, did you?
And I think that they should earn their bonus every single year.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Tom.
Just to clarify, these are not the people who clean alleys.
These are the people who collect trash at residential properties, correct?
Yeah, all the parcels in the city.
Thank you.
Tom?
All right, are there any further discussion?
Okay, if there's not now, go ahead and close the public hearing and we can take action,
is there a motion to approve the recommendation?
There is, and we're already voting.
You guys are quick tonight, thank you.
We will now move on to our next item,
C2, the collection of sewer charges on the tax roll
for fiscal year, 2026, 2027.
This public hearing is now open.
Are there any disclosures?
None.
And Melissa, how was this item notice?
It was noticed the same notice for item C1.
It was combined notice.
And our city ended engineer.
Good evening, my name is John Gilmore and I'm the Engineering Division Manager.
The city owns, operates, and maintains a sewer system to serve the public.
The cost of this system is paid for by collecting a fee from every property on their annual
property tax bill.
Every year, the fee is adjusted for inflation to keep up with the rising costs.
This year's CPI increase is 3.24%.
This is the public hearing where in council will approve the increase in rates and placement
on the property tax bill accordingly.
This concludes the presentation at this time.
Do we have any speakers on this item?
Yes, Tom DeMille signed up to speak on that.
All right.
Thank you, Mr. DeMille.
Oh, yeah, all right.
I'll see you back.
My name is Tom DeMille.
Again, the residence.
Oh, my.
Later on, this council wants to pay themselves more.
You don't have the money.
You don't have the money these days.
You're not even saving for the big artist man's 27, 28, all 28 up until January 29.
Now if you put anything away, have you done anything? No.
It's unfortunate that you can be here a month and have $2,000 and stuff on mailbox
and get elected in this city. Do your work. Do what I did for 33 years.
And let's make it official. Don't do it that way. Look what we have up there.
I'm against this. I think the residents are against paying more for the sore bills as it is.
You know, there's water, no, no, every single building and running down the street, people are falling and, you know, it's a mess.
It's a mess. It needs to be read done. And then, you know, again, I'll think about giving him a cola. Thank you.
Thank you. That's our only speaker on this item. Are there any questions from council?
None, then I would close the public hearing and I didn't retain emotion.
is a motion to adopt.
And it's approved. Thank you. And we have one last public hearing in
this series. This is a public hearing to place on the tax rolls. Those who are delinquent on
their bills. And we got an updated list today. Did everyone get that? It should be on your
at your. Okay.
Melissa, how was this item notice?
At the same as C1 and C2. All right. Are there any disclosures from Council? None.
So the public hearing is open. We do have one public speaker, Tom DeMille.
I'm chopped the mill, the cerebells, I just told you that you know there's a link went on there bills.
Well, I just told you a minute ago that the residents can't afford to pay a collar every single month.
They're just increasing in all their values of their homes and their payments and they're not being able to eat six or 15 dollars.
No wonder there's a link went, I'm against this collar.
stop the madness. You just keep squeezing all the residents for everything. You have to realize
that the residents are already being squeezed the other way. And this balloon is going to pop.
If you keep doing this in the residents, this is their investment of their homes.
West Side West, I have you back. I hear you loud and clear. Thank you.
Thank you. That's our only speaker on this item. Are there any questions from council?
I will make one comment, I am a homeowner and I do pay this and I want my sewer system to work.
So I am very happy to pay this minimal increase and almost every homeowner and property owner in the city do pay their sewer bill fully and on time.
There's only a handful of people who have not paid and oftentimes they're the same people every year who forget to pay their bill.
and then we have to put it on their tax roll.
All right, so there's a motion to adopt.
We'll go ahead and vote,
and the item is approved.
Thank you.
We'll now turn to item C4, the user fee study
and proposed fee resolution for fiscal year, 2026, 2027.
And this is another public hearing.
the public hearing is now open.
How was this noticed?
This one similarly because there are fees involved.
We are required to post and publish a notice twice,
so it was posted on June 4th and June 11th.
All right, and council any disclosures here?
All right, a little premature there.
All right, so staff going to give us a brief report.
Are there any other speakers on this item?
No, we do not have any speakers.
I say. Tom, please quit disrupting the meeting. Thank you. All right, Annie.
Good evening, Mayor. Council members. I'm Annie Ruiz, Robin Emanager. Sitting with me
is on ex-Jones and Trump Finance Director. We are proposing to increase our fees by 3% for
some of the fees. We will be returning back to Council in October with a comprehensive fee
Okay, are there further questions for staff?
I'm here and I'm grateful that you're coming back in October with a bigger fee study.
I had noticed that things, some parking fees had not been updated since 2017.
So I imagine that that study will include a comprehensive look.
Looking at what our neighbors are doing for comparisons, that sort of thing.
Okay, yes, terrific.
Looking forward to seeing that back, especially given some concerns on the budget.
knowing it's been certain times since we've looked at some of those pieces of meaningfuls.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Compton member, Eric, sir.
Additionally, I know a lot of our fees for recreational services, usage of the pool,
and other social services that we provide at the Plumber Park Community Center.
A lot of our other cities have very similar programming.
Would love to kind of see what analysis there might be between those usages.
For example, I would love to know what Beverly Hills charges for pickleball or
in that way, just to make sure that we look at everything because I know on the Plumber Park Subcommittee Council Member,
Myster and I are always understandably frustrated that we take on a lot of burden for other cities that surround us,
but I want to see what kind of cross-sectional fee schedule is for other cities and how we're competitive or not competitive.
And if we're taking on, I believe 80% of Los Angeles for pickleball, it's a total, and yes, to the pickleball people we are not coming for you,
Please do not come. I do not need a pickleball war in my hands, but I would just like to understand that the competitive nature of the prices would be that's possible.
And in that line, I would say to look at things by resident versus non-residents.
And you're going to be right now, you're recommending that we approve a series of fee increases, but you're coming back later in the year with a comprehensive look at our fees.
OK, graze.
Any other questions?
We do have one speak.
Speaker, Tom Demill.
Tom?
Do you have a priest?
Tom Demill, let's all of it. I'm the only one in the city that's going to speak about the budget. Can you believe that?
This is not the budget, Tom. This is the fee increase.
Well, again, you know, I, you know, not only are they scared to come into a rainbow district, but they're also fed up.
You know, they think it's a waste of time,
because 33 years I've lived here,
no one's listened to anybody.
They could talk to the blue in the face,
and it's falling out there,
fire it out there, you know, one abstention, maybe,
because they feel so guilty.
But, you know, come on.
I mean, the residents, come out residents,
it's safe to come out to the meetings,
find out when the meeting is,
make out a speaker slip and tell us what you think.
It's your duty, it's your privilege, it's our obligation to protect your investments, your children, your dogs,
and being one over by the food carts.
You know, just one thing after another here, we don't even have the sidewalks to support what we have.
And the ones that are good no one walks on.
I can't figure that out, Mia, or Council.
We need to figure that out why we have now, over 33 years,
the poorest sidewalks in the country.
And I'm ashamed, I'm just ashamed, you know?
I'm just ashamed, thank you.
Thank you.
That's our last speaker.
We'll go ahead and close the hearing.
Thank you.
I just want to make a comment.
I mean, based on what's being said,
I'm really proud that the city of West Hollywood has paved sidewalks of paved streets.
A neighborhood councilmember, your duties are our streets, trees and sidewalks.
I would love more trees of Tom, please. Tom?
But Tom, this is your first official warning. If you came, okay.
All right.
Tom, you're out of order.
I just want to thank, I just want to make sure public works department as well as all of our friends.
that cleaner streets make sure sidewalks are paved.
I know when I was going to LA Pride yesterday
and I crossed over that border on a bike,
I got a little shaky, quite quickly,
but I do appreciate the work that we all try to do
to make sure a streets streets and sidewalks are good.
I know when I step outside my front yard,
I'm not worried about cracking on my head on the skull
for the sidewalks, and these key schedules
might not have a point to what I'm saying,
but based on everything that's been saying,
I just want to reiterate to the public that we do have a very robust and clean neighbor
head and street.
We can always do better, but these things are something that I'm very proud of and thank
you very much.
Thank you.
The public hearing is close.
We do have a motion if we can go ahead and take a roll call.
The item is approved, thank you.
We'll now move on to item C5.
This also is a hearing on zone tax amendment and resolution updating parking regulations
and local CEQA transportation guidelines.
And we have a group from our community development department ready to make a presentation.
Good evening, Mayor, Mayor and Council, Nick Marisitch, Director of Community Development.
Tonight, I'm sorry, this is a public hearing, right?
How was this noticed?
As required by law.
And Council, any disclosures?
No, I'm sorry about that.
I'm sorry.
I just wanted to introduce Jordan Parish, who will be giving the present tonight.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor, Council members.
My name is Jordan Parish.
contract plan of the Rhincon Consultants supporting long range planning and tonight we are presenting two items
Tonight we are presenting two items a zone tax amendment
Recent state parking laws and eliminate minimum parking requirements city-wide as a response to a council directive
a companion resolution to clarify the city's VMT screening criteria under SQL following elimination of these amendments
This
ordinance implements two recent state laws, AB-894, which requires cities to allow shared parking of underutilized spaces between uses, and AB-1317, which requires qualifying new residential projects to unbundle parking from rent.
In addition, the ordinance implements the May 5, 2025 Council Directive to eliminate all parking
minimums within the city. While AB 297 already eliminated minimums for most uses in most
areas of West Hollywood due to our proximity to high quality transit, this amendment codifies
a complete elimination of minimums for all uses within the city. And finally, the second
resolution corrects a technical issue in the city's 2020 VMT guidelines, without this clarification
in a project that voluntarily provides parking could unintentionally trigger unnecessary VMT analysis.
These state laws were adopted to reduce the over construction of parking, parking construction
can cost, can be a substantial portion of per unit construction costs, excessive parking requirements
unnecessarily increased housing costs, reduced project feasibility, and subsidized car ownership
by bundling parking into rent, even for people who don't use personal vehicles.
This ordinance also aligns with West Hollywood's general plan, housing element, and climate
action goals by removing hidden parking subsidies, allowing shared use of underutilized parking,
and rethinking and modernizing how parking is distributed throughout the city.
In practice, these changes will have limited immediate impact because nearly all parcels and
most uses in the city are already exempt from parking minimums under AB 2097.
And unbundled parking is already common throughout the Los Angeles region.
This map shows the four small areas in the city with approximately 38 parcels that fall
just outside high quality transit areas, which are shown with the light blue overlay.
These four areas are not currently impacted by AB 2097, but we'll have their parking
minimums removed under the ordinance. So to clarify, the blue areas are where AB 2097
already applies and parking for most cases is not required. And then the areas highlighted
by the arrow show where these elimination of minimums will be extended to.
And note that parking can and will still be built based upon operational needs rather than
on prescriptive formulas that are not responsive to evolving conditions.
In summary, this ordinance implements AB-894 and AB-1317.
Incorporates the May 5-2025 council directive to eliminate parking minimum citywide.
Alliance of Municipal Code with state law and city policy goals
and clarifies the city's VMT screening criteria to avoid unintended secret triggers.
This concludes our presentation and we are happy to answer any questions.
Great. Are there any questions from Council at this time?
And we do have a number of speakers, but go ahead, Council Member Erickson.
Thank you so much. I believe I implemented this item many moons ago,
but in addition to the state law, so essentially what you're asking us here to do is
codify what's been passed at the state so our municipal code is matching all of these
items as well. Yes, but this also implements the city council
directive which goes beyond the state requirements. Wonderful. Thank you so much.
Okay, we do have eight speakers on this item.
The first one is Anita Gasswami to be followed by Brad Keesler,
and then Helen Krieger Scott Epstein.
Hi there.
Anita Gasswami, I'm a long-term resident of West Hollywood.
Anita, we can't hear you.
Okay.
Anita Gasswami, a long-term resident of West Hollywood.
I did submit specific references on the revision in writing.
First, the ZTA is written, is too broad.
parking is a premium resource for our people here in West Hollywood.
The state has taken away some, but West Hollywood is able to retain local controls, so
please don't give away what you've got.
1928-020 applicability waivers cannot reduce bicycles or loading spaces, but the revision
removes the word parking, meaning that changes to that when no longer follows the standard
procedure.
1928-040, no minimum mastery parking required, no the revision is overly broad and should
specifically state the AB 2097 scope.
Last item is that the current code says off-site parking shall be located within a reasonable
walking distance, 400 feet.
Proposed revision would be walking up to 2,000 feet, implications there are that landlords could
least they're now unbundled off-site parking at a higher price and then provide that off-site parking
to their tenants later without off-site parking being 2,000 feet away.
That's not realistic from ability challenge.
People carrying packages home, people bringing children home in their strollers.
So, I just wanted to raise those items and make sure you're aware of that.
Those are my concerns about this.
For every ZTA, I find I am asking who is benefiting from this ZTA and who's getting
rights taken away. So I now look at these always with that lens. And again, I'm thinking about
those people who are going to be walking 2,000 feet from that parking space. Thank you.
Thank you. Brad Keesler to be followed by Helen Krieger.
Hi, I'm Brad Keesler, resident of West
I would, and voter, and I just think I'm going crazy sometimes.
I don't talk about reducing parking requirements for a new construction or even anything
that's going to be remodeled or something, it's insane.
We need parking in this city.
I want you to go over to Korea Town.
I have a small condo over there that I've owned for many years,
longer than I've owned my house here in West Hollywood.
And I have to come, we have parking there in that condominium,
because back then in 1965, people building condos had to have parking.
So I don't remember what the ratio was, but it needs to be more than one to one anyway.
But I have to call him up and arrange when I want to go over there and repair or something
in his unit or something.
I have to make arrangements of when he's going to be at work or what and I have to work
within those time life because going over there and trying to park is ridiculous.
We don't want West Hollywood to become like that.
That we're dense enough already.
That place is, you know, and bicycling is very good and everything.
But nowadays, I, I, I, I, I, I, I better than I walk, which is not so good.
I need to start my walking again, but the thing is, am I gonna be able to carry my paintbrush,
paint, a calendar, paint, and everything on my bicycle to go over to the condo, and I don't
want to look at that drive that far anyways, like, three, three, four miles, I guess.
So anyway, we, we need to do whatever we can to do,
you know what I'm talking about. Thank you, Brad. Helen Krieger to be followed by Scott Epstein.
Scott, oh, you're still here. You moved, okay.
Hello, city council. My name is Helen Krieger. I'm a resident of West Hollywood and as you heard earlier, a pair of very high rents.
I'm in favor of this item, not because I just like parking in any way, but because I like choices.
having this item move forward doesn't mean that developers can't build parking and it doesn't
mean that we're putting any kind of limit on how much parking they can build, they can build
as much parking as they want, but what this does is give us choices. So developers have more choices
depending on what kind of housing that they want to do, what kind of price point they're targeting,
but more importantly, our residents and our future residents have choices. If you're somebody who doesn't have a car
or if you value having a cheap apartment more than having a car, then you can buy that apartment
and a developer can build that apartment for you.
This is important because parking costs money.
And right now, we're using housing to subsidize
the cost of parking.
The average cost of build underground parking,
which is the kind you have to do in a dense urban environment,
like ours.
The average cost is about $72,000 per parking space,
and that does not include land value.
So the estimate is that parking costs tenants
in average of $200 a month, and that gets bundled
with the rent, regardless of whether or not they use it.
So updating our parking requirements, let's us put housing people in front of housing cars. Thank you.
Thank you. Scott to be followed by Ignatia Ignatio Darnaud. I'm sorry.
Good evening again. Scott Epstein, Policy Director with the Fund Housing LA.
This is a great package of reforms. I want to congratulate City Planning Department for their excellent work on this.
and thank council member, Eric, and for his leadership, we have a very robust literature
about the harms of policies that enforce minimum parking.
They subsidize driving, they increase the cost of housing, and what we also know is
most developers will build parking.
They will just right-size the parking for the project.
They won't have to deal with...
Our budgetary numbers, that let's say they can fit 20 parking spots in one story underground garage.
But the parking minimums say you have to do 21. That project will no longer pencil. That is housing that will never happen as a result of an arbitrary cap.
And this is cleanup, we know that the vast majority of sites in West Hollywood already don't need to have parking, but it's an important statement of your values.
I appreciate your leadership. Please pass this tonight. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ignacio, to be followed by Kyle Brazil, then Stephen Post.
Dear Council members, I am here to express my strong opposition to the proposed elimination
of minimum parking requirements, citywide, which goes beyond supplemental requirements.
In spite of today's lobbyist claims, there is no evidence that parking the man in West
Hollywood is declining.
Residents rely on cars for everyday life, committing to work, grocery shopping, medical
appointments and getting for family.
The assumption that large numbers of residents will suddenly shift to bicycles or public transit
is not grounded in our current infrastructure or in-liped reality.
Realistically, how many people paying over $3,000 a month in rent in West Hollywood are choosing
not to own a car?
Eliminating important requirements benefits developers by reducing their construction cost.
Yet, there is no guarantee those savings will ever translate into lower rent.
Instead, new residents will compete for an already limited supply of street parking.
This concern is reinforced by the council's recent decision to grant permit parking
to residents of a new building on headworth that was approved without sufficient on-site
parking.
That decision demonstrates a simple fact.
Residents still need parking and when developments fail to provide it, the burden shifts directly
on to surrounding neighborhoods, allowing you construction with little or no parking will not
solve affordability. In fact, it may increase rental vacancies which are already about 11 percent,
while worsening congestion, pollution and safety concerns in neighborhoods are very
other pressure. New housing should reflect the real needs of the people who live here and
And parking remains one of those essential needs.
Please protect the we in Wehal, not developers' profits.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle Brazil, to be followed by Stephen Post.
And then, Steve Martin, thank you, Kyle Brazil, resident of West Hollywood, as support the
goal of reducing car dependency, and we do that by making alternatives better.
Tonight's item instead focuses on penalizing car ownership.
The basic test should be simple.
Does this make life better for our residents?
The hypothetical of watching a seven story luxury
development go up next door with no parking makes it simple.
This will make life harder.
Particularly when this council is actively eliminating
hundreds of parking spaces on our streets.
Instead of a blanket approach, council should retain
and advocate at the state level for local discretion
over issues that impact the livability of our city.
Instead of demonizing drivers, we should focus on improving
their alternatives through greater reliability, safety, and connection to existing transit.
Staff points to alternative transit modes as a reason to eliminate parking requirements, but
parking is not a cause of car dependency, it is a symptom.
And we hope public transit commuting declined from five to three percent.
Bike commuting remains flat below one percent, and even though we have fewer vehicles than
our neighboring cities, we still average 1.5 vehicles per household.
Even in one of the most walkable cities in the region, our residents recognize the need for a car for the quality of life and demand better before shifting to other modes.
We should also challenge this misleading notion that no parking requirements will create affordability.
Luxury apartments will remain unaffordable without parking because developers set rent space on market demand.
But the lack of new parking supply, coupled with unbundled and shared parking, means the parking for our residents will be sold out from under them
to the highest bidder, leaving them to fight for the declining number of parking spaces on the street.
We should remain grounded as we make these choices. Experts warn that these policies will not
lower rents, and that data makes clear people are not shifting out of cars based on our actions
to date. The sequencing of actions matters, and I asked this Council to do the hard work first
of building better transit systems to earn that shift, and then let's talk about these options
once we produce car dependency. Thank you, Carla. Steven Post.
To be followed by Steve Martin.
Hi, Mayor Council.
Steven Post-resident of Voice Hollywood.
I'm speaking personally in support of this item tonight.
For decades, cities have required developers to build parking, whether those requirements
were needed or not.
Those mandates have increased costs.
Made housing more unaffordable and consumed valuable land space.
Removing parking minimums does not eliminate parking itself.
It simply allows projects to provide the amount of parking that makes sense for their location and those residents,
especially larger developments in major transit corridors.
What's Hollywood is uniquely positioned to make this change?
We're a compact, walkable city, the most walkable in California, according to WalkScore,
as recently reiterated in the LA times, with growing transit access and residents who are increasingly choosing different ways to get around, like biking and public transit.
We need a modernized policies and drive up without driving up costs by delivering this public benefit.
We should stop forcing every renter and homeowner to subsidize parking spaces that they may never use.
And we can mitigate issues that arise from taking loss parking with tailored solutions.
But what we can't do is be afraid to begin moving towards greener modes of transportation.
I see this as a reform we have to make given state law as stated, but it also aligns with
West Hollywood's values, long term goals, and existing zoning changes.
I appreciate you listening this evening, and I also appreciate you putting SB79 on the
consent calendar.
Thank you.
Steve Martin and then we have some citizen positions, let's.
Steve Martin West Hollywood, the one thing that has not been addressed here is the actual
realities of what we live today, and where we have lived for over 40 years.
We had a parking crisis when we incorporated the city 40 years ago.
That's because developers don't write size.
Every time they get an opportunity, they will cut corners and provide less parking, which
is why we created parking minimums.
This is not rocket science, this is common sense
when you have a situation where we have
all these empty storefronts as well as thousands of empty units.
No one has ever, nothing in the report talks about maybe because it's a problem with parking.
Because when employers tell me that they're having a hard time, their employees can't find
place to park. People are going out of business and we have all these empty units that aren't
being rented. That does not mean that we have created excess parking or that we have
forced developers to create excess parking. I want to know what actual groundwork would
actual study went into this. Did we go around and check out the parking structures and find out
how many condos and how many buildings like the Avalon have access parking?
I don't think so.
This is based on ignorance and arrogance.
And you really need to think about the community you live in.
Because this is not about how we live here and now.
Admittedly things will be hopefully a lot better,
25 years from now when we have a subway and we can start making,
we should be making changes before that.
but we need to protect our residents right to live here now.
Thank you.
We do have a number of citizen-position slips and listen.
Can you read those into the record?
Yes.
Kevin Burton, West Hollywood in support of the recommended item.
Elise Eisenberg, West Hollywood in opposition to the recommended item.
Questions?
Yes.
Councilmember Maestro. Thank you Mayor. So actually Steve Martin brought up something I was going to ask which is how many vacant residential parking spaces do we have?
I don't have that number.
Okay, so we don't know that information.
Are we losing parking spaces because of conversion of garages and car ports to ADUs?
I mean, I don't have any specific numbers to share tonight, but we do have projects that
propose to convert different parts of existing buildings into accessory dwelling units,
as there are allowed to do under state law sometimes, so it's can include car ports and
covered parking.
Right, and they don't have to provide parking that they took away.
Correct.
Okay.
Thank you.
Did you reach out to the residents who live in those four areas?
I know they looked small, but they could be dense, densely populated, and I was just wondering
if anyone has done any outreach to those folks.
So those are the four areas that are included based on state law that you're including
with this citywide.
We include a public noticing for the residents of the areas, but we did not reach out directly
to them.
So there was no real outreach where you got feedback from them.
Okay.
Is there a way that we can impose a cap on what is charged to tenants, a cap on those parking spaces that are being unbundled?
That is something that we discussed.
But after the long-range planning subcommittee and the planning commission, we opted not to include that as a part of this ordinance
We did speak with rent stabilization and they do currently have a system where if someone in a unit that's subject to rent stabilization
loses our parking the property manager it has to deduct an amount from their rent.
But that's not the question. The question is if parking spaces are being unbundled, can we put a cap on the parking spaces that have been unbundled?
In other words, what they, it says here that we give tenants the right to first refusal for those parking spaces, is that right?
Yes.
Okay, so can we impose a cap on those parking spaces so that they tendons are not being
you know, gouged and then, you know, can't afford to buy to rent those spaces if even
though they may need them?
The state is silent on that.
I'm not aware of anything within the state requirements that would prevent us from doing that.
Okay, can we include all of these city and state requirements regarding parking be included in the tenant
leases so that that we know that the tenants are being informed?
Yes, I think we can do that.
Are we planning to do that?
Not currently at this point.
Okay,
can we require that the lease says that there's no that the person has no car,
that they're signing something that says, you know, I don't have a car, so that we
don't, that we are clear that there is no parking on the street for them?
I'm sorry, can you, can you sit there again?
Can we require that the lease, that a landlord puts together for the tenant, that if they're getting a unit
without a parking space that they note that they don't have a vehicle.
So, the question you're asking is, can we require property managers to disclose that there's no parking available for the lease for the unit they're leasing?
And that the tenant is not planning to have a vehicle.
Yeah, I think we can do that.
I just want to clarify that these are not things that are currently included in the ordinance that's in front of the council tonight.
So if there are changes that the council would want to see made, we would need direction to go back.
And we could look at some of these specific issues and explore them for their to see to what extent those could be accommodated with respect to the state law and to reflect the direction of the council.
Yeah, and the reason I'm asking the questions is I didn't see it in the ordinance and I didn't see it in the staff report and my feeling is I'm not going to vote for something that has not been.
You know, thought out completely with regard to these new
items.
Please, people.
Can we confirm that we have a lot of areas that a permit parking only?
Can we confirm that the people in those buildings are not getting permits for the parking?
In other words, we have a policy in this city that if you build a new building, you either
provide enough parking for your building, but do not expect that the tenants in that building
can get permit parking, right?
Because obviously we have permit parking because the streets are already, I always get a
if he's overparked, underparked, overparked.
So too many people wanting to park on the street.
So we have not, we've put actually in the CUP
that we have, right, Jennifer, we have a,
Policy, that says you don't get a permit. Are we continuing to do that?
Yeah, that is a policy that we've been applying to projects to come forward. It's not something
that's currently codified in the zoning ordinance, but it has been applied to new projects that are coming forward.
So we'd have to codify it then. Another thing to codify.
And then the last thing I want to
up is the issue that Anita Kusami brought up about the 400 feet going to 2,000 feet.
What was the rationale behind that and knowing that our city has, you know, tends to,
we have, we're aging in place, right?
We're trying to encourage aging in place, or at least I thought we were, and we have, you
a larger, older adult population, and we have people who are,
don't you? Why are you looking at me? I thought you were looking at me,
and we have, you know, people with disabilities. It seems to me that that's not
very, older adult aging in place, disability friendly.
Yes, so I just want to clarify that that's actually a state requirement. So West
Hollywood's previous requirements, 400 feet.
So that 2000 feet is actually what's required
under the state of law.
Okay, so who is advocating for us at the state level?
It seems to me they're not doing a very good job.
Okay, well thank you very much.
I can't support this item as it is.
I think.
Before I turn to my other colleagues,
we had one of their citizen physician, Slip Melissa.
Yes, we did.
Ed Hallman's gonna start thinking that I don't like him
because this is the second time I've missed Slip.
but at home in opposition to the item.
All right, thank you.
Council member Ericsson.
Thank you.
For some of the items and questions
that Councilmember Maester asked you
about vacant spaces,
were those a part of the direction
for you to do at any point during the study?
No.
And if you were directed to look at vacant spaces
and do the type of study,
I'm guessing you would have done that?
Yes.
Thank you.
Additionally, in regards to the planning commission
decision, could you walk me through
what happened at the Planning Commission on the CTA a little bit?
The discussion at the Planning Commission, it did center around concern about how un-bundled
the un-bundling of these parking spaces might impact residents of income restricted units.
So the additional research that we do is basically just confirming that rent stabilization
had some way of dealing with that.
So if a tenant is facing the prospect of losing their space, they would be required to receive
or rent credits so that they could lease another space
if they opted to do that.
Thank you.
Those are all my questions.
Would you like me to go into some comments, Mayor?
Yes, or if I don't have any questions.
OK, I'll just go ahead.
Wonderful.
So this was my item.
I initiated this way back when.
So I'm really happy to see it coming forward.
Parking mandates make housing more expensive.
The science is there.
It's not arrogance.
It's written down in a book, but people should read.
But additionally, structured parking can cost $50,000 to $100,000 per space to build.
And underground parking can cost even more.
Those costs get passed on to renters and home buyers.
It's proven it's factual.
We should prioritize homes for people, not parking for cars.
It costs more to build a parking space, and it does to build an affordable housing unit.
That was case and point in the weatherly project.
You can go back and look at that data, which is why there are parking requirements under
AB 284, which is a freedman bill, removed parking requirements for affordable 100% affordable housing
requirements, something that we all agreed to to look at because they can actually
write release size, what the parking looks like.
Requiring excessive parking means fewer homes can be built on a site and limit side
ability.
Not everyone owns a car.
It's fine.
Not trying to demonize car owners.
People don't own a car.
Some people bike, walk, lower income residents.
people with disabilities and those who rely on transit by King of walking are first to pay for
parking they don't use. I have talked to a number of residents and on the east side where I live,
whose landlords tried to get pretty cagey when they tried to do these things and decouple the
rents and try to take away their parking without even telling them and they even tried to do it
to a commissioner until the commissioner brought it to the city's attention. Additionally,
the markets can decide. Removing minimums does not ban parking. People who provide housing can
still provide parking based on what residents in the market demand, rather than an arbitrary
government requirement that frankly doesn't pin out. And more flexibility means more housing
gets built, which is ultimately the goal of what we should be doing. It is two cumbersome and burdens
to build housing in this city, in this county, in the state, and we need to do all that we can,
And this is why parking requirements and parking minimums make it much more harder.
This supports workforce and affordable housing, affordable housing developers consistently
identify parking mandates, so it's the biggest barriers in delivering deeply affordable
homes.
And it does encourage transit oriented communities.
I hate driving my car, it's literally the worst thing I have to do every day and I have
do it a lot more these days, and it's disgusting.
I love jumping on the four, the 704, or whatever,
or the city line, which I took for the first time,
an a long time, that was lovely, or the pickup.
Not everyone has that ability to do so,
which is why we also offer rideshare services
and discounted at no cost services for residents
and those with disabilities to do so as well.
These things all happen.
Some seniors and those with disabilities
don't have cars.
They rely on these other social service programs
to actually get around.
and so making them pay for or have a parking spot in their house is just frankly bad
signs.
Additionally, it does help reduce traffic and emissions over time, building communities
where people have more transportation choices, supports climate goals and lower screen
house grass emissions.
Many cities have already made this successful change in our in route to making this successful
change across California and Los Angeles by reducing or eliminating parking
minimums without experiencing this catastrophic opinion of like shortages in every way, shape and
form that sometimes opponents predict.
And housing affordability requires addressing every cost driver, removing parking minimums
isn't the only solution to the housing crisis, but it is one of the most effective local
actions to reduce costs and move barriers to building homes.
So at a time when California faces a severe housing shortage, we shouldn't be requiring
individuals to build costly parking spaces that many residents don't need before they build the homes
our communities desperately do need. I hear this from the residents in my own building and
individuals who need it. That don't need it. And so these are my items I plan on supporting it tonight.
I have a feeling with the with the four of us up here we might need to move this to another council
meeting so our colleague can weigh in, my vice mayor hang. But I plan on supporting this item tonight
and pushing it forward and getting us back into the business.
My only complaint is that it took so long to come back to us.
I believe I initiated this item back in May of last year.
These things take time.
I appreciate the dedication that you did,
but these things hopefully can be more expeditiously pushed forward
so that way we can help alleviate a lot of the general concerns.
And state law itself is working sometimes and not sometimes in tandem
the work that we're doing because the state is ultimately changing these laws to address these
concerns and so we have to update and update and update and so it is a moving target so
on those are my comments mayor thank you very much thank you council member buyers thank you yeah I
looked at this item um like it was a state law that we were implementing and went a little above and beyond
to make consistent an entire map for a city that consistent map of regulations will certainly help
make more predictable the work of developing and planning in our city so in that regard
this looks like something that we would do as a regular sort of update given to us by the state
just with a little bit of cleanup locally. I am really grateful for some of the points that
Councilmember Myster raised making sure that while we're seeking to create a more predictable
consistent and transparent map for those who will seek to build in our city that we're doing
the same for those who are renting in our cities, so I think it doesn't have to, for me, at least
be a part of the zone tax amendment, but rather something that we do to come back, making
sure that we're clear on what language would go into a lease. I know the mayor and I are on
the rent stabilization ad hoc committee, but that would only cover a certain amount of work
in the city, so I think making sure that we are understanding that if people are moving into
a building and they're not going to have parking available to them or how it will become available
to them that language feels really important and maybe something that this council can sign
off on. The conversation around putting a cap on how we would charge for parking is certainly
interesting, although I think as we're opening up parking to a true market conversation,
there's some complications to that. I think it'll become something that landlords, building owners,
property managers look to as a revenue stream and so I think it's certainly appropriate that
regards to the affordability concerns we have folks living on, you know, fixed incomes or rent
stabilization communities. Certainly I think it is something appropriate to look at,
but I'm just mindful of the way that we're opening up that can of worms. And I think in a bigger
picture, the idea of studying the number of vacant units, maybe after some time, doing so right now,
maybe complicated, but it is an interesting question because there will become a parking spaces in building
that may be underutilized or newly resource to the community if they're able to be least to
different residents. Maybe tenants in those buildings don't use them, but they're parking
spaces available and just down the block, there's a building who has need. So I think it is appropriate
that we would understand how much parking we have in the residential buildings and what is happening
to that parking supply. I don't know what time I'll leave that to you all planning staff,
but it does create a really interesting conversation around the amount of new parking that will
come available as residents start understand the new regulations and as these buildings are
endeavoring to right-sized to the state law. So that's interesting to me as a future conversation.
But as far as tonight's zone text amendments concerned, I'm very much in support.
Thank you. I'm going to jump in here. I do support adopting the aspect of this ordinance
that implement state law because we're required to do it.
I don't support going further than that.
I don't agree with some of the things that my colleagues have said.
First of all, if buildings that are being built have so much extra parking,
why is almost every area of West Hollywood a permit parking district?
because there isn't adequate parking for the residents who live here.
And I think part of it is, as was mentioned,
there are a lot of older buildings that we're built with almost no parking.
That's part of the reason why we have parking standards,
and I disagree with the notion that these are arbitrary government requirements.
They're requirements that are based on the number of bedrooms,
the number of dwelling units, we don't just pick a random number out of the sky and establish
that as the parking standard. The parking standard is based on estimation of the parking demand
from a newly constructed residential building. I obviously am very supportive of affordable housing.
I want us to create more housing for our residents, but it's got to be housing that people can
actually enjoy and use and removing all this parking,
I think it's gonna result in us becoming a city
where a lot of people will not be able to live.
We've already seen the housing corporation
has an affordable building,
which they had difficulty leasing
because they had almost no parking for the building.
And you would think people who are really low income
and desperate for housing would say,
Okay, I'll take it, but many people have cars and those cars are their lifeline to work.
And whether you're upper income or low income, it's not realistic to think that everyone
is going to be able to navigate Los Angeles without a car.
So I do support what we have to do based on state law, but I don't support going further than
that.
I also agree with Councilmember Meister that there needs to be standards built in regardless
of how far we're going with this new, no parking requirement.
There needs to be disclosure requirements.
There needs to be a cap on the amount that they can be rented for.
I don't agree that we should prohibit residents from getting permit parking in some instances
is because circumstances change.
I could move into a building with no car, lose my job,
then get a new job that requires me to drive.
And now I'm going to need parking.
And if we set it up, so the person can't get a permit,
or doesn't have parking in the building,
I don't think that's fair or appropriate for our new residents.
I don't think we're going to be able to resolve
all of this tonight. So we may have to maybe make some preliminary decisions about what we all agree on,
what we don't agree on, and then defer action on this until our vice mayor gets back. Is there anything
that is time sensitive tonight, that has to be decided tonight.
No, we are already behind an implementing the state law, so if we want to codify that into our code at a later date, that's okay.
But we eventually want to get this into our code, just to give developers and the community certainty about what's expected of them when they come into development.
Okay, so maybe we can talk about, I heard some agreement that there need to be some additional things which admittedly you weren't asked to do.
Some standards in terms of how much people can charge, notification for new tenants.
Are we in agreement that we'd like to explore that?
Yes, and they don't know that it needs to come back as part of the ZTA if it takes more time.
would be my concern, given that we're already past date.
So the ZTA as written could come back
at the next council agenda, but some of that takes more time.
I would be okay with that.
I'm not speaking for the whole council.
I would agree.
The other issue is, is there a agreement
that we have to do what state requires us to do?
I think we don't have a choice, right?
I understand you're not wanting to vote on it because the additional things that we'd
like to include, but I think we can at least bring that back at our next meeting and I
believe that there will be a majority to support that.
Maybe if you can bring it back next time with bifurcating those aspects that are mandated
it by St. Law and those that would expand this program more or less city broad.
Yes, we can definitely do that.
Is that our people comfortable with that?
That was, I'm going to remove my request to speak.
Okay.
Is that what we're just going to suggest?
All right.
We're clear on what we're doing.
I apologize that we weren't able to fully resolve this tonight, but you get the sense of where
we're headed with that.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Oh, and we're closing the public here.
I didn't see six was continued.
I didn't see one was moved to consent.
I didn't see two is an ordinance that increases the compensation for city council members.
Who's giving the report on that, Lauren, or Melissa?
Yes.
Thank you, Mayor.
Melissa Crowder, city clerk for the city of West Hollywood.
state law allows the city council to consider increases to their salary after every election.
And typically we have brought an item forward around this time.
So at the last time we did it, it was in 2024 before that November election.
And so we have an election November 3rd in an anticipation of that.
are bringing the site in forward. It allows for the maximum, which is 5% per year for a total
of 10% in increase to the council compensation, bringing it to $1,897.27 per month, with additional
benefits as outlined in the ordinance. And this would go into effect January 1st of 2027.
Are there any questions for staff? I see that we have one speaker, Mike Nuddle.
I
might not all try West.
I just wanted to say, I saw this,
and then I started to think about all of the work
that all of you do, and how often you take phone calls,
you take emails, you're at events, you hold events in the park,
and this is like a full-time job for all of you.
And I think myself and so many other people
see you out in the community all the time
doing such hard work, I don't think this is enough.
I think you're doing a full-time job.
And I just want to, in the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the work that you do.
Thank you.
That is our only speaker on this item and a council discussion.
Okay, I, the maximum is set by state law.
We are not able to increase it beyond that.
Council member Eric.
Oh, you made the motion.
Okay, I'll second it.
There's a motion in second.
All those in favor.
It's approved.
Thank you.
I didn't, Vice Mayor got a raise without even being here.
Yeah, that's true.
We will now move to item E1, the budget.
And I see people moving forward on a,
oh, in the city manager, is demoting herself and
going back to her staff table days.
Thank you, Jackie.
And
it looks like we have about five or six speakers on this.
We had our study session a couple weeks ago.
Council gave some input on some things that we wanted.
Perhaps restored to the budget.
There were requests for some other items.
There were discussion of things that we might look at.
Deleting.
Jackie, do you want to give the overview or.
Good evening, Mayor Council members and members of the public.
I'm Jackie Roko, the City Manager, joined by Onyx Jones, our interim finance director and
Melissa Lindley, our budget officer.
We're just going to go over a brief overview of some of the direction that we received at the
budget study session and present some options to consider for some items that we were
and with that, I will pass it over to Melissa Lee.
Thank you, Jackie.
Is that on?
Good evening.
Mayor, council members, Melissa Lee, budget officer.
Thank you for having us this evening to provide an overview of the proposed
2027 and 2028 to your operating budget and five year capital improvement plan.
The proposed budget reflects our commitment to maintaining fiscal sustainability
While continuing to deliver at the high quality services, residents, businesses, and visitors expect.
We will review the current economic environment budget priorities, major investments, capital planning, and the actions requested of council.
While the proposed budget is structurally balanced, the city continues to face a challenging economic environment.
Some of the things we discussed at last a month's budget study session include global uncertainty,
economic uncertainty, inflationary pressures and slower economic growth are affecting local governments throughout California.
Two of the city's most significant revenue sources, transient occupancy tax and sales tax are experiencing slower growth, international tourism remains, sorry about that.
Remains below historic levels affecting hotel occupancy and lodging revenues, consumers continue to face higher costs for everyday goods and services, which is impacted spending activity, and at the same time city operating costs are increasing faster than revenues.
Rising insurance premiums, labor costs and construction costs continue to place pressure on the budget.
Higher Interest rates also make capital project financing more expensive.
These conditions require us to remain disciplined and strategic in our budget planning.
Despite economic challenges, the proposed budget remains aligned with city council priorities,
investments continue in public safety programs that help maintain a safe community.
The budget preserves funding for social services and program supporting vulnerable populations.
have the instability remains a key focus through ongoing housing and tenant protection initiatives,
infrastructure investment support the maintenance of modernization of city assets,
technology modernization efforts improve efficiency, cybersecurity and customer service,
climate initiative support the city's sustainability goals and environmental leadership,
and long-term strategic planning ensures that today's decision support future financial stability.
The FY27 budget includes 235.8 million in anticipated revenues across all funds, and projected
expenditures of 240.9 million across all funds.
The general fund remains structurally balanced in both fiscal years, with revenues and expenditures
of 170.6 million in FY27, and 177.7 million in FY28.
The city's reserve policy is maintained at 35% of the general fund budget, preserving financial
flexibility and emergency preparedness.
The proposed budget focuses on maintaining core services while managing resources responsibly.
Overall, the budget reflects a balance between current service demands and long-term fiscal
sustainability.
The general fund serves as the city's primary operating fund.
It supports most municipal services including public safety, recreation, planning, administration, and community programs.
The following slides provide a closer look at the general fund revenues and expenditures.
Understanding these trends is critical as we evaluate future financial sustainability.
The city's revenue base remains diversified, helping reduce reliance on any single source.
Major revenues include property tax, sales tax, transient,
occupancy tax, business tax, and franchise fees.
Revenue is projected to reach 170.6 million in FY27,
and 177.7 million in FY28.
Revenue growth is expected to be modest,
projected at 2% in FY27 and 4% in FY28.
Staff will continue to monitor revenue performance closely
and adjust projections as needed.
This chart illustrates the distribution of general fund revenues,
property tax continues to provide a stable and significant revenue source,
sales tax and hotel tax remain important contributors,
but our experience in slower growth.
The city's diversified revenue portfolio helps mitigate economic fluctuations,
and continued monitoring of these revenue trends will be essential throughout the budget cycle.
expenditures continue to be driven primarily by personnel costs and contractual services.
Emplacementary pressures are affecting many operating categories.
Expenditures are projected to be $177.6 million in FY27 and $177.7 million in FY28.
The budget prioritizes maintaining service levels while carefully managing expenditure growth.
Staff continue to evaluate operational efficiencies and cost containment opportunities where appropriate.
This chart illustrates how general fund resources are allocated across departments,
funding supports direct community services, public safety, infrastructure maintenance,
and administrative functions.
Department budgets reflect council priorities and operational needs.
Resources have been allocated to ensure continued service delivery,
while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
The proposed budget includes several targeted strategic investments, approximately 700,000 is allocated to address rising insurance costs,
about 570,000 is support legal services and increased operational demands, 550,000 is being invested in the new transportation mobility division to support multimodal transportation initiatives,
About 550,000 is supporting recreation staffing to help continue to meet growing demand for programs.
About 400,000 has been allocated for the 20,28 Olympics planning.
And 300,000 is being allocated for an infrastructure assessment to support the long-term assessment,
long-term asset management and capital planning for city facilities.
These investments address both immediate operational needs and future planning objectives.
Dedicated capital projects fund is exist and is going to improve the transparency and long-term planning.
The FY-2027 Capital Programme totals approximately 18.1 million, FY-28, 4.3 million, and then
FY-29 through 31, about 4 million per year, for a total five-year plan of 34 million
across all funds.
Priority has been given to projects that are fully funded and ready to proceed.
And additionally, the due to funding constraints, projects totaling 187.5 million have been identified as unfunded.
Staff will continue to pursue grant opportunities and alternative funding sources to advance unfunded projects as wherever feasible.
The budget includes several targeted organizational enhancements, a new community and legislative affairs supervisor position will provide additional capacity and support to the city manager.
The conversion of a vacant position of professional services support specialist to a human
resources specialist will support recruitment of temporary positions primarily for the
recreation services division. A senior financial management analyst position will provide support
for the citywide budget development, implementation and monitoring functions, including oversight
of project accounting for capital projects and grants. Two temporary positions will be extended
for an additional year and...
The engineering department and the urban design studio. Two vacant positions are not going to be budgeted, the department, the deputy city manager and an arts coordinator position.
And overall, the changes result in a modest net increase of about 58,000.
Excuse me, if your cell phone is playing TikTok videos or something, can you please shut it off? Thank you.
During the budget study session, the Council identified several areas for further discussion.
Tonight's staff report provided a summary of the items and attachment D to the staff report provided more details, including additional information from staff.
Any additions or enhancements that are to be considered this evening must be offset with corresponding reductions in order to maintain the balance budget.
This table includes the items the Council expressed in interest in increasing funding for.
It includes business support initiatives, marketing and economic development efforts, and expanded community programming.
Staff is seeking clarification for each item on whether there is a consensus among the Council to support the budget increases here,
which would require corresponding budget reductions of $585,000.
I also wanted to, as part of these items that we're going to be evaluating, just add a couple of items that came up, but we're not, we were not able to include on this table.
And one was $28,000 increase to the Mishka Festival as well as $10,000 for classical music night program.
So those were just items that were totaling 112,000 for the new fiscal year, but I just wanted
to bring it up just as we're having the conversation that those two additional items can
be considered as part of the items that we're evaluating on this table, so the total of nine
items.
Thank you, Jackie.
The next table here is a part of the council discussion in the budget study session, the following items were identified as potential offsets or areas that council were interested in potentially making changes too.
We can pause here and go through these two tables if you'd like.
Why don't we hear from the public speakers and then we can come back and go through these
line by line and I also had the opportunity to meet with the city manager and try to figure out
what council wanted and try to come up with something that would still result in a balanced budget,
but still get council to support the various programs that council identified previously.
Let's hear from the public and then we'll get into council discussion.
Anita Gusswami is our first speaker to be followed by Jay Handel and then Suzy Borlito.
Hi there.
Anita Gusswami, resident of West Hollywood.
First, staff did a fantastic job putting together the budget materials.
The big budget book, the supporting presentations, the analyses, in the meeting agenda, everything is excellent.
There's a lot of information available, and I appreciate the results from their hard work.
So thank you to all of you.
It's was, no surprises, it was wonderful.
That said, I think we need mechanisms for better transparency on what's being spent and how much is left.
It would be great to have a quick summary in the city manager report of where we are financially.
That information would better inform Council and the public before the spending is proposed and definitely before any kind of contractor commitment is made.
On the register today, the demand register was almost $13 million given the economic climate going forward.
I asked the city consider adding a line or two to that report.
Basically, it's the check register.
Here's what's in the bank.
Here's what we've got in the budget.
Here's what we're spending this much.
This is what we've got left.
And again, visibility, so we know where we are on that budget.
Lastly, discussion of unfunded projects and events,
I think it still needs to be held.
So I'm going to ask you to consider a quarterly review of those projects,
perhaps a steady session or a subcommittee,
steady session that is just focused on where we are financially right now.
And these are now the projects and what's coming up.
have an understanding of what has already been committed, and then, you know, we can do an update.
So I suggest a quarterly update.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Jay Handel to be followed by Susie Burlito and then Diane Forte.
Good evening Mayor, council member of staff.
My name is Jay Handel.
I am a partner owner in the woods in the woods cafe.
I'm here tonight advocating to hopefully get you guys to re-look at the 2% rebate for the
of the stores. Right now 33% of the cannabis stores are either in receivership closed or never
open. Taking away this 2% will probably take another 2 or 3 into closing quite frankly.
So I understand this a lot of money, but I also understand we generate over a million dollars
in taxes. And it's probably about one third of what the bars and restaurants generate for
the city.
So taking away this incentive for this business is quite frankly is taking away
sales tax. And if you're looking at a 2% decrease or more in sales tax, it's going
to be worse because these people are not going to be able to survive. It's very clear. So
it's just, I can't even tell you how important it is. Especially when we look at something
like we're looking at about 700,800,000 dollars maybe, in a 2% and we're looking at a two-week
ice-ring for 700 and 11,000 dollars.
Where does that make sense?
It just doesn't make sense.
We generate income over and above what you're giving us back.
Yet, you're going to have another year of an ice-ring for 700,000 dollars.
It seems like fiscal fiscal is wrong to be doing it.
I'm not against ice rings, but to be perfectly honest with you,
I am against losing a $10 million investment,
and so are all the people that we represent in our Movelage.
I'm glad to see our Movelage is back up on the potential board,
because that also is important.
Only 10% of my customers come from Wehal.
The majority of my customers come from outside Wehal.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
I wanted to just bring up another item that came up after the agenda was published, and it was the green program.
I know several of you approached me with it.
We do have identified funding for the fiscal year 27 in the amount of 2, 3, 2, 5, 10.
And I know there will be further discussion, but I just wanted to clarify that.
Yeah, and I think that's what the next speakers are going to speak about, so Susie, to be followed by Diane Forty.
Yeah, just come on in.
Hi, Susie Borlito, you said it correctly.
From, I'm the co-is decorative director of sustainable works.
We're a nonprofit organization that has administered the West Hollywood Green Business Program since at launched in 2024.
I'm here tonight to respectfully ask for your support and continuing funding for this program.
The program is much more than a business assistance program.
It is a direct implementation strategy of the city's climate action and adaptation plan.
And one of the only programs that provides hands-on sustainability support directly to small and medium-sized local businesses.
Neighboring West Side Cities, Santa Monica,
Covers City, Beverly Hills, all fun this program,
Santa Monica since 2002, and Beverly Hills
just joined the network last year to offer this program.
We provide one-in-one technical assistance.
We help businesses reduce energy, water use,
diverse weight from length, diverse waste,
driverate, waste from landfills.
We access, we help them access rebates and incentives,
train employees, improved disaster preparedness,
and help them achieve a verified green business certification.
These are services, many small businesses simply would not have the time,
staffing or expertise to pursue on their own.
In the last two years, we've had 45 West Hollywood businesses have enrolled.
25 have achieved the certification and nearly $28,000 in rebates and minigrants
have been distributed to these businesses.
the environmental results are significant together and you will lead these businesses are reducing
more than 1.58 million pounds of carbon emissions, 576,000 gallons of water and 117,000 kilowatt
hours of electricity and diverting over 1.1 million pounds of waste from landfills. Beyond
these environmental benefits, these programs help businesses save money, operate more efficiently,
and build resilience during a time when many small businesses are struggling with rising costs.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you.
Diane Fortay to be followed by Jonathan Wilson, then Ron Cortez and Steve Martin.
Good evening.
Mayor, members of the council.
Jackie, thanks for that.
Good news.
Maybe, I don't need to speak so much, but we're here to support the Green, Green Business
Certification Program.
California, Southern California, Edison has been a long time.
funder over 10 years since I've been working.
I also formally on the advisory board.
And you can see firsthand what environmental leadership
does with small business community and the savings
that they do.
So in terms of the budget itself, I don't know if you need to exercise
your right to remove it from the study session
so that it's completely not funded or Jackie Dimension.
we did get funding to the following year, but to continue it, to disrupt it in the middle
of it would stop the great leadership that West Hollywood has shown and we'd like to continue
to funding through the contract period that the nonprofit has signed.
So thank you, so nice to see some of you in person, I was here for the public comments section
if you don't go to late, I'll come back.
But thank you so much for your leadership and I appreciate your support for this great program.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan Wilson, to be followed by Ron Cortez and then Steve Mark.
Good evening, Mayor and council members.
Thank you again.
My name is Jonathan Wilson.
I am a resident, and also a business owner here in the city.
I don't know if you guys know about my background, but prior to actually having
own company actually works with corporations in the Fortune 500 and Fortune 100.
Many of those corporations have budgets significantly larger than $300 million
as you know, I personally am the Energy Division of Budget and Projects that we're above $3,000,000, and I applaud the staff significantly for their efforts.
The key is not how we actually vote today and how we manage this budget piece on today's, or how we do today's budget,
but how we manage the budget on a monthly basis and how we thought fully approve new capital projects and address budget changes.
Right now, we're focused very much on, we're saying that we're focused very much on the businesses.
Yet, we have $0.00 allocated to the Eastside Marketing.
We have a hundred-cater cord cannabis, and we have the loss.
We have a hundred-cater towards the Rainbow District, and a hundred-cater towards the Wea Loves of Locals.
I believe that we all have significant capital projects that we actually need to be rethinking.
For example, the ice skating program in the Sunset Music Festival.
I do support under the handsome, the smaller budget items that we have increased a little
of the budget, which is the LGBTQ Commission staff recommendation for the key rainbow
key awards and the social justice advisory board recommendation for the Juneteenth event.
With that said, I want to say thank you very much.
I really hope we continue to support our businesses and think about our businesses in lieu
of some of these larger programs that are more social in nature.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, Ron Cortez, to be followed by Steve Martin.
Good evening.
I'm Ron Cortez, longtime resident of the city of West Hollywood,
getting being mayor, past mayors, and current council members.
I come to you on behalf of our city's LGBTQ plus commission,
and by unanimous vote at our June 11th meeting,
I'd like to make the following public comment.
Regarding council agenda item E1, the LGBTQ plus commission recommends council to approve the budgeted special event Rainbow Key Awards at or above the fiscal year 2027 amount of $16,400 as outlined in E1 Attachment C.
Since its inception, in 2023, the LGBTQ Plus Commission has presented three annual rainbow
key awards, each showing market and significant improvement over previous years.
In 2024, we kept to tradition and delivered a much-awaited ceremony at here at Council
Chambers for five awardees chosen by our predecessor, Elgab, the Lesbian Gay Advisory
board. In 2025, our commission selected awardees, whose contributions to the local and broader
LGBTQ plus community, proved significant during an intense social and political climate
that threatened our transit.
Number nine, non-binary folks, and queer youth. And that ironically coincided with the devastation caused by the palisades and altadena fires.
The 2025 show utilized the autocorred outside for arrivals. This council chambers for the ceremony and live performance by an award-winning trans non-binary artist.
And for the first time a post show reception on the aquatic. I am 14 seconds.
This year, the Commission began planning it's planning many months in advance, taking a risk by moving the awards to the Pacific Design Center, Silver Screen Theatre, where we projected onto the big screen, professionally edited short films, about each of the seven awardees, and our selection for awardees has had an impact, and I just have to cut to the end of my statement, which is our selection.
somebody host your time.
Thank you.
We get the idea.
Thank you.
Steve Martin.
Steve Martin was Hollywood.
And you know, there's just a lot to be grateful in this budget.
And it really demonstrates just years and years of hard work and fiscal, I think people
take their fiscal responsibility seriously here.
I think all of you do, we always have some things, but I have to say, I remember when our budget was $70,000 and we thought that was a lot of money.
So, you know, when we say, well, maybe we shouldn't spend on this, just spend it on that.
I mean, but I look back on it, it seems.
But I look back on it, finally, because John and I were on the budget subcommittee for I think eight or nine years together.
Just a couple of things on the legislative affairs supervisor, I would like to have more transparency
on and reports to the public on what we're doing in Sacramento because it seems like we
the residents are getting screwed.
We don't know what's being lobbied, we don't know what's being lobbied against and we're
throwing money at these lobbyists and we don't know who's side there on and it's difficult
because the resonance feel blindsided by a lot of these
e-dix coming down from Sacramento.
And that's not what we asked for when we incorporated.
And it's not also what we asked for when you got elected,
because you got elected, because you said you were going to fight for us,
not fight against us.
You know, there's some things that maybe we can put off.
I know there's been an additional $100,000 request for the ringbo district.
I would like to see that money not be appropriated and maybe focus more time on cleaning up the issues with the violence and the vendors up there on Saturday nights because it's going to get to a point where spending money to promote it isn't going to make a sense.
And I also support what Jay Handel said about the 2% rebate.
We've worked so hard on our cannabis industry to really get to really get classy places that don't exist anywhere else. So I hope you can restore that. Thank you.
Thank you.
are there citizen decisions? Melissa can we bring back on the screen and then we can
and I'll sort of present what Jackie and I talked about previously. Okay, so here
just to clarify where it says council discussion and proposed budget, the 100,000 is
in the budget, Council proposed increasing it to 180, which is what the staff initially requested.
So to do that, we would need another 80,000. For the rainbow district marketing, we would need
another 125,000. If we wanted to do the east side marketing, that was requested, that would be another 100,000.
to do the cannabis marketing or rebate of some sort, we can figure that out later,
it would increase from 100 to 250, so another 150,000.
The Russian library was another 10,000.
And then I had two other items that are on the next thing.
that really were discussions of ads to the budget,
which was Mishka Festival and the Mishka Classical Night,
which were combined and lumped together,
separating them out with 10,000 for the Mishka event
and 28,000 additional for the Mishka Festival.
And if we did all of those, those seem to be what Council talked about,
that would require us to find 503,000.
We had talked about reducing the overall council programs
from 250, maybe down to 200,
which would be still more than we did this year.
And then there was a discussion of reducing the sunset strip
music festival.
Remember we added sort of a million dollars in case
we got a great performer if we deleted 453,000 from that, that would get all of those things
done and still allow us to move forward with some kind of sunset strip music event.
I know that a number of people spoke about the ice skating ring, but I believe we already
have an agreement with JJLA for this year, but there is a private party who is coming forward
to try to propose a, some kind of holiday activation that would include a ice ring that
would not be funded by the city. So that would be something that could be explored for future
years. For future years, because if we were to cancel it, I mean there will still be cancellation
and fees associated.
So with that, I see council member Ericsson.
You have your hand up, and then council member buyers,
and council member, myster.
Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Mayor.
I'm in thank you very much to all members
of the public that came out and spoke into the staff
for this very complicated, but I think very well
thought about budget proposal.
In regards to one of the public comments regarding the legislative
report, the city of West Hollywood, and correct me if I'm wrong, and I don't think her
non-still here, right?
I don't see it.
But the city of West Hollywood has a legislative framework that's been adopted by the
Council and a legislative report about what bills we are supporting, not supporting, because
they fall into that type of scorecard, and any kind of more in quotes controversial, unquote
bill, like we would have to vote on as a council if it existed outside of that framework
correct and that's available to the public should they want it and we've had regular updates
on our council agenda maybe not one most recently but those things have been available to
the public if not. I mean I'm sure accessible we can do that but it is available. I just think
I just see it always as like a capital improvements update that we always get having that type of
update I think is really reasonable. Additionally I don't know if I heard you say this mirror but
back by from Rowan, but we did talk about combining all 30,000 awards, ceremonies that are
by three boards and commissions, maybe it just under 30,000, but there are quite a number
of them, but I know that was a discussion at our previous meeting, and was that something that
Council wanted to talk about about how that would present some tip of cost savings benefit?
I think that at least my understanding was that the budget subcommittee would continue to work
that and refine the item that Andy brought to us about whether to combine some of the boards
and commissions their events. So I think that's something that is still on the table but
we didn't want to include it as a budget savings right now until we figured out what we wanted
to do. Wonderful. Thank you very much. But one of the attachments has a set of recommendations so
at least can give some idea of what that would look like.
OK, wonderful.
And then I guess my biggest question is, and I do support this,
but is there an appetite mayor for the council to claw back
that million from the sense that strip music festival
that contingency to then give us this flexibility of open
because if we're all in agreement,
I think we can make this a much easier conversation
than not, than not.
And we wouldn't, based on what Council requested, we wouldn't even have to
club back the full million.
It would be about 453,000 is I think what we identified.
Unless Council tonight has additional things they would like to add.
I'm not interested in adding anything.
For the record, I was this one, because I know we gave authority for
I think it was up to or in whatever way that was.
I have spoken with the event producer, and you know, I believe he's going to even operate within the framework without that contingency, which is great.
So I think we can have that conversation about those dollars.
So people here can understand where we can come to that agreement.
So good. It sounds like we're all in agreement for that.
And those are all my questions and comments so far. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
council member buyers. Thank you. Really grateful I was doing some
short-handed math and I'm really grateful for how much pre-work you did
mayor to get to this place where we can come into agreement. A few things I wanted
to get clarity on. The chart in front of us has the cannabis marketing budget
at 250,000. The proposed budget including 100,000. What I'm hearing is that we
support going back up to the 250,000. My understanding is that that is separate
from the 2% rebate though, those are two separate things.
The marketing fund would be the emerald village marketing fund
and the 2% rebate.
Is that how we're funding that to?
No, my understanding with the city manager
is that we would increase this to 250,
and then come back at a subsequent meeting
to decide whether that is going to go towards tax rebate
or continued funding of emerald village.
If we are able to reduce the music festival
by the total one million, we could do both tonight, though.
I don't know the exact amount of the...
I know it's hard to predict a 2% remake.
Let me just do some quick telling.
Thank you.
And then the other question I had that would probably
require since Halloween City Manager,
you said that you had bound or secured funding
for partially for the Green Business Program.
That was something I wanted to ensure was funded in full.
I hear you say for one year.
So I presume we could come back after a year.
But what I'm hearing is that program continuity is essential.
So I would hope that we would be able to do it for both years.
Is that possible?
For the second year, it would be 238-550
that we would need to identify.
And right now, I believe we have a contract for the next two years.
So it is fully funded in this year's budget but the understanding was that we would come back during the year and probably at the mid year to try to ensure that we had the money for the second year.
Otherwise, presumably, find other places to make it happen.
So that essential contract is not being cut.
I'll let the math play out, but I just want to reiterate
it's a port for the full 2% and full funding.
And again, gratitude, Mayor, you really worked out a lot
and I'm really grateful for it.
Council Member Meister.
Yeah, I had some thoughts.
We have over 45 events that council members go to.
over 45 conferences.
Just 45?
Over 45.
I think it's 46.
And what I would suggest, I mean,
I think locally, especially like the ones
that are very active on a regular basis,
like the League of Cities and contract cities.
You know, I don't have any issues with that,
But I think we should consider that on ones that are out of state, especially, that we should
appoint one or two council members to go and then they come back and they report back.
I think, first of all, it doesn't look great that three council members are more go because
of the whole, you know, form situation, but I think, you know, we could save some money, you
that, you know, if we had a policy that, you know, only one or two council members went
to a specific event. I mean, there are enough events to go around, apparently, over 45
a year. So, I think that that's something that should be considered. I'm also, okay, with
reducing the amount that each council member gets for their, you know, their pet projects or
whatever. And then definitely support limiting sponsored and co-sponsored events throughout
the year. We have so many events and on any given day we could have three different
events going on and we don't even know which one to go to. It's like, you know, so I would
suggest that. I did have a question about the IT request. Can you do you have that on
The IT request, the funding request, and what was being requested, and what is being funded,
you know, if...
While you're looking for that, maybe the issue of events and travel to additional events, maybe that can be looked at by the subcommittee as well, along with...
So, are you referring to the attachment e or the capital program?
I think it's e. So, I guess my question is, is the money being requested for security purposes?
And, I mean, my feeling is if it's for security, it's very important that we include
that, because, you know, I mean, we've all gotten fishing requests, whatever.
I mean, I think for a city to, for something to affect the security of the city's operations
is something, especially now, like we're all these things are happening around the world.
And we are more vulnerable, not only us, but cities around the country, that I would prefer
to give what is needed if that's what that money is needed for, to improve our systems
so that we are our systems are more secure and that our IT department is comfortable with
that, you know, that they have what they need to keep us safe.
I believe what you're referring to is the request for in the capital section, and it is a part
of the budget.
Okay.
But yes, thank you because we also support that it's very important.
All right.
Great.
I just wanted to make sure about that because, and they would just so many attachments.
And so, and I think, and then regarding the sunset event, I agree, that, you know, considering, I think also we had a budget that was on the initial request and then all of a sudden it became 500,000 more than it became a million more and then it became like, maybe we need even more than that.
I think we should stick with the original budget.
I have some thoughts about, we don't really have specific
information on that event yet, like how much we need
to close the streets and how much we, what we're expecting
like, is it all day, is it just at night, is it just an afternoon?
I think some of my colleagues will remember that when
and John played up on sunset, it was kind of a, you know, impromptu concert that happened.
It lasted just a couple of hours, but it was a major thing that happened, and I don't
know what it cost, but I don't know that it cost $4 million, $5 billion.
The other thing that we might want to consider is that if we keep it in a smaller space, maybe
We can get out billboard companies to sign on to broadcast the concert across sunset.
And I think that could be amazing and cost efficient.
So anyway, those are my thoughts.
Wasn't the concert in where the sunset spectacular is?
Isn't that where the action is?
It was by tower, it was tower, but we could do something in our parking lot.
Right, and people on the street and limit the street closures and have this broader thing happening with the billboards company billboards.
I will say that Elton and Lady Gaga did not charge us for their appearance when they were up on sunset, so I'm sure that plays a role.
And I think it's, I see Clio hearing our conversation.
Let's not try to design the sunset strip music festival up here tonight.
Let's ask staff to come back to us with an update as to where we're at with it.
Or give her a heart attack by saying,
Elton, John, and Lady Gaga.
Yeah, it's a time.
Yeah, why can't we get a couple of quick comments in the vein of events
that we're sun setting or doing the way with.
I noticed world dog day is something we're not
going to continue a co-sponsorship with.
I don't know to what extent that has been communicated,
but I think that has been an event planned year after year
by that organization in our park and was sort of surprised
to see that on the list right away.
I'm certainly supportive of continuing it.
Should they be, especially for the low cost of $10,000 a year
for the activation and promotion they bring to the city,
but if there's maybe some other information
I just don't have, I just wanted to throw that out there.
and then the last thing before you respond and I promise I'm done on the budget.
There was an item I had hoped to bring forward regarding enforcement of bike lanes, safety,
around parking, but I understand that our vehicles for parking enforcement need upgrading.
So I imagine those are much bigger budget items but I have lingering concerns about the timing
of those items and just want to name that because I know we're investing in events and
and business activity in that way, but want to make sure that we're also prioritizing safety concerns.
I know the parking citations will be back as part of a study later this October.
And so I think as part of all of that, I will continue to be thinking of that just wanted to name it.
Thank you.
One of the recommendations in terms of consolidating some of the events is that, as you know,
we are focusing on these regional sporting events that are going to be taking up a lot of space at the park.
and, you know, just the coordination of events
and what we're finding is that, you know,
sometimes these events are happening back to back
or they're happening at the same time
that other events are taking place.
And, you know, they strain, you know, sort of the resources
that we have and restoring the park after certain events.
So we just looked, our teams, they looked more holistically
to see some of the events that we're not getting,
the kind of attendance or where they're really so close together
to other events that perhaps for the next year or so we need to pause some of these events so
that internally we can do a comprehensive evaluation and then come back to Council with some solid
recommendations so that, you know, to your point earlier, Council Member Meister, like what are
the events that continue to be well attended, can be fully funded, do not interfere with other
events that are already scheduled at the park and other areas of the city and then we'll have something more substantive to discuss.
And to your point about the the fee schedules that we're evaluating and some of the other items we do it need to come back with,
you know, where we stand with that and I think also one of the things that in addition to this year for the first time having a study,
budget study session, it's having a priority session at the beginning of the year, so January,
so that we talk about what are the policy areas that we really want to focus on, so then that
informs mid-year budget updates and subsequent budget years, so that will also help us have a more
focus conversation going forward.
I just want to bring up one more thing, and that is on the
project on there. And I just, I think there's, it's sort of misleading because that project,
when that project got approved, it was decided that we were not going to put any money
towards that project, that the money that, if there was grant money for that project, and the
project is also, it still has to, it would still have to go to the public to see what it would look
Like, I mean, it's not a fixed project, right?
And my understanding is that there are grant applications
out there that could possibly come in for that project.
So I just, I would hate to like totally
can that project when it's actually not costing us
any money, what's the money that is being used for studies
and for anything that happens in the future
was already decided by this council that it would be your previous council that it would be
grant money not money that comes out of our general fund. So I just want to just say that
because I hate to see that being totally taken off the charts if grant money comes in then I think
we need to, you know, I mean I'd hate to see us throw away grant money. That's for that project
very specifically.
We've been looking at, I mean, not just this project, but, I mean, just in general, I mean,
if we have been trying for some time now and have not been successful in identifying
grand funding, the challenge is how much more do we, how much more time is dedicated
of staff to continue to work on a project that is not likely to be funded.
So that's a serious conversation that we need to have about these projects and also, I mean,
I know there's a desire to activate some of these streets,
but we have seen the impact of closing,
sand the sanded tape between Santa Monica and Meloros
for Pride and for Halloween,
and how many more events are likely to take place
that would utilize that, and then especially,
and we know that the K-line is some time away,
but there's gonna be a lot going on in that area,
so it was just an evaluation and saying,
is this really stick or do we really focus
on some of the projects that we have a more realistic opportunity to get funding for so that
we can, again, having limited resources in terms of staffing can have those dedicated
to those projects.
Melissa, did you calculate the 2%.
So in terms of the cannabis rebate, the previous information that we had was that it was
So I think it would I think it would be helpful to go through each of these items and then the list of things on attachment D that are not on here and see which ones that Council supports so we can tell the full cost.
Okay. So first before we do that I heard a couple of things that I want to make sure that we delegate to the budget subcommittee to continue to look at.
I heard events, and by that I am understanding Council Member Meister to be talking about conferences
where the council is traveling.
And then also special events in co-sponsorship, particularly I heard World Dog Day as one
that maybe we don't.
Okay, but that's something that can be brought up by the subcommittee and look back.
the discussion of combining some of the awards events from our boards and commissions.
And then the San Vicente sky streetscape event, you know, whether or not we should keep it,
or whether or not we should defer it.
That can be something that I think can be deferred to the subcommittee and brought back at a later date
for a budget discussion.
Yes, and my, on the, was it on the next slide
that you had a, what comes from a reminder,
it said that we weren't supposed to be spending
any money on it, but what have we spent on this guy
saying she worries?
So, the budget is currently over the last fiscal year's 23,
24 and 25, the combined budget was about 510,000
of that 285,000 was grant funds.
I believe there's about 144,000 of grant funds
that are not committed, but not yet, and covered,
but not yet spent.
But those are the general fund portion of spend.
So the grant funds can't be repurposed for anything.
I'll say they need to continue.
Wait, how much was spent?
There's about a grant funds general funds.
How much of general funds was spent on the sky sanctuaries?
If you have 10 less to 85, so.
Because my understanding was 25.
So we spent $25,000 for a dog that's not going to hunt essentially.
I personally think we should can this guy sing, she always thing.
I mean, or we should not be spending any more money on it.
I mean, that was three years ago, I remember Mayor, I serve on the subcommittee.
I'm a naysayer for the project.
I think it is a waste of dollars at this point,
especially in the type budgetary line.
I'm this year, but I'll leave that to a longer discussion
when the vice-merit gets here.
But I didn't think we were going to be spending that much money
on the program from general funds, but anyways,
because I look at the Black History
a month program, and I would like to make sure we're doing
something for Black History Month,
and nothing's funded currently.
Maybe that is something that could be done in collaboration
with the lesbian, that what's the arts program?
The arts programing, but also the social justice advisory board,
the LGBTQ Commission, and across collaborative event
that they could maybe put their minds together to do,
but I don't want to make sure, I want to make sure that we're not
doing something for Black History Month in this city.
I don't know how my colleagues feel, but maybe they could,
the boards could get creative and figure out.
We are doing something and it will be coming out of the arts fund.
It's correct, then I don't know.
It's part of our general arts funding.
Great. I just want to make sure the public is aware of that.
Because it just looks very glaring, but there's a zero next track.
I think the thing that we need to clarify is that the arts funding for Black History Month was a one-time event in 2026.
So we do have ongoing programming as part of June 16th, the June 19th, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm too Juneteenth, I'm sorry, and that funding has been increased, but we don't have an ongoing budget for Black History.
Yes, so I'm saying in 2027 we have currently nothing programmed and nothing budgeted for that, which is what I'm kind of focusing on.
However, arts does do things within the we have reached program and the other.
Yeah, that's great. I just want to make sure that we can get an update at a later time.
So I don't think this is the appropriate time that I would love to know moving forward before I vote to approve this budget.
That there is something in mind for Black History Month in 2027.
And whether that's arts and everyone getting their brilliant brains together to figure what that looks like.
or Jackie telling the council, but it is, it is important for this community that we uplift
the black community and the work that we're doing in 2027. We already did it this year.
I'm sort of along the lines of your one-time list of questions.
And I'm happy to even take many of whatever slush fund
pocket programs we have now or whatever it is. I don't even know right and I'm happy to do it myself,
but I think it's a city priority and it shouldn't just come from one of us.
Okay, so going back to going through all of these items lined by line just to clarify on the sky, sanctuary,
Santa Sunday, is there anything in this year's budget for that other than the grant funds that are restricted?
There is no new budget at this time the cost would be really staff time working on the project trying to seek additional grant funds.
Okay, so that'll be something that the Subcommittee looks at and brings back with a recommendation.
Let's go through the items. Is everyone comfortable with increasing?
We hope loves locals from the 100 in the budget to the 180 that council request it.
Yes. Rainbow district marketing increasing that 125,000.
the east side marketing, putting 100,000 in.
It's comfortable with that.
Increasing cannabis marketing.
Now, this is where I think we have some discussion.
This was for marketing, which would be emul village,
but you're saying that to restore the 2%
that would be about 330.
$390.
So the total I have in all of that, very
Amir is $700,000 or $745,000.
$640.
I'm cannabis.
No, let's just go through these one by one.
Let's let's.
Okay, so the next thing on the list is
Russian library, $10,000.
We went too far.
We have a lot to get to cannabis.
All right.
Well, there's some disagreement about campus.
Let's hold that.
Let's go through the ones where I think there is agreement.
Are we comfortable increasing the Russian library?
Okay.
And the Black History Month, Jackie, you were saying that that's already part of the arts programming.
But not to the degree of the 20,000.
That was once one time funding by council.
I'm not suggesting 20,000.
I'm suggesting maybe it's 5,000 or whatever I'm making sure that the board we could look at boards and commissions
I mean, I don't want to dedicate a dollar amount to it, but if they could come back to us with something
I think within reason and Jackie would know she's not supposed to spend a hundred thousand dollars
So that would be another thing that the subcommittee looks at and
All right, okay, are we comfortable with that?
And then, I think on the next page, we're the two items regarding Mishka, separating Mishka and Mishka and Mishka, classical night, the allocation from Mishka was 10,000 pulling that out separately and then increasing Mishka by 28,000.
It's on the next page, but it's not on any of these, it was a discussion that I raised at the council meeting about whether we were funding those appropriately.
The Mishka Festival, the cost of the, the cost of the staging alone, eats up most of the budget.
So that's why I was recommending that very well-intended this year, yeah.
And I do believe that there were sponsorships that I'll grant you.
I know Athens, Sponsored, and others, so I wouldn't, you know, I want to support the increase,
but I also think that sponsorships are available for that to make up that cost.
I think that's a benefit.
I mean, it was an amazingly attended event and I thought it was amazing, but, you know,
I think if we're looking at what events were increasing, decreasing,
keeping neutral, it would be great to see if we could go back
to some sponsors first and foremost,
all the people to see if they could make up some of that cost.
And that was something that Jackie and I also talked about.
We have the Banner Program on Sunset.
We have the Banner Program on the Arts.
Looking at whether we might be able to expand that
for the Rainbow District, the East Side.
Also, increasing sponsorship generally for a lot of our signature programs.
Okay, so those were all agreements.
Can we now go back to cannabis and see if, oh, yes, just want to get a clarification.
Do you see that the total increase to Mishka that you're proposing is 28,000?
Yes, there's 102 in there and it would increase to 130 and then having a separate
allocation for May sky of 10,000. Right now, the 102 includes, I think, 10,000 for May sky.
And Iván can tell you, I've been, I've been saying for the last four years, these should
be separated out, because it doesn't make sense to their two separate events.
So, the total budget currently in the FY27 is 112,000, so 102 for Mishka and 10,000 for the classical music night.
Okay, so take the 10,000 out and then increase Mishka to 130.
Does that make sense?
Yes.
So, right now, right now with, let's just go to this, make sure we're all in agreement.
We have love circles, increase of 80,000, rainbow district marketing, an increase of 125,000.
Decide marketing an increase of 100,000.
Russian library an increase of 10,000.
Meshka festival an increase of 28,000.
And then a reduction in revenues for a cannabis tax
rebate of 390,000.
So that brings our total to 733,000 that we need to find
offsets for.
Okay, and we had talked about the possibility of reducing the council programs budget from $250 to $200, and then the rest of it would come from the Sunset strip music contingency
That was at it.
I have a question, I'm sorry.
So for the rainbow district marketing, you're saying to increase it, I won $125 to bring it to a total of $2.25, right?
And then, but not the additional $100,000.
That one will wait?
Yes.
So zero on that.
And then, for Canada, okay, we haven't completed the cannabis.
But also for the Russian library, we've already, there was a request for $12,500.
but we've already budgeted a 2,500.
Which is an increase of 10,000.
Right, so it's the 10,000 increase.
I'm just keeping track of the increases.
Melissa is doing that.
Right, I trust Excel.
OK, so we're at 733,000 right now.
OK, so now, so I just want to,
And the 50,000 out of the special council program funds, it's just want to point you to attachment
D page nine because the spending that would bring it down to 200,000, but the spending
over the last two years has exceeded that.
So we just need to make sure everybody's comfortable, but we can live within 200,000.
That's all out of the vice mayor's budget.
So we're good that we're all agreed to make that decision.
And then can we go back to the cannabis discussion?
Okay.
Because there was, and if you go back to the previous screen, there was a request to increase the
marketing as well as restore the 2% are we saying that we want to do both or do we want
to defer exactly what we're going to do with this pool of money with either tax decrease
or tax rebate or marketing and have a broader discussion about that at a later date.
What was the 2026 budget for cannabis marketing?
So we're not really increasing yet, we're just saying to keep it the same as 2020-6.
So if we're talking about 250 for ML Village and then 390 for the 2% rebate, then that's
a total of 640.
We had only budgeted 100,000 when we started.
So, we would need 540.
I will say that at some point, we're marketing the business, and we're also giving the business tax rebates,
and I know it's a new industry, but I feel like there's a little bit of unfairness in terms of our other businesses.
So I would like us to have maybe a broader discussion of that, maybe we'd put this amount in the budget.
But then come back before we actually make determinations of what we're going to do moving forward.
Yeah.
I agree.
I mean, I want to support the 2% rebate that we were talking about.
But at a certain time, I just don't see the payoff coming
because I think we are exactly doing what you're saying
is that we're paying for it, we're doing the rebates,
we're marketing it, we're paying for a business improvement
district by whatever name it is in the Emerald Village.
And I know what saying they're not doing good work.
But the businesses themselves are not paying
into or doing the work that should have happened
within the Emerald Village to really make sure it takes off
that can be self-sustaining, and how many times we're going to kick that can down the road without
actually having that. So I do support a larger conversation. I don't want to get Scott a
heart attack tonight while he's watching this at home, but I do think that I can't in good faith
continue to invest in something that I just don't see the payoff coming, especially if the
businesses themselves don't even want to invest in it in the way that I think they were originally
It's supposed to or are required to in accordance with the ordinance from the legacy businesses and in and in that such.
So that's just currently where I'm at on it, but happy to have a larger conversation.
Well, why don't we look at taking that rebate of 2% and splitting it between the marketing and going back to the businesses or something?
You can consider that, you know, maybe that's something that, again, the subcommittee should look at.
So I don't think it's something we can negotiate tonight.
Right, right.
I mean, I don't.
I'm not necessarily,
I think that rebate of 2% which you say is approximately 390,000.
I think that can be looked at as splitting that between marketing and rebate.
I suppose to, you know what I mean to you know, it's not 600 something thousand that maybe it's 500 or 400.
So we're invulnerable.
How locating 250 now and then adding to the list of items to the budget subcommittee to evaluate the two percent.
Okay.
Yes.
I'll say I'm short of a bit all tonight and we'll remain that way.
Do you think this is the period?
You know that this was not going to go on forever.
there's just no way it could, but in the next two years, we're garnering the biggest
national, you know, international draw possible, and I think the way that Emerald
Village and the industry's position right now makes the most sense to invest in it.
It's some supportive of investing in fall with the idea that this would of course
sunset, and we need to make sure that they're prepared for that eventuality.
Well, why don't we then go ahead and put it all in the budget, which is the two percent
and the 250, we can come back to it because if we take the $1 million contingency away from
the Sunset strip, we will have an up money to cover all of these things.
Yeah, because we're close to the $1 million mark.
Right now, just feels like that time to invest in what is proven and working, and I appreciate
the idea that the Sunset Music Festival can be the reason we're able to do that.
So, and the cannabis marketing has made us a city do better than the state overall.
So there's obviously something that's being done right.
And are we ready now?
I think we've reached agreement.
Do you have an amendment to the resolution?
And for us, too.
To read them to the record.
Okay. So, the resolution will be modified to include an additional $80,000 for rainbow district marketing.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
$80,000 for WeHo loves locals. 125,000 for rainbow district marketing.
$100,000 for east side marketing, $150,000 for cannabis marketing, $10,000 for the Russian library,
and that is a grant agreement that needs to be executed.
So we need to deal with that.
$28,000 for the Meshka Festival, a reduction in revenues of $390,000 for an extension of the cannabis 2% tax rebate.
You missed 10,000 for Meshka?
That's already in the current budget, so for the classical music night?
Okay, you're right.
Okay,
so that is a total net increase of $883,000 and it's going to be offset by a million
dollar reduction to the sunset music festival and $50,000 to special council programs.
Those are both.
the Sunset Music Festival is an FY26 budget so everything that we're doing is going to be
would be for one-time allocations and any future changes would have to be addressed and our
future years would have to be addressed separately. Okay and that's something that the budget
subcommittee will work on to do. Amen, we'll quickly. Yeah. I just want to reiterate to Jackie
And I think my colleagues is that I still remain very concerned about the music festival.
I understand I'm going to support the budget tonight and what's I mean I intend to and have someone make the motion.
Because I think that was a good way for us to figure out how to do everything.
But I believe it was a member of the public or someone said like that stuff needs to be out like four weeks ago.
So I don't know what's going on, but, you know, and I trust the producer, but it's October
16th from what I'm understanding, right, and I don't know what I'll be doing on October
16th.
I think a lot of people don't know, but to have a festival that is going to, in quotes, save
the sunset strip, is already quite far behind, right, and so Jackie, I hope that you reiterate
to our amazing special events team who I know is also stressing about that and Halloween
14 days and 15 days later. And I know they would do a great job, but I really would like to
be, I would really like to eat my words, I want some, I want the mayor and the vice mayor and
everyone comes to say, see John, we told you, you know, but like, I don't know if that's going to happen.
And they need to start marketing the thing.
And I hope the city really implores and takes that
seriously because it's four plus million dollars out of our general reserves, two-thirds of the
social services program that we just went and took over right so I want to be able to look
at the public and the face and say it was money will spent and it is in I implore the sunset strip
business community to get involved and invest in this festival because if they expect JJLA who
TOT and everything from this past weekend to carry that load and for us to carry that load when all they do is come to us and
Have very vocal opinions about things then you know
I'm gonna be quite disappointed so I really expect and I hope the Sun's that's right business community here is that
Getting involved right now and make this things successful because if you don't then
It's gonna be a larger conversation and I'd like to see the Billboard companies as well. I included them in the
like all the businesses on census strip billboards you name it everyone needs this
thing to be successful because when it's popping up there and I've been there we
were there with Lincoln Park was there it's popping right but I you know I want to
make sure we all really invest in this time all right are we prepared to make a
motion to approve the budget with an understanding that there's going to be
revisions to the subsequent year budget, there's a motion in a second.
Mr. Mayor, could I just recommend some language to add to the motion just to clarify that
it includes the changes that Melissa read into the record and any minor clerical corrections
needed to implement those changes in cases other places where we need to make minor corrections.
Yes, such as grant agreements, et cetera.
Yes.
So that seems like that's a motion, Melissa.
And I just want to clarify with Lauren that I will
have to revise the numbers and the attachment
to the budget resolution in accordance with these and that.
That's.
Yes, I think you have specific enough direction to do that.
Thank you.
No, we don't.
Is this coming back to us at our June meeting?
because we do have it in the end of humanity.
We have another chain meeting.
I think we're just trying to clarify that we can make those edits
to improve the resolution with those changes incorporated tonight
so that we don't have to come back to the next meeting.
And to my language gave the ability to make any minor technical corrections
that are needed to implement those changes.
Thank you.
So everyone's clear on the motion and the motion includes
what Melissa read into the record, along with the City Attorney's edition that staff has the authority
to make minor adjustments and revisions to everything in the budget document.
All right.
I think we have a motion in a second, something we're missing.
I see panic looks from Ana and Melissa and the other Melissa.
Yes, I'm sorry.
I think we need the city clear, possibly to read each of the motion.
there are separate motions we're voting on this evening. Yes. So there's a motion on the
floor to adopt the resolution as amended by both the budget officer and the city attorney.
There's the recommendation number two is to adopt the Department of Capital Work plans in the
two year operating budget and capital work plan and approve the list if pre-approved organizations
and events for city council members to attend at the city's expense in alignment with
AB1234 and approve the list of budgeted special events. Approved and are denying
a budget request identified during the budget study session which we went through. I got a
poll because I can't see the rest of this.
And to approve the fiscal year 2026 citywide,
salary, schedule, reflecting all city positions and associated salaries to meet the California Public Employees Retirement System Requirements a government code Section 20636B1 and California Code of Regulation Section 570.5 and I'm assuming that that motion included all of those is that correct all right in the second degrees.
Yes, Mayor.
All right.
Now, I think we are prepared to vote, which we already did, and we now have approved our
budget.
Thank you, everyone, for your input and your patience tonight.
We're going to take a 10 minute break, and then we just have a few items left, so we'll
be back.
Thank you, everyone.
I think that we have just three items.
Our next one is F4.
Are you
ready, ma'am?
Yeah, okay.
Before, and do we need a lengthy staff report?
No.
If you want to just give us a brief idea of what is before us tonight,
and I had a couple of questions.
Certainly, Mayor Council, Nick Marisage,
Director-Community Development, Adrias Souver,
from our Long Range Planning team, we'll give a brief overview.
Good evening Mayor, council members and members of the public.
This item is the community, land trust, feasibility, study, and potential pilot strategy.
So I'll kind of go through it pretty briefly, initially, why this matters.
Some of the findings and then the ultimate recommended direction.
So first of all, what's Hollywood is primarily a renter community.
The study found that ownership opportunities are limited with median condo prices well above
what many households can afford and also a modest wholesale pipeline.
facilities being evaluated as one potential tool to create permanently affordable home ownership
opportunities. So the consultants did a feasibility study where they model a 30-unit
condominium project on city owned land serving households at 80 to 120 percent AMI. But even
with the favorable land assumption, the project showed an estimated $6 million gap or about
200 in 2000 per unit before additional subsidy was added.
Ultimately, the base case is infeasible without this additional subsidy, but a pilot
may be viable if an adequate site, mission-aligned partner,
layered funding, and buyer assistance all aligned.
So the study ultimately recommended partnering with an existing CLT,
rather than creating a new city sponsored CLT at this time.
This significantly reduces start-up risk while allowing the city to retain funding
and policy oversight through negotiated agreements.
A new city CLT would be a future alternative.
So ultimately, staff recommends that this council
receive and file the study, direct staff
to a partnership first implementation strategy,
engage existing CLTs,
and mission-aligned development partners,
and continue monitoring, available funding opportunities.
Lastly, to authorize the city manager or design need
to apply for appropriate grants with any agreements or funding
commitments returning to Council for consideration.
Lastly, I did want to know that tonight
does not authorize, creating a city-sealty, committing
city funds, approving a site or specific project,
or proceeding without the aforementioned partner
capacity, feasible site, funding strategy,
and governance framework.
That concludes the presentation.
Also, we do have a consultant from HRNA
to the Taylor for any technical questions?
Great.
Are there any questions?
I had one comment and maybe a question or comment.
One is a comment.
Are there speakers?
OK.
We'll get to you in a minute.
I need a one comment is the report.
There were a number of photographs
that appeared to represent West Hollywood, but I think they're actually representing the
hills above West Hollywood. So if we're actually going to issue this as a report, we might
want to switch those photos out. The second more substantive question is looking at the
cost of a median, focusing on median income, and then a medium-priced condo, or medium-priced
purchase, and what I didn't understand is why the focus on a medium-priced condominium, most
people who would be buying their first home would not be buying the median price, they
would be buying more likely a starter or lower income because there are condos currently
that are available in West Hollywood for 500,000, 550,000.
So that to me seemed like a flaw in the study.
Your ultimate conclusions I agreed with and I support the recommendation, but I just had
question about the study, and I don't know if anyone is available to answer that.
While you're thinking about that, and while they're thinking about who's best to answer
that, let's take our public comment, and then I'll come back to you.
How's that?
Yes, Anita Guesswami.
Hi.
Anita Guesswami, long term West Hollywood resident.
Two points, number one, West Side Cities Council Governments, just voted to create a housing
trust. Yes, great. How does that fit into this effort by West Hollywood? Because in this era
of scarce financial resources, number one I did, I'd expect duplication to be reduced because
how are they going to work together? I don't know. I am just posing that question. Whenever
we're looking at municipal funding going on for this, then what's going on with the other
organizations that are pursuing the same type of objective.
Which is let's look at increasing housing and especially increasing housing for the, you know, at a much lower price point.
Secondly, I know, Cogs had reviewed their monies from La Casa, their housing trust would support building encouraged by SB79.
Chelsea, you'll remember this comment. I urge West Hollywood to consider incentives to use public transportation rather than punishing people who need their cars.
because we know there's several empty buildings where those who need that affordable housing,
they need their cars the most to get to their jobs and commitments.
So whatever you're putting money into, if you are going to fund any kind of housing,
consider that parking associated, consider how will the people actually move about and do their work,
get to their places.
So those are really the two things that I'm asking.
Thank you so much.
Okay, are there any other questions or comments?
Let's go back to staff and then we can quickly wrap this up.
We can solton, should be able to answer your question,
just virtually.
Oh, okay.
Council members, my name's Judith Taylor
and with each R&A advisors and we help to support the CLT analysis.
I understood that there was a question about the comparison
the affordability to a median condo available in West Hollywood. We typically do look at that
median home price. It basically doesn't mean 50% of property sold, you know, we're higher
than that 50% were lower. We do, you know, we would expect that folks who are looking to purchase
would be looking to purchase at the lower end, but nonetheless, there is a significant
gap between that median home sale price, which was approximately 890,000 for median
condo, and what folks could afford, which was approximately 404,000, and so it's a substantial
difference and even that, I know somebody just mentioned 550,000, there's still a bit of
a gap there. And so we were looking to a CLT to provide for sale affordable options for a
variety of different incomes. And then one of the residents also asked a question about how
this would work with other CLTs. There are other CLTs and in terms of this particular
process rather than the city of West Hollywood creating its own CLT, we're actually advocating
that they partner, particularly with an existing CLT and potentially a affordable housing
developer to actually construct new units that would be for sale. And hopefully that helps
answer your questions. That answered my question. Thank you, Judith, for
answering in for all the work you do for our city. Thank you.
I don't know if there are no further questions. I'd entertain a motion to approve
staff's recommendation.
Mayor, by can you respond quickly to what Anita raised?
Team mentioned the west side cause creation of a housing trust that will come to a future
council agenda here for our city to opt into or choose not to do so.
But your idea is correct and need that the trust that is being set up and that is now receiving funds from La Cossa.
Those funds could be allocated to any number of any of the participating cities
Different housing goals including in the case as we're about to do set up a community land trust and help finance that.
So it's great thinking. Thank you there.
So there is a motion and second to approve the recommendation.
And it is approved.
Thank you, everyone, for your work on this.
Our next item is item F6.
This wasn't item I brought forward.
The idea here is to evaluate and potentially approve potential
modifications to our arts and advertising program and special events
permits.
So I had learned that there are a number of property owners who
would like to differently activate their property,
leveraging advertisement.
We also know that this policy is currently restricted to sunset.
So both on sunset and many of the vacant large parcels,
parcels that may be vacant for a long period of time due
to whatever sort of situation that property owner may be in.
We could differently and more for a longer period of time
activate them by leveraging the advertisement that's available,
things like dog parks, pumpkin patches,
is ice skating rinks themselves.
But we could also not just be limited to sunset
with this ability to leverage advertising differently.
We could see this happen in the very many different parks.
I've heard already that Santa Monica because of their policies
is able to leverage the ice rink that they have
is paid for by Netflix each year.
So instead of the city investing,
it's $700,000 a year into an ice rink.
They have a policy that allows them to have a private company, bring those sort of, you know,
fun pop up activations to the community just because they're allowing the advertisement to happen in
different places. So this policy was just looking at where and for how much longer we would consider
as a city allowing for advertisement to be a mechanism to create activations, things that the public can
engage in, things even including music festivals. We know that when the private, we have more
at participation in opportunity available. The public could benefit from that so long as we control it,
which I know is why this advertisement program was created in its instance, but in hearing
about the very many opportunities we may be missing out on, I wanted to bring it to the council for
consideration.
Do we have any speakers on this item? No. No, man, we do not. I like the idea of exploring
it and as you've explained it, there's some community benefit. So with our advertising
program, we get resources, so we get some public benefit. And I like the idea of allowing
these things to occur with a public benefit. One of the things I'm concerned about are
our vacant properties on sunset, and maybe actually rewarding them by allowing advertising
that gives them revenue, doesn't give us any, and, you know, in a sense, they're continuing
to get revenue off of a property that should be developed.
So I don't want to incentivize that, but I'm all in favor of exploring this.
Are there other comments?
Yeah, Council Member Meister.
The concerns I had about it were the environmental impacts.
We have a program, excuse me, in the IAR, that was done for the number of signs that we had
and if we're talking about, I don't know if you're talking about digital signs or how big
the signs would be.
I just want to make sure that they don't impact residents where this is going to be something
that they're going to be not wanting.
This is not more digital, the boards, that's not this item.
I imagine this being things like wrapping the walls of the ice rink with an advertisement,
so that that is the way that the resources generated, the financial mechanism is paid for
because the advertisement exists that way, not digital.
So I appreciate your idea around EIRs.
I don't think that this is going to rise to that level of environmental impact.
It certainly not meant to unleash more digital bill boards in the park just for temporary activations.
Rather, look at the way we can more strategically activate under utilized space or leverage some bigger public programming like the festivals we want to host like the ice ring with a private partnership instead of the public dollars we've been investing into it.
And that certainly would work for pride as well.
There's a lot of opportunity I think with it.
Okay, if there's no further discussion, we'll go ahead, there's a motion and a second.
We can go ahead and vote on this
and the item is approved.
Thank you for bringing this forward in our last item.
I believe it's item F-8 and that is Councilmember Meisters.
Yes, so the item is to increase affordable housing opportunities by regulating storage space and other amenities and new developments.
the item direct staff to evaluate zoning amendments that would prevent developers from using
oversized storage or amenity spaces as a loophole to later create market rate ADU's
wall avoiding affordable housing requirements. The proposal seeks to ensure that spaces
labeled as storage or amenities are genuinely intended for those purposes into explore
state legislative changes that would preserve affordable housing opportunities when such
conversions occur, I just want to address some of the things that I saw in public comment.
So this is not a proposal to restrict ADUs.
The item does not prohibit ADUs or existing state ADUs rights.
It only has staff to study whether some projects are intentionally designed to circumvent
inclusionary housing requirements and to recommend appropriate solutions.
So what we have seen coming to planning commission
are new development projects with all of us in space
on the fifth floor, that they're saying is for storage,
which would make no sense to have storage on the fifth floor
of an apartment building.
And then, and it's actually come out.
The truth comes out.
And, you know, that they're planning to convert those to 80 use once the project is already built
and they've already gotten their entitlements to, you know, and the number of affordable units
that they had to build based on the previous number of units.
So this is really just to prevent abuse, not to reduce housing production, the intent is to close
a loophole that may reduce affordable housing applications while allowing the city to support
overall housing creation and staff is directed to evaluate options that maximize housing
opportunities including affordable units.
And obviously any future regulations would have to be carefully reviewed for consistency with
state law.
And let's see what else says.
hopefully staff will consider options such as affordable affordability, true ups or
legislative advocacy to address situations where unit accounts increase after project approval
rather than broadly limiting future housing flexibility.
The other thing I just wanted to add, we had some examples of what we might be able to do
in terms of regulating.
One thing I think we need to do regardless of where this goes in particular.
or I think we need to ask staff to come up with a definition of current or existing housing
or development, because I think what's happening is because they built the project, they
say, well, now it's existing, but really it's a new development.
And so we need to be very clear about what current development or what existing, what existing
housing means, and we don't have that in our code right now.
We do have one speaker and some citizen position slips.
Let's hear from our speaker.
I need a swammy.
I love my city.
That's why I'm here.
A long time resident of West Hollywood.
Two points here.
I'm pleased to see this item because it would close a bad loophole in the zoning.
This was most blatant with the storage units with a view and the balconies on the 5th and 6th floor of the 948 Hay with Project, which I raised at Planning Commission in February.
The applicant proposed 12 units on the architectural plans, while the fire-life safety plans showed 15 units, so the city and renters lost out on another affordable unit.
I also saw a few thousand feet of amenity space on the shore and project last month.
So this is really going on a lot using storage and amenity spaces to reduce the number
of affordable units on the initial permitting to me seems to be a deliberate strategy.
So again, I'm glad the loophole is being closed.
Second point, there is a contract with a housing workshop from March because that was where
submitted public comment on the contract, including the actual screen captures from the
948 Hayworth plans. And item four, in that work, is further's custodied of conversion
of nonhabitable spaces, e.g. storage or parking areas, to habitable units, including potential
in lieu fee applicability. It would include a technical review of city ordinances by staff
to ensure that conversions of space to market rate,
multifamily residential uses are covered.
So that's in the contract that was approved in March
with the housing workshop.
My comment on this is simply to consider having staff go back
to that contract and incorporate some of that information
because I think there's a lot of synergy around that.
So just wanted to bring that to your attention
because closing this loophole would give the city
And the people who need it that just fully required number of just units less expensive houses that they can afford, so that would be a good thing.
Thank you.
And Melissa, there were some positions slips.
Yes, Mayor.
We have one citizen positions from Kyle Brazil in support of the item.
Okay, great.
Council discussion.
Sure, I'm happy.
Get started. Yeah, this is definitely an interesting and curious phenomenon that's popping up.
And loop holes, it seems created by a number of different realms of policy. So I really appreciate the discussion bringing this forward.
It seems to me that in this scenario, the outcome is that we're gaining a number of housing units that were meant to be there.
It's not that these buildings are losing the storage or not getting something in the housing
not being built.
The housing will be built eventually, but it's the concern we have that it's not the affordable
housing that would otherwise have fallen under our inclusionary zoning policy.
And to me this raises a couple of concerns and flags, one that the developer has found a pathway
of least resistance, a pathway that allows for them to build within the sort of formula that
have intended we know that building the affordable housing increases or changes that formula
that they have to work with. And to me that comes back to the discussion we had during the inclusionary
housing ordinance discussion about shifting that policy to a more predictable and guaranteed way
of creating affordable housing which is funding it. We right now are telling developers that they
city are losing out on the affordability because we're not guaranteed by funding that affordability
and creating a pathway of predictability and guarantee that we're getting those units because
they will be funded and financed by us as a city. That there is a loophole and a pathway of least
resistance for the developer makes sense to me. They are working in complicated funding formulas that
are trying to pencil out while dynamics are changing. Over the course of time we as a city would
at the best guarantee that we're funding and creating affordable units if we fund them.
So I can appreciate the ability for staff to look at ways to ensure that that's happening
but to me the way that we do that is funding them during a funded inclusionary housing policy.
So I'm not sure what sort of advocacy our city would be impactful at creating at the state level,
though, of course, interested, but more so in how we as a city keep within our own control,
the ability to create affordable units.
And in these specific scenarios, I'm curious and wonder
that if we had funded that and made it possible
that these developers wouldn't have found the pathway out of it,
they would have had a guaranteed financing mechanism
that would contribute to their overall total cost
of the project, and they would be part of their pathway
towards development.
Without it, it makes sense to me that they're
going to find that path of least resistance.
I'm not saying it's a good thing.
I certainly want to see as much affordable housing as possible,
which is, again, why I want to bring that back into our control.
So those are the first thoughts I come to mind on this item for me.
Thank you, Council Member Erickson.
I have no comments.
I support this item.
I think that developers are always trying to do
what they're supposed to be doing,
which is to maximize their profit.
That's why they're in business.
and instead of thinking of us funding the inclusionary units,
they're trying to essentially game the system here by having a proposal
that doesn't include the full number of units that they actually want to build.
They're trying to propose something that will have less units and more storage space
And then after the fact convert that storage space to occupiable units and they're doing that to maximize their profit by avoiding the inclusionary requirements that we have.
So this to me is completely contrary to what state law was envisioning.
and state law envisioned that there was an existing building that was already built and somebody could add an ADU to it.
What developers are now doing are proposing a new building and not including the full number of units that they want to build.
And then even before they built the units coming back and saying now we want to apply for an ADU.
That seems contrary to the intent of the legislature and it should be something that the state legislature should fix.
The intention was never that a new development that was being proposed could be proposed and then immediately thereafter add ADUs to it.
If they're coming forward and they want to build 15 units, that should be their proposal.
and they should be subject to the inclusionary policies and all other policies.
Otherwise, we're just rewarding them for gaming the system.
So, I know that the item before us tonight is really to direct staff to explore and to come back with recommendations for
I would add to it that it isn't just storage space, it's parking spaces as well, where they're proposing a project with 10 parking spaces and then coming back right away and saying we're going to convert that parking space to an ADU.
We shouldn't be allowing them to do that. That wasn't the intent of state law.
And that's really the point about having a better definition for existing or current in our codes.
So that way we're very clear, you know, when you're talking about an existing building,
it's a building that's been there for a number of years.
And they have maybe like the parking under the building, and they say they want to build an ADU.
It's very different from just doing the project and not, and they're being disingenuous about it.
And it just feels like a bait and switch.
So hopefully this would help to close that loophole.
I said it in your comments, but you know, Tata, I triggered that you did that you'd
very triggered.
But no, I'm looking forward to seeing what this brings about in the study.
And I think any definition that can be cleaner and clearer for the guidance is helpful
and then see what that comes back for affordability and development at the end of the day
for a larger conversation.
You know, you inspired it.
Remember, you said, I want to see more affordable units.
No, I'm not going to say that.
We're doing that.
You're doing that item.
And we might also need to ask our state legislators
to clarify whether this is something that they intended
as part of the ADU law and some of the other laws
that they have.
You might know a guy in a few months.
All right, there is a motion to approve, there's a second, and this is just direction to study,
I think we can vote, yay.
All right, it is approved.
Thank you for bringing this forward.
Thank you to the public speaker.
We have amazingly come to the end of our agenda tonight.
We do have some additional public comment, and again, I apologize that we didn't get to all of you at the beginning, but of course, we had to get through our budget tonight.
So thank you for your patience. I see Zee Spazano, is Zee Spazano here, David Nash, to be followed by Anthony Mills, Lynn, etc.
Thank you, Mayor Heilman and Council members.
My name is David Nash.
I've lived in West Hollywood for 27 years,
but I see the issues of accessibility continually.
I was lucky enough to have an offer to write in the gay
pride parade, and I was on a flat boat bed truck that
was greatly raised, and if other members of the board
that I'm on, we're there, like Annie Semonko or Yola Dorey.
I don't know how they would have been lifted up to that platform.
It's just not accessible.
And Yola tells me that in the past there were accessibility features available, either
some sort of elevator lift or another means of getting them up there accessibility,
but it was not accessible this year and I hope that will change in the future.
I have a big issue with public works and the way they manage the sidewalk dips at the corners,
especially up at this intersection here at Sandman Centay and Santa Monica.
The crosswalks are wider than the dip to get up them.
And in some places there are no red markings which should go in my opinion down to where the
Kerbline flattens out and meets the streets and shouldn't end a foot and a half or two feet before because if you ride up to them on a wheelchair
And you miss the flat area you get a very nasty walk and a stopped dead
It's just not right and there's been a slowness in putting the yellow caps in which there is one of on that intersection
one of the four corners has won. The others don't. I don't know why we're so slow in adding those to major intersections.
The formula for doing them only when the property is remodeled just doesn't work.
Doesn't catch up with the need. Was that my two minutes?
Yeah, it was. Thank you, David. Anthony Mills. I don't see him.
Lenette Settarach would be followed by Shane Quay, he.
Lenette Settarach was Hollywood resident.
First congratulations to John Erickson.
It's nice to see someone who has walked the walk of being an activist for decades acknowledged.
More politics later have way more important to report.
Keyhodee's studio studios as in Don Keyhodee,
a national business is downsizing.
They have shuttered their huge studio lot
at 1011 North Fuller, all while keeping some storage,
which goes from the parking lot of smart and final
to the ponies, say, at a park open field.
Please, and I'm baking you.
Can you, our council members, contact them and ask
what they would sell it for, say yes,
put it in a bond proposition, hopefully for this November election.
One of the major reasons to acquire this is I've been living next door to Plumber
Parts since 1984.
I can't count the amount of times I've checked out in an event that the attendance was
awful.
No parking.
Kyoto Studios, huge lot can be an overflow, Plumber Park parking.
It's a half a block away and a possible fountain bike
Avenue parking lot and ride route and east side swimming pool
and the West Hollywood community development apartment building
could be built here.
That a pool could be built that would be used
for the Fairfax Jewish neighborhood.
How cool would that be?
A bond would pass hugely.
I beg you to walk that block and see how huge that lot is.
I think it's almost as huge as the movie Town Plaza was.
The things that could be built there.
Child care, kindergarten, all sorts of things, and will we ever get this opportunity
again.
Thank you, Shane, Shane, John O'Brien, to be followed by Evette Ilam.
Shane, that's made to go first, which I appreciate.
At the recent Pride event, my group, out against war, was again denied a boot,
and because we're against war, and it was a political decision by the council members
and the city to support Israel and the Shah Palavis and have to go over it so fine.
My issue isn't what the city wants to support.
My issue is what you didn't support.
As a original Stonewall rebellion participant, who was one of the four who used a parking
meter on that bar to get to the police and then I founded the Gay Liberation Front and
was one of the first four pride organizers who did that.
What happened when I set up a tent was I was approached by six armed west Hollywood
shares department, more than once, who threatened me that if we didn't take the tent down,
we would, I would be arrested. I told them you can arrest me,
but you have to carry me out in front of the crowd, which already was angry at the shares.
And they tried twice during the day, but it was more than that. The reason I needed a tent covering,
And the reason I needed tables, because in October my long time
companion of over 50 years died, and when I tried to pick
up off the floor, I got a spinal fractured injury.
I'm wearing this here.
I'm elderly, and disabled, and a city council, instead of just
respecting my right to be there, all I did was give out a
flyer about Donald Trump trying to remove democracy
the elections, okay in October, instituting the insurrection act, and then organizing the community
about that. That's what the player, the only thing I get about, not looking for any money,
not into games work. But instead, what I got was that. So the city sponsor, instead, Jeff Bezos
Amazon, as a sponsor for the pride thing. They had boots for McDonald's, which funds Trump,
and they had a boot for the KTLA owner who lives in Texas and is a big supporter of Trump.
And he is the presently, he's the National Association of Great.
And he's in progress with Elisant to remove all the public media to have Trump own that and take away.
There are public media in this country. Thank you, John. You're so missing. I asked the city. One, I wanted a policy. And two, I want, they find me. And they gave me a, they gave me a, you don't get to do that. Your time is, yes, Shane, if you want to come, please come forward. And that, uh, if on, or I'm sorry, a vet, alarm will be next.
And if you don't get
it, thanks for the opportunity to address you.
I'm a member of Outer Games War, which has done said
was actually formed in West Hollywood in Plumber Park,
and which had a vigil for many, many years at the
of Santa Monica and Santa Santee to protest to try to prevent and protest the Iraq war.
And then to support the case of Bradley, now Chelsea Manning, and also the cause of peace throughout the world and nonviolence.
And that's essentially what we wanted to talk about and persuade our people, the gay, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities that the spirit of Stonewall should be revived in terms of all people being able to have a child.
a voice in any kind of decision-making and also to improve the current system.
And I know that some of you think that the current system doesn't need much improving,
but we beg to differ on that.
So, that's, and John is hot and so of organization.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Thank you, Shane.
Event, Elam, to be followed by Diane Forte, Event.
Brett Hugh.
Cody Christianson, oh, Diane, okay, Diane Forte, Brett Hugh, I don't see and then Cody Christianson.
Good evening, Mayor, members of Council and staff.
I hear it's evening and wanted to thank you for your earlier leadership and wanted to thank the public work staff that we've worked with for a number of years for their partnership.
I shared some literature with your assistant city clerk to pass out to you on just on general reliability, which is very good within the city, but also to remind everyone to be prepared in the event of a service interruption.
We have a lot of resources on our website. If you rely on oxygen to apply for a medical baseline program, which gives you an offset real electricity.
And if you're in a high fire area, there's also some battery storage programs that are available to you, you know, an out-inch could happen.
We had a dump truck that went down and hit the whiskey a go-go and took out a lot of power.
So, you know, could be an earthquake and just want you to be prepared.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me and sharing my contact information.
But what you have, but it's really good to see you all, and thank you again.
Thank you, Brett Pew, Cody Christianson, to be followed by Buffalo, and then Kelly Polarsky.
Hello, Council, Mayor.
I was great to see some of you at the 48th anniversary of the WeHo Farmers Certified Farmers Market this morning.
I was kind of hoping we would be here to vote on the Toadat today, but I see it pushed a little bit back.
But I've heard of the last meeting and this meeting is that this community is not anti-housing.
Actually, most of us are all pro-housing.
This is some silly names like NMB and YMB.
But I think most of us are Symbi Watts, S-I-M-B-Y-B-W-A-P.
Sure in my backyard, but with the plan.
So it's great that we're not on the Skag map for this round.
So we have a lot more time to actually come up with the creative plan, the creative city.
So I'm hoping this comes back in front of us sooner rather than later, because if Beverly Hills
has already done it, why don't we just go ahead and plan it now?
We want more houses.
We want more affordable housing.
We just want to plan.
So thank you.
Thank you, Buffalo, to be followed by Kelly Polarsky and then Richard Eastman.
Hi, my name is Buffalo, good evening to all of you, and thank you for your time today.
I am employed in the city of West Hollywood, and I'm also employed by the city of West Hollywood.
I'm here today to ask that the city support our efforts to unite in the way in which we see fit.
I'm an aquatic aid, and I'm part of the group that was referenced for why we can't unionize the way that we want to.
And I would like to say that I reject that reasoning because my position is much more in alignment with that of life guards than say people in City Hall, which was what was suggested.
We are training EEP the same way. We are trained with the same medical devices. We are trained for the same emergency preparedness in the same way that the life guards are. I have nothing in common with a lot of other temporary employees in the City of Las Hollywood.
I have a lot in common, and I work directly with the lifeguards.
We want to unite together in the way that we see fit.
Yeah, I am really excited to be a part of what I am in the city of West Hollywood
at the Aquatic Center.
I think it's a beautiful place.
I think the city has an opportunity to, once again, set an example with how you move
and what you get to show to not only West Hollywood citizens, but also the city of L.A.
Also, the state of California also, the U.S. as a whole as West Hollywood has done many, many times.
We want to unionize the way that we see fit.
Give us that opportunity.
Please support our effort to unionize and protect our livelihoods through immunization.
Thank you.
Kelly Polarsky to be followed by Richard Eastman and that's our last speaker.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.
Many Ms. Kelly Plarski, City of West Hollywood resident, and speaking tonight as a resident.
I just want to say, I'm exhausted.
Twelve hour days, planning conferences, baby showers, managing my parents' appointments,
LinkedIn profile, volunteering at events.
I mean, we're all doing the most.
But I wanted to make sure that I came tonight to use my privilege
to because I absolutely love this city and it's people.
And I wanted to say goodness, looking at the list of pre-approved events in our city,
budget that we already spend money on.
You would think that we're like white,
perhousing, and quite pro-multi-motolism.
So I want to just speak tonight as a 41-year-old
unless Hollywood, as you know,
West Hollywood's population skudes heavily
towards working age adults with the largest concentration
roughly 49% of its residents.
I want to just speak today as many of my peers
are not able to make these meetings
because they're raising generation alpha
or also fully exhausted by the day.
We are a generation that is moving back towards the urban core.
We're looking for cities that feel like our living rooms
that are filled with friends,
with activated sidewalks, cafes,
where reliance on private vehicle ownership
is not a necessary expense for life.
Where a generation that was too young to have a voice
about the historical buildings, neighborhoods,
and public spaces that were destroyed
for private vehicle use.
I appreciate the smart growth discussions, but I feel like sometimes I just want to say,
like, whoa, we got to wake up and get with the program.
The future generation is double what that was in the 80s and asked different things of our
cities.
And we don't need to look too far to in the world or just our neighboring cities to see it.
Perhaps we need to do a little Marie-Condo moment and say gratitude for the old ways and welcome
some new rebalanced ways in the future. Thank you. Thank you Kelly. Richard Eastman is our last speaker.
Oh boy, the two young men, the elderly third guy. John Hollman, I want to thank you on behalf
of the family of the rainbow barn grilled whiskey, Robbie Krieger break on through to the other side.
nobody good or a lot and the birthday gift you gave to me in the family that for a lifetime
service of the sunset and saving millions of lives with HIV and AIDS and you left out the
first amendment were on Friday night and front of the mother load I was not accosted by 15 police
but they were behind me with your hot dog license, guidance and saying oh Mr Ethan you're blocking
on the sidewalk. We're having heard that before. Stonewall, San Francisco, Harvey Melch,
Dennis Farrell, these two young gentlemen and the future of Stanneter, if he's lucky.
I want to thank the city of West Hollywood for letting Jimmy Kimmel, a month ago, say,
oh, Richard Eastman, you're on Hollywood Boulevard, and they actually said, what did
you do? I said, I rebuilt the Hollywood sign, and they didn't run out, they ran.
I was homeless in Hollywood.
Many of you know on record for over 41 years,
I arrived in this town in 1965.
Homeless, broke, dead on the odd John F. Kennedy
and my grandmother who worked for him.
And one of the odd get for George Moth County,
and Harvey Mouth, and Paramount Pictures,
and one of us, and Hollywood signs,
and millions of people living around the world with age.
I will successfully sue this city
over the First Amendment infringement rights,
were they to loom me on Pennsylvania Avenue while I'm smoking
a medical marijuana cigarette?
Yes, the National Park Service.
We have a president that needs to go to hell.
And we have a city that I hope design and develop.
What do you believe it or not?
So God bless you.
Thank you, John, for telling everybody I did all the work.
Thank you.
We'll now turn to Council Member Commons.
Anyone want to start Councilmember Erickson?
Thank you for a very robust meeting tonight.
Mayor, the budget conversation was complicated, but I was really happy to see how we got through that.
In terms of events, I've attended a since the last council meeting.
I attended the liability trust fund oversight board twice.
The Harvey milk day event where I still cannot believe some of those people did what they did on that poll.
I just, I'm still shook by that individual, I abs of steel.
We help pride arts festival, the Russian speaking, May Sky Classical Night Concert, the
hundred years in Hollywood, Rotary event, the Contract Cities, Ledge Committee meeting twice,
the S4M I knew arts and cultural affairs commissioner Trevor.
The Jewish American Heritage Month program, I did an interview with KPFK for Pride, I attended
week of pride we can activities and I don't think we've stopped so we are all very tired.
It's a very long month for us gaze and those that love them and keeps going and getting
longer and longer. I additionally attended the Equality California Pride Party for Los Angeles
Pride and marched in the LA Pride parade with Equality California as a council member. I attended
the West Side City's cog west side bus virtual meeting quite exciting there. I attended the
kaleidoscope event, Bravo, I thought that event was beautifully well done. I attended the
Pride House party that we hope fans don't world cup event just truly what an amazing couple of days
that was for the world cup not only a four one win but I thought they transformed the park in
such an amazing space. I mean I didn't want to like leave. I think it was like one of the last
people there with Andrew and Cali and Silvers.
She broke her necklace and that's a whole other story.
Sorry for the little silver things all around.
We have a plumber park, but it was truly amazing.
And then this morning, the Helen Elpert 40th anniversary
farmers market event where I thought it was such a well done.
And I don't think we normally have that seating area
for those tables, but kind of a really nice addition.
So maybe keep doing it.
But add a little bit of shade, if you can.
but I thought it was a really well use of the space.
Additionally, I just want to thank everyone
from the bottom of my heart for pride.
I mean, it was, it was really good.
Like, I mean, everyone's saying it was good,
but like, it was really good.
I need to say, yeah, it was great, right?
But there was just like so much love and joy out there
and I thought that was such a beautiful thing.
Especially after a lot of all that we all go through.
It was great.
Uh, nudging Councilmember Meister onto the bike, um, from the stage she didn't know that
was coming, but when we got on a bike again, um, I think I've got anyone at twice when
we kind, I think when you were mayor the last time and then the second time, so it's a great
tradition, but it was wonderful. Um, I thought it was wonderful the team, JJ LA, public safety,
I mean, everything was really well done and the pride parade was also really special. I don't know
what it was about it, but I love pride, float, hopping with Councilmember Biers.
And going from float to float to float, we walked all the way down on the float, and we walked all the way back, and then we walked all the way back again, and it was great to see all the joy, glitter, and rainbows everywhere.
And then, especially the sober event that happened down at the log cabin, what a nice like homage to what that was, but like seriously I thought it was such a wonderful event.
And I know we might not have seen it at that time when we were thinking about the different types of programming and activations, but it turned out just truly, truly wonderful.
So I just want to thank everyone for their hard work into that and I was really really thankful I did not have to wake up at 5am to do interviews for the first time in many years
And so I got to sleep in just a little bit longer, and I know the mayor was out there very early
But the sun wasn't out so for a little while so it was helpful
And then in addition I just want to thank individuals from the public who have thanked me over this and come up to me and it should congratulations
It was really special to not only move into first place at Pride, but it was really wonderful to
have the community response.
So I just want to thank those who have reached out to me privately and publicly about that.
I can't thank you enough and looking forward to November.
Thanks all.
I will jump in.
Thank you for attendance.
I attended the National League of Cities Transportation Infrastructure Services Committee meeting,
the Metro Service Council meeting where I was elected Vice Chair, the Lakasa LA County
affordable housing solutions, agency board meeting, the California League of Cities, Transportation,
Public Works and Communications Committee meeting, the Southern California Association of Governments
Regional Council and CEHD Policy Committee, and then I attended the West Side Cog Meeting
where I serve my final meeting as chair, really grateful for that tenure.
And of course, so many wonderful community events, many of which Council Member Erikson
listed for my comments, pride, pride, pride, it was so incredible this year in addition to all
of that Councilmember Erickson said, thank you for just want to uplift how tremendous I thought
the women's freedom festival was, that street was overflowing at times, knowing that we
have such a well-programmed space that is free all day long throughout the weekend, just meant
the most mixed altar was just the perfect cherry on top of that cake. And then I want to give
So a huge round of applause and gratitude to all the photography, John Vaskot running through
the streets, 30,000 photos on the flicker account.
If you don't look on the city's flicker account, you're missing out.
There's so much good stuff there.
Now is the time to start getting caught up.
But huge thank you to everyone who makes those extraordinary days happen in our city.
I'm always so grateful that we have the economic study to prove the impact that that event
has and look forward to seeing that in the months and years ahead and just again happy
pride.
We're still in the midst of the month.
only halfway through. I want to also thank everyone for the fans' own activations and
other things that were only halfway through. We have another weekend, not this one, but
the following to look forward to. And with this go foot too, it should be so fun, go Team USA,
watching the World Cup and community like that. It plumber park people on picnic blankets,
kids, face painted. It was just exactly what you imagine, a giant global event like that happening,
being hyper localized, right in community, having those memories created together. We celebrated
and thanked Pickle tonight and I feel like we're only cutting the tip of the sphere or
tip of the iceberg, whatever the expression is, just getting started on the gratitude to
that extraordinary individual. But we also have a new drag glory at that will begin and we got to
mark that tonight with a consent calendar item that just went off really quickly. So I just want to
also welcome the next drag glory to the city, how exciting that is. There was one item on consent.
I didn't pull, I thought it meant too much, and I noticed that it was also a city manager
directive.
There's a working group that I believe a member of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission
could be a meaningful addition as many times as they saw throughout the report, art being
a missing or under-utilized aspect of that part would just offer a consideration to add somebody
from that commission to that working group as that next phase of the programming begins, should
that be amenable to the subcommittee and our city manager of course, and then just lastly,
want to give a huge congratulations to Councilmember Erickson, jumping from 3rd to 1st place
that Saturday afternoon with something I will certainly never forget and look forward to
your five months of run ahead in your eventual win in November.
Thank you.
Councilmember.
Yep.
I attended many of the same events as Mike colleagues, Harvey Milk Day, Russian speaking community
Award's presentation, Mishka Festival,
Jewish American Heritage Month program.
We hope Pride, Tlement Park, Community Briefing,
Pride House, and We hope Fanzone, among others.
And also very excited to see the Dreg Laureate program
go to the next level.
But I will definitely miss pickle.
I think that she's just been an incredible asset
to this program. I want to thank Helen Collins and Stephanie Martinez and Rick Abramson for
all their work on the Plumber Park Comprehensive Improvement Program and regarding the steering
committee. I just want to make sure that it's balanced and includes community members
from the get-go that have a stake in how this comprehensive improvement plan moves forward.
I wanted to just announce the city of celebrating June 10th on Saturday, June 20th, 3 to 7 p.m. in West Hollywood Park.
I hope to see you there.
And just wish all the fathers happy Father's Day.
I believe this is coming weekend.
Thank you.
I attended the Abby 35th Anniversary of the Meski Classical Night.
The Harvey Milk Day, the Pride Festival, and I agree it was a wonderful and magical weekend.
I represented the city at the Sanitation District and the City Selection Committee meeting
went to kaleidoscope, the fan zones, a group of local residents are off to the gay
games in Valencia, so it was there for their kickoff and the 40th anniversary of the
farmer's market.
I agree that pride was wonderful and magical.
I heard Mr. O'Brien's complaint here.
We don't actually make the decisions of who goes and who is not in the festival.
I think this is something that needs to be clarified going forward as well as the decision of who is being honored as an icon because there was controversy about that as well.
So, at some point, I think that needs to come to the council for clarification and how do we go about making sure that the public is aware who's making those decisions and how those decisions are made.
The one final direction I wanted to give there has been a pop-up at the corner of Lassianica
in Santa Monica, something having to do with Ariana Grande, it's been great.
The visitors have been all well behaved, but there's a lot of them, and there's trash and
other effects, so I'm hoping that we can have a conversation with the owners to figure out
how do we manage the crowds so that they're not sitting out,
we're standing out in the sun or sleeping on the sidewalks,
waiting for the activation to begin.
So that I wanted to put that on the City Manager's list
of things to do.
Do we do see you don't like Ariana Grande?
No, I'm fine with Ariana Grande.
I want to match that line.
I want to make sure that we accommodate all the people
who are waiting to get whatever the merchandise is
they're selling there. All right. Yeah. I think we're deteriorating now. We are now finished with
our agenda. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.