[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Good evening. I'd like to call the word, the special meeting of the City Council of the City of Hidden Hills for Wednesday, August 19, 2020, six.
[0:08] For members of the public participating via Zoom, if you experience any technical difficulties, please contact City Hall at 81888921.
[0:19] Substitute City Court Blair may be please have a roll call.
[0:23] Yes, Mayor Lujia.
[0:28] Mayor Protensible.
[0:30] Roger.
[0:31] Council member Gold.
[0:33] Council member McCorkan.
[0:35] Yes.
[0:36] Council member Weber.
[0:38] Present.
[0:39] You have a corner.
[0:40] Okay.
[0:41] Also present this evening or the following members of the city staff.
[0:45] Acting City Manager Amber Servan.
[0:47] City Attorney Lauren Langer.
[0:49] Administrative Assistance to our border.
[0:51] and substitute city clerk Jessica Blair.
[0:54] Please note the public comment tonight will be invited for each listed agenda item as they are considered.
[1:01] Members of the public wishing to comment should be prepared to seek when the relevant item is announced.
[1:06] Time will be limited to three minutes.
[1:08] Please note that there will be no public comment on items not on the agenda.
[1:15] We will now move on to item 3A under new business.
[1:18] Resolution number one zero six four pointing candidates for the city council seats and
[1:23] canceling the general municipal election for the city council scheduled for November
[1:29] third twenty twenty six.
[1:31] Acting City manager serve and please present the staff report.
[1:35] Good evening, Mayor and members of the city council.
[1:37] This item asks the city council to adopt resolution one zero six four appointing candidates
[1:43] to the four city council seats that were to be elected on November 3, 2026 and canceling the
[1:49] General Municipal Municipal Election accordingly. The nomination period for this election opened
[1:55] on July 13 and closed on August 12. By the close of the period, only one candidate had failed
[2:01] for the partial two-year term and only three candidates had filed for the three seats carrying
[2:06] a four-year term. Exactly matching the number of offices available. The qualified candidates
[2:12] are Larry Weber for the partial two-year term, Esther Hahn, Jeff Gorgon, and David Zeebrach for
[2:19] the three four-year terms. Since there are no additional candidates, then offices section
[2:24] one-zero two-two-nine of the elections code allowed the city clerk to certify the fact that the
[2:30] clerk did on August 10. Notice of the certification was published on August 14, five days before
[2:37] tonight's meeting, as required by law. Under these circumstances, the City Council may either
[2:43] appoint the nominated candidates to cancel the election and cancel the election, or direct
[2:48] the election to be held anyway. If the council does not cancel the election, the City Clerk's
[2:53] office would need to open a right and feeling period from September 7th through October 20th.
[2:59] Adopting the resolution this evening has no fiscal impact and cancel the election wouldn't
[3:04] had saved the city in estimated $15,000 in holding costs.
[3:09] Staff recommends that the City Council adopted Resolution 1064, appointing Larry
[3:14] Robert Weber, Esther Hahn, Jeff Gordon, and David Z. Brack, to the City Council and
[3:20] canceling the Municipal Election for the City Schedule 4 November 3rd, and direct the
[3:25] City Clerk to present each of them with a certificate of appointment and lieu of
[3:29] election.
[3:30] I am happy to answer any questions that there may be.
[3:34] Is there anybody on council last question for Amber?
[3:37] I have a question for Lauren.
[3:41] Should I recuse myself or abstain from the vote?
[3:47] You don't need to, but if you would prefer for the optics of it, you're welcome too,
[3:52] because you have a full council here, but it's not required.
[3:56] Okay.
[3:57] I just want to note it's Jeff Grogan.
[4:02] Thank you.
[4:03] Thank you.
[4:03] No problem.
[4:07] Anybody else have any questions or comments?
[4:10] I actually have one comment.
[4:13] Just the point of information that I've not completely verified that I was told
[4:17] on real life reliably.
[4:19] That of the cog cities with the exception of Malibu on that of where all have uncontjet
[4:24] selections is here.
[4:26] Yes.
[4:27] So there must be something in the water.
[4:29] Confirm.
[4:30] That is confirmed information, sir.
[4:32] Okay.
[4:33] And I don't know about Malibu.
[4:34] Malibu is is having an electron. Okay, dude. All right. So I got the correct info. Okay, just go there. Anybody on zoom and wants to comment.
[4:48] We can't hear you.
[4:51] I guess we do a two-speaker smear. The first is Matthew Wasserman.
[5:00] Thank you. Good evening. City council and staff. I just want to, it's great that we're doing that. I just wish that the city manager report indicated that on August 6, there is an article on the acorn about the ever-changing city manager situation. Since we don't get the paper here delivered anymore, residents didn't see it till the 7th when it was posted online.
[5:29] that same September 7th, some residents were under the understanding that the nomination
[5:34] period had closed. There was no indication that an extension was possible, no announcement,
[5:41] no communication from the city clerk or the city manager. Additional time might be triggered
[5:46] under the elections code. Personally, I was confused as nothing had been posted and four days
[5:53] later in August 11th, I posted on a community Facebook page at 740 in the morning asking
[5:59] what's to deal. It wasn't until later that day the city posted the extension, not on the main page
[6:07] and quietly on a single sub page of the website. No homepage notice, no newsletter, no social media,
[6:15] no calendar entry, no citywide communication, no effort to inform the residents that four council
[6:21] seats were open, and one only one incumbent had filed.
[6:27] For a process that appointments with the clerk was required, signatures would be required
[6:33] to be gotten and formal paperwork.
[6:36] It does not seem appropriate that a 24-hour window was no proactive outreach is adequate.
[6:43] It's functionally inaccessible.
[6:45] And I feel that it really the city failed to keep the community in the loop and residents as well.
[6:55] Resons believe that process ended August 7th.
[7:00] And posting that extension, not even on the opening page of the City Council,
[7:05] it's not good governance.
[7:06] It's not consistent with the standards of openness with the community expects.
[7:11] And I hope that there would be a policy going for that extensions must be prominently posted.
[7:19] Residents will receive email or checks notifications.
[7:22] The city calendar should reflect the extension.
[7:25] There would be verbal announcements made it.
[7:27] Meeting even if it has to be a special meeting agenda item.
[7:32] An extension should be remain visible for 72 hours.
[7:35] I think these are basic and reasonable.
[7:37] and I have a very serious question for Lauren Langer as well. The municipal code says that 90 days
[7:46] after an election, you cannot release or fire a city manager after election.
[7:53] And on July 10th, July 15th, on posted agendas, there was information about the
[7:59] missle release discipline of a city manager. So I'm wondering how that works. Where that 90 days
[8:08] happens and if that is a peculiar situation that will be in because of not holding an election.
[8:22] Thank you, Matthew. Next up is Casey Corbin. Can we address that comment?
[8:28] Yes.
[8:30] Since that's not accurate,
[8:35] Amber and Lauren, could you ask the comment on the website and it
[8:39] was posted and we talked about it in our meetings and yes, I think Amber could probably
[8:46] provide a little bit more specifics, but there are very specific election law requirements
[8:51] as to when the nomination period is extended and the time periods for that and the posting
[8:57] the information and the sending it out and the city did comply with all of the requirements
[9:01] that are required under the elections code. It's a tight timeline. All of that's why the
[9:06] special meeting has to be done tonight because all of this is a very tight timeline under the
[9:11] elections code but the city did comply with all of the requirements that are required by law.
[9:17] Thank you Lauren and just to add a little bit more to that. The election information was also posted
[9:24] on the carousel under featured news on the website, the main page, the information did include
[9:31] the extension.
[9:36] Thank you.
[9:38] Anybody else?
[9:40] Yes.
[9:40] Casey Corbin.
[9:43] Good evening, Mayor.
[9:44] Members of the City Council.
[9:46] I'm here to express my support in continuing the election going on.
[9:50] To add the previous comments that were mentioned, I checked the Hidden Hills City website quite
[9:54] regularly and notice that these notices were posted only about a day before in the city council meet.
[10:00] The agenda being posted in August 18th. It's my understanding stuff like this should be posted about five days in advance. In addition to not the spite being a resident of the city for 25 years, I was not aware of an election timeline. I was not aware it was even possible to run an election and in addition to that, I wasn't even aware that the timeline of this had concluded at this time.
[10:25] Um, while I understand that there are an equal number of candidates, so it's, where there's one person running for each opening,
[10:35] I would much prefer to provide the city residents an opportunity to write in a candidate if they're choosing it.
[10:42] It may so wish.
[10:45] By illuminating the election, my concern is that you're oppressing the voices of the people in the city.
[10:54] Sure, odds are that the four people running in the 2026 election will probably win their seats,
[11:00] but if anyone should choose to run, or if anyone wants to write in the cabinet, if they're choosing,
[11:06] they should be free to do so on the ballot that they receive sometime in October.
[11:12] In addition, I would like to express my dissatisfaction in the last minute cancellation of the August 10th
[11:17] meeting, and as I had intended to speak at that meeting on a different issue. Thank you.
[11:25] Thank you, Casey.
[11:26] Can we address that also because it's not five day requirement for a special meeting.
[11:31] It's 24 hours and I know that we had that up and also that has nothing to do with the
[11:36] election notifications which started to go up in June.
[11:40] So I think there's a misunderstanding about timing.
[11:42] Lauren, maybe you could explain.
[11:44] Yeah, that's correct.
[11:45] The City Clerk does maintain elections, page on the city's website that does have all
[11:50] the information, the City Council adopted a resolution calling the election earlier in
[11:55] summer, which is required under the election's code, and the culmination of this meeting tonight
[12:03] had to happen as a special meeting, which is Council Member McCorkandell noted under the
[12:08] Brown Act for quasi 24 hour notice, because as I mentioned, all of these timelines are very
[12:14] crunched. They happened within a week of each other, and so the notification was published last
[12:19] Friday as required by law, and there has to be a five day waiting period, and so there's only
[12:24] a one or two day period that this meeting can be held.
[12:27] And I believe one of the other council members
[12:29] noticed noted as well that other cities in the region
[12:32] are doing this tonight or having this discussion
[12:35] tonight as well because it's just a very, very tight timeline
[12:39] allowed under the elections code.
[12:41] But the requirements by law have been followed.
[12:45] Thank you.
[12:46] I want to say a couple of things.
[12:47] I want to be responsive for the issue that was brought up.
[12:50] And I actually always wanted to have a civic class for a residence to offer that so they would understand how our council works, how the elections work, how high you vote, when you vote, how you register, and I think that would be amazing, so maybe part of our library, we can offer that course, but we could either do it online only or maybe in person as well.
[13:20] But I take that comment very seriously and I definitely will work on that Civic
[13:26] scores for everyone to learn how things work and not to feel left out.
[13:35] Anybody else on council want to make a comment, is there anybody else on Zoom?
[13:39] One more speaker, Brett Katz.
[13:46] Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council.
[13:49] I'd like to address a lack of transparency that's going on with the City
[13:54] right now. We're spending approximately $30,000 a month to pay the city manager who's no
[14:00] one's seen in months or paying extra $5,000 to the assistant city manager to take her position
[14:09] with no information of what's going on, dark. We've had more special meetings that we've had
[14:15] actual meetings this year. This is a problem. There's a huge lack of transparency of what's going on
[14:22] and I believe the city council owes it to the population
[14:26] of that if it nails to let them know what is going on
[14:29] with our city manager.
[14:30] It's been month after month after month with no information.
[14:34] And I think that this is something that needs to be addressed.
[14:38] And I'm also disappointed that you have this special meeting,
[14:41] but there's no, there's no, I can't talk about other subjects.
[14:45] So, this is just a communicate that I think it's sort of it's unclear
[14:51] What's going on and there's been nothing to talk about and we just go after a month and this is improper
[15:00] Okay. Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom?
[15:06] There's not mayor. However, a previous speaker has raised her hand. Again, so just to mention, for the public that you are only allowed to speak once on any agenda item.
[15:19] Okay.
[15:20] Is that the council's discretion that would say the, like, to provide additional time?
[15:25] No.
[15:26] Okay.
[15:28] All right. So there's no more public comments.
[15:30] going to have a motion to adopt resolution number one zero six four. I'll make the motion to adopt
[15:36] resolution number one zero six four zero six four. I'll second that. Substitute city clerk,
[15:46] where can we please conduct a roll call? Yes, councilmember Weber. Yeah, I'll abstain just because
[15:55] So my name is on that balance.
[15:59] Council member McCorkan, do you?
[16:02] Council member Cole?
[16:04] Yes.
[16:04] Mayor Protem Sequel?
[16:06] Yes.
[16:07] Mayor Ligian?
[16:08] Yes.
[16:09] Motion carries.
[16:13] OK.
[16:14] We will now move on to item 3B under new business,
[16:17] consideration, and approval of a letter to Southern California,
[16:21] Edison requesting a reliability assessment,
[16:24] and capital improvement commitment for the valedance
[16:26] Association, Acting City Manager, serve and please present the staff report.
[16:31] Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.
[16:34] This item asks the Council to approve a letter to Southern California Edison regarding
[16:38] the Valdez Substation, which hidden Hill shares with the City of Calabassas.
[16:43] Over the past several months, Hidden Hills has experienced three separate unplanned
[16:47] outages, traced by SEE crews to equipment issues, was substantiated itself.
[16:53] A pattern neighboring communities on other substations have not seen.
[16:58] The draft letter is prepared for transmittal on the City Council letterhead asking SCE to bring the Valdez
[17:04] substation to the same reliability standards as other communities that it serves.
[17:10] Including repairing the failing critter guards, upgrading equipment, implementing active monitoring,
[17:16] and provided a documented maintenance plan.
[17:18] It also requests detailed technical data, including feeder reliability history, loading capacity,
[17:25] asset condition, and root cause analysis and corrective action plan.
[17:30] Along with a direct 24-hour communication protocol for the city manager,
[17:35] great-outage events.
[17:37] There is no fiscal impact with this action and the letter request investment
[17:40] and improved communication from SEE and is also does not commit any city funds.
[17:46] staff recommends that the city council approve the letter authorized the mayor to endorse it on behalf of the council and direct staff to transmit the letter.
[17:54] I'm happy to answer any questions.
[17:57] Thank you.
[17:58] Thank you.
[17:58] Any questions from council members?
[18:05] Is there any one on Zoom wishing to comment?
[18:10] Aye.
[18:10] Aye.
[18:11] One can't raise.
[18:12] Yes, Mayor.
[18:14] Matthew Wasserman.
[18:16] Thank you for doing this.
[18:18] The situation with Southern California.
[18:19] Yeah, Edison is untenable, especially during the summer.
[18:24] And for many of those of us who work from home offices,
[18:28] it's absolutely disgraceful.
[18:30] And thank you for standing up to them.
[18:32] And it would be so great to have a regular meeting
[18:36] where people could voice opinions on other matters.
[18:39] And it would be great if Lauren Linger answered my 90 day question.
[18:43] Thank you.
[18:49] Any other comments?
[18:52] I had no other speakers, Mayor.
[18:54] Okay, can I have a motion to authorize acting CD managers serving to send the proposed
[18:59] letter to send the California Addison requesting a reliability assessment and capital improvement
[19:04] commitment for the Validate of Substitution?
[19:08] No, I'll so move.
[19:10] Back in my short.
[19:14] Okay.
[19:15] Have you seen a clear glare when we have a rule call?
[19:18] Councilmember Cole?
[19:20] Yes.
[19:21] Councilmember McCorken, do you?
[19:23] Councilmember Weber?
[19:25] Yes. Mayor Protem Sequel? Yes. Mayor Lugia? Yes. Motion carries.
[19:34] Okay. If there is no further
[19:37] business, may I have a motion and a second to adjourn in the meeting? I'm hope to adjourn in the meeting.
[19:44] He's seconded. And can we have a roll call? Councilmember Gold. Yes. Councilmember McCorkin, do you? Yes. Councilmember
[19:54] whatever. Yes. Mayer-protein Seagulls. Yes.
[19:59] Mayer-Legia.
[20:00] Yes, we are adjourned.