Village Laguna Candidate Forum Video, Transcript and Candidate Answers

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1. 0:07Good evening. Welcome to the Village of Laguna Candidates Forum. My name is Merrill Anderson, and I, along with John Thomas, and Johanna Felder, and Josephine Torbenson, will be conducting tonight's candidates forum. The mission of Village of Laguna is preserve and enhance our natural and historic resources. Today, we learned that the appeals court found in our favor
2. 0:37that the 1981 historic inventory has status as a historic register, agreeing with all of our points. Woohoo. So, in 2020, the city removed historic status for that inventory, putting the burden of proof on members of the public to ensure a property was considered a historic resource. This appeals court ruling reinforces historic preservation. Now, with nine candidates and only two hours to address a mountain of
3. 1:12controversial issues, time is of the essence, and so we will not start with opening statements as these statements can be found on the candidates website. We may have closing statements as time allows. Responses to all questions will be limited to 90 seconds, except for the two lightning rounds that require only yes, no answers with a limited response. John and I may ask follow-up questions to clarify responses. The seating of the candidates was determined randomly, and no comments or questions
4. 1:46will be taken from the floor. This forum is being recorded and will be available on the Village of Laguna website in a couple of days. Please note that as a 501 [c] [3] public benefit corporation, Village of Laguna will not endorse or oppose any candidates. And so with that, John, let's get started. We're ahead of schedule. This is great. Okay, so the first question, everybody gets 90 seconds.
5. 2:13It is the same question for everybody. The order of the question is the order of the answers will be in the order you are seated, so it'll be Nick, Mark, Joy, Sue, so forth. So the first question is, the city is preparing changes to the Downtown Specific Plan that include increasing the current building height limits, and allowing developers to demolish existing one and two-story buildings that will be replaced with taller structures, potentially adding as many as 675 residential
6. 2:48units. It's a two-part question. Where do you stand on changing the DSP? And secondly, in light of the appeals court decision that you just heard, more broadly, what is your position on historic preservation? So Nick. Thank you very much. Thank you for setting up this evening tonight. And, it's great to see so many people here in this room. It shows, I think that a lot of people are looking for change here on city council. Thank you for the question. I think with the Downtown Specific Plan, there are a
7. 3:18lot of historic resources, historic buildings, in the downtown area, and I would be against adding the third and fourth story buildings to all of downtown. I think what we really have to look at is which buildings can support housing on the second and third floors and which ones can't, but to have a broad brush where we can wholesale change the downtown, I'm not in support. And I think it's really important that the city communicates clearly with the residents on the EIR and the changes that they want to make with the Downtown
8. 3:51Specific Plan, because without clear communication for over the past year, residents are concerned what's going to be happening to our historic Laguna charm. Okay. Mark, 90 seconds, and remember, two parts. Yeah, the update of the downtown plan will be a public process, so it will be completely vetted, and the community will have plenty of time to weigh in on that. Keep in mind that the specific plan goes all the way out to the arts district, which is currently three stories.
9. 4:26There is some language that needs to be changed in that particular district that allows regular housing, not just artists work live, and I think that that would accommodate a lot of our arena numbers. So I am in favor of updating the plan. I think that we can do it thoughtfully to where Forest Avenue and some of the special buildings that we value can be saved. I do believe in preserving a lot of our historic infrastructure. I am City Council's liaison to the Heritage Committee, and in fact, I'm working now
10. 4:59with a historic consultant to better develop our historic policy. Okay. Thank you. Joy. First of all, I want to thank Village of Laguna for hosting this forum tonight, and thank you Village Laguna for the dedication you've given to Laguna Beach. It's admirable. On the Downtown Specific Plan, I don't think our downtown's broken, so I don't think we should be changing it.
11. 5:27Why does this council focus on changing things that are not broken? The downtown is in the flood way, and it needs to be considered. Reduced parking will compromise our quality of life in multiple ways. This new plan goes way above our arena numbers and is not required. This plan appears to compromise our environmental and planning rules and threaten what's little left. Preserving our historical buildings preserves our unique character. We need to keep our character, and it's important for our quality of
12. 5:58life. So I am not supportive of this Downtown Specific Plan. Okay. Sue. Thank you everyone for coming. We had a pretty good crowd today, and we haven't had this many people in the chamber for quite some time. I see there's not enough seats. That's unfortunate. So I do support the DSP. So let me clarify some things that I think people just don't fundamentally understand.
13. 6:21One thing is, as Mark mentioned, the Downtown Specific Plan extends beyond, and we have an arts district overlay there. So probably the best way to accommodate housing is adaptive reuse. So I'll give you an example. Where Slice Pizza used to be, there's a building connected to that. That's a three-story building. The first story is taken up by a commercial, but the second and third are office spaces. They all have bathrooms in there. I've been in there many times.
14. 6:47Some have showers. So you could quickly convert those. They have parking. So I think a lot of the second-story office buildings could be converted to housing without really impacting the town. Now with regard to these historic buildings, let's take Lower Forest, for example. Those buildings are non-conforming buildings. So even if you wanted to build housing down there, if you tore them down, you couldn't build back what you had before.
15. 7:12You'd have to comply to all the zoning codes. I think that the best way to accommodate housing is to work with the property owners that let us do housing where we can do it and then see where it comes out. Building anything new in this town is very, very difficult, particularly in the downtown area. Thank you, Sue. Karen. Sorry.
16. 7:43So I didn't answer the question yet, so nobody missed anything. Okay. Thank you so much for hosting, and I'll answer the question about the Downtown Specific Plan. You asked am I in support of the change to the Downtown Specific Plan. I think there is an opportunity to do a reset on the Downtown Specific Plan and show some realistic alternatives. With regards to housing in the downtown, I think we need to be really careful
17. 8:16because the downtown is in a flood way. The arts district is in a high fire hazard area and in a flood zone, and it's also one of our only evacuation routes out of town. So I think we really need to be careful when we start considering this. I did a little bit of research on this, and what I saw is that the city studied up to 450 downtown units- And then for the environmental document, they studied up to 675 units. I think the public will
18. 8:54want clarity on the difference in the number of units and what the process is going to be when somebody submits an application. Right now, I don't think our process is very clear. And I will say this probably a lot tonight, I think a city needs to have a comprehensive general plan that is the backbone of all legal decisions in the city. And so before approving a downtown specific plan, I'd like to see our traffic and circulation element updated and how that works with our housing
19. 9:31element. If we have those backbones, we would have a legally defensible decision on a downtown specific plan. Thank you. Edward? Edward Bick. Yes. Sorry. Edward Bick. Thank you very much. Village Laguna. I moved to California about 36 years ago from Connecticut. I worked for General Electric Company during that reign of Jack Welsh, and when the
20. 10:00company, a competitor, Schneider Electric, moved me to California, I asked them, "Can I move to Laguna Beach?" Because I visited Laguna and was so inspired by Laguna Beach and how the people were so passionate and how beautiful it was. And my company said, "Edward, no, you have to live in LA." So I came down on the weekends. And then in 1994, my company allowed me to move to Orange County, and I just been here since most of the time.
21. 10:34But downtown specific plan, I believe, is important. It's one of those plans that city council has looked at before. And we have mandates from the state, and the state puts a lot of pressure from laws that get passed in the assembly, and so one is... Just need you have a minute left.
22. 11:03Oh, sorry. So that pressure is put on the city, and the city is mandated to build housing, low-income housing, affordable housing, housing everywhere. And so I believe the city, as Sue said, there are places in the city where apartments can be built, affordable housing can be built. And my experience from sitting on a state board is that pressure is put on small cities very unfairly, whereas bigger cities can accommodate these
23. 11:40changes. So anyway, I believe you should look at the downtown plan and figure things out. There are possibilities, as Sue says, but I'm not for fourth stories and ripping down historical buildings. I'm against that. That's one of the reasons why I moved here in 1994, and I appreciate the way Laguna has been kept by others. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Alex. Thank you, and thank you Village Laguna for hosting the debate.
24. 12:11I also want to thank all the candidates for running. I think it speaks to how much all of us love the town to run, and it's a hard thing to run for office, so it would be bad if we just had the three incumbents running. That's good for democracy. As it relates to the downtown specific plan, this 675 unit number came from the environmental impact report, and when you do under sequel, what you do is look at alternatives. So there was never a plan to build 675 units in the downtown.
25. 12:35What there is a legal requirement for us to do, and Joy's absolutely right, it's not part of our arenas part of the housing element, but there's an action item in the housing element that says update the downtown specific plan. What the council did several months ago was essentially redirect the focus of the downtown specific plan, not looking at downtown proper, which is what we think of the downtown, but instead looking at the arts district where you already are
26. 13:01allowed to go to up to 36 feet with artist live-work housing. The feedback from the council was essentially let's cross off the word artist and allow residential housing. We're right now within the same development standard. So it's not changing the development standards in a way where you're increasing height limits. You're essentially having the same height limits, but allowing for non-artists to live there. So that's the goal to make sure that we comply with our housing element
27. 13:28because, again, if we have builder's remedy, then there's no protection for any historic resources, which is fundamental. And then as it relates to the question of historic preservation, I'm for voluntary preservation and also for abiding by sequel as it relates to each property. Sometimes a property that's not on the register can be eligible for the state or national register, making it a historic resource. But the inventory was not the right approach.
28. 13:54I haven't read the court of appeal decision, but I look forward to doing that. Thank you. Hello. Laura Parisi. And boy, this is the advantage to be on this side. We've had lots of great answers before us. I have to say, I love the downtown the way it is. I do understand we need to look at it. I find it difficult to
29. 14:22look at it from a global perspective. I think you're going to have to break it down into the areas and look at each of those areas separately, carefully consider them, have lots of public input on each of the areas so that you're not applying a one fits all type solution. And we can, by looking at those areas, focus on maintaining the charm in each of the areas and developing unique solutions
30. 15:01that involve the people who use the areas. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And Ashley. Thank you. I'm Ashley Sentas. I am not for increasing the height downtown. I think that what's most important that we would be looking at is what the cost would be, what the timeline would be, what the deliverables would be. As we can all see from the promenade, exceeded cost, impacted traffic. I have a restaurant right downtown here, and way past what the delivery timeline
31. 15:39was supposed to be. So I would be very hesitant for including any more construction downtown without a clear plan in place. And I think there's other areas that we can do better development for housing. And I believe in historic preservation. We can all agree we moved to Laguna because of the charm of Laguna, and I would never want to destroy that. Okay. Thank you. And thank you all of you for getting so much information out in 90
32. 16:05seconds. That's pretty good. Yes. Well, now we're going to move to the first of our two lightning rounds. And in the lightning round, please answer with a yes or no, and you can add some brief commentary if you would like. And so we'll start this time with Ashley, and then we'll move across and then end up with Nick. So the first question is, do you support the city building downtown parking structures at taxpayer
33. 16:35expense? We'll start with you, Ashley. No. There needs to be a plan in place in order to build downtown parking structures, and I don't think we should be using residents' tax paying dollars to be able to build that parking structure. Okay. Thank you. Laura. No. I don't support that. Thank you. Alex.
34. 16:59Not at taxpayer expense. I'm open to the idea of having a parking structure at the village entrance, but it would need to be funded through the parking revenue, not the general fund. Okay, thanks. Edward. My answer is no, but there are ways to increase revenue to build a parking structure from the parking revenue, i.e., we just put in a bunch of meters down in South Laguna, which I'll speak to later about. Thank you.
35. 17:27Okay, thanks. Karen. I do not support using our residents' taxpayer dollars to fund a parking structure anywhere in town. Thank you. Sue. Yeah. I used to be in favor. I'm not sure now. I kind of want to see what happens with mobility in town, and we'll go from there. Okay. Joy.
36. 17:50No, absolutely not. Our taxpayer dollars should not have to fund a parking garage for all the out-of-town visitors. Mark. The answer is no. I think that we should stick to the recommendations in the general plan and continue to explore parking outside of town. In fact, I had several meetings with Orange County Transportation Authority and the Coastal Commission to that end.
37. 18:16Thank you, Mark. Nick? Similar to what Alex said, no, not with public funds. I think there is a possibility of doing it at the Act Five lot, where that's away from the downtown area, and it can be done in a thoughtful way that's very Laguna. Okay, thank you. Next question. Do you support acquiring Laguna Canyon Road? That will cost the city about $14 million a year. That includes liability insurance, accident payouts, maintenance, plus city payroll
38. 18:48and pension liability. So do you support acquiring Laguna Canyon Road? I understand why we would want to acquire it, but I don't currently support that without a plan in place. That's a very big commitment, and we would need to make sure that there's revenue and funds to be able to support it. And what the impact would be, it means multiple resources, rights of evacuation, the land use, if housing were to be built there, the amount of traffic that would be there. So I wouldn't support it without a clear plan in place.
39. 19:23Thanks. Laura? I don't support acquiring Laguna Canyon Road. I find it very difficult to come up with a scenario where that becomes a good investment for the city. Very hard to get a return on the kind of expense that that would involve. Okay, thank you. Alex? No, and that's why I did not support the $14 million deal.
40. 19:53I think that we need to figure out how to get Caltrans to change their design standards, so that we can underground the lines under the road, because it really is important that we underground that critical evacuation route, but not with the current proposal. Edward? No, and that's because of long-term liabilities to the city and the property owners.
41. 20:15Mm-hmm. Thanks. Karen? No. I do not support. Matt, Mike? Oh, sorry. No, I do not support acquiring Laguna Canyon Road with taxpayer dollars. Okay, thank you. Sue? No, we need to put pressure on Caltrans because Edison's got $75 million for us to
42. 20:34underground, and Caltrans won't play ball, so we can't bury the lines in the roadway. So that's the problem. Joy? Absolutely not. This town should not take over the financial burden or the liability of a highway department, and I think we should put the pressure on the energy company and Caltrans. Thank you. Mark?
43. 20:56I don't believe that we should take over responsibility for the road. However, I do think that we should work really hard, not just to underground the lines for fire mitigation issues, but I also think that we need to make every effort possible to make it a safer road. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Nick? And that's another no. It's too much liability, the cost is too high, and also with the current Protect and Connect plans of wanting to add four streetlights and
44. 21:25more traffic calming measures, it's our road to Hana, we need to keep it that way. Thank you. Next question. Given that 74% of the revenue of Laguna bars and restaurants is from visitors, would you support a ballot measure to impose a tax on bar and restaurant customers to help cover the cost to the city incurred from visitors? Ashley? No, I would not support that. If we were to add a tax onto bars and restaurants, which I own one, we would see a lot more restaurant closures.
45. 21:58We should not be taxing residents because they would be taxed as well, not just tourists. To make up for our shortfall in revenue, we need to cut our expenses. Okay, thank you. Laura? No, I would not support a tax, an add-on to restaurants. It would make our restaurants at a competitive disadvantage to the surrounding cities. Okay. Alex?
46. 22:22No, and that's why I opposed this proposal two different times. I think we need to look at how we can generate revenue from visitors, especially day-trippers. The best way to do that is through parking revenue, and so we can talk about that more. Okay, thank you. Edward? My answer is no, and there are other ways to increase revenue for the city through parking, and the city council has started it, but they haven't finished what they
47. 22:48started. Okay. Thank you. Karen? No. Additional taxes- Matt, Mike? No on any additional taxes on restaurants, for bars and service, and any type of tax that we might be looking at, I think we need to look at the use of the revenue before deciding
48. 23:10whether we should or shouldn't enact a tax. Thank you. Sue? Nope. We polled the community, and the community was not in favor of it. I agree with Ashley. It's a hardship for the restaurants, and personally, I don't want to pay another tax. It's already expensive to eat when you go to a restaurant. Joy? No. No tax. I too am a small business owner, and it's challenging in today's
49. 23:32environment. We need to protect all the small business owners in this charming town at all expense, and I don't support any more taxes. It's a burden on those poor owners. Mark? It's not quite that easy for me. I would explore it, and the way I would do that is I would pull all of the interested parties in and have a discussion and see what's in it for them. And if there was support for it amongst the restaurants, a two or
50. 24:013% fee, and they thought that it was going to make the town that much better and therefore help them out, then I would definitely educate the public. And if the new polls came in favorable, then I would explore it. But I would not completely take it off the table. However, I would not move forward with it without a consensus and agreement. Okay. Thank you. Nick? That's a no, and it was disappointing to see the council earlier this year spend
51. 24:28taxpayer dollars to run a poll to find out that they did not want to be taxed, and that was very disappointing to see. So although they're saying no now, we didn't need a poll to tell us that. Thank you. All right, next question. Because of potential conflicts of interest, should realtors and developers be prohibited from being on the Design Review Board? Ashley?
52. 24:55I would want to see and make sure that it would be independent opinions and there wouldn't be anything self-serving. I think that people's backgrounds can add value to a Design Review Board, so I'm a little on the fence with that. I need to do a little bit more research to see. Okay, thank you. Laura? I really like the idea of the experience that developers and real estate
53. 25:24agents could bring to the table. I think there are other ways to control the conflicts of interest, but I think an educated board is a more powerful board. Okay, thank you. Alex? First of all, Ashley, I'm sorry that you have to answer each question first. That's hard. Yeah. I agree with my two colleagues up here. So the answer's no, but I support rigorous conflicts of interest training and
54. 25:54ensuring that no one is making a decision because they're making money off it. Thank you. Edward? My answer is no, and it's very difficult to control conflict of interest in those types of situations. I think more architects should be on the board, not developers or realtors. Thank you. Thank you. Karen? I would say no blanket occupational ban.
55. 26:19It requires strict disclosure, recusal, balanced qualifications, and enforceable conflict rules. Thank you. Sue? I would say it looks like anything, it depends on the individual and their qualifications, and when we have them apply for committees, we vet them, we call them, we interview them. It's not like they come to the council and we vote yes or no. We've talked to them in advance.
56. 26:41So it's all about the people that you have, like in anything. Joy? I think it is a bit of a conflict of interest, and I would like to see the number of realtors on the DRB limited. And I agree with some of my colleagues here about education with our general plan and municipal codes is really the best role. But there is a conflict if it's all realtors. Thank you. Mark?
57. 27:08Well, I certainly don't think it should be all realtors. However, we are a small community, and we've had these discussions in the past. For instance, should artists be on the Arts Commission? And there's been other positions as well. So I think that we need to be cognizant of that fact, again, that we're a small community and that we do want to tap into some of the expertise that we have. So I would not eliminate it and take it off the table.
58. 27:33We do have a vetting process, and I would rely on that. Nick? I would lean no. Like Mayor said, we do have a limited amount of people in town when it comes to qualified individuals. I'd lean more to what Edward said with more architects. I think it comes from more of what the City Council sets, kind of like a football team. Are we going to build, baby build when it comes to approving projects and
59. 27:57design review, or are we trying to preserve the character of the neighborhoods? It depends on the tone that's set by the City Council. Thank you. Next question. Do you support the use of Roundup or glyphosate as weed abatement in any of our open spaces? No. Laura? No.
60. 28:21No, and I'm really proud of what we've done with our fuel modification program locally. Now we just need one more vote on the board of supervisors, and we can try to get this to Aliso Creek, so that's the next step. We were voted down by the county two to two, so we need another vote, which I think we can get in January. Edward? No.
61. 28:40Karen? No. Sue? No. No. My answer is no. However, I do respect our Mayor Pro Tem's opinion on invasive species, but my own opinion is no. Thanks. Nick?
62. 28:57My answer is no. I wish this was something that we could have put to bed many years ago when it was first brought up as an issue in the canyon. Thank you. Next question. Do you support extending the no-take zone 1.3 miles to the south of our coastline, thus protecting the ocean environment as the Blue Belt organization has advocated? Ashley? Yes.
63. 29:21Laura? No, I don't support it. I have to say, we did a skit in Laguna ticks on this. I'm sorry. I don't support it. I think that the no-take zone is large enough covering Laguna Beach and it is accomplishing the purpose of preservation. Thank you. Alex? Yeah, my answer is no, and I agree with Laura about I support the existing no-take
64. 29:53zone, and the State of California did a conference review, and they also did not support expanding it. Edward? I agree with Alex, and I think we all can learn more from studies. But right now, no. Karen? I-
65. 30:11Mike? I agree with Ashley. I support extending the no-take zone. Thanks. Sue? No. We had extensive discussion about this at the council meeting, I don't know, last year. The NPA is fantastic, but I think in terms of no-take zone for the rest of the area, no, it's a no for me.
66. 30:35Joy? I do support the no-take zone to the city limits, and in fact, I went to the Fish and Game and testified on behalf for that. I think if we're going to be a marine sanctuary, the entire city should be the marine sanctuary, not just half a city. I've done a lot of work in Monterey, and the Monterey Bay is a marine sanctuary, and it's a huge draw for tourism. And our ocean, once our ocean is gone or polluted
67. 31:02and the coral reefs are all bleached out, who will want to live here? Our quality of life will deteriorate. So yes, I'm very supportive of the no-take zone. Thank you. Mark? I am not in support of it at this time. However, I have a great deal of respect for the Blue Belt Foundation and the work they've done on this, and I certainly understand their position.
68. 31:22However, we're going to run into these situations where we have conflict between competing goals, culture, heritage, and environment. This is one of those. It's a good problem to have. So I think that once we get more data and we can better understand if there is significant benefit from it, then we can broaden that conversation and move forward. Thanks. Nick? No, I'm not in support of extending it.
69. 31:46I think we have a fantastic MPA as it is, and I'll leave it at that. All right. The next and final question of this lightning round is, should the city complete and make public the environmental impact report on changes to the downtown specific plan allowing up to 675 new residential units? Anything that the city does should be made public, and we should do everything transparently to the residents. Laura?
70. 32:18Yep. Yes, of course. I couldn't imagine any other answer than a yes. Well, we have some more to come. Alex? Yes, and the direction from the council was to make it public. I'm not sure if the documents have been released. I'm not in favor of spending more taxpayer dollars on a plan that we're not going to do, because as I said before, we're not focusing on the downtown proper as part of the downtown specific plan.
71. 32:42And just one point of clarification. My understanding is the environmental impact report is not complete yet. There's an initial draft that's going to be circulated. That's right. And so the question also is do you agree that it should be completed? Yes. I don't agree that it should be completed because, again, we're not studying that area anymore, and so I don't support more taxpayer dollars on it, but I
72. 33:06support releasing it for the public. Thanks. Edward? Easy. Yes. Release it. Transparency is utmost important to all residents. Karen? Yes. Release the, to date, the environmental impact report draft and the supporting studies. I think the supporting studies are where we're going to get most of our
73. 33:26information. Thank you. Sue? Yes. It's a public document. Joy? Yes, and all the studies, and please give us plenty of time to digest it. And I think the EIR should also consider evacuation of the 675 additional units. Mark?
74. 33:45Yes, I think it should be released, and I do look forward to it. I think we should revise the scope of the report, collect the data needed, and use that information when we develop our next housing element. Nick? Yes, it should be released, and it's a shame that it's even a question that we have to answer. Okay. Thank you. And that concludes our lightning round. John, take it from here.
75. 34:09Okay. So not a lot of differentiation there. So we're going to try for some differentiation now. There will be a unique question for each of the candidates. The order will be Nick, Mark, but everybody will be the first one to hear that question. So Nick, your unique question is the St. Catherine's property continues to be underutilized, and taxpayers are scratching
76. 34:38their heads about why, after four years since the purchase, it's still underutilized. What are your thoughts on how this property could be best utilized? Thank you for the question. I've actually been talking with residents about that, and it is a shame how underutilized it is. I was actually watching a video in the past, it was on YouTube, of at the time, Mayor Kemp was championing that we acquire this property, and there was beautiful green grass in the field, and something that a lot of our residents and
77. 35:11their kids could use for practices and so on and so forth. And it was a real shame to find out when we started using it for the pump track that the grass is dead. It's turned into a parking lot, and the community, the CRC, the Community Recreational Center, is just being underutilized. And we need to invest in it. It's supposed to be a community resource, and we need to activate it. And I don't understand why it's not being activated, and that's something that if elected, that we would make that a priority to use that
78. 35:41resource. The grass area is no longer being used as a sports field, and- Wait, wait. John has a question just for you, Mark. Oh, I'm sorry. Just for you. You actually get- You get your very own.
79. 35:54You get your own. You have a lot to say. Hop into the bit here. We can see. I would encourage everybody to go to the center. It's being used more than you think. Do I have more time left, or...? Okay. And one last thing, too, is I would hate to see it sold off just because we have financial problems with the city.
80. 36:11We need to make sure we use it for what it was intended for and what it was purchased for, and not potentially for some hotel or some affordable housing It needs to be a community resource. That's what it was purchased for. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Mark, this is your question. Yeah. Okay. Visit Laguna has been either accused or-
81. 36:33Did you design this for me? What we do. Okay. They are unique. Each one is unique. Okay. Take your question. Visit Laguna has been either accused or credited, depending on your perspective, with increasing tourism and especially day-trippers. You negotiated a 10-year agreement to change the spending of the tourist marketing district dollars to support a stewardship program.
82. 36:57Residents asked for specific objectives and metrics. What hard data do you have that shows how this is working? The first bit of data that I would use is the formation of the land trust and the acquisition now of three properties, and it saved 73 artist spaces in the canyon. That's my first hard data point that I would use. As far as specifics as far as how some of the trash collection is going as a result of education, I don't have that available to me at this point.
83. 37:32I think time will tell. Some of the education is very hard to qualify or quantify, I should say. I am happy with the transition of the organization, and I think that it has come a long way, and it had to be dealt with. I believe that anything can be better managed instead of left unmanaged. And so I think that we're well on our way to managing the situation. Over-tourism benefits nobody, and the hotels know that, and they want it managed. Okay. Thank you. Joy, your question.
84. 38:09You successfully sued the city to prevent them from approving building on grades over 45%. The city appealed, which is still pending. What led you personally to take on the city on this issue? So when I moved here 30 years ago, I did look into having a real strong development background in entitlements. I looked at the general plan, and one of the things that just sang to me was that this town's general plan, which is basically like the constitution or the rules that development lives by, had a huge
85. 38:44respect for our natural resources, our hillsides, our water courses, our oceans, and also an anti-mcmansion policy. So when I moved here 30 years ago, I'm like, "This is great," because what I see, this beautiful charm will maintain. So when the city decided to ignore the general plan and start tearing up our hillsides on steep slopes, the steep slopes are there to protect all of the residents against geological stability, toxic runoffs, for
86. 39:17access, fire. There are multiple reasons, and the word slope and steepness is mentioned over 35 times in our general plan. It's there to protect us, for our public safety, to protect the environment, and to protect our way of life for access, and even fire evacuation for fire life safety. So I'm doing this because I don't want a new precedent set where our hillsides start getting dug up. They've already started digging them in, and most of South
87. 39:50Laguna is privately owned hillsides. I don't want to see them all become developed out. Okay. Thank you. Sue. Forest Avenue has since the 1920s been the city's main commercial thoroughfare, providing essential goods and services, curbside parking, and framed with its signature eucalyptus trees. The trees are gone. Lower Forest Avenue permanently demolished.
88. 40:14And the Promenade project was late, over budget, and for some, the results are underwhelming. As a leading advocate for this project, what do you think could have been done differently? First of all, the project is $500,000 under budget. This comes straight from Public Works, the city manager, and the construction manager. So I hear this floating around all the time. I'm like, "Where are you guys getting your facts?" So first of all,
89. 40:46we polled the community, first of all. There's three things that are polled really high in Laguna Beach. Number one, 90% use the Irvine Bowl. Number two, the hospital, do something about the hospital. And three, 78% about Lower Forest Avenue. It had been closed for five years. And it was 5-0 vote of the council.
90. 41:09Yep. What would I do differently? It's hard to know because the problem with the street is there were three sidewalks. There was a sidewalk you walk on, and there was a sidewalk below that, and there's a sidewalk below that. There's no way that you would ever know that we'd have problems with the trees unless you dug underneath there. You couldn't even replace the sidewalks without damaging the trees.
91. 41:31So the trees were a concern for us. They were part of the plan, but this is an old town, and we had a lot of stuff going on under the street. We have a better infrastructure there now. But in terms of what we would do better, I don't know. We had 15 meetings. We had a lot of individual meetings with business owners, with the arts groups, the retailers, the restaurants. So I don't know what else we could have done better
92. 41:56because we talked to many, many people. We had many, many meetings. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Karen, turn your mic on. Yep. Under the banner of increased efficiency for the design review process, the city is routinely granting variances to residential building proposals and reducing
93. 42:19residents' opportunities to appeal decisions. How do you strike the balance between approving building proposals with the rights of current residents for privacy and view protection? With the current Design Efficiency Ordinance or the other efficiency ordinance? There were two. Open question.
94. 42:43Okay. So first off, I respect the fact that the city is attempting to resolve what is a very arduous process for both an applicant and the neighbors. And I question why we assigned a contract to update the zoning code when we haven't updated the general plan. And it is a requirement to have a comprehensive
95. 43:16general plan that is both vertically and horizontally consistent, which means internally, it works together, and we have a cultural resources element, which is for historic resources. And we have open space element, land use element. The efficiency ordinance was meant to solve a problem, but I actually think it's creating more. I see the city constantly adding new tools, new staff, new ordinances, but they're not fixing the fundamental problem, which makes a
96. 43:54decision legally defensible, and that is updating the general plan and making it consistent with state law. Okay. Thank you. Edward. Laguna Beach is known for its historic resources, featuring many homes and cottages from the early 20th century. And yet, many of these resources are being threatened by new property owners who want to demolish these resources and replace them with much larger homes that are out of character for the neighborhoods.
97. 44:23What is your position? My position is probably what brought me here many years ago for visits, and then obviously moved here. I lived in a house that was built in 1934, I believe, and the previous owner put an addition on it, and because of that, it stayed the original, but he added a skylight. So I believe the Mills Act is underutilized in Laguna Beach and should be used more to encourage new property owners when they purchase
98. 45:02properties or existing, to apply for the Mills Act and keep the original character of the house. I did it. I took care of my house for about 25 years, and the new owner has kept it that way. But I'm a big advocate of keeping old houses the way they are, and obviously, I've renovated quite a few of them here in Laguna as well. Okay, thank you. Alex, if you had known in advance of the saltwater intrusion impacting the
99. 45:36trees on the promenade, would you have gone along with the plan that you approved? What plan are you talking about, the promenade or the- Promenade. In terms of the saltwater intrusion and the effect that it's had on the trees, the loss of the trees. Yeah. I don't think the trees would be in the same situation with the saltwater intrusion, so I don't know
100. 46:03that that would change. We're just saying had you known that in advance. It would be the same situation with the trees with respect to the promenade. So I don't think that that would change the ultimate health of the trees, and when it comes to trees, we want to make sure that we don't have trees that pose a threat to health and safety. That's our number one goal in local government is to ensure that
101. 46:26when multiple arborists have reports that say that a tree is potentially life-threatening, we take that seriously, both from a moral standpoint, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I made a political decision about keeping a tree where the facts show that it posed a threat, but then also from a liability and physical standpoint, where if you have two arborist reports saying something, the liability case there would be unprecedented, and it would really put the city in a dangerous physical position.
102. 46:57So public safety and fiscal responsibility are our two main roles, and those really guide all the decisions that I make. Okay. Thank you. Laura, our city is looking at possible budget deficits and is facing hard questions about where to cut expenses and where to raise revenue. What ideas do you have to bring greater fiscal responsibility to city council decision-making? Okay. How long do I have?
103. 47:30I'll give her my minute. Thank you. Well, I think we've made a good start with... I know two of the folks on this committee are looking at ways to reduce expenses and increase revenues, but I think that we can dive deeper into those arenas, and perhaps address areas that you haven't looked at yet.
104. 48:02Certainly, those are the two biggest opportunities, revenues or expenses. I would also emphasize the need for an audit committee. We need to know what we have, how much we have, and manage what we have. I can tell you that it is difficult to get monthly and periodic financial data.
105. 48:34I don't believe the city is currently producing information monthly. My treasurer's report is the only report that the council receives. I think that I would like to see a monthly report with revenues, with expenses. I think we can do a better job of managing with better reporting. An audit committee would certainly be a good guide for
106. 49:06looking at that, looking and directing the finance department. I also think that there's opportunities in the finance department to perhaps investigate things like AI, in some of the financial reporting and coding. I'd like to see that investigated. Your time is up. My time is up. Oh, okay. Thank you very much.
107. 49:32It's only 90 seconds. Okay, and Ashley, the financial contribution to the city government from Laguna businesses is primarily sales tax, which comprises less than 4% of the total city budget. Yet Laguna's millions of visitors create costs for the city government far in excess of the revenue from sales tax. What can the city and its businesses do to better cover those costs? Yeah, I think that this is a
108. 50:03two-part issue. One, we have a tremendous amount of vacancies. We have the highest vacancy, commercial vacancies, in all of Orange County. It's double the average of Orange County, and that is a loss of sales tax. We need to prioritize filling those vacancies, and that stems from the permitting department, design review, it still takes over a year. We all know what it takes if you have a business or if you have a house here. So,
109. 50:30it's low, the sales tax revenue is low because we have a lot of vacancies, and we need to be able to increase that because 75% of our revenue is from property taxes, sales tax, and TOT. For us to be able to understand the cost of tourism and the services, we need to be able to understand the tourists. We need to measure that data. We're using old data on the number of tourists that come in here, and we need to be able to understand
110. 51:01the value we're getting out of tourists. How do we get more quality tourists versus the quantity of tourism? And have a tourism strategy that benefits Laguna because we're always going to have tourists, but with the least amount of impact on residents. So I think that we need to do a lot more research and have a better plan in place if we want to increase the sales tax to be able to pay for the services that tourisms create.
111. 51:25I'll do a quick follow-up, because you say we have such high vacancy. Half the vacancy is Gelson's. One building. That's 3%. If you take that 3% out- Yeah ... your vacancy is not high. Yeah. We're still at 6% when the OC average is 3 to 5%, so we're still higher than
112. 51:40the Orange County average. And the amount of vacancies that we have here is a tremendous problem, and you get what you have, right? So if we want more quality tourists, we need to bring in more quality retail and quality restaurants and fill our vacancies. Okay, thank you. Yes, and now we're going to move to a question for all of you, and we'll start with Ashley, and then move across, and then complete with Nick.
113. 52:09Oh. I'm the facilitator here. Yes. Make that clear. Sorry. Here's a question, and we'll start with you, Ashley. Pacific Palisades is very like Laguna Beach. Similar population, adjacent open space, and only three ways in and out.
114. 52:33In spite of preparations like much of the Palisades having underground utilities, the Palisades was devastated by wildfire with massive loss of property and significant loss of life. What more should we be doing to avoid such a catastrophe? Yeah, so I know that we created the Fire Mitigation Action Plan, and our fire department has done a really good job of going through and implementing a lot of those tasks that need to be done. There's still an outstanding list, right? I think it's over 70 action items that we need to take care of.
115. 53:08But we need to stress test. So we need to stress test the entire evacuation plans that we have put in place, and instead of just testing certain parts, real-world example. I think Maui's a prime example, right? They had an emergency plan, and the fire went so fast they weren't able to go through with the emergency plan. So I would like us to do a real-world stress test with true evacuation, all the
116. 53:36tasks that we put into place, and make sure we find any bottlenecks before a real crisis happens. Thank you. Laura. Well, it sounds like going through that list is a good start. I'd like to also see us emphasize the undergrounding of the phone poles where possible. I know there's a lot of places in town where there's one or two poles that if you
117. 54:02could get those down, you'd open up evacuation routes. I guess that's where I would start. I'd focus on the undergrounding of phone poles. Thanks. Alex. Thank you for the question, because I think this is really what it all comes down to. If we don't protect our community from wildfire, nothing else that we're talking about up here matters. That's the most important job that we have. And I don't know that I agree with the characterization of the Palisades as being
118. 54:30well-prepared for wildfire. I think that they, for example, the state parks failed to do fuel modification. That played a huge role. They had reservoirs that were empty. Our water systems here have been designed after the Rancho Fire, after the 1993 fire. We've been intentional about a good water system, which plays a role. When I went to the Palisades when I was mayor, right after the fire, there were aboveground utility poles that were there.
119. 54:56And what I saw firsthand was that when firefighters have to fight a fire and there's an aboveground utility pole, they have to be looking to make sure that the lines, not the pole, are not another potential fire source. So it really undermines their ability to fight a fire. I'm really proud of the work the city's done. I think we saw firsthand what $30 million of investments through our 2019 wildfire mitigation plan and then our updated 2025 wildfire mitigation plan can do.
120. 55:24During the Rancho Fire, it really was city government at its best. Everyone was working hand in hand. We had fuel modification that had been implemented right before in that exact area. So really, when it comes to wildfires, we can't play games because it's the most important issue that we have. We have to embrace technology, including AI. We're part of the XPRIZE right now, which is going to look at what are the best ways to deal with wildfire. And finally, I'm really proud to be supported by our
121. 55:48firefighters. They are willing to put their lives on the line for us. And so wildfire safety will continue to be my highest priority. Thank you. Edward. I'm going to go back to my original, where I started my career. I started my career at General Electric in 1984. Back then, our electrical infrastructure throughout the United States was not good. It has not been fixed or worked on, and it's
122. 56:18deteriorated, and it can't keep up. We have four electrical grids in the United States, and each is separate. But in the end, I have a company I've had for quite a few years. It's a communications company. I have contracts with a couple companies. And anyway, we've done a beta test in Hawaii before the fires in 2015. Ashley was not informed of this, but in Hawaii, they have a one-way emergency communication system. It's one way.
123. 56:51They can only tell people to run to the hills in case of a tsunami. They realized in 2015 it needed to be so that they could communicate, go to the hills or go to the ocean, and that's why there was so much devastation, because they couldn't put the siren on. They needed a speaker system. That was beta tested in 2015. The Hawaii government knew that. So that never came out. And I'm probably going to get in trouble for telling you this story, but I also
124. 57:23could tell you a BP story in the Gulf of Mexico and how that oil was shut off. But in the end, there is technologies that are being developed that are not being used just yet. One is drone technology. When I was running my communication system, I stepped down in 2017. One of the technologies I discovered in South Korea by a South Korean engineer, and by the time I got to him- Your time is about up.
125. 57:54Can I just explain this one thing? So I wrote a letter to the OC fire chief, two letters in '21 and '22, saying, "You should beta test this product." I never heard from him, but he did look at my letters. Thank you. Thank you. Karen. Hi. I agree with all the potential improvements to our fire safety. So instead of duplicating those, I'd like to say that at Design Review Board, what
126. 58:22we can do with pools is we can have automatic pump so that those pools can be used for fires. I think we need to, within our building department and our planning department, more actively involve the fire department in the preliminary design check. And that preliminary design check also needs to look at the evacuation routes, not just the building or the proposed building itself. That gets back to the downtown art district and the capacity.
127. 58:59Speaking of capacity, I really believe that the numbers that we've been using for our visitors, six million, I figured out where did that come from and what was the methodology of coming up with that, and there wasn't a strong methodology. I think we need to do an updated capacity study because when we have six million visitors coming, those are going to impact our evacuation routes. So those are mine. Thanks.
128. 59:28Thank you. Sue. Yeah. I'm really proud of the work that we've done on fire mitigation and fire safety, and the Palisades doesn't have anything like we have. We have helipads on the ridge line, which saved us when we had the Bluebird Fire. If we didn't have that, we would've had a serious problem here. Whereas there's only five in South Orange County. We have two, soon to have three. We have heat-seeking drones now. We have a sensor, and we soon to have four, that
129. 59:51sense heat that are on the ridge line. We have 23, soon to be 25, outdoor warning systems. We have 27 fuel mod zones. We work with the Coastal Commission on that to do vegetation management. And a really big piece of news is we got about $100 million from Edison, not counting Laguna Canyon Road, to underground utilities on where the Rancho Fire was. That's in Emerald Bay. Where the Ranch Fire was. That's down by the ranch. Then we have also to underground the lines on Canyon
130. 1:00:27Acres, Phillips Lane, and from the top of Moulton all the way over to Old Top of the World. So that's on their dime. This is a big win for our community, a big win for fire safety. And I have to say, we've had, I think, 15 evacuation meetings by neighborhoods. They were very well attended. And these meetings are thinking meetings. They'll put a situation in front of you, and they're getting you to think in an emergency situation, what would you do and how do you get your act together and how
131. 1:00:54do you get out of the house? So I think we've been quite successful. Fire safety work is never over. I like working on it. It's fun and it's interesting, but mainly it's just a huge benefit for our town because we can talk about everything else up here, but if we have a giant fire, then that's the problem that trumps everything. Okay, thank you. Joy. What more can we do for fire evacuation and safety? First is evacuation.
132. 1:01:20We can't do it alone. We need to work with our neighbors to the north, to the south, to the east. We need to work with the Coast Guard, bring in flotillas, and get people out of the city if we have to. If they can't get out by car, get them out by boat. And we need to work on making sure we have all that prepared. I've had the unfortunate experience. I own a camp in Northern California. I had to evacuate 120 children, eight horses, and my staff, and so I really looked
133. 1:01:48into this. The uniform building code requires new buildings to be sprinkled inside, but that helps to get people out of the building, but it doesn't help when a wildfire comes. What we're doing in Northern California is putting outdoor sprinklers on top of the roofs with copper plumbing that have heat sensors, so that when it senses a fire, they automatically go off. Another form is to put together a freestanding tank of non-toxic fire retardant foam that you often see dropped by the airplanes without the
134. 1:02:20PFAS. And so the sprinkler systems can mix in with this fire retardant, and it's shown that it's actually saved homes in the middle of Northern California. A third thing we can do is ask all homeowners to illuminate their-- put a plastic coating on their windows so that when the fire comes, it doesn't cause breakage and come inside. And the fourth thing is they've invented this ceramic-like tile, a ceramic type paint that people can put on the outside of stucco, wood, or what other material. There's some new inventions, and I think we need to encourage
135. 1:02:55people to do all these things to help protect their homes. Thank you. Mark. Alex covered it. Safety is number one, and this city is now recognized at the forefront of fire mitigation, and there's always more to do. We are exploring new technologies a lot, some of which Joy just mentioned. A lot of this is having to do with the relationship this council has with both our fire department and our police department.
136. 1:03:26It allows us to work together for best practices and find the best solutions possible. I don't think that it's a fair comparison to Laguna and Pacific Palisades. I feel bad for their situation, but we're far more prepared, and it's continuing, and we are looking at new technologies, and it's priority number one. Thank you. Nick. Yeah. I was at El Moro when the '93 fire happened, and I think back at that, I was
137. 1:03:59evacuated to the Boys and Girls Club, and then eventually on to South Laguna, where I lived. And to think, when I was talking with residents off of Alta Vista, that they were stuck in their cars on the roads, and they weren't able to evacuate. It was just an awful story to hear, and I couldn't imagine that with the recent fires that we had. And so I think it's important to point out when the council has done good work and point out when the council hasn't done good work, and in this sense, they've done a great job. I think they've made the right investments,
138. 1:04:31whether it's the helipads, I believe you said, correct? That's really important. Whether it's the continued addition of new firefighters, which I know Alex has mentioned at the recent hospital task force meeting when it comes to making sure that our firefighters have the right amount of people on each fire engine, and the evacuation plans that they've been working on for all the different neighborhoods. Again, when the council has done a good job, it's important to point that out, and when it comes to fire safety, that's one area where they've actually done something
139. 1:04:58well. Thank you, and thank you for all your responses. And now we're going to move into our second lightning round. It will be moderated by John. Okay. So this is one of these-- We're going to try this again. We got to help the voters. We need some differentiation. Everybody was 90% in agreement.
140. 1:05:21We need some disagreement. Maybe an opinion, John. No violence, but some polite disagreement. The good news is we're not going to start with Ashley, and I'm going to try something a little different. You're all going to go in the same order, but I'm not going to start every time with Nick. We're going to remove that.
141. 1:05:42So let's see if I can do this without screwing it up. So the first one is Nick, starting with Nick. So it's a lightning question. But it's only this one time. Next time, it'll be Mark. So there we go. Okay. So number one, do you support the city providing 4.2 million to create 28 affordable housing units at the Neighborhood Congregational Church property? Nick. I do. I think it's important that affordable housing is coming to Laguna Beach with the state mandates, and it's
142. 1:06:16important to make sure that the proper investments are made. I think the amount of money that was invested is the part that we need to be thinking about, especially when the budget is the way it is. I think we maybe gave too much to a multi-billion dollar developing company. But when it comes to making sure that the bare minimum is invested, like the state match, I think that's the only amount that should've been done.
143. 1:06:42Anything beyond that, I think it was too much. Okay. These are supposed to be yes or no. Wait, my apologies. Oh, yes. So maybe one sentence. We can cheat a little. Sorry about that. Mark, same question. Yes, I do, and it wasn't just for the fact that it's to support affordable housing,
144. 1:06:57it was also to mitigate the impact of the project on Laguna Beach. Okay. Joy. If the question is 4.2 million, I'd say no. I would have done just the 2.5 million, because I also don't think we saw what the real capital stack was before we invested that money. So I would have matched the state grant at 2.5 and nothing more. Sue.
145. 1:07:22Well, this is a meaty question. I'll try to play by the rules here, but we put 2.5 cash, but the rest of it was permitting and stuff that we don't spend actual cash on. But yes, I do, because the option was 75 units, which was going to cause a big problem in the neighborhood. The next option was 53. They finally got the message from us and the residents, and they went with 29. So I think that's the best outcome.
146. 1:07:46Karen. I have a different opinion. I don't think we needed to contribute money to this project. I supported the project, but I believe that had they done a mixed income project where affordable housing is spread out among different types of projects, I think that project could have generated enough income on the market rate to offset the extremely low income and low income units. Okay, Edward.
147. 1:08:17Is this supposed to be yes or no? It is. That's what I thought. We cheat. Oh. My answer is there's 29 units there. It was the low number.
148. 1:08:32We're mandated by the state. The city has a bad lobbyist and probably should hire someone else. Thank you. So that's a no. Is that a yes or a no? No, it's happening. It's 29 units. It's a low number. So the money, we were obligated. So-
149. 1:08:55Well, because of the statement-- Well, there were other- But the question was do you support it, yes or no? No. Okay, thank you. Alex. Yeah. So I didn't vote on this project, so I'm not going to answer yes or no. But what I will say is that I think it's important to fill capital gaps and extending the ground lease at Villa Elisa, where we have 71 affordable units that
150. 1:09:16are going to expire in 2041, is something that will be a priority in my next term. Okay, Laura. Well, I didn't vote on it either. But I'm always in favor of a lower cost project, and it sounds like there were options, so I'm going to say no. Ashley.
151. 1:09:39No, I don't support the dollar amount that we invested into this. I support affordable housing, but not the dollar amount, no. I would definitely do an independent study on that. We're getting a little disagreement. This is good. Keep it up. Okay. We're going to now start, go same direction. We're going to start with Mark. So the second question is, should the recreation department fees be free to residents?
152. 1:10:03How about I explain SB9 first? Yes. Thank you. Joy. Yes. Sue. Yes. Karen. Yes.
153. 1:10:17Edward. Yes. Alex. I would say no, because we'd have to identify cuts to different programs to pay for that. Okay. Thanks for the differentiation. Okay, Laura. I would like to see a nominal amount charged.
154. 1:10:33So that's a no. No. And Ashley. I want to say yes, but I'm in agreement with Alex. I would need to see what then how things are going to get paid for. Okay. If we're going to make it free.
155. 1:10:46That's a no. No, sorry. And Nick. I would say yes, but it would be nice to know what the total dollar amount is at the moment. Okay. So this one is going to start with Joy. Should the city develop more recreational facilities like pickleball courts,
156. 1:11:05basketball courts, swimming pools, and so forth? At this time, with our financial situation, I would say no. Sue. We could probably use another couple pickleball courts. Karen. No, not at this time. Edward.
157. 1:11:28No, we need to spend more money on sewers and electrical grid and things like that. Infrastructure. Okay, no fun. Okay, Alex. Yes, we have a lot of capital. Families are very important to our community. We need to do more for families. We have a lot of capital projects where we have money available, so we need to work on improving our existing parks. So, yes. And Laura.
158. 1:11:54I wish I could say yes, but my answer is no. We should focus on infrastructure and safety. Okay, Ashley. I wish I could say yes, but by the budget question earlier, we have a lot of liabilities coming up in the next two to three years, and we have a budget problem. We would need to cut discretionary spending and any capital expenditures that are nice-to-haves versus needs.
159. 1:12:21Nick. I would say yes, but it would be very low on the priority list at the moment. Mark. I would listen to the community. Of course, safety and investment in infrastructure is always important, but every great city invest in themselves. So yes? Yes.
160. 1:12:42Good. Some differentiation. You're helping the voters. This is good. Okay. We're going to start with Sue. Should the city aggressively pursue illegal short-term rentals? Definitely. There's a lot of money there. Karen. Yes, absolutely. Edward.
161. 1:13:02Yes. Alex. Yes, and we now have a prosecuting firm that can prosecute municipal code violations, like our short-term rental ordinance. Good. Laura. Definitely yes. Ashley.
162. 1:13:18Yes. You guys are just-- This is lightning. This is good. Okay, we're moving along. Nick. Yes. Yes, Mark. Thank you. Just jump right ahead. I'm in the hotel business, so I despise these short-term rentals. And in May, we had a new Senate bill pass.
163. 1:13:34It's not yet law, but they're basically saying that the Coastal Commission held us to a certain number, and it looks like that could get lifted, so stay tuned. Okay. The next one, we'll start with Karen. Should the city reduce or eliminate the current $2,500 fee to appeal DRB decisions?
164. 1:14:00I think that went up very quickly, the fee. And so I think it should be reduced. Edward. The fees should be reduced. Alex. No, I did not support raising it, but I think where it is now it makes sense. Okay. Laura.
165. 1:14:23I think the fee should be more affordable. Yes, it should be reduced. Ashley. There is a systemic answer to this, but I'm going to say yes, it needs to be reduced. Nick. Yes, it needs to be reduced. Mark.
166. 1:14:38The cost of an appeal is roughly $10,000. The charge is $2,500 for the appeal. And there's also an opportunity to have the council bring a project forward. I've brought several of them forward, so I do not think that it's fair to the taxpayers to reduce it any further. I think the $2,500 is appropriate.
167. 1:15:01Okay. Joy. Residents should have a voice, and it's too high. We need to reduce the fee. And Sue. No, I don't think we should reduce the fee. Okay. We're going to start with Edward. Should there be resident-only parking areas downtown? Is this just for downtown? Downtown only?
168. 1:15:27Downtown. Yes. I'd like to talk about parking, but yes. Okay. Maybe at the end. Alex. Yes, to the extent we're allowed to by the Coastal Commission, when we rent a third-party lot, that's a solution to that, and I support doing more of that for residents. Ah, that reminds me of something. Okay, Laura.
169. 1:15:50Yes. Ashley. Yes. Nick. Yes. You're all agreeing now. Come on. Mark. Yes, and we currently have some.
170. 1:16:06Yes. Joy. Yes. Sue. Still yes. I'm keeping score here, too. Karen.
171. 1:16:19Yes, I think it'll help the downtown businesses. Where are they? Shack parking lot, we lease them. Say it again. The Shack parking lot. Shack. We lease spaces in the Shack parking lot.
172. 1:16:32Resident only? Yes. Oh. Yeah. A lot of people, though. This is good. Thank you for bringing that up, and everybody in television land- Free parking ... all right. Very good.
173. 1:16:46Unfortunately, there's only 10 spaces. All right. Okay. It could hold even more. Two more. Okay. We're getting there. We're going to start- Keep in mind, that's governed by the Coastal Commission. We're going to start with Alex. Is it ethical for City Council candidates to invite
174. 1:17:03city employees to their fundraisers? That's a good question. Yes, there was reporting about an event. So I invited two employees, one who is the head of the police association, one who's the head of the fire association, and one employee came, Tom Patton, who's the head of the fire association. He was off duty. So I'm not sure how that-- When you read the reporting that my friend, Council Member Weiss, put out, it
175. 1:17:31sounded like there were city employees, water district employees, fire department employees, and police employees. That just wasn't the case. So, yeah. It's a yes. Is it ethical? It didn't come. Is it ethical? Your answer's yes. It's up.
176. 1:17:46Yeah, it's up. Yeah. Okay. Laura? I don't think it's ethical. Ashley. If it's ethical for a city employee to run on council, I think it's ethical. No, is it ethical?
177. 1:18:03I know, but if it's ethical for a city employee to run on council, I think it's ethical if a city employee wants to support a council member. Okay. Nick. No. Mark. You said a city employee. The people that were invited were union representatives, so that's a different role. So I do believe that is ethical for a union
178. 1:18:26representative to go and hear what a candidate has to say to decide whether or not they want to endorse that candidate. Okay. Joy. I do think it's unethical. Sue. I agree with Mark. If it would've been the city manager, that's another story. Unethical.
179. 1:18:50The money comes from the city, so unethical. Okay. All right. We have one more. And we're going to start with Laura. Do you support term limits on City Council members? Yes, I do. Ashley. Yes.
180. 1:19:10Nick. Absolutely. Mark. Nope. Joy. Yes, incumbents have a built-in advantage, endorsements, money, and time. We need term limits.
181. 1:19:22Okay. Sue. No, we have three council members in their first term, in the last four elections, incumbents got bounced out. Karen. Yes, I support term limits. Edward. Yes.
182. 1:19:40Alex. No. All right. We got everybody? Okay, let's see. I think we had some disagreement here. All right. This is good. You're helping the room make decisions. This is good. Okay. All right. So, I'm not going to go through the rounds that my colleague here did because it's too
183. 1:20:02much for me. I can't figure it out. So what we're going to do is we'll start with Ashley, and then we'll move and we'll finish with Nick on this final question. This question is for all of you. Millions of visitors to Laguna every year result in both physical and fiscal impacts on Laguna Beach. Near gridlock, like traffic, mountains of trash, high levels of DUIs, and the city finances are strained to fund visitor-related costs that far exceed visitor-related revenue.
184. 1:20:36What specifically should we do to better manage tourism? Start with you, Ashley. It was similar to the question earlier. In order to manage tourism, we need to measure tourism, and we should be pushing for more quality tourists, more overnight, longer stay tourism, more value out of tourists. We're always going to have tourists. Versus getting a massive amount of tourists coming into Laguna.
185. 1:21:04We need to be able to get the most out of the tourists that come in here. Mm-hmm. Thank you. And I'm sorry, to answer your question, or to do that, we need the data. We need to be able to study it. We are using 20-year-old information about how many tourists come in here. We need to know where they're spending the money, where they're coming from, how long they're staying, why they're coming, et cetera. We need to understand and measure the data before we can make decisions on it.
186. 1:21:27Thank you. Laura. I would support getting a study that would do that, and I would like to learn where the tourists are coming from in order to answer your question. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Alex. Is this a 90 second, or how much time? 30. Yeah, so a minute and a half.
187. 1:21:49Minute and a half. Okay. I think the big thing that we can really do from the city's perspective is enforcement. It's interesting because when I grew up going to the beaches in South Laguna, and I'm not that old, as many of you know, it was a totally different situation where during the summer, the beaches would not be crowded to the extent they are today. So they're a lot more crowded than they are. And we're really limited by the Coastal Commission on what we can do.
188. 1:22:13I know Mayor Orgill has been initiating discussions with the executive director to figure out solutions to deal with that and find a compromise with the Coastal Commission, because as you pointed out, Meryl, there is a physical impact on our beaches and what makes Laguna Beach so special. But really the key is going to be enforcement, and we have made some progress with that. I know that we have an increase in parking citations.
189. 1:22:41We also have an increase in citations for people who are drinking in public. That's important. We need to do more. We've added park rangers. We probably need to add more park rangers ultimately. One of the things that I'm supportive of is doing, we did a standards of cover for the fire department. I think we need to do a similar study for the police department to look at potentially our staffing with respect to the police department and what Ashley and Laura were talking about, of how we align that
190. 1:23:08staffing with the visitor trends. Because people are allowed to come to the beach, but what they're not allowed to do is break the law, and that has an impact on all of us as residents. So that's something that we have to continue working on, is how do we mitigate the impact of visitors, and enforcement is the solution that I think is most effective. Thank you. Edward.
191. 1:23:29So God just woke me up because there was a slight water leak, so I missed your question, but I do get it. So here's my thought. It requires a lot of money to take care of our beaches, public safety, fire, et cetera. The city council right now just rolled out a bunch of new parking meters in South Laguna, where the South Laguna residents are a little upset because it's going to take the visitors, and they're going to go start parking in the neighborhood streets, and it's going to cause a problem in South Laguna.
192. 1:24:06Here's a thought. I want everyone to think about this. I think we should put the parking meters everywhere, and for each household, they get a placard, three placards. They can give the placards to their visitors that are visiting. They can park on the street. That way, the residents are protected for their residential parking, for their friends coming from LA or whatever, but the visitors are forced to go to parking areas to pay for parking.
193. 1:24:38And to pay for parking, that pays for everything else. So the increase in revenue from that parking, if you project it, you could probably sell it. But in either case, it increases revenue for the city, and that way we can address picking up trash more, and we have money to spend, and we don't have to raise property taxes. Thank you. Karen.
194. 1:25:08I would support and encourage a capacity study, and that capacity study needs to be on the beaches as well as in the town. We have building occupancy levels. Our national parks have capacity studies. Even Crystal Cove has a capacity that gets easily monitored by their parking. We don't. We have problems with trash. We have problems with enforcement. Mm-hmm.
195. 1:25:40I think if we had a capacity study where we looked at it by cove, by the capacity of the beaches, by tides, it would give us a lot of data to better manage our lifeguards, to better manage our trash. And it would also... We close the beaches when things are unsafe, and the Coastal Act does allow beach closures when things are affected by the environment, when the environment is impacted, and when it's unsafe, when it's life safety. So I think the capacity study is a really good start.
196. 1:26:20I think that tourist revenue needs to pay for tourist impacts. Hard stop. Until we get that under control, all tourist revenue needs to pay for tourist impacts. I think rather than hard enforcement, I think we need to do blended enforcement with strong communication. Strong communication with social media, with our local radio stations, saying, "Hey, we reached capacity. You might want to think about not coming into our town today because it might be
197. 1:26:54not so fun. You might not find parking, and you might not be able to find a space on the beach." Thank you. Mm-hmm. Sue. Yeah. First of all, I want to commend the police department because we got their stats as of the end of July, and their enforcement in every category is way up. So they've done a great job. We met with them before the summer and talked about
198. 1:27:15their plan. We banned canopies on the beach, and I don't know if you've been to the beach. I walk the beach with the park rangers, and it's made a huge difference because when people bring canopies, they bring a lot of trash. And I personally pick up trash almost every day in this town, and I'm very familiar with all people and their trash patterns, which is something I wasn't planning on learning when I came on council, but I know a lot about trash now. We've wrapped the trash cans. We have messaging on the banners as you come into
199. 1:27:42town. We did a lot of social media on the canopies. We've done a lot of social media on the trash. We bumped up the fines for misbehavior. And one thing I'm working on, which we have funded now, is that we're going to be doing drone policing on the beaches. So for example, if someone's down at Woods Cove and it's 11 o'clock at night, you run a drone down there. "I wonder what they're doing down there." The police
200. 1:28:05department can just go down there and check it out rather than waiting for a resident to call. We can do this proactively. And I think with having 34 entrance points to beaches here in this town, we need an easier way to do that. Technology's the best way. And so I think in terms of what to do going forward, I think we're incrementally better this year because of the work that we're doing, but we just need to keep getting
201. 1:28:29incrementally better. You're not going to make a huge step change in one year because there's so many people, there's so many homes being built in Irvine. That's going to be difficult, but we just need to press on. I like the work that Mark's starting to do with the Coastal Commission. Thank you. Joy. Over-tourism. I'm in the industry, so I've studied what other towns have done. We're not the only ones that are getting bombarded with tourism.
202. 1:28:53And what they've done is they've stopped marketing their town. Instead of taking the tax from the hotels and giving it to market it, for example, I don't think we have to market to people we're Laguna. They can find us without the marketing dollars. And so what other towns are doing is they've redirected those funds to what they need to handle the additional tourists, such as in the public safety, garbage pickup, et cetera. We need to have strict enforcement, as what everybody said.
203. 1:29:25And then what other communities are doing is installing dynamic pricing meters, so that during the surge of the summer when school's out, the costs are going up so that they actually pay for it. We're not the only ones, and I think that what we need to do is grab other coastal communities in California that are enduring the same situation and lobby Sacramento to tell the Coastal Commission it's just not safe to have all this over-tourism on our beaches.
204. 1:29:55And I think if we work together with all the California coastline communities, that we would have a stronger voice and maybe we could get away from these caps or making people just... It's just not safe. And so I really am concerned about our quality of life and our public safety, and I was very disappointed in this 5-0 council when they approved a 10-year contract to continue to market this town for 10 more years. Mark?
205. 1:30:27There's a lot to cover here. The five-year contract that's being referred to, $500,000 of that money got redirected to the city for what was just mentioned as far as mitigating impacts. Tourism's been a part of the city forever. And when I met with Kate Heckelbridge, the director of the Coastal Commission, just recently, again, she pointed out that what we're working on could actually be a template for other coastal cities in California. But she did say one thing.
206. 1:30:55She goes, "There's no other city like Laguna in California." And what she meant by that is our diverse-- We have the festivals, we have our creative culture, right? So do you just ignore that, or do you also try to nurture our art institutions, our festivals? It's just not that easy. So we are entering into this agreement right now. We're evaluating our infrastructure, fire mitigation, evacuation plan, our
207. 1:31:24environmental designations. We're putting it all together, and we are now reviewing all of these decisions that we're making, having to do with our local coastal plan, through the lens of stewardship, and that has been an agreed-on methodology that we're moving forward with at this time. Thank you, Mark. And Nick. Well, I think the council has had the right idea in their way of trying to solve the trash issue and the visitor impacts, but the execution has been
208. 1:31:55wrong. We could have used this Laguna money towards more enforcement, more trash pickup. We already have security. I'm not really interested. I don't know how many residents are in a minority report of drones going around at night. We already have nighttime security. We need to review them and see where improvements can be made. We have the South Laguna parking. We have a huge parking lot at the hospital that's being underutilized. Signage there is not there, and we know that people are going
209. 1:32:22to be parking into the neighborhoods no matter what. So we need to be collecting revenue from the visitors on the streets. And furthermore, we need to invest in our law enforcement with our park rangers. I did a ride-along with them, and we do not have enough. One park ranger covers from Victoria Beach to Three Arch Bay. It's simply not enough. And so if you wonder why, I believe that enforcement, although it's high this year, it is not more than what it should be.
210. 1:32:48We had an extremely busy March. We had record temperatures in the water and visitors, so those numbers are slightly inflated for the year totals. So again, it comes with the right idea, just the wrong execution. We don't need to be branding and educating tourists on where the trash cans are, keeping Laguna clean. We need enforcement. Enforcement's the way to go. And then if we want to look at more ways of increasing revenue when it comes with parking, we should be looking at potentially a parking occupancy tax.
211. 1:33:16Maybe there's a way to generate more revenue there. And finally, when it comes to social media, we want to avoid what happened in Newport Beach and the strength of TikTok and the different Meta platforms. We need to be engaging those companies. We need to be working with them. We need to be talking with them about making sure that we do not let another situation like that happen, where they can pull down the throttle, work with them on the geotagging. There's ways that we can engage these companies to make sure
212. 1:33:42that our environmental resources are not damaged. Well, thank you. And this concludes the questions that we have for you, and now we're going to move into our closing statements. And so each of you will have two and a half minutes to provide a closing statement, and in this closing statement you can talk about your viewpoints, summarize your viewpoints, why residents should vote for you, and any other comments you would like to make.
213. 1:34:12Two and a half minutes. Yes. And so we'll start with you, Nick, in terms of closing statements, and then we'll move across, and we'll conclude with Ashley. Thank you. Thank you again for this evening. I grew up here. I know this community. I've had the opportunity to live overseas. I've traveled the world. I lived in Spain, China, and Vietnam. And when you live in different regions of the world like that, you put yourself in
214. 1:34:40very difficult situations where you have to learn the language, where you have to adapt quickly. You need to listen, you need to learn, you need to communicate directly with the people around you. And those experiences gave me perspective on life. And when I came back to Laguna, it was really disheartening to hear that so many of my friends and neighbors were avoiding Laguna during the summertime. I'd never heard that. My mom, who grew up here, had never heard of that, and that
215. 1:35:05really broke my heart. And that's something that we can actually change with the right leadership, the right communication, and the right spending to make sure that Laguna is a place where residents want to stay year-round. And I'm ready to bring a fresh perspective on city council. I feel like I have a unique background that hasn't been offered here at the dais, and I look forward to the opportunity to earn your vote. Thank you. Thanks. Mark.
216. 1:35:34I've been in town for 40-some odd years, raised our children here, my wife and myself. We've both been civically involved. We're passionate about this town. And when I originally ran for council, I was discouraged that there was a lack of civility, and I'd like to think that I played a part in remedying that. I think I have a record of bringing people together and finding solutions to some complicated issues. It's not one size fits all in this community. It's just not. And we have a lot of very complex issues to solve.
217. 1:36:06Some people lean into environment only. We have our heritage and our culture, and we really need to come together as a community and look at all of those things that affect our quality of life and work together a-as a community. As w-was mentioned, I've been working hard with the Coastal Commission. I've developed some wonderful relationships. It was mentioned that I'm meeting with Kate Heckelbridge, the director of the Coastal Commission. I've been meeting with the gentleman who runs the Orange County
218. 1:36:34Transportation Authority, and we're on the precipice of some wonderful things and some new solutions, and I really look forward with finishing that work. I think that we have a bright future ahead of us. Okay. Thank you. Joy. We need more than one thought leader on this council. It's just not normal to have so many 5-0 decisions being made. We need independent voices who will have the courage to not go along if the
219. 1:37:06decision is not good for the city. As a result of this lockstep mentality, I think we're less financially stable. Our historical resources and character are being dismantled, and our environment has eroded by digging into hillsides and watercourses. Our quality of life is being severely impacted by over-tourism, and like I said before, our 5-0 council just signed a 10-year contract, and I don't think this is sustainable. We need new voices on council to get us back on track, and I have the
220. 1:37:38background to do just that. Finance. My experience is both in corporate and small businesses. I know how to balance a budget and understand living within my means. Historical resource and character. I've been working for five years trying to preserve historical resources, and in this town, it's been an uphill battle. The environment, I understand our environmental rules and planning rules, and will
221. 1:38:01ensure all of our environmental protection rules are followed to the max. I own a small business in Carmel. It's a world-class tourist destination. Carmel has protected its small-town character with strong voices on city council who care about the quality of life for their residents. I will be that voice. Joy Berry is your best pick, and I would be honored, I would be very honored to serve this community. Thank you, Joy. Sue.
222. 1:38:30Yeah. Thank you again for the questions. They were pretty good, even though I didn't think they were that controversial, I thought they were pretty good. So I grew up as a Midwestern girl, and I came out here to college, and I've always been a hard worker. I don't know anything differently. In my professional career, I worked really hard, and I work really hard as a council member. And one of the things I've really enjoyed, particularly with this
223. 1:38:56council that I'm serving with now, is see, I don't agree with Joy on the 5-0. What we do is we always have 5-0 on our consent calendar because those are just routine things that we pass through. But if you watch our council meetings, we don't necessarily agree, but we work to consensus, and I think that's what people in the world want to see now. They don't want to see their leaders arguing and fighting all the time and having big divides and never making decisions.
224. 1:39:23Some of these people I'm serving with now have convinced me otherwise. I used to have a thought one way, and in spending time with people, it can change your opinion. I also like it that when people come to a council meeting with this council, no one's going to yell at them. You're not going to get yelled at from the dais up here, and we don't yell at people when they come to the microphone. We try to make it a good, healthy environment so that when people come here, they
225. 1:39:48have a good experience because this is a public forum. Everybody has their opinion, whether you agree or not. And on a council We have to keep a lot of plates spinning. We have the business community we have to worry about. We have environmental concerns. We have people's property rights to consider. And I think what people don't realize is we talk to a lot of people, because I hear
226. 1:40:11sometimes people say, "We don't listen to the residents." Well, I talk to many residents every day. Yesterday, I was in South Laguna picking up trash, and I talked to five people. One woman asked me to come to her house, so I spent an hour there talking to her, but that's not unusual. And so I think connecting with the community is very important. I'm out in the community a lot, and people say they recognize me a lot, I think from my hair actually
227. 1:40:36. But, I intend to keep working on the things that are important to me, and the number one thing that's important to me is fire safety. And I was mayor in 2022, and we had two fires, and I can't tell you how jolting that is and how much you refocus priorities on what's really important, and it's really important to make sure our community is safe. Thank you for your time, everyone. Thank you. Karen.
228. 1:40:57Thank you. I came to Laguna Beach in 1986. I was 19, and I believed I found the place that I would always live. Nearly 40 years later, Laguna is still my home, and it is exactly why I'm running. I did not wake up one morning wanting a political title. I reached a point where I could no longer complain that the fundamentals were not being fixed without offering my own experience to help fix them. The promenade was a turning point.
229. 1:41:28I'm not running because of one street or one vote, but it put a spotlight on a larger problem. Residents asked basic questions. What problem are we solving? What is the complete cost? What alternatives were considered? What happens when traffic, parking, businesses, maintenance, and the rest of the downtown are not considered with these, I would call them pet projects. These are not obstructionist questions.
230. 1:41:56They're questions responsible government should answer before committing public money. I see the same pattern in our planning documents. We did a greenhouse gas. We did a parking study. We did this stewardship. But we're not looking at the fundamental. And if I can get one message across, it would be let's get our general plan consistent internally and with our other plans, including
231. 1:42:24our LCP, our zoning code, and any specific plans, because that puts our community in legal jeopardy. We need to have a strong general plan with a strong vision. California requires the zoning to be consistent with the city's general plan, and that's been required since 1970. Yet Laguna's own 2024 scope of work acknowledged that our zoning code grew organically and was never comprehensively consolidated or coordinated.
232. 1:43:00When the rules don't line up, residents, applicants, staff, neighbors, decision-makers all pay the price: delay, conflict, and distrust. I bring more than 30 years of planning and development experience, a perspective from a small business owner, but knowing that we're not serving customers, we're serving everybody. And service on the Open Space Committee, Affordable Housing Task Force, and Housing and Human Services Committee. I'm not running to
233. 1:43:32fix fundamentals, protect-- No, I am running to fix fundamentals, protect resident quality of life, preserve essential services, and care for what cannot be replaced. Our trees, our beaches, our open space, our neighborhoods, our local business, and most of all, our arts and culture. Residents speak, City Hall must listen. I will listen, show up, do the homework, and explain my decisions. Okay. Thank you, Karen. Edward.
234. 1:44:04I had prepared an opening remark statement that was actually a prayer. My background, half my family is Jewish, half my family is Catholic, and don't laugh, my mother brought me up in the Baptist Church, and I was in a church singing group on the East Coast. But I've had an unusual life and have worked with some amazing individuals, both in the military, law enforcement, and in business. And I realized through three state appointments, one from a governor and one from the president of the California Senate.
235. 1:44:43One was a liberal Democrat, extremely liberal Democrat who I learned a lot from. He appointed me to two boards, and the other appointment was from a Republican, a conservative Republican governor. And I learned a lot from both of them, but the one thing I realized that they both love America, they love their cities, they love their states, as I do. I love Laguna Beach. I asked my company to move me here when I first moved to California, and they said no, but four years later, they allowed me to move
236. 1:45:20here. But that job took me to see seven states because I was in marketing and electrical distribution equipment. And so I visited seven states, and I got to see seven states for free. But during that time period, I received appointments. And at one of my visits to Sacramento, and I used to go to Sacramento once a month, I visited John Burton, who was actually chairman of the Democratic Party until 2017.
237. 1:45:51In one of the visits, I was in a meeting, and there were eight sheriffs from different counties in Sacramento, and they were lobbying for Orange County to get a DNA lab. And they wanted, I don't know, $60 million. And John started the meeting when they all entered the room with his hands on the wall and being prepared to be arrested because he was always the one that stuck up for the poor people, the disenchanted. Long story short, Gray Davis was governor, and
238. 1:46:28he gave them the money they needed, so Orange County has a DNA lab. So it was part of not only the innocent people, but also the people that were found guilty was potentially they were innocent, so the Innocent Project or whatever. My point is that I love Laguna Beach. I would like to serve as your city council member, and I'm deeply passionate. I sat on the Laguna Art Museum board for a long time, and that was another traumatic experience because we had eight meetings, and on the eighth
239. 1:47:05meeting, I cut to the chase, and I said, I used a four-letter word, "We need to vote because I'm tired of these meetings." And what was happening is the museum was being solicited to be purchased by UCI, and I was against it. I forced the vote, and Jane Hanauer came to me later and said, "Edward, thank God I'm so glad you said what you said. Even though it was unorthodox, you called the vote, and we did what we had to do, and we instructed the board." So long story short, I love Laguna.
240. 1:47:41I have a lot of passion. I do things a little bit unconventionally, but I have respect from the people I used to work for that I still talk to all the time, and I'd like to be your city council person. Thank you. Thank you, Edward. Alex. Thank you. I really feel grateful to have been born and raised in Laguna Beach, and I feel that this is such a special place. And the question is, why is this a special place?
241. 1:48:06Laguna Beach is really not an accident, but it is a product of leaders who are willing to tackle really complex problems in unconventional ways. When we think about why we're a city, we're a city because in 1924, five duck hunters did a secret mission to Huntington Beach to buy 120 acres of land. That's how we got access to water, and as of last year, we were able to sign a historic deal where we're going to be able to have local water reliability instead of imported water. We think about the Pageant of Masters, what a visionary thing to
242. 1:48:38do, and now we have to look at how do we expand, how do we have more cultural vitality in this town by having more concerts at the Irvine Bowl Or saving the canyon. It was basically the city of Laguna Beach against the biggest developer in Southern California, the Irvine Company. What happened was 8,000 residents came together and marched and were able to save the canyon and protect our open space. And finally, which is what I want to focus my remarks on here, is
243. 1:49:051953, we had Officer Gordon French was shot, and he bled out because there was not a hospital close by. And the same reason why we needed to build, and the community came together to build a hospital. The same reason why the community came together back then to build a hospital exists today. You could make the argument that the need exists even more today. In 2016, the attorney general did a report talking about the impact of the closure of that emergency room, and they said it was significant.
244. 1:49:36I did a ride-along with the firefighters. They confirmed it's significant. So we really need to look at every single option when it comes to the hospital, and that has been my highest priority on the council. I've not spent as much time on any other issue. We've met with the attorney general's office, we met with the county healthcare department. We've done a deep dive on our land use, including looking at how the San Clemente experience took place, where they were not successful in keeping a
245. 1:50:00hospital. And ultimately, I think what this is going to involve is the community coming together and doing what we did, as I described at the beginning of my statement, with grassroots organizing. And so it's a really complex issue, but it's one that I feel confident that we can do because that's what Laguna has always done in our history. And so I would be honored to have your vote to work on the hospital, work on the complex challenges that are going to basically shape the next 100 years of the
246. 1:50:28city, because we're all lucky to live here, and we inherited something extraordinary, and I think we have an obligation to leave it even better for future generations. So I'd be honored to have your vote. Thank you, Alex. Laura? Thank you. Thank you for having me. I have a big financial background that started with one of the real large accounting firms in Chicago and moved into various companies.
247. 1:50:56I was a CFO in a Fortune 50 company at the age of 28, a small division. But it's been my sincere honor to serve as your elected city treasurer since 1999. I'm running for city council today, not because I'm tired of being treasurer, but because the council and management have made it increasingly difficult for me to do the job the way you have every right to expect me to do the job, and the way I expect to do the job. This has not happened overnight. In fact, it has been going on for several years, but recently it came to a head.
248. 1:51:34I have the responsibility for making required principal and interest payments on various assessment district bonds with money collected from residents. The city finance department records the receipts in the city books. The city received the appropriate payments from the County of Orange. I'm currently filling in half-time as the assistant treasurer tax collector at the County of Orange. I know they have the money, but the money wasn't in the cash records. Those bond payments
249. 1:52:04were going to be made tomorrow. I notified city management. They have not gotten back to me on it. After conferring with bond counsel, assessment district administrator, and fiscal agent, I was forced to set a levy for the assessment districts without the benefit of determining if bonds could be paid early and lowering the cost to residents. Bottom line is, I haven't been able to resolve the issue from the outside, so that's why I'm running for council today.
250. 1:52:40One of the primary objectives I have, if you were to elect me too, Council, would be to restore the working relationship between the city's elected treasurer and the city staff and city council. We all have the same goals, report to the same residents, and we should find a common ground to work together. My promises to you are that I will continue to listen to your concerns and pledge to include your views in the city council decision-making process. I will bring my big financial expertise and
251. 1:53:15experience to issues surrounding the city's financial challenges. Specifically, I don't support tax increases or bond indebtedness to fund operating deficits. I will ensure spending decisions prioritize safety and infrastructure needs, and I will support the establishment of a professional audit committee. I support the development projects that are in accordance with city rules and minimize exceptions that leave the city vulnerable to legal action.
252. 1:53:48And on state mandate issues like affordable housing and seismic retrofitting, I would work with other coastal cities to find a common strategy. I value your support and have always worked hard as treasurer, and if you elect me, I will work hard and bring that same dedication as a member of city council. Thank you very much. Thank you, Laura. Ashley. So in the last four years, we have increased our spending, we have increased our
253. 1:54:20expenses, we've made a lot of large investments with no real plan. We are losing our ER because of no real plan. I could have had a baby in the eight months at that very ER that it took to actually have a meeting about the ER. I know you, Alex, tremendously, so I know that. But it's serious, and we are losing the ER, and that's a very serious issue. And we need to be planning and focusing on the future of Laguna better with that.
254. 1:54:50I feel that the last four years have been a lot of reactive decision-making, focusing on pieces of an issue versus a whole system. And we need leadership who's going to be thinking differently and approaching problems differently. Laguna residents, you guys have done an amazing job of protecting Laguna and preserving Laguna and all the beauty and the character and the charm that it has. And the next leadership and city council needs to protect the future of Laguna. And that's not the future of Laguna for the next budget
255. 1:55:24cycle. That is the next 10, 15, and 20 years of Laguna. We have very large financial obligations coming up, and we need to really think about that seriously. Little bit of background on myself since there was not an intro session. I chose Laguna. So I am a California native. I was born here, I went to school here. And I chose Laguna for my future. I chose Laguna to build a family here and to invest my life savings and build a
256. 1:55:55business, a restaurant here. And I want to preserve what makes Laguna special. I spent almost two decades working in the hospitality industry. I've worked for startups, mid-sized businesses, publicly traded companies. I've managed $140 million budget. I've managed complex projects, different departments. And more importantly, I've been responsible for revenue, for budgets, and having a plan with deliverables, timelines, and managing outcomes instead
257. 1:56:25of managing an action. And if I were to be elected to city council, I will bring transparency back to city council, and I will work very hard every single day to continue to earn your guys' trust. Thank you. Yes. Thank you very much. And thank you all candidates for your participation tonight, for your insights. We very much appreciate you running, and we very much appreciate the contributions and potential contributions you can make to our city. And John, would you like to just make some final comments?
258. 1:56:55How did they do on being differentiated? Thanks for disagreeing a little bit, and thanks for not being violent. We appreciate that. One clap twice. Basically, I want to thank all of you for applying for a job that pays so poorly. Taxpayers appreciate that.
259. 1:57:21Considering you each only had about 10 minutes, you provided a lot of information, which is going to help the voters. There are six more forums, so I encourage everybody listening to tell their friends. Continue to get educated about the voters.