1655190000 06/14/22

Hollywood I ain t asking. Pant burns. Patricia Pappas. And carry Swan. Individuals wishing to provide a comment on the Closed Session item MAY do so either in person or by filling out a request to speak for him. Via zoom webinar by computer or phone. All speakers are encouraged but not required to identify themselves by name. Each speaker MAY have up to three minutes unless the volume of speakers warrants reducing the time. Um, at this time, please go ahead. Good evening, Kerry Swan here. To the folks watching at home. Welcome to the 10th special meeting called by this council majority in case folks at home don t know. Special meetings only require 24 hours notice. To the public, um supposed to be used for emergency purposes, But, you kn, Much like the secret ad hoc committees that don t require transparency or citizen participation. Lots of secrets and weird things creeping the halls of City Hall this past year and a half. So let s take a walk down memory lane. I pulled out my cc turned c c e file that dates back to the first Study Session AUGUST 7th. 2017 at that time myself, along with several others in the community. Pointed out the serious flaws in the whole community choice energy scam and begged that the council abandoned the bad, bad idea. And Now here we are five years later. And. I should be happy to say I told you so. But I m not. Because the losers here are us the peasant taxpayers that got thrust into a flawed, dangerous scam. Oh. Did I mention that none of you ran on this scam to get elected. You hit it, like so many other lies. O c p a does not need a statement from this council. It does not need a new manager from Marin County, who, by the way is at the top of the pyramid scam. It needs to be dirt decertified and buried in the cemetery of bad ideas. First, your savior, Marine. Clean energy was the o g of the pyramid scheme known as c. C. E s and we re the only cc to make money because they could take advantage of the wrecks. Renewable energy credits with no l. They are no longer available, so they are sitting on $200 million that should be returned to the taxpayers. But every other cc since then has failing or on the brink, Riverside ccs filed bankruptcy and five or six others, including Lancaster and Butte County have decertified. There is no amount of lipstick you can put on this pig to make it better. It does not need new management. It needs death. It needs to go. Please accept that It was a mistake. Cut our losses, pay the penalty and get the hell out of the energy business and folks who are listening at home. I. Don t expect this council to listen. They never do so Please opt out immediately when you receive notice from the Orange County Power authority coming to hb residential customers. You can stay with Southern California Edison and don t have to be part of this scam if you don t opt out, you ll automatically put in your rates will increase in. You re basically screwed. So thank you, Everyone. I am kc McKeon, lifelong hb resident. Tonight s special meeting is an attempt to damage control further debacle. That is the Orange Counter Power authority. As, part of the Finance Commission. We warned about the potential financial risks the c c. E s community choice energy programs pose. But our City Council went ahead and anchored us to the Orange County Power Authority, anyway. As a comparison Riverside Community Choice Energy program. Western Community energy when bankrupt after just one year of operation. To refresh everyone s memory in APRIL of 21, Our City council voted to enlist Huntington Beach into the energy procurement business as part of the o c p, a Orange County power authority. Who is born was compromised Individuals, who had zero experience in the energy sector. We were told We could purchase cheaper energy through the o. C p a then through Edison. Here. We are your later And? Not only are they electricity bills for the commercial customers Not cheaper, but they are dramatically more expensive. We were first told that the ocp would be cheaper than we were told our bill would only increase 5%. I recently received a residence commercial business Electricity bill. Their MARCH bill was $1500 there. APRIL Bill was $1500. And, then their first bill in MAY being a part of the ocp was $1892 for those doing the math at home. That s a 22% increase. We were automatically enrolled in the most expensive 100% renewable energy plan. Which is a fraudulent statement as 100% renewal and renewable energy is impossible. Currently. Our grid is only supporting a 33% renewable energy capacity. On top of that the o c p has been embroiled in controversy since its inception just recently and MAY 31st the California Public Utilities Commission living in nearly $2 million. Fine on Ah cpa for failing to purchase enough electricity to ensure that its customers are provided with uninterrupted service this su. Now our council is trying to get ahead of the whistleblower complaints that the Orange County Power Authority ceo Brian Blonsky. Filed against the other board members, which include hp, Councilmember Kalmick and Posey. As feared. The o c p a is an unmitigated boondoggle of a dumpster fire. Let s help. Our City council doesn t double down on this mistake. And ask us residents to put forward want more of our taxpayer money to cover this $2 million fine or any of the o c p s financial shortfalls. Be on the lookout in AUGUST, when notices will be mailed out to the residential customers with the option to opt out of the o. C p a thank you, everyone. Mhm. Hi. My name is Pat Burns and I m a resident for about 29 years in the City of Huntington Beach. And first off, I d like to say, unfortunately, is not PRESIDENT PRESIDENT Erik Peterson for convincing me and egging me on for the last two years to run for council The rest of you. Plus one. She s not here. I want to thank you guys, and I appreciate giving me every incentive and motivation to run to try to replace you. I am thoroughly let down and discussed it that you guys got into this whole ocp a mess. The evidence was there. The information was available for you guys to know that it was a bad, bad idea. And. If he didn t You were negligent in your Duties. You first got in. You got into the homeless hotel business. You got into the labor housing market. None of which properly served the residents and the businesses of this city. I really can t have request you guys consider getting out of this mess, getting out of it as quick as you can. And the other request. I have Is two of you should bail out in any kind of discussion or decision making, because From all evidence and information. You guys are under investigation. And, really? It s a conflict of interest for you to participate in any of the discussions or decision making involving the o. C. P a So my request is that your keys yourself and let the ladies take over for the decision making With that I m done. Good afternoon. My name is Gracie Vandermark. And we re here today. Once more talking about it was c c e c c a at c c e. Now. We ve had this discussion many, many times before. Mike. Years ago we met at a cafe on Beach Boulevard before I was involved in politics as much as I am Now we discussed this and ll let you know One of the issues is why can t we opt in? And, You said. That s not a problem. I said. Well, opting out will be a problem. You said well, that can be done. But that was never an option for any of us being that I have been involved. With school issues involving up Dean parents in and parents opting their Children out a certain courses. I spoke to a senator one time and I asked Senator Leyva. I said Senator Why, is it that you re having parents opt out instead of opting in her answer for that one topic, which was sex, Ed said. The reason we re having I said. We. Don t see the paperwork sometimes, so if we don t know how to get out of this, our kids are going to be exposed. Her answer was well, that s the reason we don t give people an opt in. We want as many people in the program as possible. And that is exactly what it feels like here today. People are stuck in these programs. We have a large elderly population who will not know how to get out of these programs. I know several business owners who have already tried to opt out and they actually couldn t they had to call People to help them up them all. This is not easy, So we re over here fighting all these issues that have been rammed down our throats by the current council, minus Erik Peterson, and now we re going to dedicate the rest of our time to creating a step by step process into teaching the community how to opt out of this. Why can t we just get out of it Figure out a way Can we buy out of this program. It s dirty, It s murky There nothing clear about this in any way. The. Whole thing just seems Like a scam. I can t really describe it as anything else we ve addressed this several times We ve been ignored. Many times We need to get out of this for once, Listen to us just for once. This is a bad Idea. We spoke to somebody this weekend. Their bill a business over $800. It increased somebody else s bill increased by $2000. This has not saved a single person, a single penny. Opt us out of this program. Get us out of this program, figure out a way to get us out of this. This is not helping us. Thank you. Thank you? My name is Patricia Pappas resident of more than 42 years and as a college professor, I pretty much spent all my time at Fullerton College and now past 2.5 years, I ve been paying attention. Paying attention to what s going on with our City Council and our city and I See that a lot of circumventing of our of the citizens of Huntington Beach is going on. In many ways and i m not going to talk about all those, but I do want to think about and communicate hopefully to you this approval of the of Huntington Beach is involvement in the this electrical What is it called Orange County Power Authority. Electrical program. What I. What, I wonder is Did. We consult with our city attorney? Are. We consulting with our city attorney. Now on what? All the problems. I m reading in the newspaper about some really some huge problems with this, and I really hope that you can help us and get us out of this situation. I m really worried about the costs. Um, that are going to be incurred by us and we the residents pay for these costs. I was also looking at our charter in the preamble. This morning and just a little bit of it. It says. We the people of city to City of Huntington Beach State of California believe fiscal responsibility and the prudent stewardship of public funds is essential for confidence in government. That ethics and integrity are the foundation of the public trust, and that just governance is built upon these values. And we would I would really like to see these Held up here in our in our city, so please work with us. And. If this is something that we can get out of, and will save us money and and please I would love it if you could hold a town halls with us if you would communicate with us, I think that s one of our biggest problems is when I stand here and talk to you. I really want to communicate? I don t want to just talk at you. So. That would be something that I would appreciate. Thank you. Hi, Rob Pool. This afternoon at approximately 4:15 P.M., the Ermine City Council voted for 20 to direct their staff to investigate the cpa and it s issues of transparency. It was interesting to note that during the Irvine s public comments a wide range of concerns and solutions were brought forth that included but were not limited to City of Irvine being removed from the cpa, which many people are asking for now. Even some that claim to be climate change activists. Their words were taken aback by the actions of the j p a and asked at the least, whether the current leadership was acting in the best interests of citizens in the j p a. That said. We in Huntington Beach have another issue. Beyond the mismanagement of the o c p a apparently must be handled and Closed Session as it involves either existing or potential litigation. The only potential litigation that I m even remotely aware of is contained within the whistleblower letter filed by Brian Poborsky, ceo of ocp, a, which implicates COUNCILMAN Posey and COUNCILMAN Kalmick in a backroom scheme, which violated several provisions of the Brown. Of course we all know that accusations do not immediately imply guilt. But with this accusation, the larger concern that we MAY have to city Council members acting illegally on their own behalf. And, not in the public s best interest is of immediate and immense concern. So. I m calling for an immediate investigation with subpoena power of the actions of Councilmember Kalmick and Posey and then attempt to determine the viability of these accusations. And either proceed with removal from our city council and consideration of further legal action against them. Or to clear their names of these charges. Additionally, when the subject of the possible c c e. R j p was being discussed in her city. I was told by several city officials, including former city manager Oliver Chi. That operating under the auspices of a j p a would provide our city several protections, one of which was against lawsuits. Was I being told the truth Because Here we are today with their city Council ready to go into Closed Session to discuss possible litigation. I don t understand. Thank y. Yeah. That concludes in person, but I do have to people online. I should be on the phone. I know what you His name. Tony. Tony. Can you hear me? I can go ahead, please. Thank you So? I m, a proponent of renewable energy at the personal and even at the municipal level, I m also an engineer, and I have enough understanding of electrical power generation and transmission to know. That reliably transmitting power to millions of residents and businesses for reasonable cost is a very complex endeavor. That requires significant experience and knowl. I don t believe that the cpa ceo or staff or the board has that required expertise acknowledged to run a power agency. One of my biggest concerns. You know, outside of all the transparency and everything else. Has been this? You know the finances for me like this? Might work out, Okay when everything goes right, But what happens when things don t go right? I? Will ocp avoid burdening residents or cities with exorbitant costs. Like what we observed in Texas a couple of years ago. When customers saw their power bills going into the thousands of dollars. I m sure, there s some differences between Akpa and these under situations, but I haven t been able to find out what they are. I actually contacted Antonio Castro Graham last year and asked her that question And she said, information was becoming, and as you know, she s not there anymore. But It s there s no information about that. I don t know how you answer that question. So. Aside from all the other issues with cpa. That s an item that makes me fearful. Of participating in that, ultimately, if the city Council And the board and the staff. Can t answer a question like that. Then really It s time to find a way to get out of this organization. I think we ve been off more than we could chew. There s many other ways to promote renewable energy at municipal level, and I urge the city to explore those options instead. Thank you. Thank you. Since we Three gold. The other color. It went away. Let s see around here. Maybe they dropped off. I think? Yeah, Okay, great. Go ahead and recess to Closed Session Our call for a motion and a second for recess. Second Okay. Thank you. Finance authorities meeting. Ah City Clerk They, Take Rome call, please. Thank you, Mary Councilmember Kalmick and County Council member Peterson have requested to be absent pursuant to resolution 1, 2054 and also city clerk Estanislau has requested to be absent pursuant to charter section 3 10, a There being no objections. The City Council permissions for these absences will be reflected in the minutes of this meeting. Thank you, Mr continue with the rest of the roll call. Councilmember Kalmick Mayor Pro Tem Posey here, Douglas Councilmember Kalmick Councilmemb. Thank you. Mr Gates. Closed Session report. Yes Thank You mayor, Um Council voted in a five vote with Carr and Peterson absent To authorize my office to take possible legal actions against the ocp, the Orange County Power authority to protect the city s interests. As a member of the o. C. P a And. That s it. Thank you. Thank you. Alright, let s see. And also, I would like to ask you about announcements of any supplemental communications. Yes, Mayor for administrative violent number two. We had 12 email communications received regarding consideration of action concerning the Orange County Power Authority. Thank you. And then I d like to have public comments. Do you have any speakers signed up? Yes, I have one public comment. Mr Poole food come down before Mr Paul speaks called me Go ahead and read this. Individuals wishing to provide a comment on the agendas are non agendas. Items MAY do so either in person or by filling out a request to speak form or via zoom webinar by computer or phone. Zoom webinar. Participants wishing to speak will be provided a 15 minute window to select the raised hand feature in the Webinar control section. All speakers are encouraged but not required to identify themselves by name. Each speaker MAY take up to three minutes. Unless the volume of speakers warns reducing their time. Um, So Go ahead, Mr Poole. At times the citizens of our community are treated by the City Council is nothing more than distractions. While I don t condone name calling and threats many citizens in our city do independent research on the issues before you would sometimes provide you with thoughtful opposing viewpoint. And. There are similar, summarily dismissed his whack of I wasn t surprised by the almost $2 million fine imposed by the puc on the Orange County Power Authority. Do we all understand by the way that s public money provided by the taxpayers. Several years ago, I had done massive amounts of research on ccs and JPs. The issue of resource adequacy was one of the prime concerns I read about I probably spoke about on the hp forums back in the day. However, a bunch of City Council people. Supposed to be experts in every field in which they want to dip their toes. They re not. They can t be. And. Yet here we are. Where the $2 million Fine and the j p mired in controversy. Who could have predicted this. Well, I did. And several others did many others. Did. You heard that many of them tonight. And many of many other distractions, Citizens and our city need to be listened to More than just Coming up and giving them the three minutes and walking off and being annoyed with them. I hope i m not an annoyance. When I come here. I m truly trying to be beneficial. I think it might be a good time to stop treating those you represent as the enemy and begin listening to us. Some of us want what you say You want the best for our city? I m glad we re now. No, By the way what happened in Closed Session with respect to possible litigation. It s good to hear that what came from that appreciate that, too? Thank you so m. Merkel glaze. I just received another sheet. Would Karen come down? Hello. Hello City Council. Hi. Members of Huntington Beach. I was here last week. Oh sorry. Your public comments are to be directed at City Council. Can t I address the citizens of Huntington Beach as well. Yes you can buy speaking to the microphone and looking at us. Okay. Here, you Yeah. But. I m here for them. I m not here for you, Barbara understand them. I understand that them I am here for them. I m Not here for you. I understand that, ma am. Alright, so To say so. We were just discussing Why. The City Council doesn t listen to us. And as of last week. I told you that my opinion. Is that they work for the other team. We have team Huntington Beach. We have team Orange County. We obtained California. We have Team America. We also have the humanitarian team. They are not on our team. We know that They are here to weaken us. They are here as saboteurs. They intend to one by one. Blow by blow weaken us so that we are easy for takeover. For BlackRock vanguard in every other globalist country company. We know your playbook. We know what you intend to do We know why you re trying to raise the rents and let people suffer. And the mobile home parks. We know why. You think that in a couple of years when you do blow by blow by blow will be easy for takeover. I don t know how you live with yourself. I I m going to come every week and remind you Because I do not know where you saw your soul. That concludes public comments. Okay, Thank you. City manager Joyce would you like to introduce this item? But I decided was on the agenda. At the request of Councilmember Kalmick to bring to your attention. Items that are The, subject of some discussion among the agency members of the Orange County Power Authority. I prepared the agenda. To identify the general areas for your discussion this evening. I was you running the meeting? So that your appreciate it. No. No. You re all set. Um. Thank you, Counsel for residents for meeting on a special meeting here to discuss this issue ever since Mr Posey stepped down and I was appointed by our counsel to represent us on the Power Authority board would have been Kind of running into a brick wall. And so I wanted to. We wanted to Closed Session to have a conversation about some remedy there, but I wanted to kind of discuss the issues that I m I m seeing as a new board member on the Power Authority, even though it was the kind of all the alternate member Of, the board and some of its have a bit of an issue that we re going to do address, and I believe wholeheartedly that it s fle. It s fixable and very near term manner, I hope, But. There are some, um, big issues that that I see out there. One of them is utter lack of transparency. I serve as an alternate on the sand district board. Um and as to, um COUNCILWOMAN Cars are as our representative there. Also, a joint powers authority that uses taxpayer dollars to build infrastructure and provide services. But And. I get the agenda for that. Every meeting you gets emailed to me is the alternate and it says just in case your board member can t make it. Here it is. Ah had to fight tooth and nail for that as a alternate board member. Every every time I would find out we start getting emails about power authority. Like, why are we getting emails Come to find out there s actually meeting scheduled That I was summarily left off the list and my understanding that was on purpose again. The being opaque for the sake of being opaque. I think some public call in at the Irvine meeting earlier today, said that for an agency that s designed to provide light and power, they should do a great job of keeping people in the dark. And it s not right. I mean the agency should be public open. Everything should be on the website. Some examples of some issues that we found, Um Power pricing is not available on the website should be something pretty straightforward. Um the staffing within the organs, not on the website. You gotta dig the contract for the ceo is not on the website again. You have to dig. New member policy has been taken off the website. It was there, but it s no longer there. The minutes are very short and don t really describe what s going on in the meeting. I remember early on there was a big push by the public to get the meetings up and online and available for residents to be able to view because again, this is a a big issue, the other I think larger issue is that the contracts all of the contracts with other agencies under a certain amount are confidential, apparently and are not available, and there s a large litany of cpr Ray requests that have gone unanswered. Um. I think that s a major issue, and I think it s remedy able issue. Um, but I think it s a major issue for the organization and for the public. I mean That s. The biggest issue for me is that The public agency. It should be open to the public as transparent as possible. Now. I understand that there s some Um Industry with buying power. There s some issues that are confidential for trade secrets type of issue and that s all regulated by the cpuc. But When. I was an alternate director. I was given a power purchase contract that I as we were debating what that looked like they were redacted. I mean, I called and I got a plausible answer for the reason. But like In retrospect that seems like a red, very large red flag. So, um I ve also spoken to some other cities. Um and They re confident that they would be willing to join the power authority. If there was a change in management. They don t have public trust in the agency. Um, and that s frustrating, right like that s we should be a residents and our businesses don t know who the power authority is. And our Public agencies that we d like to have joined the power authority to increase our buying power and the ability to bring local dollars back to the community and energy projects and And energy programs don t have trust in the organization. So we ve got cities that don t want to join. We had, um, Lake Forest leave. And we ve got a residents that don t know who we are what we re doing, and we re not telling them what the power authority isn t doing. And if Um, with a price increase for 100% renewable articulating what That means articulating what the resource. Local resource adequacy requirements are and why the power authority was find. It s a simple explanation. It s mildly complicated, but it s a simple explanation is a reasonable explanation. Um, but Silence and I sent a letter to staff last week. Also Power three staff asking why they haven t This is spinning and people are spinning and they really upset about a $2 million fine. Several at least four other power. Authorities were also fined for trying to acquire local resource adequacy. It doesn t mean that lights are going to turn off. Um, it s a construct of the cpuc by to try to purchase local resource local resources, its its capital, Our capital, a resource adequacy. It s not Adequate resources. It s a constructed term and so, um, we we were fined for not being able to acquire local resources are weren t available or the cost was so high. Um That the fine is cheaper than buying the power effectively. So, um, it s in the it s in the power authority budget. So, um, that s it s the understanding again. I m, not a power expert. We rely on folks and staff and r p, a r power purchasing entity. So, um it really comes down to Explaining to folks what the power authority is the benefits in having some other and the other agencies. We joined calcium, which is the group. It s the Season of the have a association. Um and they re all very concerned about the power authority because if the power authority has issues it causes the community of c. C a stood to potentially be regular, overly regulated or or things foisted on them. That Detract from what ccs can be, which is the local control of your power. Purchase your power mix instead having to go to Sacramento and sit in a cpuc hearing when Edison wants to raise rates 8% 16% Um It it. It brings that down to the local level to have that choice in your power and then bring that extra dollar those extra dollars and that investment in renewable energy to help me or greenhouse gas emissions to help meet our general plan. Goals of Ghd reduction. That. We can invest those dollars in the out years. It s going to take a couple of years to get started up. I mean we just launched commercial in APRIL. Um and so as we launch residential in OCTOBER, you know I ve been screaming since Antonio left in DECEMBER. Um What are we doing? Why? Aren t we telling why are we screaming from the rooftops? Here, we are. Here s what we re doing, where the ads on Spectrum and Frontier cable telling people welcome to the Orange County Power three your local renewable energy purchasing provider and explaining some of the concerns that folks have Or the misinformation that they have, or just if they don t like it, they can opt out or they can opt down and it s a parity with Edison. So It s a lot of this this capacity piece, Irvine today, um, this this earlier today voted to issue a forensic audit of the power authority again. A lot of the I would love to see the check register, and I think some other members can speak to that. I know that I sit on the western Orange County waterboard, Very small waterboard. Jp a check registers in there. Every every meeting every check that went out and who got paid What? And when. I believe the sand district has something similar in their 800 page. Agendas that they have our general agendas for the power authority or 70. 80 pages. 20 pages usually like very, very short agendas. And I would much prefer to have an enormous amount of information just dumped on folks that they can plow through and read to their heart s content than having to cpr rate request everything and it sounds like according to even emails. We re g Here that we have residents issuing cpr requested are gone unanswered, and that s just not how it should work. And. Um there s no reason to be not transparent about this. Absolutely no reason. We get involved in it. We get involved in public agencies. And. We are elected officials to Um, to be a conduit to the public of information like you know, we go to meetings and get briefed, and then we turn it around and pass that on to folks and eventually connect some pieces and do some great work and Um just to be opaque, as is very concerning to me. And so I think that with what Irvine s doing, they re going to hire council to evaluate certain policies and procedures of what the power authority has done. And I do know that there s been other members of the power that I have tried to get things agenda is to try to fix some of this, and they have Not gotten been successful. Um. And so I think I think vice Mayor. The, vice mayor of Irvine asked for a potential amendments gpa agreement as well that folks shouldn t be serving on the board after they re not an elected official anymore. And so there s some Consternation. They re going forward. So. That s all I have for now, and I want to hear from some other members and we ll see where we . Please do, Mr Posey. Yeah. I don t have a whole lot, Dad. You really summarized it. Well, MR. Kalmick. Um yeah, the I did watch the Irvine City Council meeting and, uh and Tammy. Kim is the one that articulated really the reasons why I resigned from the board is as I am looking at turning out at the end of this year. Um about I ve been a built long time believer in succession, planning and and having You know, as much as I don t like being opposite. A Council faced that reality that you know it s time to pass the baton on and, um And Tammy Kim said that instead of you know if you re not an elected official, you shouldn t be on the board and the board Power Authority board provides for a four year Four Year seat. I m Not Sure If. It was contemplated that you would be off of council. Maybe. It was contemplated that you know, since you have a four year term of potential in eight year term It would be okay and that s certainly what I thought back then, um So. That s probably a good change. Ah, check registry. I d like to see two. Um, it hasn t It hasn t gone unasked. I can tell you that. And I would like to see you know if we if we were to look at, um Irvine s forensic audit, uh, accounting, audit and and transparency. Maybe we work out something with we can cooperate with Irvine instead of having parallel tracks, and then maybe even engage Mr Gates s office. We need to Um and looking at the policies and procedures as well. Um and then, uh, you know, probably. I don t know who we would have for the accounting side that would sure be up to Mr Joyce, I Think on your administrative item item c. I would probably hold that in the balance until we conducted an investigation and we have something to look at. At least That s where that s where I would be. And. Uh, you know, I guess I really can t say it enough that I m, a believer in the power of 30 of a believer in the mission. I m a believer in And where we re going. I believe that, you know, greenhouse gas emission reductions is a good thing. I probably believe in it for different reasons than the environmental side. Ah, but um and I also believe in consumer and business choice and that s why I was an early supporter and still am and believe that the organization Ah is successful and can be substantially more successful with a little bit more transparency and a little bit more. Um ah. You know, I guess answers to some of the tough questions so And. That s all I had. Add thank you very much. Anybody else want to speak. Go ahead and make sure Thank you Councilmember Kalmick in Mayor Pro Tem p. Hmm. Um, I m Glad that we re having this conversation today. Um. I do feel like, um there was an opportunity or there hasn t really been a great opportunity to have it thus far, but it s important that it s happening now. Um The fact that there has been a lack of transparency has been apparent. I think for a while, but I think the hope was that you know, as things move forward, we would start in improving that. There need to be checks and balances. One of our main strategic goals and priorities as a council. Is that we improve communication mechanisms, improved community engagement, and it s imperative that any entities or agencies that we work with seek to do the same thing. Because you know that s very important to us. It s one of our highest priorities, and I don t think that that s been done in the best way thus far. I think that it s important, um, with regards to transparency that there are checks and balances there and that, you know This for this to be successful is very important for all of the reasons that have already been mentioned with regards to reduction of greenhouse gasses and moving all of those issues forward. But to do that. It s important that we have an agency that the public can trust. And. Um there s really no way for it to be successful without that. And with that being said, we need to be able to not only trust the leadership but one of the people who spoke earlier commented on maybe a lack of, um of experience within the power. Power realm, and that s a concern of mine as well. It s important that The leadership of the Power Authority and also the staff that are hired there. Have a deep well of experience that s relevant, qualified, transparent and responsive to the community to its board. Into our residents as well. Um. And, So. I hope that as things move forward. That that happens. Um and that really all of these concerns that we have come to light with that being said, I believe that supporting Irvine s consideration of, you know, authorizing an audit. Um, I think to me That definitely makes sense. I also agree that you know, working with them and cooperating with Irvine is a good use of resources in lieu of doing it on concurrent tracks. I hope that this is an opportunity for us to to, you know, again really articulate. You know how things are being done. How hiring is happening again, making sure that the right people are in place to make sure that this is successful. Um and that the communication to our community. Is clear, concise and open another thing that was discussed tonight was holding town halls. I want to see All of the information made available public. Have town halls have the rate transparency on the website. These are all things that anybody should expect. And you know, I ve talked to a number of climate advocates and advocates for, um c c s especially prior to this and they ve talked about other successful agencies and those other agencies have a clear model of how to do it, right. And be transparent and be able to answer these questions that are being asked by our community. Um, So. I m going to support um, you know, definitely moving f. With Irvine. Um as far as making a public statement about the management I can see wanting to hear more from that investigation and that audit first Um, but I personally with regards to the first item. Um, I I believe that if it s run properly and transparently it can be successful and that these issues can be remedied. But again. My final thing is we must have Relevant qualified, responsive and transparent leader. And also open hiring and transparent hiring practices not only of The ceo but also of the staff. Thank you. Go ahead, MISS Bolton. Thank you, MADAM Mayor. I appreciate you bringing these concerns forward Mr Posey and Mr Kalmick at the time that the Council. Um Agreed to join our cpa. I can imagine that these were not things that were anticipated. Um, you know it s a startup startups take a little bit of time to get running. But at the same time. I don t think anybody anticipated having these types of issues come up, So. You know here we are. So, um, I agree that we, um Ah do need to support and audit of them in terms of their accounting so financially but also in terms of their practices, So I hope that that is a part of, um Any kind of examination that s done. I m particularly concerned about the, um poor governance practices, you cannot build a strong organization and one that s supposed to be accountable to the public without Um adhering to good governance practices. Um. This is Southern, California Edison is a monopoly, Nothing against Southern California Edison, But, you know It s It s a good idea to try to introduce competition into that market, so that s part of the reason why I was excited to See that there was an effort to have a cc here in Orange County. I ve seen it done in other states successfully, Um, so I know that it can work. I ve seen it work. But but it does have to be right. I agree with you Councilmember Kalmick. So. I am agree that we should wait on Item c so making a public statement about the management, I would like to see The. Results of the audit. At the same time it s clear that something is not working. Um with the current management so That s all I have to say about it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Bolton. I ll go ahead and chime in here at the end as well. I Ah not that this matters for this particular event tonight, But Sisi is something that, um I ve been interested for very, very long time. Is a good fortune to attend a couple of conferences and to before I was even on council 2010. And 12 and it at the time they took place. Marin was just really coming together. And, um You know like anything. Sometimes you don t You don t hear the downsides, but I felt Enough time had passed. And I know we re going to it all. Looks like we re in agreement about coming back, especially with item number c. But, um, I think it was a lady named Patricia that spoke tonight? Um. I couldn t agree with you more as far as transparency and town hall meetings and communicating. That s exactly what we want, and we haven t gotten it and so it s on us. It makes us look bad. It makes our city look bad. And what s really disappointing to me is I know some of the people that are in this? Arena, and that s really Um I serve on it. Let me say this. I serve another joint powers authorities. They are not this one is not there yet. And. It needs some help, and it s going to need some I. Think serious accountability And, as you said, better governance, and I think when we get the right people there, it could be something very special. For, Orange County and for Huntington Beach. So, um, thank you for all your comments tonight and you want to go ahead and say something? Go ahead. Mr wanted to circle back. On c kind of heard from folks that, um That. We have some concerns about this, and it s been a year and a half a year a year. Plus Um and I think with what s kind of taking place over the last month. Um, I don t know if we want to soft pedal at this point, I think that the city is Been put in a position. Um, and it s been accused of things that I think are not true. I know are not true. Um and I think that maybe on this council to take a little bit stronger stance than Go ahead. Minister Choice just for folks who don t know items c is considered making a public statement concerning the management of the Orange County Power authority. Thank You. Appreciate that. So, um Yes so I would want to kind of maybe circle back on that a bit that at this point, I think that planning to meet has been singled out in the attempt that is best. The director that the City Council appointed to, um To have all the concerns that I had to have a discussion within the Power Authority board. To discuss the employment of the ceo. Um, after that. I filed my letter with the majority of the board supporting that to call the m. A complaint was filed with the with the Voice of oc. Apparently I got it from them first before this, the attorneys for the power authority, um emailed us. Um, but There was some charges leveled in that that I think are false, and I. Think call into question so I would actually like to see us take about a no confidence tonight in the ceo for some of the reasons I ve laid out the list of grievances that Or easily remedy herbal. None of us is new. We ve had members sure about public comment for the power authority for many months asking for these things, and we ve had a departure of staff members. As well. So, I would I would call for us to take that vote tonight because I think it s the Who s this as an organization, a member organization to to show that Where we are, I think is a city so that s what is that a motion? We re back into some of the Irvine stuff, but I wanted to take that at least right now. Okay, Um, MISS Moser. I concur with Councilmember Kalmick, Um. How did you say it stated again? Just a thought of no confidence confidence in the Organization of the power Authority I to think we should do that. Um well, I do want to Get more information to make a more false statement with the audit. I. I do think it s very fair to provide a vote of no confidence for the ceo given all of the Issues that have been brought forward thus far. Thank you, Mike? Mr Posey. I m gonna still hold off on c? Um. You know we re we re talking about anecdotal and Baseless accusations without having any Substantiation. And. I think that the accounting audit transparency audit would either demonstrate that, uh you have no confidence or low confidence or some confidence. In him, So. I m going to be a no. One. See? Mr Monti, did you want to speak? Okay, Very good. Ms Moser. I will get supported. Mr Monti. Did You want to make that a second? Okay? So if you don t want to speak, then let s go ahead and call for the vote. We have a motion for Mr Kalmick in a second from Ms Moser. Rebooting on each individual item. Yeah. We re gonna take, I ll make a motion on the other stuff. First. I just wanted to Okay alright. So. This is on the way. But Percy just on season, which is just this was just the motion made. Sorry. Go back. I m a I m a No, I m see. The motion, said a Right? We didn t it all out and re type it. Okay, all right. We re voting on c. Yes, that s correct. We re taking a vote of no confidence specifically, but yeah. Sorry. Assists. That s what we mean The motion is what Don t see your vote. No, it s there. It s just is this. I thought we were voting on the No confidence on the screen is e Thank you had it worded the first right the first time on the previous screen when they voted the last time it was worded, voted no confidence. Right. This is for c voted on safe but I have no vote for you at all. That s right. Are. You a. Yes. Yes, I am ok. And. Then the motion passes. Four. One with two absent. Thank you. And then I d like to make a motion. Um, on supporting Irvine. I think emotionally at this point, um, they basically directing staff to work with Irvine on the audit and the kind of go hand in hand with them. Um. They re going to do a bunch of different things. They have a lot of resources there, and I would like to offer our city resources to help them and any shape that the city attorney in the city manager deem appropriate. I think we ve kind of discussed our concerns tonight. And I think that does that? Give staff enough direction, Okay. So. That was my motion. Okay? Do. You have a second a second, but I wanted to make sure should there also be a member of the board as part of that Or should it just be city staff, an attorney that are I think I think staff and then they will report back at some point. I think that I don t remember. The board needs to be involved in second as they can reach out as as necessary. So. We have a first by Mr Kalmick in a second, MISS Moser. This is a motion passes. Five. With 22 absent At it. That s it, okay? Okay, then seeing no other items. I would like to go ahead and the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council. Public finance Authority will be Tuesday. JUNE 21st. At four pm here at Civic Center Chambers. And. Thank you for attending and the meeting