1758006000 09/16/25

i m done. Camera crew is that? Is I d like to call the meeting of the City Council, Public financing Authority to order. City Clerk, can I have the roll call, please? COUNCILMAN Twining. COUNCILMAN Kennedy, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon, Mayor Burns, COUNCILWOMAN Van der Mark, COUNCILMAN Gruelel, COUNCILMAN Williams, all present Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications for this session? Yes, we have one email for item number 3 received regarding the existing, existing case with Allianz Translantics. Ok. Do we have any public speakers signed up? We have no public speakers signed up for the Closed Session. Ok, uh, I ll make the motion to recess into Closed Session. Second. All right, we have a 1st and a 2nd. We re adjourned until to the Closed Session. Oh, are you gonna, um, here to speak on my stage. I d like to reconvene the regular meeting of the City Council Public financing Authority. City Clerk, MAY I have a roll call, please? COUNCILMAN Twining. COUNCILMAN Kennedy, Mayor Pro Tem McKeon, Mayor Burns, COUNCILWOMAN Van der Mark, COUNCILMAN Groel here. COUNCILMAN Williams all present All right Tonight s invocation will be given by Huntington Beach Fire and Police chaplain Roger Winning. State City Council meeting. We want to tap into that wisdom and acknowledge that you so graciously and willingly provide to us. We pray for each of our City council members as they deal with the many difficult issues of our City and those on the agenda this evening. MAY you impart your wisdom and discernment to each one. We pray that you would give them guidance to be able to make the best decisions to move our City forward in a way that honors, glorifies, and serves you. Lord, we pray for all those who will be providing their input and sharing their comments at the podium this evening. Help them and guide them to share clearly, calmly, concisely, and with the utmost dignity and respect, and we thank you for bringing them here this evening to assure that our consul has the benefit of the community s views and thoughts. We ask your blessing, Lord, for each of our council members and all of our faithful and committed City employees who work so diligently in support of our City. We also pray for all of our Huntington Beach first responders, but you keep them safe and keep give them your wisdom and protection on every call. Lord, we ask for your blessing, peace, and safety for the upcoming air show. We pray that thousands will enjoy all three days and that you ll keep all the pilots, planes, and attendees safe. MAY it be a great day for our City. And we give you thanks, Lord, for the wonderful and safe summer season we ve had and for the many visitors that come to enjoy our City. And now that we re entering the fall and holiday season, Mayor peace, joy, protection, and spirit fill us with a heart of gratitude for your many answered prayers and blessings that you so graciously imparted to us. We ask, ask you, Lord, to bless our meeting this evening and MAY your peace and wisdom guide all that occurs tonight. And we ask this all in your wonderful name Jesus. Amen. Uh, tonight s, uh, Pledge of Allegiance will be led by COUNCILMAN McKeon. Please stand if able and put your hand over your heart. Ready to begin. The I m sure about where it stands, my nation under GOD. And the soul with liberty and justice for all. Ok, City Attorney, do you have anything to report from Closed Session? Nothing, Mayor. Thanks. Ok, now s the time for Councilmember comments. Would, uh, anyone like to make a comment? Butch. Thank you, Mayor a peaceful vigil, a peaceful vigil is a sacred act of community. It is an opportunity to gather, reflect, and show solidary, solidarity in the face of loss, struggle, and controversy. Such spaces often held in places like Pier Plaza where families enjoy their evening and where groups regularly gather for different causes are meant to uplift voices, not distort them. They are meant to unify, not divide. That is why it is deeply troubling when extremist groups attempt to infiltrate and co-opt these moments for their own hateful agenda. My wife and I recently were recently invited to a vigil organized by a local Republican group. The gathering was meant to show solidarity for Charlie Kirk, a father who was tragically taken from his wife and two young daughters in a country where we believe in open dialogue and the peaceful sharing of different views. Let me repeat, peaceful sharing of different views The only request that evening made of me was to bring an American flag and a candle so that we could solemnly mourn this tragic loss. That moment of remembrance was disrupted when self-described white supremacist intruded. They present their presence was not an act of solidarity, but a calculated attempt to weaponize the event for extremist purposes. As soon as their motives became clear. I immediately left because this is not what I came for, nor with the vigil represented The intrusion did not reflect my will, nor the will of those who gather to peacefully express their views. It was an unwelcome hijacking designed to tarnish a community s moment of remembrance. This behavior must be denounced in the most strongest possible terms equally troubling are those who seized on these events to falsely accuse me and my wife of assembling with hate groups. Disgusting, that makes you no better than the hate group that was there, and you know who you are Some whole positions of trust in our community, trusted, trustee. How can someone we trust be intentionally sewing such political division in our community Others claim to be a guard keeping watch over the truth, also known as a watcher, a sentinel or or entry of veracity, but meanwhile, they embellished rumors, bragging about having over 450,000 touches till a line post about me. Actually, I think they bragged recently that s over 600,000 posts. I mean, 600,000 touches on the post where they accused me. To spread false lies and false information while calling it news. All for clicks, retweets, and the likes. It s disgraceful. I ve been confronted while dining out. I ve been accosted and my wife was accosted in the grocery store last weekend. Does this advance our community? Such actions mirror the very sensationalism and marginalization that these extremists that these extremist groups thrive on. The same kind of reckless rhetoric that now has contributed to the sorrow of our nation and how we feel over the loss of Charlie Kirk. Now listen again, I reject the presence of hate groups loudly and unequivocally their attempts to corrupt our demo democratic spaces will not succeed. I equally reject those this solemn and troublesome those who use this solemn and troublesome moment in our country as an opportunity to ramp up the proliferation of deceit and discord. How is this behavior any different from the hate groups I have spent these last few minutes vehemently denouncing As a leader in this community, I will not allow my voice to be twisted for extremism. I remain committed to preserving inclusive, respectful, and peaceful spaces where dialogue and remembrance can flourish untainted by hate. Thank you. All right, Don Kennedy, please. Don Kennedy Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So when you read online, you know, when you see these disturbing, uh, incidents, uh, the City council has not made a statement. Well, I ll make a statement in a formal, uh, atmosphere right here and right now. I ve been in Huntington Beach since I turned 1 in 1962. Huntington Beach is a welcoming City where a loving City, we are not a racist City. Huntington Beach, I will unequivocally denounce any form of racism. It is not tolerated. It is completely untolerated, and I would denounce it at every meeting if that s what it takes to prove to the naysayers that uh we are not a racist, uh, City council. We re not a racist City. We are a flawed City, but we lurked to solutions to change the narrative. Secondly, I ve known Butch Twiney for almost 20 years. Let me make it very clear, he is so far removed from a white supremacist. This is one of the most fair and genuine people. Anybody would want to know, and I stand by Bush Twining and his wife unequivocally as well. And in closing, I just want to say one thing, uh, I wrote this after on day two of the uh la riots. I woke up the next day after the first day of the riots thinking think we re going to be healing. I was shocked to see that they had escalate escalated. So these words, they re kind of fitting now. You know, I m not gonna try and be a poetic, but here, here s what I wrote back in uh in the 90s. What s going on? I m asking questions. Where d we go wrong? Answer me with suggestions. Lead me. Don t deceive me, o my eyes, help me to realize what s going on and where does it come from? Or let me ask why the hate from a brother as another brother dies one and the same. We re in the same game, a different color, yeah. We all feel pain, so bond together as one and open your minds. Bro, brothers by blood, by divine design. Educate. Don t forget it s segregate, we ll all regret it. We re one people, feel the power of one love, you want guidance. Look above the love of the Lord, yeah, it s real. The good Lord guides soul s that reveal, so open your hearts, educate your minds, love another, eliminate the line, start somewhere, it s got to begin. Do you care? Hey, that s a sin. Love, try that. That s a four letter word. Chad from violence, how absurd. Let s unite. Why fight? I love my brothers and I m white, but that s everyone. Don t you see? Without knowledge and love, change will never be. We re all one, created equal, release the hate, erase the sequel, move ahead is one, Unity gets things done. Believe it or not, we ve just begun, so don t give up. That s given in. No effort, no win. Choosing to lose is like lighting the fuse, and when the boom arrives, so goes the life. So teach peace and love all brothers, band together and love one another. Just remember, seek and you will find contentment and peace of mind. Casey So last week on Thursday we had an amazing, uh, 9/11 memorial service at City Hall, uh, right outside these chambers. With, with, with Public safety and it s always a stark reminder that we must never forget that day. The lives that were lost, the, um, on that tragic day, the, the courage and bravery that our, our first responders show trying to rescue those people. It s hard to believe it was 24 years ago, um. So it s a very powerful moment and that proceeded or was it actually the day prior on Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 10th, um, the world was shocked and horror, as we all know when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in cold blood. Charlie s an amazing young man, a kind soul, a husband and father of two young children. Charlie was a champion of free speech and rigorous civil debate that America was founded on. He believed in the power of argument and good faith debate to find the truth, to lead people towards, if not agreement, at least mutual understanding If you disagree with Charlie, he would say, come up to the front and let s debate. Unfettered and unchecked violent rhetoric directly leads to violence. Violence and violent rhetoric must be condemned by everyone. Violent rhetoric like calling someone a fascist or a Nazi over and over and over again without any proof, dehumanizes an individual onto a target of hate that somehow people can justify and rationalize that they be murdered and assassinated. It s truly evil. Uninformed individuals who don t take the time to research the fact that Charlie was, of course, not a fascist or a Nazi believing this violent rhetoric which dehumanizes someone like Charlie and turns them into an object of hate that is less than human, where somehow his assassination is justified and then celebrated by many online such as teachers, doctors, nurses, elected officials, people we put our trust in, which is truly abhorrent and demonic. Of course Charlie wasn t a fascist or a Nazi. So let s go through the definitions because we hear this a lot here fascist, a person who sympathizes with fascism, ok. Fascism, a governmental system led by a dictator, having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism. Regiment all industry commerce, etc. And emphasizing aggressive nationalism and often racism, Nazi, a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler and advocated totalitarian government, territorial expansion, anti-Semitism, and Aryan supremacy. All these leading directly to World War ii and the Holocaust. Charlie is of course not an Atherian dictator, authoritarian dictator nor a Nazi. He s a private citizen who championed free speech and civil debate. The fascist is the person who took his life with a fascist engraved bullet because they couldn t compete with them in the marketplace of free ideas, so they resorted to the subhuman act of violence and assassinated him. People you disagree with are not fascists or Nazis. If you disagree with someone politically, there s no justification for you to view them as less than human. When you try and silence someone, what you re saying is I m afraid of your ideas. Violent attacks on free speech are an attack on the foundation of our country. You can disagree with someone s ideas and policies and not hate them personally. That s what a civil society requires for the past 3 years on council, we have been constantly attacked with vi violent rhetoric calling us fascists and Nazis. An individual comes up to the podium often at our meetings and introduces herself followed with anti-fascist. Yet none of these people know us personally. None of them have ever reached out to meet with me to get to know me personally or share with me their concerns in our City. In the last 3 years on council, only 2 individuals from on the other side of the political aisle have actually reached out to me to have a meeting to discuss their concerns and guess what? Those meetings were very civil, constructive, and although we didn t agree on the solutions to the problems, we both learned something from one another and left the meeting with mutual respect and understanding. That s what is needed now more than ever. Honest civil discourse and debate. Charlie believed that the moment we stopped talking and engaging with one another is the moment when violence occurs. His children are my kids age, 1 and 3, and First Lady Melania said it best. She said, quote, Charlie s children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter and silence where their father s voice should be echoed. Charlie Kirk s life should serve as a symbolic reminder that compassionate awareness elevates family, love, and country. I thought that was very well said. The only way to stop violent rhetoric is to call it out when it happens. I pray this is the turning point in our nation when this violent rhetoric ends and we owe it to Charlie to make sure it is. Andrew it s unfortunate that we ve got to talk about the actions of a few negative voices, um, especially in a City where I think that everybody is, uh, we have an absolutely amazing City. Um, you know, everybody who comes to these meetings, you, you know, you re impassioned and i appreciate that and I want to thank the people of Huntington Beach for rising above division and demonstrating peaceful solidarity this past week in honor of Charlie Kirk, in honor of SEPTEMBER 11th, you know. Um, we did see so much positive and I, I really want to lean into that, uh, you know, Charlie Kirk, as you mentioned, a husband, a father, a man whose life touched many. You know, this, this past week, obviously the nation witnessed deep public discourse, grieving, anger, sadness. Unfortunately, some political vitriol following the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk. Yet amid amidst the pain, we ve also seen extraordinary unity. With vigils and remembrances, gatherings across the country. Here in Huntington Beach this past Sunday, it was unbelievable. Everybody probably saw the the the images, yeah. I mean. So many different people coming together in solidarity. People from all over Orange County and beyond, uh, people of all walks of life. I mean, it was, it was, it was great and the people that I chatted with from Huntington Beach of all, even different political stripes, and that s what, that s what this is all about. Um, and I m proud that our community was able to stand united and remain peaceful. That s the most important thing. We stood united and everyone remained peaceful during such a difficult time. Now, obviously Butch mentioned sadly there was an incident last week when outside agitators attempted to bring hate and violent rhetoric to our City. That s what they do. That s what they want to do is is that they want to distract from the goodness and they want to put all the attention on themselves so that then that conversation goes viral and that s the main focus. And unfortunately, in giving them that attention, we give them exactly what they want, but at the same rate, we also don t want those types of people to think that it s ok that they can come into our City and that they can tarnish our good name. And I m encouraged that every single person I spoke with across Huntington Beach firmly rejected those messages. Wasn t like I was, I was trying to have having to convince somebody, hey you know, we don t want, we don t want that message here. In that context, it s also troubling that some individuals sought to attack Butch Twining, suggesting he stood with the extremists simply because of his presence at an earlier peaceful protest See, now s not the time for defamatory or irresponsible claims that are designed to damage the reputation of a respected City official, probably one of the kindest people up here. I can, I can even say, Butch is gonna be I. I mean, this guy doesn t even like seafood and he still comes to my seafood restaurant all the time. But look, I mean, to turn a morning, a moment of mourning into a petty political fight. It s not only irresponsible, it s deeply concerning. Um, so I just want to try and as an out, you know, as I want to clear Butch s name a little bit by making that statement. And I also want to thank all of you who come to these meetings. I want to thank everybody who showed up this past week and I and, and, and came in complete unity in order to mourn and memorialize, um, amazing lives in addition to those who we re respecting on SEPTEMBER 11th as well as Charlie Kirk and his entire family. So thank you I just want to say that I stand by Butch. I ve come to know him quite well. He is one of the nicest guys. He has a lot to say and we joke about that, but he does, and I ll tell you he s one of the most generous men I know, especially amongst anybody I know. He s incredibly generous to those who need help or those organizations that look for donations and stuff. It s amazing how much he gives back to this community. And I was fortunate enough to attend both the morning with that uh ceremony on 9/11 that we uh conducted out here for employees and family out here by the Memorial and then I was also fortunate enough later that afternoon by Pier Plaza, where we did it and it was it just reminded me of the unity that this country felt after that hell of a day where those planes crashed into our country and took out so many lives and changed our lives forever. We still have scars from those days and everything we do from 8 Eyton, what is it the uh the security checks and all that crap that we have to go through tsa I ve got other names for them, but uh it s, it absolute shame that we have so many things in our life was changed so drastically that day. And I ll tell you, I talked to Butch that night that those people showed up to that uh vigil, and he told me, he said as soon as they, he goes, as soon as they came, I had to get out of there. I wasn t gonna have any part of that. And he, so he already talked to me about it before any of this, these lies and misinformation that he was part of it or enjoying it or anything like that was said on the poison of social media. It s, it s just despicable, and I ll tell you, there s the, if there anything in this political world I cannot stand is lies misinformation, disinformation. It s just sad if you if you need to do that, your, your message probably isn t worth telling, because you don t have the merits of the argument. If you need to lie and everything, you probably, the merits aren there for your argument. And if it, if they are, tell the truth, please. And uh there s a lot, this town is awesome. It is incredible. I love this place and that s why I m here fighting for its overall. And amongst good things that happened, Chief, who was the Officer of the year? That was Officer Mike Carston. Fire Chief McCoy, who are the Marine Safety and firemen of the Year. Are, uh, Firefighter of the year was Captain Drew De Pola and our Marine Safety Officer of the year was Marine Safety Specialist Jacob Kress. Oh all three of those men are a credit to Huntington Beach and a perfect example of what we have in this City. And I ll tell you something else I got to do this Sunday Uh, absolutely incredible event. It was amazing in the morning Such a good vibe and GOD, it was beautiful. The attitude of the people in this community in the morning of the 10 mile race, the longest running race in Orange County history. Uh, it was 69 years in running, actually, and I m just gonna, it was a 10 mile, a, uh, 3, , 10 mile, a 10k and a 5k. And I m just gonna read real quick. I ll tell you the attitude of these runners and everybody there was so awesome. It just brought me so much pride to this City. Uh, 5k overall, uh, women, Paloma, Silva Paloma, Cento Luna and Saipan Juliet. Just so you know that Saip Pan Juliet, 3rd place. She was 11 when she signed up, but she had a birthday two weeks ago and she was 12 years old. Wow She was about the size of this gavel too, isn t? I mean, men overall for the 5k, uh, Callahanalanan Chaties Jeff ties Jeff ties in Jeff ties Jeff ties in Jeff ties Preston Gikin. Uh, so, and then the 10kom s, uh, overall, Kayla Brown 2nd place Haley Seward, 3rd place, Maha Maya Carrera, men s overall, Gabriel Sanchez. Uh, 2nd place. Hank I m gonna mutilate this one Hank Joy, uh, Zang, 3rd place yamming Pan. And then finally the 10 mile of which some of our own people working in this City, um, ran in. I was very proud to see them running in it. Uh, first place was Lauren Charlton. Uh, second place Jennifer Cardenas Sandoval. Third place, Abby Young. Hong, uh men s overall, Salvador, Capatillo, Adam Walker was 2nd and Xavier Smith was in 3rd. I ll tell you, it brings great pride to me to have met these people, see their achievement, and this City is everything. It is at these events and so much more and as far as a lot of people sending us emails about these groups that show up. Unfortunately the one thing that we stand by most of all is our Constitution in the United States. And we, whether we like it or not, and some of these groups we don t like, we don support, but we do support that First Amendment. Sometimes we don t control what they say. And unfortunately, but it s worth having that freedom of speech, so. Chad. Coming off the heels of 9/11, I can remember that day like many of you, like it was yesterday, at the time I was a junior in high school and I think it was easy in life to take some things for granted, at least at that stage, uh, especially freedom. Freedom s just one of those things, you know, for a high schooler at that time, it just the default position to life, you re, you re born into it. And then you realize that there are those out there that would want to steal, kill, and destroy and take these freedoms away. And I would say a real turning point for me was driving around on the streets. My folks took us out and on the corners you see this unity uh, this patriotism, Huntington Beach, you know, that s who we are, that s our heart. And for the first time it really hit me just the seed thought that you know I wanna, I wanna serve, I wanna be a part of something bigger and greater than self. And eventually I was introduced to a Navy se by the name of Scott Healvinsoon, who became my mentor. He was like a second father to me and, and tragically, he would wind up being killed in the streets of Fallujah, and it was videotaped and many of you might remember it, uh, dragged through the streets of Fallujah behind a car and hung upside down from a bridge. And there was a mob that was chanting in Arabic, they re celebrating and gloating. Fallujah, the graveyard of Americans. Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans. And I think needless to say, I ll never have the words to describe what that moment and all the surrounding moments were like. But Scott became a huge motivation for me, part of our Seal Creed, it says that in the worst of conditions you rely upon the legacy of those who have gone before you to steady your resolve and to guide your every deed. And then coming off the hills of what happened on Wednesday. Like many of you, my heart is just absolutely destroyed. And I understand that there are some here that in some watching that don t sympathize, they don feel the same way. And I guess all I could ask is uh just show a little bit of kindness, a little bit of grace. The alternative to that it s no good. So what happened with Charlie and, you know, I, I think about the shirt that he had on that day. It literally said freedom. What another reminder. Freedom isn t free. And if you consider the price tag on it, what is it paid for in? You could say paid for in the currency of a warrior s blood out there on the battlefield. It s paid for in the blood of a warrior patriot just last Wednesday. And what was really troubling is, you know, during the days of 9/11 when there was a mob that was gloating and chanting and celebrating over the death of an American. You know, that was a different arena. That was an enemy that was overseas, that was an adversary. I don t have the words to describe. I don know what to make of people that would gloat and chant and, and be gleeful over what had happened last Wednesday. It just breaks my heart. I would love to go back to the unity that we had when 9/11 had happened and everyone was brought together. I don t see that unity. Doesn t mean we can t have it You know, as John Adams that said that, you know, your generation speaking to future generations like ours will never know how much it costs to preserve your freedoms. I hope you make good use of it. And I think it s worth considering when we wake up in the morning, maybe ri it on a whiteboard, put it somewhere. Am I making good use of it? Am I living a life that was worth dying for? And I, I shared an anonymous poem on Sunday night that I really think just embodies who Charlie Kirk was. If I could share it here. This is a picture of who he was. He wanted to be remembered for his faith. In fact, he was asked this question specifically you know, how do you want to be remembered? And he says, what do you mean? Like if I died and the questioner said, yeah, how would, how would you want to be remembered? And he thought about it for a moment. This is how he d want to be remembered. He says, I would want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That is the most important thing Certainly was a man of faith And so this poem, it goes like this, it says that when GOD wants to drill a man and thrill a man and kill a man. When GOD wants to mold a man to play the noblest part. When he yearns with all of his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall be amazed. Watch his methods and watch his ways. How he ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects, how he hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay, which only GOD understands. While man s tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands how GOD bends, but he never breaks. When it s man s good that he undertakes, and how he uses whom he chooses, and with every purpose fuses him by every act induces him to try his splendor out. GOD knows what he is about. When I think about Charlie, I think about a man that GOD was trying his splendor out on. And we got to behold it And so going back to how he would want to be remembered, to be remembered for courage for his faith. I think it begs the question, what, what, what, what was that faith? What starts off with a trust in GOD, the emblem that we have over our heads here. You know, trust in this GOD that made us in His image. He wants to be remembered for this faith that though we are made in GOD s image, we are separated. How? Through sin, which is just acting contrary to the will of that Creator. Sins have separated us from our Creator, but he sent his son, you could say on a rescue mission down into the world. And that s Jesus, and they literally named him Jesus, the, the angel said, you ll name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And so at that cross, much like a warrior that jumps on a hand grenade to absorb the blast of the grenade on himself to save others. Jesus in a sense covered our sin, our wrath at that cross, paid the penalty in full so that we could pass by as it were, and he not only conquered the power of sin, but Charlie would have, you know, that he conquered the power of death. And as Jesus says, though a man shall die, he shall live, and that is where I believe Charlie is. He is not dead. He is alive. He s with the Savior. He s a good man, which segues to Butch Twining, a man that I consider to be a good man, and he showed up for a good man. To be there at his vigil. And when I saw this video being circulated with almost half a million views now, I guess it has, where the implication was that Butch was with these guys or one of these guys that was chanting white men fight back. My immediate reaction, I literally laughed because it s ridiculous, because anybody that knows Butch knows that s absolutely ridiculous. But here s the problem. Over half a million people saw that. Not over half a million people actually know Butch Twining. And so like Mark Twain says, uh, a lie is already halfway around the world while the shoelaces are are still getting tied for the truth. And I think that s really where we find ourselves. I don t know if you could really put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one, you know, but I just want everyone to know along with the rest of the council, many of you here, uh, that we stand with Butch, that s not who he is. He s an incredible man, and he gives to a lot of charities, not and I don t know that because he says so. He has helped a lot of people out out of some really bad situations. I know not because he says so, because I find out from these people. He doesn t shout it from a mountain top or a rooftop. So he s a good man And finally, I ll close on this about Charlie. I think Charlie also embodies these words by ct stud. Ct Stud said, one life, it will soon pass. Only what s done for Christ will last. And when I m dying, how happy I ll be if the lamp of my life is burned out for thee. Charlie, you burned out for the Lord. GOD bless you. MAY GOD bless America. Gray I probably should have prepared something because this is a little tough. So I saw Butch being accused of being a Nazi and a fascist. Why does that hurt me? Because I ve been accused of the exact same thing for 7 years. I ve been targeted. I m usually the lightning rod. I d rather have those accusations. Be continue to be directed at me because I ve become immune and to see one of my brothers on this diet be falsely accused of something they didn t do. It s not pleasant when you walk out your door and you have your kids say, hey Mom, be careful. Because I know what we re risking when we re coming up here to do this. We give up on our privacy, we give up on our safety. We walk out of here and we have to look around us. I never knew what it meant when somebody said keep your head on a swivel until I got into politics. There was no need to. I used to be able to walk out of the grocery store and everything was fine. Now I don t know who s going to approach me, all because of false allegations, the same kind of hateful allegations that got Charlie Kirk killed. It was Charlie Kirk, but it could have been any single one of us on this dias because those exact same accusations have made towards us. I didn t even want to post anything about it because they didn t want my mom to see what happened. Her greatest fear is that something s going to happen to me because I m outspoken because I stand strong on my beliefs and my views, and I m very vocal about them I ve known Butch for years. That man does not have a mean bone or hateful bone in his body. He s like this sweet, nice, gentle grandpa that just keeps talking. So got to the point where when we go into meetings and butchers in the room. I m like, is Butch gonna be there? That means it s going to be like 35 to 40 minutes. If he s not in the room, it ll be 5. Yes, yes, that goes through my mind. Charlie Kirk died because he was trying to open dialogue with other people with different points of views than he did. Even though he s passed on, I know that this is going to get bigger. There was a young man standing on that pier in that vigil where there was over 1500 people. At first I was told it was 300, 400, but when we saw that aerial view of everybody that attended that memorial. Had to be at least 1500 people and there was a young man standing there. I m looking at his picture right now. He was holding a sign that said if we don t fight for our freedoms, nobody else will. Charlie Kirk. I took a picture of that man. He picked up that baton and he s running with it. There s a young woman sitting up there She was broken and devastated. Right for a couple of days about the death of a innocent man that just wanted to have a conversation. She got up, she said, I m going to get up and I m going to get active and I m going to go out there and expose the truth as well. Good for her, and thank you for picking up that baton I see a group up there of young men and women who have dedicated their time to reaching out to college students they could have been home right now, but they re here right now because they ve had enough as well. They picked up the baton. We are all going to continue to pick up that baton. That Charlie Crook Char Charlie Kirk dropped. We re all broken. It was really um like double the sadness and the 9ning of a Memorial because we grieve the men and women who died at 9/11, and then there was another man that gave up his life just because he was speaking the truth. So I am honored to have had such a beautiful memorial here for Charlie Kirk, and I can t thank our first responders enough for being there to making sure that there weren t any interruptions or agitators allowed at that event. It was peaceful. After the event, usually people disperse as soon as the official part of the event was over. Everybody started talking, how did Charlie Kirk affect you? Your life, how did he, um how did he motivate you? There were people sitting there singing, praying, just having conversation around his memorials. It was beautiful. That is how we grieve. We don t go around looting stores, breaking into stores, physically abusing other people. We grieve with love So, Butch, I am very, very sorry that they put you through this. You do not deserve this. I m kind of used to it So I will walk with you next to you. Anytime that you need me to. I know you re a good man, and shame on those people who made up those horrible lies about this man. If anything happens to any single one of us on that diet, our blood is in your hands. That s all I have to say ok Move on, Clerk, do we have any supplemental communications? Yes on the consent calendar, item number 6, an updated memo from the City clerk, um, exhibit a to the proposed adopt adoption of resolution number 2025-60. Item number 73 emails received regarding the proposed adoption of resolution number 2025-59, opposing Proposition 50. Number 82 emails received regarding the proposed approval of an agreement with Mercy House to operate the city s homeless navigation center. Item number 10 one email received regarding the memorandum of Under understanding between the City of Huntington Beach and tee it up for the troops. Number 11, 2 emails received regarding the proposed approval of the Huntington Beach Tourism Business Improvement District annu annual report for fiscal year 2025-26. Item number 13, 5 emails received regarding the adoption of ordinance number 4339 pertaining to the sale, distribution and procession of ratom, administrative item number 21 email received regarding the Huntington Beach Police Department s computer forensic laboratory, and the possibility of an hbpd dna Laboratory. Councilmember items number 22,, 2 emails received regarding e-bikes. Item number 31 email received regarding the creation of business development Te. And service ad hoc committees. Item number 24, 5 emails received regarding the proposed termination of the Symphony of Flowers event. Is that it Just kidding Um all right Do we have anybody signed up to speak Yes, Mayor, we have 40 speakers ok Proper decorum at City Council meetings and imperative in order to for the public to remain informed about issues pertaining to the city s business. The public comments portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the public to be heard and address those issues in a public forum. Disruptive behavior, impeding or delaying our ability to conduct the council s business will not be tolerated. California Penal Code Section 403 prohibits disrupting the meeting and enforcement action will be taken for violations of this law. At this time, City Counciluncil received comments from members of the public regarding any topic, including items in the open on the open session agenda individuals wishing to provide a comment on items MAY do so in person by filling out a request to speak form delivered to the City clerk. All speakers are encouraged but not required to identify themselves by name. Please note that the Brown Act does not allow discussion or action on topics that are not on the agenda. Members of the public who would like to speak directly to a councilmember on an item, not on the agenda MAY consider scheduling an appointment by contacting the City council s administrative assistant at 714-536-5553 or mailing the ailing the entire City council at c.Council at Surf City-dashhb.Org. Uh we re gonna give each speaker 2 minutes. And uh call the 1st, 15. When your name is, please come up to the podium. Please use both podiums. MR. Amory Hanson, MR. Brett Bush, Dom McGee, Joanna Sosa, Stephen Quinn, Jeannie Parris, Ann Palmer, Alan Merriman, Ken Inaway, Heidi Vea Becky Fleauer, Brian v Va Patricia Pappas, Peter Townning, Betty Flynn. Hi, my name is Brett Bushch. Um, here I am Charlie Kirk tonight though. Amen. Um, there s two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn t true. And the other is to refuse to believe what is true. I wish those were my words, but that was sore and Kirkegaard from the 1800s. Butch, uh was at several, uh, memorials. He wasn t just at one, but it s kind of ironic they would pick the one that the subversives were at and trying to attach Butch to that. On JULY 5th of 2012, unfortunately, I was shot in the left side of my head while working for the City of Long Beach. And I didn t know if I was gonna live or die that day. It s a true story. You can go look it up anywhere. And what I remember more than anything, what meant more to me than anything was Butch Twining and his wife, his beautiful wife. They rallied a group of people together and they came and they, they rallied me. They showed that I had value. That that can never be replaced by a trustee. By a malcontent, by somebody who s see seeking something other than the good that Butch was seeking for me really at the worst time of my own life. Having to call my wife from the back of a police cruiser to tell her that I m on my way to a hospital and don t panic. You know, a lot of people said a lot of stupid things when I got shot because of the job I had. But Butch, you weren t one of them. I ve known you for over 20 years, and I, I think you said that I kicked you out of a baseball game, so I think we ve had some good times, some bad times, but we ve always been friends Um, I have to say I have great res respect for you. And, and the thing that I fear, the thing that I fear is the thing I fear is, is what happened to Charlie is what they re gonna try and attach to you. I don t want to see another martyr. Thank you Next speaker please Hello Don McGee, 24 year resident of Huntington Beach. Uh, I m not from here as you can possi as you can probably hear, uh, but when I, um, dreamed of coming to America when I was a small child. I dreamed of what America would be. And now I look at it and I think it s men like Butch Twining over here that made America the shining City on a hill that kept the lights on for most of the world. But you re a veteran You business owner who s, um, employed many people in the past. You re a, a leader, you re a natural leader. You a friend to everybody, including me. And I ve seen your kindness firsthand. Now, I was there with you on Wednesday, and we both lamented the fact that elements, Nazi elements had taken over the vigil that was made for our friend, this country s friend Charlie Kirk. I not only lament that, but I m angered over it, and I m angered that your name was attached to it by people, by the way, who are the epitome of what I think Nazi ideology is about, the people who, um, they lament the fact that Israel is defending itself. They hate Jews and they scream from the river to the sea whenever they can, not knowing which river or sea they re talking about most of the time. I know you, Butch you re a friend. You ve been a really good friend to me. And along with the rest of the mag Magnificent Seven. You ve made this City the shining City on a hill. So many cities over the United States are looking to us for leadership. They re looking to us for bravery and you epitomize bravery, Butch, and you do it as a gentleman. I love you, Butch. And if you look back here at all these people, Arijignnesh, Valentina, o Brian, Heidi, they re all as diverse as they come. We love you, Butch Thank you Next speaker Yes, my name is Joanne Sosa. Butch, I just wanna tell you because you, like my father, served My dad was a vet in World War ii, um, I know you served in your Love America. We can t, um, be blind to the fact that, uh, what the other side, um, the people that really hate righteousness in this country, um, are really afraid of is that we have a a red wave that they want to persecute calling maga, which is really, this is Charlie s um, not because he, he, he s trying to cause, cause division, but he wanted to have a dialogue His tent always said Prove me wrong Come, let s have a dialogue. Let s come together and meet, ok? And the problem is, is the other side doesn t want to have that meeting of the minds. They would rather point fingers and accuse all of you, and you know what you, what they ve done to you. They would rather do that than have a peaceful discourse, and we can t allow that to happen. Things have changed the turning point for America, igniting the world now is the death of Charlie Kirk. He cannot be forgotten the work that you do cannot be forgotten. We have to be supporting the righteous work that I know GOD wants us to do and because of that I d like to give this to you. It just says prove them wrong. I think you ve done that already, Butch Twining, this is for you. Whoever wants to take this to him My dad had his dog tagged. Sorry, I can t bring those. I don t even know what those are. It s just prove the enemy wrong. That s what you re doing with your life. GOD bless you and GOD bless all of you. Next speaker please This is my message for the Fed boys that showed up on Main Street dressed in their matching outfits and faces all masked up shouting their Antifa-esque chants. You re not maga, you what we call faa, fake maga, and you re used as a tool of the left to make maga look bad. You ve been doing this for years. We know your playbook. We know your cosplaying and real Maga is calling you out. Maga Patriots don t mask their faces, only beta males do. You manufacture outrage, start fights all the while using Huntington Beach as your platform. We don t want your white knight energy here. You don t res you represent maga patriots or Huntington Beach. You re allowed to have your free speech, but don t you dare use Charlie Kirk s death as an opportunity for a photo op and to spout your bs. Charlie was a maga. I m so sorry, Bush, Butch for what the leftists and faga have done to you, almost like it s a coordinated effort. I know your heart and I stand with you and everything happens for a reason, and I know that this is just gonna make you stronger. And Huntington Beach will continue to be a light despite this nonsense that happened, and we will continue to be a light in this state as with leaders, with leaders that stand up against tyranny. Thank you guys. Thank all of you guys, thank you. Next speaker Hi, my name is Brian Vela. Uh, resident of the City. Butch, you got set up. That s, that what happened. They set you up, so we all know these guys, people have been doing this for a long time. We ve recognized them, we know who they are. They re not from Huntington Beach. They re a bunch of wannabes, a bunch of posers that come here and try to try to hijack what s going on over here. So, uh, to those guys, I, I know their time s gonna come up soon. I know PRESIDENT Trump s talking about right now he s talking about calling them uh domestic terrorists, and when he does that, I believe things are gonna happen. The enemy combatants and their, their time s coming up very soon. I look forward to that. There s something called the Charlie Kirk Act that s going on right now. Anybody who knows about that it s something that has to do with something that s called the Smithunt Act. Smith dash m u n d t. If you look that up, that has to do with uh staging things so what was going on was there s a lot of staging going on around the world and there are creating spectacle and doing that and it was, it was legal. PRESIDENT Obama signed it into law that they could stage propaganda here in the United States If you look this up, that s, that s everything that has to do with the uh with the Charlie Kirk, uh, Charlie Kirk act is what they call it. There s a really good video. I ll just tell you her name is Naomi Wolf. She s a Naomi Wolf is a, a, a liberal. She s a Democrat. She s an Al Gore adviser, and she also talks in depth about this about a 10 minute video. I d encourage anybody to go check that out and find out for yourself. I look forward to all these things and again, these people that came in and tried to hijack what s what s good going on in this community. They re not from around here. They re, they re out of towners and if they were, they d be here tonight talking and again they MARCH and they repeat these chants. They say the same thing over and over again and they won t have dialogue, Butch you re a good guy, you got caught. Have a good night Next speaker, please Alan Harriman. Alan Harriman, 4175 Davis Cup Drive. Proud graduate of Edison High School, a lot longer than I d care to think about, if you don t mind me. First of all, thank all 7 of you for your service. Um, I can barely serve on my hoa. I have no idea how you put up with the headaches that you do. So let s just keep it all informed. Quick subject change, e-bikes, something I know you ve never heard about, right? Um, I ll just say this, for charity, I ride about 120 mi les a week. I mostly in Huntington Beach. And it s interesting because e-bikes see fellow bikers as friends. And they tend to be much more open and honest in their writing, then let s say if they had a patrol car behind them, right? So I ve seen things that I really wish I didn t see. But I ll describe them in two words abject lawlessness. That s what it is So let me explain a little deeper. Ignoring red lights, multiple riders on bikes built for one. Wheeliesroopee intersections, you know, those little roads like Warner, Eddinger, and Beach Boulevard, right? Riding on sidewalks very high rate of speed, shouldn t be there. Writing the wrong way on sidewalks at a high rate of speed. Let s hope that nobody with limited mobility gets caught in one of these situations because it s pretty bad. Um, on top of this, it just, it s become really difficult to ride bikes and, and navigate Huntington Beach at times again, I, I know you don t, this is not new and I ll say thanks to our police force for doing the education that they are that s great. But um, anything you can do to increase law enforcement efforts and give the police the laws and the that they can help enforce and reduce these issues would be fantastic. Thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you. Next speaker please Good evening. Can you hear me? Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff, as a 38 year resident of Huntington Beach and co-founder of All Parks Matter and Friends of Edison Park. I, Betty Flynn strongly advocate voting yes on item 24, terminating the contract with the Symphony of Flowers. The time has come to stop. The light show and it is crucial that we safeguard our parks, open spaces, and wildlife. The light show is not compatible at any of our Huntington Beach Parks. I recommend that the council approve the termination of the Symphony of Flowers, clearly stating that the entire multi-year contract with the operator will be terminated. Thank you for considering not cons uh my request. Butch, I read this today. In the Fur fervient competition to see which Huntington Beach City Council member is the steamiest piece of shi t in town. Illegal public vapor and proud supporter of convicted felons, rapists, and pedophile protectors, Butch Twining is making his public push to be crowned the biggest turd in the City. No one, no one deserves hateful rumors spread about them, especially at a peaceful memorial. GOD bless you, Butch, your wife and your family. We need to stop this hate in Huntington Beach. It s unacceptable. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please Good evening, uh, Mayor Burns and City Council, uh, Peter pt Tonning, resident for 46 years. Uh, rest in peace. Uh, Charlie Kirk and Butch, that shouldn t happen. That s the way to put it right Um, I m here to speak on, uh, item 25753, about the potential uh takeover of Olympic surfing by an organization outside California. Uh, it s pretty personal to me. Uh, two decades ago, I was the one that founded Surfing America, which became, uh, what we have today, usa Surfing. Myself and some of my quadradants up here, Ian Cairns, Brett Simpson, 3 of us have coached usa surfing Tes the gold medals. We understand, and in our in our town here, Surf City, this is so important to us. We have one of those feeder uh organizations, nssa founded right here. Pat Burns just gave out the Mayor s cup. This attempt by the ski and snowboard Federation to take over Olympic surfing and leave all the little organizations behind, just take the cream off the crop. We cannot let that happen. What has anything to do with surfing in Colorado, which is where they re based, and I think it s ironic, the fact that ski and snowboard, us surfers, we invented snowboarding, they didn t. So what the hell are we gonna do having them in Colorado? Let s keep surfing in California. Next speaker, please Thank you, pt. It s a privilege and an honor to lead this organization that was started by Ian and pt on behalf of usa Surfing, thank you for your leadership. It s clear tonight you re passionate, you stand up for what s right. And right now, all of our voices are, are needed on this issue. Surf City usa is the heart of our sport. Surfers deserve a governing body that listens, stands up for their needs, and is dedicated only to surfing. The risk if governance shifts to us ski, the jobs training camps, events, sponsorships, and licensing that. That would stay with this community and our sport would be funneled to Utah. Surfing must be led from its home break by people who live it, know it, train it, coach it here every day, like Brett Simpson, Ryan, Ryan Simmons um, our country, we ve talked about it tonight, needs sport more than ever. Sport unites, it inspires, it motivates us, it gives us hope Huntington Beach has always done what s right for surfers. With your leadership and clear voice to the usopc, we can keep surfing governed by surfers. Protect local jobs and opportunities and ensure that common sense in the Olympic spirit prevail. Thank you Thank you Next speaker, thank you, MR. Mayor. My name is MR. Amory Hanson. I m speaking tonight to express my support, for I am 25, the Mayor and COUNCILMAN Kennedy and Twinings item to support usa surfing remain the governing body of surfing. All sports are important to the Olympic movement. It is important that sports govern themselves to ensure governing bodies are truly representative of the sports played. PRESIDENT Coolidge once said, quote, No more truly democratic force can be set off against the tendency to class and caste. Than the democracy of individual parts and prowess in sports, end quote. I urge the council to express its support for self-governance and democracy in sport. Once again, I urge a yes vote, and I am 25. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker My name is Kenny Noway. I m a 54 year resident of Huntington Beach. I would like to thank Councilmembers Williams and Twining. For wanting to know the cost of the contract before the City signed a long-term contract with the air show. Their desire to know the facts before they voted on this contract, indicates that they understand their fiduciary responsibility to all of us. To safeguard the assets of Huntington Beach during their council votes. On another note, I would like to state that I do not believe that Butch Twining is a white supremacist. The impact of these accusations has resulted in threats to him and his family. In addition, I know that some of the peoples who have made these statements have also themselves been the focus of threats against themselves and their families. At this time, I respectfully request that all residents of Huntington Beach joined together to stop this vicious cycle of hatred that has consumed our City and so much of our resources for the last 2.5 years. Our great City is facing major budget, infrastructure con concerns. That requires all of our residents to work together with cooperation and respect and not hatred and contempt. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes, Stephen Quinn here. I d like to thank you guys for the dignified leadership you ve brought to the City. During this awful week we ve been through and Butch we love you Those who were unable to control their glee at the slaughter of Charlie Kirk and who persists in condemning millions of their fellow Americans as monsters and fascists need to understand. They re lumping themselves in the same moral universe as the folks who seek to and very nearly did kill Salman Rushdie, the ones who massacred the staff of a magazine because they were offended by some cartoons. Do you really wanna crawl down? Into that moral cesspool. The only crime Charlie Kirk was guilty of, was saying things they don t want to hear. The white hot intensity of their hate is baffling to me. I MAY at times feel enormous contempt for my political adversaries, but I don t give myself permission to murder them. They are fallen human beings, and so am I. And what are they to make of Charlie Kirk s widow, a more eloquent, impassioned call to arms has never been heard in my lifetime, as resounding as the Liberty Bell, yet utterly free of malice. It won t be easy to paint a Hitler mustache on such a beautiful, mournful face, or do you just shoot her too? We as a people must decide, do we hereby resolve to find a way forward to once again treat each other with dignity and civility, or if we crossed some sort of Rubicon where there is no way back, where the founder s dream lies in the ruins. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hi, Counsel, this is my name is Jeanie Parris, and I want to thank all of you for speaking tonight. That was that was eloquent and Butch you re one of the nicest people I know, so that s just bs with what they re saying, but i m here tonight because I d like to express my concern regarding the overheated rhetoric that pours throughout this country, counties and cities. What was done to Charlie Kirk was an abomination. Whether or not you agreed with him, he reached out to all Viewpoints to engage in conversation. He was not a racist or a fascist, fascist or whatever name was hung on him from those that opposed him. He was a GOD-loving man who spoke the truth. Here in this chamber every 2 weeks due to free speech, which, which I agree with wholeheartedly, um, and which Charlie Kirk encouraged his whole life. We all hear a barrage of insults to the council and the citizens. Some are respectful, but some are not. I have heard the City council called Nazis and fascists, just to name a few. Uh, I looked up the definition of Nazi on Mirriam s Merriam Webster. Briefly, um, one who is likened to a German Nazi, a harshly domineering dictatorial or intolerant person are sometimes called a fascist. Well, I have to say fascists kill you if you speak against them. Uh, they don t let you speak ad nauseam to them. When he was assassinated, no towns were burned down. The community, the community came together in love. We all didn t have to rush downtown to board up like we did in 2020,,, 2 weekends in a row. I encourage us to all tone down the rhetoric. It s not conducive to teaching common, a common outcome, and it is a very powerful negative influence on young impressionable minds. We live in the freest country ever created. Let s value that, be grateful, and work together. Thank you. Next speaker, please. It was on my schedule to attend this meeting concerning items 15 and 16, but I have to say that I am heartbroken at what has happened in our community Resident in eternal peace, Charlie Kirk, for whom we simply wanted to attend a vigil. I am so sorry that Friday and Saturday devolved into something else, whether from overamped misdirected groups or from false flag organizations. Fortunately, Sunday brought us a meaningful and peaceful event, but to see once normal members of this community, take this as an opportunity to falsely claptrap and use deceitful rhetoric is divisive and beyond sad. I support and vouch for Butch Twining and all of our council members, knowing them to be fair, equitable, and never racist. They have a mountain of work to accomplish for our City, and this isn t helping. To that end, I appreciate the efforts of council members in their appeal of certain Planning Commission, um, decisions we had hoped that the developers for for items 15 and 16 would listen to a soft appeal and mo d ify the design if not the CUPs were just another creep up and out for massive structures in a situation where the trend was problematic. Some areas of concern impact to aging seawall and manmade island infrastructure from this project and cumulative impact, same as above from current and future larger trending structures built as consistent. They are not consistent with the mean. They re just incrementally bigger with every project. Impact of the dramatic Conconstruction activities plus their duration. Roof structures that are not counted as stories but have large mass,